Once I left the library I wanted to go straight home. But like I said before I was craving a milkshake. So I placed the borrowed books into the wire basket of my bike and mounted it and then I started to ride. There was one thing I'd admired about Benton was the historic architecture of the town. The main street of the town was paved in interconnecting cobblestone and running down the center of the street was the trolley line. Now I've ridden the trolley once or twice, but the trolley was not free. Riding it from where I lived down at the very end of Croft Street to the center of town took around three dollars. Now, I'm not a miser by any means of the word, but I tend to hoard my allowance for those twice a month trips into the big city.

Plus, I had been given a nice bike and it was a shame not to use it. And so I followed main street till it reached an intersection. Here the trolley tracks took a sharp 'U' turn. Checking for traffic I took a right and peddled onto another street called Willow because of the number of willow trees that grew down the center of the street. A creek that was born deep in the hills that surrounded Benton flowed through the middle of Willow. The Creek was supposed to flow from a deep pool that according to urban legend was supposed to be haunted by the ghost of a girl who had drowned there about fifty or so years ago. Benton was full of old urban legends and ghost stories. It's the first thing I noticed when I'd moved here at the start of summer.

A few moments after turning onto Willow I came to a squat, square building. The sign in front of the small parking lot read “Chuck's Choice Burgers” and below that another sign read. “Proudly serving Benton since 1970.” and finally below that. “Home to the world famous Chuck Burger” the first part I believed the place looked fifty years old. It kind of had that old retro decor going on for it. Now Benton had two mom and pop burger places; the first one was Joanna's that was located about a half mile away down on main street. The other one was Chuck's, Chuck's was popular because it was cheap, as in a seven dollars could get you a hamburger that even Fred Flintstone would have trouble finishing, served along with a basket of home style crinkle cut french fries and a large fountain drink that would quench your thirst, refills where ten cents though. Only on soda though, if you had tea, water or coffee it was free.

It was also a stones throw from Benton Agricultural High School. The School I'll be attending in the coming autumn. Mom had already enrolled me. I'll be leaving the eighth grade and going into the ninth. And yes mom had enrolled me under my new name Lauren Elizabeth Huntington. It was fitting, a new school for a new me. Mom was to start teaching there in the coming school year. Anyway I took a deep breath and pulled into the parking lot and guided my bike toward the old metal bike rack. I then secured it with a good length of chain.

Once my bike was secure, I paused and peered into the sky, it was clear. Not a cloud could be seen in, it was a picture perfect sky. I took a moment to breeze in and for a moment I wondered if it would be this pleasant next Saturday. I pushed that thought from my head as I started to walk across the gravel parking lot. I heard the gravel starting to crutch under my feet. After a moment of walking under the hot sun, I reached the door. I pulled the door open and was greeted with a blast of cold air.

The air inside the dinner was thick with the chatter of a dozen or so conversations all going on at once. From the back I could hear an old jukebox cracking out some oldies. Right now a mournful ballad about somebody losing the love of their life in a car wreck. I always wondered why so many songs ended with somebody getting knocked off.

Anyway I took a deep breath and slipped into one of the plastic booths. The lunch room was crowded with people. People drawn from all classes and walks of life.

A few moments after I sat down a waitress that looked around my age slipped over to my table. She turned a page on her notebook and looked down at me.

“Hey. So what can I get for you.” She said in a snippy tone of voice.

“I'll take Chuck's monster hamburger with fries please.” I said a little taken back by her snippy tone of voice. “Just meat and bread only please.” I added it quickly. She nodded her head. “And an extra large coke-cola too.” I added.

The girl nodded her head. “One monster with monster fries, just the wheat and the cow, and brown sugar water to wash it all down.” She repeated my order back to me in the same snippy tone of voice.

“Right..” I added.

“Be right out in a second hon.” She sounded tired. Once she reached the counter she yelled out to the cook in the back. “HEY CHUCK.” Her voice echoed off the wooden walls. “ONE MONSTER WITH MONSTER FRIES, JUST THE WHEAT AND THE COW.” She shouted. And oddly nobody paid her much attention. For a moment I thought maybe I should find a summer job. I mean that girl must have the best job in the world, she gets paid to be snippy with people, then shout at the top of her lungs.

A moment later I saw a group of three cheerleaders enter the place. In middle school a girl with golden blonde hair had the prettiest blue eyes I'd ever seen. Standing to her left was a girl with flaming red hair. Like the perfect shade of strawberry blonde. And to her left was a raven-haired girl. All were dressed in pleated red and white skirts with red sneakers and white tops.

I blinked and offered them a wave. And much to my surprise they returned the wave. And before I could catch myself all three were walking up to the booth. The red haired girl spoke first. “Hey! You're the girl in town. I saw a moving van a few weeks ago across the street. I wanted to go over and say hello. But I was down with the flu. Really the whole family was.” She paused.

“Anyway I'm Taylor Anna Croft. And this.” She said pointing toward the blonde hair girl standing in the middle. “Is Jamie Sarah Potter, better known as the Princess of Benton Academy.” The blonde girl waved before Taylor pointed toward the Raven haired girl. “And this is Cerridwen Circe Whitethorn. Also known as Cerridwen the Witch.” The Raven haired girl waved too.

“Hey its a pleasure to meet you.” The blonde girl said as she gave me a friendly smile. “I've seen you hanging out at the library a lot. And you're always alone. I mean Taylor says you just moved here. So it makes sense that you don't have any friends. But..”

“You're more than free to hang out with us and maybe join our group. We meet each Saturday night at midnight in the marshes and woods behind William Street. Just follow the lanterns.” Cerridwen said. She paused. “And no, it's nothing bad. Where just a society of..” Her voice trailed.

“Of Storytellers! We gather around this big old campfire and roast hot dogs and marshmallows and make s'mores and we tell ghost stories.” Jamie added quickly. “Madeline says you really dig the Fear Street and Goosebumps stuff so we figured you might invite you. I've been meaning to, but you know cheerleading practice and stuff.”

I blinked and blinked again. Today must have turned out to be a very good day. I mean getting to volunteer for something was nice, but now I was being invited to join a club? Man I was on a ball. Was God finally giving me a break? Had he heard my prayers? What in the world was going on here.

“I don't know.” I said blushing a little. “I don't really know a lot of ghost stories” I said looking down at the table.

“Oh girl!” Taylor said smiling. “You don't have to worry about anything. We have plenty of ghost stories to tell. I mean Benton is just crawling with ghost.” She added. “I should know I live in the most haunted house on Croft Street. Like I'm not lying. There a ghost in my house.” She then shifted her eyes toward Jamie and Cerridwen. “And don't you two start anything. I both invited you guys over for a slumber party and you both declined.”

I felt a sudden pang of jealousy hit me dead in the chest. The way those three causally joked around with each other, made me understand how along I was. Since we've moved to Benton, I rarely left the house, and when I did leave it was just to go to the supermarket and pick up a few odds and ends for mom and dad. Maybe once or twice I would go check the mail for them. I really had no friends, no close girlfriends to hang out with, to have slumber parties with, to gossip with and to do silly things like braid each other's hair, paint our nails and share the newest, juiciest pieces of drama with.

I was just about to say something when the waitress returned.

“Here you go.” She said, setting down a massive hamburger. “One Monster chuck burger, just cow and wheat.” She said with a grin she then plopped down a basket of golden crinkle cut french fries. “One Monster Fry.” And she then sat down a massive, like I mean massive glass of ice cold coke-cola. “And one brown soda water on the rocks.” She then tore off the ticket and set it down. “Your total seven dollars and thirty five cents. But since you volunteered to be Dotty this coming Saturday. This one's on the house.” She said, “Chuck said so, and he's the big boss.”

“I love that cartoon! Teaching morals and stuff! Gotta love the PBS channel! Best cartoons around! Anybody that volunteers to play Dotty! Can dine here on the house!” Called a big man, and I mean he was a big man. And he was dressed as your stereotypical fry/grill cook. You know white muscle shirt jeans, a white towel draped over his shoulder. His accent was what I called deep fried southern.

“Right Chuck.” The waitress said. “Anyway, enjoy and just wanted you to know we were donating like a hundred dollars.” She said, slapping the table as she turned away.

I blinked and blinked again.

“Anyway we'll let you eat. It was nice meeting you..”

“Lauren.. Lauren Huntington.” I said blushing a little as I looked down at the massive hamburger. It was the size of my head. Shrugging my shoulders I reached down and found out I could barely lift the thing. Swallowing hard I muttered a quick breath before I bit into it. As I thoughtfully chewed, a sudden overwhelming feeling of bliss came over me. The beef patty was seasoned perfectly and seasoned to perfection. It was juicy and moist without being raw and overcooked. Chuck was a master of the grill it seemed.

It took me a good thirty minutes to smash that hamburger. And once I started eating there was no way I could stop. I had to finish it. And so I did. I'd skipped breakfast that morning and lunch had been nothing more than a swig of water and a piece of fried chicken from Sunflower Food Stores. So I was famished. I was just about to finish the fries up. Using the last few fries to mop up the remains of the juices and dripping from the burger when my waitress returned.

“Hope you saved room for desert hon.” She said in her sweet southern accent. And with that she dropped a dish of ice cream down in front. It was the biggest dish of soft serve vanilla ice cream I'd ever seen before and it was just dripping with a rich chocolate sauce that was topped with a big mountain of whipping cream that was sprinkled with chopped up peanuts, walnuts, and pecan bits.

“Chuck's monster chocolate sundae.” The girl said as she held out a plastic spoon. “Enjoy.”

I don't know where I found room for it. But somehow I found room. And another thirty minutes later I was scraping the bottom of the cup. I was full as a tick at that point. I mean all I wanted to do was just crash, instead I stumbled to my feet, thanked Chuck for everything and somehow managed to mount my bike. The sun was hanging low in the sky then, big, dark clouds had blown in and were hiding it. The clouds were iron gray and heavy with rain. I could hear the distant echo of thunder rolling across the land.

The trees too were starting to sway back and forth in a gentle breeze. Rain was coming and so I made tracks. I arrived home, after a twenty minute bike ride. And as soon as I reached the safety of the front porch the bottom fell out of the sky it seemed. Sheets of rain started to call down. The raindrops fell in slats. The temperature started to drop. Blessed coolness. I somehow managed to get inside and once I was in, I locked the door behind me and started toward my room. There in the darkness I fell smooth out and dreamed for the first time in months pleasant dreams of a bright future. A future that was not so far away, and a better life than the old one I had left behind.

To be continued~