My walk to school on the first of March was a rough one. For many reasons. For starters, it was snowing. In March, for cryin' out loud. Leave it to Castle Rock to pull a fast one on you like that. It wasn't snowing quite enough for school to shut down, but believe me; it was snowing enough to make you curse Mother Nature.

Secondly, I'd woken up feeling like I'd been run over by a truck. I had the worst headache of my life and my entire body ached. But I dragged my hind parts out of bed anyway because I'd rather be sick and miserable at school than sick and miserable at home with my belligerent father. He worked night shifts at the tire manufacturing company based right outside of Castle Rock, so he was always home during the day.

But the most binding reason that I went to school that day was because of my geometry teacher, Mr. Bates. He caught me cheating last week on his test and threatened me with everything under the sun. He said he could even keep me from graduating if he wanted to.

Luckily, the guy can't stand me. None of the teachers can and I think it's a general consensus that they just want me out of the place. I've been held back two years already as it is. So Bates cut a deal with me. In order to graduate, I have to stay after school three times a week and work with a geometry tutor. And then at the end of the semester I have to take a test, he'll be watching me closely he says, and if I get a B or better, he'll pass me.

Insanely, I agreed to this deal. Mainly because I didn't have any other choice. I was just glad I wasn't facing suspension. When my kid brother, Christopher, stole the milk money at his school, he got a three-day vacation and my dad lost it. Chris suffered a broken nose, a broken arm, and he won an overnight stay at the hospital. If Pops heard I didn't graduate because I cheated on some dumb test, I might never see the light of day again. It's funny how the old man doesn't have any morals of his own, but the second he gets wind of us doing something wrong, he'll smack us down. If you ask me, he just likes an excuse – any excuse – to knock us senseless. Yeah, it's fucking sidesplitting.

Anyway, today was the day that I started the "tutor sessions." If I missed the first day, Bates would have my throat. There was a 0% chance that he'd believe I was actually sick. So I took a bunch of Advil, braved the cursed snow, and found myself struggling to stay awake throughout all of my classes.


By lunchtime all I wanted to do was curl up in the fetal position and die. I'm not exaggerating either. I didn't even have enough energy to bully freshmen for their lunch money. I just went straight to the corner lunch table and collapsed into a seat. I'm pretty sure the table hadn't been wiped off in approximately… ever… but I didn't care. I put my head down on that grimy surface and covered by head with my arms to block out the light. Advil hadn't done squat.

I'd only had about three minutes of peace when goddamn Charlie Hogan knocked on the top of my head and dropped his lunch tray onto the table. "Eyeball, look alive."

I groaned and sat up. "Impossible."

Charlie was the only other guy from our gang that hadn't dropped out of school. He was graduating this year too because he hadn't been held back like me. He was the youngest of our gang and probably the smartest too. That being said, he'd never seen anything higher than a C in his life, but at least he got them consistently.

"Man, you look like shit," Charlie stated bluntly. He took a big bite out of his meatloaf and with his mouth full he asked, "You hung over or somethin'?"

I wish, I thought. Even though hangovers were almost as awful as I felt right now, at least when I was hung over I knew I'd brought it upon myself. But this, what the hell did I do to deserve this? "No, it's a migraine or somethin'." I crinkled up my nose as the smell from Charlie's unsightly meatloaf finally reached my nostrils. I pushed his tray farther away. "Keep that shit away from me. It's gonna make me hurl."


When the bell rang for my last class, I was relieved. Just two more hours. Two more hours and then I could crash at Ace's and sleep the rest of the day. Nothing sounded better than curling up in a bed. Even if it was Ace's old cot where you could feel every damn lump and spring. I just wanted a bed. Any bed would do.

Unfortunately, my last class was geometry. That meant I'd spend one hour in class and then another hour after school with whatever suck-up nerd Bates stuck me with. That much geometry at once should be illegal. I couldn't have been more thrilled.

Anyway, on my way to Bates' class, I got really dizzy. So dizzy that I had to take a detour into the men's restroom. I told the freshman who was washing his hands at the sink to beat it. I wanted to be able to vomit in peace if it came to that. He made a squeaking sound and scurried out of the room. I swear, people at this school are so afraid of me. It's great.

I closed myself into the last stall and sunk down onto the floor. This migraine is really kicking my ass, I thought to myself as a wave of nausea washed over me. I hoisted myself up over the edge of the toilet bowl and waited. I knew it was coming and I just wanted to get it over with. I could feel myself starting to sweat and my saliva getting thick. The room was spinning all around me and my stomach couldn't take much more. Before I knew it, I was expelling everything I'd eaten the past couple of days into the bowl before me.

It took me a while to get a hold of my bearings after heaving my guts out for so long. But when I did, I realized, much to my relief, that my head felt a thousand times better and everything had stopped spinning. The tradeoff was that I felt super weak and even a little bit shaky.

Knowing I was already about 15 minutes late to class, I knew I couldn't waste any more time in the bathroom. Reluctantly, I pulled myself up and used most of my remaining energy to walk to the geometry classroom.

I arrive late to class a lot, so I'm used to having everybody's eyes on me when I enter the room. But today I was a little more self-conscious. I knew I looked like hell the second I stepped into the classroom because whispers swept over the crowd. I just kept my head down and went straight to my assigned seat in the front of the classroom.

"So nice of you to join us, Mr. Chambers," Bates said flatly, without even turning around from the chalkboard.

I couldn't think of a smart-ass reply so I just sunk down lower in my seat and stared at my desk until class was over.


Finally, it was just me and Bates left in the classroom. I was really fighting falling asleep at this point. Bates was erasing the chalkboard. When he was finished, he turned around to face me.

"You know Chambers, coming late to class isn't part of the deal. That'll be unacceptable from here on out, you understand me?"

I would've explained to him why I was late if I thought it would do me any good. But I knew it wouldn't and I wasn't up for fighting any losing battles today. So I just nodded and mumbled a scornful "yessir."

"Good," Bates said firmly. He leaned up against the front of his desk and folded his arms across his chest. "Now, when your tutor gets here, you are to treat him with respect. Is that understood?"

I rolled my eyes, but nodded.

Mr. Bates checked his watch. "He should be here any minute now." And then, as if I cared, he started talking up my oh-so-highly anticipated tutor. "He's taking calculus this year but did very well in geometry last year. He offered to tutor you because he needs some volunteer hours to apply to some academic programs…"

And that's when I zoned out.

"Oh look, here he is now," Bates said after what seemed like ages of rambling. He was beaming at the classroom door.

I followed his gaze to the door and groaned inwardly. The fuckin' town hero of Castle Rock, Denny Lachance, stood in the doorway.

As if this day couldn't get any worse.


A/N: Hi everyone. Just a quick note: Although I have read the book adaptation of Stand By Me (and loved it), I am writing this story solely based on the movie. By doing this, it allows me to be more creative with back-stories and characterization. That being said, there will be some things in this story that are inconsistent with the book. For example, in the book, Eyeball drops out of school in the 10th grade. In this story he is (obviously) still in school. Also, in the book Denny is portrayed as distant from Gordie, but I will be portraying him more like how he was in the movie (a good brother, smart, kind, etc.). I think that's all you need to know for now! Thank you for reading!