Some weeks later…
The tournament Alfie started came to a bust by the end of the finals against the Claremont Cyclones.
A few teams came to watch them during that time, until the fight started between them. It would have been more dangerous if other teams joined in the fight just to fight the Cubs due to the situation with them.
That was one of the reasons Alfie didn't continue the fight, though he stopped it in time luckily, but unlickily a a few got hurt.
Other than a few Cubs who were bruised, the Cub that was hit on the head with a bat arrived at the McBride house later that night.
In tow were his parents.
Warren, the name of the young Cub, sat in the living room right next to Alfie while Nina attended to him, wrapping a bandage around his head.
Alfie, on the other hand, not only was scolded but slapped a few times on the cheek by Doris, his father.
He could only hope that the Claremont kid who he believed to have a broken arm because of him doesn't show up with his parents, especially when most of the families in Claremont have connections to the rich and powerful in the Bronx.
The more he was scolded and smacked by the adults, the more anger rose in Alfie's chest.
He was starting to see how his emotions are easily stirred, being him he understood why he was in the situation as he could've gotten the kids in the neighborhood in critical condition, so he understood why he was being smacked around but the anger rising in him seemed unnatural, as if it wasn't…his.
It stirred so much that he couldn't remember much of what happened the rest of that night.
And for the next few weeks, he had gone through the same thing over again with his foggy memories.
Emotions welled up on him, as his usual behavior seemed to drown and disappear.
Fear. Anger. Guilt. Resentment.
He feels it all so strongly.
It all started during the night in the woods. Or did it?
Maybe the Priest he met at the river cursed him, a demon worshiper in the cloth of a Priest.
For a long while he was in his head with too much thought, it made him feel insane, an overthinker.
But it can't be helped since his parents forbade him from going out of the house, the only time he gets out is when he goes to school.
Yes, Doris and Nina had enough of his delinquent behavior and forced him to start going to school, they made it mandatory as they thought it would not only keep him from causing trouble but might straighten himself up with some education.
At least they thought.
Alfie insulted teachers with how stupid they were with their level of education.
A few teachers had run out of the class in tears, no one has ever made a teacher cry in school, especially from a 9-year-old kid.
He was suspended from school after some time since his behavior wasn't changing.
And for a while he stayed home, filled with fear, anger, and resentment due to his weird behavior.
A few times he snuck out of his house and for some reason always ended up near a bar in the Bronx, where a few familiar gangsters can always be found.
Martin Rafforza and his little group.
Alfie had no interest in getting familiar with them though, so it was weird to have his memory blurred and appear in the bar for gangsters.
He knew then, he was possessed.
Or cursed, either one.
But he has to do something—
"Alfie!!"
He turned his head towards the window, a familiar redhead knocked on it, calling his name with a panicked expression.
"Rose?"
Alfie opened the window where she jumped in and blurted. "Alfie, you have to come back!"
"Did something happen?"
"Our crew, they got beaten up again!" She gritted her teeth.
Alfie sighed, frustration built up.
For the past few weeks, a few of the teams out of neighborhood would come and challenge the Cubs in a game which almost always ended up in a fight.
At first, the Cubs had it handled, but the teams in the neighboring towns would constantly pop up every week for a chance to get back at them, now the Cubs can barely keep up with the visiting teams.
Alfie thought it was just karma coming back to bite them in the ass, as they've caused enough trouble for too long and now every team that the Cubs ever trampled on came to get a piece of the cake while Alfie wasn't present and kick the hurt Cub.
He looked towards Rose, the redhead tomboy had a bruise on her cheekbone with a cut lip.
Of course, she's been through worse as she followed Alfie and his crew but he didn't feel so good when a young girl like her had to get a bit roughed up like that.
Though he knew he was solely to blame.
He influenced them too much towards the dark side.
There are a few girls in the Cubs, though most of them didn't do much fighting even though they could take care of themselves in a little scuffle.
"Huh—?!"
He reached his hand out before plucking Rose's bottom lip with his thumb and index finger…and pulled.
"OWW?! ALFIE!!" She held his hand and pulled it off.
*Pah*
She smacked him on the head, at least attempted to but Alfie raised his arms only for her to smack his shoulder instead.
"Why did you do that?!" She whined as she held her lip.
"If it hurts, why do you keep instigating fights and jump in?" He raised a brow.
"What?! But they started the fight! They were on our turf!"
"Well then you should've just run away."
"I'm not afraid of them!"
"No one said you were, red." Alfie turned to his dresser and put on a vest over his collared shirt. "Go home and put some ice on your face, it'd be a shame for such a pretty face to get ugly."
"No way! I'm coming." She said determinedly but grew annoyed at her friend's statement about her face. "And don't call me pretty! No…wait, I'm not ugly!!"
Alfie chuckled before jumping out of the window in his room and started running despite his adorable redhead friend shouting for him to wait for her.
Doris and Nina are at work majority of the time, just like now. Alfie had followed along with their say so to show respect to them but he had enough of staying in the house.
By the time Rose got on her bike and made her way towards Morris Park, where she assumed Alfie would head to, but found no sign of Alfie.
East 156th Street…
A few boys sat on the stairs just near the streets, giving their attention to another boy telling an exaggerated story.
"…and then—BOOM—I tackled him! Bastard wasn't as scary as he looks, next thing I know he ran off crying to his momma." The boy scoffed.
"But Gio…ain't he part of the crew in 160th and up?" One of the boys asked.
"Yeah…Alfie's crew, you know how crazy he is, if he hears of it, he might come to us."
"The nigger lover's gon march this way, should we be ready?"
(No worries, had my black friend write that part down, he was more than "happy" to.)
Giovanni turned to them with a scornful look. "You worry too much, if Alfie makes his way here then I'll take em on again, I don't get why you're always scared of him and his crew, besides, we'll be Maggia soon."
"Don't you always lose to Alf—mmph!" Before one of the boys could finish, a hand covered his mouth.
"We're not scared, but didn't Mr.Martin tell us to help Alfie whenever we can and be friends?" Angelo, Giovanni's best friend/right-hand, asked.
"Friends? Friends with who?!" Giovanni asked in denial.
Friends with Alfie? His rival?! There is no way.
Giovanni and his little crew came to know of Alfie during his rise of fame in the Bronx, going through almost every neighborhood and kicking up a fuss.
Interested, Giovanni led his crew to meet Alfie for a little scuffle, not a game of ball but to fight and intimidate.
Someone like Alfie would be worth recruiting into his own.
When Giovanni and his crew met the Cubs in the Morris neighborhood, they witnessed a scuffle between the Morris Cubs and another team much older than them and just about the same age as Giovanni and some of his crew.
There were kids in every part of the field scrapping each other.
He didn't remember how it went but somehow the Cubs turned towards Giovanni and his crew and before long they were targets as well.
They didn't mind at first, since they were there for a fight as well but…
It didn't end well.
Especially when Alfie and some of his close members started fighting then as well.
Since their meeting, Giovanni didn't believe it was a fair one-on-one fight, so he constantly sought Alfie to scrap and would always end up losing.
From then on, Giovanni made sure everyone was aware that Alfie McBride is his one and only Rival.
And one day he himself will take him down.
"Alfie!!"
"Why do you keep talking about him!?"
"No! He's here!"
Giovanni and the rest turned to the other side of the sidewalk, and in came riding his bike solo was Alfie.
The Cubs that usually follow him around like puppies were nowhere to be found.
"Alfie." Giovanni stood before the invader and called out. "You're on the wrong side of town."
Though he said it he couldn't help but feel elated, for a long time now he had been the one to seek Alfie on their turf to fight but now he came to his turf himself.
"I come in peace, my fellow rival." Alfie spoke, making sure to kiss the ass of Giovanni.
He could see that the term 'rival' made Giovanni jump in joy, no matter how much he held it back.
"Then…what do you want?" Giovanni crossed his arms before turning away, an obvious technique of playing-hard-to-get.
"My great rival, Giovanni Gallo, I come to ask you to give me the honor of fighting by my side against a bunch of snot-nosed-bastards you and your great crew can show off to." Alfie said dramatically.
A few of the smarter ones in Giovanni's crew turned their heads towards both crew leaders with distasteful expressions.
Giovanni scoffed. "We're not getting involved with your mess, besides, don't you have your own crew?"
"Well, my little Cubs are licking their own wounds, because some bastards decided to come and team up against them, so now I'm looking to cripple the lot of them, and who better to bring than the real fighters of the Bronx who will soon be Maggia." Alfie smirked.
Just the words "real fighters" and "soon to be Maggia" already convinced Giovanni from the look on his face, but his close friend didn't seem to like it.
Angelo who sat on the stairs kept his sights on Alfie with his own thoughts.
"Team up?" Giovanni asked with a frown, and a thought appeared in Alfie's mind.
"Yeah, a bunch of them, five of the teams came and started beating on them, no fairness or honor in their goals despite us always beating them fair and square. What's even worse is that many of them are older than us, my crew was lucky they only ended with bruises and cuts." Alfie exaggerated the story.
He wasn't always present for the past few weeks while the Cubs were getting worked, but a bit of extra words could stir up the right crowd, like Giovanni.
"What?! Ridiculous! Despicable! Bastards with no honor!" Giovanni barked out.
As an aspiring gangster, Giovanni takes the advice from the seniors in the Maggia to heart.
Respect and Honor is one of the few things the Maggia follow, it is the Maggia code of conduct. Show honor and you will be respected, stray from it and you will be shunned and punished.
"And you expect us to fight them all with you?" Angelo questioned from the side.
"Sure, it'll be fun."
"That's ridiculous, this isn't any of our business to begin with." Angelo frowned.
Alfie was known to get into trouble, of course it was a wonder how his diverse group doesn't end up deeper with the law but Giovanni and his crew might not be as lucky.
They weren't Maggia, at least not yet, so if they get caught up in a mess with Alfie the chances of them having a way out will be small.
They, as Italians, are sometimes targeted just as much as a colored person in the wrong place or the wrong people.
"I'll tell you what, you help me out this once and I will do you any, and I mean any, favor for you." Alfie offered.
"That still doesn't make i—"
"Deal!" Giovanni shouted out eagerly.
Angelo, interrupted previously, turned to Giovanni as if he's an idiot.
"What? Mr.Martin said favors go a long way, and plus he said to be friends with him." Giovanni said sheepishly.
"…He said that?" Alfie asked surprised, it seems he holds some value to the gangster himself.
"Yeah, no idea why though, but don't forget you owe me a favor!" Giovanni reminded, oblivious to Angelo's annoyance.
"Great, now let's gather up your boys."
"Don't tell me what to do!"
•••••••••••••
Short Story?
"Where did he go?!"
Rose asked as she aggressively shook one of the younger Cubs, Bitty.
"Aggh..don't know!"
For the first time, Bitty the know-it-all didn't know.
"Rose?" Billy walked over. "What did Bitty do?"
"Alfie!" Rose answered furiously. "The sorry sap went off to scrap and fight for us, but he went off on his own!"
"Against the other leagues?" Timmy chimed in concernedly.
"Who else?!" Rose went red…more red in fury.
"We have to find him." Rolo urged.
"But…how?"
"Hey, do you guys wanna play Homerun Derby?" Bitty and the other younger Cubs asked, clueless of the situation the others were in.
"Yeah guys, come play!"
The other Cubs urged, Homerun Derby was a game Alfie introduced to them, a play where one has to hit as many homeruns as possible without any outfielders catching the ball.
When Alfie founded the Cubs, he made sure to instill the game into them, it was torturous at first but now they have fun with it.
""Shut it, Bitty!!"" Rose and the others shouted.
"Ok, sorry." Bitty and his little friends turned away depressedly
"We have to find out where he went first." Billy tilted his head with thoughts popping up, rarely.
Rolo sighed, thinking he had to lead this time since Alfie wasn't here, and the rest aren't as…used to critical thinking.
"How about we spread out and ask if anyone has seen him?" He suggested as the others turned their head towards him.
"That is brilliant, Rolo!" Billy thought out loud, as always.
"Good plan." Rose and the others thoughts the same.
"In that case, I'll head East and see if anyo—" Billy started just for Rolo to cut in.
"No." They turned to the latino kid once more. "I think it might be better if you head South, Billy, since you live there and know the area more. I'll head Southwest and Rose can head North."
He then turned towards the rest, those who somewhat held lieutenant positions under Alfie just like Billy, Rose, Timmy and himself.
They also had more flexibility and advantages since they were white.
"Thomas, go with Rose. Timmy and Frank can go East while Kenny and Lenny will go Westwards."
On the Soutside of Morris, it was more populated with coloured people so it was only right to send those who know the area.
Otherwise they might only find trouble if he or Billy head to the more dominant white's only areas.
"…"
"Huh, you had it all planned out, huh Rolo?" Billy asked amazedly.
"It's…not that complicated." Rolo said exasperatingly.
He had observed Alfie repeating these kinds of plans more than once, so it wasn't hard to follow his example.