.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE

CHAPTER TWO

ii. making friends

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WIPING AT HER GLOSSY EYES WITH THE BACK OF HER HAND, April begins collecting the contents of her bag which now littered the concrete. Her hands reaching towards her books and pencil case, tossing it into her bag carelessly. She sighs at the sight of her three spools of thread, all different in colour. Pale yellow, baby pink, and light blue. It unraveled slightly and was now rolled across the ground.

She crawls to it, taking the pink one in her hand and  beginning the wrap the loose thread back around the spool carefully. Tucking the end of it onto the inside and placing it into her bag carefully. She continues onto the blue one, her left hand wrapping the string once again.

'I really should learn how to stand up for myself' She thinks as she carefully tucks the end of the string into the inside of the spool before placing it into her backpack. 'I'm too much of a pushover,' Her mind lulls on as she begins to zip up her bag, still sat on the ground.

"Why the fuck are you on the ground?" A confused voice from behind her says, startling her. Her body jolting up in surprise before she turns around, pale yellow spool still in her hand as she stares at the figure the voice had come from. Richie, Richie Tozier stares down at her. His friends crowded around them as they looked at the way she dress flooded around her and the way she held her backpack close to her.

She opens her mouth to respond, getting cut off by a rapid voice. "Y'Know, you could get sick from that? There's a whole bunch of germs," It says. She looks towards where it came from, a smaller boy. She recalls him as Eddie Kaspbrak.

April stifles a giggle as she remembers him being in her science class and how he'd force one of his friends to keep an extra inhaler on them just in case he'd ever forget his fanny pack. She always wished she could have a friend group she could rely on like that.

She shrugs before responding, offering a sweet smile at the group before she quickly looks away, wiping her eyes to be sure that he doesn't have any chance of noticing the glossiness of them. "A-Are you okay?" Another voice, just by the stutter she already knew. Bill Denbrough.

Everyone in Derry knew who Bill and his family were. Not for any good reason or bad reason, too. But, for tragic reasons. Just last October, young Georgie Denbrough went missing. He's believed to be dead, though, April would never utter those words out loud.

She giggles lightly, shrugging her shoulders once again. "I'm great," She responds to the boys question, dusting her dress off and standing up in front of the four boys. "I'm April Ambrose," She introduces herself with a happy grin, worried that they wouldn't know who she was.

"We know you. Kind of hard to forget the weird girl who's always making friendship bracelets when she has n-" Richie begins, getting nudged in the side by Eddie and Bills who give him warning looks.

April goes silent for a moment, staring at them and blinking slowly. "S-Sorry about h-him," Bill apologizes, a look of embarrassment as his friends comment before she begins to let out a giggle, slowly increasing in volume into a real laugh. This was the most they've ever heard her talk.

"That was good, Tozier," She commends him, able to pick up on the joke within his words. It wasn't like Gretta's mean jabs meant to hurt. She could tell he was joking, he was being playful.

Richie pushes up his glasses. "Why, thank you, Ambie," He responds in an attempt of a British accent, the boys rolling their eyes at it. Ambie, a stupid play of her last name - April couldn't help but smile though. It was like she was making friends! With those stupid nicknames and jokes and all!

"Did you trip?" A boy in a light blue button up shirt butts in, April recognizes him as Stanley Uris - he was her seat partner in English for the first few weeks of school.

She shakes her head, no. "Just Gretta being Gretta," She chuckles, brushing a piece of hair behind her ear looking between the four boys, her elbow becoming noticeable now. The group of boys looking at it. April takes note of how Bill stares at her left elbow with worry. "Oh, dear. What is it?" She asks, bending it to check - unable to bend it far enough to see.

"You kind of got a scrape that's bleeding more than Eddie's moms vagina," Richie blinks, pointing to her bloody elbow.

April presses her lips into a line, stifling a laugh at the inappropriate joke and shaking her head as Eddie turns to him. "That's fucking disgusting," He says, shaking his head.

"E-Ed's, y-you've 'ought to have something t-to put over that," Bill cuts in before Richie can retaliate against Eddie's response.

Stan nods in agreement, glancing to Eddie's fanny pack sat comfortably around his hips. "Ah. Uh, I think... I've got," Eddie begins to unzip the top of it, lifting the flap and pulling his inhaler out, passing it to Stan to hold. Then grabs a travel size bottle of antiseptic and two bandaids, passing them to Bill and then taking his inhaler back and tossing it back into his fanny pack.

Richie snorts quietly, looking to April and whispering. "He's got a whole fucking medical arsenal,".

"I heard that, fucknut," Eddie fires at him, taking the supplies from Bill who stared at April's face.

Bill couldn't place his finger on it but her smile makes him feel safe, warm. Happy, even. God knows how rarely he feels happy, ever since Georgie. He smiles back at her shyly, noticing the way her eyes danced and watched as Eddie and Richie bicker. She was almost like the sun, she was like sunshine.

"Shut up, Richie," Stan rolls his eyes, Eddie beginning to walk closer to April, grabbing her wrist and twisting her arm lightly to see the scrape, blood trickling down the side of her arm.

Eddie begins to observe the scrape, scrunching up his nose at the blood before bringing the antiseptic bottle up to her elbow and spraying the scrape excessively. April hisses for a moment before she giggles. "That hurt," She comments as Eddie pats it dry with a cotton ball.

He sprays it again, rising little reaction from April considering she had gotten used to it from the first time - watching as Eddie carefully dabbed away the bubbling liquid from her skin. "Isn't that a bit much?" Stan asks as him and Richie watch unimpressed with the excessiveness.

Shaking his head, no, Eddie looks to them. Cotton ball still on her elbow. "No. No way. The AIDS epidemic, guys. We have to clean the wound throughly," He responds as April's eyes widen in worry.

"Y-You're not g-gonna get AIDS," Bill jumps in, eyes never leaving April. "He's j-j-just dramatic," He goes on, glaring at Eddie who had placed the cotton ball and antiseptic to the side and now ripped one of the bandaids open.

April nodded. "I'd sure hope I don't. I'm quite content with my wellbeing," She makes eye contact with Bill for a moment, leaning her head down shyly with a small smile on her face. They both did the same thing. Bill smiling softly at her.

That is, until Richie cut into the conversation. "So, what'd Gretta do? Shove you?" He asks curiously, gesturing to the white ash scratches on her legs.

"Slapped the back of my head, threw my bracelet at my face and then Abbey tried to touch my face. She thought 'no one was home' cause I wasn't responding," April recalls what had happened with an impressed look on her face - she didn't really understand how people could be so cruel, so mean. "When I tried to leave Gretta pilled on my bag and I took a tumble," She adds on.

Frowning, Bill continues to notice the everlasting smile on her face. "I-I'm sorry she did that," He says, a sudden wave of nervousness washing over him as her eyes find his again. She doesn't respond, waving her hand and brushing the apology off as if to say 'It's not your fault,', smile still on her face.

Stan shakes his head at the explanation, not getting why anyone would be so rude to her - they sat together for awhile and in that time he was able to tell she was probably the sweetest person in town. Always willing to help others, no matter the price.

"Jesus, what's climbed up her ass?" Richie rolls his eyes at the thought of the blonde-haired bully. "So, is she gonna live, Dr. K?" He leans closer as Eddie places the second bandaid on her elbow.

Eddie looks to him. "This is serious. She could've gotten an infection if we didn't help her," He says to Richie who would scoff at him.

Richie then begins laughing. "Serious? It's just a fucking scrape, Ed's. You gotta loosen up, pussy," He nudges Eddie, the two other boys instantly grimacing at rolling their eyes at the bickering.

Cutting in between the two of the boys, Stan holds them away from one another before it could escalate into an actually fight where they pull at each other's hair and slap each other's faces. "Stop it," He deadpans at them, irritated with their childish behaviour.

"D-Do you have any p-plans... T-This summer?" Bill sputters out, his cheeks heating up - though, a blush didn't spread across his face thankfully.

She looks to him with shock at the question. She hadn't been asked that ever. Bill noticed this was the first time her smile left her face in the entirety of the conversation, her lips parting for a moment as her eyes widened. Before she quickly recomposes herself, smile returning. "No. No, not really. I'll probably stay home, bake... Make bracelet and watch movies," April answers, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear.

"That's all?" Stan asks, eyes furrowing in confusion. "That's all you're going to do?" He questions again as April shrugs with a bittersweet smile on her face.

Richie snorts, nudging Stan in the arm. "She hasn't got any frie-" He starts, Stan and Eddie nudging him back and glaring as April forms her lips into a line shyly.

Tilting her head, she scrunched up her nose - noticing Bill looking at her with apologetic eyes. "I mean, he isn't wrong," She laughs at the worry three of the boys wore on their faces. "I really don't. Don't feel bad, it's quite nice. Provides a lot of moments to think and imagine. Though, it can get lonely at times," She rambles, brushing her hand through her hair as they continue to watch her, surprised at the amount of words leaving her mouth and the rapid pace of her voice. She pauses, looking to the expressions the boys wore - confusion on them. "A-Anyway, no, I don't. Do you?" She asks.

"Y-Yeah. W-We're going to hang out on Saturday. You c-c-can join us," Bill offers, nodding at her. Her eyes lighting up in excitement, her hands clapping together.

An even wider smile appears across her face. "Really? I can?" She asks, bouncing on her feet excitedly. "I've never had anyone offer me that before," She adds as Bill smiles back.

Eddie nods in agreement with Bill, Stan smiling back at April softly as Richie winks as a way to say
'Come with us!'. "O-Of course, m-meet us out by the east entrance bike racks t-t-tomorrow," Bill explains to the girl who continued to bounce with joy, her head snapping to the road at the sound of tires screeching against the concrete. Her mom.

"Okay, yeah. For sure. Uh. I think, my mom's here but I'll see you guys, tomorrow," She responds, looking back to the boys and running a hand through her feathery hair.

The boys nod, all of them bidding her a goodbye as she holds the straps of her backpack before turning away and rushing over to her car with the widest of smiles in her face. Perhaps, this summer wouldn't be as lonely as she thought it would be. Perhaps, she'd finally make true friends. She couldn't help the giggle that escaped her mouth as she excitedly threw the car door open and entered. She was going to make four friendship bracelets and maybe, she'd be able to give them to her new friends.