HELLO AGAIN! I'm sorry this chapter took so long to post, I had a horrible case of writer's block, but no matter, I'm back! My reviewers, please don't stop! Keep those reviews coming, they make my day .

CHAPTER 4: DANGEROUS

I was panting as I ran behind Gordie and Chris. "Come on, man, what is it?" Gordie asked impatiently. We finally stopped behind a diner. Chris looked around to make sure nobody was watching and pulled a Colt .45 out of his sleeping bag. He turned to Gordie and asked, "You wanna be the Lone Ranger or the Cisco Kid?"

"Walking talking Jesus!" Gordie gasped as he turned the gun over in his hand. "Where'd you get it?"

"Hawked it from my old man's beareau. It's a .45."

Gordie rolled his eyes. "I can see that." He then pretended to shoot the garbage can.

I turned to Chris. "Chris, you sure that bringing a pistol on this trip is a good move?"

Chris shrugged. "Why not?"

I raised my eyebrows. "Do you even know how to fire that thing? What about Gordie or Teddy or Vern?"

Chris looked over at Gordie. "Gordo will be fine. Look at him, he's a natural."

Gordie looked over at Chris and me and asked Chris, "Is it loaded?"

Chris laughed. "Hell, no, who do you think I am?"

At that, Gordie clicked the safety off and pulled the trigger… a bullet flew out and struck the garbage can.

Gordie, Chris and I all screamed at the top of our lungs, "JESUS!" and ran off as fast as we could. "HOLY CRAP!" I was screaming. Hey, not many things scared me, but guns scared the shit out of me.

Chris yelled, "GORDIE DID IT! GORDIE LACHANCE IS SHOOTING UP CASTLE ROCK!"

"SHUT UP!" Gordie shrieked. Behind us, I could hear a woman yelling, "Hey, who did that? Who's letting cherry bombs off out here?"

When we were finally safely away from the diner, I grabbed Chris by the shirt and threw him up against the wall of the pool hall we were outside of. "What the hell was that, huh, Chambers?" I yelled at him. Even though I had a crush on him, believe me, I was PISSED.

Chris was squirming like a worm trying to escape my grip. "Hey, Joey, calm down! Let me go!" I sighed and let him down. After he brushed himself off, he looked at me and Gordie with honest, pleading eyes. "I didn't know the gun was loaded," he said.

I stared at him, hard. "You swear?"

"Yeah, I swear."

Gordie cut in with, "On your mother's name?"

Chris sighed. "Yeah."

"Even if she goes to hell, 'cause you LIED?" Gordie intoned dangerously.

Chris was starting to get extremely annoyed. "Don't get so heavy on me, I swear."

Gordie and I looked at each other and nodded. We both held up our pinkies and ordered, simultaneously, "Pinkie swear."

Chris stifled a laugh and said, "Fine, I pinkie swear."

He interlocked pinkies with both me and Gordie. Then, all of a sudden, behind us snuck up the meanest jerk-offs in town, Ace Merrill, and Chris's brother, Eyeball. Ace reached up and yanked Gordie's Yankee hat off of his head.

"Come on, man, my brother gave me that!" Gordie protested. Oh, shit.

Ace just smirked and continually held the hat out of Gordie's reach. "Now you're giving it to me," he laughed through his mouth with a cigarette hanging from the lip.

"Give it to me! COME ON, MAN, THAT'S MINE!" Gordie screamed at him. Ace just shoved Gordie out of the way.

Finally, Chris snapped. "You're a real asshole, you know that?"

Ace advanced on Chris and I stepped in between them. "You try to hurt him, you're gonna have to go through me, scumbag."

"Ooooh. Not very polite, are they, Eyeball?" Ace asked, turning to Eyeball.

Eyeball just laughed menacingly. "Now, Christopher, and Johanna, I know you didn't mean to insult my friend."

I scoffed. "Jeez, Eyeball, I didn't know you were smart enough to know that was an insult."

With that, Eyeball shoved me to the ground and pinned me there, and Ace did the same to Chris. "Oh, shit," I murmured as Eyeball lit a cigarette and held it up to my face.

"Take it back kid," Ace whispered dangerously in Chris's ear.

I fought to keep Eyeball off of me, but he just held me down even harder. "Let me up, you assface," I mumbled as he nearly shoved my face into the sidewalk.

Gordie was just standing at our side yelling, "Come on, cut it out!" Who that was directed towards, I never quite figured out. I looked over at Chris. He was still going strong, but I was starting to lose steam. Finally, I gave up. "I take it back, okay, just leave Chris alone!"

Eyeball sneered. "There's a good little girl." He yanked me up and shoved me. "Go home and practice your little pirouettes, okay little lady?"

I stuck my tongue out at him and turned back to Chris. "Chris, come on, man, just take it back," I urged him.

Chris finally relented. "Okay, okay, I take it back!" he yelled as Ace yanked him back up.

"Now, I feel a whole lot better about this, how about you?" Ace smirked. He lightly slapped Gordie on the cheek as he stalked away.

Eyeball followed closely behind with a, "See ya later, girls," and a confident walk away with Gordie's beloved Yankee cap hanging on his head backwards.

I sighed. "Chris, your brother is a total, complete, 110%-"

"Don't steal my line!" Chris said playfully as he put a hand on my shoulder.

Gordie laughed, and we set off yet again. That was the way we always dealt with any encounter with Ace, Eyeball, Billy Tessio (Vern's brother) or any other member of the Cobras: after they had had their fill of tormenting us, we would joke about it to forget it had ever happened.