For once, Alexa was glad to hear the sound of her alarm ringing as that meant she could hang out with Bill. She did have to stay quiet because her older sister was still asleep. After taking a quick shower, she pulled out her outfit.
Alexa decided to take out a black oversized shirt with the band Metallica printed on the front. Then took out light blue jean shorts with her black Converse. She took out her braids and decided to leave her curls out.
While sitting on the couch with a finished bowl of cereal and her mom talking about neighborhood drama, the phone rang. Alexa sprung off the couch and set her bowl off to the side.
Picking up the phone she heard Bill on the other end. "H-hey A-A-Alexa!"
She smiled and replied, "Hey Bill"
"We're o-o-off t-to Eddie's n-now. D-do you r-r-remember how to get the-there?"
"Yep, I'll see you there" Alexa almost ran out of the house but made sure to say goodbye to her mom and locked the door on the way out.
She took her bike out of the garage and headed to Eddies. Thankfully it wasn't a long ride and already saw the 3 boys' bikes on the lawn. Before knocking she wiped her clammy hands and waited a second.
Alexa took a deep breath and finally knocked, From the outside she could hear Eddie's voice yell, "I'll get it" and a few seconds later opened the door. Alexa smiled at him and said hey, Eddie just smiled at her and invited her in.
She began taking off her shoes to be polite but Eddie just said to keep them on since they were leaving soon. Walking to the kitchen Alexa saw an older woman, who she assumed to be Eddie's mom sitting on a recliner, being nice she smiled and waved at her.
But the woman just looked at her, so Alexa just followed Eddie and found herself in his kitchen. Inside, the boys conversed amongst themselves but stopped when Eddie and she walked in.
She sent a small wave their way and they all said hi back. Richie, who she was told to be a trash mouth said, "Well hello Alexa, must I say you look ravishing as ever." Alexa giggled at this in amusement. "You met me yesterday Richie, you don't have anything to go off on my looks."
"Still" he continued, before he could finish his sentence Bill cleared his throat and gave Richie a look.
Richie groaned and just muttered under his breath.
"Alright guys" Eddie started, "Let's grab some snacks so we can get out of here before my mom comes in."
Not knowing where anything was, Alexa stood off to the side and watched the boys raid the cabinets.
"Take everything but the delicious deals guys, my mom loves 'em," said Eddie, not wanting to upset his mom. He then continued, questioning Bill with, "Hey, first you said the barrens now you're saying the sewer, I mean," he paused, "What if we get caught?"
"We won't Eds, the sewers are p-public works, we're the public aren't we?" Bill answered, calming Eddie down. Before Eddie could reply, behind him Richie opened a cabinet of many bottles of prescription.
"Hey Eddie, are these birth control pills?"
Annoyed Eddie responded with, "Yeah and I'm saving them for your sister, this is private stuff." He closed the cabinet and began walking out. Alexa giggled at the comeback but stopped when Richie looked at her.
Before the group could leave through the front, The woman in the living room called out to Eddie. "Eddie Bear, Where you guys off to in such a rush?" The group of 4 turned around to see Eddie's mom painting her nails not looking up at them.
Bill began stuttering out, "J-j-just my backyard, Mrs. K, I got a new — " Bill paused looking for any excuse for their hurrying. Thankfully Richie came to the rescue and finished Bill's sentence with "A new croquet set" He continued with "Jeez spit it out B-B-B-Bill"
Mrs. K looked at them and finally replied "Okay" She continued, "Oh and sweetie don't go rollin' around on the grass, especially if it's just been cut, you know how bad your allergies can get" Desperate to leave, Eddie said, "Yes mom."
"Aren't you forgetting something?" She interrupted, looking at him expectedly.
Eddie hesitated but walked up to his mom with a sigh and lightly kissed her cheek. In the corner of her eye, she saw Bill trying to stop a chuckling Richie. She didn't find it that funny but let Richie have his laugh.
But of course, Richie had to comment and ask, "Do you want one from me to Mrs. K —" He got cut off by Eddie repeating "Come on" while shoving them out the door.
After leaving Eddie's, they met up with Stan and headed towards the sewers.
Once there the group of 4 dropped their bikes on the dirt, Stan keeping his bike up with the stand, they headed towards the entrance of the sewer. Then Stan started talking about poison ivy.
"That's poison ivy, and that's poison ivy, and that's poison ivy, and that's poison ivy." Alexa turned around to give him a confused look. "W-Where's the poison ivy?" Eddie asked, not wanting to feel the plants itch.
Stan pointed while Richie announced, "Nowhere, not every fucking plant is poison ivy Stanley." Alexa could hear the annoyance in his voice and just giggled at them. "Don't worry Eddie, there's no poison ivy," she said, trying to ease his mind, walking closer to the sewer.
"Okay well now I'm starting to feel itchy now and I'm pretty sure —" "Do you use the same bathroom as your mother" Richie cut him off.
"Sometimes yeah"
"Then you probably have crabs" Alexa let out an actual laugh at that.
Eddie glared at the both of them and responded, "That's so not funny." Alexa looked at him, "It's a little funny." Richie let out a laugh, "Finally someone that laughs at my jokes." He walked up next to Bill and then turned around.
"Aren't you guys coming in?"
The 3 other kids stood at the entrance looking inside the sewer, hesitating to come in.
"Uh Uh," Eddie started, "It's gray-water."
"What the hell is gray water?" Alexa and Richie asked at the same time.
"Jinx" Alexa shouted, smirking at him. Richie playfully rolled his eyes and put his attention back to Eddie.
"It's basically piss and shit, "
"Ew"
"I'm just telling you, you guys are splashing around in millions of gallons of Derry pee."
Then Richie picked up a stick in the water and started sniffing it. "Oh my gosh Richie, that's actually really gross." Alexa voiced, disgusted.
"W- Are are you serious right now?" Questioning Richie's goal in sniffing a dirty stick. "It doesn't smell like caca to me sénior," Richie said in a terrible Hispanic accent.
"O-Okay I can smell that from here."
"That's probably your breath wafting back into your face"
"Have you ever heard of a staff infection?"
"I'll show you a staff infection —"
Alexa just tuned out their argument and decided to be brave and step foot into the disease-filled tunnel. She began walking toward Bill while he picked something up from the water.
"Watcha got there Bill?" Alexa asked seeing him inspect whatever he picked up. But he just ignored her and turned around to face the others.
"Guys!" Bill interrupted the boy's fight, holding up what he found, which Alexa could now see was a shoe.
Her eyes and everyone else's widened, knowing what this shoe could mean. "Shit, don't tell me that's —" Stan started, not wanting to believe what it could be.
"No, Georgie wore galoshers." Alexa let out a sigh of relief from that. But it still led to the question of whose shoe it was.
After a few seconds of silence, Eddie asked the question the others hesitated to ask.
"Whose sneaker is it?"
"It's Betty Ripsons."
Eddie mumbled, gradually growing louder "Shit, god oh fuck. I don't like this" Alexa began walking out of the sewer, starting to feel uncomfortable with being near the possible tombstone of Betty. Standing in between Eddie and Stan she saw Richies bad attempt to lighten the mood.
"How do you think Betty feels,? Running around these tunnels with one freaking shoe." He began bouncing on his right foot, making the joke much worse.
No one laughed, they just blankly stared at the black-haired boy. "What if she's still here?" asked Stan, Alexa whipped her head to him, "Stan don't even think like that, that's creepy as shit."
Richie and Bill started walking deeper into the sewer, Richie turned to ask his friends to join them.
"Wait, you guys are gonna go deeper in the dark scary dirty tunnel?" Alexa questioned. "Yeah," Eddie continued "my mom will have an aneurysm if she finds out we're playing in here, I'm serious!"
Bill and Richie turned to face the others, "If I was Betty Ripson, I would want us to find her, G-Georgie too." Bill protested, trying to convince his friends. Eddie looked bewildered, "What if I don't want to find them?" he continued, "I mean no offense Bill, but I don't want to end up like Ge —" he paused, "I don't want to end up missing either."
"He has a point." Stan voiced. "You too?" Bill asked, upset his friends wouldn't follow him.
"It's summer, we're supposed to be having fun, this isn't fun." Stan's words were timid. Bill and Richie exchanged looks, then looked towards Alexa, who just looked at the floor with her arms crossed.
"Sorry guys, this is scary and disgusting."
Then a loud splash came from behind them.