AN:/ My first Stand By Me fic... I like it, and I hope you do too. Props to anyone that understands where I got the OC's name...


Halley Edmonds smiled down at the two dogs by her side. They were purebred Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers. They were her only friends in the small town of Castle Rock, Maine. Her father decided to move them there after her grandmother died. Halley could tell her grandmother was the only thing keeping her family in California. Why they chose such a small town, Halley would never know.

Her dog Scott started barking at a stray cat, and Halley bent down and grabbed his collar. As she went to lead her two dogs across the street, she didn't look. A flat-black car slammed on the brakes directly in front of her. Terrifying her.

"Oh shit man! What did we hit?" a voice asked to its companions. Halley stood up and stared at the car full of guys about her age. Irresponsible jerks. She did the only thing she thought was appropriate in that situation.

"What the hell is your problem asshole? You almost hit me and my dogs! Watch where you're goin, huh?" Halley kicked the bumper and the blonde bad-boy driver jumped out of the car and shoved her out of the way.

"What's our problem? What's yours? Kicking my car like that. Who the hell are you anyway?" He glared at her and her other dog Nova started growling. Halley could tell these thugs were bad news, but what did she care?

"Oh, you don't want me kicking your precious piece of shit? What are you gonna do when I do it again?" Halley asked kicking the front bumper again. If it weren't for Scott and Nova, the guy would have probably hit her or something. Instead, he pushed her to the ground, got back in his car and sped off.


Halley wandered around the town of Castle Rock with her trusty dogs at her side. Aside from the incident with the jerks and the car, Halley liked the small town. She wandered around until she saw a small diner. Convenient. A little Mom and Pop place. Probably the only diner in town.

Nova and Scott sat by the door while Halley ran inside to get something for them to drink. She got a soda for herself and the people that owned the place were nice enough to give her two bowls of water free of charge. As she was about to leave, someone hollered out to her.

"Hey! Crazy girl! Over here!" Halley looked and saw the guys from earlier. The one with curly dark brown hair got up and held the door open for her. She noticed what looked like a scar above his eye. She smiled and set the bowls down for the dogs. She stood back up and he was still staring at her.

"Thanks…" She knew he was probably just trying to be nice so she would sleep with him. Small town gangsters were all the same. It was kind of pathetic. She walked back inside and grabbed her Pepsi-Cola so she could join her dogs. Before she did that though, she grabbed a pen and paper. Halley scribbled her name and phone number on it before handing it to him. "For your blonde friend that pushed me earlier. Twice."


(The next day)

Halley Edmonds was playing fetch in her front yard with Nova and Scott until she heard a horn blaring. She looked up to see the gang from yesterday. All the guys piled out of the car and approached her. Nova growled again, but Halley threw the stick.

"What can I help you boys with?" Halley asked picking up the stick Nova had just dropped at her feet. The leader pulled out the piece of paper she had written her name and number on.

"Is it said Hailey or Holly?" he asked with a smile. Halley smirked as Nova came and dropped her stick on the guy's feet. He looked down at it in disgust.

"Pick it up and throw it, and I'll tell you how to say my name." she smirked again. The guy instantly picked the stick up and Nova bounced around. The moment Scott barked, he chucked the stick and Nova bolted after it. "Halley. Like, valley but with an 'H'."

"Like the comet!" One of the guys said in excitement. Halley smiled at him and nodded.

"I'm Ace, this is Eyeball and Billy and Charlie." the blonde pointed to himself and his friends. Scott kept butting his head on Eyeball's leg.

"Aw. He likes you. Also, if you're here to get me to apologize for kicking your car, then no. You deserved it." Ace smiled at her statement.

"We're here to see if you want to hang out with us. You've got spunk. I like that. What do you say; do you wanna go riding with us?" Ace motioned toward his car. Halley looked down at her dogs staring up at her.

"Just one minute. Nova, Scott, let's go inside guys." Halley and her dogs went in her house while Ace and Eyeball watched her go. Inside, she was running throughout the house, getting food and water set up for her companions. "I don't know when I'll be back guys. Nova, Scott, protect."

"Alright, so you're coming with us?" When Halley nodded and closed the front door, Ace smirked. "Very nice."

"Shotgun! Called it!" Charlie ran to the car and jumped in the front seat. Ace and Eyeball glared at him. "…What?"

"The little lady gets front seat. Get your ass in the back." Ace snapped his fingers and Charlie clamored into the back with Eyeball and Billy. Halley blushed slightly and laughed as Ace held her door open for her.

"So, Ace, you got a real name, or were your parents 'inspired' to actually name you 'Ace?' Like how my parents named me after that comet." Halley asked, pulling her hair into a bun.

Ace was chewing on a toothpick, and his eyes were glued to the road. Without looking at her, he replied: "John." Halley smiled at him and turned sideway to look in the backseat.

"So boys, where we headed? I'm in for anything that doesn't successfully kill me." she giggled when Charlie stared at her in shock. "What?"

"Hey Ace, how about we show her the, uh, the rest of the gang?" Eyeball leaned forward and asked. Ace nodded approval and spun the wheel really fast, causing the three in the backseat to shift and Halley to clutch his shoulder.

"What the hell was that?" Halley popped his arm when they were heading down a driveway toward a large white house. She gaped at the size of it. The only house she had seen that big was her old house in California.

"Home sweet home." Ace honked his horn and a few more guys hanging out on the porch waved at them. Halley could tell they had been waiting for a while. When he put the car in park, the others shouted out a greeting. "Guys, this is Halley. Now, I want you on your best behavior. She's new."

"Hi." She waved sheepishly. She could tell Ace didn't want to introduce everyone, and she was fine with that. Fewer names to remember meant fewer names to forget. She followed him up to the porch and almost, almost, clung to the back of his shirt and followed him inside.

"So Halley, what did you move to this town for? It couldn't have been for the opportunities." Eyeball asked, propping his feet up on the railing.

"My dad used to visit here when he was a kid. We inherited the place we're living in from my great-uncle or something like that." She avoided mentioning moving to escape memories of her dead grandmother.

"Well that's pretty cool. Where are you from?" Another one of the guys asked. Halley was starting to like them, but she wondered what Ace was doing inside.

"The beaches of California." she bobbed her head and tried not to giggle. Halley cried out and fell to the ground when a black mass jumped on her and attacked her face.

"Harley you mangy mongrel, get off her. Go chase some stray cats or something!" Ace pulled the massive black dog away with ease and pointed him in a different direction. "You alright, Hal?"

"That. Was. Terrifying." She was staring at him in shock. When Scott or Nova would jump on her and lick her face like that, she was never able to overpower them. Ace helped her up and brushed her off. The others smirked at one another behind them.

"I wasn't expecting him to do that. He never bothers anyone when I let him out." Harley traipsed up onto the porch again and Halley tensed up. It was the first time she had ever been nervous around a dog. Harley sniffed her feet and Halley's toes curled.

"It's probably just Nova and Scott. You smell my dogs on me, huh?" She was still tense and she crossed her arms around her chest. "Go away now. Please."

"Harley, go lay down." Eyeball popped the dog very lightly with a rolled up magazine. The dog barked happily and sat at Eyeball's feet. "Stupid mutt."