You made sure to leave your house early, not risking being late because of your mom's lecturing. Luckily, she wasn't as ticked off today. When you came home the day before, telling her about the kids you met and actually knowing their names, she was elated that you were making friends. When you asked her if you could go out tomorrow as well, she said yes without a second thought.
After you finished your chores, you exchanged a short goodbye with your mom before leaving out of the house in a rush. Even though you were early, having thirty minutes to get to the arcade, you were worried that you would somehow get lost on the way there. Your nerves consumed you as you biked down the empty road, your breath caught in your chest.
You had no clue what to expect except for Richie and Eddie to be there. How many friends did he have? Was it just him and Eddie? What do they even do at the quarry? Are they doing some kind of satanic ritual and they need another person?
You shook your head at your last thought. From the amount of time you've spent with Richie, you would never believe that he would be involved in satanic acts. Although he swore quite a lot, he didn't peg you as the 'bad boy' type. Maybe it was because you both invested yourselves in the arcade game and you hadn't seen him outside of that environment. No, it was probably just because of his appearance. His thick-rimmed glasses and hawaiian button-ups didn't scream 'bad boy' to you. Now that you think of it, Eddie also labeled themselves as losers and admitted to being bullied by a guy named Henry so there was no way that Richie could be a renowned bad boy.
Soon enough, you pulled into the front of the arcade, where Richie was already standing, his familiar Hawaiian shirt from yesterday resting on his shoulders.
"Ready to go, sugar?"
"Sure am, trashmouth," You chuckled, watching as he climbed onto his own bike.
There wasn't much conversation as you both traveled to the quarry. Your heart was beating out of your chest, not from physical exhaustion but from not knowing what was coming next. However, you did your best to not show the nervousness on your face. The last thing you wanted was his friends to think you were scared of them.
Richie skidded to a stop when you two came up to a small dirt clearing where a few other bikes were parked, clothes scattered on the ground next to them. Instantly, your mind began to spin. We're they stripping? You definitely weren't prepared for that.
"It looks like your eyes are going to pop out of your head," The boy next to you laughed, making fun of your shock as you stared at the clothes on the ground.
Your eyes shot upwards when you heard light footsteps coming around the bushes, revealing a girl that looked no older than you. Her red hair was short and curly, some of it hanging in front of her face. She wore a bra and panties, confirming your suspicion that they did undress but you were relieved that they didn't strip down completely. You were a bit worried that you were finding out Derry was full of teenage creeps that stripped down with their friends and did god knows what.
The ginger offered you a smile as she came up to you, introducing herself. "Hey, I'm Beverly."
"I'm (Y/n)," You smiled back at her, climbing off of your bike to stand in front of her.
"You have no clue how happy I am to see another girl-"
"(Y/n)!" Eddie hollered, walking up behind Beverly. "Is the loogie based on mass or on distance?" Your eyes blinked a couple of times as you stared at the boy standing only in his underwear.
"It's based on distance, dumbass," Richie responded for you, dropping his bike on the dirt before starting to shed his clothes.
"I didn't ask you, Richie," Eddie argued with the dark-haired brunette.
You watched as the two started bickering at each other, throwing little insults between. How are these two even friends? Beverly must have seen your confusion because she put a hand on your shoulder, shaking her head at the two best friends.
"It's okay, they do that all the time."
You nodded your head absentmindedly, switching your attention back to the ginger. "Do I have to undress too?"
"Yeah, unless you want to get all your clothes wet," She responded.
You laid your bike down like everyone else and moved your hand to the button of the dress you were wearing. Hesitating, your eyes glanced over to the two boys that were still bickering.
Beverly caught onto your hesitation and leaned close to you before whispering, "Don't worry about them, they're all a bunch of sissies."
Richie must have caught onto her words because his head immediately shot up. "What did you say?"
Beverly let out a chuckle, rolling her eyes at the trashmouth. "Nothing, Tozier."
You found yourself smiling at the ginger's teasing, shoulders relaxing the more she talked. Once you took off your dress, Beverly took a hold of your hand and led you to a clearing where there were several boys standing on the edge of a cliff.
"See? A bunch of sissies," She shook her head, the corner of her lip turning up in a smirk.
You took a step next to the boys to see how far the drop was. "Oh shit," You mumbled, seeing the water so far down. Even though Beverly talked like the drop was nothing, the height was daunting as you looked straight down off the cliff edge.
"It's not as bad as it looks," Richie said, coming up behind you.
"You weren't saying that the last time," One of the boys grumbled. Your head tilted to the side to see a boy with light brown curly hair that reminded you of pasta noodles.
"Shut up Stanley," Richie hissed, "It's not like you were any better."
As your eyes shot between the two boys, you wondered if their friend group did this all the time. Did they enjoy teasing each other? You would be lying if you said your old friend group didn't do the same. You all had a great time poking fun at each other.
"H-H-Have you e-e-ever d-done this b-b-before?" A boy stuttered next to you, catching your attention.
"Uh," You started, head swinging to the other side to look at the boy. His hair was auburn brown and his eyes were large. He looked almost innocent looking. "No, I've never done this before."
"Oh, so we're taking one of your firsts?" Richie spoke up, earning a slap on the arm from Eddie.
"Beep beep Richie," Beverly warned.
"What? It wasn't even that ba-"
"It's okay," Another one of the teenage boys spoke up, "It's my first time too."
You looked over at the dark-skinned boy. He looked more in shape than the other boys, his arms large like he was used to carrying large objects. "That's good," You smiled at him, "I'm glad I'm not the only one."
Beverly stood close to you but she leaned in closer and whispered to you so the boys wouldn't hear. "Do you want to show these sissies up?"
Your eyebrows furrowed as you faced the girl. "How?" You whispered back just as quietly.
"Follow my lead." She gripped your hand as she took a few steps back, taking you with her. "Look out boys!" Beverly shouted, feet launching her forward. You didn't have any time to process, her hand dragging you with her as she pushed off the cliff. Although the drop was only a few seconds, your heart dropped to the bottom of your chest, your hair violently moving because of the rush.
"Not again!"
You heard someone shout right before you hit the water, almost knocking the wind out of you. Luckily, you were able to take a gasp of breath before being submerged in the cool water.
You didn't waste any time to resurface as soon as you were dunked in, feet pushing off of the muddy floor. When your head popped out of the water, you took a deep breath, pushing hair out of your face so you could see in front of you.
"You might want to move away a bit," You heard Beverly say a little bit away, gesturing at the cliff you both just jumped off of.
Listening to her warning, you moved more to the side, watching as the boys started jumping off the cliff as well.
You all had been in the water for who knows how long, splashing and dunking each other until someone spit up water. Beverly, Bill, Richie, and Mike were playing chicken fight, Beverly and Richie battling it out as Bill and Mike were supporting them.
You decided to sit out for that. You may have a competitive spirit but you didn't want a mouth full of water when someone pushed you down.
"(Y/n), right?" Someone spoke beside you, making your head swivel to the left. The boy who spoke to you had light brown hair and full cheeks that were tinted pink.
"Uh, yeah," You responded, almost cursing to yourself when you stuttered. "I'm sorry I don't know your name."
"O-Oh, I'm Ben," He introduces himself, a small smile appearing on his face.
"Nice to meet you, Ben," You smiled back, trying your best to be polite to the boy. He was incredibly nice and the last thing you wanted to do was scare him away.
"It's nice to meet yo-"
Suddenly, your whole body was submerged in the cool water. You barely had time to take a breath before you were dunked.
Immediately, you knew that you didn't just trip, or a weird violent surge knocked you down. There was someone gripping onto your ankle and you heard an all too muffled familiar laugh from above the water.
When you finally surfaced, you glared at the boy, tugging at your leg in an attempt to loosen his grip.
"You asshole, give me my foot back," You hissed, hopping on one leg to keep yourself from going back under.
Richie clicked his tongue and did his best to keep his grip on your ankle. "No can do, princess. You're going to have to earn it."
"Earn it?" You scoffed, your upper lip curling in disgust.
"Yes," He chimed.
"How?"
"Well, I wouldn't be opposed to a kiss-"
Before he could finish, you did your best to push off the foot that you had control of and launch yourself forward, knocking Richie in the shoulder.
He completely let go of your ankle as soon as he felt the impact, making the water around him splash up.
"Oh fuck!" He shouted, trying to regain his balance.
Retracting your right foot, you started to wonder if Richie caught a glance of your scar. It didn't really matter, you were 13 and something like finding your soulmate was not one of your top priorities at the moment. However, you still found yourself thinking about who your soulmate was, what they looked like if they had an accent or not. Everything was a mystery except for the two scars on your body.
Richie thought he had seen a pale line tracing the bottom of your foot but dismissed it as you pushed him back. He accused his mind of playing games with him, making him imagine a line that really wasn't there. There was no way he would find his soulmate at 13 anyway. Sure, some teenagers found their soulmates already but he was convinced his soulmate was somewhere else. He believed that he would find his soulmate once he finally escaped Derry. His mind playing a cruel trick on him wouldn't suddenly change his opinion.
You laughed as Richie started to push water at you, successfully soaking your top half again. You tried to splash him back, gradually taking steps to him until you could grasp his shoulders and push him down with all of your weight. When you let go, Richie didn't make a move to surface, letting his back float instead.
"Richie," You rolled your eyes, "You're not going to fool me." Richie didn't respond, he didn't even twitch when you poked his back. Your heart started to gain speed as you tried to tilt him up to get his head out of the water. "Hey, Richie?"
Once his head was pulled out of the water, Richie popped up and shoved you down, just like you did to him. "That's what you get! Don't try to mess with me, sugar!"
You took a sharp breath when you resurfaced, not wasting any time to smack Richie in the arm. "You idiot, I thought something was wrong!"
"Stop fucking hitting me!" Richie whined, smoothing his hand over the mark you made on his arm.
"Then don't fucking play games with me Tozier!"
Since it was already 6:30, Richie offered to take you home. You had a bike and could easily get home by yourself but you were a bit freaked out since the sun was starting to set. You knew about the weird disappearances of children and the 7 pm curfew did little to stop the unsolved cases. You were worried that you would become part of that statistic.
Richie would have been worried too but he knew that it really didn't matter anymore. He and his friends already got rid of the clown and Henry was taken away so there really wasn't any danger. When he saw your face fall at the realization of how late it was, he asked Eddie if it would be okay to take you home instead. Eddie was kind enough to say yes and he would join the other losers.
"What about you though?" You asked when Richie offered to take you home.
"No need to worry, angel. I can go lightning fast if I need to."
Although you were still worried, Richie's playful grin made your nerves settle slightly. "Okay."
The ride home consisted of some small talk between the two of you. Richie boasted about how much of a womanizer he was, which you only rolled your eyes at. Although he may seem a bit charming to you, there was no way he was a womanizer. His crude jokes and foul language was not something that girls normally swooned over.
When you arrived at your driveway, the sun was almost set. Every second that ticked by made your nerves rise, even if Richie was there to comfort you. "Are you sure you're okay going home at this time?" You asked again, picking at the handlebars of your bike. "I can ask my dad if you can stay over because it's too dangerous to be out in the dark."
Richie brushed you off even though he too was starting to worry. What if the clown wasn't the only thing snatching kids during the night? "It's all good sugar. But if you want me to sleep with you so bad-"
"Okay, okay," You cut him off, climbing off of your bike, "That's enough from you."
Richie chuckled and gripped on his handlebars, preparing to leave. "See you tomorrow?"
You shot him a grin. "Yep! Same place?"
"Sounds perfect, sugar."