Keep On Trying by Another Illusion

Summary: Dealing with the deaths of two friends, Two-Bit uses all his wit to try and keep his remaining friends together, and on meeting someone within detention realises the importance of family and friendship to get through these difficult times. Two-Bit, OMC, OFC 3rd person POV

A.N-I’m British so use British spelling and terminology, which you may know by now! Thanks as ever to my betas.

Disclaimer:I do not own Two-Bit or any of the characters created by S E Hinton or ‘Some of Us’ by Starsailor. The title of this fic comes from the Poco song 'Keep On Trying'.

One: Room 213

“I’ve been hanging onto something/ You keep us laughing awe-inspiring...”

Two-Bit never thought he would be sick of candy but suddenly he was. Steve looked at him and grinned arrogantly before he leaned back against the body of the car.

“Done, Two-Bit?” he asked mockingly.

“Not quite,” he groaned as he reached for the last Hershey bar, “you better kiss goodbye to five dollars, Steve!” He could not face losing the bet to Steve, besides it was only one more chocolate bar and he would be five dollars richer. In fact, if he was honest, he simply could not afford to lose, Two-Bit was not even sure that he had five dollars.

He took a deep breath and unwrapped the bar. It was now a matter of pride and he had to prove Steve wrong, it was always a real laugh to see Steve’s face when he was beaten at something.

Two-Bit devoured the bar as quickly as he could, constantly trying to deceive himself that after one more bite it would all be over and he would be five bucks richer. Somehow he succeeded and managed to complete the entire bar, which was a feat Two-Bit was proud of. Wiping his mouth on his jacket sleeve he looked up at Steve with complete pride.

“Five bars, shit Two-Bit,” Steve sighed and rose his hands in surrender. “Fine, you win,” he mumbled as he reached into his pocket and produced the crumpled note, Two-Bit was hoping that he regretted ever suggesting the bet, he was beginning to regret accepting it. There was a cloying overly sweet taste in his mouth which felt thick and sticky, making him feel as though he would choke.

“Thank you!” Two-Bit grinned, fighting an overwhelming sense of nausea. He could get through this, it was no worse than how he felt after a night at Buck’s.

“You ain’t gonna throw up, are you?” Steve asked, shifting away slightly so that he ended up precariously balancing against the edge of the car.

Two-Bit shook his head as he watched Ponyboy walk out of the store to join them. “What’s taken you so long?”

“I couldn’t decide what I wanted,” Ponyboy simply said before looking at the discarded wrappers, “Two-Bit, did you eat all those Hershey’s?”

“You bet,” Two-Bit grinned, his chest swelling in pride, “I won five bucks!”

“Why?” Ponyboy asked and Two-Bit frowned in exasperation that the question of why he would even put himself in such a situation had been asked, before grinning broadly at Ponyboy.

“Well Steve said that no-one could eat more than three bars in one sittin’, so we decided to test this theory and I said I could do it,” Two-Bit grinned, smugly secure in the knowledge that he had been right, “and I couldn’t back out of a competition or dare, could I? Anyway, we ended up betting five bucks and I won! ” he held up his money like a trophy and waved it in Steve’s face, all too aware he was probably playing a little too close to the fire, but not particularly caring.

“Yeah, shut up about it, eh?” Steve said in what Two-Bit could only conclude was a tone of complete defeat and loss of pride.

“Alright, alright,” he shrugged, “Oh, damn, Ponyboy I meant to say I can’t give you a ride home today.”

“Why?”

“Detention.”

“What did you do?“ Ponyboy asked unpeeling a chocolate bar, Two-Bit backed away slightly, if he saw another chocolate bar, let alone smelt one in the next few hours he would probably throw up.

“I was mouthing off to a teacher, supposedly. Personally, I feel that’s a complete misrepresentation of my character!” he laughed.

“Sure it is, Two-Bit,” Steve wryly said.

Two-Bit suddenly had a sense that something was missing from this scene, and he knew what it was. Despite the jokes and the characteristic behaviour most of the time, things had changed since Johnny and Dallas died. While he was still goofing around with Steve and having stupid bets, in the back of his mind every now and then there was that uncomfortable thought that there was something essential to the dynamics of the scene missing. It was something Two-Bit tried to distract himself from both from self denial and in order to keep his self preservation.

Shaking his head, Two-Bit jumped off the car. “Are you going to eat that chocolate?” he asked Ponyboy.

“Probably not,” he replied slowly looking down at the substance with some confusion.

“Then can you get rid of it for a bit? I don’t feel so hot.”

“If you throw up the bet is void!” Steve suddenly announced gleefully.

“You oughta quit making rules up,” Two-Bit groaned.

Detention was always held in room 213 and Two-Bit suspected that he could have found this room blindfolded for all the times he had been there. He joked that he loved school so much he liked to stay late, although more simply, it could be said the faculty of Will Rogers did not understand his sense of humour or anything about the concept of humour in fact.

Mr Stone was okay though, he was the unfortunate soul who supervised detention.

“What are you in for this time?” he asked as Two-Bit proudly walked into the room.

“One o’your colleagues thought that I was being mouthy to her, can you believe that?” he looked at Mr Stone with a serious expression. “C’mon do I look like the type of guy who would be mouthy?”

“Sit down Mr Mathews,” he ordered with a slight grin on his face. Two-Bit turned around to survey the comrades for the afternoon, a few guys from the Shepard gang nodded in acknowledgement before turning back to whatever it was they had been doing. There were a few girls, a lot of them in a gaggle who gave him one look that gave Two-Bit ‘stay away’ vibes. They were friends with Kathy, his ex-girlfriend as of three days ago. Usually Two-Bit expected them to get back together after a short break, see a few girls, and then go back to Kathy, only this time they could see that it had come to an end. Two-Bit did not mind too much, these things happened in life and it was a good sign that he could at least see this.

He sat at the back, in the corner. It was the prime spot to sneakily chew tobacco, or to actually get away with holding a conversation with someone. Mr Stone was a nice guy, but he liked to control the Detention wherever possible.

“Right,” Mr Stone began as he stood up. “We-”

The door opened and the last student walked in. She looked both flustered and resentful of the fact she was in detention and mumbled something inaudible for Two-Bit to Mr Stone before she quickly made her way to the back row.

“As I was saying, now that everybody is here, I would just like to remind you all of the rules. No talking, eating, drinking or anything that may go against the general school rules,” he yawned, “now I have a lot of marking to do so just be quiet,” he pleaded before sitting down.

The girls were the first to break the silence and began whispering about what Two-Bit thought sounded like shoes, or maybe a moose, he wasn’t quite sure. He looked at the girl to his right who was quietly scanning through a textbook.

“Hey,” he said fairly quietly with a sharp awareness that attracting Mr Stone’s attention was not advisable.

“Hi,” she replied in a soft voice as she remained fixated in what Two-Bit assumed must have been a mesmerising textbook.

“You sure know how to make an entrance huh?” he grinned and noticed she blushed slightly.

"Yeah, that is so embarrassing. Did I look like a fool?"

"Not too much," he consoled.

'So what did you do?" she asked brightly, now looking away from her textbook.

"A teacher didn't quite understand my sense of humour," he looked at her, "How's the book?"

"Scintillating," she replied.

"How about you? I'm bettin' it was forgetting homework, you look like that type."

"Do you know the types that well then?" she asked, looking at him curiously.

"Sometimes," he modestly admitted.

"Well, you're wrong, sorry. I skipped school," she stated drolly. "I skipped school and went to see a movie."

"I see," he smiled. Realising that he had not introduced himself he said, "I'm Two-Bit," and extended his hand most chivalrously. "Two-Bit Mathews."

"That's a funny name," she commented casually.

"Nickname," he grinned, "that said I do have some friends named Ponyboy and Sodapop!"

"Wow-I mean-wow," she stuttered, clearly trying to be respectful and not laugh.

The day was finally looking up for Two-Bit, not only had he won five dollars, albeit at great expense to himself, but now he was entertaining some brunette, okay it would have been even better if she was a blonde, but Two-Bit didn't only exclusively date one type of girl!

"What's your name then?" he asked.

"I'm Bonnie," she said after a pause. "Bonnie Cross." The surname sounded familiar and Two-Bit's brow furrowed his brow in frustration at trying to remember.

"Do I know you from somewhere?"

"We have Algebra and English together," she smiled and Two-Bit grinned in return, shaking off a feeling that there was something more than that.

"That'll be what it is," he said, snapping his fingers. The gaggle of girls turned to face Two-Bit and he received a very cold look, the realisation that this conversation between him and Bonnie would most likely be reported to Kathy made a fleeting appearance within his mind. In a respect, he actually wanted it to, just to prove to Kathy that he was a decent guy who people would want to talk to and that she had passed up a real catch. However, part of him just wanted to write off that period of his life as the past. Kathy was an okay girl, she had been a good friend and girl to him over time, there was just nothing there anymore.

"Would you all shut up?" Mr Stone exclaimed, suddenly standing up. His face had turned a violent shade of red and Two-Bit suspected that he was experiencing some type of mid-life crisis, because he was not usually as angry or volatile during detention.

The final part of detention was spent in an awkward and uncomfortable silence and when the bell rang signalling the end of the punishment there was an open sigh of relief. The only sounds Two-Bit had heard after Mr Stone’s outburst were the scratching of pens on paper, an occasional cough and the rain outside hitting the window. It had been more then uncomfortable for Two-Bit who found silence made him feel on edge, it had been excruciating.

Two-Bit watched Bonnie pack away her textbook, "Fun forty minutes wasn't it, eh?"

"It had its moments," she dryly replied, placing her bag on her shoulder.

"So, I suppose I will see you around," he said cheerfully, she nodded.

They made some quiet and fairly light-hearted conversation as they walked down the corridors.

"Sure,” she added and opened her mouth to say something but stopped herself and Two-Bit noticed that they had reached the nearest entrance to the car park, “well I should go, my brother’s picking me up and he’s really impatient.” and Bonnie stopped, smiled at him briefly and then ran out into the rain to a waiting Pontiac. He watched her brother get out of the car and help her put her bag away, she turned and waved at him before getting into the car.

Two-Bit reached in his pocket for the keys to his trusty Plymouth and exhaled before making his way through the rain to his car while wishing that he had remembered where he had parked that morning.