JUNE 1989

IT WAS THE NEXT DAY and Bill, Richie, and Sarah were all at Eddie's house loading up on snacks before they went to the Barrens.

"Take everything but the delicious deals, guys. My mom loves them." Eddie tells them as they open the cabinet seeing what they could grab.

Sarah looks over and sees a box of skittles and takes those and shoving it into her bag.

"Hey! First you said the Barrens, and now you're saying the sewer. I mean, what if we get caught?" Eddie asks Bill.

"We won't, Ed's." Sarah reassured him putting a hand on his shoulder.

"The sewers are p-public works. We're the public, aren't we?"

Richie goes over to the other cabinet and sees all the prescription bottles.

"Hey, Eddie, these your birth control pills?" Richie asked.

"Yeah, and I'm saving it for you and Sarah." He goes over and closes the cabinet, as Sarah blushes. "This is private stuff."

Bill closed the cabinets and all of them had their backpacks packed and ready to go. As they were leaving they were all stopped by Eddie's mom.

"Eddie Bear, where you all off to in such a rush?" She asked while painting her finger nails.

"Um... j-just my backyard, Mrs.K. I got a new-" Bill couldn't think of anything so Sarah punched Richie's arm to say something.

"A new croquet set. Jeez, spit it out, B-Bill."

Eddie's Mom seemed to buy it and she nodded her head to the group.

"Okay. Oh, and sweetie, don't go rolling around on the grass. Especially if it's just been cut. You know how bad your allergies can get."

"Yes Mom. Let's go." Eddie tells them and tries pushing them out the door.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Mrs.K asks.

Eddie sighs and walks over to his mother and gives her a kiss on the cheek. Richie and Sarah snicker as he comes back over.

"Do you want one from me too, Mrs.K?" Richie asks.

Sarah shoved him out the door and Eddie looks at his mom.

"Sorry mommy." Eddie says and closes the door.

"Gross Richie." Sarah says as she goes over to her bike.

"What? I thought I was being sincere."

"Shut the fuck up, my mom already hates you don't add to it." Eddie says and gets on his bike too.

"Hey guys." Stan arrives on his bike as well and goes over to Eddie.

"To the Sewers?" Sarah asks them.

"To the S-Sewers. Hi-ho Silver away!" Bill says and they all began to ride their bikes.

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"That's poison ivy, that's poison ivy, and that's poison ivy." Stan says as he points out different plants around them.

"Where? Where's the poison ivy?" Eddie asked frantically.

"Nowhere, not every fucking plant is poison ivy Stanley." Richie says.

Bill began to get closer to the sewer while Sarah and stood beside Eddie and Stan.

"Okay, I'm starting to get itchy now and I'm pretty sure this is not good for my-"

"Do you share the same bathroom as your mother?" Richie asked cutting Eddie off.

"Sometimes, Yeah."

"Then you probably have crabs."

Sarah laughs and Eddie punches her shoulder, very weakly.

"That's so not funny."

"It so is, but I don't know how your mom would have crabs if she hasn't had sex in 13 years." Sarah adds.

Richie high fives Sarah and goes into the sewers behind Bill. Richie then turns around and sees that Eddie, Stan, and Sarah were still at the entrance.

"It smells so fucking bad." Sarah says plugging her nose.

"It's greywater."

"What the hell is greywater?" Richie asks Eddie as he rolls his eyes.

"It's basically piss and shit! So I'm just telling you, you guys are splashing around in millions of gallons of Derry pee. So......" Eddie says as he holds his hands up.

Richie grabs a stick that's been floating in the water and grabs it, sniffing it.

"Richie, fucking disgusting."

"Are you serious? What are you-" Richie cuts off Eddie and does his one of his impressions.

"Doesn't smell like caca to me, señor."

"Okay Sarah and I can smell that from here."

"It's probably just your breath wafting back into your face and Sarah can smell it."

"Have you ever heard of a staph infection?!" Eddie says frantically and annoyed.

"I'll show you a staph infection."

"This is so unsanitary. You're literally- this is literally living inside a toilet bowl right now."

Richie uses the stick and grabs a piece of trash and throws it at Eddie. Sarah moves out of the way and stands behind Stan. Eddie screams and began to argue with Richie and telling him all the different diseases.

"Guys!"

Everyone then focused on Bill and in his hands was a shoe. Sarah's eyes widen and everyone grew silent.

"Shit... don't tell me that's..." Sarah knew what Stan was gonna say.

"No, Georgie wore galoshes." She says cutting him off.

Stan breathed a sigh of relief but everyone wonder who's shoe it was.

"Who's sneaker is it?" Eddie asked.

Richie walks over to Bill and shines the flashlight in the shoe and finds the name Betty Ripsom inside.

"It's Betty Ripsom's."

"Oh shit." Sarah says her eyes widening.

"Oh, god, oh fuck! I don't like this." Eddie says.

"How do you think Betty feels? Running around these tunnels with only one frickin' shoe?" Richie then hops around but the group doesn't laugh.

"What if she's still here?" Stan asks.

Sarah finally goes in and walks in the water next to Bill and Richie. Richie turns around and looks at Eddie and Stan.

"Eddie, come on!"

"My Mom will have an aneurysm if she finds out that we're playing down here. I'm serious." Eddie rants and looks at Bill. "Bill?"

"If... if I was Betty Ripsom, I would want us to find me. G-Georgie too."

"What if I don't want to find them?" Eddie tells them.

"What?" Sarah asks him.

"I mean, no offense, Bill, Sarah, but I don't want to end up like...." Sarah knew he was gonna say Georgie but he corrected himself. "I don't want to go missing either."

"He has a point."  Stan says agreeing with Eddie.

"Y-you too?" Bill asked Stan.

"It's summer! We're suppose to be having fun. This isn't fun. This is scary and disgusting."

Suddenly a splash was heard behind Stan and Eddie and there was a kid bloodied up and breathing heavily.

Sarah, Bill, and Richie go over to Eddie and Stan to get a better look.

"Holy shit! What happened to you?" Richie exclaims.

"Ben?" Sarah says.

Ben looked back at Sarah and she gasped, Eddie and Sarah both rushed over to him and helped him up and trying to get him medical attention.

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Sarah and Eddie helped Ben get on the back of Bill's bike and rode to the town to get some medical supplies. Eddie however on the way wasn't helping matters as he was freaking out about how Ben could get multiple diseases.

"I think it's great that we're helping the new kid, but also we need to think of our own safety. I mean, he's bleeding all over and you guys know that there's an AIDS epidemic happening right now as we speak, right?"

Sarah rolled her eyes and Richie began to make fun of Eddie's rambling making her laugh.

"You know My mom's friend in New York City got it by touching a dirty pole on the subway. And a drop of AIDS blood got into his system through a hangnail. A hangnail. And you can amputate legs and arms. But how do you amputate a waist?"

"Eddie calm the fuck down!" Sarah tells him and places her bike on the ground next to boxes.

"Richie, Sarah. Stay here, come on." 

Ben sits on an empty crate next to the wall and Sarah and Richie stand next to him.

"Glad I got to meet you before you died." Richie tells him, Sarah then slaps Richie upside the head.

"Richie, really? Sorry Ben he doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut."

"I only do that when your lips are on mine."

Sarah ignores him again and sits next to Ben.

"What happened?"

She lifted up his shirt to reveal a cut in the shape of an H and she gasped.

"What the hell? I'm gonna kill that mother fucker!" Sarah says angrily.

"What?"

Richie comes over and sees the H carved into Ben's stomach and knew who did it.

"Henry Bowers." Sarah says.

Ben was the new kid and being the new kid meant new meat for Henry. Since he couldn't touch Bill or Sarah he went after Ben Hanscom, the new kid. Sarah met Ben by protecting him from Henry Bowers one day, he was trying to beat up Ben and since no one dared to stand up to him Sarah kicked him in the nuts, grabbed Ben's hand , and ran like hell.

"He and his friends uh- found me and I-"
Sarah sat next to Ben and opened up her backpack and grabbed the skittles.

"Want some?"

Ben nodded and she opened the box and poured a couple of skittles in his hand to eat. After protecting Ben from Bowers, Ben and Sarah were friends. Since they both had social studies class the two sat next to each other and became great friends over the school year. She had often visited his house on weekends when her friends were busy and or went to library with him to do research and homework. Right now she was worried for her friend and kept looking to see if the boys were back.

10 minutes later Eddie rushed with a lot of medical supplies and still stressed out.

"Okay, Oh shit, oh fuck." Eddie began to murmur as he looks at Ben's wound.

"Just suck the wound." Richie tells Eddie.

"I need to focus right now."

"You need to focus?"

"Yeah, can you go get me something?"

"Jesus.... what do you need?" Richie asks him.

"Go get my bifocals I hid 'em in my second fanny pack."

"Why do you have two fanny packs?" Stan asks.

"Why does he have one?" Sarah asks.

"Shut up, I need to focus."

Eddie begins to disinfect Ben's wound and Sarah keeps telling him it's gonna be okay.

"Oh, god, he's bleeding. Oh, my god!" Stan says panicking.

"Stan of course he's bleeding, what else do you think was gonna happen?"

Soon Bill came over but not alone, Beverly Marsh came over and was looking at Ben in concern.

"You have to suck the wound before you apply the Band-Aids. This is 101."

Sarah and Eddie look at Richie in confusion and annoyance.

"You don't know what you're talking about." Eddie tells him and focuses back on Ben.

"Are you okay? It looks like it hurts." Beverly says walking closer.

Ben straightens up and Sarah sees that Ben's face turns a little red.

He likes her, She thought smiling at his embarrassment.

"Oh, no. I'm good. I just fell."

"Yeah, right into Henry Bowers." Richie retorts.

"Shut it R-Richie."

"Why? It's the truth."

"You sure they got the right stuff to fix you up?" Beverly asked Ben.

Sarah tried to not laugh because she knew she was referencing a New Kids on the Block song. Ben had a weird obsession with New Kids on the Block and their music so she must of heard him listening to it on his headset.

"W-we'll take care of him. Thanks again, Beverly."

"No problem, plus your sister did help me out yesterday."

Everyone looked at Sarah and she waved it off like it was nothing.

"No problem, plus I've been wanting to do that to that Gremlin for a long time. You gave me a great reason to."

"Maybe I'll see you around." Beverly tells Bill.

"Y-yeah, we were thinking about going to the Q-Quarry tomorrow, if you wanna come."

"Yeah!" Sarah chimes in. "It'll be nice to finally have someone cool."

"Good to know. Thanks." Beverly says and walks away waving goodbye to them.

"Nice going bringing Bowers in front of her." Stan tells Richie.

"Yeah, dude, you heard what she did." Eddie adds.

"What'd she do?" Ben asked.

"More like "who'd she do?" From what I hear, the list is longer than my wang."

"That's not saying much." Stan says rolling his eyes and high fives Sarah for the roast.

"Guys they're just rumors, beside Henry Bowers said that shit. Do you guys really believe Bowers? I mean he has a greasy ass mullet and daddy issues like no other."

"Anyway, Bill had her back in third grade. They kissed in the school play. The reviews said you can't fake that sort of passion."

Ben looks down and Sarah could see his hopes were a little crushed. But Richie then clapped his hands and did a British impression.

"Now! Pip-pip and tally-go my good fellows, I do believe this chap requires our utmost attention. Get in there, Dr.K. Come on, fix him up."

"Why don't you shut the fuck up Einstein, because I know what I'm doing and I don't want you doing the British guy with me right now." Eddie says crouching and grabbing the medical supplies.

"Suck the wound. Get in there!"

"Richie your so weird." Sarah says to him.

"But my weird like charm is how I get you cherry bomb." Richie says placing his arm around her and continuing the British accent.

🎈••••••••🎈

Sarah was riding her bike home but with Richie, Bill had agreed that he'd take Ben with him on his bike so it was just Sarah and Richie.

"So tomorrow we're going to the Quarry, right?" Richie asked.

"Yeah, we're going at one and we're all meeting at the Quarry."

They arrived at Sarah's home first and they both walked over to the garage and she placed her bike inside.

"Okay, don't forget alright?"

"How could I forget when your gonna be there Cherry Bomb?"

Sarah and Richie walk up the the front porch and she was opening the door.

"Goodnight Richie."

"No goodnight kiss?" Richie asks her.

"In your dreams Tozier."

"In my wet dreams." Sarah gagged and Shut the door.

She walked up to her shared room with Bill and looked out the window to see Richie still there and waving goodbye to her. Her heart skipped a beat a little and watched him leave her driveway and not knowing that his heart was beating a little fast too from her.