𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬 | 𝐜𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐬 ✔️

↞ three

the treehouse
{olivia's pov}

all the boys stared at vern in shock except for teddy, who had his eyes on me.

"what the hell did you do that for?" teddy asked. i attempted to contain my laugh.

"oops," i said smugly. i shrugged, and he tried wiping the coke i spit on him off of his clothes as i turned my attention to vern.

"what dead body?" i asked, cringing the slightest bit at the thought.

"the ray brower kid? he's been missing for three days now," chris explained. i began to realize what he was talking about. i heard about it on the radio.

vern started to explain the story to us about how he found out about ray brower. he was under his front porch searching for his jar of pennies he lost when his brother, billy tessio, and his buddy, charlie hogan, were talking about how they saw his body. apparently, it was on back harlow road. i remember that place from a while back with teddy.

"i know the back harlow road!" teddy exclaimed. "it comes to a dead end by the royal river. the train tracks are right there! me, my dad, and olivia, when she came to visit, used to fish for cossies out there!"

"jesus christ, man. if they would've known you were under there they would have killed you," chris said. vern nodded, probably grateful he got out alive.

"could he really have gotten all the way from chamberlain to harlow?" gordie asked. "that's really far."

"sure. he must've started walking on the train tracks and followed them the whole way," chris shrugged, responding to gordie's question.

"yeah. yeah, right. and after dark, the train must've come along and, el smacko!" teddy added, slamming his fist into his other hand. i looked down at my hands. i wasn't in the mood to talk about death anymore. it reminded me of my parents in the car accident, but i wasn't about to show my emotions to the guys, so i didn't start to cry or anything. even though i was tempted to.

teddy grabbed my hand and squeezed it softly. he must've known what i was upset about.

"hey. hey, you guys," chris said excitedly. i looked up at him with a confused look on my face. "i bet you anything that if we find him we'll get our picture in the paper." teddy took his hand off of mine, getting excited about the idea too.

"yeah! we could even be on tv. we'll be heroes!" teddy exclaimed, practically jumping in his seat.

"yeah!"

"i don't know," vern said disappointedly. "billy will know how i found out."

"he's not gonna care," gordie started. "cuz' it's gonna be us guys, and girl, that'll find him. not billy and charlie hogan in a boosted car. they'll probably pin a medal on you, vern." vern's face lit up.

"you think so?" he asked.

"sure!" chris said, reassuring him.

"what'll we tell our folks?" i asked.

"exactly what vern said. we'll tell our folks we're tenting out in vern's back field. vern tells his folks he's sleeping over at teddy's," gordie started. the boys were really invested in this whole dead body thing.

"and then, we say we're going over to the drag races the next day. we're rock solid until tomorrow night," gordie finished.

"man, that's a plan and a half," chris said smiling, starting to do what looked like a handshake between the two.

"but if we do find the kid's body over in harlow, our folks will know we didn't go to the drag races, and then we might get hided," vern said.

"nobody will care, because everyone will be so jazzed about what we found that it's not gonna make a difference," teddy exclaimed.

"yeah, my dad'll hide me anyway, but it's worth a hiding," chris said confidently. i frowned slightly. his dad doesn't sound so nice either. maybe they all came from dysfunctional families that i could learn about on the journey, because that meant i was one of them too.

"let's do it," i said. i was kind of excited to go on an adventure with the guys. they all seemed so chill and fun to be around. except the fact that they always bitch at each other. but that's what made them so funny. i wasn't so sure if they actually wanted me to go or not.

"what do you say?" chris asked.

"all right!" teddy exclaimed. i think he was the most excited about this trip than anyone else.

"gordie?"

"sure."

"olivia?" i had to think for a second. why did he actually want me to go with them? i only just met them.

"are you sure you want me to go?" i asked. "i don't wanna intrude or anything." chris nodded.

"why would you?" he asked, furrowing his eyebrows. i shrugged and nodded slightly, agreeing to go with them. "all in favor for olivia duchamp to join us on this journey, raise your hands." all the boys raised their hands except for teddy. i rolled my eyes.

"very funny, teddy," i said sarcastically. "yeah, sure, i'll go. why not." it's not like i had anything better to do anyway.

"vern?" we all looked at vern, waiting for his answer.

"i don't know," he responded. chris sighed.

"verrnnn," he dragged out.

"come on, verno!" teddy persuaded. i looked at him sympathetically and rested my arm on his shoulder, leaning closer to his ear.

"you have to go. it'll be so much fun, and you don't wanna miss out on all the fun. do you?" i asked, nudging him.

"ok, ok. i'll go," he finally said. chris and teddy cheered while i had a bright smile on my face. gordie on the other hand, didn't look as happy as the rest of us. i noticed but i didn't say anything about it, not wanting to pressure him.

teddy's house
{olivia's pov}

teddy and i rushed inside the house, and into our rooms. i grabbed a backpack while starting to throw things on the floor that i might need. i grabbed a pocket knife, five dollars, a sleeping bag, a canteen full of cold water, and a bag of marshmallows just in case we got hungry and made a fire.

to be completely honest, i was excited to go on this trip and get to know the guys better. i smiled, thinking about how much fun we were gonna have.

i packed all of my things in my backpack and ran out of the house without teddy. i didn't really know where teddy was, though. i just wanted to go see if i could purchase something to keep me busy on the trip, and not die of boredom.