(Lost ducks into the surpirsingly neat room.)

Lost: I'm so sorry! I know it has been forever. I have been so busy since the last time I updated! First off, I had the job over Christmas, then Midterm Exams. Then I was grounded, had writer's block, Finals, end of year parties, and then my summer jobs.

Ivy: Don't forget about your boyfriend!

Lost: Ivy! Er, (blush) yeah, I got a boyfriend back in March...though he's my ex now and is going out with my best friend.

Ivy: (GASP!) You broke all of the girl-friend rules!

Lost: Not like we care. He and I are really god friends now, so there's no problem. Anyway, to the story!

(Lost walks back to her desk and begins typing again.)

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I did not escape that night nor the next. Thankfully, no one came up to my 'room to 'have fun' again. However, Chuck was stuck in my room 24/7. Since no other boys came, we talked of all that had happened since he moved and we lost touch. The third night I was there, he seemed to have changed back to the boy I knew. He turned his back on me finally at one point and taking the chance, I hit a pressure point in his neck, knocking him out. I quickly opened the window and climbed out. I stretched myself as far as possible before letting go of the window and landing, loudly, on the roof. I froze for a few minutes, but when no one seemed to have heard it, I raced over to the downspout. I leaned over the roof to glance in the windows and saw no one there. I grabbed the spout and shimmied down as quickly as possible.

Once I landed, I crouched down behind a bush and listened for anyone coming by. When I was positive I was save, I slowly crept around the house and found the basement window.

"Stallion, Billy." I called, "Stallion, Billy!" I repeated slightly louder. A muffled rustle was heard and Pony's face was suddenly at the window.

"Jo, you got out?"

"Yeah. I'm gonna get the gang. I'll be back soon."

"Be careful, Jo, please."

"Always, Stallion, always."

I crept away carefully until I got to the end of the block where I sprinted home. The house was dark and silent. My parents must have been asleep. I took the key from its hiding place and opened the door. I walked in and flicked the light on to see my house in shambles. I stood still for a bit before sprinting through in search of my parents. Nothing. I then dashed for the phone, which had thankfully survived the fall to the floor. It seemed to take forever for someone at the Curtis house to pick up.

"Hello?" came the tense greeting.

"Guys, its Jo! I'm at my house but someone's ransacked it and my parents are gone!" I shouted hysterically.

A scuffle was heard and Dally's voice came on.

"Jo? Do you know where the other guys are?"

"Yes, 251 Maple Street. There's about a dozen there at all times, more during the day. The boys are being kept in the basement."

A second scuffle was heard, and Darry came on the phone. "Jo? How are you?"

"I'm fine, but I don't know where my parents are and someone ransacked my house!"

"Jo, it's alright, your parents went to visit your grandparents in Texas, they left 4 days ago, and won't be back for a week more."

"Thank God!" I breathed out, calming down.

"How's Pony and the other boys?"

"Stallion's okay, or he can stand at least. About a week ago they started taking them up one by one and beating 'em. When they were going to take Stal, I went crazy and they took me…they, they almost…" for once in the past few weeks, I broke down and bawled. Darry shushed me over the phone, trying to help, while fighting was heard in the background. Seems Dally ran out as soon as I told him the address.

A rustling was heard and Soda came on the phone. "Jo, honey? We're coming to get you okay? I'm gonna stay here on the phone with you, alright?"

"Okay." We talked of nonsense things until the doorbell was heard along with a knock to the tune of Mickey Mouse. I dropped the phone and raced to the door throwing it open. As soon as I saw them, I launched myself on top of Two-Bit who was in front.

"Oh god, Bugs! I've never been gladder to see you!" I then hugged Darry, Kurt, Steve, and Tim before letting them inside. Steve whistled at the damage,

"Whoever did this, did it well. Have you called the cops?" Darry asked.

"Not yet, I was waiting for you to show up." I quickly reassured Soda, who had become frantic when I dropped the phone, and called the cops.

10 minutes later, two cops appeared, one was the spitting image of Chuck. It was obviously his dad, Officer Killigan, next to him stood a tall brunette, Officer McKeel.

"Well, if it isn't Miss Jo." Officer Killigan said in way of greeting. "What have you done this time?"

"It's not what I've done, Killigan." I snapped. "It's what someone did to me." I showed them the house with Officer McKeel taking pictures.

"Have you touched anything?" He questioned softly.

"Only the phone, officer, to contact my friends and you." I replied politely while gesturing to the boys.

"Oh, so he gets respect, but I don't?" Killigan asked.

"Of course you don't," I snapped again, "you're a complete jackass." He just laughed and pulled me into a hug.

"It's great to see you Jo, now who are your friends?" I introduced the boys calmly, though it produced a few raised eyebrows.

"Do you have any idea who might do this?" I turned my head away from Officer McKeel's gaze.

"I'm a Greaser in Soc territory and a girl at that. People respect me and fear me, love me and hate me because I am different. You may not know, but right now a war is waging between the high school Greasers and Socs. I am the cause of it, and the prize to the winner. I have also allied myself with the Greasers. I have no doubt of who it was but, I don't think there is any actual proof. I'm sure you're great officers but, this is something that we need to take care of ourselves. It won't matter in a week anyway." I softly explained.

McKeel looked a little confused at my answer while Killigan just nodded his head to me. They left soon after and I collapsed into a chair once the door was closed.

"Jo, why didn't you tell him who did it?" Steve demanded to know.

"Because his son is in the middle of it."

"What!" came the shouts, brining a headache into existence.

I rubbed my forehead and sighed softly. "His son was my best friend, a few towns back. He was lost and confused about this new town and followed his wealth into his new social ranking. He realizes the truth now which is how I got away. I may act like I hate Officer Killigan with a passion, but that's just the way we are. This war is between us kids, the ones who will soon rule the town." Darry nodded his head to me in agreement while the rest still looked confused.

"Well, anyway, what are we going to do now?" Steve asked.

"We clean up, kiddo, and that includes you Two-Bit." Darry ordered. So in the most uncharacteristic display by most of the boys, the house became as it was before, minus a few trinkets. After that, we all dashed back to the Curtis house where Soda greeted me with a big hug and a cup of coco. The gang all settled down to catch a few hours of sleep as me and Soda retreated to his and Pony's room. I passed out as soon as I hit the bed only to awake an hour or so later gasping for breath. And this time, I remembered my nightmare, though I wish I hadn't. The boys slept through it and only began to wake hours later, not that I could blame them.

Around six the next morning, Dally, Tim, Curly, and Burmly showed up with everyone else outside.

"Jo!" he shouted once he was me. He picked me up in a hug and sung me around before passing me off to Tim so he could walk up to the guys.

"Hello Jo, how are ya?"

"Eh, I've been better."

"How are the boys?"

"How the fuck do you think they are?!" Tim raised his hands and backed up a step or two. I sighed and rubbed my forehead again. "I'm sorry Tim, I'm just really stressed right now."

"Don't worry about it Jo, we're all worried. Besides, we have a plan." Curly butted in.

"So, what's the plan?" Darry asked, stepping into the room with the rest of the boys. We all sat down as Burmly began to outline the plan.

"What we're doing is to take anyone who is willing to fight and at least 16 and storm the place at night; the more, the better. The youngest are going to grab the guys from the basement and get them to the cars two streets away. They'll hightail it back here where Jo, Kurt, Curly, and the younger boys will be waiting."

"Wow, wait a minute. How come I'm going to be waiting here?" I questioned. The boys looked at me like I was crazy. (Which I might have been at the time.)

"Jo, they're after you. You've already been taken once, we don't want you taken again. We lost you once and that hurt us, losing you again will kill us." Dally explained. I was shocked at what he said. No one had ever said that to me before.

"Alright, I'll stay here. Just, just get them back safely, won't you?" I asked quietly, tears in my eyes.

"Of course Jo, of course." Soda answered while folding me into a hug.

Two nights later, the boys left. Curly and Kurt stayed at me in the house along with 3 other boys too young to fight. Hours seemed to pass as we played poker while Kurt paced behind us.

"Kurt, calm down, I'm sure everything will be fine."

"You don't understand Jo, I feel so useless! I couldn't stop them from taking you and Ponyboy and now I can't even help get the guys back because I'm still too injured!" he shouted out, frustrated. I stood up and rested my hands on his shoulders.

"Kurt, they would have gotten me eventually. Curly is stuck here too. We know you tried and that's all that counts. Plus you got Curly and Evie back before they could do anything to her and you know Steve is relieved at that."

"But..!"

"Kurt, it's okay, just calm down. I'm not mad, Tim's not mad, Dally's not mad, Darry's not mad and you know he's the one you need to watch out for." I joked. Kurt gave me a small smile and settled down on the couch. Mere minutes later, he was up again to give space to the incoming boys. They had done it, they had gotten the captured boys back. I didn't think as I patched each of the boys, I was just thankful they had made it out alive and without a need for the hospital. As I finished the last boy, I counted in my head how many there were. But I came up one short. I quickly glanced around the room and paled.

"Where's Stallion?" I asked. No one seemed to have heard me. "Where's Ponyboy?" I shouted.

"He was right behind us…" Jake traled off. Before anyone could react, I was out and running down the street. Thunder was heard and rain began to fall. Suddenly another person was next to me and I glanced over quickly without stopping. The scene we came upon is one that will stay with me forever. Bodies were all over the yard, some fighting, some wrestling, some just lying there but, the thing that scared me the most was Pony being held up on the porch with a knife to his throat.

"Ponyboy!" We both shouted, dashing to the steps, ignoring the people around us. All of the fighting stopped and Dally came up behind us.

"Jo, Johnny? What the fuck are you doing here?" he asked.

"We're here to save Ponyboy and to end this." Johnny calmly stated. "You wanted us, now you have us. So let Pony go." He shouted to the Socs. Ray just laughed.

"Why would we let him go? If we take care of him, we'll have one less Greaser on the street, one less person to breed more bitches like you guys."

"Okay, so you kill Pony, you kill me, you kill Johnny. You kill every Greaser in Tulsa. What will you do next? The police will get you eventually, other greasers will move into the houses we have left. You can't just destroy us without hurting yourself. Because even if we all are gone, the next level of finance will be the 'Greasers', then you destroy them and the next level follows until eventually, you're the Greasers. What then? Will you destroy yourself? Could you destroy your best friend if he fell before you?" Ray glanced at the two boys on either side of him. He slowly lowered the knife and stepped back.

"Fine, you win." He spat out.

"I don't want to win, I just want it to end." I stated. "I f I could, I'd bring Bert back, but I can't. So, I'll keep the ones I still have alive." The two thugs then released Ponyboy. Johnny and I both raced up the steps and caught him. "Pony." I softly called to him.

"Hey Jo." He weakly replied. "I probably look a mess huh?"

"Yeah, Pony, you do, but we'll have ya fixed up in no time. You know how good Jo is a that stuff." Johnny replied.

"Ponyboy…" Soda breathed out, coming up behind us. "I'll take him guys. Why don't you check over the other injured boys?" he suggested. I nodded my head and dashed off to see how much damage was done.

There were no deaths that night, but it will take months before everyone is healed. Life returned to normal, if you call Socs and Greasers friends normal. Pony and I began to date once he healed. We all moved into the house I had found, although Darry was wary of following through when he found out we were dating. We convinced him we weren't going to do anything and everyone lived happily.

So far anyway….

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(Lost turns around in her swivel chair.)

Lost: Yeah, this is the last chapter. Sorry. I know it's really bad but, I didn't know how else to end it and I got a little bored of it after a while. I hope this satisfies your need for an ending.

Ivy: Don't forget to check out for other stories we're writing!

Lost: Oh, yeah! Please do! While the HP story on my profile is still discontinued, I have some other stories I'm going to type up over then next few weeks while I have time. Please check them out and have a great rest of summer!

Both: Thanks for reading and see you in the next story!

(Lost bows before turning back to her computer as the room fades away.)