Lachambers- What If?

1

"Well what the fuck do you know about this?" Ace smirked.
Gordie Lachance, Teddy Dunchamp, and Vern Tessio were standing right over Ray Brower's dead body. The dead body Ace was coming to claim.

All three boys stood there, silent. As if the corpse wasn't enough to leave them unsettled, they also had The Cobras standing right on the other side of Ray Brower's lifeless body, threatening them with their bloodthirsty eyes. All five Cobras, including Ace the leader of the gang, Eyeball, Billy, Charlie and the youngest Chris, wanted to claim the body as much as the three boys on the other side did, but the difference between them was Ace and his gang would do anything to make sure they took the body home.

"You wasn't planning on taking that body away from us, was you?" Ace asked, as if he expected an answer.
All three boys huddled together and took a few shaky steps back.

"Vern! You little son of a whore! You was under the porch!" Charlie growled and clenched his fists.

"No, I swear...it wasn't me." Vern lied. His hands were trembling as he put them up in defense.
Charlie started forward, triggering Vern to squeal like a baby and run away in terror. Ace simply touched Billy on the shoulder to stop him from chasing after his younger brother.

"Now listen, you guys. You got two choices. Either you go quietly and we take the body, or you stay and we beat the crap out of you, and we take the body." Ace offered with a mischievous glimmer in his eyes.

"Besides me and Billy found him first." Charlie added.
Teddy opened his mouth to say something snarky that would get his ass beat, but he quickly closed it and looked at Gordie.

"We..." Gordie's voice trailed off.

"What did you say? Speak up, asshole." Eyeball said.

"We got here first." Gordie squeaked. His face was pale. His stomach was about to be empty.

"That doesn't fucking matter now does it," Ace said and cocked his head at the boy.
"This is your last chance. What do you say, kid?"

Gordie's lip trembled. He wanted to talk back, but all the words got stuck in his throat, choking him.

"Come on, man. Let's split." Teddy said and grabbed Gordie's arm.

"But we..." Gordie began.

"They're gonna kill us." Teddy said.
Gordie reluctantly gave in and let Teddy drag him away.

"Good choice, boys." Ace said and watched the three leave the scene with their heads down in shame.

The Cobras got credit for finding Ray Brower's body. Their picture was in the paper and every single journalist adored them and their story.
Gordie, Teddy and Vern couldn't stand to hear someone mention Ray Brower's name. It was painful knowing that they were so close to calling dibs on that body they walked so far to get. If only they got there an hour earlier or maybe even a half hour earlier, then that corpse could have been their's. Maybe if they had a weapon to scare the Cobras off, but they had absolutely nothing.

The first day of junior high was horrible. Gordie was in all accelerated classes, while Vern and Teddy were stuck in the lower class, meaning the trio couldn't share their complaints and misery. The entire school was buzzing about Ray Brower's dead body. About how crazy it was that he got hit by a train, and how even crazier a group of boys 'stumbled' across it, but the three boys knew better. They knew that the Cobras came searching for it. They knew the Cobras took the body. They didn't accidentally find it.

One of the boys that 'stumbled' across the body was Chris Chambers. He was one of the members of the Cobras and Eyeball Chambers's kid brother. The Chambers brothers were very close knit. By that I mean they were practically stuck together. If you messed with one of the brothers then you would be fucking with both of them. They were closer than words could describe. Most brothers would hate it if their little brother tagged along with him and his friends wherever they went, but Chris was different. When Chris was being hit by his father, Eyeball would always step in and protect him without question. If Eyeball had some late school work he never finished and his was going out that night, Chris would happily do it for him. Sure they fought a lot, but that's in their nature. After all, without Ace and the Cobras, all the brothers would have is each other. Even though they never said it, they definitely proved they loved each other through their actions.

This is so confusing but I promise it'll make sense later. Thanks for reading! Ilysm! ❤️