AN: I'm like to show much appreciation towards the wonderful Aleka.  You should go read her Stand by Me fiction she is much better then I am. Personally I quite like 'Where did I go right' at the moment.  Anyway I'd like to thank her profusely for editing this.

Disclaimer:  I do not own the movie Stand By Me nor do I own the story it was based on (the Body) no copyright infringement is meant by this, if someone thinks so I must ask you can you walk and chew gum at the same time?

Please read Review but most of all enjoy    

Winter was fast upon Castle Rock and with it feelings of sadness and cheer. Like all Christmas' both bad and good things come from them. It's a scientific fact that suicides go up near the Yuletide season.

A cold wind blew through a forgotten window and woke Cathleen from a nightmare tossed slumber. She was thankful as she got out of bed and entered the freezing cold of the house. It had been along time since there had been holiday cheer in this seemingly abandoned house.

Cathleen pulled on a thick skirt of black and matching sweater, leaving her freezing bedroom. It was always cold in her room because it numbed her and she was her happiest numb. The hallway past the other bedrooms and rooms was cool as well. The stairs held an icy aspect to them but the closer to the kitchen she got the warmer it was, until the temperature reached a sweltering height in the kitchen where her mother was slumped sleeping over the counter, with an empty vodka bottle by her hand.

This always happened near Christmas when her mother would remember all the happy times and realized her father would never be apart of those memories again.

Cathleen took the bottle and tossed it into the garbage can and started to clean up the mess her drunk, crying mother had made the night before.

After a lot of practice she had cleaned up in no time and was on her way out the door when she realized she'd forgotten to say goodbye to her father.

She opened a heavy wooden door to her father's den there on the fireplace mantel was a picture of her father smiling lightly in his greens. Metals pinned to his breast. His Victoria Cross and Purple Heart in frames. They should have been on him but they don't put war metals on a dead body.

"Bye Dad." Her voice was meek and thick with the urge to cry but she pushed it back and closed the door. If she cried she'd wake up her mother and if she woke up she'd cry and drink and be depressed again. Pulling her backpack up her back she left the cold empty house.

Teddy Duchamp sat at the back of his one and only academic course. History. He was there for the war parts, only it was obvious to the rest of the class and the teacher because he sat at the back of the class and slept through all the non-war parts.

They were doing the Korean War now, starting today.

The rest of the class filed in, the boys about three minutes before the girls. That always happened when classes were talking about war. The boys found it much more interesting.

Mr. Belling had started to take role call already when the door opened again and Cathleen Jackson entered the class, taking the only empty seat left next to Teddy.

"And why are we late, Ms. Jackson?"

"I was busy." She narrowed her dark eyes at him, challenging him to say otherwise. Cathleen was a nice girl--someone Teddy didn't even look at. She was decently pretty but didn't look after herself, and was always quiet. But when she said something, it was always worth the effort to listen. She sunk in her desk with her notebook open and pen in hand ready to start.

Mr. Belling started the class about Korea, which kept Teddy rivetedly leaning forward in his seat, completely forgetting about Cathleen beside him.

"Does anyone know how many soldiers died at the end of Korea? Anyone?"

Surprising everyone, Teddy's hand shot into the air and waved around.

"Yes, Mr. Duchamp…"

"29,557 service members died in battle, 4184 died of non-combat causes in the Korean theatre, and 7,240 became prisoners of war…"

" 7 245," Cathleen corrected quietly to herself.

"7 245, sorry," Teddy corrected himself for the class, seeming as no one but him heard Cathleen.

"Very good, Theodore."

Teddy looked across to Cathleen to say something along the lines of that he didn't need her help, when he saw her crying silently as she drew in her notebook. Had she been crying before? No, not until they had started talking about casualties, he thought.

Belling had started up again but hadn't gotten very far when a cheerleader somewhere in front of Teddy had asked an appalling question that made him want to punch her.

"Why?"

"Why what, Jackie?"

"Why go to war? It's stupid."

Cathleen made an indignant sound from beside him and looked up at Belling expectantly, but Belling said nothing. Cathleen stood up to answer it herself.

"War isn't stupid--it's necessary," she yelled angrily at the stupid cheerleader.

"Why would anyone want to go to war?" she asked, Mr. Belling ignoring Cathleen entirely even though the rest of the class was staring at her.

"No one wants to go to war! They do it to protect those they love, they do it because they have to."

"Well they're stupid," Jackie told Cathleen.

Teddy was shocked at what happened to Cathleen as she heard those words. "Stupid!" she yelled. "It's not stupidity; that's bravery! Do you know what war is like, Ms. Marquette?"

"Sure, I've seen war movies. My stupid father watched them."

"Movie! Your comparing actual war to a fucking movie!" Cathleen snapped, "War is real, people go to protect those they love from evil! People die so that we can live the way we want and you say they're stupid." She'd left her seat by now and was marching up the aisle towards Jackie.

"What do you know about war anyway? I bet your father didn't even go," Jackie said flatly.

Cathleen's tears were now visible to everyone else but she didn't let that stop her from smashing Jackie in the face. "Don't you say that, don't you ever say that!" Cathleen screamed and ran out of the classroom.

The bell rang to end class. Teddy got up and was about to leave the now empty classroom when he turned back and saw Cathleen's notebook sitting looking surprisingly lonely on a desk.