Author's Note: So I've decided to redo this whole story because this was my first fanfiction and I wasn't exactly clear on what to expect. Besides, I think that I can make it run a whole lot smoother. So, here it is!
Chapter One
The people that you're young and stupid with are the people that live in your heart forever.
Ellie Montgomery entered the treehouse that her friends often hung out in and saw Teddy, Chris, and Gordie playing a card game. The only one of the guys to even notice her come in was Teddy, as the other two were engrossed.
"Well if it isn't Michelle," Teddy said, smirking.
Michelle was Ellie's first name and she absolutely hated it. The only person that called her by that name was her mother.
"Hello Theodore," Ellie said brightly as she sat against the wall and began reading one of the many detective magazines that they guys had stored there. She didn't read it, however. Instead she began reliving the conversation she had had with her mother earlier that morning.
Louise Montgomery had begged her daughter to wear dressed more often than on Sunday but her attempt was in vain. Ellie had refused and ran out of the house soon after that. Ellie didn't see anything wrong with the way she dressed. Sure, it wasn't like the way most girls dressed, but she was comfortable.
Her shoulder length red hair was almost always pulled back into twin French braided pigtails. Her everyday clothes consisted of blue jeans, an undershirt, a halfway buttoned up plaid shirt, and black hightops.
Ellie was the only girl we hung around with. Not a single one of us knew much about her, but she was always the second one we turned to. She was second only to Chris. She was like our second mother, always telling us to be careful and offering encouragement. A good two years older than us, no one knew why she hung around with us, especially the four of us.
Her older brother Will had been in the jeep with Denny during the accident and he was still in a coma. The two of us shared a bond that no one else could understand, but we never spoke of what had happened.
"How do you know a Frenchman's been in your backyard?" Chris asked.
Ellie rolled her eyes behind her magazine while Teddy warned that he was French.
"Your garbage cans are empty and your dog's pregnant," Chris answered his joke and he and Gordie started to laugh hysterically.
"Didn't I just say that I was French?" an offended Teddy asked.
It was when they shared jokes that Ellie felt the most out of place. She was older than them and had a different sense of humor. She often didn't know what to talk about with the four boys and therefore felt awkward in their presence, but at the same time they comforted her. She knew that they cared for her.
"Gordie's Out!" Ellie heard Teddy yell with glee. "Old Gordie just bit the bag and stepped out the door."
Ellie couldn't help but smile at the look of disgust on Gordie's face. He sat down near her in a huff and she handed him a magazine that was by her feet. The card game continued without Gordie and Teddy, the dealer, knocked at the first hand.
"You four-eyed pile of shit," Chris said angrily.
"A pile of shit has a thousand eyes," Teddy said seriously. Chris and Gordie laughed but Teddy couldn't understand why.
A knock was then heard and Gordie said in a sing-song voice that it wasn't the secret knock.
"Oh, I forget the secret knock," said the voice from outside. "Let me in."
"Vern," all four of them said at the same time, unsurprised. Vern always forgot the secret knock.
"Oh man, you guys aren't gonna belive this," Vern said breathlessly as soon as he had entered. "This is so boss. Oh man, wait'll you hear this, wait'll you hear this. You won't believe it. It's unbelievable. Let me catch my breath. I ran all the way from my house."
Upon hearing Vern say a sentence that sounded familiar to a line from a song, the three boys broke out into 'Sorry (I Ran All The Way Home)'.
"Can you guys camp out tonight?" Vern asked as soon as the song was over. "I mean, if you tell your folks we're gonna tent out in my back field?"
"Yeah probably," Chris replied.
"You've got to man, sincerely," Vern said excitedly. "You won't believe this! Can you, Gordie?"
Gordie didn't even look up from his magazine when he said the he would be able to come. Ellie felt sorry for him; she knew that ever since Denny's death his parents had been neglecting him.
"Can you, Ellie?" Vern asked, looking directly at her.
Ellie was surprised, to say the least, that she was even being asked. She thought over her plan before telling that she would be able to camp out: she would tell her mother that some girl she went to school with invited her to a sleepover. Ellie knew that her mother would be so thrilled at her daughter having other female company, she wouldn't even bother to ask questions.
"You guys wanna see a dead body?" Vern asked seriously.
Everyone froze and looked at him.
Glad at having their attention, Vern delved into the story about what he knew about the previously mentioned dead body. He had been under his porch digging for the pennies that he had buried months ago when his older brother Billy and his friend Charlie Hogan came out of the house. Vern overheard them say that when they had stolen a car to take for a joyride with their girlfriends, they found the body of Ray Brower near the Back Harlow Road.
"I know the Back Harlow Road," Teddy said excitedly. "It comes to a dead end right by the Royal River. The train tracks are right there! My dad used to take me fishing for Cossies out there."
"Yeah," Ellie said quietly. "My brother would take me there to swim sometimes."
Vern, however, had not expected his friends to agree to go see the dead body and instantly began questioning whether or not they should go. It took some convincing, but once he was told that finding the body would make him a hero, he obliged.
Teddy, Chris, and Vern were excitedly going over a plan, but Gordie and Ellie held back. They shared a glance and Ellie understood that Gordie wanted to get in on the excitement but he just couldn't. Likewise, Ellie didn't think that anything good could come out of this.