A.N: Okay, well, here's another one. Thanks so much for all the reviews, you all are stars! 3 I hope you like this chapter. It seems pretty short, so I'm sorry about that. This chapter focuses more on Chris than anyone, but Gordie will be coming back into center stage in the next chapter. Enjoy :)
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Gordie sat down next to Chris at the lunch table so happily that it made Chris's eyes hurt.
"Hey, Gordo," Chris said weakly, shielding his eyes from Gordie's grin.
"Hello, Chris!" Gordie greeted him. "How are you on this charming Tuesday?"
Chris scowled at him. "What are you so fuckin' cheerful about?"
"Nothing," Gordie said. And beamed.
Chris rolled his eyes and returned to his chicken. Gordie watched him for a second. "What are YOU so fuckin' MISERABLE about?"
"I'm not miserable, I'm just tired," Chris said, giving him a half-smile. "I was up until four trying to get Teddy's dick to stay on." Gordie looked at him with alarm, and Chris snickered. "Yeah, long story."
"What you do in your spare time..." Gordie said, shrugging. Chris gave him the finger.
"Eat me raw, Lachance."
"Yeah, yeah. Where's Jessica, anyway?"
Chris shrugged. "Last time I saw her, she was in the lunch line, beating Edith McCain around the head with a folder."
Gordie nodded knowingly. Jessica and Edith had a longstanding rivalry, begun when Edith had come to school wearing a chipmunk fur hat. "What was it this time?"
"I think Edith had tried to get the last chocolate pudding. I would have broken it up, but last time I did that, Jessica wound up punching me. Besides, it's kind of cool to see them fight." Chris yawned and rubbed his eyes. "Shit, I'm so tired. What time did you end up going home last night, man?"
Gordie grinned the man-of-the-world grin he had been practising all morning. "Seven."
Chris didn't even look up for his food. "No way, me and Jessie went home later than seven and you were still sitting on your sorry ass waiting for Elizabeth."
Gordie grinned the MOTW grin again, and winked at Chris... who still didn't look up. Gordie sighed impatiently. "Chris?"
"Yeah?"
"Look up for a sec."
Chris glanced up. Gordie grinned suavely at him and winked, and Chris choked on his juice. "What the fuck?! Gordie, I told you yesterday to never practice flirting on me again-"
"No, no," Gordie said irritably. "I went home at seven. In the morning."
Chris's eyes widened. "You stayed there all night? What the hell for?"
Gordie raised his eyebrows in a way he had seen Elvis do once. "I wasn't alone. Elizabeth arrived five minutes after you'd gone."
Chris grinned at him. "All right! So you were there all night with her?" He nudged him.
"Yeah," Gordie said. "All night. Baby."
"'Baby'?"
"It sounded cool," Gordie explained. "But nothing happened, we just talked. All. Night. Baby."
Chris rolled his eyes. "Okay, first, stop with the 'Baby' thing. I've heard enough endearments from you this week. And second, you guys were there all night and nothing happened? You expect me to believe that?" He paused and looked Gordie up and down. "Actually, I guess it is YOU. But are you crazy, Lachance? You spent the whole night with the girl you like in a private house-"
"That's in a tree," Gordie reminded him. "And falling apart."
"Yeah, but, anyway. You spent the whole night with her, and you didn't put the moves on her? Or anything?"
"Nope," Gordie said dreamily. "We just connected."
"*Connected*?"
"In a spiritual way," Gordie said defensively.
"Spiritual." Chris studied Gordie. "You're kicking yourself mentally."
"No!" Gordie said. "It was perfect! We spent the night getting to know one another. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way-"
Chris waited. Gordie groaned and put his head in his hands. "Okay, so I wanted to put the moves on her. Really badly. But I couldn't. There was just no right time for it."
Chris exhaled loudly. "Gordo, you always say that. If you're waiting for angels to start singing and candles and red wine, you're going to be waiting forever. Here's what you do. You get her alone. Like you had her. The. Whole. Night. And you put your arm around his shoulder and touch her face. Then you lean in and-"
"And what?"
Both boys jumped and looked up. Elizabeth was standing behind them, her hands on her hips.
"And you ask about your tax returns," Chris said smoothly. "The lady at the bank is really stingy about them. We're just discussing the best strategies to get her to be a little more... generous."
Elizabeth smiled and sat down beside Gordie. "Right."
"Uh, how much did you hear?" Gordie asked weakly.
"Enough to think that Chris was hitting on you," Elizabeth giggled.
Chris's eyes widened again. "Shut up! That's un-fucking-believable! Gordie was the one hitting on *me* all of yesterday-"
"LIZ!!!!!!!"
All three turned and looked in alarm at the source of the noise. Then Elizabeth jumped to her feet.
"CRYSTAL!!!!!"
She ran over and was instantly pulled into a hug by the first screamer. Chris and Gordie's jaws dropped collectively.
Elizabeth returned with the screamer in tow. "Guys, this is my cousin! Oh, I guess you already know her?"
"Yeah," Gordie managed to say. Chris's mouth was still wide open. Standing next to Elizabeth was Crystal Walker, head Popular-But-Bitchy cheerleader (she had obviously been absent yesterday when Jessica signed her death warrent with them) and best looking girl in the whole school. As tall as Chris, with gleaming golden brown hair, a deep tan and big brown eyes, Gordie couldn't remember Crystal ever saying a word to him. About anything.
"Oh, are these your friends?" Crystal said, sounding amused. "Chris Chambers and Gordie Lachance? Gee, Liz, you're sure burning up the social ladder here!"
"Shut up, Crystal," Elizabeth said, unfazed. "Do you want to sit?"
"Sure," Crystal said. "Not here, obviously."
"Well, I'm sitting here," Elizabeth said, falling back into her chair. "So..."
Crystal sighed and ungraciously sat down next to Chris, who inched away.
"So, Liz," she said. "How do you like it here?"
"It's amazing," Elizabeth said, smiling at Gordie. "Wow, Crystal, I haven't seen you in forever! How have you been?"
Crystal giggled. "Oh, you know, the same."
As the girls chatted, Gordie leaned over to Chris. "You're sitting next to Crystal Walker!" he hissed in his ear.
Chris rolled his eyes. "I know."
"Do something!" Gordie whispered excitedly. "Offer to buy her something. Propose marriage! Impregnate her! Ask her-"
Chris cut him off. "Gordie, I have a girlfriend!" he whispered. "Why don't *you* do something? Jeez, at least look down her shirt."
"Elizabeth is sitting right next to me," Gordie pointed out. "She might kill me."
"Gordie," Elizabeth said, interrupting their conversation. "What did you think of the Chemistry test today?"
"I spent the whole time stealing Danny Mujer's Gummi Bears and murdering them with my pencil," Gordie admitted. "What did you do?"
As Elizabeth and Gordie compared procrastinating techniques, Chris sat back and wished Jessica would get here. What the hell was taking her so long? The thought made him anxious. Once Jessica had been late to meet him and had arrived three hours late, covered in mud and leaves. She had followed a bird into a tree and had subsequently been stuck up the tree until she eventually fell out. Chris snickered under his breath. Probably Jessica was stuffing Edith McCain into her locker right about now. Unless it was the other way around. Chris made a mental note to stop by the office and steal Edith McCain's locker combination after lunch, if Jessica hadn't arrived. Just, you know, to be on the safe side.
He became aware someone was staring at him. He glanced up and wondered why he hadn't yet turned to stone, because Crystal Walker was staring at him.
"What?" Chris asked, uncomfortable.
"Nothing," Crystal said. "I was just noticing how much taller you'd gotten since last summer."
"Yeah, I grew," Chris said. "What's it to you?"
"Nothing!" Crystal said again. "Jeez, why are you so defensive, Chambers?"
"Because you're a bitch. I haven't forgotten the time you and your little bitch friends stole Teddy's glasses and hid them for a week. Or when you put pillows under your shirts and pretended to be Vern. I'm not stupid, Crystal. I know that whatever you say to me is just leading up to a way to insult me. Just get on with it, okay?" Chris shook his head and looked around again for Jessica.
"Don't be such an asshole, Chris," Crystal said cheerfully. "They were just jokes. And we didn't do them to you. And we apologised for them." When Chris didn't answer, she hesitated and peered closely at him. "Wow, you're serious. Come on. I'm sorry, really."
"Whatever, just leave me alone." When no reply came to this (admittedly not very cutting) comeback, Chris glanced at Crystal and was staggered. She looked almost... well, sorry. Chris instantly felt bad for making her feel bad, and in the next moment, cursed his heart. Why did he always feel bad when people felt guilty, when they should feel guilty? It was the same with his parents. Days after his dad had beaten the shit out of him, his mother would come over and apologise profusely for running away. Or his dad would even gruffly ask Chris how his eye (the same one he had smashed with his fist) was, and look guilty when Chris replied that it still hurt- and Chris would make excuses for his father in his head. Oh, he didn't mean to do it. He was drunk. He was upset. Chris had been getting in his way.
But Crystal looked so sad.
Chris reached and awkwardly touched her shoulder. "It's okay, forget it."
Crystal glanced up. "Sincerely?"
Chris shrugged. "Yeah. It doesn't matter."
Crystal smiled at him and, worryingly, he felt his insides turn to jelly. This must be what it was like to be Gordie.
"Okay. Thanks, Chris." Crystal turned to Elizabeth, interrupting Gordie's demonstration of the best way to murder a Gummi Bear (rip off its head, throw head at someone, pull off the Gummi Bear's limbs, stick them to one's face, eat Gummi Bear's innards). "Liz, I'm, uh, gonna go. See you later?'
"Okay," Elizabeth waved distractedly.
Crystal turned to Chris. "See ya."
"Yeah."
Crystal glanced at Gordie, who was enthusiastically imitating a Gummi Bear as it was being murdered ("No! Please don't eat me! Please, Mr. Lachance! I just want to be your friend- argh! Noooooooooooo-"), made a face, and scurried off. Chris smiled slightly in confusion, watching her go.
"Hello, hello, hello!" Jessica leapt into the seat that Crystal had just vacated. "God, was that Superbitch, leader of the bitches, she who has come to rule all, the one ring-"
"Yeah," Chris said, shaking thoughts of Crystal out of his mind and turning his attention to the ball of energy next to him. "Where the hell have you been? I thought Edith had eaten you."
"I'm suprised she didn't," Jessica shuddered. "I had to go wash chocolate pudding out of my hair. I have a lot more hair than I originally thought. Hey, Liz and Gordie sure look friendly."
"Yeah, they spent the night together," Chris hissed. "In the treehouse."
Jessica gasped. "No way!"
Chris nodded. "Yeah, but don't say anything-"
"Hey, Liz!" Jessica said. "I hear you and Gordie were doing it all night in the treehouse." Chris slapped his hand to his forehead.
Elizabeth grimaced. "No. Not exactly."
"Did Gordie woo you?" Jessica asked. "He was wooing Chris yesterday."
Elizabeth raised her eyebrows. "Yeah, I heard about that. There wasn't much wooing. Maybe an oo."
"Well, that's a start," Jessica said encouragingly. "Gordie, did you-" She stopped. "Did something happen to your hair?"
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A/N: Well, there we go. I'm hoping to get another chapter written this weekend, so maybe I can get it up. Please R and R, you guys, I need the love! It's been a BAD WEEK.
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Gordie sat down next to Chris at the lunch table so happily that it made Chris's eyes hurt.
"Hey, Gordo," Chris said weakly, shielding his eyes from Gordie's grin.
"Hello, Chris!" Gordie greeted him. "How are you on this charming Tuesday?"
Chris scowled at him. "What are you so fuckin' cheerful about?"
"Nothing," Gordie said. And beamed.
Chris rolled his eyes and returned to his chicken. Gordie watched him for a second. "What are YOU so fuckin' MISERABLE about?"
"I'm not miserable, I'm just tired," Chris said, giving him a half-smile. "I was up until four trying to get Teddy's dick to stay on." Gordie looked at him with alarm, and Chris snickered. "Yeah, long story."
"What you do in your spare time..." Gordie said, shrugging. Chris gave him the finger.
"Eat me raw, Lachance."
"Yeah, yeah. Where's Jessica, anyway?"
Chris shrugged. "Last time I saw her, she was in the lunch line, beating Edith McCain around the head with a folder."
Gordie nodded knowingly. Jessica and Edith had a longstanding rivalry, begun when Edith had come to school wearing a chipmunk fur hat. "What was it this time?"
"I think Edith had tried to get the last chocolate pudding. I would have broken it up, but last time I did that, Jessica wound up punching me. Besides, it's kind of cool to see them fight." Chris yawned and rubbed his eyes. "Shit, I'm so tired. What time did you end up going home last night, man?"
Gordie grinned the man-of-the-world grin he had been practising all morning. "Seven."
Chris didn't even look up for his food. "No way, me and Jessie went home later than seven and you were still sitting on your sorry ass waiting for Elizabeth."
Gordie grinned the MOTW grin again, and winked at Chris... who still didn't look up. Gordie sighed impatiently. "Chris?"
"Yeah?"
"Look up for a sec."
Chris glanced up. Gordie grinned suavely at him and winked, and Chris choked on his juice. "What the fuck?! Gordie, I told you yesterday to never practice flirting on me again-"
"No, no," Gordie said irritably. "I went home at seven. In the morning."
Chris's eyes widened. "You stayed there all night? What the hell for?"
Gordie raised his eyebrows in a way he had seen Elvis do once. "I wasn't alone. Elizabeth arrived five minutes after you'd gone."
Chris grinned at him. "All right! So you were there all night with her?" He nudged him.
"Yeah," Gordie said. "All night. Baby."
"'Baby'?"
"It sounded cool," Gordie explained. "But nothing happened, we just talked. All. Night. Baby."
Chris rolled his eyes. "Okay, first, stop with the 'Baby' thing. I've heard enough endearments from you this week. And second, you guys were there all night and nothing happened? You expect me to believe that?" He paused and looked Gordie up and down. "Actually, I guess it is YOU. But are you crazy, Lachance? You spent the whole night with the girl you like in a private house-"
"That's in a tree," Gordie reminded him. "And falling apart."
"Yeah, but, anyway. You spent the whole night with her, and you didn't put the moves on her? Or anything?"
"Nope," Gordie said dreamily. "We just connected."
"*Connected*?"
"In a spiritual way," Gordie said defensively.
"Spiritual." Chris studied Gordie. "You're kicking yourself mentally."
"No!" Gordie said. "It was perfect! We spent the night getting to know one another. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way-"
Chris waited. Gordie groaned and put his head in his hands. "Okay, so I wanted to put the moves on her. Really badly. But I couldn't. There was just no right time for it."
Chris exhaled loudly. "Gordo, you always say that. If you're waiting for angels to start singing and candles and red wine, you're going to be waiting forever. Here's what you do. You get her alone. Like you had her. The. Whole. Night. And you put your arm around his shoulder and touch her face. Then you lean in and-"
"And what?"
Both boys jumped and looked up. Elizabeth was standing behind them, her hands on her hips.
"And you ask about your tax returns," Chris said smoothly. "The lady at the bank is really stingy about them. We're just discussing the best strategies to get her to be a little more... generous."
Elizabeth smiled and sat down beside Gordie. "Right."
"Uh, how much did you hear?" Gordie asked weakly.
"Enough to think that Chris was hitting on you," Elizabeth giggled.
Chris's eyes widened again. "Shut up! That's un-fucking-believable! Gordie was the one hitting on *me* all of yesterday-"
"LIZ!!!!!!!"
All three turned and looked in alarm at the source of the noise. Then Elizabeth jumped to her feet.
"CRYSTAL!!!!!"
She ran over and was instantly pulled into a hug by the first screamer. Chris and Gordie's jaws dropped collectively.
Elizabeth returned with the screamer in tow. "Guys, this is my cousin! Oh, I guess you already know her?"
"Yeah," Gordie managed to say. Chris's mouth was still wide open. Standing next to Elizabeth was Crystal Walker, head Popular-But-Bitchy cheerleader (she had obviously been absent yesterday when Jessica signed her death warrent with them) and best looking girl in the whole school. As tall as Chris, with gleaming golden brown hair, a deep tan and big brown eyes, Gordie couldn't remember Crystal ever saying a word to him. About anything.
"Oh, are these your friends?" Crystal said, sounding amused. "Chris Chambers and Gordie Lachance? Gee, Liz, you're sure burning up the social ladder here!"
"Shut up, Crystal," Elizabeth said, unfazed. "Do you want to sit?"
"Sure," Crystal said. "Not here, obviously."
"Well, I'm sitting here," Elizabeth said, falling back into her chair. "So..."
Crystal sighed and ungraciously sat down next to Chris, who inched away.
"So, Liz," she said. "How do you like it here?"
"It's amazing," Elizabeth said, smiling at Gordie. "Wow, Crystal, I haven't seen you in forever! How have you been?"
Crystal giggled. "Oh, you know, the same."
As the girls chatted, Gordie leaned over to Chris. "You're sitting next to Crystal Walker!" he hissed in his ear.
Chris rolled his eyes. "I know."
"Do something!" Gordie whispered excitedly. "Offer to buy her something. Propose marriage! Impregnate her! Ask her-"
Chris cut him off. "Gordie, I have a girlfriend!" he whispered. "Why don't *you* do something? Jeez, at least look down her shirt."
"Elizabeth is sitting right next to me," Gordie pointed out. "She might kill me."
"Gordie," Elizabeth said, interrupting their conversation. "What did you think of the Chemistry test today?"
"I spent the whole time stealing Danny Mujer's Gummi Bears and murdering them with my pencil," Gordie admitted. "What did you do?"
As Elizabeth and Gordie compared procrastinating techniques, Chris sat back and wished Jessica would get here. What the hell was taking her so long? The thought made him anxious. Once Jessica had been late to meet him and had arrived three hours late, covered in mud and leaves. She had followed a bird into a tree and had subsequently been stuck up the tree until she eventually fell out. Chris snickered under his breath. Probably Jessica was stuffing Edith McCain into her locker right about now. Unless it was the other way around. Chris made a mental note to stop by the office and steal Edith McCain's locker combination after lunch, if Jessica hadn't arrived. Just, you know, to be on the safe side.
He became aware someone was staring at him. He glanced up and wondered why he hadn't yet turned to stone, because Crystal Walker was staring at him.
"What?" Chris asked, uncomfortable.
"Nothing," Crystal said. "I was just noticing how much taller you'd gotten since last summer."
"Yeah, I grew," Chris said. "What's it to you?"
"Nothing!" Crystal said again. "Jeez, why are you so defensive, Chambers?"
"Because you're a bitch. I haven't forgotten the time you and your little bitch friends stole Teddy's glasses and hid them for a week. Or when you put pillows under your shirts and pretended to be Vern. I'm not stupid, Crystal. I know that whatever you say to me is just leading up to a way to insult me. Just get on with it, okay?" Chris shook his head and looked around again for Jessica.
"Don't be such an asshole, Chris," Crystal said cheerfully. "They were just jokes. And we didn't do them to you. And we apologised for them." When Chris didn't answer, she hesitated and peered closely at him. "Wow, you're serious. Come on. I'm sorry, really."
"Whatever, just leave me alone." When no reply came to this (admittedly not very cutting) comeback, Chris glanced at Crystal and was staggered. She looked almost... well, sorry. Chris instantly felt bad for making her feel bad, and in the next moment, cursed his heart. Why did he always feel bad when people felt guilty, when they should feel guilty? It was the same with his parents. Days after his dad had beaten the shit out of him, his mother would come over and apologise profusely for running away. Or his dad would even gruffly ask Chris how his eye (the same one he had smashed with his fist) was, and look guilty when Chris replied that it still hurt- and Chris would make excuses for his father in his head. Oh, he didn't mean to do it. He was drunk. He was upset. Chris had been getting in his way.
But Crystal looked so sad.
Chris reached and awkwardly touched her shoulder. "It's okay, forget it."
Crystal glanced up. "Sincerely?"
Chris shrugged. "Yeah. It doesn't matter."
Crystal smiled at him and, worryingly, he felt his insides turn to jelly. This must be what it was like to be Gordie.
"Okay. Thanks, Chris." Crystal turned to Elizabeth, interrupting Gordie's demonstration of the best way to murder a Gummi Bear (rip off its head, throw head at someone, pull off the Gummi Bear's limbs, stick them to one's face, eat Gummi Bear's innards). "Liz, I'm, uh, gonna go. See you later?'
"Okay," Elizabeth waved distractedly.
Crystal turned to Chris. "See ya."
"Yeah."
Crystal glanced at Gordie, who was enthusiastically imitating a Gummi Bear as it was being murdered ("No! Please don't eat me! Please, Mr. Lachance! I just want to be your friend- argh! Noooooooooooo-"), made a face, and scurried off. Chris smiled slightly in confusion, watching her go.
"Hello, hello, hello!" Jessica leapt into the seat that Crystal had just vacated. "God, was that Superbitch, leader of the bitches, she who has come to rule all, the one ring-"
"Yeah," Chris said, shaking thoughts of Crystal out of his mind and turning his attention to the ball of energy next to him. "Where the hell have you been? I thought Edith had eaten you."
"I'm suprised she didn't," Jessica shuddered. "I had to go wash chocolate pudding out of my hair. I have a lot more hair than I originally thought. Hey, Liz and Gordie sure look friendly."
"Yeah, they spent the night together," Chris hissed. "In the treehouse."
Jessica gasped. "No way!"
Chris nodded. "Yeah, but don't say anything-"
"Hey, Liz!" Jessica said. "I hear you and Gordie were doing it all night in the treehouse." Chris slapped his hand to his forehead.
Elizabeth grimaced. "No. Not exactly."
"Did Gordie woo you?" Jessica asked. "He was wooing Chris yesterday."
Elizabeth raised her eyebrows. "Yeah, I heard about that. There wasn't much wooing. Maybe an oo."
"Well, that's a start," Jessica said encouragingly. "Gordie, did you-" She stopped. "Did something happen to your hair?"
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A/N: Well, there we go. I'm hoping to get another chapter written this weekend, so maybe I can get it up. Please R and R, you guys, I need the love! It's been a BAD WEEK.
