Chapter Eight-New Beginnings

Chapter 8

“I wanna come!” Carmen said cheerfully.

“You sure? I think you might have had you day’s fill of fighting.” I joked.

“I will never get my days’ worth of fighting.”

“Okay, just get ahold of a little one.”

“Think they’ll fight fair?” Jim asked.

“Sure, and if they don’t we got the Shepard gang on our side, they always got blades.” I sat on the couch and popped my knuckles.

“Sure.” Lucky said.

“The Shepard gang? Didn’t one of them get tried for murder?” Jim asked.

“Yeah, but it was self-defense.” Danny-boy said.

“Who was it, Tim?” I said.

“Yeah.” Rick said.

“Hey, you think you could take me?” Carmen said to Lucky.

“Sure.” He said turning to her, “Put em up kid.” Carmen rose her fists and jabbed him in the stomach, Lucky swung sideways Carmen ducked and jabbed him again in the stomach, “Alright kid I’m done with this.” Lucky said, he grabbed her arm and wrestled her to the ground and pinned her arm behind her back, “Say uncle.”

“Never!” She coughed out from all his weight against her.

“Lucky, lay off.” I told him.

“She started it.” he got up and held his hand out for Carmen, which she denied and stood alone.

“You sure you want the Shepard’s’ with us?” Jim asked.

“They’re probably already over at the lot anyways Jim.” I told him, “Watcha got with em anyways?”

“Nothin’.” He sat down, “Is the kid comin’?”

“I ain’t no kid.” Don said from his seat at the kitchen table.

“Like I said before, you sure look it.” Jim said to him.

“If he wants to, you want to?” I asked.

“Sure, this is my fault anyways.”

“A rumble would’ve happened sooner or later anyways, we’ve all been itchin’ for a fight.” Rick told him.

“Let’s scram, I’m getting’ bored.” Carmen said.

“Let’s go!” Lucky said.

            We all got up and headed out. It was dark and cold. The quietness was suddenly shattered by our whooping and laughter. As we all jumped through the air and did flips, Lucky and Rick and Jim all jumped the fence. Don nearly jumped over the fence entirely, he balanced by his hands and finally flipped to the floor. Carmen did something similar to this by flipping off a car and landing on her feet much like a cat.

“I’m a no good hood, while socs have beer blasts, we rob stations with no concern for humanity.” Danny-boy chanted.

“Greaser…greaser…greaser.” Rick said.

“You a black sheep?” Carmen asked.

“Boy you better believe it! What are we?” Rick said.

“Greasers!” Carmen shouted, “JD’s and a menace to our society!”

“You got it right! We steal and drink and have a lot of fun!”

            After their sing song had stopped I cut in, “Carmen beat it if the cops come, you got me?”

“Ain’t nobody gonna call the cops in our neighborhood!” Jim shouted.

 

            The Shepards waited patiently each ready to fight. A bonfire lit the way along with a few streetlamps while the others had been smashed. There were no lights coming from any of the nearby houses, good for us greasers less of a chance for us greasers to get thrown in the slammer.

“You Tim?” I asked the one who stood in front of the others.

“Yup.”

“Listen we want a fair fight, you do that alright.”

“I don’t need no orders for the obvious.” He said.

“Good deal.”

            No sooner had I said that when the three muscle cars pulled up from the nice side of town. They all held more kid then they could carry, they all held the drunken socs that were just as excited as us about a rumble.

            They were unevenly matched, we outnumbered them by about ten. Better for us. Garret Newman stepped up first, stumbling forwards and nearly falling.

“Who’s the challenger?” he said with a slurred voice.

            I stepped up into the light, “Me.”

“You grease?”

“That’s what we all are, deal with it.”

            Garret took a wild swing at me, I easily deflected it and clipped him in the jaw, the fight was on. I took him down easily, they were all mostly drunk and could barely throw their fist straight. Once Garret was on the floor I was kicked in the legs and brought down. After I had gotten up I found my next challenger. He wasn’t drunk and swung fastly making it harder and harder for me to dodge them.

“Milo!” Carmen shouted. For one moment I was distracted and got punched in the eye.

 That was it, I started swinging my arms like a maniac finally falling him. Carmen wasn’t much farther off. But she had managed to take on three people at a time. While one dodged Carmen’s wild jabs the other would somehow manage to get it, and after a few seconds the other had gotten her down and struggled to hold her while the others took turns going at her. As I pushed people out of the way to get to her, she kicked wildly not yet wanting to give up. When I got to her I slammed into the one holding her down helping her up and punching the one closest to me.

Once one was gone another came running at me ran me into the floor. A cloud of dust rose as I fought to push the kid off of me and let him have it. I clipped him in the jaw making him loosen up for a few seconds, giving me enough time to fight my way up. While he had somehow rolled onto the floor in front of me Carmen was punching him so hard she had opened up a few more wounds for him to deal with.

I got ahold of a scrawny kid who was already beaten senseless and took my turn. While he swung and I dodged another kid elbowed me in my back making me fall to my knees. I swiped my leg out behind me from my crouched position, kicking the boy out from under his own feet. The kid I had been punching had gotten away and now I had to deal with this new one. Unlike the others he was more coordinated and moved quicker than I did. I would always be just a second short from not getting jabbed in the nose. But once I landed my fist punch I kept going, my knuckles being covered with his and my blood.

“There’re running!” I heard someone call, I’m pretty sure it was Jim but I couldn’t hear around all the shouting. I let the kid go and watched him scramble away.

            Carmen stood up shakily and lean against me, “We did it.” She said, she sighed and fell against me.

“Carmen?” I held her and lifted her in my arms. She had passed out from exhaustion in my arms, “Let’s go!” I shouted to my gang. I didn’t wait for any of them all I needed to do was get Carmen home.