I stared into the van's reflection of my face and frowned. Earlier, I had a giant black ring around my entire left eye. I made the mistake of not getting to my father fast enough…again. I had torn through my boxes and bags in the back of the van, searching for some sort of make-up to cover up the bruises across my face. I ripped open my light purple bag and found my stash of make-up. I threw a pound of cover up on my face and here I was, standing in front of my father's van in Castle Rock Oregon who knows how many miles away from my home in Chicago. I had lived in more of the dangerous areas of Chicago, where you could buy a gun or drugs from just about anybody. Girls had tattoos and babies all before turning seventeen and boys lost their virginity by ten years old. I lived with my father that hit me nearly every night and raped me every so often and a mother that drank her life away and had basically no cares in the world except where she was getting her booze that day. I was only thirteen and life was hell on fucking earth. I had no siblings which made things pretty lonely most of the time. I had a few friends, nobody knew that happened after I closed my front door and ran up to my room, only for it to be stormed in by my furious father for "coming home too late" and having punches thrown into my sight, making everything fade to black. I mostly walked the school hallways alone, never having anyone wanting to get to know me.

We ended up moving to Castle Rock because my parents lost our fucking house, after my mom spent all the money we were saving on more alcohol. Boy, did I get cracked for that one…my mother's fucking mistake. I hated my parents; if you could even call them that…they were just two fucking idiotic people that I happened to live with. We moved here the Tuesday after Labor Day and I didn't see anyone out.

"Amber, get your shit out of my van." My dad commanded. I sighed and turned away from my reflection. I gathered all my bags and veered towards my new "home", yeah right. It was surrounded by huge trees and had siding missing all over. The house next to it looked identical. I sighed and finally realized this was where I was gonna have to live…even if I didn't necessarily like it. I slowly walked towards it and stomped up the front steps. We just had to move to the crappiest part of town, didn't we? I grabbed the door and yanked it open. The inside looked just as bad as the outside, if not worse. I groaned as I climbed the stairs and entered the room at the end of the hallway. This was my room…I didn't give a flying fuck…dibs were mine! I opened the door and a loud creak sounded. I rolled my eyes, I already hated this place. There was already a mattress lying on a wimpy bed frame. Whatever. I thought and placed my bags on the bed and sat down, sinking into the mattress. The curtains fluttered as the end of summer wind wisped through the open window. I needed to get out, go for a walk or something. I hopped back down the stairs and out the door. I brushed past my dad and he looked at me, confused.

"Where are you going?" He questioned.

"Anywhere." I responded. "As long as it's away from you." I added under my breath.

"No, you're staying here."

"No, I'm not." I fought back and scurried off before he could reply. I was gonna get beat whipped pretty bad for that one, but what else was new?

I must have been walking for at least ten minutes before I saw something, high up in a large tree. I inched closer and realized it was a tree house. It didn't seem like anyone was in it…I began climbing up the tree into the mini-house. I opened the hatch and was then inside. It looked so cool…I'd never been in a tree house before. I noticed a radio in a corner, I wandered over towards it and pushed the button, turning it on. Rockin' Robin immediately filled my ears and the entire clubhouse. I noticed there were ashtrays all around...who were these people. But, there was a certain thing I enjoyed about being in that tree house. It was calming, like nothing bad could ever happen…I was miles high above everybody else. Suddenly, the door burst open, followed by a voice hollering, "God dammit! Did that wet end Vern leave that fucking-" The voice immediately halted when he saw me. He had a pair of huge coca-cola glasses on, his hair was blonde-ish and his left ear looked as it was made of wax. There was an awkward silence for a few seconds until I spoke, "Oh, I'm sorry…I didn't know, anyone, used this…" He half-smiled and had a very unique laugh: eee-eee-eeee!

"It's fine. I'm Teddy…you are?"

"Amber," I answered. He nodded and sat down, pulling out a lighter and cigarette.

"This is where me, Gordie, Vern, and Chris all hang-out." He explained with a cigarette hanging out the side of his mouth. I nodded silently and kept looking at his ear. What the fuck happened to it…? He kept looking at me, eyes all squinty, blowing out cigarette smoke.

"You have cool eyes." He suddenly blurt out. I blushed. My eyes were a light green/yellow and everyone complimented on them.

"Thanks," I answered. He was wearing big army boots and dogtags. As if he read my mind, he explained, "My dad stormed the beach in Normandy." He touched the dogtags around his neck. "How 'bout you?"

"Oh, my dad, uhm…is okay." I lied. He was a fucking basterd. Teddy kept starring at me, knowing I was lying. Then, the door opened and another kid appeared.

"Teddy, I'm gonna-" He stopped as soon as he saw me. "Oh, Teddy. Who's your friend?" This boy was rather tall and had short, blonde hair.

"This is Amber, she followed me here…" Teddy said, very seriously. I half-smiled and opened my mouth.

"That's not how it happened!" I laughed. Teddy nodded, sarcastically and the other boy laughed, keeping his eyes on me.

"I'm Chris," He said, holding out a hand. I high-fived him instead and said, "As you already know, I'm Amber." Teddy laughed as he blew smoke out of his mouth.

"So Amber," Chris started as he sat down across from me, shuffling a deck of cards. "Where'd you come from?"

"Chicago."

Soon enough, we started up a conversation, laughing and enjoying the moment. The hatched opened again and in popped another.

"Gordie, this is Amber." Chris elbowed him and Gordie looked and smiled, slyly.

"It's been awhile since there's been a girl up here." Gordie smiled and plopped down next to Teddy, who pulled out another cigarette and searched for the lighter. He found it and smiled. He was just about to light it when I felt courageous and stole it from his fingers, along with the lighter. I placed it in my mouth and lit it. All their eyes were on me, smirks spread across their faces. I tossed the lighter back to Teddy, who caught it single-handedly.

"What?" I asked with a laugh. "Haven't you ever seen a girl smoke before?" They all looked at each other, with huge smiles. Teddy laughed his laugh and exclaimed, "This is our kind of girl!" He placed an arm around me and continued, "She's one of us now!" He rubbed his knuckles against the top of my head. I pushed him away, laughing. Just then, a knock was heard.

"Guys, let me in." A voice whined.

"Ugh. Vern." Gordie mumbled. Chris opened the door and alittle boy climbed in complaining something about some guy named Ray Brower. All their heads snapped towards the boy and then back at me. I was so confused.

"She oughta know now…" Chris finally said.

"Way to go Vern…you wet end." Teddy hissed. He pretended to punch him, which caused Vern to flinch.

"Hah! Two for flinching!" Teddy smirked, followed by punching Vern twice.

"Wait, what's going on?" I questioned. Everyone was silent.

"Can you keep a secret?" Teddy asked, with a squinty-eyed look. I nodded slowly and they told the story of how they found the body of Ray Brower.