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She doesn't like the tough guys.
They think they can do anything they want.
But they're gonna get a surprise,
When she brings them to their knees.

"So, El, any more detentions?" Soda asked with a grin as he pulled a t-shirt over his head. Ellie had been in a bad mood all week because of her last one.

"None this week, but I sure hope that changes," she replied sarcastically. "They're a real blast."

"See, El?" Two-Bit called from the kitchen, cracking open a beer. "I knew they'd grow on you."

"They better not," Steve cut in, "Because if they do, I'm gonna have to do something about Evie's brother."

"What, is Slick Rick puttin' the moves on our little Ellie?" Soda asked suggestively, trying to make her blush.

"Yeah, and if he don't quit it, I'm gonna have to knock his head offa his shoulders," he replied, pleased he would finally have a reason to take a shot at Rick. They hated each other even before he started dating Evie.

"Rick's the least of my troubles," Ellie muttered.

Soda flopped on the couch next to her, nudging her arm. "Don't look so down, El. Leery'll start picking on somebody else 'fore long. Don't take it so personal."

She just shrugged. Leery, though still a pain, was also further down on her list of worries.

It seemed that no matter how far out of her way she went to avoid Michael, he just gave her even more trouble once he finally found her. It appeared that she was fighting a losing battle, and things were only getting worse.

"You coming to the game with us tonight, Ellie?" Darry asked, stepping out of the bathroom. He had gotten off work early, along with Soda and Steve, to go to the big rivalry game at the high school.

She had successfully talked her way out of the past two games, and she had been trying to come up with a good excuse to not go to this one as well. She didn't feel the need to go out of her way to see Michael, even if he went out of his way for her. Ellie still hadn't found a good reason to miss out on the biggest football game of the season, and the best she could do was simply shake her head. "No, I don't think so."

"How come, Ellie?" Two-Bit asked. He wore a grin on his face. "Don't tell me you and that soc, what's-his-name Holden, broke it off."

"Very funny, Two-Bit," she responded, allowing her irritation to slip into each word.

"He still giving you a hard time?" Darry asked as Dally and Johnny made their way through the front door.

"Who?" Dally butted in.

"Holden," Steve answered for her.

"He's still messing with you?" Dallas asked accusingly. "I told you to tell us, and we'd take care of it."

"He isn't," she retorted sharply.

"Isn't he the one that knocked all your books down the st-?" Pony blurted, shutting up at the glare she was giving him.

The week after her detention, Two-Bit walked her to class a couple of times. It was amusing to watch Michael's face fall when he realized she had her own escort. It was really funny until he found her in the stairwell after class and decided it would be even funnier to stumble into her. He proceeded to clear her arms of all the notebooks and folders she was carrying, knocking them to the ground, all of her papers fluttering to the floor. By the time she had found all of them, just about every single one had nice, muddy footprints stamped all over them because, of course, it had been pouring down rain that morning. She would have kept the incident to herself if Ponyboy hadn't asked her about the size ten shoe design that lay atop her Algebra homework.

"Why're you trying to protect that piece of shit?" Dally admonished.

"I'm not," she asserted coolly. "It's no big deal."

"Sure, like that bruise he left on your arm," Dally declared, a smirk on his lips. He could tell by the way her jaw dropped that it was not a topic she had wanted to discuss with everyone.

"What bruise?" Steve asked, his eyes flashing with sudden rage.

The room had fallen quiet as they waited for her to respond. Even Two-Bit looked ready to hound her about it.

"He didn't put it there," she explained for what felt like the hundredth time. She had lied to Dally about it so many times, she was starting to believe it herself. "I got shoved into a locker, and my arm got bruised. It wasn't anything."

"She's full of shit," Dally declared, speaking as though she weren't even there. "It was bruised all the way around her arm. A fuckin' locker did that?"

Her eyes narrowed at him, and her face was flushed with contempt. "You don't know what the hell you're talkin' about, Dally," she hissed. "I told you it was nothing, and it's nothing."

"Is that why you don't want to go to the game?" Soda asked, questioning out of concerned curiousity, not just to start a fight. "You've always liked 'em before."

Ellie looked at him and said in a quiet, defeated tone, "I just don't want to go."

"He put anymore bruises on you?" Steve asked, gripping her arm and pushing up her sleeve.

"No," she snapped, wrenching her arm away. "He didn't put the first one on there either."

Pony watched silently from where he sat on the floor. Steve and Dally were on her case, which wasn't exactly something new. Ellie was the closest thing Steve had to a younger sibling, and he took the protective older brother role to heart when it came to her. Pony thought sometimes he took it a little too far, but Ellie never seemed to mind too much.

Then there was Dally. Pony just didn't understand the relationship between the two of them. He was nicer to her than he was a lot of girls, but he was always the first to try to push her buttons and to make her angry. Still, he had done some things around her that were so out of character for Dallas that it often left Pony scratching his head.

He remembered the time Johnny told him how Ellie had come over late one night to crash in the living room. It had been a full house that night, though, with Dally sleeping on the couch and Johnny on the floor. Ellie had resorted to Darry's armchair for the evening. He told Pony how he woke up to see Dally tossing his blanket over her, trading it for the old jacket Ellie had been sleeping under.

It was simple and thoughtful and everything Dallas Winston never seemed capable of. Knowing that if Dally knew anyone had been watching, he never would have done it, Johnny only told Pony about it. They both knew that if anyone even implied that Dally had done something gentleman-like, he would have denied it until he was blue in the face and probably pounded them into the ground for suggesting such a thing.

"Shouldn't you guys be going now?" she asked irritably, glaring daggers at Dallas.

Darry had been standing there, listening to the exchange. He could tell there was more to her story than she was letting on, just like the others suspected. However, he knew as well as she did that she wasn't going to give in and tell them all exactly what had been going on. Not with all of the guys standing there, fists clenched, hungry for a fight.

"She's right. We oughta get going or else we ain't never gonna find a place to park," he said, anxious to go and anxious to get them off of her case. She could usually hold her own, but this whole conversation seemed to be getting to all of them.

The guys grudgingly rose to their feet, Steve throwing Ellie an angry look before filing out the front door behind both Two-Bit and a smug Dallas. She would have liked to have knocked that cocky look right off his face for making such a big deal in front of the others, but Soda and Darry were still watching her carefully.

"You sure you don't wanna come with us, El?" Soda asked. "It'll be a lotta fun."

She offered a half-hearted smile. "I'm sure, Soda. I'll see you guys later."

Pony sank onto the couch into the seat Soda vacated, and Johnny didn't move from his perch on the arm of the couch.

"You two comin' with us or not?" Darry asked.

"Nah, we'll stay and keep Ellie company," Johnny replied.

"Why don't you guys just go?" Ellie insisted. "You don't wanna miss the big game."

"You ain't getting rid of us that easy," Pony told her with a grin. "'Sides there's supposed to be an awful good detective movie on tonight."

"All right," Darry responded, following Soda outside. "See y'all later."

"You two didn't have to miss the game 'cause of me," Ellie muttered after the car pulled away from the curb outside.

Ponyboy shrugged. "Steve would've just given me a hard time for tagging along anyway."

Ellie nodded. Boy, did she know what a jerk Steve could be if he didn't get his way. He was just as belligerent as Dallas was when things weren't just the way he expected them. She hated that they always expected her to play the damsel in distress just to fit right into their tough guy image.

"You guys wanna play rummy or something?" Johnny asked, grabbing the deck of cards that sat on the coffee table.

"Sure," Ellie answered as Pony switched on the TV. She just wanted something to get her mind off of the conversation that had just happened.

'Cause she doesn't like the rough guys,
They've got tricks, but my baby got wise.

Darry stood with the crowds as the team from East Central High dejectedly made their way off the Will Rogers' football field. They had beaten the Cardinals 42 to 39 in a close game, and the excitement was pulsating like electricity through the crowds. As the cheering died down, Darry made his way off the bleachers to find the guys, who had all found something better to do than watch the game.

He stepped off the last step, heading to the right where he saw Two-Bit flirting with a very pretty blonde, who seemed to only have eyes for Sodapop.

"Hey, Darrel!"

He looked up to see Paul Holden waving him over. Darry sighed to himself; Paul was the last person he needed to run into after all the talk about Michael. Soda and Two-Bit hadn't seen him yet, so he slowly made his way over to Paul, glancing around for any sign of Steve and Dallas. A fight was something none of them needed tonight, though he knew it was what they all wanted.

"Hey, Paul," he said, shaking his hand over the fence that separated him and the other fans from the track and field. "How's it going?"

"Pretty good," Paul responded. He gestured to the two men standing behind him. "You've met my dad and my uncle before, haven't you?"

"Yeah, I believe so," Darry answered, offering his hand.

"Darrel Curtis," acknowledged the taller man, a grin on his face. He shook his hand vigorously. Darry recognized him as Paul's uncle, Tony, one of the biggest football legends at Will Rogers. "I haven't seen you since the big ceremony they held your and Paul's senior year, dedicating the stadium."

Darry remembered it well. It was their senior year, during the homecoming game when they dedicated the football stadium to their retiring coach. Several football alumni came back for the celebration, everyone making a big fuss over Tony. He had been the star player at his college, and though an injury kept him from playing pro, he was still as good as a celebrity to the kids at the high school.

"Where are you playing ball at now, Darrel?" Tony questioned.

"Afraid I'm not, sir," Darry replied, keeping his tone as neutral as possible. "Some things came up and knocked college out of the picture."

Tony nodded understandingly, his own assumptions crossing his mind, but didn't ask any questions.

"Dad, Uncle Tony," Michael called as he jogged up to join them. They all congratulated him on a good game, but he kept his attention focused on the greaser standing in front of him, just like Darry kept his eyes attentively trained on him. "Hello, Darry."

He only nodded his hello back, unable to say anything. He studied him carefully, wondering why Michael thought he was such a big shot, wondering why he thought it would be okay to pick a fight with a girl like Ellie.

Michael said nothing else, and both Tony and their father Frank seemed to notice the tension between the two. Before either of them had a chance to say anything about it, though, Darry was shoved roughly aside as both Dally and Steve, coming out of nowhere, scaled the fence separating the two sides.

"You sonuvabitch," Dally spat, knocking Michael to the ground, landing a fist directly into his jaw. Michael fell backwards, Dally following him the whole way, swinging punches as Steve took on Paul when he tried to help his brother.

Tony backed up, watching the spectacle as Frank watched in horror beside him, his son's football career flashing before his eyes as some hood attacked him. Darry watched but made no motion to hop over the fence to join the fight or even help break it up.

"Shit," Darry uttered as he watched two police officers along with Newsome and the assistant coach, run up to the fight.

"Break it up!" one of the cops shouted over the din of the growing crowd and the grunts of the boys beating each other bloody. "Winston!"

It took both cops to pull Dally off of Michael and Newsome to pull Steve off of Paul. An amused smile crossed Darry's lips as he watched Michael and Paul pull themselves off of the ground, confusion and embarrassment clouding their faces as they saw the crowd gathering around.

They just had their asses kicked by two greasers, on their own turf, no less.

"...the hell?" muttered a soc leaning against the fence, not far from Darry.

"Damn straight! Your football star just got his ass kicked by a hoodlum," Two-Bit laughed at him as they watched the fight being broken up. "Good thing pretty boy can play football, 'cause he can't fight worth a damn."

Dally and Steve were glaring holes through Michael, and Dally shouted at him as the officer drug them away, "You messed with the wrong girl, Holden."

"Stay the fuck away from her," Steve added.

"Steve!" He heard someone call his name from over the fence. He looked back, only to see a crying Evie. Soda stood beside both her and Sandy, a new girl at the school, trying to comfort them. "Christ," he muttered, seeing the mascara running down her cheeks as he was being escorted out of the stadium.

"You know those boys?" Tony asked Darry as they were being hauled away.

Darry looked past Tony at Michael, wiping the blood from his mouth. "Yeah."

"What the hell was that about?" he asked, watching Frank frantically check Michael over.

"They're protectin' someone the only way they know how," Darry explained, moving away from the fence. "Good seein' you Tony."

"You, too," he muttered, still confused by the entire incident as he joined his brother and nephews.

She doesn't like the rough guys,
So find someone your own size.

Darry led the way through the front door to find Johnny, Ponyboy, and Ellie lying around the living room watching Johnny Carson's opening monologue.

"Hey, guys," Pony greeted, furrowing his brow when the door shut after only three of them. Ellie glanced over, also surprised.

"Where's Steve and Dally?" Johnny asked for both of them.

Soda gave a weak chuckle and fell onto the couch beside Ellie. "Funny story there."

Ellie sat straighter in her seat beside him. "How funny?" she asked skeptically.

"Well, we all thought it was pretty funny," he began, not itching to tell the whole story. "I told you that you should've come to the game. You sure missed out."

"How funny am I gonna find this story?" she rephrased, already assuming the worst.

"Not very," Darry told her.

"What happened?" Pony inquired, switching off the television.

"Well, you know Michael Holden, right?" Soda asked.

"What happened?" she pried wearily, having a pretty good idea of the answer if it involved Michael, Dallas, and Steve.

"Dally and Steve took it upon themselves to start a fight with him," Darry answered. "His dad and uncle were there, and let's just say, they weren't too happy about it."

She paled a little. "What happened to them?" she asked meekly.

"They got hauled in, but I wouldn't worry about it, El. They won't be at the jail more than a night," Two-Bit confirmed in good humor. "Man, you should have seen some of those socs' faces. That Holden can't fight worth a damn."

Ellie leaned back into the couch, rubbing her eyes and trying to fight the sick feeling welling up in her stomach. Everything was such a mess, and now Dally and Steve had just made things even worse without realizing they were doing it. She cursed them for thinking she was so damn helpless.

"El?" Darry called to her.

"Yeah?" she answered quietly, opening her eyes and looking at him.

"You sure nothin' was going on with him?" he asked, her reactions speaking louder than her words.

She shook her head and lied to them and herself again, picturing Dallas and Steve sitting side by side in a jail cell, probably smug as hell, and Michael with his anger boiling over. She knew he would think she'd told them everything; he would never believe they were standing up for her just because he shoved her around a couple of times.

"It's nothing," she said, the conviction gone from her defense. They all noticed, but no one asked anything more.

She was the only girl in a gang of guys, and Ellie had developed her own defense system around them. She was resilient and could handle what came her way, but she had gotten so used to trying to prove to everyone that she could handle things on her own, that she had forgotten how to ask for help when she needed it.

She knew she needed it now, but she just couldn't find the words.

She doesn't like the tough guys.
She says she's heard enough lies.
They think they're full of fire,
She thinks they're full of shit.