Roses and thorns

Do it for Nicky, Man - C. 8

(A/N
Shout out to the real Crash and Zee for being so supportive and enthusiastic. Thank you ❤️)

Date: 2/7/1957 (Tuesday, 11:34am)

Crash's P.O.V

We called over Zee, Ace and Danny later on in the morning. They were going to help me fix Alice to look the part while Buddy and Jean stayed at school. Ace said he took the day off from working, But Zee decided to skip school. They all sat in front of me on the couch while I stood in front of them.

"We need a list of all the things us greasers do to train Alice." I looked at them all, Zee scowled and looked away. "What's with the face Zee? Eat a lemon?"

"No." She grumbled. I knew why she was upset, it would be the first time in months that another girl had joined in our gang. We used to have another girl, but we found out she was only there to spy on us, sent by the socs. Zee was good friends with her, but once she found out, boy she was mad.

"List, come on." I clapped my hands, Danny shot up and started to yell.

"Shopliftin'!" He called out

"Shut up Danny, you don't know a thing about that." Zee smacked him over the head.

"You'd know a lot about shopliftin' wouldn't ya, Little Miss 'Hide the snakes in my jumper' huh?" Ace looked over to her, he expected a smile but she looked away coldly instead. I rolled my hand, asking for more.

"Catchin' food with our mouths." Ace smirked and placed a hand behind the couch, Zee looked uncomfortable but played it off cool. I nodded my head and counted on my fingers.

"That's two."

"Blades." Zee pulled out her favourite switchblade, the one with the dragons on it. Alice suddenly ran into the house, I had forgotten she left to get her leather jacket from home. She looked like a real greaser, her jeans, white shirt and now a leather jacket, it made the perfect greaser girl.

"I'm here." She said, smiling a little. Zee turned around and almost fell off the back of the couch.

"Where the hell did ya get that?!" She ran off the couch and started looking at the jacket, Alice smiled and straightened it out.

"It's my-"

"A classic leather jacket! One of those really expensive ones!" Zee looked back at us, while Alice blushed from all the attention. I walked over to her and examined the jacket with Zee while Danny and Ace stayed on the couch looking over. Her jacket had a rose embroidered onto the back of it, I'd seen gangs do this before but it was a far side specific gang symbol. Where the hell did she find this thing?

"Can we please continue with this list? I have more I wanna say." Danny called out to us, who awkwardly looked back at me. I nodded my head and sat Alice on the couch. After a little while, we agreed to teach Alice a bunch of things.

"So, we're teachin' her shopliftin', running from the cops, blade fightin', smokin', sweet talkin', keepin' cool and catchin' food with our mouths." I repeated it back to them, the gang looked cool, as if it was normal, but Alice looked afraid.

"All of that? In a few days?"

"You forgot skippin' school." Ace smirked and looked over to Alice, who looked even more horrified. We started to laugh and Alice stood up.

"What about my parents?"

"What about em?"

"They'll kick me out! I'll be such an embarrassment to them.."

"Forget em, we're your family now."

"I'm not apart of any family other than my own." She stood up and began to walk off, Ace grabbed her arm and pulled her back in her seat. She sat down and crossed her arms in anger.

"You wanna get killed, that's fine. But I'm doin' this for Nick." I looked over to her and scowled, she looked away and loosened up her face. Danny patted her shoulder and she looked over to him sympathetically.

"Do it for Nick, man." Zee looked over to Alice, who nodded her head and looked down at her feet.

"Fine. For Nicky." Alice repeated. I wanted to smile, but I knew if I did it would be letting my guard down. I believe that she didn't intend to hurt Nick, but there's still no clear reason why James had a gun. I had a lot to ask her.

---

I sat out the front with Ace, holding a cigarette and a lighter. Alice awkwardly held her own and placed the cigarette in her mouth.

"Right, now you gotta light it. The wind tends to blow out the flame, so cup your hand like this." Ace showed her, she tried it but the lighter fell. I laughed a little and Ace smacked my head, then told her to it again. It took her almost twenty goes before she could ignite the lighter, Ace then showed her how to light it properly and she did that okay. She breathed in the smoke and dropped the cigarette, coughing wildly. I began to laugh harder than last time, Alice glared at me.

"If you're such an expert, why don't you do it?" Alice yelled, I shook my head laughing at her still.

"Again." Ace gave her another cancer stick*, and she tried it again. Every time she breathed in the smoke she coughed a bit, but Zee came out eventually and told her how long she should breath in the smoke and how long she should breath out. Zee held her cigarette like most greasers, but Alice had an elegant way about it. She looked tough, but still kept her "I'm better than you." aura around. Later on we taught her how to keep calm and sweet talk, playing out stupid scenes such as being "chased by cops" which was a large game of chase. She did well at the sweet talking, but the acting cool under pressure tended to break her. She's squeak every time we "caught" her, eventually Zee yelled out to us.

"Enough man, this shit's impossible." We all met up at my front porch, panting. Alice sat down and wiped her forehead, I smirked at her and checked my watch.

(2:59pm)

"Buddy will be home soon, I wonder if he'll drop by." I looked to my gate and I stood up, leaning against the wall of my house. "Anyone seen him yesterday?"

"He was with me, we were with Nick." Danny lit up a cigarette, I huffed and looked off. Alice walked inside without saying a word and I watched her go up the stairs to her room.

"How is he?" I asked him, Danny stayed quiet and blew out his smoke.

"Not good." He replied, looking back at me.