Chapter Two

The better part of one's life consists of his friendships.

Ellie was all ready for the journey around noon, but she wanted to buy some food for herself before embarking on the journey. She said goodbye to her mother, who had been increasingly more cheerful since Ellie had told her she had been invited to a sleepover, and left for the drug store.

About ten steps away from the store entrance, Ellie saw Ace Merrill and Eyeball Chambers coming from the other direction. She quickened her pace, hoping they wouldn't see her and to her relief, they didn't.

They were a bit older than her but she had gone to elementary school with them and they were the most feared kids on the playground. Ellie smiled lightly to herself when she realized that the fear she felt for them in kindergarten was still with her nearly ten years later.

After buying some chips and a coke, Ellie left the store but entered into an argument between Gordie and Ace. She saw that Ace had taken Gordie's Yankee baseball cap, something that Denny had given to him.

Ellie, who had managed to stay unnoticed by everyone, walked to where Eyeball was standing behind Ace; she saw that he wore a smirk on his face.

"Can't you tell him to back off, Richie?" She asked, his name rolling off her tongue like acid. She knew he hated his first name.

Eyeball, however, didn't even flinch. "Just shut up and stay out of the way, Shelly," he said.

"You're a real asshole, you know that," Chris said, jumping into the argument between Gordie and Ace.

Ellie instantly looked at the ground, afraid of what she might see if she kept her head up. When she did look up she saw that Ace had pinned Chris to the ground and held a burning cigarette only a few inches away from his face.

"Okay, okay, I take it back," said Chris desperately.

Ace let him go and he and Eyeball turned around to leave.

"Bye girls," Eyeball said to Chris and Gordie. "Lady," he added to Ellie.

Ellie made an ugly face at him when he turned around.

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Once they met up with Teddy and Vern at the train tracks, Chris showed everyone his father's pistol that he had brought. Ellie felt relieved. She had wondered what sort of animals would be out in the wilderness.

"What do we need a pistol for, anyway?" Vern asked nervously.

At this, Ellie turned and looked at him incredulously. Was he serious?

"It's spooky sleeping out in the woods," Chris said matter-of-factly. "We might see a bear or a garbage can."

All of the boys laughed but Ellie looked at them confused.

"I brought a comb," Vern said randomly and Ellie smiled.

"Why do we need a comb," Chris asked.

"Well, if we're going to be on TV, we want to look good, don't we?" Vern replied. "And besides, Ellie might need it later on; she has more hair than the rest of us put together," he added glancing at Ellie.

"Thank you, Vern" said Ellie, who genuinely smiled.

"Yeah, that was a lot of thinking, Vern," Gordie said as he patted him on the back.

Teddy mad a fist and brought it towards Vern as if he was going to punch him and Vern, thinking that he was, flinched.

"Two for flinching," Teddy said happily and punched him twice.

Ellie snapped her fingers at them to get their attention and mouthed 'stop', which they instantly did. The five of them set off, following the tracks.

"Maybe we should just hitchhike," Vern said.

"Negative," Ellie said and continued on walking.