Chris glared at Ella who sat across from him. Cletus and the driver sat on opposite sides of him so he was in the middle and couldn't get out of their booth. Jack sat next to Ella.

Ella didn't seem fazed at all by the daggers Chris was throwing at her with his eyes.

She just looked over her menu that she was holding up and talked about what she thought was good and suggested a few to Chris.

"You should really try the burger."

"Cut the crap and let me leave already. If you want money for the ride then I'll give you all I have. I want to leave now."

"But you haven't eaten anything yet."

"I lost my appetite." The minute I woke up to you petting me.

"That's not good, but you gotta eat something."

"What part of 'let me go' is hard for you to grasp?" Chris growled.

Cletus smacked him upside the head as he readjusted in his seat.

"I told you to watch it, brat. Keep speaking to Ella like that and I won't care if she says she likes you. Your ass will be tomorrow's grass."

"I don't like being threatened, Toe Fungus, you may be bigger than me but don't think for a second that you have me at a disadvantage."

Chris smiled to himself. The guys name sounded so horrible like a foot fungus that he couldn't help but call him that. He was rewarded with a glare from the older boy which probably wasn't a good idea to aggravate.

"How about introductions." interrupted Ella, "My name is Ella Gaines, and these are some of my friends." She gestured to Jack sitting next to her, "This is Jack Averal." Next she pointed to Cletus, "That's Cletus Fowler and to your other side is Sledge McCormick. Sledge here just got a car from his parents for his eighteenth birthday so we're on a road trip celebrating."

Chris looked over each of the guys sitting around him. They were all weird and had weird names.

Ella went on to say that Jack like to be called 'handsome' which threw the boy in with 'sledge hammer' and 'toe fungus'.

"What's your name then." she asked finally.

"I never said that I was going to tell you my name. It's none of your business who I am or where I'm going."

She rested her chin on her hands and grinned across the table at him.

"You're like this great mystery that I want to unlock. How old are you?"

"Again that's none of your business."

"You can't be older than sixteen. You look too young. Unless you look young for your age like me. I'm seventeen."

Chris didn't say anything out loud but he didn't think she looked anything else but seventeen.

Chris was only fifteen, just having his birthday this past spring which was on the road.

He let his mind wander a bit and thought about his friends. He never learned when any of their birthdays were and probably missed them all.

Thinking of them reminded Chris that he needed to write to them this week and mail it.

"Still with us?" Ella called.

Chris frowned at being disturbed in his train of thought.

"What will I have to do so that you'll let me leave?"

"Well you can start by eating with us, and come with us to Dodge City, Kansas."

"What's in Dodge City?"

"Fun of course."

Chris did what Ella had wanted only for the sake of hopefully escaping when they reached Dodge City. The drive took hours and the boys took turns driving.

For Chris the trip was brutal. He had to sleep with one eye open and had to learn how to conserve his fresh air when the others started smoking.

Writing the letter to his friends was forgotten as he faced the problem of trying to get away. All the time, Ella would stick close to him with her 'bodyguards' not too far off.

She tried to point things out to him, but Chris couldn't care less.

"Can I go now? I came to Dodge City with you already and that was torment enough in itself."

"Don't you want to have some fun with us?"

"No. I don't know how many times I've said so."

"Join us once and then if you don't like it then I'll let you go."

Chris sighed, this girl try so hard to keep him with her. Resorting in pathetic tricks like this one.

Ezra's genius plan to get Buck and Vin back in school could only last so long before the boys became disinterested again. Buck started getting to class late and Vin would disappear on long bathroom breaks.

One time Ezra saw Vin sitting outside under their tree.

Ezra sneaked out to see what was wrong with him.

"Vin, I'm pretty sure your class isn't having class outside today. The weather is changing anyhow."

Vin looked up and made a brief acknowledge to his friend.

"Hey Ez."

"What seems to be bothering you, Vin." asked Ezra, squatting down next to his friend so as not to mess up his pants.

"Why would Chris not tell us that he didn't liked Nettie and Travis before running off? Why wait until we got here and then leave us here?"

"I'm sure Mr Larabee was thinking of us when he had left us with Mrs Nettie. He trusted her enough to leave us here with her."

"Or he felt betrayed that we so easily went with Travis and didn't really care about his trust issues with adults."

"That may be, but as long as he keeps writing us then there's hope that he might come back to us. He's probably looking for a good time."

"It seems like he's just getting further away from us."

"Yeah, right now it does, but don't forget that if one of was in trouble then he'd rush right back."

"So one of us should get into trouble?" frowned Vin, not sure he understood.

"No, that's not what I meant. I was trying to say that Chris knows when he needs to return because he knows that we're in a safe place. If he felt that we weren't then he'd be back."

"I still don't think I fully got it."

"Well let's go back inside. I don't think neither of us should be out here. I don't really like having a call made to Mrs Nettie saying that we ditched class."

The two stood up and walked back inside.

"I still don't feel like taking classes right now. I'm so far behind that I'm in JD's classes."

"Perhaps that will be your motivation to study hard and get out of his class." Ezra grinned.

Buck yawned as he stretched himself as closed his eyes again. He was enjoying the nice cold air immensely instead of the stuffy classrooms.

"Comfortable?" came a female's voice.

Buck bolted up to a sitting position. Expecting to see a teacher. Instead he saw Inez sitting beside him.

"Oh it's just you. Shouldn't you be in class?"

"I can ask you the same thing. What about your promise to take classes seriously now?"

"I recall actually promising." Buck grinned.

Inez punched him in the shoulder.

"Ow! Geez, girl." he grunted and rubbed his shoulder.

"For someone so smart, you're acting like a complete fool."

"Was that supposed to make me feel bad? Cause your punch had more effect."

"Should I punch you again then?"

Buck rose his hands to defend himself, "I was just playing."

He then went back to his relaxed position with his hands behind him.

"Going to school reminds me of my friends. Chris is out somewhere probably getting into a lot of trouble with no one to help him and Sarah is. Sarah and Adam is with Chris's birth parent and my grandmother. There's too many memories of spending time with them and hanging out. Now they're both gone. I'm all alone." Inez was about to cut in. "I know I have you guys, but you have to understand that I was Chris's first friend and then I introduced him to Sarah. We were so close. Chris had never been so happy. Now he's grieving out there and probably blaming himself for her and Adam's death."

Inez put an arm around his shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

"I know." She then put Buck into a headlock, "But that still doesn't mean you can go back on your promise to take school more seriously."

Buck tapped on her to release him.

"Please don't do that. The last time someone choked me was Vin and it felt like he was trying to kill me for punching Ezra."

"Will you go back to class?"

"I guess." he shrugged and slowly got up and held a hand out to help her up.

"Good, because Nettie and Travis worked to get you guys in and it'll be a shame to have them look like they broke their promise that you guys would take school more seriously and go."

"I guess." Inez thumped him on the head. "Ow, ok ok!"

Straightening up he smiled, "You're cute when you're angry."

"Watch it or I'll have you regret those words."

As the days went by for the gang at Nettie's they became more anxious. Chris's letter hadn't arrived yet and they were getting worried.

"Why do you think it's late?" asked JD to Josiah.

"Maybe it got lost in the mail." Vin suggested, "But so help me if Mr mailman lost it. He knows we wait for our letter twice a month."

"Maybe Chris didn't get it to the mailman in time it's going to be late." thought Buck.

"What should we do?" JD asked the others.

"Maybe we should wait another week." Nathan said and began walking back to the house.

"Look, it's him!" called Vin, pointing to the mailman who just drove up.

Everyone ran after the mailman. Vin reaching him first as always.

"Is there-" he said out of breath.

"Sorry guys. Nothing here this round."

Vin's face fell and everyone's shoulders slumped.

"Maybe next time."

He handed Vin the rest of the mail and back in his car and drove off.

Vin frantically searched to see if there was a letter addressed to them with an address.

Maybe Chris finally was giving them an address to find him.

After flipping through the stack twice he came up empty and sighed, "Nothing."

"Like I said, let's wait another week." repeated Nathan.

They all turned back to the house, Vin and Ezra bringing up the rear.

"It's quite peculiar don't you think?" whispered Ezra to Vin. He had been mulling over what happened.

"What is?" asked Vin dismissively

"Mr Larabee has always been good about keeping his letters coming in on time. Why would this time be differently?"

"I don't know, Ez. Can you just get to the point already." Vin said, feeling a bit put out at the moment to beat around the bush.

"I think Mr Larabee's behavior changed after his girlfriend's death. He left a place he'd been staying at for months and ran away. There's no place he's familiar with because he's from England. Where would a non-American person go?" Seeing the frustration and little patients on Vin's face, Ezra didn't pause too long, "If I was him then I'd go to a place that I've heard of."

The last part confused Vin, "Huh?"

"We should be able to find him in big cities. Probably in the bad part of the city. He seems attracted to those spots."

"So you think you know where he is?" Vin brightened up.

"I can only give you suggestions on where he could be."

Vin nodded, "I'm still holding onto the hope that Chris will just tell us where he was."

"He kinda did in the last one. He dropped hints of the place he was and the name he went by."

"Shame there wasn't anything about where he was going."

"I think he decided to leave after he sent the letter."

"Do you think it was because he told us too much that he was afraid we'd be able to find him?"

"I can't say since I don't know what is going on in his head." he called out to Buck who was walking in front of him, "Do you still have the map you traced of the places Mr Larabee was at?"

"It's in the stable."

Ezra led Vin and Buck into the stable and over to a stack of papers where Buck found the one he was looking for.

"Here. What's up?"

"Ezra was giving me an idea on the places Chris might be going to."

"It's still an hypothesis since we don't have a set pattern yet. For all I know he could break that pattern after he left."

"If Chris is upset then he'd probably go and take it out on someone. Even if it's himself. He's that dangerous when he's depressed or angry."

"My suggestion is that we look for him in places near big cities where there is either a lot of crime or violence like gang fights. If he's looking for a fight and is on a death wish hunt then he'll be there."

"He's a magnet alright to trouble."

Chris knew that he was asking for trouble as soon as he got in that car. A second time when he got back in the car to go to Dodge City. Now he was watching Ella put on a show with her friends.

He was to be the look out in case something went wrong. Chris sat on the edge of a fountain as the scene began.

Ella was stationed twenty feet away with purse around her neck. She was pretending to talk to someone on the phone and was precariously holding bags in her other hand.

When she dropped them, she set her purse down to pick them up.

Chris watched as Cletus took her purse and didn't even bother to hide it.

A man who was standing near enough to see it get taken stopped what he was doing and looked from Cletus to Ella.

Ella looked down where her purse had been and then turned to Cletus and yelled 'thief'.

The man who had been watching ran after Cletus who took off.

Chris got up to keep an eye on the other boy.

He followed the two to an alley where he saw Sledge appear and the two worked to beat up the would be good guy and run away with his wallet.

The boys took out the cash and handed the wallet to Jack.

Jack then ran to help the man up to his feet, faking concern. He slipped the wallet back into the disoriented man's pocket and helped him back onto the street and into a nearby coffee shop.

Chris had to admit that it was a pretty excellent performance with no real danger. He didn't however liked the idea of them beating up a good man who was trying to do the right thing and steal his money.

Worse, he was now part of it. He could've done something. There was hardly enough people out there who are willing to help in situations like that and now Ella and her friends were taking advantage of them.

Ella thanked the man who was now seated with a cup of water. He smiled and handed her her purse and she walked out the shop.

Chris followed from behind a good distance until he met up with them at their rendezvous point.

"I say that was a success." she grinned and counted the dollar bills.

"You think what you did was right?" Chris frowned.

"Well duh I know it's wrong, but a guy like that in a suit like that. He can afford losing two hundred bucks."

"Two hundred! You need to give that back right now."

"Geez, he's such a saint." Jack snarled.

"And you're a pig." snapped Chris.

"Oh come on Chris. People like him have money to burn while people like us are starving and are scraping to get by."

"Then get a job or something."

"Cletus can't because he's been in juvie and so has Sledge. No one wants to hire people like us."

"What about you?"

"People only want to hire me because of my looks and more so because they want something from me."

"There are other ways-"

"Like what, saint?" huffed Cletus.

"You tell me, toe jam."

The older boy snarled but Chris ignored it.

"Well, I think you have strong morals and that's great." smiled Ella, "But not everyone can afford to live like that."

Chris looked at the rough bunch in front of him. He could understand where she was coming from and that she was only doing what she thought would help her survive.

Hadn't he done the same when he stole from Conklin's farm and tore that page out of the book from Stuart's' book?

Maybe if they targeted crooked people instead of innocent then it would be better.

He had an idea.

"I know ripping off of the everyday man can be a lot easier, but why not shift a little to use your skills for some good. Not in the sense of playing the hero, but more of a vigilante and go after the bad guy's money. I'm sure they're even more loaded."

"Because like you said, getting the innocent's money is a whole lot easier." pointed Jack.

"Yeah but how many people do you have to steal from to have enough money?"

The older kids looked at each other with a little hesitation.

"Nice try, saint, you ain't going to have us killed by your plan." growled Sledge.

"I've done it before and I'm still here. Even got a bullet wound from one of them." he said, remembering his time in the jungle. "But since then I've found out how the system works with gangs and how to target them."

"What would you suggest?"

"I like finding the corrupt and taking them down. The slower the better. Trust me the satisfaction is well worth it."

"How much money are we talking about here?" Cletus crossed his arms.

"Do you think I know how much exactly?" Chris frowned, "Look, we can try a small job first and see what you guys think afterwards. If the reward isn't as gratifying to you then we don't have to do it again."

"Fine saint, we'll give it a shot."

"Can we at least have a name to work with?" Ella asked.

Chris thought it over for a minute, but then figured it'll be ok as long as he kept his last name to himself, "Chris."

"Alright saint Chris, who are we targeting first?"

Chris gave a mischievous grin. He always wanted to do this ever since he first was arrested.

"I'm sure toe fungus and sledge hammer would love to go after some cops."

The boys grinned and popped their knuckles.

Chris had plans on finding a corrupt cop and have his co workers come after him. All he needed was a volunteer.