When Meg pulled up to her house, we all hopped out of the truck and Hazel and I started walking to our houses, since the three of us lived pretty close to each other. As usual, I was staring at my feet daydreaming, when I heard some shouting coming from a house down the street. Now, any normal person would mind their own business and keep walking, but I didn't feel like acting like a normal person (or a smart person) that day, so naturally, I went to see what was going on. I crouched behind a tree in front of the house, watching and listening. I heard the shrieking voice of a woman, then the booming voice of a man, then a raspy little voice. But I knew that raspy little voice, that was Johnny, and I became a witness to what Pony said about his folks. I could just see them through the window and the screen door. They were fighting, and I saw Johnny practically begging them to stop. I kept hearing his mom yell what sounded like, "shut up" to him, but he kept begging. He kept begging 'til his old man finally whipped around and slapped him across the face, sending him stumbling backwards. It took everything in me to keep myself from running in there and beating the crap outta that guy. I can't remember ever being so mad. I looked around, thinking of what I could do to get them to stop, or give Johnny a way to get out. I soon came up with an idea. I grabbed a big rock sitting next to me, and snuck around to the side of the house. Then, I hurled the rock through a window. I heard the fighting stop for a brief moment, then heard footsteps coming toward the window. I quickly ran around to the front door, where Johnny stood dazed in the living room. When he saw me, I motioned for him to follow me. He quickly did. We ran to a lot nearby and stopped, both out of breath. "Are you ok?" I asked, panting. "Yeah, I'm alright, thanks." When he said he was ok, that's when my worry turned to anger. "How could they do that to you?! I don't understand how anyone could- ugh!" I yelled, kicking a trash can. "It's alright, I'm used to it by now." Johnny said, trying to comfort me. "That makes it even worse. How can you live like that?!"
"Hey cool it! It's ok!" That was the loudest I had ever heard him speak, "He ain't hit me like that in a while."
"He shouldn't hit you like that at all, Johnny!" Boy, was I mad. Who could just beat up on their kid like that? Who WOULD just beat up on their kid like that? Boy, was I mad. Johnny was trying to calm me down, "There's no use gettin' mad, Chris. Ain't nothin' can be done about it anyway." I did start to calm down, but my anger turned to sadness. "I'm so sorry, Johnny," I sighed as we both sat down on the curb, "I don't know how anyone could treat someone like that, much less their own kid!"
"Yeah, I know." Johnny replied, looking down. "It ain't so bad when you got friends though." That made me completely drop my guard. I didn't expect that. I was about to reply, when I heard someone say, "Johnnycakes?" We both shot up and spun around. A guy stood there staring at us, with a cigarette in his hand. He dressed like a Grease, leather jacket and blue jeans, but had no grease in his hair. He was tall and lanky, but not skinny, and he had a finely drawn, elfish face. His eyes were a cold, icy blue, with no warmth or depth to them. "Oh, hey Dal." Johnny greeted. Dal? He didn't mean... oh no. As if my brother weren't gonna kill me already. "Who's this?" he asked, looking down at me. "Oh uh, this is Chris," Johnny said, taking a few steps toward the greaser, "she's the one who uh, helped me out last night." The grease slightly raised his eyebrows, then walked past Johnny up to me. He coolly stuck out his hand toward me. "Winston," he said, "Dallas Winston." So it was the infamous Dallas Winston. Great. I slowly but firmly clasped his hand, "Christine Gibson." I replied. My dad always taught me never to give a weak handshake. Firm handshakes made you seem confident, even if you weren't. He gave me a little grin, then turned back to Johnny. "What're you guys doin' out here?" He asked in his New York accent. "Oh, my folks were fightin' again." Johnny replied. "Just tryin' to get away for a while."
"I was plannin' on goin' to the drive in later and hunt some action, if you wanna tag along." Dallas said, ruffling Johnny's hair. "Yeah sure, I'll go with ya. You wanna come Chris?" I was kinda surprised he offered. "Sorry, I can't. I got chores and homework to do. Thanks for the offer though!"
"Yeah sure," Dally interrupted, "let's beat it man, it's already almost 5:00." 5:00?! Aw man, what was I gonna tell Andy? "Alright, see you 'round!" Johnny called as he and Dally walked away. "See ya!" I called back, turning and running toward home.
