For the past couple of days, everybody had been squirming about the weekend. Some party or what not. Natoya Jean D'Angelos was standing on the bus, holding onto one of the rails beside a seat containing Andre's little siblings.

"They say it's happening down South Avenue." A deep, lowered voice spoke from behind Andre. Natoya looked in that direction, but it was clear the people speaking were hidden behind Andre. Natoya had heard the two words over and over again, so often in school and more so by the late night calls her father had with his partner. Less now that his funeral was in three weeks.

"Aint no way. If it was actually happening 'round South Avenue, the cops would'a shown up by now." A different voice spoke, Andre leaned a bit onto the pole as he stared out the window his little siblings sat next to. Natoya grew a bit hasty as she heard that. The cops would've shown up by now? She couldn't help but wonder if her father was actually in that mess.

From what Natoya understood, South Avenue was some sort of underground fighting club by, you guessed it, South Avenue. But nobody knew how to get in- at least nobody she heard talking about it. And anytime the police did show up, nobody was there, no signs of anything.

"I ain't tellin you lies, Markus, rumor has it..."

Natoya had been eavesdropping on the pair's conversation since she had first gotten on the bus with Andre and his siblings, though the details were hard to hear between his two younger siblings crying about wanting to get home. She continued looking in the direction of the voices before suddenly making eye contact with Andre.

"Do you want to study for the exam on Friday at your house today?" She asked smoothly, as if she was looking in his direction to ask him in the first place.

"Can't today. I got something to do after I drop these two off." Andre said as the tires rumbled over a pothole, causing the entire bus to bounce up and down

"Mama says she don't want you to do that no more." Mileva said, looking up at Andre.

"Ma knows what I'm doin' kiddo."

"What are you doing?" Natoya teased with a soft smile as she focused her attention on Andre.

"~Non ya." Andre teased back as the bus halted to a stop. Natoya rolled her eyes and used the handrail to avoid the force of gravity which forced everyone to lean forward as the bus halted. Andre helped his little siblings stand up before the group of teenagers made their way to the middle exit.

"Them street fighters better play it safe. Cops aren't the only ones snif..." was the last thing Natoya heard before helping Mileva hop off the bus. She took Dominic's hand, and formed a chain as they walked down the broken sidewalk.

"I wonder what that was all about.." Natoya pondered, looking around LA's busy streets, before she tilted her head to look at Andre.

"What?" He asked, glancing back at her.

"Whatever is happening at South Avenue or whatever they said." She said as they walked down the sidewalk.

"Don't listen to them, it's just talk, nothing is actually happening down there." Andre said, pulling Dominic between him, Mileva and Natoya as he switched sides of the street. Natoya shrugged it off as the conversation came to an end. "What are you planning on doing this weekend?"

"Dunno. Maybe adventure a bit around town." Natoya replied.

"Don't do it alone. I could join you if you'd like?"

"Thought you said you had stuff to do this weekend?" Natoya replied snarkly.

Andre smirked and shook his head. "Nothing so important it'll take all weekend."

"Then you should have no problem telling me?"

"You're not gonna let this go, are ya?"

"Nope!"

The two laughed as they continued down the road, that they originally took to get to the bus in the morning. Natoya was holding Mileva on her shoulders after Mileva continued crying about how her feet hurt.

"How are you feeling about the exam?" Natoya asked, struggling to keep her head up against the weight Mileva set on it.

"I don't know, I honestly don't really care what I'll get on it."

"You know, it's not too late to do something about your grade in the class."

Andre's sigh turned into a soft chuckle. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

"... So...?" He rolled his eyes and glanced at Natoya as she looked at him with a little smirk.

"Fine, but we're studying at your house."

The rest of the walk was just light teasing, and playing with Dominic and Mileva when she finally woke up from her nap until they climbed up the stairs to Andre's apartment.

"Mama!" Mileva cheered as she rushed inside and hugged her mom. Andre motioned for Natoya to step inside, which she did hesitantly with a slight wave to Mrs. Jacques.

Andre had a different last name from Mrs. Jacques and the rest of his family. His name was Andre Vincent, after his father, whom- from what Natoya knew- was a giant dick. But he was the reason Andre lived in America, so she was at least thankful for that.

"Bonjour, Madame Jacques. Comment vous allez?" Natoya greeted in french. Mrs. Jacques barely spoke English, and sometimes Natoya would practice with her. She never had a teacher to teach her English, and so she knew basic words but not enough to hold a good conversation. Thankfully, they both knew French, and that was how they communicated.

[rewrite as Natoya spends time with Andre's family instead of going to her own dad's house because of chapter 11]

...

6:32 pm.

...

Natoya continued walking down the street to South Avenue before sighing. She was here, but had no idea where any street fight was supposed to take place. Standing across the street, she recognized a figure. Black hair,blue jeans, and a black biker jacket.

"Jess?" She asked after crossing the street. He looked up, his head rotating 30 degrees every second as he scanned the area before he finally laid eyes on her.

"Hey?" He asked in a confused, wavering tone. "What are you doing here?"

Natoya scratched her chin and sort of laughed before crossing her arms.

"I uh. Heard some sort of fight was going to happen here. Probably just a rumor though..." She sighed and turned around to look into a gated fence where a few men were climbing down a ladder.

"You heard about it to."

Natoya quickly turned her attention back to Jess after he spoke.

"Is it real..?" She asked before Jess looked both ways down the street, and pulled her into the gated alleyway.

"Are you a narc?"

"What?"

"Are you going to tell anyone if it is real?"

"No?"

"Follow me."

He pulled her down the alleyway,before climbing down the same ladder the shady men had climbed down. Natoya hesitated, her father never told her not to follow shady men down a ladder in a gated alleyway- but common sense would suggest otherwise.

None-the-less, by the time she had reached the bottom of the ladder, she quickly realized this was a sewer system, and her nose was the price to pay for it. Jess,looked like he was trying not to laugh as he pulled the hoodie he had hiding underneath his jacket, over his head,then began leading the way down another hallway before they finally reached a random door.

No bouncers, no nothing, just a hallway full of what seemed to be smoke. The further she followed, the more she could hear cheering with the sudden osund of a bell.

"Three..! Two...! One..!" Cheering errupted through the door as they entered an arena of people circling a chained gate where one man was laying on the ground, another with his hands in the air, being cheered on.

South Avenue.

"For our next opponent- 'The Olympian' Chandler!"

People began cheering and clapping as the two entered the gated area. It slowly stopped as the two walked up and shook eachothers hands before bakcing up into their corners where the cheering began again.

"Have you ever been to...one of these?" Natoya asked, looking up at Jess who apparently couldn't hear them.

Both men started to warm up, with Chandler fixing his shoe while The Lion waited. Then, they backed up again and began the fight, keeping their hands up.

Several punches were thrown with The Lion keeping a defensive, agile stance until he suddenly started throwing hard punches at Chandler's face. The cheering grew louder with a sudden "ooo" echoing through the audience after the first blood was drawn.

Chandler began backing up, causing the Lion to lose his balance and take a couple of hits to the back of the head before slamming Chandler into the gate fence, causing both of them to lose their balance again.

Jess grabbed the back of Natoya's shirt and pulled her back as the two collapsed onto the fence. She felt her heart skip a beat, like the adrenaline pumping through her veins missed a beat as the fence buckled, dragging towards where she would've been standing.

The Lion got the upper hand, falling ontop of Chandler- or forcing him to the ground, he started throwing punches at him as he tried to pin him on the floor, but Chandler managed to stand up, both of them backing away.

Natoya was able to get a bit closer to the fence, but the view was still a bit blurry and it was hard to recognize the two figures. They got closer to eachother again, with Chandler trying to egg The Lion on with a relatively weak defense, when his head was suddenly grabed, and he received a face full of a punch. He backed up,retreating into a corner as The Lion stood his ground, and when he re-entered the fight, his entire face was drenched in his own red blood.

The entire crowd cheered, and it was clear Chandler was being a bit more hesitant. He threw a weak punch, which was sort of countered by a missed punch. He aimed for The Lion's lower chest area, ducking with his head so he wouldn't get punched in the face again, which was met with a charged punch to his shoulder area.

Chandler backed up again, but was met with a series of punches from The Lion, which he couldn't block. He continiously tried to punch The Lion, barely any of which connected, and the ones that did just smeared his chest area with Chandler's own blood from a probably broken noes and bloodied eye. Chandler tried to strike again, but The Lion socked him in the jaw, revealing more and more blood across his bashed in face.Chandler tried to kick him in the side, which only allowed The Lion to hit him again in the side of hisface.

Eventualy, Chandler managed to back The Lion into the corner, slamming punch after punch into his lowered defense until The Lion was able to push him out of the fance, the shadows revealing a bit of blood spilled furhter on his face, whether it was his own or Chandler's was something nobdoy would quite be able to know.

They continued to dance around the gate, and by the time Natoya was able to see Chandler again,a good majority of his face was a dark red bloodied red,

Then, Natoya made eye contact with The Lion. She paused for a moment- and so did he as they made direct eye contact.

"Andre..."