You Make Me Real

CHAPTER ONE
The bowling alley was strangely barren. Kathryn, Laurel and her had decided to come here. She has no problem with it, but Laurel seemed to be wishing she was somewhere else. There was a keg party at Anthony Sheldon's house, Kathryn and Laurel were invited but since Anthony's girlfriend was Eleanor Cohan, Amara wasn't invited. No matter how hard the girl tried, Eleanor would not ease up.
She just didn't like Amara.

Kathryn decided that we could just go to the Ribbon and go bowling instead.
"Girls, this blows." Laurel said with a sigh. "Where are all the boys?"

Kathryn laughed at their friend and pointed to the left. There were a couple boys over by the pinball machines in leather jackets, smoking cigarettes.

"There's some."

Laurel scoffed and took a sip of her soda. "Yeah just my type. Poor."

Amara found herself subconsciously looking away then. It wasn't a bad thing to her to grow up poor, she had for quite some time and she still hadn't left working class. But on the west side, if you were poor, you were trash. That's just how it worked, and Amara played along. She looked back over at her friends and giggled along softly.

"You're right, though," Kathryn said. "I'd like to meet up with some nice boys."

Amara nodded. "Yeah, we got all dressed up and there's no one to show it off to!"

Amara had been in high hopes tonight. She put on her favourite dress. It was a very light blue and it was sleeveless. It was the nicest thing she owned and she always wore it when she felt good. It seemed it was put on for no reason this time. They had already played three games and the only people who had came in was other girls who hadn't had not gotten the invite either and the scattered greaser.

"I'm bored." Laurel took another load slurp of her drink. "Wanna go see a movie, maybe?"

Both the other girls agreed and they left the bowling alley.

It was dark now, it had been bright when they arrived. It was getting a bit chilly, too. Winter was just around the corner.

The girls walked for a bit and talked amongst themselves. The Ribbon was a hot spot, so it was crowded as they walked the streets. Cars and people zoomed by.

They made it to the movie house and it was little denser than the alley but it was primarily crowded with greasers and lower middle class kids. A few Soc's she recognized stood by the entrance but that was it.

"That's Heather and Cherry!" Laurel said, leaving her friends and scurrying over to two redheaded girls.

"I'll go see what's playing." Kathryn said a moment later, so Amara was left by herself.

She leaned against the wall of the movie house and stared off at the cars flashing by. She felt herself shiver, it really was getting cold.

Someone came over and stood next to her. She didn't even look over, but she heard the strike of a match and then she smelt tobacco.

"Hey little lady," Said the person next to her. Amara glanced over at the figure next to her. "You're looking good tonight."

He was a greaser, you could always tell by the hair. His was a little different though, it wasn't fully greased back and some of it fell into the guys face. He wore a fitted white shirt and blue jeans and there was a leather jacket hanging off his shoulder.

"Thanks." She muttered back half-heartedly.

"Name?"

"Amara Robinson, yours?" She politely said.

"Curly Shepard."

She'd heard of him, not exactly him, but his older brother Tim. He was the same age as Henry. Henry mentioned Tim a couple times, he knew him because he attended Will Rogers till his sophomore year. He was in a gang.

"Any relation to Tim?" She asked, though she already knew.

Curly looked briefly taken aback. "Yeah, how'd ya know?"

"My brother was friends with him."

Amara didn't miss the way Curlys face pinched up. She knew why, greasers were just as stuck up as Soc's just in a different way. She knew that from looking at her, Curly had pictured Henry to be some pansy sort. Henry wasn't anything like that.

"Whats his name?"

"Henry."

Curly seemed like he recognized the name and he nodded. "Tuff guy."

She nodded too.

Laurel called her name and she said a short goodbye to the boy beside her.

He didn't say anything. Not until she was further away; then he screamed out after her, "Nice dress, dollface."

Amara didn't turn back. Her face heated up and when she looked up and saw her friends' faces on her she blushed even more.

Avoiding confrontation, she said nothing and just walked over to the concession stand.

"What film is playing?" Laurel asked as they waited in line.

"Dark Intruder." Heather said. She and Cherry had decided to join the group.

"It's supposed to be spooky." She added.

Laurel groaned. "Only just another reason to be with a boy!"

They all shared an eye roll at their whiney friend. Laurel was boy orientated, not much else mattered to here. She always needed a boyfriend or she was lost. It was one of her more annoying traits.

"Oh hush up, Laurie." Cherry snapped, immediately gaining the attention of all the girls. "You don't need a boy for everything."

Laurel stayed silent the rest of the way through the line, and she hardly said a word as we waited for the movie to start.

Amara didn't know Cherry very well. She knew the basics, she was rich, nicer than most, and generous. She didn't have enough to form a solid opinion. She seemed okay.

"I saw you talking to Curly Shepard." Cherry said to Amara as they walked out of the theatre.

Amara felt nervous. "Uh, yeah…"

"That's nice. You see, greasers I think, aren't so different from us." Cherry told her. "I can't tell the others this, they'd just shun me. But you seem like you could understand."

Amara didn't know where Cherry would get such an idea, they didn't know each other and the girl had seen her talk to a greaser once in her life. Maybe Cherry knew who she was, where she came from.

She chewed the inside of her cheek, her only nervous habit and responded. "I understand," was all she said.

Cherry seemed put off by such a brief answer but Amara wasn't exactly sure what to say. She wasn't even a part of the "us" Cherry had mentioned. She was purely middle class. She had no real business in the Soc and Greaser feud, she did agree with Cherry though.

"You don't think it's weird?" Cherry asked further.

Amara shook her head. "No. Why should money define us?"

This seemed like the response Cherry had been looking for and she smiled small.

"It was nice talking to you, Amara." Cherry said as a goodbye. Amara repeated her and went back to Kathryn who was ready to head on home for the night.

All Amara could think about was Cherry’s words and that cocky greaser.

X X X

Curly threw his jacket over the couch and flopped down on the cushions.

He thought about Amara, she looked so done up and just like those rich kids looked like. But he remembered Henry Robinson, he used to be over here quite a bit. Not so much after Tim got heavily into the gang stuff, but before that Henry would always be up for a drink or a poker game. He was always clad in a t shirt and jeans, just like the rest of them.

Amara was clean cut, in an expensive dress. It didn't make sense in his head. He knew the family had gotten some money, but not enough to even dream of moving to the West Side.

She was a pretty little thing, though. She was teasing him innocently in that tight blue dress.

"What're ya doin'?" Behind him now was his step-dad, Mike. Curly just ignored him.

"I said, what're ya doin'?" Mike asked again.

"What does it look like I'm doin', Mike? I'm watchin' some god damn TV."

He scowled. "Yeah well you shouldn't be comin' home so late, ya hear me?"

Curly didn't take orders from Mike very well, the guy was a dick. Curly didn't have one ounce of respect for the guy.

"I don't got to listen to you," Curly said with a sharpness in his voice. "You ain't my Ma and you sure as hell ain't my dad."

Mike laughed. "Glad I ain't your dad, son. I don't reckon being six feet unders very fun."

That was it. Curly was done being calm. He hated this guy, and had no god damn clue why his mom married this guy.

Curly pushed the man as hard as he could up against the wall, there was a thud and Mike's head smashed against the dry wall. He hoped it hurt.

Curly usually lost against Michael, but he had the advantage since he had caught his step-dad off guard. With one swift moment, he curled up his fist and swung at him with full force directly into Mike’s nose. When he pulled away it was already bleeding. That made him somewhat pleased.

But now Mike was furious and Curly no longer had the one up. Michael knocked Curly to the floor and began to kick him repeatedly.

"Ungrateful bastard." Was all Curly could hear over the blows.

He managed to pull himself up and went and punched Mike again, and again and Mike kicked and hit back. Until, they were pulled away from each other. In between the two was Tim, and deathly look in his eye but Curly couldn't make out who it was directed at.

"What the fuck are you guys doin'?" Tim asked.

Curly struggled to get out of his brothers grip but it was no use, Tim was evenstronger when he was angry.

"Just let me at him, Tim." Curly said, rage still inside of him. "Imma kill 'em."

"Bastard was talking dirt about dad, I'm gonna kill 'em."

Tim still ignored Curly and turned to his step-dad. "That true, Mike?"

Mike shrugged. "I dunno," he replied dumbly.

Curly wanted to rip his throat out.

"Go away." Tim ordered to Mike. Their step-dad scoffed at the demand but left anyway. Curly still wanted to tear him apart but he was glad the guy was gone. Now it was just him and Tim.

Tim looked at him like he was stupid. "You gotta control your temper, Curl. This shit ain't gonna get you nowhere."

"I hate him." Was Curly's only defense.

"I do, too."

Curly spit out some left over blood. It hit the light green carpet and was sure to stain. Ma would sure tear into him tomorrow, but he didn't bother to care right then. His ribs hurt and he just wanted to sleep.

Tim left him standing alone in the living room. Soon after he padded up to the bathroom.

He gave himself a once over. His face was red from the punches and there was a couple scratches from Mike’s class ring, but it was nothing extreme or unusual. It still mad him mad.

His Ma stuck his head in the door, she didn't look angry.

She silently made her way to him. "You have to stop makin' him angry, baby."

She picked up the cloth that was laid on the side of the sink and attempted to clean off his face.

Curly swatted her away, but was careful not to hurt her. His mother was skinny and fragile. She'd been that way since their dad had died; she had hardly eaten or slept correctly since that. She thought nobody noticed, so Curly, Tim, and Angela pretended they didn't. It wasn't discussed, it was just something they all knew they had to do.

"Ma, he's no good." Curly said roughly. "And I ain't gonna be nice to him."

He heard her sigh and she dropped the cloth. Her eyes were sad and she looked worn out.

"Okay, Curly." She said and walked away. Curly followed her out and just went to his room.

He hated Mike. He hated Mike more than he hated anyone, even more than Johnny Rogers who screwed his old girl and slashed his tires the same day. Mike was the worst thing that ever happened to their family but their mother was naive and ignored all the abuse since he never once touched her. To her, it was their fault. He curled up into his bed. He needed to stop thinking about his god damn step-father.
He turned on his radio and somehow got to sleep.