Vince Shepard started a gang when he was only eleven years old. This started after he left Ean Winston's gang because he and his brother, Mike, got into a fight. This gang consisted of him, his cousin Victoria, Joey Raft, Tony Rodriguez, Josh Smith, Barren Green, Keith Wilmont, and Jimmy Carlson. In this you will learn all about them.
Vince Shepard is leader. He's the toughest and meanest person in the gang. He lives with his dad, Tim and his brother Mike. Vince was smart. Both book and street smart. He was an honor roll student, but that happened after he was held back in the fifth grade. Vince could remember anything. Every detail. It was like he had the mind of an elephant. Everyone looked up to him. He was strict and stern with his gang. Everyone feared him because of how tough he was ,and because of his father. You don't mess with Vince. The thing that always got under Vince's skin was everyone always mistakes him for Mike. It was reasonable. Mike and Vince were only half brothers but they looked like twins, and the fact Mike was taller than Vince didn't help. Vince was also good at coping with things. Even when his mother left him at his dad's house he was able to deal with it. For a thirteen year old he's pretty tough. He can take anything.
The oldest is Barren Green. He's a fifteen year old thin, but well built greaser. His dad ran out on him and his mom when he was four. It hurt him for a while but he got over it. His mom became a drug addict and would beat him whenever she saw him. Due to that he moved in with Buck. Barren can't remember his dad. He dosen't want to. He's fifteen and still in the eight grade. Barren dosen't have respect for anything. He hates the world, even more than what Vince does. If there was one thing Barren Green hated (there were actually a lot) it was Ean Winston. Ean was the son of Dallas Winston, so he should be as tough as him. Ean just wasn't like that. He was a nice guy. His dad taught him to not be like him when he was younger. He even picked a fight with Ean, and lost. Just because Ean Winston isn't mean dosen't mean he isn't tough.
Josh Smith is fourteen. A freshman at Will Rogers High School. His grades are okay, but not as good as Vince's. Josh's parents are alright. They don't yell at him or beat him. They just let him do his thing. It seems they care to much or to little. Josh has a good home life. All in all he's a pretty good kid. There's really not a lot to him.
Joey Raft is twelve and cocky. His favorite activities are jumping socs, getting arrested, and picking on Mike Shepard. Joey dosen't go home to often. His mom and dad fight all the time. Sometimes Joey gets caught in the middle and the whole house gets turned upside down. Joey looks up to Vince. He's his hero. Joey didn't like Mike. He thought he was to soft, so whenever Joey went over to Vince's house he always made fun of him, but that usually resulted in Joey getting punched by Mike or Vince. It's a shocker to everyone Joey hasn't been held back yet. His grades are worse than Mike's and Barren's. He, along with Tony, Vince, and Ean are all in the same seventh grade class. A weird feature about Joey is his hair. He combs it, and then greases it to the point it stands straight up. It looks okay on him, but on everyone else it would be creepy.
Tony Rodriguez has blondish-whites hair and is very well built. He has one crazy family. His dad and birth mom never got married. His mom moved away and Tony was left with his dad ( His dad, Vince's dad, Joey's dad were all in a gang when they were teenagers). His dad got married to a women with four kids. It's Tony's job to protect his step siblings. He has to now since two of them already ran away . Tony's step mom is crazy. She hits him, yells at him, and beats him to unconsciousness. When his dad found out he called the cops, but after a year she came back to the house. Tony always catches her talking to herself and other objects yelling, ''no,no,no!''. In fear of him telling someone she belts him a good three or four times so he keeps his mouth shut. He's always talking about it at school. Tony is goth. Everything he owns is black, or grey, or another dark color. He is a very unhappy child.
Keith Wilmont is tall, lean, mean, and thirteen. He's the joker of the group. He can make anyone laugh or smile. He's got a good sense of humor for a kid with a banged up home life. He drinks, smokes, and chews tobacco. His dad is a drug attic and his mom's in jail, so he pretty much takes care of himself. Keith can make anyone laugh. He even made Barren grin. Keith looks up to Vince, but not as much as Joey or Victoria. Keith is his own person. A cold hard fact about him is he never cries. He hasn't cried since the day he was born. If he ever were to his dad would slap him around; he always used to, but that stopped when Keith was old enough to slap back. He hangs around Norman Cade a lot. He even started saying Norman's saying, ''ham sandwhich!''
Jimmy Carlson is the hippie of the group. He has a bad drug problem, and is only ten years old! (life as a greaser or hippie was pretty crazy). His dad, M&M, has no idea about this. Jimmy has a sense of humor himself. Part of that reason is because his cousin is Mark Matthews. Mark is Jimmy's role model. He's not sure what he would do if he wasn't around. Jimmy is the oldest in his family, but he acts the youngest. He fights with his dad a lot. M&M just dosen't know what to do about his son's behavior. His mom works a lot. The only person in his family he can talk to is Mark, Uncle Two-Bit, and Aunt Kathy. Jimmy fight with his younger sister and brother.
The youngest is Victoria Douglass, daughter of Bryon Douglass and Angela Shepard, and cousin of Vince. Victoria isn't only the youngest in the group, she's also the smallest, and weakest. She often feels left out because she's the only girl and is really young. She has other friends like Annie Winston and Jack Curtis, but their in a different gang. Frances Carlson, Jimmy's sister, and Annabelle Jones arn't in gangs. Victoria feels also left out because the boys in her gang fight a lot with other people and Vince tells her she can't come because it's dangerous. It's Vince's job to protect her and make sure she's safe. Victoria has a crush on someone. The same someone all the other girls her age have a crush on; Jack Curtis. She thinks he's funny and she just loves it when he flirts with her.
Everyone in this gang is know as the Shepard gang. Their very organized, disciplined, and tough thanks to Vince. Their gang may be small, but strong. Ean Winston's gang is pretty big, but their not a gang. Just a group of buddies. Vince knows if his gang were like that they would get jumped all the time. He tries his hardest to be a good gang leader.
