Chapter 1 –Welcome Home Honey
Disclaimer – Stand By Me and The Body belong to the geniuses known as Stephen King and Rob Reiner. I'm not stealing. The character Brooke Collins belongs to me so please don't steal!
This is my first fanfiction written about Stand By Me (My favourite movie!) I really hope you enjoy it :) Please review? x
I stood there, gazing around the small wooden floored room with a blank expression. My suitcase still grasped firmly in my hand.
This is a room. My room. My new bedroom in my new home, in a new town. What home? This wasn't my home…
I heard footsteps come from behind and a hand on my shoulder, pressing down lightly. My father.
"Brooke, what do you think then?"
I knew my father had not set out to upset me with that small sentence, but soon after the words had left his mouth, I could feel my eyes well up with tears, and within seconds I felt myself burst into tears. I dropped my suitcase, spilling the contents out onto the floor as I ran over to the window, collapsing on the pane, sobbing.
"Dad, its awful!" my words came choking through tears, "How could you move me to such a horrendous place? Look at my room, it's so small!" I sobbed hard as my dad came over to comfort me, gently pulling me into a hug.
"There, there, darling. I know how you must be feeling…"
"No dad! You don't! I've been moved to some small deadwood town from my New York City, away from my family and my friends and my lifestyle, to this dump, I've left the people I care about the most and…"
"Ssh, darling, listen to me, I know you're probably feeling upset and a little confused now, but just look at this place. Castle Rock? Doesn't that sound great?"
I shook my head, "Castle Rock? It doesn't have any castles!"
My dad chuckled slightly, "You know we had to make a new start, with your mother and everything, it was the best thing we could do for her, to move away from those bad memories and start to look towards the future. Your mother always wanted to travel, and she'll never get that opportunity now! Don't worry about your room, we could give it a good lick o' paint and it'll be back to your normal standards!"
"But dad! Castle Rock? It isn't even on the maps! It's not some big ol' city with culture, it doesn't even have a theatre or a decent size mall!" I whined, having a slight tantrum. My dad patted me on the back, sympathetically.
"There's more to life than just theatres and malls, thick about it darling, life's short, you should know that by now…"
I sighed and rubbed my eyes furiously on the back of sleeve, sniffing sadly. My dad was right. It had been five months since my mother had died in a car accident. She was only thirty-three. My dad, a kind, soft-spoken gentleman was mortified. After my mothers funeral, he told me he could not go on like this anymore, in a place so full of negative memories, and by the summer we would be moving to a small town in Oregon called Castle Rock. I was mortified! One, because of the sudden and shocking death of my mother, the woman I looked up to and cared so much about, and two, because by summer my life would change, I'd be moving away from my friends and other relatives to a town I had never even heard of! Bitterly, I pleaded with my father to change his mind, have another think about it, but he had already made up his mind, and here I was. Brooke Collins, almost thirteen years old, motherless & alone, in a shitty town called Castle Rock. I know that sounds selfish, but when you've been through half the things I've been through in the past year or so, you really don't care less.
It was my father's idea for me to go check out my new hometown (after spending at least 20 minutes pressing a cloth to my swollen eyes. Reminder to self – clean bathroom!).
"Brooke, why don't you go check out Castle Rock? I mean, you might be surprised about what you find!"
"What like…tumbleweeds?"
My dad smiled and ruffled my usual messy hair, "You could go pick up some bottles of cola whilst you're out, as a toast to our new home?"
I shrugged, "Sure"
My dad slipped a couple of quarters into my pocket and winked, "See you!"
I waved as I left the house, "Not if I see you first!"
***
Castle Rock wasn't as bad as I had expected it to be. The early morning sunshine rose above the houses, sending jets of summery red rays shining through. The air was humid; it was eighty degrees and almost boiling level. I rubbed my arms, I knew I needed sunscreen!
The streets were deserted, just me, walking down the empty road. In a strange way, I was quite scared, walking along an unknown road in a town I'd never even been in.
"Its like Deadwood" I muttered to myself.
It was only when I heard a yell from behind, as a car came creeping up. I turned suddenly. The car was full of boys, older boys, tall, muscular, and supping beers. They wolfwhistled and honked the horn as the car slided beside me.
"Oi, sweetie," a boy with dark curly brown hair hollered, "Why don't ya pull ya skirt up a lil' higher?" The boys laughed and another, much smaller with blonde hair said, "You lost honey? We could drive you to the nearest whorehouse?"
I felt my cheeks burn with both embarrassment and anger. I would have said something, if I weren't too chicken shit to. I pulled my skirt down a little lower and tried to ignore them, walking on with my head down. It was only when I heard a shout from one of the guys it stopped.
"Eyeball, Charlie, shut the fuck up okay? Jesus – this chick is old enough to be your faggot brothers girl!"
I looked up at the boy who had just said that. He was the driver of the car, tall, handsome, almost arrogant looking, with bleach blonde curls and wearing a black shirt.
"Jeez, Ace we were only having a laugh" the blonde one (Charlie, I guess?) mumbled.
Ace? What kind of name was that? Still I had to be thankful, this guy had saved me from a mouthful of abuse. I gave him a slight nod, nervously, and he grinned back.
"See you later" he said, a tone of mystery in his voice, before his engine revved up and he speeded off. I stood there for a slight second, watching the car speed up the roads, almost shaken at my experience, before slowly walking on.
***