Disclaimer: I do not own the novel, The Outsiders, or any of its affiliates. I do, however, own all the original characters and the plotline.

"Jean! You still here?" I heard Nicks voice through the door. I yelled a quick response back. The door opened and steps came from front of the house. Same old Nick, won't even wait a minute for me to come to the door. I grabbed my backpack, and headed to the living room.

"Where are you, Jean?" he asked, looking under the cushions of the sofa. He always said that I could hide there if I really wanted to. I walked up behind him.

"Look behind you." I said. "You know I could never fit in there. Besides, why would I want to hide with the dust bunnies?"

"'Cause dust bunnies can't punch hard enough to leave a bruise." Nick looked up from under the cushion. His eyes widened slightly as he saw the extent of my own bruise. "Wow. That is a nasty bruise. No wonder your ma wants me to walk you."

"I could have walked myself to school. I'm not totally defenseless this time." I replied, heading out the door.

"Not totally defenseless, eh? What, you got a kitchen knife in that backpack of your?"

"No," I showed him my hands, "fists of fury, remember?"

I jokingly gave him a few sharp jabs, most of which he blocked. He grabbed my fists and smirked.

"These don't look like dangerous weapons at all." Nick let go of my hands and continued. "Now maybe if you sharpen your nails and draw flames on your hands, then you might have a couple of nice weapons."

"How will flames make my hands look dangerous?" I inquired. "Probably make it look like I'm trying to win a race or something, rather than defend myself."

"Okay, then maybe not the flames. But if you sharpen your nail, and maybe your teeth no one will ever bother you!"

"Why's that?"

"Simply, they'll think you're a vampire. A wimpy looking one, but a vampire no the less."

"Oh, yeah. Okay, then, fear me, I'm going to suck your blood! Bleh, bleh!" I shook my arms like a bat in flight, until I realized what the second part of Nick's statement was. "Hey, wait a second! I'm not wimpy!"

"Okay, your muscle impaired," Nick flexed his own arms. "These are muscles."

"Those are nothing compared to what Dallas had." I said wistfully.

We fell silent. I shouldn't have brought up Dallas. When we were kids, Nick looked up to him for inspiration. Nick remembered more of our childhood than I did. And most of our childhood revolved around Dallas. And Dallas was the kind of person you could look up to, which was exactly what Nick did. When Dallas started to do things with gangs, he told Nick to 'stop looking at me like I'm some kind of hero!' Nick tried, he went through a few more idols, but it always came back to Dallas. Dallas was really like a big brother to Nick. When Dallas moved away, Nick probably took it harder than my ma and I. We knew it was coming, we knew Dallas would want to get away. Nick had no idea that it was happening until it was too late to even say goodbye. Dallas left during the night, and nobody realized it until the morning.

After a few more minutes of walking, Nick and I reached the front of our school. Although Nick was a year older than me, he got held back last year, so we were in the same grade. If Nick didn't get held back, he would have gone to the high school down the street with the rest of his class. He and two other boys were the only ones that couldn't be promoted, which for our school was a new record. The teachers never want to see the same face for another year, so they'll give the kid a grade just high enough so he can leave and not come back. Unfortunately, most of Nick's teachers were new, so they didn't cut anyone slack.

"Do you think you'll get jumped between here and your first class?" Nick asked. It was obvious that he wanted to ditch school all together. There was a comic book store a few streets back. He probably wanted to check out the action superhero person… thing.

"Your going to ditch and go to that comic book store... aren't you?" I asked. Nick's eye shifted wearily, in case anyone might have heard me.

"Shh… I'm going to call myself in sick," he replied. "I can't afford to have my mom know I'm ditching, or the school for that matter. I do not want to repeat this year again."

"If you just go to class, you won't get in trouble with anyone."

"Yeah, but I have a major test today…." Nick paused in his sentence. It appears he got an idea to pass this test… I bet you anything it will involve me cheating for him. "Hey, wait a second. You have history with Mr. Hanker first period, and I have him last…. You can get the questions for me, and I have him last period. You can get what kind of questions there are and help me get the answers!"

How right I am. I really do know Nick too well.

"What's in it for me?"

And apparently he's rubbing off on me.

"Well, I'm walking you to and from school, that should be enough." I stared at him real hard. Sometimes if I stare long enough he'll give up. He's really vulnerable in the mornings, when he doesn't have the patience to wait out my stares. "Okay fine. How about I get you that chocolate you like so much."

I grinned; he hit just the right note with me. I have a weakness for dark chocolate. Not many people like it, so I can get it real cheap at the grocery store. And what's really great about it is, they only sell the large sizes of the delicious dark brown gold.

"You know me too well Nick." I heard the first bell rang, kids from all over appeared and started to run to the building. "Nice doing business with you!" I yelled, as I ran off to my own class.

The history test was very simple. It was a multiple-choice test plus a few short answer and true or false questions thrown in there 'just to mix things up,' as Mr. Hanker would say. The basic idea of it was to test our knowledge of the reconstruction of the civil war. Nick would have no trouble with this test at all. He loved the Civil War last year, so he'll probably remember everything that he learned from last year.

The bell once again rang, and students flooded out into the halls. There was talking, yelling, boys chasing each other down the halls due to unkind words said the previous class. Sometimes it got so loud in the hallways that you couldn't even talk to your friends standing next to you. Not that I had friends to talk to. Most kids would try to avoid me because of Dallas' reputation. And now with this ugly thing on my face, people will start saying that I accidentally got hit while jumping some poor kid. They never think that I could be the one getting jumped. It's pretty hard to picture, but it is possible.

I saw Nick walking towards the gymnasium with a few of his new friends. Probably just using them to get homework answers. He really didn't like any of his classes this year, since he already took them last year. English is the only class he really likes, but I'm in that class with him, so that might be why.

Nick walked out of sight, and it was then I decided to follow him. He and his group walked all the way into the gymnasium. I wouldn't be able to follow them, unless I wanted them to know I was following them. I made a left turn and went to the door that opened up into the underneath of the bleachers. I was able to get a good view of Nick. They were talking and looking around occasionally. Their faces were really serious. This definitely isn't about school.

I was tempted to go out and talk to Nick, until I heard another set of doors swung open. Devin and five other boys I didn't recognize walked, no stomped, in. Devin was also held back with Nick and used to be his best friend. Devin lived a few houses down from me. A couple times, I would go over to Nick house to hang out with him, and Devin would either be there already, or would come very soon after. At those times, he seemed to being to become jealous of Nick. I thought he was jealous because Nick knew me and therefore knew Dallas, which automatically put Nick in the 'tough' category. I asked Nick about it a couple times, and Nick told me it was much more than that.

"So, decided to show up?" Devin said in a gruff voice. "Not going to chicken out this time? Not so tough anymore without all your other friends who passed you up."

"They passed you up too," Nick said with a smirk. The air was tight with anticipation of something. "Now, who is this she that your buddy told me about?"

"You know who she is. It's the exact same girl that I told you to stay away from. It's obvious that she doesn't like you. You had your chance to with her, and now your turn is over."

"Are you talking about Sandy Richards?" Sandy Richards was the most gorgeous girl in the school. She took modeling courses at a special academy, on a full scholarship, and it definitely paid off. Every guy wanted her, yet she was always to busy for them. "You can have her dude. I'm not interested in that stick of a girl."

"No, not Sandy. She's a little two timing slut face bitch." Devin thought he was dating her a few months back, but it turned out she was only using him so the high school boys wouldn't harass her. "I'm talking about the girl who's in this room right now."

I felt my eyes widen, there weren't any girls out there… so unless another girl is hiding in here…

"Devin, I always knew that there was something wrong with your boy Chris over there. I'm guessing that Chris is short for Christine." Nick and his gang laughed. They said some crude things, and wolf whistled at Chris. If glares could kill, Nick would be disemboweled, cut into tiny pieces and used as shark bait by the glare Chris was giving him at that moment.

"He's talking about that Winston girl, you moron!" Chris shouted, getting fed up with the joke on his gender.

I really didn't register what name he said; I was trying to stifle my laughter on the earlier joke. I saw Nick go serious, deadly serious. The only time I ever saw him this serious was when I threatened to run away after an argument I had with my mom. Nick only gets this serious when something bad might happen to me. That's when I realized-

Shit.

My face yet again met the ground for the second time in 24 hours.

I woke up hearing grunts and fists meeting bodies. I guess I had been dragged out from behind the bleachers to make whatever threat Devin used even more persuasive. Devin and Nick were fighting in the center of the rumble, with the others trying to wrestle their victim to the ground then punch and kick them. This was not a jumping.

This was a real rumble.

And no matter what, there are not going to be any winners. They're all going to come out of this with what? Bruises, bumps, and maybe a broken rib from a properly placed kick.

That was when I saw it: a flash of steel coming from the back pocket of Devin's pants. Devin's going to try and cut Nick to ribbons. Why? Because they weren't friends. Then I remember the conversation I over heard before I got knocked out.

They're fighting for me.

Nick still hasn't seen Devin reaching for his switchblade. Nick won't know until it's too late. I had to do something, but what can I do? I couldn't even defend myself the other night. I could get help from the teachers. No, it would still be too late, this gym is the old one, and is separated from the main building. I couldn't get help from anyone. I was on my own.

I took action. I sprinted toward Nick and Devin. It was perfect, Devin wouldn't even see me, and I can easily tackle him into the ground before he has the chance to use that blade on Nick.

The closer I got to Devin, the faster his arm seemed to move. As I lunged for his unaware body, I wrapped my arm around his neck to try to stop him from moving out from under me as we fell. His knife automatically came up as he felt the restraint of my arm around his neck. Before Devin and I hit the ground, he was able to get out from my body and save himself the fall.

The result was a three-inch gash from the outside of my elbow to the middle of my forearm. At first my arm went numb. I saw blood spray onto the ground from my newly inflicted wound. I started breathing heavily, and tears started to fall from my eyes. My whole form shook from the amount of pain in my arms. This was worst than the punch I got last night.

Just don't scream, don't yell. I kept telling myself that.

It got really quiet. I saw shadows coming all around me. 'Shit, I'm going to get jumped again,' I thought. One of the shadows knelt down to my level. I saw Nick's face and his mouth was moving, I could register anything that he was saying. I wanted to tell him how much this hurt, but I knew that if I opened my mouth only a blood curling shriek would emerge.

The pain from my arm started to die down. And the less pain I felt, the darker everything became. Before I drifted into sweet unconsciousness, I was able to tell Nick:

"It's on the civil war construction, Nick."

A/N: Okay, wow. I don't even know how this rumble even worked itself into this chapter. And Devin just decided to pop in here also. I kind of scared myself now that I'm re-reading this chapter. Its just… wow. I never wrote fight scenes or anything like this before so, if it sucks, please tell me. And please also explain to me why it sucks. If not, expect a reply back from me asking why. And please don't forget to press that little purple/blue (debatable topic) button and review. It's the reviews and people who've been adding this to their favorites list and alert list that have made me want to update faster.