Two trashouths | Richie Tozier (1)

~4~ The Quarry & Ben's Discovery

"Richie is staring at you." she glanced at them, then back at me.

"What?" I leaned up onto my elbows and looked at the boys. They were all staring at Beverly, but sure enough, Richie was looking at me. We made eye contact and he turned red, looking away. Beverly then turned to the boys and they all suddenly busied themselves with doing anything but look her way. Stan just turned his eyes to look at me instead. 

Why the fuck was Richie looking at me?

Richie started looking through Ben's backpack. He held up an imaginary microphone to his mouth. "News flash Ben, school's out for summah!"

"Oh that?" Ben looked at Richie. "That's not school stuff."

Richie pulled out a card. "Who sent you this?"

"No one!" Ben snatched it away from him.

"Hasn't your mother taught you it's really rude to go through someone's bag without permission." I shook my head.

Richie ignored me and pulled out a folder. "What's with the history project?"

"When I first moved here, I didn't really have anyone to hangout with." Ben shrugged. "So I started spending time in the library."

Richie passed the folder to Bill. "You went to the library? On purpose?"

"I go to the library on purpose." I stood up to go look at the folder. "It's nothing weird."

"You can't even read!" Richie laughed.

"I went because I was trying!" I seethed.

Not only was I dyslexic, I hadn't actually gone to public school until a little late because of my parents. Which meant I hadn't started reading until I was ten. Luckily, I was really good in everything except English. So I wasn't too far behind.

Beverly sat next to Bill, and I sat on her other side.

"Y-y-y-your hair." Bill looked at her.

She stared at him.

"Your hair is beautiful Beverly." Ben smiled.

Beverly touched it. "Oh right. Thanks."

"Here pass." Richie stuck his hand out.

Bill handed the folder to him.

"Why is it all about murders and missing kids?" asked Richie, passing it to Eddie.

"Derry's not like any other town I've been in before." Ben said. "They did a study once. People die or disappear six times the national average."

"Seriously?" I felt spooked.

"You read that?" Bev asked.

Ben nodded. "And that's just the adults. Kids are way way worse."

"I've got more stuff if you want to see it." Ben said.

We all nodded.

After getting dressed, we got on our bikes and followed Ben to his house. Ben ran in before us. We followed slowly. Walking into his room, Ben was obviously hurriedly trying to shove things away. Entering Ben's room was like a change of reality. His whole room was filled with newspaper clippings, maps and lots of other things about Derry.

"Woah woah woah." Richie walking around.

"Cool huh?" Ben looked proud.

"No, no nothing cool nothing cool." Richie peered at the walls.

I rolled my eyes. "I think it's super cool Ben."

"Hey this is cool!" Richie pointed to a picture. "Wait, no it's not never mind."

I shoved past him to get a better look at Ben's walls.

"What's that?" Stan asked, pointing to a paper on the wall.

"That's the Derry township." Ben replied.

"Nerd alert." Richie laughed, fixing his glasses.

"No, it's actually really interesting." Ben said.

"I'm sure it is, Richie is just being annoying." I smiled at Ben.

He smiled back. "Derry started as a beaver-trapping camp."

"Still is, am I right?" Richie raised his hand for a high-five. Stan shook his head and I glared at Richie.

"91 people signed the charter that made Derry, but later that winter they disappeared without a trace." Ben explained.

"The entire camp?" Eddie asked.

Ben nodded. "There were rumors' of Indians, but no sign of an attack. Everyone thought it was a plague or something. But it was like, one day everybody just woke up and left. The only clue was a trail of bloody clothes leading to the well house."

I felt goosebumps on my arms and I rubbed them. "Holy fuck."

Richie side eyed me. "Wuss."

"Asshole."

"Derry could be an unsolved mysteries." Richie said, turning back to the paper.

"W-w-where was the well house?" Bill asked.

Ben shrugged. "I don't know. Somewhere in town I guess. Why?"

Bill shook his head. "Nothing."

I knew Bill too well to know that it wasn't just nothing.