More Than The Upside Down - An IT (2017) & Stranger Things Crossover

Uncanny Resemblance

Richie

As the group walked into Hawkins Middle School, Richie could feel his heart begin to race. How are we gonna explain the similarities between Mike and I if anybody sees us? He thought. Luckily for them though, the school was deserted because of the memorial service they were holding for Will. As Mike began to open the door to the AV Club a teacher walked up to the group. Oh shit, Richie's heartbeat began to speed up.

This teacher was a tall, skinny man with dark brown hair and moustache. He frowned at the boys but Richie could see a gentleness on his face. "Boys, what are you doing?" He asked kindly, "Shouldn't you be at the memorial service?"

"We didn't think we could take it," Mike's voice cracked. "It's been a hard past couple of days."

The teacher nodded in sympathy at them, "Well I know it's been difficult but can you please try and come to the ceremony? It will be tough but if you can make it through, I'll let you spend the rest of the day in the AV Club."

Mike, Dustin, and Lucas nodded hurriedly at him, smiling in the process.

"Thank you, sir," Dustin said for them.

The teacher looked over at Eleven and flashed her a friendly smile, "I don't think I've seen you around school before."

"She's my cousin," Mike interceded.

"Where are you from?" The teacher asked Eleven.

Eleven shook her head, "Bad place."

"Sweden," Dustin added.

The teacher nodded in reply and his eyes scoured the rest of the group. "Are these your cousins as well Mi-" His eyes fell on Richie. "I'm sorry I don't think we've met before, are you related to Mike as well?"

Richie swallowed, utterly speechless. Say something, he ushered himself.

"Yeah, that's my twin, Richie," Mike said before Richie could say anything.

A look of utter confusion fell across the teacher's face, "I didn't know you had a twin, Mike. I can see now though, I mean the resemblance is uncanny. Besides your brother's glasses, of course."

"Neither did I until a few weeks ago," Mike replied. "Apparently there was a mix up of parents at birth and they thought Richie belonged to another couple."

Richie nodded, sporting a horrid English accent, "Hence why my last name is Tozier sir."

He saw Eddie glare at him out of the corner of his eye, but his friend didn't say anything.

"Well Mr Tozier, I'm Mister Clarke. I teach science here at Hawkins Middle School and Mike, Dustin, and Lucas are in my classes," The teacher introduced himself. He then proceeded to glance at Bill, Eddie, Stan, Cassie, Eleven, and Richie. "It's lovely to meet you all and I'm sorry we couldn't meet under happier circumstances due to the tragedy that has just happened. Either way, I'm pretty sure Mike, Dustin, and Lucas appreciate your support."

Dustin smiled at them, "We do."

"And so do I," Mr Clarke added. "How about I walk you guys to the stadium? But just a warning it's already started though."

"That would be great, thank you, Mr Clarke," Mike said for all of them.

They all walked off with Mr Clarke towards the school's stadium. Despite the teacher being kind towards them and believing Mike's story, that didn't slow down Richie's heartbeat. How are other people going to react? What will they say? Will they even believe Mike's story? Those words pumped around his head in a constant rhythm. The least I can do is make them smile, he thought, breaking the cycle as they neared closer to the stadium.