Family Is Found (Sequel to Running Towards Home)

CHAPTER 22

SAM'S POV:

I'm walking with Arlene. It's a friday after school, and the weather is great. Not too hot, not too cold. We're chatting and laughing, making fun of Cherry. Her nose is healed, but she keeps shooting me angry glares whenever she sees me. "I mean, can't she just get over it? It's been weeks. Her nose wasn't even broken!" I laugh. "She's still jealous that you got Pony." Arlene says, and she smirks at me.

We make our way to the park, and sit down on the fountain. I dip my hand in the water, swirling it around. The ripples are beautiful. "Hey, girlies. Whatcha doing out here all alone?" I hear a drunken soc slur. I don't recognize him. He's in a blue mustang, and he's joined by about four other socs. I can see empty beer bottles littering the car. Clearly, they've had a little too much to drink.

"Leave us alone, will ya?" I say, and try to go back to talking to Arlene. "Don't ignore us!" The soc says, and he climbs out of his car. His group follows him. This does not bode well. "Arlene, run. Go get the gang." I whisper at her. "No! I'm not leaving you!" She says, and she clenches her fist. She's getting ready to defend herself.

"We're not interested. Just leave us alone." Arlene says, her voice shaking. The socs just chuckle at her. "Ooo, so scary," they mock us. They start to get closer. They circle us. This is bad, this is very bad. One of the socs goes to grab me, and, on instinct, I punch him. I see anger flash across his face. The socs close in on us. Then the fighting starts.

I get a few good punches in, and I break at least one nose, but soon enough, we're overpowered. This is nowhere near a fair fight. Arlene fights, and she fights good. I never knew she could fight like this. I'm fighting off one soc, and I see a soc creep up behind Arlene out of the corner of my eye. "Arlene!" I shout out, but it's too late. He grabs her, and the soc in front of her starts punching. I try to get over to her, but I get held back. I see Arlene's eyes close, and she's knocked out. They give her a few more punches, then drop her. She falls to the ground, and the socs who were punching her come over to me. I struggle, but it's not enough. They keep punching, and the pain starts to overwhelm me. I can feel the world start to go dark. I try to stay awake, but my mind goes dark. Then I'm gone.

When I wake up, the sky is darker. I must have been out for hours. I sit up, and feel dizzy. My head feels like someone hit it with a hammer. I manage to stand up, and the fuzziness on the edges of my vision starts to fade. I look over, and see Arlene on the ground. She's not awake yet. I run over, and I shake her, but she doesn't wake up. I get one arm under her head and the other arm under her knees. I lift her up, and I manage to get to my knees. She's a good three inches taller than me, but I get her up. I start walking towards home.

I finally make it home, and yell for someone to help. The gang comes running out, and they take Arlene from my arms. Then I stumble and fall. I feel someone help me up, and they walk me inside. I'm led to Darry's chair and sit down. Pony comes over to me. "Sam, what happened? Are you okay?" He grabs my hand. "I'm fine, we just got jumped. How's Arlene?" I ask, trying to look over at her. Darry, Soda, and Johnny block my view of her. "She's going to be fine. Let me clean you up. Dally, can you grab me a wet washcloth?" Pony asks. Usually, Dally would refuse, but now he goes and grabs it without a thought.

Pony takes the cloth from Dally and starts to clean the blood off my face. My skin is tender, but Pony is gentle. Dally kneels next to me, and I can see fire in his eyes. "Who did this? I'm going to kill them." He says. "I don't know, just some socs. Dally, I'm fine. It's okay." I say, trying to calm him down. I can't let him get arrested for fighting socs over me.

"It's not okay! You're one of us, they mess with one of us, they mess with all of us!" Dally shouts. I put a hand on his shoulder. "Dally, calm down. I'm okay, Arlene is okay, don't freak out. Don't do anything rash." I say, and he calms down a bit, but I can still see the anger in his face. His jaw is clenched, and his eyes are still hard.

I get up, and walk over to Arlene. Darry finished cleaning her cuts, and she is starting to wake up. "Johnny?" she croaks out. Johnny comes and grabs her hand. "I'm right here, baby. I'm right here." he says. "Arlene, I'm so sorry." I say. "Sam, it's not your fault. I've never fought like that. Did you see how hard I punched that guy?" She says, sitting up. "Yeah, I had no idea you were such a badass!" I say, laughing.