JULY 1989

AFTER THE EVENTS OF SAVING MIKE all of the kids from the Losers club were going to the Fourth of July fair that was happening in town the next day.

Sarah woke up first and was really excited for the fair, it was her favorite thing. Cotton candy, ice cream, popcorn, etc. the morning of meeting up, Richie had called earlier and wanted to see if Sarah wanted to hang out since he had a couple dollars on him.

She was outside her front porch wearing an overall floral dress with a white shirt underneath and her white sneakers. She decided to wear her hair half up and half down for the day and was shaking her knee up and down.

When she saw Richie coming down the road she grabbed her bike.

"Hey Richie."

"Hey Cherry Bomb. Ready to go?"

"Yep. I grabbed some money I've been saving up too. I've got 10 dollars with me."

"Alright, are you sure you don't wont to ride on my bike. I mean there are better places to sit on like my-"

"Don't finish that sentence Tozier or you'll regret it." She says giving him a glare.

"Okay, okay."

The two headed off to the fair, going to meet the others later and have some fun.

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They placed their bikes in the alley way and hid it so no one could take it. Sarah and Richie decided to do the games first and see if there was anything good. They looked at the games presented ring toss, kissing booth, fish cup, balloon pops, etc.

Sarah looked at the prizes until she saw one that caught her eye and Richie noticed. It was a giant plush white tiger, she thought it was the cutest thing ever. She looked at the carnival game and it was ring toss, she looked at Richie and pointed at the white tiger.

"I'm gonna win it." She told him and handed the person in charge a dollar. She had a bowl of 15 rings and began to toss them. She only got one and that meant she got a tiny prize, she got a plastic ring and sighed still seeing the tiger.

"I'll do one." Richie says and hands a dollar to the person in charge.

The first six times he had gotten one or two on the bottles but none were up to five. Sarah saw that Richie was determined and finally handed the last dollar he had.

"Richie, you don't have to-"

"Just one last time cherry bomb."

He was given another basket full of rings and the employee didn't even care to look. Richie began to toss and was actually getting 3 on the bottles. Then he was up to 4 as Sarah cheered him on and got 5 rings making Sarah clap.

"I'll take the white tiger." Richie says.

Richie grabbed the tiger from the employee making Sarah smile and handed the big plushie to her.

"Let's go." Richie whispers and they walked away as Sarah was trying to create a name for the tiger.

As they were in the clear Sarah held her tiger tightly and squealed excitedly.

"Thank you."

She gave him a kiss on the cheek and saw the gang over near one of the posters. Richie blushed bright pink and couldn't help but smile. 

Sarah walked over and scared Stan, roaring and placing the tiger in front of him.

"Woah, where'd you get that?" Beverly asked laughing at Stan's reaction.

"Richie got it for me, well... he won it. Took him eight tries."

Everyone turn to look at Richie only to find him trying to play the tuba, and was using one from a person from the marching band. The all rolled their eyes, typical Tozier they all thought.

He was awful at playing the tuba and the owner tried taking it back only for Richie to try and continue.

Everyone turned to see Bill looking at another missing kids poster with the name "EDWARD CORCORAN"

"They say they found part of his hand all chewed up near the standpipe." Stan says sadly as Bill got closer to the poster.

"He asked to borrow a pencil once." Ben commented.

Bill looks at the poster and sees there's a poster underneath and it was Betty Ripsom's.

"I-It's like she's f-forgotten because Corcoran's missing."

Sarah turns over to Richie and shouts out.

"Richie, give the guy his tuba!"

While Richie was distracted the guy takes back his tuba and walks away angrily.

"What the fuck, dude." Richie says.

Eddie turns walks over with three ice cream cones, and turns to the group.

"What are you guys talking about?"

"What they alway talk about." Richie says grabbing the two cones and handing one to Sarah.

"Thanks." She says holding the tiger under her arm and eating the ice cream.

"I actually think it will end. For a little while at least."

"What do you mean?" Beverly asked.

"So I was going over all my Derry research and I charted out all the big events. The Ironworks explosion in 1908, the Bradley Gang in '35, and the black spot in '62, and now kids being...." Ben hesitated and looked at Bill and Sarah.

"I realized this stuff seems to happen..."

"Every 27 years." Ben and Bill say.

Everyone looked at each other in worry, wondering why this could happen in such a place.

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The loser club decided to walk away from the alley way and to an area where people could sit. There were picnic tables, hay stacks, and lawn chairs scattered. Sarah bought some popcorn and shared some with Beverly as everyone began to discuss they're events.

"Okay, So, let me get this straight. It comes out from whenever to eat kids for, like, a year? And then what? It just goes into hibernation?" Eddie asks confused by the whole situation.

"Maybe it's like... what do you call it? Cicadas, you know, the bugs that come out every 17 years." Stan suggests.

"My grandfather thinks this town is cursed. He says that all the bad things that happened in this town are because of one thing. An evil thing that feeds off the people of Derry." Mike explains.

"But it can't be one thing." Sarah says to Mike.

"Yeah, we all saw something different." Stan says agreeing.

"Maybe.... or maybe it knows what scares us most and that's what we see."

"I saw a leper. He was like a walking infection." Eddie says to Mike.

Everyone knew that Eddie's worst nightmare was diseases and germs. Seeing that was a perfect way to scare Eddie.

"But you didn't. Because it isn't real. None of this is.... Not Eddie's leper, or Bill and Sarah seeing Georgie, or-or the woman I keep seeing."

"She hot?" Richie asked Stan.

Stan looked to Richie annoyed and angry.

"No Richie! She's not hot. Her face is all messed up. None of this makes any sense. They're all like bad dreams."

"I don't think so. I know the difference between a bad dream and real life, okay?"

"What'd you see? You saw something, too?" Eddie asked Mike.

"Yes, do you guys know that burned down house on Harrison Avenue?"

Everyone nodded, knowing the house. It had burned down a year ago after some people decided to torch it. Sarah never knew why, she just thought it was teenagers burning an abandoned house.

"I was inside when it burned down. Before I was rescued, my mom and dad were trapped in the next room over from me. They were pushing and pounding on the door..... trying to get to me." He paused, hearing the screams of his mom and dad and continued. 

"But it was too hot. When the fireman finally found them, the skin on their hands had melted down to the bone. We're all afraid of something."

Sarah went over to him and handed him the popcorn giving him a hug. He hugged her bag letting out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

"You got that right." Richie says as Sarah sits next to him now and the white tiger he won for her.

"Why Rich? I what are you afraid of?"

"Clowns..." Richie says nervously as he sees a clown up on the stage handing a balloon animal to a kid.

"Why does it have to be a fucking clown?" Sarah said rhetorically.

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Bill had decided that the next day they would all go to his and Sarah's garage and finally figure out what was the reason for all of this.

Bill had decided to go with Eddie since he was too scared and thought that the leper was going to appear again. So once again Sarah was alone with Richie. She was walking her bike home since she couldn't hold the huge stuff tiger while riding her bike.

"So Richie Tozier the clown is afraid of clowns. How ironic?" Sarah says as he rides around her in circle.

"Hey! Clowns are fucking creepy."

"How did you get that fear anyway?" Sarah asked.

Richie stopped circling around and got off his bike and began to walk right next to Sarah.

"It was when I was 8 I guess.... my mom and I were visiting my grandma and in her town there was a circus..... they're were animals, food, and other stuff. But they're was a tent just filled with clowns. It was one of the shows and I was reluctant to go in but my mom said I had nothing to worry about because she said they were like me "funny". So I went into the tent and I was met with make up wearing, hyper active, super freaky clowns. Four clowns came up to me at once and they were scary as fuck. All trying to do their funny bits with me and one gave me a balloon animal and popped it in my face. I ran out of the tent, refusing to go back in there. To this day I will never like clowns."

Sarah laughed but coughed trying to be smooth about it and failed.

"Don't laugh! It was a fucking traumatic experience for me."

They were on the street where Sarah lived and saw that the sun was going down.

"It's almost curfew, you should start heading home. Don't want you to get in trouble."

"Please, trouble is my middle name."

"I thought it was Tracey."

Richie groaned as she continued to laugh at his middle name.

"Sorry Leslie." He says her middle name to making her stop laughing.

"Now we're even Cherry Bomb."

She walked up to her house and saw Richie wait at the road to see her go inside. Sarah looked at the tiger and knew exactly what to call it.

"Tracey."

"What?" Making Richie turn around confused.

"The tiger's name is Tracey."

"I'm starting to regret gettingk you that tiger."

"Took late! You like it Tozier." Sarah says shouting and going inside.

"I like you." Richie mutters and begins to peddle away back to his house still thinking about his special Cherry Bomb.

A/N: This one is a little short..., sorry but! The next chapter will be out tomorrow!!!! Also what should she call the white tiger that Richie got her? Mike?? (Jk ) but comment down below what you call a white tiger??