When we got to Bill's house, we sat outside waiting for Ben while Bill went inside to make sure his parents weren't home so he wouldn't get in trouble for using his dad's maps. Bev and I just sat down on the grass, soaking up the sun while Stan, Eddie, Mike, and Richie sat on their bikes talking amongst each other. I wasn't really listening to what they were saying, I stopped paying attention once they started on their Superman vs. Batman, and who would win in a fight, debate. I hoping Ben would show up with the slides soon and that Bill would come open his garage up for us so we could get into this whole 27 years mess. "Richie, is that a black eye?" Stan asked.

I opened my eyes and looked at Bev who was already starting to sit up. I guess the mention of the black eye peaked her interest. "What?" Richie scoffed, adjusting his glasses. "No! Why would I have a black eye."

"Yes, you do I can see it. I'm not stupid you know." Stan replied, rolling his eyes.

"Was it Bowers and his gang? I told you that you guys would be targets for helping me." Mike added, sounding genuinely sorry.

I looked at Richie curiously. He, Eddie and I all knew who gave Richie the black eye. Eddie was looking at Richie with a cocky smirk on his face, practically daring him to reveal how he got the black eye. "I-" Richie looked at Eddie and then sighed, his shoulders slumping. I couldn't believe it, he was actually going to tell them Eddie gave him the black eye. "It was from-"

"Hey guys, s-sorry it took m-me so long," Bill said, jogging out of his front door.

Richie's demeanor flipped a 180 and he practically ran up to Bill, patting his shoulder. "That's okay Bill, we didn't mind waiting."

"Yeah, the sun felt really nice," Bev added, brushing the grass off of her.

"I'm here and I've got the slides!" Ben huffed, riding his bike over to us as fast as he could and dropping it onto the grass. "I've got them."

"Well it looks like we-we're gonna have to wait until tuh-tuh-tomorrow," Bill sighed looking at the garage. "My dad took his maps t-to work. He wuh-won't be back till late."

"Oh wow, that sucks," Stan said, obviously not too upset over the matter. Richie elbowed him in the side. "What?!"

"So...what now?" Eddie asked, all of us looking at one another. "I mean, we kind of had this planned out for the rest of the day."

"It's only 2 o'clock, what else could we do? Curfew isn't until 7 anyway." Ben added.

"That parade starts at 6 and leads into the park right there by the statue for fireworks at 7, were you guys going to that?" I asked.

"Don't you have to be with your parents though? If you're out there after curfew?" Stan replied. Geez, he seemed to be just shutting down everyone's ideas today.

"Yeah, that's what my mom said," I replied, biting the inside of my cheek.

"Le-Let's go, we can me-meet up before the puh-parade." Bill agreed.

"Okay, so let me get this straight– we're splitting up now and then meeting in town later for the parade and fireworks?" Eddie asked as if he was making mental notes in his head.

"Yeah Eds, that's the plan. Don't forget to ask your mommy for permission." Richie laughed, soon clearing his throat. "Oh no Eddie, you cannot go outside! That firework smoke will give you stage five lung cancer, the grass will turn you into a bubbled up life-size boil and let's not forget your eyes will burn off from the exposure!!!"

I have to admit, it was very hard not to laugh at Richie's impersonation of Aunt Sonia– like really hard. Eddie just glared at him while the few of us were trying to stifle back our laughter. We all knew that's how his mom was, even Eddie did. But I doubt he liked the fact Richie made fun of him for it. "Okay for one, stage five lung cancer isn't a thing, it doesn't surpass four," Eddie said, rolling his eyes. "and two, you might want to shut up or I'll give you another black eye."

Ben's jaw dropped, Bill kept looking in-between Richie and Eddie, Mike's eyes were wide, Bev was still trying to stifle back her laughter and Stan...well Stan's smile was huge. "Eddie gave you the black eye?"

"Okay yeah whatever, Eddie the hypo gave me this mark, who gives a flying fuck," Richie walked through the group and picked up his bike. "You should see the mark I gave his mom."

"RICHIE!" Eddie yelled as Richie started laughing uncontrollably while riding away.

"I'll see you guys at the parade!!"

The rest of us looked at one another, unsure of what to do next. "I guess I'll see you guys later," Mike said, getting onto his bike.

One by one, everyone from the group left until it was just Bill and I. I just lived right around the corner a bit, so I wasn't as far away as the rest of them were. "You can come over if you want."

Bill turned towards his house and dug his hands into his pockets before turning back to me. "That's okay Dani, I sh-should probably stay here."

I could see that he probably didn't want to stay at his house. We may not have talked a lot about it, but everyone knew that ever since Georgie went missing, his parents weren't 100%. I mean, no parent would ever be 100% again after losing a child. It just sucks for Bill because well...Georgie may be gone, but he's still there. "Okay, I'll see you tonight then."

"Bye Dani."

I smiled and waved as I picked up my bike and rode away from his house. Though I will admit, I'm a little disappointed that now I'll have this huge four-hour gap until the next part of my day. I guess I'll be able to take a shower, wash Richie's shirt and even take a nap. Huh, actually...that nap sounds fantastic. When I got to my house, I dropped my bike out onto my front lawn and ran up to the door, walking in to see my mom taking something out of the oven. "Hey, mom!"

"Hey sweetie," she smiled placing the baking dish on top of the stove. "how was your day?"

"Pretty good," I ran towards the stairs and turned back to her. "I'm meeting up with everyone at 6 o'clock, right before the parade and then we're gonna stay for the fireworks."

"Well, I hope you won't mind me tagging along with you guys."

I smiled at her, trying to make it genuine. "The entire time?"

She shook her head. "Well no, but when it hits 7 o'clock, I expect you to be within eyesight. The curfew is still in effect you know."

"How could I forget?" I mumbled. I turned back to the stairs and started running up. "I'll be back down! I'm gonna shower."

I didn't bother to wait for her reply closing my bedroom door and walking to my closet. I had more than three hours to pick out an outfit to wear tonight. I know it sounds stupid, but if there's a chance to where I can be hanging out with Richie and I won't be covered in blood...I'm taking it. Besides, who knows what can happen?

**

My mom offered to drive me into town and even though I politely declined, she drove me anyway. So while she went to meet up with some of her work friends, I wandered the streets to find my friends. You'd think that it wouldn't be hard to find them, but it seemed as if everyone in the town of Derry was sitting and standing on the sidewalks, waiting for the parade to start. For a moment, it felt nice to see everyone out together, seemingly carefree about the curfew. I wonder if it was always like this...before everything happened. "Dani!!" I turned around to see Bev standing next to Ben and Mike on the complete opposite side of the street. "We're over here!"

I didn't even bother looking before crossing the street since the parade hasn't started yet the streets were empty. "For a second I thought no one showed up."

"We're just waiting for Bill, Eddie, and Stan to get out of Keene's. They're picking up Eddie's refills," she replied, sitting down on top of a stack of hay that was part of a display.

"God forbid Eddie doesn't pick-up his birth control pills," Richie laughed, walking up to us. "he'll start to PMS worse than you guys do."

Bev and I looked at Richie, both unamused. "And to think we thought you weren't coming, Richie." Eddie said as the three boys walked out of Keene's doors.

"As if I'd ever miss an opportunity to see the beloved Derry parade."

"Is it really that great?" I asked, looking at him.

"If you're under the age of nine, then yes, it's fantastic," Richie replied. "It's really just the police officers, fire department– every seemingly important figure in Derry and the cute little children wearing their boy scout and girl scout uniforms who walk in it."

"You still sound bitter over the fact I sold more popcorn than you when we were nine and I won that bike."

"Oh eat my shorts, Eddie, your mom bought and ate all of that popcorn, then she gave your bike away and made you quit," He smiled sarcastically at him. "so I could give two fucks about your boy scouts glory."

Eddie just scoffed and tightened his fanny pack as he put all of his new prescriptions into it. "So should we find a place to sit? Or are we going off of Richie's detest for the parade and skipping out on it?" I asked.

"The sun is s-starting to set, and the pa-parade is starting so we sh-should probably find a p-place to sit," Bill suggested.

"Why don't we just sit here? We can climb on the display, there's really enough room for everyone." Bev suggested, nodding at the stacks of hay.

"Sounds good to me," Richie replied, dropping his bike beside the hay and climbing up onto a stack.

"Go ahead D-Dani." Bill said, letting me sit down first.

"Thanks, Bill," I replied, smiling at him.

I climbed up to the stack that was in front of Richie and Stan, sitting down next to Bill. We were all settled down, two of us to a stack as the parade slowly made its way down the main street. "You l-look nice Dani," Bill said, smiling at me.

I looked at my outfit and smiled. "Thanks. I definitely enjoyed my shower after everything that happened...and my nap."

"Down in front, shut it," Richie said, nudging my thigh with his foot.

I was gonna turn around and say something, but instead, I just turned and flicked his calf. "I'm trying to watch the parade." I expected him to say something back, but he didn't. Instead, as we watched the parade continue to make its way down the street, I could feel him playing with my hair. I tilted my head back to look at him and he just smiled.

When the main attraction float drove by us and kept heading towards the park, Richie stood up. "Alright, I say we buy some fucking sparklers or something and have fun because I think watching that parade just bored me almost to the point of death."

"I wouldn't mind getting sparklers," Ben said, standing up too.

"Anyone disagree?" Bill asked, looking around our group to see everyone else shaking their heads. "Alright, lets g-go get some spar-sparklers."

We hopped off of our hay stacks and they all picked up their bikes. We were probably just going to go into Keene's pharmacy to grab a few sparklers. Ben volunteered to go into the store and get them and when he came back out, we started to head towards the park. "Okay, but it's going to take us eight years to get to the park, why don't we take that shortcut behind the buildings and go over the kissing bridge, that way we'll be on the backside of Bassey park and the statue?" Stan suggested.

"I don't have my bike and I don't want to slow you guys down, so I'll meet you there," I said as they all got onto your bikes.

"Hop on," Richie said, looking at me. I raised my eyebrows at him and he rolled his eyes. "onto my handlebars, you perv."

I rolled my eyes and sat on his handlebars. "Richie, I swear to God if you crash us or make me fall off, I will castrate you."

"Hm, sounds kinky." He laughed, as we followed our friends onto the shortcut.

When we got to the bridge, I hopped off of Richie's bike since we were basically at the park and were only going to walk from there. Ben handed out the sparklers as we started to walk across the bridge. "Oh shit, does anyone have a lighter?" I asked as I held my sparkler.

Suddenly, Mike came to a dead stop. "Mike? What is it?" Bev asked, looking straight ahead to see what he was looking at.

"It's Vic," I said, staring at him as he walked over to us.

"Which means Henry and Belch are around here too..." Eddie gulped, looking at us. "we need to go."

We all knew that we were probably dead meat the moment Henry and Belch came out of whatever hiding they were using, and none of us wanted to be caught there. "Wait!" Vic called out, jogging towards us.

"GO GO GO!!!" Stan yelled as they scrambled to get onto their bikes and me onto Richie's handlebars.

"Seriously, wait!" Vic yelled.

I turned to look at him and saw the desperation on his face. I stopped my attempt at getting onto Richie's handlebars. "I think we should listen to him."

"And risk getting annihilated by Henry and Belch? Are you fucking insane?" Eddie said, his eyes wide in panic.

"So it's okay if he says it?" Richie asked, looking at me.

"I just...I have this gut feeling." I turned fully to face Vic as he came to a stop by our group. "What?"

He was breathing heavily, probably from his smoking habit and the distance he just had to run. He cleared his throat and took a deep breath. "You guys need to be careful..."

"Well, we were trying to be..." Stan said, looking at me.

"No, I mean from Henry." He ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. "He's...I don't know how to describe it, but he's basically falling off the edge."

"I thought he fell off that edge years ago," Richie mumbled as I nudged him in the side.

"Wuh-Why are you telling us this? Is it a t-t-trick?" Bill asked, his face serious.

Vic shook his head and looked at me with sympathy in his eyes. "I'm sorry for hitting you Dani, I feel horrible about it." He turned towards the rest of my suspecting friends. "All of you, I'm sorry. After seeing what this is doing to Henry..." He shook his head, not finishing his sentence.

"So...does this make us like...friends?" Eddie asked.

"No, I still think you're a bunch of losers..." Vic replied, digging into his pockets. "but I won't be messin' with you like that anymore."

"Thanks," Ben replied.

Vic brought a hand out of his pocket and tossed something towards me. I caught it and opened my hands to see it was lighter. "I'm warning you guys, steer clear of Henry."

"Thanks, Vic," I replied, holding up the lighter.

He nodded and stuffed his hands into his pockets, turning around and walking across the bridge. We watched him until he was completely out of view. "Okay, what the fuck just happened?" Richie asked, breaking the silence.

"I don't know, but can we please get out of here? Just in case that was a trap or something." Stan said nervously as he looked around.

I hopped onto Richie's handlebars and we turned around to just cut across the grass that was near the edge of the bridge we came from. When we neared the park and could see everyone from the parade, we got off the bikes and started to walk, coming to an empty spot where we weren't in the middle of a huge crowd. "Dani!!" I turned to look at my mom waving us over.

"Oh, God." I groaned, tossing my head back.

"I say let's go over," Bev said, looking at Mike. "that's Dani's mom, she's pretty cool."

"She wants me to be in eyesight once it's dark..." I noticed just how much the sun had gone down and let out a deep breath. "which I guess is now."

We made our way over to my mom, everyone bringing their bikes with and plopped down in the area my mom and Rosa had saved. "Hey kids, how are you guys?"

"We're great Mrs. Merritt, how are you?" Ben replied with a smile.

"I'm doing good," she looked at Mike and smiled. "I don't think I've met you before, what's your name?"

"I'm Mike Hanlon, ma'am," Mike said, extending his hand.

My mom shook his hand and smiled at me. "Always a pleasure to meet Dani's new friends. What were you kids doing?"

"We were about to set off some sparklers," Eddie said, waving his unlit sparkler.

"We were hoping we could have done it over there since there's not a lot of people..." I said, looking at my mom and hoping she got my hint.

She gave me her infamous 'I told you what the rules were' look. "Alright, but when the fireworks start, you guys should just head on over here. Don't want anything to happen."

We ran off back towards our area, the lighter still in my hand. We grouped together, standing in a circle and everyone held out their sparklers. "So I'll just light one, and then we can light everyone else's off of that?"

"Sounds good," Bill replied, holding his out further.

I laughed and lit his sparkler, watching him turn to Stan and lighting his. One by one, everyone's sparklers were being lit up and started playing. Richie turned to me and smiled, holding his sparkler out to me. "May I?"

I nodded and he touched his sparkler to the end of mine and we watched as it lit. We joined our friends in playing with the literal flame stick. Bev and I would try to draw little symbols in the air. Eddie was seemingly having fun, all while trying to keep his sparkler as far away from him as possible– while Richie kept poking his at Eddie to freak him out. Our sparklers fizzled out and we tossed them into a nearby trash can before making our way back to where my mom was sitting.

We all sat down on the blanket she had brought just in time for when the first firework erupted in the sky. I jumped, my initial thought is that it was a gunshot and I felt someone grab my hand. I turned to see Richie sitting there, already looking at me as he squeezed my hand again. "It's okay, I'm here and there's no way I'm letting you leave...again."

I smiled and squeezed his hand back, scooting a little closer to him and looking up at the sky as more fireworks lit up our small little town. I wish the rest of the summer could be like this.