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"I hate those guys!" I shouted out while walking with Gordie towards the tree house.

"Yeah, you're not the only one. Last week Chris and I were walking out of the General Store and Ace and Eyeball gave us both shiners." Gordie said, shaking his head.

"That sucks. You know what, let's just forget about them for now."

"Good idea."

--

Gordie and I had cooled off about the Cobras situation, and were now doing the secret knock to get into the tree house.

"COMING!" I heard Chris yell from inside the tree house, then I saw the trap door swing open.

Gordie and I climbed up into the tree house and we both joined in on the game of Skat Teddy and Chris were playing.

I always hated playing cards with Teddy because he always ended up rigging the cards and cheating. Teddy and I were always bickering, mostly because we were both stubborn as hell. But, I loved the kid, even though he could be a little wacky some times.

On the other hand, Chris was the total opposite. We rarely ever got in fights, and we were usually glued at the hip. Chris was my best friend out of the group, and he was always there for me no matter what, even if I did get him into some pretty bad situations at times.

"Wait till you guys hear what happened to me and Pink this morning." Gordie said to Chris and Teddy.

"Yeah, wait till you hear it. Tell um Gordie." I said.

Gordie told the whole story, with me adding in on some things too.

After we finished telling them Chris spoke up, "Why are they such assholes?"

"I don't know, but I don't think they're gonna stop being assholes anytime soon."

"Yeah. Well anyways, you guys wanna hear a joke?" Chris asked, he was always good at changing the subject off of the Cobras.

"Sure." We all said.

"How do you know a Frenchman's been in your backyard?"

"Hey, I'm French, okay?" Teddy said.

"Your garbage cans are empty and your dog's pregnant." He laughed. Me and Gordie started laughing too.

"Didn't I just say I was French?" Teddy said.

"Aw shut up Teddy, I thought it was funny." I said.

"You think everything is funny."

"True." I laughed.

I turned and grabbed a magazine, and then I saw a chubby blur running towards the tree house. I immediately knew who it was.

"Hey guys, Vern's coming." I said while looking up from my magazine.

"Let's leave him out there." Teddy laughed.

We heard Vern trying to do the secret knock, but he never got it right.

"That's not the secret knock!" Gordie yelled.

"Aw, I forget the secret knock, let me in!" Vern squealed from outside.

All the guys started laughing and I, being the only nice one, let Verno in.

"Oh man! You guys are not gonna believe this. This is so boss! Oh, man! Wait'll you hear this! Wait'll you hear this! You won't believe it. It's unbelievable!" Vern managed to say between breaths.

"Let me catch my breath, I ran all the way from my house." He said, finally calming down.

"I RAN ALL THE WAY HOME!" We all started singing. Vern tried to speak up again, but we all just ignored him and sang the song again.

"Do you guys wanna see a dead body?" Vern asked.

We all froze. Everyone knew what he was talking about too, and that was Ray Brower. Ray "El-Smacko" Brower.

Vern told us about how his brother Billy and one of the Cobras, Charlie Hogan, had found Ray Brower's body. We were all amazed, shocked, and excited at the same time because we had all been following the story for weeks, and now we had the information to actually finding Ray Brower.

"You guys know what this means, right?" I asked.

"It means we're going to find a dead body." Chris said.

"Hell yeah." I smiled, super excited.

"I betcha if we find Brower than we'll be on TV." Gordie said.

"We'll be heroes!" Chris yelled.

"Yeah!" We all agreed.

"I don't know guys, Billy will know where I found out." Vern said, kind of sad.

"He's not gonna care, cause it's gonna be us guys that find him, not Billy and Charlie Hogan in a boosted car. They'll probably pin a medal on you, Vern."

"You think so?"

"Yeah! Now what are we waiting for! Let's get out of here!" Teddy yelled, excited also.

"Alright, we'll meet at the tracks up at Mulberry Street in an hour." Chris said.

"Boss!" We all yelled.

I climbed down the ladder and ran home, even if it was 90 degrees out with extreme humidity.

I busted through the doorway, noticing that all the Cobras had left. I then ran up into my room, grabbing my sleeping bag and stuffing my flashlight in it. I grabbed all the change off of my dresser, which was only about 50 cents. I had no time to worry about money though, I was going to find a dead body! Too cool!

I ran downstairs, but then I tripped on one of the floorboards and came tumbling down the stairs.

Ow, Ow, Ow.

My whole body felt bruised, but that didn't stop me from running out the door.

I ran into the kitchen and wrote on a note that I'd be back in a couple days. My parents had gone out for Labor Day weekend, leaving the house to just me and Vince. Not very smart on their part, but we didn't care.

I ran out the door while throwing on my keds, but then the running came to a halt when my body smacked into someone else's.

Grand.