****I'm back and still own NOTHING! Camp was long and after five dragging days in Missouri heat I am thrilled to be back at a computer. Enjoy this chapter!!!****

CHAPTER SONG::: I don't have one!!!! Maybe next time. Let me know if you have an idea.

****SADIE****

I stumbled to my locker and kicked it open. Crouched on the ground I tried my damndest not to be kicked by the shuffling feet of two hundred teenagers eager to leave the building.

"Hey, Sa." I heard Chris's voice echo above me. I stood and slung my backpack around.

"Hi." I mumbled grumpily. Gordie ambled up next to Chris and greeted me casually.

"What's wrong?" He inquired with concern in his voice.

"School is school no matter where you attend." I half laughed. "And that." I pointed to my sister who was strolled up to me.

"Hi Chris. Hi Gordie." She shifted her gaze to me and a small smile lit her face. "Hello Sadie. How was your first day?"

"Fine."

"Good, I'm glad. I am going to be home late tonight with meetings. I'm sure that Mark can manage something for the two of you though."

"I'll be just fine."

"I know you have homework so I would like you home by seven to work on it."

"Alright." Her face changed as she realized she would get no reaction from my monotone voice.

"Good." She forced a smile one last time and walked off; the sound of her high heels slamming on the tiles reverberated throughout the now empty hall.

"What was that?" Gordie asked almost the minute she was out of ear shot.

"Sibling tension. Out of the four of us Zelper kids, her and I were never the closest." I descended the stairs and left the building with a breath of afternoon freedom.

"There are four of you?" Chris asked, not hiding the fact that he was wondering if I had any other sisters.

"No. Well, yes. But no. Hey, Teddy." I greeted Teddy as he leaned against the building smoking.

"Hey."

"Where's Vern?" Chris asked looking around for the fourth boy I had yet to meet.

"Had to go home. Whined something about Billy kicking his ass for something or other."

"Ah." No one really seemed to mind Vern's absence and the conversations continued.

We were now ambling through town talking of school, the past summer, Chris's upcoming birthday, and a surplus of other silence fillers. As we walked down Third Street I looked into an alley and out of the corner of my eye I saw two boys leaning against the dumpster with a long haired blond girl. The taller boy wore an irritated scowl on his face and had a shock of tousled blond hair. The other boy had curly brown hair and a twitchy right eye. When I walked by the alley I could feel Gordie, Chris, and even Teddy tense up.

Angry nudged Twitchy and nodded in my direction. They glowered down at me and the blond girl spun around and stared at me with distant blue eyes. Twitchy began to step forward but Blondie stopped him and whispered something to Angry. I looked at them and heard the man's voice in my head.


"He's going to die and you're going be here to watch us kill him, girlie." I shuddered, looked at the ground, and kept shuffling forward. A few feet away I looked up at the faces of my companions to see them empty and blank.

"Who were they?" I asked Gordie.

"People you need to avoid like the plague." I rolled my eyes and looked to Chris.

"Who the hell are they?"

"No one." He said simply, pulling a flyer off a light pole.

"Teddy. Who the fucking hell are those freaks!"

"Damn. Such language." He laughed and ran a hand through his hair. "Those 'freaks' are our own daily dosing of hell."

"So melodramatic."

"They are two of the Cobras. Castle Rock's very own gang of thugs. Four years ago we kinda pissed in their Cheerios and ever since they have been out to get us…ten times worse than they used to. Now they have reason and motive for our heads."

"What did ya do?" We walked out of town and towards the woods where we stopped in a clearing in front of a lake. As soon as the question left my mouth I had a feeling a long story went along with the answer. Gordie and Chris looked at each other and Teddy got a faraway look in his eyes. I sat down under a tree and silently the boys joined me on the ground.

"Oh hey guys!" The trance seemed to crack as a boy I assumed to be Vern broke into the woods. "I thought I would find you here. If you're not here or in the tree house your at the diner." He babbled on and then his roaming eyes landed on me. "Who's the broad?"

"Sadie." I mentioned my name before any of the others could introduce me as 'the English teacher's sister'.

"Oh! So you're the chick Teddy won't shut up about." I looked to Teddy who calmly chucked a rock at Vern's head. "Ouch! Teddy, you're trying to kill me!"

"Maybe." He said nonchalantly. He picked the flyer Chris grabbed off the ground and his face lit up with a toothy grin. "Guys! The festival is in two weeks!"

"No, Teddy." Gordie said, with a panicked look on his face.

"Come on!"

"Do you remember last time? Or did that concussion you got erase it from your memory?"

"That won't happen this time! Promise!" he was now standing up and getting heated about this festival. "Vern! You believe me, right?"

"Not a chance in hell, man!"

"Chambers?"

"Shit no. Life is getting tolerable and I don't have a death wish." Teddy sat down and sulked giving up the fight.

"What happened?" I asked as I looked the flyer over. The festival actually looked kinda fun.

"Last year Teddy refused to wear his seat belt on the scrambler and he flew out, cracking his head. He got in a fist fight with a Carney. The he broke three funhouse mirrors!" Vern explained in an overly theatrical way.

"Those mirrors were an accident!" Teddy defended himself.

"What happened? Did they crack when they saw your face?" Chris, Gordie, and Vern cracked up and Teddy shot me a dirty look.

"Bitch."

"Jack-ass."

"Go screw."

"You wish it was you under me." I said with a smirk on my face. If there was one thing my brother had taught me it was how to win.

"You like being on top?" he asked slyly, coming towards me. I didn't shy away as he got closer like other girls would have.

"Heads up. I kick." I lifted my Converse clad sneaker, poised and ready. He stopped in his tracks.

"Un-cool."

"Never said I was cool." I ignored his next attempt to engage in verbal combat and pulled to my homework. "Chris, did you get number twenty-five?"

"Yeah." He leaned over and took my pencil. "X equals seventeen."

"What? How?" my face contorted into confusion. He laughed and showed me the problem step by step.

"Get it?"

"Yes! Holy shit, I get it!"

"Then do twenty-seven on your own." He chuckled. I looked down at the book and everything I might have known evaporated like a puddle on a hot day.

"Thirteen?"

"Not even closer." I groaned and looked to Gordie who had his nose in his social studies book.

"These geeks are boring. Come on Verno." Teddy stood and left the woods up the path with a reluctant Vern.

The three of us stayed studying until six fifty when I looked at my watch and then to the world around me. The sky had gone from cobalt to goldenrod and locusts were beginning to sound.

"I have to go." I mumbled stuffing my books inside my bag and standing to leave.

"Yeah me too. I'm late for dinner." Gordie added, dashing up the path ahead of Chris and me.

"Here." He gave me his hand and helped me up the steep path. Going up proved to be far more difficult than coming down.

"Thanks." I brushed my hair out of my eyes and together we walked out of the forest and back to reality. "Where do you live?"

"Near Tyler Street. Why?"

"Because it looks like you are trying to walk me to the house."

"How does where I live matter with walking you home?"

"It's way out of your way and I don't require to be walked home. We live on opposite sides of towns and you won't be home till eight if you walk me home."

"You're point being?"

"I can get along by myself. Go home and study for the Social Studies test tomorrow." His eyes narrowed and I could see he was about to fight back. "Please? I'll be fine."

"Alright. But if anything happens to you, you are getting a big 'I told ya so' tomorrow."

"Deal." He took my hand and squeezed it.

"Be safe, Sadie."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." I turned and walked away with Chris on my brain.

I had only walked a couple blocks when I heard footsteps behind me. I was on a back road short cut Teddy had shown me the first time the boys walked me home.

"Chris? Are you following me?" I spun around and was face to face with the blond boy from the alley.

"Hmmm, Chris. Are you two like a thing now?" his eyes were terrifying and his voice was cruel.

"Oh, hello. I don't believe we have met."

"No. I don't believe we have. I'm Ace." His voice was nearly a growl and he looked me up and down.

"Ah yes. A Gardner Snake or something." I turned to leave and I felt his wide hand on my shoulder.

"Were not done here, Sadie."

"How do you know my name?" It took every inch of my being to keep my voice steady.

"A little birdie told me." He leaned into my face. "You're kinda cute. Why you hanging around with shit like those boys."

"They're not shit, Ace. Now if you will excuse me." I tried to escape for a second time and his hands gripped my shoulders tight.

"He's going to die and you're going be here to watch us kill him, girlie." The man's horrific voice rang in my skull as Ace gripped my arms.

"Let go." He leaned down and breathed in my ear.

"Or what?" I looked around for somebody. Anybody. He shoved me to the ground and glared down at me. I closed my eyes and saw Steven smiling at me. I was about to see him again, just way to soon and not the way I wanted to.

****Ooooooo cliff hanger! Review and I will write more! Ooooo bribery! I own nothing except for Sadie, Mark, Sylvia, and Reggie and Steven who are about to make an appearance.****