School was almost out. Just 2 weeks left til the summer of 1959 here in Castle Rock, Maine. Nancy Merrill was heading out of class when she bumped into two boys. One had glasses and brown hair, the other was shorter and rounder.
———
"Hey! Watch where you're going" the one with glasses told me.
"Well sorry" I said annoyed. They stared at me and looked around the hall frantically. The hall had a few kids at their lockers but nothing to be concerned about. They continued on past me and I turned around to look at them but they continued down the hall never looking back.
One week left.
I was waiting for my brother Ace to pick me up to take me home. He was late as usual, but he wasn't usually this late. I went looking for him and found him at the side of the school towering over two boys along with one of his friends, Eyeball. I walked closer and noticed one of the boys had blonde hair and blue eyes sort of cute and the other had brown hair and brown doe eyes.
"Stop it Ace, stop!" the brunette pleaded. My brother was being his usual asshole self torturing poor kids.
"Awww Ace they want you to stop" Eyeball mocked. "how cute".
"Your an asshole brother Eyeball" the blonde spat. So that was Eyeball's brother. What was his name? Charlie? Carter? Chris? Chris! That's it. Our fathers like to drink together.
"Ace what the hell" I called abruptly getting everyone's attention.
"Couldn't have waited a few more minutes, could ya?" My brother replied as I marched forward to the group.
"No I couldn't" I told him. He had momentarily stopped grabbing the brunette turning to look at me.
"Go wait in the car Nancy" he ordered as I crossed my arms.
"No. How about we just go. Now"
"Ooohh better listen to your sister Ace" Eyeball snickered. Ace gave him a look. The two boys were just quietly watching, eyes darting back and forth between us.
"Fine. Fine. Let's go. You boys got lucky today" Ace said pointing his pocket knife at them, then proceeding with Eyeball to the car.
"I'm so sorry. Does that happen a lot? Are you ok?" I asked Chris and the brunette as I walked closer to them.
"Yeah it does but why do you care?" Chris replied angrily.
"Cause I'm nice? And my brother is an asshole" I told them.
"We don't need your pity Nancy" Chris retorted. I could see the brunette whispering to him. Chris grabbed his stuff and started walking away. The other boy stayed.
"I'm Gordie. Sorry about Chris. He just gets worked up whenever Ace is around. He's really nice once you get to know him"
"I'm sure he is. I'm Nan-"
"Nancy. I know who you are. Kind of hard not to" he said slightly smiling.
"Yeah I guess being Ace's sister has an impact on people"
"Haha yeah." we stood there awkwardly for a minute until Gordie spoke again "Shouldn't you get going. Your brother is probably gonna be mad"
"Yeah I guess so. Well, see you around?"
"Yeah definitely" he said. I turned around and made my way back to the car. Ace and Eyeball were waiting looking very annoyed.
"Where the hell you been Nance" Ace called.
"Talking"
"Well hurry up and get in me and Eyeball got shit to do" I hopped in the car and we drove off.
Gordie and I hung out once school was out and eventually he introduced me to the two boys I had bumped into. Teddy Duchamp and Vern Tessio. Chris had been wary of me for a while but eventually he warmed up and we had all become best friends.
Word count: 628