INFATUATION ⇢ CHRIS CHAMBERS

one

"Hey, how do you know a Frenchmens been in your backyard?" Chris asked the DuChamp siblings.
"Hey, we're French okay?" Teddy replied.
"Your garbage cans are empty and your dog's pregnant." Chris grinned, looking at Geordie, the two laughed.
"Hey, didn't I just say we were French?" Teddy said rudely. Nina rolled her eyes, not bothered about it.

The boys then carried on playing their game of cards as Nina watched them, playing with the hem of her skirt, whilst laughing at Gordie after he threw his cards down and yelled, "Piss up a rope!"

They then heard someone knocking. "That's not the secret knock!" Geordie called.
"I forget the secret knock!" Their other best friend, Vern Tessio, yelled. "Let me in!"
Chris and Nina turned to each-other. "Vern." They said in unison.
"Come on, you guys, open up!"

Once they let him in, he started to tell them about something, but Chris, Teddy and Geordie kept interrupting him, which made Nina laugh.
"Okay, forget it." Vern said.
Chris held his arm out, signalling for them to stop. "Okay guys, stop. What is it, man?"
"Okay guys, you won't believe this!" Vern began.
"I ran all the way home!" The boys started singing again, making Nina roll her eyes.
"Forget it, guys." Vern sighed.
"What is it?" Nina asked.
"Can you guys camp out tonight?" Vern asked his group. "I mean if you tell your folks we're gonna tent out in my backfield?"
"Yeah, alright." Nina said.
"Yeah, I think so. Except my dads kinda on his mean streak; he's been drinking a lot lately." Chris explained.
"You've got to man, you won't believe this!" Vern exclaimed. "Can you, Geordie?"
"Yeah, probably." He replied.
"So what are you pissing and moaning about, Verno?" Teddy asked.
"You guys wanna go see a dead body?"
The boys' attention was drawn towards Vern, apart from Nina, who was mentally gagging. They all knew who he was talking about: Ray Brower. Three days before he went missing, he went out to pick blueberries, and guess what? Nobody had seen him since.

"I know that road; it comes to a dead end by the river!" Teddy exclaimed. "The train tracks are right there! Me and my dad used to fish out there."
"Jesus Christ, man. If they would've known you were under there, they would've killed you!" Chris told Vern.
"Could he have gone all the way from Chamberlain to Harlow? That's really far!" Vern exclaimed.
"Sure, he must of started walking on the train tracks and followed them to whole way." Chris explained, Nina nodded.
"Yeah, right! And then after dark, the train must've come along," Teddy clapped his hands together. "el smacko!"
"Yeah..." Nina whispered.

"Hey, guys! I bet you that we'll get our pictures in the paper!" Chris announced.
"Yeah, we could even be on TV!" Teddy exclaimed.
"I don't know. Billy will know I found out." Vern sighed.
"He's not gonna care. Because it's gonna be us that finds him, not Billy and Charlie. If we find it, he'll probably put a medal on you, Vern." Geordie told him.
"Yeah! Wait till we tell our folks."
"Exactly what you said, we all tell our folks that we're camping out in your backfield, you tell your folks you're sleeping over at Teddy's. Then we say we're going on a race the next day." Geordie planned out.
"Wow, that's a plan and a half!" Nina exclaimed.
"But if we do find that kid's body, they'll know we didn't go to the drag races - we'll get hided!" Vern said.
"Nobody will care!" Teddy told him.
"Yeah!" Chris exclaimed. "What do you say?"
"Right!" Teddy yelled.
"Geordie?"
"Sure."
"Vern?"
"I don't know," He sighed.
"Vernnnn?"
"Come on, Verno!"
"Okay, okay!"
Chris turned to Nina and smirked a little. "Nina?"
She sighed. "As much as I really don't want to look at a dead body, sure, I'll come. It could be fun." Nina shrugged.
The boys all cheered.