A/N This is told by Gordie, just like in the movie. All curse words are censored, just out habit, no real reason why.
Gordie POV
I was 12 going on 13 the first time I saw a dead human being. It happened in the summer of 1959. A long time ago....but only if you measure in terms of years. I was living in a small town in Oregon call Castle Rock. There were only 1,281 people, but to me it was the entire world.
I grabbed a magazine from the store then made my way to the tree house. I went up the ladder to the tree house, and then I knocked. I was let in by three members of the group. They were all sitting around a table, having a cigarette. Adelaide's hip flask was on the table, and she took a swig of something that was presumably a cheap gin, and handed it over to Chris, in exchange for his cigarette. They shared a whole lot of stuff, and it was pretty common for them. He took a swig the cheap gin, while she puffed the cigarette. Then he said,
"How do you know a Frenchman has been in your back yard?"
Teddy Duchamp responded with,
"Hey, I'm French, okay?"
"Your trashcans are empty and your dog's pregnant."
We all started laughing at the stupid joke, but Teddy wasn't, and he said,
"Didn't I just say I was French?"
They continued their game, with Chris saying,
"I knock."
"Sh*t."
Adelaide gave Chris back his cigarette, and lit one of her own so that she wouldn't have to share. She also took back her hip flask and attached it to her jeans.
"Twenty-Nine," Chris started out.
"Twenty-Two," Teddy replied.
"Twenty-Four," was Adelaide's answer.
I had such sh*t cards, and said,
"Piss up a rope!"
The gang started laughing at me, as I grabbed a magazine.
"Gordie's out. Oh Gordie just bit the bag and stepped out the door!" was Teddy's response. While he was still laughing, Chris said,
"Come on man, deal."
Teddy Duchamp was the craziest guy we hung around with. He didn't have much of a chance in life. His dad was given fits of a rage. One time he held Teddy's ear to a stove and almost burned it off.
Teddy hit the table and said,
"I knock."
Chris and Adelaide looked at him in disbelief and then she said,
"There is no way in hell!"
And Chris said,
"Yeah you four-eyed pile of s*it."
"That pile of sh*t has a thousand eyes!"
Adelaide, Chris and I looked at each other, and started dying of laughter at his stupid f*cking reply, and he responded with,
"What? What's so funny? Come on, I've got thirty, what have you got?"
Still laughing, Chris said,
"Sixteen."
While Adelaide said,
"Fourteen."
"Go ahead, keep laughing. I'd turn you right down."
Chris Chambers was the leader of our gang and my best friend. He came from a bad family and everyone just knew, he'd turn out bad. Including Chris.
Adelaide McNamara, or Dolly, Chris called her, (Which she hated,) came from what was a decent family, until her mom started banging the mailman. Her parents split up when she was 7, and she proceeded to live with her father, and 2 older brothers. A couple years later, her mother died from breast cancer, when Adelaide was 10. Two years later, Adelaide still has dreams of her suffering the same fate.
Everyone knew that they were hooking up, but they wouldn't admit it. It seemed like the only people who didn't know they were hooking up, was them. They were also the only ones in our group who drank, and for them being teens, the stomach alcohol pretty damn well.
Chris dealt out a new game, and Adelaide and Teddy accepted the cards. Adelaide reached over Chris towards her bag, and brought out her radio, which she stole from her older brother. She turned it on, and the tree house was filled with Connie Francis's voice singing "Stupid Cupid." As they were about to start their next game, a random knock was heard through the tree house. I said,
"That's not the secret knock!"
A pip-squeak voice from outside rang out,
"I forgot the secret knock. Let me in!"
We all exchanged knowing looks and annoyingly said,
"Vern."
Teddy helped Chris move the table, and Adelaide popped open the hatch She fell backwards onto Chris. They looked at each other and a blush creep up on both of them. She got up, and sat back down, pretending that it didn't happen. Out crawled Vern, who said,
"Come on you guys, open up! Oh man, you guys are not gonna believe this. This is so boss. Oh man, wait'll you hear this, wait'll you hear this. You won't believe it. It's unbelievable. Let me catch my breath. I ran all the way from my house."
And with that line, the four of us broke out into song,
"I ran all the way home. Just to say I'm sorry, sorry oh ... can't.."
As we were making fun of Vern, he replied with,
" Come on, guys, listen to me. Guys, come on! Okay, forget it. I'll tell you nothing."
Faking sympathy, Adelaide glanced at us before saying,
"Alright, alright. What is it, Verno?"
We all looked at him, in mock concern and Vern was smiled thankfully then said,
"Okay, great, you won't believe this sincerely!"
All of our faces shift back to grins as we continue singing,
"I ran all the way home!"
In defeat, Vern turned away with a,
"Screw you guys."
Getting all of the laughter out of our systems, Chris follows Adelaide's behavior, but sincerely said,
"What is it?"
Vern's face was shining with thanks, and he then asked,
"Can you guys camp out tonight? I mean if you tell your folks, we're gonna tent on my backfield?"
Chris pulled all of the cards back and started shuffling while saying,
"Yeah. I think so. My dad's kind of on a mean streak. You know, he's been drinking a lot lately. "
Adelaide nodded in agreement. She heard all of Mr. Chamber's drunken yelling, being their next door neighbor and all. They started stealing alcohol from him, which was how they started drinking. Despite their young age, they never too drank heavily or to the point where it would cause significant damage. The worst they every drank to was to a point of poor judgement where they started having a drunk make-out session. And we remind them of it all the time. Then Chris continued on,
"You gonna go Dolly?"
Adelaide's face turned sour and she said,
"Don't call me Dolly, and yes, I'll go if you can get me there."
Chris looked up at her with a smirk while Vern continued on,
"You got to man, sincerely! You won't believe this! Can you, Gordie?"
Without looking up from my magazine, I said,
"Yeah, probably."
So as Chris handed the shuffled deck off to Adelaide and she started dealing, Teddy said,
"So what are ya pissin' and moanin' about, Verno?"
And just to f*ck with them, I said,
"Yeah, you are moanin' as much as Adelaide when she's left alone with Chris."
Adelaide and Chris both looked really uncomfortable, and to steer the attention, Chris double tapped the table and said,
"I knock."
Teddy and Adelaide looked up and Adelaide, still a little flustered from the sex joke said,
"I-I-I didn't deal you no pat-hand,"
While Teddy said,
"Yeah, that's Bullsh*t!"
Vern looked around in dis appointment as he was no longer being paid any attention as Chris said with a chuckle,
"Make your draw, sh*theap."
Then Vern said something that made the entire gang pay attention. I stopped reading, Teddy, Chris and Adelaide set down their cards and Adelaide start choking on air,
"You guys wanna go see a dead body?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~A/N Ok...Cool...That's it.