CHAPTER 15: THE ROYAL

I woke up before any of the boys the next morning. For a minute, I thought I had been right the night before; it had all been just an amazing dream. But then, I heard, "Morning, sleepyhead," and felt a kiss on my head. Nope. Last night had not been a figment of my imagination; the guy I had been in love with for years had kissed me last night.

I looked up and smiled at Chris. "I woke up before you, so I really wouldn't talk, mister."

Chris smiled and held me closer. "You know something?"

"What?"

"I actually think we might be able to find the Brower kid today."

I sighed. "You think?"

Chris looked down. "Don't you want to find him?"

"Yeah, sure I do, but… I have a really strange feeling that somebody else wants to find him. More to the point, find him before we do."

Chris shrugged. "You may be right, Joey. I still think we have a pretty good advantage."

Just then, we heard peals of hysterical laughter coming from around the campfire. I moved away from Chris just the tiniest bit. "They know."

"Oh yes, I can see that," Chris said. I could see him getting into battle mode to pummel them senseless. "Calm down," I commanded as I held his hands down. "I will talk to them."

Chris grumbled something and I walked over to where Teddy and Vern were nearly gasping with laughter. "WILL YOU TWO SHUT UP?" I screamed at them.

Teddy wiped a tear from his eye. "Oh my God, Joe. We never thought we would live to see the day where we would see you all feminine-like."

Vern piped up, laughing, "And all mashed up against a boy!"

Teddy and Vern then screamed with laughter again. I clenched my fists. "If you two little creeps do-" Then it hit me: I only said "two." I only SAW two. "Wait a minute… where's Gordie?" I asked.

Teddy and Vern stopped laughing for a minute. "I haven't seen him," Vern said.

Teddy shrugged. "Not since last night."

"Oh. Oh, well that's just peachy," I sighed. "I'm gonna go out and look for him." I turned to Chris. "Chris? Please, pummel these little sub-humans all you want. You can even throw in a little punch for yourself if you want."

Teddy and Vern started to cower as Chris advanced towards them, hands clenched in fists. I laughed to myself as I walked into the woods. "GORDIE!" I yelled. "GORDO, WHERE ARE YOU?" After a few minutes, I finally found him, reading the magazine I had bought on the railroad tracks. "Gordie, thank God I was looking for you forever!" I told him as I ran to sit next to him.

Gordie shrugged. "I'm sorry." He then looked me up and down. "Joe, why do you have your hair out?"

Oh shit. I was never going to hear the end of this one. "Well, if you must know, Gordon, um… I told Chris."

Gordie's eyes widened. "YOU DIDN'T!"

"Oh, I did." I then told Gordie all the events of last night. The only reason I told him was because I knew he wouldn't go blabbing it to anybody. Gordie listened intently. He had the same reactions that I had had when Chris told me about the milk money. After I had recounted all of the events up until Chris was walking over to beat up Teddy and Vern. By the time I was finished, Gordie was smiling. "Aw, Joe, congratulations!" he said, pulling me into a hug.

I smiled. "Now, what the hell were you doing out here so early in the morning?"

Gordie shrugged. "I tried to go back to sleep, but I wasn't that tired, so I picked up this magazine and decided to do some reading."

I eyed the page Gordie was on. It was a size 0 blonde swimsuit model on a pair of water skis. "Very deep, emotional reading, is it not?" I asked.

Gordie laughed and slugged me on the arm. "We should probably get back to Chris and the others, right?"

I nodded as I pulled my hair into a ponytail once again. "I don't want them mashed into a pulp, now do I?"

Gordie and I walked off through the woods. By the time we got back to the campsite, Vern and Teddy had red marks on their arms, but it didn't look like Chris had actually punched them. "Joey, your little boyfriend is a psycho," Teddy said flatly as he rolled up his sleeping bag.

I stuck my tongue out at him and responded, "He's your best friend too, you know."

We slung our packs over our shoulders and started hiking off again. Even though I had had my first kiss last night with the guy I had had a major crush on for a trillion years, things were awkwardly normal with me and the boys. We laughed, we joked, we insulted each other's mothers, we did everything we would have done normally. Finally, Chris stopped us short at a spot on the tracks. "Gentlemen and lady," he announced, "the Royal."

I couldn't believe it; we were almost there, almost at the body of Ray Brower. All of that craziness had led us here.

"The tracks go way out of the way," I commented.

"Why don't we just cut through the woods?" Teddy suggested.

"Sounds like a good plan to me," Chris responded. He turned to Gordie. "Gordie?"

Gordie was just staring out at the tracks stonily. Why stonily, I don't know. "Yeah," he responded.

Chris said, "Let's go!" and we all dashed off through the field in front of the woods. All of us, that is, except for Vern. He was just staying on the tracks, yelling, "Hey, guys, I really think we should… um… you don't know what's in those woods!"

I ran back, grabbed Vern by his shirt, and said, "Well, maybe you DO know what's in the woods, and you can help us!" I dragged Vern off of the tracks and caught up with the other guys. Once we reached the woods, we kept right on trucking. I could hear Vern and Teddy arguing behind me. "I hate this shortcut," Vern was protesting.

Teddy mocked him. "I hate this shortcut," he said in a nasal voice.

Vern moved in to punch Teddy. Teddy flinched. Finally, Verno got his moment of victory. "HA! YOU FLINCHED! TWO FOR FLINCHING!" he yelled. He prepared to punch Teddy, but Teddy punched him twice first.

Vern rubbed his arm and said, "But… but, you flinched!"

Teddy nodded. "I know. Two for flinching." He rolled his eyes and continued walking. I scowled at him. "Why don't you just let Verno have his fun, Teddy?"

Teddy shrugged. "I don't ever feel like it."

I shook my head and walked ahead of him. As we walked further and further into the woods, I just couldn't shake that feeling I had had the night before: the feeling that somebody was out to find the body before we did, and there would be danger if we even tried to stop him. Still, even with all my reservations, I was overwhelmed with a feeling of accomplishment; we were almost there.