Eyebrow Adventures

4... (the StreetSeals(don don don!))

A slight breeze greeted Ruth as she biked out onto the street. It was a warm April morning, and unfortunately for Ruth, the neighborhood children were out and about. As she turned onto Mayor street, Ruth's tires splashed through the puddles left on the pavement from the night before, spraying muddy water onto her pants. She hid her face under her cap, passing some third grade girls she knew, and hoping none of them would recognise her and ask her to play with them. Luckily, Ruth made it past them without being stopped, but up the street came a bigger threat-- Mr.Pocacca.

He was weeding his practically perfect and orderly lawn when Ruth spotted him. Quickly, she swerved her bike around and pedaled up onto the sidewalk opposite of Mr.Pocacca's house. Then, Ruth cautiously hopped off her bike, and stealthily walked it up the sidewalk, dodging behind cars when ever he looked up. Mr.Pocacca was the fear of every neighborhood kid in Ruth's town, always making sure their parents knew of every inch of chaos the child caused for him. Once Ruth's friend, Isla Keith accidentally fell into Mr.Pocacca's flower garden, killing his pansies and begonias. To her Dismay, Mr.Pocacca was there to witness it all, and Chased her out of his lawn, even though she kept on telling him it was an accident that she fell. Later that day, Mr.Pocacca tattled to her parents that Isla smashed his flower garden and talked back to him. She was grounded for the rest of the week.

Many other children that Ruth knew had been terrorized by the old grouch. He was nice to parents and mean to kids, so the parents always believed him. Ruth had always been afraid of Mr.Pocacca, but if he saw her now, he would surely question why she was riding her bike towards town and stick his nose into her business. Of course, Ruth could just fib that she was taking a little bike ride, but Mr.Pocacca knew her parents enough to know that they only let their children walk around the block when they were alone, and no further unless they had a friend or sibling with them. 

After Ruth had dodged behind a silver car, she looked up and saw that she was about twenty meters away from the intersecting Riverway road, and there were no more cars to hide behind. By this point, Ruth had passed Mr.Pocacca's house, but it was still in veiw. Once she turned onto Riverway, he would be out of sight, and she would be safe. Ruth decided that she should just make a run for it. She swung her legs back onto her bike, waited until after he looked up, then pedaled as fast and quietly as she could to the corner of Riverway road and Mayor street.

Ruth was just turning the corner when she heard a grouchy voice saying, "Hey kid! Nobody thinks you're tough around here, so get you and your lousy-butt friends off my street!" With Ruth's heart skipping beats, Ruth turned around ready to spill some excuse... but it seemed Mr.Pocacca was not talking to her-- which made a lot more sense for what he was saying. Ruth leaned a little into the road to see who he was talking to, and saw some ratty-looking boys in their teens or twenties who she recognized as Shaggs, Buffy, Baldo, VodKing, Barry, and Damian. The children who were once playing on the street had frozen and were looking in terror at the legendary gangsters(aka the StreetSeals.) A high schooler who lived on Ruth's block had told her and the neighborhood kids about the StreetSeals once. They were a gang who did terrible and illegal things like skipping weeks of school, doing drugs, harassing children, and getting in fist fights with random people. Apparently, some of the gang members were in the high schoolers grade. Ruth could tell right away that the boys on the street were the StreetSeals because they were exactly how she imagined them, but mostly because they had T-shirts that said THE STREET SEALS on them.

Shaggs was a skinny, dirty boy with hair that looked as if it hadn't been brushed in forever. He was about 16 and was... well-- rather shaggy. Buffy was a really short italian with huge arm muscles, tiny legs, and greased back hair. He looked about 20 years old. Baldo was the tallest guy in the gang, with also the nicest clothes. He had a cigarette wedged in his thin lips and a tall face with teensy, tiny eyes. Also, as you may have expected, he was bald. It was easy to tell who VodKing was, even without looking at the name on the shirt because he was dressed to his name. He had a fake crown on his blond head and a bottle of vodka in his hand. Through the odd things tattooed on his face, Ruth could see a woozy expression. He definitely drank too much. Barry was a fat, sunburned, and stupid-looking redhead with a pig-nose. And standing in the front of the gang was Damian. He was posed like a sassy super-villain, facing Mr.Pocacca. It annoyed Ruth very much just looking at Damian, who was staring through his sunglasses at the scared children with a look that said, I am the best! But Ruth's annoyance of the oddly intimidating gang was drowned out by fear. And as much as she despised Mr.Pocacca, she was afraid of what they would do to him.

Damian walked up to the edge of Mr.Pocacca's front lawn. Nobody had talked to Damian so disrespectfully since he could remember. And he definitely didn't expect to hear it from an old man. But Mr.Pocacca wasn't afraid of the gangsters. He had dealt with people like them many times in his life, and didn't want them hanging around his street or harming the kids on it. Mr.Pocacca stood up and walked down a few steps off his porch, never breaking eye contact with Damian. Once he was halfway down the steps, Mr.Pocacca repeated, "Get off this street." The gang members snickered. Who did this old man think he was? Damian just shot a little smile at him.

"I didn't hear a please." He said.

"I'm not foolin' around, boys. You better change your stuck-up attitudes or leave."

"I'm waaaiting!" sighed Damian, leaning on a lamp post. "C'mon! Say the magic word old man!"

There was a stare-down between Damian and Mr.Pocacca for the next ten seconds. Mr.Pocacca looked as if he wanted to strangle the gang leader, but thought better. Damian was just pushing the old man's buttons. Finally, Mr.Pocacca rolled his eyes.

"Please," growled Mr.Pocacca through gritted teeth, "leave."

Damian mockingly bowed to him, then spat at Mr.Pocacca's shoe.

"For now..." he called, leading his gang back into the alley.