stand by me

chapter one

^^^^play the song while you read^^^

The summer of 1959, I remember it so vividly.

Chris Chambers, Gordie Lachance, Teddy Duchamp, Vern Tessio, and me, Y/N, all lived in the small town called Castle Rock. It only contained 1,281 people. But to us, it was the whole world.
Teddy Duchamp was the craziest guy we hung around with. He had big bulky glasses that made him look like Buddy Holly. His father was given the fits of rage. One time he held Teddy's ear to a stove, drunk, and nearly burnt it off. Despite his father's abuse, Teddy still admired his father. Teddy's father, "stormed the beach at Normandy," as Teddy called it. It seemed like Teddy was always trying to be like his dad even though he was nothing like him. He always acted tough...I don't know if the other guys had witnessed it but Teddy had a soft side.
Chris Chambers was one of the sweetest most caring boys I have ever known. He had short blond hair and greenish blue eyes. He had a bad upbringing but that didn't influence the way he acted. His father and brother were bad so everyone just 'knew' he would turn out bad, including Chris. Chris had a brother named Eyeball Chambers who hung out with our rivals, The Cobras. Even though Eyeball is Chris's brother, he still lets Ace Merrill walk all over him. Ace Merrill was the leader of The Cobras and everyone knew if you got on his bad side, your life was gonna be a living hell.
Gordie Lachance was sweet. He was skinny and had brown hair. His older brother, Denny, got into a car accident and lost his life earlier in the year. I guess that kinda broke Gordie because they were so close. His parents loved Denny, not Gordie, so when Denny died his parents ignored him. I had only ever met Denny when he helped us build the treehouse but from what I could tell, he seemed like the best older brother in Castle Rock.
Vern Tessio was a little slow. He was a short, dumb, chubby boy. He never really understood anything we talked about but he was still fun to be around. I guess he was kinda like the little brother that tagged along even though he was pretty much same age as all of us. All of us were 12 going on 13 accept Vern, who was 11. Vern had a brother named Billy, who also hung out with Ace and The Cobras. He was pretty slow too. They were all slow to be honest.
And then there is me, Y/N. I guess I was pretty normal. I was very quiet accept when I was around the guys because that's where I felt most comfortable. All of the girls made fun of me, that's why I hung out with the guys. The girls didn't really have a reason to, they just did. I wasn't funky looking or anything. Well the guys never really cared about the way I looked so I think that's why I loved them so much. They were like my family because my real family wasn't much of a family. My mother died when I was 3 and my father just got worse from there. He was never home and when he was, I wasn't.