“Nobody ever notices him at all unless he fucks up. People look right through him. When he talks, nobody answers.”
Name: Gordon "Gordie" LaChance
Gordon LaChance was born in Castle Rock, the youngest and second child in the LaChance family. His mother and father believed they could never have children, so it came as a surprise and shock to discover that she was pregnant with Gordie's older brother Denny. He was viewed as a miracle and he could do no wrong. Gordie came as a surprise as well, though not the most pleasant one - the LaChance family were just happy with one child and for most of his life Gordie was the invisible boy in his household.
His older brother was ten years older than him, and their relationship was fairly good because of that - they never had to spend too much time together, and his parents though Denny was above babysitting so Denny never grew too annoyed with Gordie. His relationship with his parents was rather cool - not that Gordie wanted it to be that way.He always tried his hardest to make his parents proud but they never seemed to listen to him or pay any attention to him.
When Gordie was eleven - and shortly before his twelfth birthday, Denny was killed in a car crash. This devastated his parents but because Gordie never knew his brother that well, he was less affected. He was saddened, of course, and disappointed at not having had more time to be with his brother but he wasn't crushed and continued on as normal. To his parents, he became even more invisible than before. For a while, this caused Gordie to act out a little more recklessly than he otherwise would have done. It was one of the reasons why he went out with his friends Chris, Teddy and Vern to see the dead body of Ray Browers.
During the summer he was twelve, the kids in Castle Rock heard all about the dead body. The radio never explicitly stated that Ray was dead, but after a week of being missing, what else could he be? Having gone missing in the Royal Woods, search parties were out all the time looking for him - and who should find him but the older brothers of Gordie's friends. After over hearing this, the four friends set out to find the body themselves. They succeeded, but never told anyone and kept it to themselves. To see a dead body with their own eyes was a shock - especially to Gordie (who had occasionally thought things would have been better if he had died instead of his brother) and Chris (who didn't think he had a future ahead of him). But after getting over the initial fright and awe of the moment, the adventure to Gordie allowed him to see that sometimes death is accidental, and can and will happen for no reason at all.
After their outing, Chris and Gordie grew closer and began paying more attention to their school work. Gordie was interested in writing stories - and even as a young boy he was great at them. Though he saw less and less of Vern and Teddy the four of them share a great secret.
During his seventeenth year he was offered a place at the Midnight Academy. When Chris was also invited, Gordie accepted and enrolled. He found the Academy to be dark and mysterious (the perfect setting for a good story), but off putting as well. There were too many people with dark pasts and secrets and he wasn't sure what to make of that.
Gordie is one of the friendlier students at the Academy, mostly because it just seems right to him to be nice. He can be rather guarded and usually only opens up to his best friend, Chris Chambers, but will speak and chat pleasantly with just about anyone else. He has a vast imagination, often coming up with stories on the spot and now and then when people are bored he even gets requests for him to regal the others with his tales.
He often slips by unnoticed at the Academy, which is something he's used to considering he was always invisible at home. This kind of treatment has left an (invisible) scar, but Gordie isn't sure he wants to be in the spotlight any way. He's hoping that sometimes it's okay to be a wallflower - and now and then a more courageous side shows through the shyness and he stands up for what he wants and believes in.
Gordie can be rather naive - though after seeing the body of Ray Browers perhaps he can't be described as innocent any more. He is more trusting than he should be, which can often get him into trouble.
Chris Chambers: Best Friend.
