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 and all my reviewers.

Disclaimer:I do not own Two-Bit or any of the characters created by S E Hinton or the song I See Girls by Studio B.

Four: Mr. Popularity

“I see girls/ here there and everywhere/ short skirts, long hair ...”

Two-Bit checked his hair in the mirror one last time before he walked into the kitchen.

“Are you going out?” his sister accused, looking up from her magazine with a bored expression.

“Yeah. I got me a hot date,” he smugly said as he tugged his leather jacket on. “You going to be up to much tonight, Peggy?”

“No,” she sighed. “Annie has a date. A date!” she repeated for extra emphasis. “Me? I’m stuck here reading magazines and eating leftover pasta!”

“Oh.” It worried Two-Bit a little that his thirteen old sister’s friends were dating, it wouldn’t be long before she followed suit. He knew if Annie had started Peggy would inevitably follow. He tried to remember when he became interested in girls, and then tried to recall how he was at thirteen. He was disturbed when he realised he couldn’t quite remember.

“Who are you going out with?” Peggy asked, bringing him back from his confused state.

“You wouldn’t-” he sighed as he saw her face. “I’m seeing a girl called Annette.”

“She pretty?” Peggy asked. She was clearly bored because Two-Bit knew his little sister was anything but interested in his social and romantic life, or life in general unless it affected her.

“She’s blonde. And yeah, she is.”

“I see,” she said slowly. “Have fun,” she called in a sing song voice.

Two-Bit laughed, assuring her that he would, before he made his way out of the back door to his car.

Within an hour Two-Bit had learned the following about Annette; she liked to talk and was always very bubbly. It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing; after all Two-Bit had hardly gone on the date to pay attention to the movie in the first place. In fact her talking was strangely reassuring and meant he didn’t have to think. She was pretty too, shoot was the girl pretty!

“Thanks Two-Bit,” she politely said as he pulled up outside the house. Two-Bit couldn’t help noticing that her manners were a deep contrast to her tight skirt and blouse. “I had a great time.”

“Yeah, me too,” he casually said, unsure whether he actually meant it.

“Well, I better get in before I miss my curfew. My parents would go crazy,” she said, biting her lip nervously.

“Sure.”

“Bye,” she brightly said, unbuckling her seatbelt before she opened the door and exited the car. Her blonde ponytail was swinging from side to side as she walked up the pathway to her front door.

He wanted a smoke, and fresh air. Once he saw that she was inside, he made his move. Two-Bit leant against his car as he lit a Lucky Strike, the last in his pack. He would have to get some more tomorrow, he noted casually as he put the cigarette to his lips. He stood in silence, enjoying his cigarette and reviewing the night.

“You okay?” someone called. Two-Bit turned around, expecting to see Annette and being taken aback by who was actually talking to him.

“Hey Kathy,” he said as soon as he had recovered from the initial shock of his ex-girlfriend talking to him.

“Two-Bit,” she said casually. “Got a smoke?”

“Nah, sorry, this is my last one.”

“Ergh,” she groaned as she walked over to him. “You been out with Annette?” she asked quietly.

“Yeah.” He watched her face for a reaction, but she gave nothing away. Kathy had always had the amazing ability to not portray her true feelings in her facial expression.

“Man, I bet that girl is watching us outta her window right now. She’s almost in love with you,” she scoffed.

“Can you blame her?” he asked lightly. She raised her eyebrow and tossed her blonde hair behind her shoulder.

Cautiously Two-Bit looked behind him. There was nobody watching.

“How have you been?” she asked after a moment of silence.

“Good. You?

“Great!” She emphatically said. “I went to Buck’s with Alice and some of the girls earlier.”

“Why, got your eye on someone?” he asked slyly. “Wanna tell me who it is?” Two-Bit still couldn’t help noticing how surreal the situation was.

“Like you would keep your big fat mouth shut if I did,” she said, a familiar feisty glow in her eyes. “He’d know before I even got into school.”

“A-ha! So there is someone,” he said, pointing his finger in the perfect imitation of some old fashioned detective in some black and white movie. It was surprising how easy he found it to talk to Kathy, perhaps it was because they had spent so much time on and off within the six months they had gone out. “Is it me?”

“In your dreams, sweetheart,” she said, smiling as she looked back at her own house. Two-Bit noticed that the paint was peeling on the door, and there was part of a motorcycle engine lying in the front garden which was probably her brother’s. There was this surreal atmosphere to the whole evening, but he didn’t really care about it despite the fact it was constantly in the back of his mind.

“Locked out?” he asked as they walked further up the road.

“Yeah.” Two-Bit remembered often having to race back to her house after a date because if she forgot her keys and missed her curfew, even by just a minute, her parents would lock her out for the night. “I wish Paul would let us keep a spare under the mat, but he’s-he’s Paul,” she simply said and smiled at him.

“You going to be okay?” he asked dutifully. He really didn’t want to have to take Kathy to one of her friends’ homes, or a guy’s, but if she asked he would probably would, albeit reluctantly,

“Oh, yeah. Paul’ll turn up soon enough. He’s been with Matt and co,” Matt was the leader of the River Kings, the gang that dominated Kathy’s neighbourhood. “If he doesn’t, I’ll stay with Alice. She only lives around the corner.”

“Okay,” he said as he finished his cigarette and discarded it. “I better go.”

“Two-Bit,” she said suddenly. “Alice told me about you talking to some girl in detention.” Clearly her friends had reported his actions in detention back to Kathy, just as he had known they would.

“Is that a problem, Kathy?” It could not be a problem, they weren’t together so it was none of her business, or her friends’.

“If you upset Annette, it will be. She is my friend and I know she don’t always think or use her head, but she is my friend. Okay? You dig that?”

“I haven’t seen this girl since then,” he said calmly. “If I had, it wouldn’t affect anything. Annette knows we aren’t serious.” Kathy dubiously shrugged.

“There is nothing between the two of you, is there?”

He sighed before he said, “Kathy, do me a favour and don’t tell Annette shit like that. She’s a nice girl.” But there was no chemistry, no sparks and while he didn’t mind dating a girl with little chemistry a few times he had a feeling Annette would want more than just that. He just had to figure out a way to let her know that, after all he didn’t want to hurt her. Two-Bit was not good with a crying date.

Kathy nodded. “You better go. I’ll see you around.”

Two-Bit nodded and walked back to his car, leaving Kathy standing on the kerb. It was strange, she had been his girlfriend and now he wasn’t what they were. Just that he didn’t think she wanted to kill him, for Annette’s sake.

“How was it?” Steve asked as they walked to the main school building the following morning.

“Good. There’s nothing there though,” he honestly said. Steve nodded sagely

“It happens.”

“It’s a shame though, she’s pretty-”

“-and blonde?” he completed, shoving his friend lightly.

“Screw you,” he said as he rearranged his jacket. “You eatin’ with Evie today?”

“Yeah,” he grimaced. On Friday lunchtimes Steve always ate with Evie. Ever since she had got really angry a few months ago because she felt that he wasn’t spending enough time with her they had reached a compromise of him eating with her once a week. Two-Bit had now stopped taunting Steve about being controlled by Evie, because there was definitely chemistry with Evie and Steve. Evie was a fair girl too, and she made his friend happy and certainly more relaxed than he could be. Besides, he didn’t want to get on Steve’s bad side. He had seen what happened to Andy Evans.

“What happened to that girl from detention?” Steve asked after a moment of silence.

“I don’t know, I haven’t really seen her since, have I?” He had missed all his lessons with her the day before during his jaunt stealing. “So I take it you and Evie are good, right?”

“We’re okay,” he said, and Two-Bit had a sense that Steve was having problems of his own. If Steve didn’t say so then Two-Bit would just assume that he was fine. If someone had something wrong and wanted people to know, then they would say. Otherwise, Two-Bit had to take it for granted that things were okay, as they had said.

“That’s good,” Two-Bit said.

“You gonna drive Pony to the store at lunch today?” Steve asked.

“No, I don’t think so. Think he’s having lunch with some guys in his class.”

“Can any of them drive?” Steve asked incredulously.

“Probably not.”

“It’ll do him good though,” Steve said firmly. “The kid needs to get out and see his friends, and that type of thing ... it will help.”

“Yeah,” Two-Bit replied unnecessarily, uncertain whether Steve had been addressing him or his own self.

The bell rang and they made their way to their separate homerooms as Two-Bit pondered the best course to take with the Annette situation.

Two-Bit was late for his fifth period English class. Luckily this was taken by Mrs Baker, a new teacher, who had proved ineffective with the wild class and so now left them to their own business while she mumbled class notes to no one and wrote on the board.

The only seat left was in the middle row, in the corner. The window seat was taken, effectively killing Two-Bit’s plans for the lesson, which had been to look out the window and wait for lunch.

He sat down as Mrs Baker looked at him and shook her head before continuing. The poor woman wouldn’t last until Christmas, in his opinion.

“Hey,” his neighbour said quietly.

“Well, well, well. Bonnie Cross we meet again,” he joked.

“Yeah.” She looked at him and smiled briefly. “Been in detention recently?”

“Hey, it’s been two days, what do you think I am?” he asked with mock offense.

“Well you’re lucky it is Mrs Baker here, or you would be.” She hadn’t scolded him, or preached to him, but simply stated the bare facts.

“I know.” If he was honest he was exploiting Mrs Baker, because he knew that he could turn up late to her lessons with no consequences. Well he probably wouldn’t pass English, but what did that really matter?

“No offense,” Bonnie suddenly said, which made Two-Bit think that she would say something offensive. “Are you older than seventeen? You look it.”

“Yeah. I’m eighteen, and a half,” he casually said, she nodded in reply. “How about you?”

“I’m seventeen.” Two-Bit was pleased she didn’t behave like some of the girls had when they discovered that he had been held back. Those girls had acted in disgust that he had been a Junior twice and completely not understood that he chose not to work. School was a place to get kicks. Shoot, did anyone actually learn anything in school?

“How about you? Any more trips to detention recently?”

“Nope. There are no movies out I really want to see,” she said with a mischievous smile before she began to casually leaf through a battered novel on her desk.

“You’re working?” Two-Bit asked in shock.

“No. We studied this chapter last week. Mrs Baker is nice, I’m sure, but she’s killing this book,” she protested. “This is a different book, a better book.”

“Oh.” He paused. “Did we really study this last week?”

“Yes,” she said gently.

“You mean to say that you actually pay attention here?” he asked , amazed that anyone could actually listen to Miss Baker’s monotonous stutter.

“On occasion,” she said indifferently.

“Shoot, you really are a first time Junior, aren’t you?” he said and she smiled and looked at the desk. She was blushing violently.

“Is is that obvious?” she asked lightly.

“Kind of,” he admitted gently.

“How many other mistakes have I made?”

“I daren’t think,” he said, shaking his head with a serious expression. Two-Bit liked talking to Bonnie, she was light-hearted and conversation with her was easy.

“What keeps you here?” she asked after a moment of silence. “It can hardly be the intellectual potential, or high calibre of teachers, can it?”

“I don’t know. My friends are here and I get a kick out of it,” he explained slowly. “It beats getting a job, doesn’t it?”

“Amen to that.”

Miss Baker droned on about something Two-Bit suddenly remembered that he had already studied. Her exasperation was clear in the way she violently was writing on the board. He couldn’t help feeling sorry for her, she had tried too hard to be ‘young’ when she had started at Will Rogers that September and it subsequently had caused her so many problems.

“I need to know something,” Two-Bit said in a whisper as he moved closer to her.

“What?” she asked nervously.

“What movie did you skip class to see?”

“Thunderball.”

“Bond fan?” Two-Bit asked, raising an eyebrow as she sheepishly nodded. “Good choice.”

Bonnie yawned as she shakily picked up her mug of coffee, the strong aroma rapidly awakening her senses.

“One o’these days,” she said, “I will get a full night’s sleep.”

“Sorry, ” Marty said softly. “You don’t have to-”

“Like I could trust you. Anyway it gives me time to do all this homework,” she said as she opened a textbook. “Have I ever mentioned how much I suck at languages?”

“Yes. Many times,” he flatly said.

“Oh,” she sighed crestfallen. “Can I say it one more time?” Marty shook his head and put his feet up on the kitchen table.

“You do know it’s Saturday morning, right? You realise have no work in today, don’t you?” he said after she had been working for a few minutes.

“I know, it’s just that this is a really good time to do it,” she explained.

“Bonnie, you can barely hold a coffee cup, let alone a conversation. Do you honestly think you can do work?”

“Hey, we always talk coherently at this time,” she protested, wrapping her dressing gown around her. “Damn, it’s cold here. And anyway, you know that if you did homework at this time you’d have graduated early.”

“No I wouldn’t, Bonnie. You know that,” he softly said, idly looking out of the window. “You seen that guy from detention?”

“I did, actually,” she said with a hint of brightness in her tone that she was sure contradicted her tired face. “We sat together in English, well he was late and next to me was the only place left, still we spoke for a while. It was most of the lesson in fact,” she blathered.

“Do you like him?” Marty teased. “I mean do you likehim?”

“Marty, I don’t know him! He seems nice enough,” she said, running a hand through her hair distractedly.

“Fair enough,” he commented casually as he took a gulp of his own drink.

“This isn’t normal, is it?” she observed quietly after a moment of silence.

“What isn’t?” he asked quizzically.

“Being up at three am. Being up and acting like it is perfectly normal ...” her voice trailed off and she finished her coffee.

“For me, it is. For you, I guess you are just special.”

“Screw you, Marty.” She shook her head and looked down at her half full cup of coffee. “That’s the last time I give up sleep to counsel you.”

“Counsel me?” he asked, putting his left hand on his chest in mock rage. “Counsel me? Sweetie, I counsel you. And anyway, Bonnie, since when have we ever been normal? In fact, what the fuck is ‘normal’?”

The air suddenly felt stagnant and Bonnie nodded slowly. Marty was right, normal did have a varied definition.

“If he-” she began hopelessly, but faltered. Marty looked at her and she was certain that he knew exactly what she couldn’t express.

“Then he is a shit, pure and simple. Dale an’ I will get him if that’s the case,” he said coolly. “I’m thinking about getting another tattoo,” he said, idly changing the subject to something more comfortable for both parties. “Maybe I’d get it on my right shoulder.”

“How many will it be if you do?”

“Four. Three on the arms and the one on my shoulder blades.”

“Marty, you’re seventeen!” Bonnie exclaimed. “You’re not even legally allowed them and ... does school know yet?” She sighed and looked at Marty with a tired grin. “What would you get?”

“I don’t know, it’s just a thought. Do you have to be so-so like you?”

“Do you have to be so like you?” she retorted quickly. Marty laughed and shook his head at her.

There was a brief but comfortable silence before Bonnie yawned loudly. “Marty, I really need a couple more hours sleep.”

“I know. You do need your beauty sleep. Go on, sis, I’ll try some of that ‘homework’, maybe.”

Bonnie nodded. “If you need any help, leave it and we can look over it in the morning.”

“I’m capable of doing it myself,” he said softly and she realised she had offended him, instantly turning crimson.

“Sorry. I know, I know you’re capable of doing it, Marty,” she said. He shrugged and began to hum a song to himself as she sleepily made her way out of the kitchen. She could hear still Marty humming as she walked up the stairs.