Fanon:The Month Before

The Month Before is a fan fiction written by AsherÉire. It follows the lives of Dustin Broke, Dirk Dreamer, Angela & Lilith Pleasant and Donnie & Marty Lothario before Richie Hutchworth moved to Pleasantview in A Pleasant Story.

Chapter 1
Angela Pleasant bolted upright. Nightmares, yet again. And it was the same one, night after night. Ever since Lilith had dragged her to see some overly-hyped film in March, Angela had had the same nightmare for ages.

She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and realised it was the first day of the summer holidays.

Hm, Lilith. She was unique. One day she was the nicest person on the planet, the next day she would be the most argumentative Angela had ever met! Lilith was slightly troubled, yet no one really knew the answer as to why. Some people thought it was because Angela's successes had overshadowed her younger twin sister's.

Angela knew that wasn't true. It had something to do with a little school incident, some time two years ago. When Lilith was 13, or 14, Angela couldn't remember, Lilith had accidentally set the fire alarm off when her science experiment burst into flames. Lilith got suspended, and Angela knew she hadn't been the same since.

Chapter 2
Lilith's hand swept the alarm clock off of her bedside table onto the floor. That shut it up. Nothing got in the way of Lilith and her precious sleep!

Angela quickly entered Lilith's room after hearing the commotion from next door.

"Lilith... did you just break your alarm clock?" Angela asked quietly.

"Yeah, now go away." Lilith mumbled.

"But Lils... we have to head off. You promised Dirk that we'd all be there on time."

No response.

"Lilith?"

Lilith had had enough of her sister and sat up. "Angela," she yelled "just shut up and leave me alone!"

Angela bit her lip and blinked back the tears. Everyone knew Angela was very sensitive, and this had really hurt her feelings.

"Oh... OK..." she choked before leaving hastily.

Lilith fell back into her pillow. What a great start to the day. Four minutes and she had already hurt someone.

Chapter 3
Lilith's outburst had completely changed the original plan. Angela refused to speak to her sister, and went off to town with Dustin, her best friend. Lilith didn't know what to do, but to meet up with Dirk and Ricky. She looked at her reflection and sighed. Angela was right, she did look like a gothic nightmare. The sad thing about this, is that Lilith didn't know who she really wanted to be.

Lilith's change in personalilty happened two years ago, when she was 13. It was a simple science experiment which involved burning Jelly Babies. Somehow, Lilith's experiment went horribly wrong, resulting in brief inferno which set of the fire alarms. The headteacher thought she had done this on purpose and got suspended for two weeks.

Lilith sighed. That's the reason she changed. And only one person knew this: Dirk.

He was her lab partner at the time. When the mini-inferno sparked to life, Dirk burst into tears. He didn't want a reminder of how his mother died. A house fire... a house fire that nearly ended the Dreamer family.

Chapter 4
The original plan went down the drain. Ricky couldn't make it, Angela went back to Dustin's place, and Dirk and Lilith were stood there like lemons.

"Now what?" Lilith asked. Dirk shrugged. "Good plan..."

Angela knew the Brokes were going through some serious financial difficulties. It was getting to the point where Dustin was missing the final days of the term to look after his younger brother, Tommy, who was only a baby. Beau could go to school no problem.

The normal routine for Angela was to help look after Tommy. It was more a privilege than a chore. Angela wished she could have had a younger brother or sister like Dustin did.

Dustin looked over at Angela and his little brother. He then realised something was nagging inside of him.

He needed to tell Angela something.

Chapter 5
Well... how was Dustin going to say this? Three words... three words he had to say... but he was having severe doubts. He sat on his bed next to Angela.

"So..." he started. "... now what?"

Angela thought briefly. " I don't know. What are you thinking about?" she asked.

"Just some random stuff." His heart was racing, his nerves sending him into a nervous tremble.

"Such as...?" Angela hated it when people went all nervous.

Three words Dustin, three words...

"Angela... you are my best friend and..."

"Yes?"

He very gently went to hold her hand.

"Dustin? What are you doing?" Angela asked. She was really confused about Dustin's odd behaviour.

The cheerful look in Dustin's eyes died. "No..." he murmured. "It wouldn't work... I should have known better."

Chapter 6
Angela slowly got up and edged to the door. "Maybe I should go?" she asked, not waiting for an answer. Dustin didn't know what to do, except ask one more thing.

"Angela." he called out. She spun on her heel. "Do me a favour... could you not tell anyone about this?"

"Of course not."

"Not even Lilith." Dustin said sternly. Angela froze. Even though they didn't get along all the time, the Pleasant twins could confide any secret with one another.

She cleared her throat before whispering, "I won't" before leaving.

Chapter 7
Lilith could tell something was bothering Angela. She was picking at her food, and excused herself from the table early.

Angela heard a small tap on her door before Lilith entered. Lilith picked up the chair from the desk and placed it facing her sister's bed. "Angela, I know there's something bothering you, so, y'know, spill it." Angela broke eye contact from her sister.

"Something to do with Dustin?" Lilith could tell by Angela's paralinguistics that it had something to do with Dustin. "Come on Angie, I'm here to help out. You tell me everything, and yet you say anything now?" She stood up. "Who are you, and what have you done with my sister?" She scoffed before leaving.

Angela's face turned bright red. How dare she speak to her like that?

Chapter 8
Angela got up and tugged her door open. She crossed the landing and burst into Lilith's room. "What are on about "who are you and what have you done to my sister?"- OH!" Angela dodged a flying Chuck from Lilith's direction. As if time had slowed down, Lilith saw the shoe pass Angela and head straight towards the window with a deafening CRASH!

The girls froze. The silence was broken by Lilith's half-hearted curse. They both ran out of Lilith's room. Lilith, who wasn't wearing shoes, kicked the base of the doorframe and started yelping in pain. Angela, who was running down the stairs, turned to Lilith's shouts and slipped down the stairs. Angela picked herself up to notice she had a nasty friction burn on her knee.

But she didn't notice Mary-Sue at the base of the stairs. At least, not at first.

"Oops..." Angela whispered.

Chapter 9
The following evening consisted of a heated argument between Lilith and Mary-Sue while Angela just cowered on the sofa. She had never been in this much trouble with her mum before. It was always Lilith who got shouted at due to her procrastinating nature. She decided to chip in.

"Mum, it wasn't just Lilith's fault! If I hadn't gone into her room to start on her, this wouldn't have happened!" She stopped to catch her breath, and saw Lilith was giving her a what-the-heck? look behind Mary-Sue's back.

"But if I hadn't insulted Angela before, she wouldn't have come after me!" Lilith shouted, trying to divert the attention away from Angela. She could tell she was seconds away from bursting into tears. Fifteen minutes passed before the twins were allowed to go back upstairs.

Before Lilith could turn left into her room, Angela dragged her into her own. "Lilith, I wanted to thank you for what you did... and I want to return the favour." She rummaged underneath her matress for her end-of-year report card. Lilith quickly caught a glimpse of the grades. A+, as usual. Lilith's was covered in Ds, with comments saying she had the ability to succeed, but she didn't put enough effort in.

"And to return the favour," Angela whispered. "I haven't shown Mum or Dad mine, so they won't ask for yours. They'd skin you alive otherwise-" Angela was stopped by a quick hug from Lilith. Lilith darted off towards the door. Before leaving, she turned around.

"Thank you." she mouthed. "I'll change my ways, I promise."

Chapter 10
Angela had messed up big-time. In her sleep-deprived state, she had gently placed her report card on her desk, where anyone could clearly see it.

Her dream that night had been different. Dustin's face had dominated it and when Angela woke up, an overwhelming sense of guilt swept over her. She could have been a bit more polite and not so quick to flee. It took guts what he did, and Angela felt she had thrown it back into his face.

She rubbed the sleep from her eyes before realising what she did last night. Her eyes darted straight to her desk.

The report card was gone.

Chapter 11
It took a fraction of a second for Angela to go into full panic-mode. She hastily searched under all over her room before kicking her chair in frustration. She sat at her desk, and she noticed her hands were shaking uncontrollably.

Lilith cautiously entered her sister's room, after wondering what the noise was from downstairs. It sounded like a rhino let loose! "Angela, what's up?" she gently asked

"I left my report card on the table last night, and now it's gone!" Angela sobbed.

"About that...." Lilith murmured. "I found it this morning."

Angela's face filled with more worry. "Where?" she demanded.

"Well... the puppy got it..."

"Puppy? What puppy?"

Lilith smirked.

"Lilith, you know we don't have a puppy, right?"

Lilith laughed.

Chapter 12
"What's so funny Lil?" Angela asked in a less-than-amused fashion

"Basically, Dad managed to get drunk, and he stupidly agreed to look after Grandma and Grandad's puppy while they're on holiday. You know they've been trying to find Barky a place to stay in the meantime. Anyways, Mum flipped, I'm surprised you slept through it." Lilth replied.

Angela scowled as she tried to put two and two together. "Just go downstairs and it'll make sense" her twin said. They could both hear barking from downstairs. The twins followed the sound of the barking, only to see a brown furball dashing around the downstairs part of the house. The puppy ran up to Angela.

"You're convinced Dad's an idiot for pulling that move, right?" Lilith joked.

"Nah," Angela responded "this should be quite fun knowing Mum's not happy with this..."

Daniel emerged from the kitchen, looking quite flustered. "Girls... do me a favour and take Barky for a walk, your mother's not pleased with me, and the sight of that dog will set her off again."

"I've got nothing better to do... alright Dad, we'll do it."

"We?" Angela questioned with a confused face, which disappeared once her twin shot her an evil look. "... uh, yeah... sure..."

Walking this puppy's going to be a complete and utter nightmare, Angela thought.