New Romantics | Chris Chambers

002-convience troubles

We all turned and stared at Vern.

"Well I was under the porch, digging you know" We all knew what Vern meant. Gordie had told Nancy about it at the beginning of the summer. At the beginning of school he had buried a jar of pennies underneath his house. He had made a map so he could find them later but his mom had cleaned out his room and threw away his map. Apparently he had been trying to find those pennies for nine months. I know right, nine months! After Vern finished his story Teddy spoke.

"I know the Back Harlow Road! It comes to a dead end by the Royal river. The train tracks are right there! Me and my dad used to fish for cossies out there!"

"Jesus Christ, man. If they would have known you were under the porch they would have killed you." Chris exclaimed.

"Could he have gotten all the way from Chamberlain to Harlow? Isn't that really far?" I asked considering the distance.

"Sure. He must have started walking on the train-tracks and just followed them the whole way." Chris answered smiling.

"Yeah. Yeah, right. And then after dark the train must have come along -- el smacko!" Teddy said smacking his hands together.

"Yeah. Hey, hey guys! I bet you anything that if we find him we'll get our pictures in the paper!" Chris told us excitedly.

"Yeah, we'd even be on TV!" Teddy continued.

"Sure!" Chris replied.

"We'll be heroes!" Teddy called now standing.

"Yeah!" Chris cheered.

"I don't know. Billy will know how I found out" a concerned Vern said.

"He's not gonna care. Cause it's gonna be us guys who find him. Not Billy and Charley Hogan in a boosted car. They probably pin a medal on you, Vern." Gordie reassured him.

"Yeah, you think so?" Vern questioned.

"Sure!" Gordie said.

"What'll we tell our folks?" Vern said slouching.

"Exactly what you said. We all tell our folks we're tenting out on your backfield. You tell your folks you're sleeping over at Teddy's. Then we'll say we're going out to the drag-races the next day... until dinner tomorrow night." I stated.

"That's a plan and a half." Chris said smiling while they did their handshake.

"But if we do find the kid's body over in South Harlow they'll know we didn't go to the drag-races! We'll get hided!" Vern continued with his excuses.

"Nobody would care cause everybody is gonna be so jazzed about what we found it's not gonna make a difference!" Teddy said excitedly.

"Yeah! My dad would hide me anyway. But hell that's worth a hiding!" Chris replied to Teddy.

"Nobody at home would care so I'm in" Nancy said causing Chris to give her a sympathetic look.

"Shit yeah!" Teddy cheered.

"Let's do it! What d'you say? Gordie? Vern?" Chris asked.

"Sure." Gordie answered.

"I don't know." Vern replied. We all started pressuring Vern to agree and eventually he did. We were to meet at noon so everyone headed back home to get ready.

I arrived back home and still no one was there. I shrugged and went up to my room gathering a sleeping bag and a canteen. I changed into some jeans, converse and a shirt and braided my hair. I still had an half an hour left till noon so I went back downstairs, grabbed a drink from the fridge and leaned against the counter zoning out until I heard the front door open. I secretly hoped it wasn't dad and was thankful it was just Ace.

"Where you been?" Ace asked pulling a beer out of the fridge.

"Out" I replied not in mood to bicker with him.

"Out where smart ass" he said taking a sip of his beer.

"With some friends, obviously" I replied rolling my eyes. Ace and mine's relationship wasn't the greatest but there were some moments where you might think he actually cared about me.

"It's those stupid, no good boys isn't it" he stated.

"Yes Ace it's those stupid, no good boys. I'm going now" I grabbed her stuff not wanting to be here any longer than she had to and started to head out the door but was stopped by Ace who guarded the door.

"You and me are gonna go on a little shopping trip first" he told me smirking. I  had 15 minutes before I had to meet the boys.

We of course had met up with Eyeball and headed into the convenience store. I bought some candy bars and they stole a pack of cigarettes. We were headed out the door when we bumped into two people.

"Hey girls where you going?" my brother said taking off a boy's hat. I realized it was Chris and Gordie heading to meet up with everyone.

"Hey, come on man, my brother gave me that!" Gordie cried.

"And now your giving it to me." Ace replied.

Gordie was trying to reach his hat that my brother was dangling in front of him "Give it to me! Come on! Man! That's mine!"

"You're a real asshole, you know that?" Chris said. I started walking towards Gordie but Eyeball pulled me back while Ace look like he was getting annoyed.

"Your brother's not very polite, Eyeball." Ace told his friend.

"Now Christopher. I know you didn't mean to insult my friend." Eyeball stated to his brother while gripping my shoulders.

"I know he didn't mean to insult me. That's why I'm gonna give him the opportunity of taking it back." Ace pushed Chris down to the ground and started telling him to take it back while slowly moving a lit cigarette towards his face.

"Come on, man, stop it! You're hurting him!" Gordie cried.

"Ace, stop! Get off of him!" I pleaded trying to get out of Eyeball's grip.

"Okay, I'll take it back! I take it back." Chris stated, Ace pulling him back up onto his feet.

"There. Now I feel a whole lot better about this. How about you? Good. Nancy let's go" Ace said starting to walk away, Eyeball letting go of me and following him as well.

"I- ummm I'm going with them" I called after him.

He turned around and started walking back "Fine but don't do anything stupid, and don't think I'm gonna help you if you get in trouble for staying out" he turned and they both left.

"Come on, just forget them." Chris told Gordie. He held out his hand to me and I grabbed it as we walked to met up with Vern and Teddy.

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