Six PM rolled around quick, and Gordie and I left on our bikes to Vern's house. He lived a good three miles away, so we had plenty of time to catch up on our way. It had been a long time since we talked about Denny.

“I think about him still,” I told Gordie as we rode side by side in the middle of the street, letting cars come in between us every once in awhile.

“Yeah. Me too. Especially at dinner time..I always picture him eating with us, and what conversations we'd have,” he replied. Gordie and I could talk openly about this, but when I tried to talk about Denny with anyone else, I usually teared up to the point where I couldn't talk. “Ya know, Chris had a dream about him last night?”

“Really? What happened?” I asked, interested.

“He said he dreamed that that was Denny's ghost in the house. And that he followed us to the lake, and tried to drown Vern. Ace and Eyeball were with him, cheering him on...” he told it like you would tell a story.

“That's really weird...What do you think was in the house?” I asked.

“It was a ghost, what else?”

“I think it might have been a shadow...Or some wino. I don't think it was a ghost..”

“Why not?” he asked, almost offended sounding.

“Why would a ghost hide in the attic?”

“Good point,” Gordie thought. We each took opposite sides of the road, letting a car separate us temporarily. When we joined back together, he didn't say anything. Neither did I. I figured we were both thinking about our dead brother; I know I was.

--

“Jesus, Vern, why is this tent so big?” Gordie asked as we pulled up. Everyone was there, both gangs.

“I found it in the storage closet..my dad uses it for hunting. I figured it could fit all of us, and if my mom asks why, I could say that it's because it's so hot outside, and we don't want to sleep close,” Vern gushed, proud of himself to think up such a clever excuse. If his mom knew that there were four girls in the tent with him, poor Vern would never hear the end of it, and probably wouldn't be able to sit for a week. Plus he'd get the sex talk, which all our parents seemed to avoid.

--

The tent was big; big enough to fit the Lochness Monster comfortably. Okay, that's exaggerating..but not by much. We all climbed in and rolled out our blankets. Each gang took a half of the tent; girls on one side, boys on the other. Inside the tent already, Vern had stocked it with marshmallows, uncooked hot dogs, 8 bottles of Coke, two flashlights, a book of scary stories, some matches, and a pack of cigarettes.

Vern's field was not that big, but big enough so we could be a safe distance from the house, avoiding Cobras and parents all together. We had a situation once when Billy had brought his hood buddies over for some beer, and they partied in the field for hours. We lay awake in the tent all night, scared to death of what they would do if they discovered our little hideaway.

--

“Hmm...James Dean, or Elvis Presley?” Selma asked me as we sat in a circle outside, waiting for the sun to finish setting.

When I say 'we', I really mean just the girls. The boys were playing their own version of charades, which is what we always do when we camp out. I'll admit it was pretty fun, but I wouldn't play in front of the girls. I have a rep with them to keep.

“Elvis, no doubt,” I answered. Presley was my man, and everyone in Castle Rock knew that. “Buddy Holly, or Johnny Cash?” I asked Christi. She made a disgusted face, and answered Buddy. I didn't know what her problem was...I thought Johnny was pretty cute...

“Of course you do,” Candy said after I thought that out loud. I didn't say anything after that. Then a wicked grin spread across her face. “Teddy Duchamp, or Chris Chambers?” she whispered, staring me in the eye.

“I'm not answering that, they're my brothers” I giggled. Even if I had wanted to, I couldn't. If I wanted to say Teddy, I'd get made fun of forever. But on the other hand, if I had said Chris, Candy wouldn't talk to me for at least a week. Sometimes it was hard being her best friend.

“Hey you guys, I'm getting hungry. Wanna eat?” Vern asked. Candy looked disappointed that she didn't get a chance to force me to answer, but she got up, too and joined the guys in the tent, where we all dug out the provisions. We sat in the dark outside, our eyes adjusting to the night.

“Why do we have to eat these raw? Can't we build a fire?” Candy complained. Everyone else dug in to the hot dogs as if we hadn't eaten in years.

“My mom won't let us after we caught the grass on fire,” Vern said sadly. I laughed, remembering the incident.

Surprisingly, Candy didn't argue much more, but also ate hungrily. Afterwards, we opened the bag of marshmallows and swallowed them fiercely. Teddy and I got into a game of trying to throw one into each other's mouths, and when I ran out of my handful, I elbowed Chris in the arm, asking him to hand me the bag. He winced in pain and grabbed his arm, but grabbed for the treats.

“What's wrong?” I asked, touching his arm gently.

“Richie socked me one this morning,” he answered, rubbing his bruise.

“I hate big brothers,” Vern said. Gordie and I exchanged a look that meant everything, but didn't say a word.

“Idiot!” Teddy cried out and punched Vern in the arm. He must've seen our look.

--

We fooled around for another half hour when Chris came up with an idea.

“Hey guys, let's become blood brothers...” he suggested. We all looked at him with confused looks.

“What's that?” Gordie asked.

“Well...you see, you like, prick your finger so it bleeds, and rub it against someone's else's finger...so your blood mixes, and your related then.” he explained. Candy made a sort of grunting noise.

“You know how dangerous that it? I'm not doing it,” she said. “What if one of you has a disease I don't know about?”

“I had the flu once!” Vern piped in. I couldn't help but laugh.

“I wouldn't want you to be my sister anyway..” Teddy said under his breath. I smiled at him, showing I heard, and secretly agreed. Candy was my best girl friend, but even I knew she was a pain.

“How 'bout everyone else?” Chris asked. Teddy, Gordie, Vern, and I all agreed. Which didn't surprise me that no one else did.

“What can we use?” Teddy asked, looking around. I grabbed one of the empty Coke bottles and handed it to Chris, who walked away, smashed it on a rock, and brought a piece back. We promised Vern we'd clean the rest of the glass up in the morning.

“That's SO unsanitary...” Selma said and looked away.

We all passed the glass around, slicing our index fingers just enough for them to bleed. Once we were all cut, we pressed our fingers together, (obviously Gordie and I skipped each other), officially becoming “related”.

The guys and Candy all lit up a cigarette (no one else smoked), and Vern read us some stories from the book that he brought out. No one else thought they were scary except him, but they were entertaining.

Eventually we just let Gordie tell us one of his infamous Le Dio stories.

A/N: Finally an update! It's kind of a long one, too...

Also, I started school. So that sucks. That also means homework, which leaves even less time to update.

Review, please!