WingWard Side

Chapter 3: Ace

The next morning I woke up late for school. I slipped on some random jeans and a red jacket I found on the floor and raced outside. My dad was sitting at the table, drinking something in a coffee mug (but probably not coffee) and my mom was already at work.

"Ey dad, could you take me to school, I missed the bus." I slung my backpack over my shoulder and stopped at the door. He grumbled and kept drinking. "Dad?"

"Have one of your idiot friends take ya, since ya love em so much." The way he talked, I was pretty sure he was hung over or something. Then he took a little blue pill thing sitting on the table and swallowed it, grumbled again and rubbed his forehead. Things weren't going well with him. I wondered if he'd signed the divorce papers yet. Choosing between the two of my parents, well, it wouldn't be a hard choice.

"Thanks." I mumbled, then raced out the door for Bulldog's house. Bulldog and I lived on the same street, but on either sides. His house was at least a couple blocks away, and not the friendliest blocks.

But finally that yellow painted, run down house came into view. Bulldog was a little on the poor side, he lived with his mom and they both worked a lot, but they held up enough to be considered 'middle class'. I hated those money labels, they were stupid and demeaning. But the truth was, they were part of what separated our gangs. Except our gang, our gang didn't care too much about money. In my opinion, we were the best group.

Them Foxbloods, they were all rich and snotty. Controlled the North side of town, always causing trouble, never getting in trouble because they had most of the police. And boy did they hate the Southern Angels. Those two had NightRuns more than all the other gangs combined. But maybe that's why the Angel's were the current heroes, and them FoxBloods were a close Second.

And those Southern Angels. You'd think for being poor they'd learn some compassion or somethin, but nope. They had the most land, (which made em the heroes) controlled the South side, and had all the best buildings. They had the only hospital, boy did that suck.

Then the Painted side. They were pretty mixed like us, but more tough and horrible. And their entire part, the East side, was all spray-painted and trashed and pretty scary. I didn't know a single nice guy from that gang, and from what I knew, no one else did either.

And finally, there were those ShadowHeads. The weirdest of all the gangs. They didn't necessarily live in the Southwest, their territory, but that's where they mainly hung out. It was weird, knowing there were ShadowHeads stationed around town. And they were so secret, and creepy to me, they probably did rituals or somethin' weird like that. But I did know one from school, named Zachary Hymes, he seemed pretty ok and knew a lot of stuff, but still real secret to me.

And I almost forgot, there was us, the WingWard side. We controlled the West side, we're pretty mixed up but to be honest mostly middle class and poor. And we were the best because unlike other gangs we always stuck together and were like a big family. Just like Bulldog was like my brother. And the same reason why I was hoping he wasn't drunk or asleep or something at the moment and could take me to school.

I went up to the door and knocked, and it gave a dull, hollow sound. I heard Bull's tough Great Dane, a huge black dog with sharp, pointed ears and a deep, terrifying bark. It sounded like he was sprinting back and forth and barking like there was an intruder. From their window I heard Bulldog shouting Duke's name. And finally their door cracked open with Bulldog standing there. His hair was back to normal, sprayed down and twisted in the front, and he looked more cleaned up with a green Vultures sweatshirt and gray sweats. And from his side, standing more than half as tall as Bulldog was Duke. He was slobbering all down his chest and wagging his tail so hard his entire body was shaking. Despite his huge size and scary looks, Duke was darn near the sweetest, dumbest dog I'd ever met.