TAG, YOU’RE IT!
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"WHAT DO YOU want, Ari?" Syd asked her sister as she played with the crumpled dollar bills in her hands. Arianna's blue eyes scanned the shelves full of candy, not knowing what to pick for herself.
"Uhm..." Arianna's eyes finally landed on one. "I want 3 Musketeers - no, I want a Snickers - wait, no, I want Jolly Ranchers - no, I want a Honey Bun - no, no, no, I want-"
"Make up your dang mind, Taylor." Sydney joked, looking up at her younger sister as she grinned. Arianna furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, staring at her.
"Taylor's your last name, idiot." Sydney answered her sister's silent question and chuckled.
"Oh!" Arianna shook her head, mentally face palming herself. She couldn't believe she had forgotten her own last name. "So, what should I get?"
"I don't know, just grab something and let's go!" Sydney responded, peering around the candy shelf to see if anybody else had made their way into the corner store.
Arianna huffed, not happy with the answer her sister gave her. She quickly made her decision by grabbing a Skittles bag from the shelf. The girls both walked up to the cashier. After paying for the candy, they both left the small store and started walking on the sidewalk.
"What are we gonna do tomorrow?" Arianna asked Syd, sticking her hands in her back pockets as she held her candy.
Sydney thought for a bit, looking around the street. "I don't know. We should go around town; explore."
Arianna nodded. "We shall." She spoke in a strange accent, making Sydney chuckle and roll her icy blue eyes.
"You and your stupid accents! Literally, one day, you're gonna see how annoying they are." Sydney spoke, squinting her blue eyes in the sunlight.
"Accents aren't annoying; they're fun!" Arianna joked, liking that she was getting on her sister's nerves on purpose.
Accents are fun.
"Hey - is that Bill?" Sydney suddenly asked, causing Arianna's eyes to look up from the ground to see a familiar face. Standing not too far away from the girls, was Bill.
"Yeah." Arianna confirmed with a smile, then looked down to see a penny on the ground, causing her to gasp.
"What?"
"Penny!" She pointed to the ground with wide eyes, kneeling down to grab it as Sydney walked over to Bill. She smiled, knowing pennies meant good luck. She stuck the penny in her back pocket and walked over to Sydney and Bill, who were both blushing.
Arianna mischievously grinned. I know what's going on here! "I see what's going on, here." She teasingly spoke, making Sydney glare at her and for Bill to blush even more.
Sydney's pale cheeks had a tint of a pink color. "Shut it, Ari!" She whisper shouted, embarrassed by her little sister's words.
"It's fine." Bill gave Arianna a reassuring grin, then looked back over to Sydney. His green eyes were in awe, as if he were looking at the most beautiful thing on earth.
Arianna's eyes shifted to the left, looking into the alley. Her eyebrows furrowed when she saw Richie, Eddie and Stanley standing around a boy she never met before. Eddie was crouched in front of the boy, seeming to be doing something to him.
"Suck the wound!" She heard Richie say to Eddie, gesturing towards the boy's stomach.
What?
"Hey!" Arianna's smiled, walking up to the boys with her hands in her back pockets.
Richie's brown eyes widened at the sight of the girl walking towards him. Arianna's smile seemed brighter than the hot sun that poured it's rays down on them.
"Hey, Ari." Eddie smiled, quickly going back to the boy's stomach. Arianna looked over at Stanley, smiling and waving. Stanley grinned, giving her a little wave.
"Look who arrived!" Richie smirked and winked at the brunette, dorkily waving at her.
"Richie." She greeted him with a smile and stood next to him, starting to examine what Eddie was doing.
"Suck the wound." Richie suddenly insisted, turning back to Eddie. "Suck the wound and apply the bandage. That's how it works!"
"Shut up, I need to focus right now. Go get me my bifocals. They're in my second fanny pack." Eddie quickly ordered, and Arianna peered around him to see that he was cleaning the boy's fresh-looking wound.
"Why do you have a second fanny pack?" Stanley asked, stifling a laugh.
"I need to focus right now and it's a long story." Eddie responded, not taking his doe eyes off of the fresh-looking wound.
"It's 101, that's how it works!" Richie continued to argue.
"Why don't you shut the fuck up, Einstein, I know what I'm doing." Eddie snapped, giving him a side glare.
"Gosh!"
Arianna looked over to see Bill and Sydney as they walked over to them. "Ben, what happened to you?"
"Oh, you know. Just some bullies." 'Ben' responded, waving his hand as if it were no big deal.
"Y - Y - You know him?" Bill asked, slightly glaring at Ben before looking back at the girl. Arianna smirked, finding Bill's obvious jealousy quite humorous.
"Yeah, I met him today. Arianna, this is who I was talking about." Sydney told her, totally oblivious of Bill's emotions.
"Oh, I'm Arianna." Arianna introduced herself with her breath-taking smile, making the boy blush, and she heard Richie clear his throat. Her eyes slid to him.
"Uhm, we should continue on the wound." Richie said, glaring at Ben.
Arianna smirked again, nudging Richie in his rib lightly with her elbow and winking, knowing of Richie's jealousy. The boys were terrible at hiding their jealousy. But Richie didn't like her - right? They were just two kids; one of them playfully being a flirt to the other.
It was kid stuff. Any other boy who had his first interaction with a girl would act like that.
Right?
"Are you okay, that looks like it hurts." Arianna heard a familiar voice say, and she looked over to see a long red haired girl with a worried expression written on her face. Beverly.
"Beverly." Arianna smiled, and Beverly smiled at the sight of her new friend.
"Hey, Taylor." Beverly smiled, hugging the brunette.
"Sydney, this is Beverly, Beverly, this is my twin sister, Sydney." Arianna quickly introduced them, and they smiled and waved at each other.
"Wait, seriously, what happened to Ben?" Beverly asked.
"Uh, it's okay! I just fell." Ben told her, trying to convince the red-head by adding a nervous smile.
Arianna smirked. He was obviously lying, and Arianna secretly knew that, since Ben had just told them that it were bullies who had hurt him.
"Yeah, right into Bowers!" Richie blurted out, and Arianna nudged him in his rib a little harder than the last time. She knew why Richie wasn't allowed to say that; in Derry High School, gossip spreads quickly.
Beverly's blue eyes widened at the name, but she quickly furrowed her eyebrows.
"Sh - Shut up, R - R - Richie!" Bill scolded.
"What? It's the truth!" Richie protested, oblivious on why he couldn't say anything.
Beverly took a few steps toward Ben. "Are you sure they got the 'right stuff' to fix you up?" She asked and winked. Ben smiled and stared at her.
Arianna furrowed her eyebrows, knowing the band quite well. Did she just make a reference to The New Kids On The Block?
"W - Well, maybe I'll s - s - see you around?" Bill hopefully looked at Sydney.
Sydney smiled at the question. "Sure. We all should hang out some time."
An idea quickly popped into the stuttering boys' head. "W - We were gonna go t - to the q - q - q - quarry... i - if you wanted to join."
Sydney's smile grew at the invitation. "Okay. Thanks. We'll be there." Sydney gestured to Arianna, and Arianna smiled and nodded.
"Bye!" They all smiled and waved at the twins.
Arianna smiled and waved to everyone. As her and Sydney started walking away, she couldn't believe it; their first day in Derry, and they already had friends to hang out with. Arianna thought it was going to be way harder to make friends, but she was wrong about that.
"Wait!" Ari and Syd both turned their heads over their shoulders to see Richie biking up to them.
"Yes?" Arianna asked, glancing over at her sister, then back at him.
"Just wanted to walk you and your sister home; can't have a beauty and her sister walking alone in the evening..." He trailed off, knowing his words came out an awkward way, and he widened his eyes as he looked at Sydney. "U - Uh, well, not that you're ugly - I, I mean, you're pretty-"
"Rich, you're on your bike." Arianna chuckled, trying to distract him from his awkward situation.
"Well, wanna hop on?" He asked and Arianna smiled at the hopeful look on his face.
Arianna didn't dare let her face go red at the invitation, and she looked over at Sydney for approval. "I'll catch up, and it's not too dark out. I'll be fine. Y'all could go." She spoke, smirking at her younger sister.
"Well, the seat's comfy." Richie patted his seat with a dorky smile and scooted up on his bike, giving Arianna more room. Arianna climbed onto the back of his bike, slowly wrapping her pale arms around his torso, and they soon rode off.
"Like the view, gorgeous?" He asked as he pedaled, secretly cheering that he was able to give a beautiful girl a ride home on his bike. Never in his million dreams did he think it would happen.
"You mean the back of your head? No. And are you always gonna call me gorgeous?" She chuckled.
Arianna heard him chuckle. "Oh, Ari, I've got tons of nicknames for you already."
"Oh, really? Name 'em all." She challenged. He can't have that many names, right?
"Oh, okay." Richie said. "I've got gorgeous, aribear, bubba, hotty, m'lady, sweetcheeks, love, hotstuff -"
"Okay, Richie, I get it." Ari chuckled at the nicknames.
"Babes, honey, hotness, toots, beauty, honeybear, cutey-patootey, fluffers-"
"Really, Rich? Fluffers? I'm not a dog." She giggled and rolled her eyes.
"Natural Beauty, pretty, babygirl, cuteness, sweets, mommy-"
"Alright, Richie, you could stop." She let out a laugh.
The sound of Arianna's laugh was a new sound to Richie's ears, and he thought that he had never heard anything so beautiful.
After a while, they finally reached the Taylor house, where they saw Sydney sitting on the porch.
"Damn, is she the Flash?" Richie muttered, furrowing his eyebrows as he stopped the bike, now standing.
"Syd - how'd you get here before us?" Ari asked, still sitting on the bike with her pale arms wrapped around the boy.
"I called mom and asked her to drive me home. I got tired of walking." She simply explained, standing up from the first porch step.
"Oh." Ari nodded and climbed off of the bike. She couldn't help but notice the fluttery feeling she felt in her chest as her arms let go of the boy, but she shook her head at the thought. "Bye, Richie, thanks for the ride." Ari smiled, starting to walk onto the lawn.
"No problem, toots." Richie smiled his dorky smile, and he watched as the girl walked towards her sister. "Hey, hot stuff!" He called.
"You called, trashmouth?" She spun around with a smirk. Richie furrowed his eyebrows at the nickname. "I could do the nicknames, too, Richie."
"Oh. Well, I like it." Richie smiled at the thought of a pretty girl giving him a nickname; even if it was about his obnoxious choice of vocabulary.
"What'd you call me, for?" Ari asked.
"Oh, yeah. Next time you need a ride, I don't suggest riding my bike."
Arianna knew where this was going.
"What do you suggest?" Arianna groaned and rolled her blue eyes, knowing exactly what he was going to say.
"I suggest riding my di-"
"Bye, Glasses!" Ari waved without looking back as she walked up to her sister.
"Did I hear what I thought he said?" Sydney asked her.
"Yep."
"Hey, that's my sister you're talking about!" Sydney shouted to him.
"I know!" Richie called back, starting to pedal away. "Bye, Sweets, bye, Sydney!"
Arianna and Sydney both looked at each other and burst out laughing.
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