Disclaimer: I do not own anything! I merely borrow the wonderful characters Chris and Gordie , ( other less worthy ones as well) , from the glorious film directed by Rob Reiner. A film that was based off the novella , The Body , written by the great Stephen King! He whose fame shall never fade from this earth!

In the Paper

For the first time in a long time Gordie LaChance felt , well , happy. Since the new school year had started he been kind of depressed. Don't get him wrong he loved learning , reading , writing , all that stuff , but what he didn't love was being separated from his best friend Chris Chambers by teachers , lectures and class schedules. After a lot of coaxing and some pleading on his part Gordie had managed to convince Chris to take college classes with him , instead of the shop classes everyone had expected him to enroll in. This meant that they had almost all the same classes together , but it still wasn't the same , not like Summer when they could just hang out and be themselves around each other.

That's why Gordie loved Summer. Summer meant that he could goof off with Chris , sometimes for days on end . Which was great because it meant not having to see his parents. Since Denny died it seemed like a part of them had died also , the loving , family part , he was their star son , the apple of both their eyes , and of course the favorite child. With him gone as far as his parents were concerned they had no son, which is why they didn't mind him being gone for days at a time , that is as long as he didn't mention Chris Chambers. Gordie's dad seemed to hat Chris , he called him a bad influence , but Gordie suspected there was another reason for his father's animosity , Chris encouraged Gordie's writing.

Gordie loved sharing his stories with Chris he was always eager to listen and he always provided honest feedback , which was a huge asset to the aspiring young writer. But Gordie's dad thought writing was a waste of time , he called it "scribbling down fairytales". But the truth was that Chris and writing were the only things in his life that Gordie cared about , the only things he loved , all that he was living for. And go figure his father hated them both. As a matter of fact his writing was the reason that Gordie was in such high spirits today.

About two weeks ago their English teacher had given the class a creative writing assignment , every student in the room groaned or sighed , except Chris and Gordie. Gordie just smiled a little and bean thinking of stories he could transfer from his mind to paper , Chris turned around and grinned a grin at Gordie that seemed to say " you've got this , show em' a real story!" . the two went over several of Gordie's short stories together and eventually got down to one which Gordie polished down and turned into his teacher. And Gordie's teacher , as he was not one of those angry idiotic teachers who don't give a damn , realized it was good , really good. He then turned it over to the high school Literature teacher , an eccentric artsy lady with red hair , who in turn turned it into the Castle Rock newspaper to be published. This was a dream come true for the young writer , he went out and bought one of the first issues of the paper with his story in it and ran to show Chris. This is why Gordie LaChance was truly in a good mood for the first time in weeks. He found Chris behind the school , alone , waiting for him.

" You got it ?" he asked as the chestnut haired boy approached , as an answer Gordie tossed him the paper .

" page 7 , top right." , he said trying to hide his excitement behind a mask of nonchalance , it wasn't working.

He watched as Chris read , and noticed how intently he studied the paper , even though he'd heard the story himself several times and helped Gordie with a half a dozen rough drafts.

" This is seriously cool , you're a writer man!" , Chris exclaimed.

" Nah , it's just a story in a paper no one ever reads." , Gordie said , still trying to sound indifferent.

" Just a story my ass! This is great , you could get this published in the friggin New York Times!".

Gordie felt a grateful and little embarrassed at his friends confidence in him , he felt the faintest touch of red on his cheeks , " So what do you want to do this weekend?" , he said trying to change the subject ,

" I got no plans , wanna got to the tree house tonight? My dad's been hittin the bottle pretty hard , he probably wouldn't notice if I was gone." , Chris offered.

" Yeah and my dad wouldn't care." , Gordie had meant for this to come out as some kind of a joke , but he realized his statement was true and this knowledge showed on his face and in his voice.

" Sure he would." , Chris said placing a comforting arm on Gordie's shoulder like he had done countless times before , " You should show him the paper , even your dad would realize it's a big deal to have a story you wrote in the paper."

" Yeah , maybe." , but Gordie didn't really think his dad would care at all , he was right , " Be at the tree house at nine?" ,

"Yeah , sure , and if you can bring some snacks." , although Chris was too proud to admit it he hadn't been full in weeks , his dad spent most of their money on booze and feeding his youngest son wasn't exactly a high priority for him. Gordie could tell though , you get to know someone after being around them a while , Chris always seemed to "forget" his lunch , Gordie would have , wanted to, give Chris all of his but he would only accept a little , Chris Chamber's didn't need charity , not even Gordie's. They walked down the sunbathed sidewalk talking about nothing really until the time came for them to part. Just as they were about to tear away from each other Chris said ,

" I'm serious about showing the paper to your old man." .

Gordie responded " Yeah , I'll try" , as he walked to his house that was no longer a home.

P.S

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