My Own Private Paradise

Author: hell's lil angel13

Summary:Before and after the journey to find Ray Brower, there was another one there. After their journey, what happens next? How did they change, how did they stay the same?

Disclaimer:see chapter one

New Beginnings

So it was towards the end of the seventh grade and Gordie, Chris, and I were walking to my place. My dad would be home a little while after he got back from work and we had homework to do...and food to eat out of my fridge.

"Race ya?" I asked the two of them when we got onto my street. It was still really hot out and the two of them were looking like they really didn't want to. "Come on, it's not that far, please?" I said and they nodded.

I started out fast and was in the lead. I could hear Chris and Gordie right behind me, but I was too busy laughing and running to really know what else was going on all around me. Well, I looked behind me to see Chris and Gordie nearly on top of me and, before I could do anything, we were all lying in a dog pile on my front yard, laughing so hard we couldn't breathe. I was holding my sides and nearly crying I was laughing so hard, when a shadow crossed over all of us.

I looked up, around Gordie's shoulder since he and Chris were still lying on me, to see a tall blonde figure with dark brown eyes and her hands on her hips, flour all over her apron. "Mama!" I squeaked out and quickly pushed the two guys off me and stood up. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to talk to your father, where is he?" she said quickly to me. I told her he was at work still and would be home later. Then I asked her what she needed to talk to him about, but I was pretty sure I already knew and I was dreading the answer. "I need to talk to him about adult stuff, don't worry about it. Now what were you doing?"

"Er...racing home from school...with Chris and Gordie," I said awkwardly, pointing over at the guys who stood just as awkwardly behind me a little while I talked to my mama. I hadn't seen her in over three years and suddenly she was just showing up at my doorstep? Erm...okay, can someone sat creepy? CREEPY!

"Well, I need to stay here until your father gets home. I think you should change and do your homework, shouldn't you?"

"Um...yeah, sure. Bye..." I was so confused as to why my mama would suddenly show up at my door unexpectedly like this that I couldn't form complete sentences really. And the fact that she was ordering me around, too. Who did she think she was anyway? If she thought she could order me around just because she was my mama she was dead wrong! She stopped being able to tell me what to do when she left us.

I nodded my head at Chris and Gordie to follow me inside so we could do our homework in my room. When we got up there, I heard the door open and close again downstairs, then some noise in the kitchen.

"That's your mama? I thought she died," Chris said from his place where he was lying on my bed. I looked at him strangely and said, "I never told you my mama died, what made you think she was dead?"

"Well, you never talked about, I guess we just assumed she died or something," Gordie cut in. That was true, I never really did talk about her, it was kinda a touchy subject, her leaving when I was so little and all. I just shrugged and dumped all my junk on my floor before flinging myself into a big beanbag on the floor.

We were quiet for a few moments, I was listening for noise that could tell me what Mama might be doing downstairs in the kitchen. Suddenly, I just burst out with, "Who does she think she is, bargin into my town like this! And I know she wants to talk to Coach about something that has to do with me! 'Shannon should come live with me in California' or Chicago or Atlanta or wherever the hell it is she lives now! 'It'll be so much better for her upbringing.' That's just what she'll say 'cos that's exactly what she thinks and she's dead wrong!" I ranted to them. After I said that, I rammed by right hand, my slightly deformed and weaker hand, staright into my wall.

Wait, I haven't told you anything about that accident yet, have I? I didn't, you're right, sorry bout that, my mouth operates faster than my brain, gotta be careful of that, always. So you're probably going, 'What are you talking about? Deformed hand? Huh, what?' Yeah, you know you are, don't try to deny it.

See, until I was about eight, I had an older brother. Note that the key word in that sentence is had. He was a year older than me, so he was nine when it happened. We had only been living in Castle Rock for a few years I think. See, one day I was playing in a soccer game for the town and it was half-time. I was sitting there, trying to get my spikes tied, when my coach, Mr. B, came up to me and said that Coach (as in my daddy) was here and needed to see me, it was extremely urgent.

The first thought to cross my mind was the right one; who died? My older brother, named Nate, was also the first to cross my mind. He had been battling Leukemia for a few months and I was always so scared I'd go into his room one day and he wouldn't wake up.

I found Coach at the other end of the field, a mournful look on his face. He barely even opened his mouth before I knew what he was going to say; my brother Nate was dead. He took me home and I stayed in the garage for a few minutes, just standing in the middle of the garage, not really realizing what I was doing or where I was.

Then, I just totally snapped. I don't know what came over me, but I just exploded at the thought that I was now an only child. There were six windows and a glass door in the garage. Well, after my exploding period, they weren't there anymore. I punched every single window out there in less than three minutes. My entire hand was bloody and there were shards of glass all over me. Glass was all over the floor, too.

Coach heard me screaming and swearing and crying and came out to see what was going on. He stopped me and then brought me into the bathroom where he pulled all the glass out of my knuckles and my right hand.

The glass cut so deep that I could actually see tendons and muscles from my hand. Then, he wrapped my hand, called Mama, and drove me to the hospital where she met up with us.

I got my hand stitched up good, but the doc said that I'll never be able to use that hand as well ever again. But you know what? I didn't care; it felt so good to get all that anger away from me.

That was just the long-term affects; scars and limited mobility. But I also had to go through therapy to see what made me do it—they never got much outta me—and PT for my hand. That was what started Mama coming back every once in a while to check up on me and always trying to tell Coach that it would be better if I came to live with her. Obviously she doesn't care what I think about the whole situation.

So, yeah, that's why I can't use my right hand as well as most people can. But, I can still catch and throw better than any guy and that's all I really care about. Gordie grabbed my arm to stop me from punching the wall again. Damn him for knowing me too well!

"Stop it," Gordie yelled at me and pushed me onto the bed, where I landed right on Chris' bony ankle. "You want your mama to hear you punching the wall? I don't think that'll help your case of being able to stay here." I froze and looked at him; I never thought about that before. "Alright, now let's just stay up here until your pop gets home, okay?"

Me and Chris both nodded in agreement and we both pulled out of homework to start. You know what I hate more than Ace and Eyeball and the rest of the Cobras? It ain't much, but there is a few things. And they're both in my house right now: my mama making surprise visits; and homework.

Gordie was lying on the floor, writing a new portion of a book that he was working in when he looked up and said, "Hey Chris, if you had to choose, ass or tits?"

"On me?" Chris asked him surprised and Gordie shook his head. "On a girl? Um...yeah I'd have to say tits. Like Annette's..." He started to get this dreamy look on his face when he started to think about Annette's tits. I rolled my eyes and threw one of my stuffed animals at him.

"You know guys, sometimes, there's a girl attached to the tits."

"Shawn, shh! You're ruining it!" Chris said and threw the stuffed elephant back at me.

"Just because you don't have any—" Gordie started, but I cut him off with, "And how would you know this?"

"I know 'cos Teddy tol—" he started, but I held up my hand to make him stop. I heard something downstairs that sounded like a door opening. A few seconds later, I heard Coach yelling up the stairs and saying hi.

"Shh," I said to them and went to the balcony to listen to what my parents would say to each other. Chris and Gordie came out after me and got on all fours on either side of me. What we heard next from them would ring in my ears for hours later.

A/N: Haha, cliffy! Don't worry, I have the next few chaps finished already, that's why it took me so long to update, I wanted to finish a few instead of just 1 at a time. Hope you liked this one, r&r! O, and happy memorial day! horray for no school!