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.

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?