Hey guys!
I've had an account here before, but I thought my stories weren't that great, so I thought I'd give it another go.
Typical, typical, a girl added in boring boring, falls in love with Chris even MORE boring, But hey now, I am gonna try to make it different, give it a chance ;)
If you're gonna criticize, go right ahead! I need it, but just go easy on me, I am fairly new.
Just be forewarned, some things are changed, and parts of the movie AND book have been added, and a bit of my own little twist lets just say.
Credit to the wonderful Stephen King and Rob Reiner.
Enjoy!
"You guys wanna go see a dead body?" Vern Tessio's voice rang through my ears, and the treehouse went silent. All of the childish grins faded off our faces and we all looked right at Vern, wide eyed. Vern never said this sort of stuff out of the blue because he was, well…Vern; the one who used to cry when a black cat crossed his path, insisting he was gonna die the next day. . A cold draft slowly slithered its way into the rusty screen door of our treehouse, making my skin crawl. Vern looked so serious, and it made me feel a little ill.
"What did you just say?" I tried to laugh, but It felt like I had an ostrich egg lodged into my throat.
"Do you mean…Ray Brower's body?" Gordie Lachance half-whispered and I gulped, oh my god.
We all knew who Ray Brower was; he was a kid our age…that went missing. He liked the same T.V programmes and loved strawberry milkshakes, he was a kid like us. We had been following the story for a couple of weeks on my father's old baby blue radio that was placed in the corner of our treehouse. Ray Brower was from Chamberlain, a bigger town with a bit more money, just outside our super small town, (Castle Rock, both located in Maine) He was going to pick blueberries for his mother in Back Harlow Road, but he never came home.
"I was under the porch looking for those pennies you know?" Vern started, and I smiled the teeniest bit.
When Vern was really into Pirates, he'd hid a jar of pennies under the Tessio's front porch, he'd drawn a treasure map for it and everything; but his mother was cleaning his room out one day, and had thrown out the map. Vern had been looking for that jar of pennies for four entire years, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"My brother and Charlie Hogan were up on the porch, They were dumping a stolen car Back Harlow Road, that's how they found the Brower kid. My brother wants Charlie to keep quiet because If they tell the police about the body, they'd have to explain the stolen car. The body's pretty close to Back Harlow Road I think. " Vern breathed heavily after the long explanation he gave us, running his hand over his chocolate brown buzz cut his mother made him get after she insisted he had lice.
I know the Back Harlow Road!" Teddy Duchamp exclaimed, " It comes to a dead end by the Royal River, The train-tracks are right there!"
"Jesus Christ Vern! If Billy knew you were under that porch he would've killed you!" I hissed, and Vern smiled proudly, as if he accomplished something.
Bill or "Billy" Tessio was Vern's older brother, part of the most notorious gang in Castle Rock; The Cobras. The gang composed of Richard "Eyeball" Chambers (Chris's brother), John "Ace" Merril (the leader), Norman "Fuzzy" Bracowicz, Charlie Hogan, and a couple of others that just hung around. We all feared The Cobras, they had tormented us since fifth grade, and when we got into altercations with them we were lucky; only escaping with minor cuts or bruises.
"How did Brower even get from Chamberlain to Harlow? That's really far." Gordie questioned, laying down his favourite Crime magazine issue onto his lap.
"He probably started walking down the tracks and just followed them the whole way." Chris nodded,
"Yeah, and after dark the train must have come along and... el smacko!" Teddy slammed his hands together, as if his hands were the train hitting Ray Brower.
"Yeah" Chris shook his head in disbelief taking a drag from his cigarette.
Chris Chambers had been my best friend since kindergarten, I had met him before I'd met any of the other boys, we were both sitting in the back of the Mrs. Blarney's classroom, (that's where the outsiders sat, in the back) A six year old Chris pointed at my 64 Crayola crayon box and asked if "Crayon boxes really got that big" We had been inseparable ever since. A lot of people shunned me for hanging around a "no good Chambers kid" but I didn't really understand why they thought Chris was so...bad.
The Chambers family lived in a shoebox-sized, paint-peeling, and metal fenced grey house. The Chambers family was mostly full of alcoholics and Criminals, Richard "Eyeball" Chambers a Cobra, Martin Chambers, an alcoholic and abusive father who beat Chris almost every night for no reason, and Frank Chambers, who was in prison for killing a young boy from Chamberlain.
Chris was an innocent sandy blonde, blue eyed, down to earth kid, who was almost thirteen; but acted more mature than any adult I've ever encountered. Everyone expected Chris to turn out a low-life just like his brothers and father, and Sadly; Chris was starting to think he was gonna turn into a low life too. He wasn't like them though. But as usual, The residents of Castle Rock stayed as far as they could away from the Chambers family and Chris, because they were all "trouble"
Chris wasn't allowed in certain areas of Castle Rock, and he was always accused of stealing things, even though it obviously was someone else that did it. It was so horrible seeing Chris fight back tears as he'd be thrown out of a store because he was a "Chambers kid" I sometimes wanted to cry with him.
"Hey, you guys! I bet you anything that if we find him we'll get our pictures in the paper!" Chris exclaimed , putting out his cigarette in one too many of our coca-cola ashtrays that were strewn all over the treehouse.
"Yeah we can be on T.V!" Teddy cried,
"Sure!" Chris grinned,
"We'll be heroes!" Teddy got up from his seat out of excitement, but then sat down.
"I don't know guys, what if Billy finds out? He'll beat the shit out of me if he found out I was sneaking around under the porch!" Vern whined,
"He has a point, it's too dangerous." I mumbled fiddling with the mood ring Chris gave me for my eighth birthday.
"It'll be fine Roo."Chris nodded, and I sighed. I looked down at my slightly torn black converse I had gotten for Christmas last year, twirling a piece of my blonde straw-like hair around my pale finger.
Chris had been calling me "Roo" since we'd met that day in Kindergarten. My real name was Ruby, but I liked Roo, and when all the boys started calling me that, it stuck.
Chris and I met Teddy, Vern and Gordie in third grade. They were all weird in unique ways, Vern would always cry for his mother and talk about how terrifying moths were, Teddy made random gun noises during silent reading which got him sent to the office frequently. Then there was Gordon, who always sat in the corner, scribbling furiously into a leather book. I didn't find out until later that the wine coloured leather book contained a series of short stories. That's why I loved my best friends, they were all one of a kind; not like every other bland person who lived in Castle Rock.
I sat in the corner's almost-broken chair that used to be Teddy's mother's, while my best friends Teddy, Vern, Gordie and Chris exclaimed about big of heroes they were gonna be when theyfound Ray Brower, but I couldn't help but think it was kinda..wrong. Why use someone's death to be famous?
"He's not gonna care, 'cause it's gonna be us guys that find him, not Billy and Charlie, and They'll probably pin a medal on you, Vern." Gordie flashed Vern a crooked smile,
"You really think so?" Vern exclaimed, a grin formed onto his peachy-pink face.
"Sure." Chris answered, and leaned back a bit in one of the makeshift milk-carton-chairs.
"Yeah, but what'll we tell our folks?" Vern's face fell a bit and he looked at all of us for answers.
"Well, how bout this, we'll all tell our folks we're tenting out in your back field. You tell your folks you're sleeping over at Teddy's. Then we say we're goin' over to the drag races the next day. We're rock solid 'til dinner tomorrow night."
"That sounds like a plan-and-a-half!" Chris cried, skinning it with Gordie (our special handshake)
"But if we do find the kid's body over in South Harlow, they'll know we didn't go to the drag races. We'll get hided!" I cried,
"Nobody's gonna care Roo, 'cause everybody's gonna be so jazzed about what we found, that it won't make a difference!" Teddy explained and everyone nodded.
"Yeah! My dad would hide me anyway. But hell that's worth a hiding!" Chris grinned.
"Shit yeah!" Teddy cried,
"Let's do it! What do you say?" Chris looked at all of us,
"Sure." Teddy nodded,
"Okay." Gordie smiled,
"Uh..I guess." Vern nodded too, and then all of them looked at me, goofy grins plastered on their flushed faces.
"I don't know guys.." I mumbled, fiddling with one of my mud stained shoe-laces.
"Roo!" Chris whined,
"Comon Roo!" Teddy cried,
"ROOO!" Chris got up and tickled me, I cried out and fell to the ground, all of the boys piled up on top of me,
"STOP STOP STOP!" I shouted,
"Say yes then." Chris grinned,
"UGH FINE OKAY? I'LL GO." I barked, Chris and the boys got off of me smiling.
"Jesus." I grumbled, dusting off my white t-shirt that I stole from Chris.
"Then it's settled." Chris looked at us and we all nodded.
"Tomorrow at noon?" Teddy offered,
"Tomorrow at noon." Chris repeated,
We didn't really say much to each other after that, because we were thinking about tomorrow; the day that would change our lives forever.