Smaller. Shy. Quiet. Prone to avoidance. Not one for conflict. Weak. Sensitive. Pathetic.

These are attributes you’ve collected over time. They are more so things other people have labeled you as — the little one, who keeps to themself and won’t face anyone head-on. You don’t make a noise, you don’t make a stink. Everything you do comes from avoidance. You don’t fight. You don’t argue.

This makes Riff your total opposite. Riff will, absolutely and without fail, fight someone. Riff will speak out. Riff will confront someone. But for some reason, when you were initiated as a Jet (how this came to be, still nobody knows), Riff was drawn to you. It was annoying as hell, sure, how you never stood up for yourself. But Riff didn’t mind so much having to stand up for you.

A day like any other. A group of kids the same age as you all, talking tough and challenging the Jets. But one kid in particular — the biggest one, bigger than Riff and certainly bigger than you — decided he was just going to be as nasty as possible to Riff. The things he said and threatened to do… and for some reason, Riff didn’t jump straight into action.

So you did.

None of them had ever seen it before. You lurched for the big bully, already throwing your fists around, hurling insults at him. Riff wraps his arm around your stomach and tugs you back, no longer worried about himself but worried that you’re gonna get yourself killed.

“Christ Almighty, kid, calm the hell down,” he scolds you. He holds you back from the bully, giving him a dirty look as he laughs at you.