"Please!" Kayla whines into the phone, "There's lots of money on the line!"

Apparently, there was a gang fight today, one that every cop in the city dreaded, and one that the street bunch gang were part of. With every one of New York's best gangs putting money on the table, they all sent their best fighters up round after round. Jayden was the one that always fought round number one, it was all planned out, but he couldn't make it last minute because of a family emergency. Having figured out that I know how to fight, due to self defense and anger right after my parents left the first time, everyone was basically on their knees, begging for me to be the replacement.

There were many reasons I couldn't do this, fight in front of millions of people. One being, I only ever fought when it came to punching bags, not real people. Two, if Kyle or even Colin figured out, I was pretty much dead. And three, I didn't want to let the gang down, but I was scared. Sometimes, I felt like I was one of them, part of the gang, and other times I was confused. I didn't want to put my brothers at risk or get involved in anything unnecessarily but I wanted to help the gang, for the millions of times they helped me, without even realizing it.

"And that's one of the million reasons I won't fight!" I cried.

"I promise no one will know it's you, you'll have a mask on and everything, completely anonymous," she continues, ignoring me.

"Kayla..."

"Autumn, please! We won't let anything happen to you, I promise. We just need someone for the first round, please!" she continued to beg.

"Fine!"

"Thank you, you're the best! love you!" Sighing at what I was getting myself into, I dragged myself off my bed and got ready to walk to Kayla's and Preston's house.

"Thank you!" Kayla cried again, smushing me into a hug right when she opened the door.

She ushered me upstairs and gave me, what looked like a superman suit, to change into. Trudging into the bathroom she pointed me to, I put on the black suit. It was completed with a mask, with only an opening for the eyes, nose, and mouth holes. I couldn't even recognize myself in the mirror and it gave me more confidence that this was completely anonymous. Kayla clapped her hands and squealed excitedly when I exited the bathroom and I saw that she had also changed into a black suit, similar to mine.

"Ready?" she asked me, and without waiting for an answer she skipped downstairs and into her car, ready to go. I followed behind her, without much of a choice.

Our destination was an empty alleyway, where Kayla parked her car near the brick wall. Getting out, she slid her mask over her face, gesturing for me to do the same. Together, we walked to the end of the dark alley, where Kayla lifted up one of the circle tiles on the ground. There were stairs leading underground and I stood, shocked staring at them. Why had I never noticed that?

"They camouflage," Kayla shrugged, as if she heard my thoughts. I shivered slightly before following Kayla again, who had gone through the stairs. Placing the tile in place behind me, as Kayla instructed me to, we walked down another alley way and into an empty concrete room, where the entire gang was waiting.

"Autumn!" They all cheered when they saw me and I stared wide eyed, at each one of them with their costumes on. They all waved away my reaction, as if it was normal, and continued their conversations. I closed my eyes and counted my fingers, a trick Colin had taught me to see if I was dreaming. Five exactly and when I opened my eyes, I was still in the same spot as I was in the beginning.

Adrien walked over to me and gave me a quick hug, before leading me to a corner of the concrete gray room. "I promise, I won't let you get hurt," he told me, repeating Kayla's promise. I nodded, thankfully and he gave me a quick kiss, before whispering "I love you" in my ear and walking back to the rest of the gang.

I stood where he had left me, processing what had just happened. Adrien loves me! I think giddily. "Autumn, come on," Amara gestures for me to follow and I go behind her. We then walk by another alley way and into a room, filled with more people than I had ever seen before in one place. They all had masks on, similar to the ones we were wearing, but all seemed scary. Even with their faces covered, their eyes narrowed at us as we passed and their mouths formed into a frown. I bit my lower lip, wondering for not the first time, why I was here.

"Round one!" A loudspeaker cried and I looked around to see the source of the speaking. I stood on my toes, craning my neck to look over everyones' shoulder at a man that stood in the middle of the crowd. "The street bunch gang against blood lovers gang!" The crowd hollered and cheered while I shivered, at just the sound of the gang's name.

"Now you go in the middle and give it your best, good luck!" Amara whispered in my ear, but I could sense that even she was worried for me. Everyone in the gang repeated their 'good luck's and gave me reassuring smiles along with small pushes to the center.

"Let's get this over with," I sighed, before trudging to the center of the circle where everyone was watching. One man stood there, wearing a dark blue suit with strong looking muscles. He hovered over me and seemed to be a foot taller than my tiny body.

He circled around me, like a predator watching his prey, while I waited for him to make the first move. I stood, my eyes narrowed at him with both my arms folded above my chest, aware of all the eyes watching me. He finally lifted up a hand and his balled fist collided with her cheek bone. But not before he whispered in her ear, so quietly that even the audience couldn't hear, "I won't have any problem fighting you, princess." I stumbled backward but regained my stance quickly and pushed him away from me. I leaned forwards and ducked underneath his legs as he charged towards me again. I slammed my fist into him, hard, from the back before he turned to face me again, his face filled with rage.

Are you embarrassed from being beaten? Who's the 'princess' now? I thought, finding a new confidence in me to show this guy that I was no princess. I lifted my leg, practicing a kick I had once learnt in self-defense class, and attempted to kick his stomach but he got to me first. Making his hard fist come in contact with my stomach, I cried out, feeling the sudden gush of pain that jolted through me. I held my stomach and whispered to myself, 'I'm okay, I'm okay' like a mantra. Balling both my hands in a fist, I pushed myself up and punched the man once in the stomach. Self defense, I thought, not feeling as guilty as I thought I would from hurting him. He swung once again but I ducked just in time, dodging the hit. I lifted my knee and kneed him with all my might as he held his stomach in pain. Taking the opportunity at his weakness, I grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back, making him cry out in pain this time.

The man I saw before with the mike ran up on stage, and held his hands out between both of us. I let go of the man's arm, and stepped back. "And we have a winner! Street Bunch gang!" he exclaimed and there were a series of different reactions from the crowd. The man I fought looked at me with narrowed eyes filled with hatred. He spit once on the ground next to me and walked out of the center, head held high towards the alley which we came from.

As fast as I could, to escape the attention, I walked back to where the gang was standing.

"Good job!" 

"I'm so proud of you!"

 "I didn't know you had it in you girl." 

"Are you ok?"

 A series of questions and compliments came my way and I smiled, acknowledging all of them and reassuring Adrien that I was fine.

We watched all the other rounds and cheered everyone we knew on. To celebrate our winning, we went to a peaceful nature filled spot, near a waterfall. "It's our special place," they introduced to me. I smiled at the thought of being able to share the special place as part of them, with them.

Now, leaning against Adrien's shoulder on one side now and holding hands with Kayla on the other, I realized how grateful I was for all the friends I made and how I love them all so much. And for my loving boyfriend, who I realized I may just love too. Maybe, just maybe, I wanted to be part of the gang.

a/n: okk! here's a kinda long chapter! and is one of my favorite chapters in this book so i hope you enjoy! 

written with much love!