hey guys! hope you like my story...

It was weird how one place could change your life forever.

I had just moved to the small town Castle Rock, not much to do in the town, but it seemed alright. I grew up in a suburb of San Diego and things are just a lot different out there, but I liked how it was so simple in this town. By the way my name is Ryan Murphy, weird name for a girl, but it's what the parents gave me.

I decided to go into town to check out the place, and the Blue Point Diner seemed like a good place to stop. I walked in and it looked like one of the diners you see in movies, you know, the juke box, waitress with the funny glasses. I sat down and ordered a coke and some fries when I saw four boys walk in. All I thought was thank god there are some kids in this town!

I suddenly felt really stupid sitting in a booth by myself like a loser. One of the boys was chubbier and the other guys seemed to be pushing him around a lot. Another one was skinny and had doe eyes, and a more sensitive looking side. The third one had to have the biggest glasses I'd ever seen but he seemed like a funny one. Then I guessed the last boy was the leader of the group since he was leading the conversation. I felt kind of stupid evaluating these guys but it was a heck of a lot better than doing nothing.

Then I noticed they all started whispering about something and looking over at me. I saw the one with the big glasses start walking towards my booth and I tried to hide behind some menus but that definitely failed because the one with the coke bottle glasses came and sat right across from me, something I wasn't used to. People don't usually just sit next to people they don't know, right?

"Well, hello hello!" Mr. Coke bottle said.

"Um, hi?" What was I supposed to say to this kid? Not every day a guy just comes up to me and starts chatting.

"You're the new girl everyone's talking about. The name's Teddy Duchamp."

"Hey, what about us?" Piped up the chubbier one.

"Oh yeah well this here is Chris, this is Gordie, and that's Verno." The three of them came around the table a said hi and I introduced myself.

"Ryan's a cool name." said Chris, I think he sensed that I was a little nervous around all these new people so he tried to make some small talk, and to be honest I was pretty relieved. We talked about my name and I told him about San Diego until I started feeling more comfortable around the guys. After the small talk I decided to leave to go unpack some more. I said bye to the guys and I was on my way.

"RYAN!!!" I looked around and I saw a blur flying towards me, realizing that it was that crazy little brother of mine, Timmy, running down the stairs and practically flinging himself onto me. I leave for an hour and he already misses me, probably only missed me because he's already bored of the town, and we've only been here for what, about 24 hours? I told him that we would hang out after I finished unpacking and moving into my room.

I went upstairs and into my um well, I don't know what you would call it. There are curtains dangling from the curtain rods, and I swear to god someone tried to burn them because you can definitely see some nasty burn stains on there, and from the look of the curtains I wouldn't blame um. My floors are wooden and some of the floorboards are coming out, the walls are as white as hospital walls, oh and did I mention I don't even have a bed? Ha so yes I can say I have some work to do on this "room" of mine. I guess fixing it should become my new hobby.

I went out in front of the house and decided to take a good look at it. It's pretty much a two story house that has some serious work to be done on it, but it wasn't much different from my old house. Ah my old house, so many memories there. The good and the bad, I still haven't told you why we moved but I guess I should save that for another time. I sat on the porch and thought about the guys I met today and how cool they were, just hoped I would see them again. I snapped out of my thoughts when I heard my mom yelling for me to come in for dinner. I met my mom in the kitchen and she started drilling me with a million questions.

"So what do you think of the town?" said mom

"It's pretty cool, the kids are weird around here mom they actually come up and talk to people they don't know."

"Ha, well that's a nice change, now isn't it?"

"Yeah at first it was weird, but I like it."

"So what are their names?" "How are their parents?" "Do they have any siblings?" There goes mom asking all the questions again.

"Their names are Teddy, Vern, Gordie, and Chris."

"Boys!?" my mom gets really shocked when I mention guys because I've never had a boyfriend or guys that are friends.

"Yes mom, boys."

"Well that's good Ry, I always knew you'd fit in this town, you should invite them over and I'd make some dinner for them and then may-"

"Mom! Don't get to over excited about this! I only talked to them for about 10 minutes, and besides how do I even know if they like me?"

"Oh hunny don't worry about it, who couldn't like my little boo?" Boo. Whatta nickname. My mom's been calling me that since I was about three because I was always the scaredy cat of the family, and to be honest I still am.

I set the table and heard Timmy running down those stairs again. He ran into the kitchen and tried to slide into his seat but ended up on the floor instead. Ha that kid was always falling, made for good entertainment. I helped him get up and he tried to play it off like he planned it. Since he's 10 now he thinks he should be more masculine. Ha I don't know, but I love the kid. Timmy and I finished our dinner and helped with the dishes.

It was a nice summer night so I decided to take Timmy for a walk and show him some of the town. We were walking and all of a sudden heard someone laughing like a crazy hyena. Of course being the scaredy cat I am, I jumped behind a couple of bushes. But then I realized I had heard that laugh before earlier, in the restaurant, and it belonged to none other than Teddy Duchamp.

Timmy and I tried to find out where the laugh was coming from when we spotted a tree house with a light on inside. I don't know what I was thinking but the next thing I know I'm making Timmy climb up the ladder with me and I started knocking on the trap door.

"THAT'S NOT THE SECRET KNOCK!" I heard someone scream from the tree house. Shit what the hell's a secret knock?

"Um, it's Ryan, I don't know if you remember me but uh-"

"RYAN!" I heard rustling and saw the door swing open.

"Well hello good lookin!" It was funny how pathetic Teddy's lines were.

"Hey Ryan!" The rest of the guys said almost in unison. They seemed really excited to see a girl, but if I lived in this town I'd be excited to see anyone my age.

"So who's this kid?" Chris said

"Oh this is my brother, Timmy; sorry if he annoys you guys, but he's actually a pretty cool kid once you get him talking."

"Well we'll take your word for it Ry." Chris was already calling me by my nickname.

I realized I hadn't really started talking to Gordie and Vern yet. Gordie seemed shyer than I was and Vern kinda seemed oblivious to things. So I started thinking up conversations in my mind of what to say to them and I finally sucked it up and started talking.

"So how old are you guys?"

"Well we're all 15 and going to be sophomores, how about you?" Gordie said

"Same! Thank god I've found you guys; I don't know how I would survive the boredom of this little town. So are there any other kids our age around here?"

"There's a couple but they turned out to be wet ends and aren't that great to be around. There also are some other kids, that um well yeah we don't want to talk about them." Gordie said

"Aw come on, tell me! It'd be good to hear some stories. Please?"

"Alright, well, they're the Cobras, and let's just say we don't have the greatest past with each other."

"YEAH! Chris almost got k-"

"SHUT UP VERN!!!!" Teddy Chris and Gordie said in unison. Definitely asking them about this Chris thing later.

"So anyways," Gordie said while shooting a look a Vern "Well the Cobras are low lifes who just like to beat up on the kids that are younger than them, like us, and they've been out to get us ever since… um well yeah anyways…." Alright so now I'm really starting to wonder about these kids and these so called "Cobras" but I didn't think it was the right time to ask, maybe I'd ask when I got to know them better.

"Man that'd be so cool! I'd go in there and just be like bam bam bam!!! That'd be so boss, and you know what else would be-" I looked over at Timmy and he was in a deep conversation with Teddy about some Normandy thing.

Vern suggested that we should all play Poker and gamble cherry flavor pez instead of money. I guess Vern really likes those pez of his. Teddy suggested that we play strip poker and that I would go first. Oh Teddy.

By the end of the night the guys seemed to take Timmy in as if he was their own brother, Timmy just has that kind of effect on people, and I was talking to the guys like they were my best friends. Chris and I talked about my room for a bit and I told him how much I liked the town. I realized there was so much more to learn about them, and this wouldn't be the last I'd seen of them.