Joe,Martin,Cary and Preston were all sitting in Cary's bedroom,all of them off in their own worlds . Joe was at the foot of the bed,Preston leaning back against the headboard of the bed while reading one of his copies of The Sandman, Martin was in a bean bag chair watching Cary,who was upside down on a chair,mentally rocking out to 'My Sharona' by The Knack.

Martin sighed suddenly and said, "What are we doing,guys?"

"Well,Preston's reading a comic book and I think Cary needs to go to the bathroom." Joe replied.

"I mean with our summer." Martin continued. "We could be out,playing baseball,going on a road trip. Being with girls! Ever since last summer,girls have been following us around like dogs!"

"Not all of us." Preston said,annoyed that he hadn't gotten any female attention like the rest of the group. He just had to be the smart one who didn't like putting himself in mortal danger.

"Sorry." Martin said. "Speaking of girls. Where's Alice?"

By this time,Cary was sitting upright in his chair and he answered Martin's question, "Alice is visiting family over the summer. And Charles is at a film festival. So,that just leaves us and-"

Suddenly,the door of Cary's room was practically thrown open and a girl appeared in the doorway, "Jo Sikes,everybody!" The girl exclaimed,causing quite a commotion and being a tad overly dramatic. But then again,she was an actress.

Cary was the first one to actually process what was going on. He practically jumped out of his seat when he did, "Jo!"

You see,Joanne "Jo" Sikes was part of the guy's little group when they were younger. But before you knew it,she was on a plane to Hollywood,working her way towards stardom. She was Cary's best friend since the first grade and she seemed to really bond with the rest of the guys too. No one really thought they were going to see one another again,but here she was! Standing in Cary's bedroom.

"Cary!" She imitated him,which was promptly followed by her running over to him and trapping him in a hug.

Preston looked up from his comic book to see exactly what was going,but when he realized who it actually was he immediately looked back down. He may have only been in fourth grade the last time he saw Jo,but he had a massive crush on her. And now that she was fourteen,she looked way better than when she was nine.

While Jo was hugging Cary,she got a whiff of his strong scent. She moved him away from her and looked down at him very seriously, "Cary. You smell like fireworks."

"Yeah...?" Cary said.

"You promised me that you would stop blowing things up!" She exclaimed.

"Jo! I have an explanation." Cary said quickly. "I...it's my passion! My hobby! Would I ever ask you to stop acting?"

"Cary!" Jo said accusingly, "Your 'passion' deeply concerns me! And my parents!" She paused. "And even my aunt! She's never even met you,but when I told her about you she offered to pay for therapy!"

"But-"

"No buts! I demand that you stop exploding things!" Jo finished. Before continuing her happy reunion with her friends. She walked over to Joe. "Hey Joseph."

Joe smiled a little, "You know that you can call me Joe,right?"

"I'll start calling you Joe when you stop calling me Joanne." Jo replied,returning the smile. And,to Preston's relief, she skipped on over to Martin next.

"You've gotten taller Marty." She said,looking up at him and calling him by his childhood nickname that she had dubbed him with.

"You have too." He replied.

"Yeah,well,five years will do that to a person." She joked. "So,I heard Charles made another movie. Is this information correct?"

"Yes it is." Martin replied.

"Well then I'm just going to have to see it soon." She said,before making her way towards Preston.

Preston did his absolute best to pretend to not notice her,he did an okay job. "And you!" Jo said,plopping down next to Preston on the bed. "Still reading comic books,I see." She said,stealing away his comic book. "You need yourself a girlfriend,Preston." She finished,lightly tapping him on the nose before placing the comic book back in his hands.

Preston hid his wide eyes behind the comic until they had sized down a bit,but before he could say a word,Jo spoke up again. "So,I hear you guys saved Lilian. Quite an impressive feat for a ragtag group of fourteen year old boys." She smiled, "How's the lady attention?"

Cary smiled,thinking about it, "Well,Jo's girlfriend is Alice Dainard."

"Alice Dainard?" Jo cut in, "Well,I'm not surprised. A cutie like Joseph,is bound to get a pretty girl like Alice." She said kindly. "But I thought your dad and Alice's dad don't like each other." She said to Joe.

"Well,that kind of changed when we saved Lilian." Joe explained. Though he was blushing a little.

"Ah,I see." Jo nodded. She then spoke to the rest of the boys, "So,what about the rest of you? Any of you three losers got girlfriends?" She teased.

"Well..." Cary flipped his hair back smoothly, "So many girls have tried,but none of them are right."

"Oh,yes. That's why there isn't a mademoiselle on your arm." Jo said sarcastically.

"A made moi-what?" Cary replied.

"It's french,dumbass." Jo replied. "Anyway,how's your sister,Marty?"

"Emily? Fine. Weird. Recently started hanging out with Jen." Martin replied.

"Charles sister? The one with the shorts so short you can hardly call them shorts?"

"Yeah,that one."

"Silly Emily." Jo shook her head, "I'm sure she'll realize there's better people to be with soon."

"So,Jo. Can you still throw a baseball?" Cary butted in.

"I'm insulted that you would doubt me." Jo said,pretending to be offended.

"Wanna play a game?" Joe asked.

"Sure!" She replied,grabbing a hair-tie from her wrist and tying her brown,shoulder length hair back into a ponytail. "Let's go." She said,standing up and starting towards the door.

Most of the guys followed her,but Jo had to go and retrieve the spacing-out-Preston. She walked back to the bed and took Preston by the hand,pulling him up, "Come on,let's go." She said walking out of the room after the rest of the guys. Jo sure did hope that they had more people to play with,because it's not much of a game if you have two people on each team.


As the kids made there way to the ball park,something monstrous and evil lurked under the ground. Under the water tower. In the darkness it had sat for a year,it was time for it to come out. It wanted revenge on whatever took it's mother away. It wanted food.


I own nothing in this story except Jo Sikes and the evil thing. But you could probably tell because of how out of character everyone is... Anyway,the rest of the chapters are going to be far better than this,but I just needed a way to introduce Jo,considering I didn't want to just throw her in. Especially considering this is going to be Preston/OC. (Jo) Oh,and one more thing. I know that cannon-wise,Martin doesn't have a sister,but I needed to make conversation. I'm probably also going to give Cary a sister later on.