AN: I do not own anything you recognize from Stand By Me/The Body.
Elaine debated whether or not she should put her hair in rollers or not.
She knew it was unacceptable not to but she was so sick of all the work that had to be put into it.
Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard knocking but it did not come from her door.
She turned quickly away from her vanity, thinking she would find Ken outside her window, but she did not. It was some blond stranger.
Elaine had no idea what to do. He could be a murderer and she was not going to just open the door.
She ran over to the window.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Ace, now open the God damn window!"
She knew that name and she knew why he was knocking on her window.
She opened the window, still disbelieving this could actually happen to her. Ace managed to pull himself up through the window as this unknown girl stood by and watched.
She crossed her arms, "You've got the wrong room."
"Well, I figured that out."
"Hey, don't you dare give me attitude. I could've left you out there and I'm the one whose going to bring you to Charlie."
Ace was surprised. This girl was not scared or swooned by his presence. In fact, she looked thoroughly pissed off by it.
She rolled her eyes, "Well, come on lover boy."
She went over to her door and poked her head out to see no one was looming in the halls and to hear her parents still in the den, stilling listening to their favorite jazz record.
Elaine looked back at Ace and made a motion for him to follow her, which he did.
She knocked on a door before pushing it open for Ace to enter. But she did not wait to see if he did, she simply went back to her room and to her internal debate.
She threw herself onto her bed. She was sick of her sister's actions. Ace was not the first boy to use Elaine's room as a means to get to her sister.
Charlotte, known as Charlie to the greasers she hung out with, had always been popular with that crowd. The two sisters were nothing alike. Elaine was blond and blue eyed, Charlotte was a brunette with gray eyes. Elaine was the goody two shoes of the family while Charlotte was on the verge of being disowned everyday.
For some reason, Charlotte always told her boyfriends to come sneak in to see her. And whether she told them as well to come through Elaine's room or not, they always did. It was the logical choice.
Charlie's room had two windows – one, that if you climbed into, anyone in the kitchen would see, and the other was right above the dining room. Elaine's room had two windows and they were both above her parents' room but there were no windows on that side of the room so no one would see anyone sneaking into her room. Plus, there was a large tree outside the window to aid in the climb.
It also helped that Charlie and Elaine's parents never suspected Elaine would have anyone sneak through her window or aid in Charlie's rebellion.
But Charlie and Elaine had always been close despite their differences and since Charlie was the older one, Elaine had always looked up to her. And even though Charlie knew of her parents favoring her younger sibling, she never let it get to her.
Elaine was favored for a reason though. She had always been the respectable sister, the conforming sister. She did not like it but she did it. But it did not mean her sister did not influence her.
She knew how to stand up for herself and she did obviously go against her parents wishes sometimes, case in point with aiding Charlie's many lovers.
She fell asleep, thinking of her role in the family.
And a couple of hours later, Ace slipped into her room and out her window, taking note of the many pins and rollers in her hair.
She had lost her debate.
A few nights later, Ace again climbed the tree outside the Duvall residence. He did not understand why he even bothered, this was too much for a girl.
The light was on in the room he was climbing to, meaning Charlie's little sister was home. But thankfully, she had left the window open.
He pushed himself through the small opening and fell rather disgracefully into the room. He would not have cared if he had not heard the younger girl chuckling at his entrance.
"Shut up. You try fitting through there!"
"No need to get nasty about it."
She looked a little disappointed at his anger so he tried to be a little bit nicer, but not too much.
She sighed, "Come on. Be really quiet, my mom went to bed early tonight."
He followed her out the door and did the same thing she had done three days later – she knocked and turned to leave. But Ace grabbed her arm.
"Hey, wait."
"What?"
"I never got your name."
"It's Elaine. Now hurry up and get in there."
"Well, Elaine, thank you for leaving your window open."
She was not sure if he was sincere but gave up trying to understand and said, "You're welcome."
Elaine went back to her room and turned her radio up a bit more, to cover up anything that would be going on down the hall though it was unlikely she would hear – their rooms were rather far apart.
She looked over the brochures from every college in the state of Oregon but none of them appealed to her, well, maybe George Fox University but only because her boyfriend, Ken, went there.
Since she knew no one was going to be checking on her anytime soon, she pulled out a number of small booklets from between her mattresses.
They were more college brochures from places her parents or boyfriend probably would not approve of – Boston University, Oberlin College, Brandeis, UCLA, Berkeley – either because they were too far or 'too corrupted.' That was exactly why she liked them.
She dreamed of what her life could be if she could get away to these colleges, away from her family.
Her eyelids got heavy as she looked over the already memorized brochures.
A strong hand shook her away and her eyes opened to see the town's biggest bully with his eyebrows furrowed.
"Oh, uh, I thought I'd wake you since you'd fallen asleep with, uh, your clothes on and all."
Ace had no idea why he was stumbling over his words. He blamed it on being so late and him being so tired, especially now.
"How long was I out?"
"I don't know but it's a little after one in the morning."
"Oh gosh, thank you so much."
Ace nodded and walked over to the window.
"Do you know when the next time you'll come? I mean, I don't mind most nights, it being summer and all, but some nights it gets rather cold and I don't want to have to leave it open if it doesn't need to be."
"Uh, I don't know when I'll be back next. But how about I don't come on nights it's chilly?"
A smile brightened up upon her face, "Okay, thanks so much. Well, 'night."
"Night," he said roughly before making his way down towards the ground.
He jumped off the tree and stopped to look up at the window he had just came out off.
He did not know why but the girl who had just turned the lights out in there made him feel different. She was the only one who made his image fall to pieces when he was around her.
When he was around other girls, girls like Charlie, it was easy to act tough and like he did not give a damn. It crumbled at the mere mention of the name Elaine.
This girl was going to be trouble. She was going to be the end of him if he let her.
He gave up trying to sort the whole deal out in his head and headed towards his car, which was waiting for him some ways down the street.