April 5th 1979- Windwell, Colorado

Shelley

Ringggggg! Ringgggg! The school bell went off and that meant that Shelley was finally free of the hell that was math class. Stupid Tammy and Tony and whatever other T named classmate were annoying her, they could all go suck a fat one, the only thing that mattered now was biking around with the gang and maybe going to that old haunted house if they felt like it. At least they treated her like a boy.

Shelley knew she was a girl but with that came the disappointing expectation from society that she had to be super pretty and wear a skirt and some boring blouse. Shelly liked being treated like a boy because it meant she could get messy or scrape a knee biking, or just be free, but that was hard for her to do in a town like Windwell, where everyone worshiped Christ and everyone had dumb rules that didn't allow for enough freedom.

But Shelly mostly kept all these thoughts to herself because her mom would be more than upset if she learned about her friends, or her 'gang' as Shelley liked calling them.

Her younger brother Alex was also a part of The Gang but he earned his place in it, he didn't very much agree with their parents either. Shelly got her backpack from her locker and then hopped on her bike. The whole Gang was going to meet at Jack's house, since his parents were out most of the time. As Shelley was biking down Turner Street, she heard her brother calling from behind.

"Shelley!" Alex yelled, "wait up, you're going too fast!"

Shelley groaned as she made her bike slow down, "your welcome, stupid."

When Alex caught up with her she noticed another boy around his age holding onto him, sharing a seat with him on the slightly large bike.

"Wait, who's that kid?" Shelley asked.

Her brother smiled, "his name's Ben. He's gonna join the gang, I need another kid my age anyway, I don't wanna be surrounded by fossils like you and Jack." Alex said, smirking.

Shelley nodded, "fine, but he's gonna have to prove why he should be in the gang, we aren't just letting anyone in."

"Yeah, yeah, I know it's super prestigious and stuff." Alex yawned, Ben, who had a tighter grip on him now, smiled shyly.

Shelley, Alex, and Ben made their way into town and narrowly avoided people and other bikers, and during that, Shelley asked why Ben wasn't riding on his own bike and Ben said it was because his parents didn't like him riding on one because they didn't want him to get scrapes, and that they just didn't like bikes in general, so Ben didn't even know how to ride one properly. That was when Shelley thought to herself that maybe Ben did deserve to be in The Gang, after all, most of them had parents who were either there too much or not there enough, he fit in with the rest of them. The three kids eventually made it to Jack's house and met the rest of the gang in the backyard after entering the secret password, which was "Bugs Bunny".

The backyard had an empty pool with all kinds of junk in it, a stove, a broken lawnmower, and a slide from a playset. Jack and the others were sitting on white chairs which were set on dirt and yellow grass.

"Hi guys, took you long enough." Jack laughed.

"Oh, shut up, we took the fastest route." Shelley replied.

The rest of the gang was there too, besides just Jack you had Annie, Griffith, Tina, and Carter.

"Wait, wait, wait, whose the new kid?" Carter asked, after chugging a whole cola. He pointed at Ben.

Ben walked up and tried to shake his hand, "I'm Ben. I'm a friend of Alex."

Carter licked his hand and shook Ben's hand after that, to which Ben looked at his hand in disgust.

"Hey, don't be mean. He's gonna join The Gang." Alex said, with his arms crossed.

Carter laughed, "he's like eight! He's too young!"

"What do you mean? He's one month older than me, idiot!" Alex said in a defensive tone.

Jack walked in between the two boys, "Carter, stop being so Carter, and Alex, we're gonna need to talk privately real quick."

Jack pulled Alex over to the side of the house and Shelley decided she'd sit next to Ben so he wouldn't feel so lonely being the new kid. Shelley remembered feeling like that at first, that's just how you feel when you meet new people, well, at least that's how she felt.

There was an awkward silence between Shelley and the 12 year old boy sitting next to her. Shit, she knew she wasn't good at small talk, what did people usually say? How was your day? No, this boy didn't seem in the mood for small talk, what would cheer him up?

"How'd you meet Alex?" Shelley asked, it was the only thing she thought of that wasn't super basic and fake.

The small boy looked at Shelley briefly, before looking at the trees nearby, "We have the same English and Science class, back to back, he needed help with science and I'm really good at it. I guess we just kind of became friends after that."

Shelley nodded and looked at the trees too. This kid was chill. She could see how Alex was friends with him. Even though Alex could be crazy sometimes, he had a level of maturity to him that sometimes made him seem like an adult trapped in a kid's body, it was uncanny.

Jack and Alex came back and Alex sat next to Ben, and waited a moment before speaking to him. "You're in the Gang now, I convinced Jack, but you'll have to help him with his science homework too."

Ben nodded, and he had a small smile. "Thanks. I dunno how I can make it up to you, though."

"We're friends. That's enough." Alex said, shrugging like it was no big deal.

Shelley caught Ben looking at Alex with eyes of appreciation but also something deeper, and she realized that Alex and Ben had a special friendship, the kind that would last long.

Tina tapped on Shelley's shoulder. "Come on! Hang out with us big kids, not the babies!" She said in a joking manner.

Shelley smiled and joined the others, leaving Alex and Ben to themselves. Griffith adjusted his glasses as Shelley sat on the white chair next to his.

"Did you convince your parents to get you a new bike yet?" He asked, "'cause you're outgrowing that dinky thing you ride everywhere."

Shelley scoffed, "No, I haven't even asked 'em yet. Why would I? It's not dinky."

Griffith raised his eyebrows. "Yeah, I guess it's got at least two more years in it."

As everyone was talking, Jack turned the radio up as it was playing Moonage Daydream by David Bowie. Carter brought out some Cigs, or as his mom called them, 'coffin nails', and handed them out to everyone, except for Alex and Ben because they were too young, fourteen and up was the right age according to Carter. Shelley smoked some and she liked it, too. But today she passed because she felt like her parents were catching onto the fact that she smoked, the smell was getting on her jackets and schoolbooks.

"So, after we smoke and drink some should we go to that house on Green Street?" Carter asked with his usual smile, "apparently it's haunted." He said while moving his fingers around and smiling creepily to spook the others, but all he got was a slap on the shoulder by Tina who called him a 'fuckface'. Everybody exploded with laughter at that.

"Why not? It might be fun to go to some old house from a couple decades ago." Jack said, "let's do it by votes, raise your hand if you wanna go!"

Shelley didn't know if she wanted to go, on one hand, it would be kind of fun going to a place that probably had ghosts, but on the other, Alex might get spooked and sleep in her room for a whole month. So she decided to keep her hand down, Tina did as well, and Griffith too. But Jack, Carter, and Annie voted.

They looked at Shelley, "wait, why don't you want to go? I thought you wanted to become a ghost hunter too." Jack asked.

Shelley groaned. "Yeah, ghost hunting sounds fun, but if I'm going Alex is gonna go, and I just think it's too dangerous for him to go, plus I've seen an old guy walk out of that house, so I dunno if it's even haunted."

"Well, maybe it was a ghost." But Jack didn't get a laugh from Shelley, so he just nodded, "yeah, that's fair. Well, how about this? We go to your house and drop Alex and his friend off, and then we go to the house."

Shelley nodded. "Sure, sounds good." She said as she put the cigarette back in her mouth.

Alex and Ben peered at the older kids as they sat by the dry pool.

Ben turned to Alex, "will they always leave us out like this?" Ben asked.

Alex yawned. "Yeah, well, sometimes. Shelley says it's because they're mature and we aren't, but that's why I'm glad you joined, so we can be left out together." He said with a smirk, to which Ben smiled back shyly.

That was when the two young boys saw the older kids suddenly hop out of their chairs and freak out.

"Shit, you guys, go!" Jack cursed. "My parents are back!"

Carter coughed and smoke flew out of his nose and mouth. "What? I thought you said your parents would come back at 11 or sumthin!"

"Well, I was wrong, I guess. Just get the hell out, before they see you guys!" Jack yelled back.

So Shelley jumped out of her chair, dashed across the dry terrain of Jack's backyard, and grabbed her brother and his new friend by the arms. She then pushed the gate open and pulled them to the side of the house where they left the bikes and she hopped on hers, she waited for Alex and Ben to hop on their shared bike too, then they quickly pedaled the hell out of there.

Back at the house, Shelley and Alex pushed the front door open, and Ben followed too. Their mom looked at them and raised her eyebrows, "Alex? Who did you bring home?"

Alex looked at her mom with a smirk, "I brought home my new friend, Ben. He's from school."

Shelley noticed her mom had a slightly frustrated expression, probably because Ben was black, and Shelley knew her parents weren't very open to the idea of their kids being friends with kids who weren't white. But Alex didn't seem to care about Ben's skin color and neither did Shelley, it didn't make much a difference to them.

Ben followed Alex to him and Shelley's shared room, Shelley hopped on her bed and pulled her comics out from under her bed, (her parents didn't look under there much, perfect place to hide comics) and she read it. She overheard Ben and Alex talking about mom's weird reaction and Ben said that happened a lot and that he was used to it, to which Alex responded by saying that it was dumb that people were rude to others just for their skin color.

Shelley kept reading for hours while Alex and Ben were doing homework, Shelley supposed she should get onto homework as well but she just wanted to sit down and read and not worry about work from Mr. King's class. But she fell asleep a while after finishing the fifth comic of the day. And in that sleep, she had a nightmare...

Jack

Of course mom and dad had to ruin the meetup, they ruined everything. Jack sighed as he threw away Carter's used soda can that he left behind when he hurried out of there. His dad came back holding his mom because she was drunk and they both went into their bedroom. They didn't even seem to acknowledge Jack, which was fine for him, he didn't want their attention. Well, sometimes he did, but he told himself he didn't need it and especially didn't want it.

After he cleaned up all the mess that The Gang made, he went to his room and shut the door quietly, he made the mistake of slamming it before and his dad taught him a 'lesson'. Jack lied in bed and sighed, he couldn't wait to get out of this stupid town, once he had enough money saved to get a van and that way he could take the whole Gang out of windwell and they all could live lives of freedom and not listen to adults who didn't know anything about living, just sitting at desks and working their lives away. Jack dreamed about sticking his hand out the window of the van, the other hand on the wheel, and feeling the breeze touch his fingertips as he drove out of this godforsaken town.

But while he was still living in this town, he had to find ways to cure the feeling of loneliness the town brought, like hanging out with the gang, or finding haunted areas with them and trying to help lost souls. The Gang had never encountered a spirit yet, but they assumed when they did they would release it so it wouldn't be stuck, they all believed in spirits, because there had to be something bigger than themselves, something that only observers and people who were different could see. They surely weren't alone, there's just no way.

Jack shook his head, this thought process would get him nowhere, he needed to take something to get his mind off of it. His parents had some marijauna stored somewhere, he'd tried it before, he'd just have to remember where it was. While looking for it, his mind went to school, tomorrow was friday, the last day of the school week at least, then the Gang could hang out over the weekend and go visit haunted places in Windwell or just bike around and sneak into theaters to watch Manhattan. Jack kept thinking about school and couldn't find the marijauna, tonight was not his night. He went back to his room and sat on the floor, he couldn't do anything. Well, he could, but there was nothing he wanted to do, besides smoke pot. So he decided to bike around the neighborhood, get some movement or something.

Jack opened the garage door and pedaled out, not caring about closing the door, his parents could do that, right now was his time, he didn't need to worry about anyone else but himself. He passed Carters house and turned to Loop street, the name was ironic because it in fact was not a loop but just a street, whoever named the street was an idiot. Jack then biked down main street and went around the town center, this was past his neighborhood at this point, he realized, but he didn't care. He saw Officer Smith and Officer Umber smoking with each other and talking about something outside the station, Jack assumed they were talking about their kids. Well, at least Smith was talking about his kids, Umber didn't have any kids from what Jack knew about him, he was a new officer in town who moved in a month before, he was around twenty five and unfairly disliked since he came to town due to him being dark-skinned. Jack didn't care about his skin color though, he and The Gang only cared about personality, if you were a shit person then there was no way you'd join the Gang, but if you were different, or even an outcast, you were a perfect addition.

Jack and the others were usually bullied, he didn't know if the new kid Ben was bullied, but he assumed he was due to him being dark-skinned in a town as racist as Windwell. Alex got Ben to join by explaining that Ben was amazing at science, which was a topic no-one in The Gang understood, Ben was extremely smart for a kid his age, and would probably go on to do great things.

Jack was getting lost in his thoughts though, and as he was biking he almost hit an old lady, but lucky for her, Jack pressed on the brake at the perfect time, a moment sooner and the old lady would've probably been a goner. Jack apologized to the elderly woman and continued his journey, this time he took a new path, he went up King's Way. He remembered that someone went missing around the area a couple months before, it was some middle aged guy named Allen, he thought. He knew Allen worked with his dad and one day even came over to his house before he went missing.

Usually that would make most kids doubt going down a road like that, one with a dark past, but Jack was mostly known for his courage, that courage was sometimes considered stupid and dangerous by others who knew him, but he didn't care about what they thought. As he went up the slight hill, Jack saw a road on his left, he read the sign as he passed and it said Tally Drive, when Jack looked at his left he saw an empty road that led to what seemed to be an old suburban house. Weird, Jack thought to himself, but he was quickly brought back to reality when he saw someone else was on King's Way, but they weren't biking, they were walking, and slowly for that matter.

Jack slowed down and looked at the guy walking, he was wearing a brown sweater and he blue jeans. When Jack caught a glimpse of his face he realized that the man walking along King's Way was Allen Hall, the same one that was at his house, the same one that went missing. Jack pressed on the brake, making the bike halt with a skrrrrttt! Noise. He stared at the man who'd been missing for months with a confused expression.

"What are you doing out here? You're Allen, right? Allen Hall?" Jack asked, trying to help the man remember his name in case he was in shock, Jack knew that some people couldn't remember basic things when in shock, he heard it from a crime documentary his mother was watching once.

Allen tilted his head when Jack asked him the question in a somber way, and Jack noticed the man's face was very pale and looked sickly. Allen then smiled, his teeth were mismatched, some of them molars and others canines, it's like a dentist tore out his old teeth and replaced them with other patients'.

Jack took a step back at this, and when he looked at Allen's eyes again, he saw that they weren't the same, they were now Jack's dad's eyes, a dark blue with an almond shape around them.

Allen put a hand on Jack's shoulder, his nails dug deep into Jacks skin and pierced it, causing it to bleed, Jack pulled away and Jumped on his bike quickly, he took one final look at Allen before pedaling as fast as he could back to his house.

As he passed Tally Drive, it was obvious all he wanted to do was get away from King's way, and away from the missing man.