J U N E.
1 9 8 9

The halls of Derry High School were bustling with the thrill of the end of another year and the start of summer. Despite the goings-on, none of the kids were dreading the thought of no school for three months. Emma ducked and dodged her way down the corridor toward where her friends' last class was.

She finally caught up to the boys, the first thing she heard being, "they slice the tip of his dick off," from Eddie.

"Are you talking about Stan?" Emma quizzed, knowing all too well they were talking about Stanley's upcoming Bar Mitzvah. The boys were obsessing over it, as none of them were too familiar with the Jewish religion.

"Yeah," said Richie. "I guess they have to perform plastic surgery." Richie thought for a second, then added, "but if they cut his dick off, he'll have nothing left!"

"Yeah," the other two boys agreed, laughing.

"Hey, guys!" Stan greeted as he joined the group.

"Speak of the devil," Emma grinned, throwing her arm across Stan's shoulders, despite him being much taller.

"Hey, Stan," Bill said. "What happens at the Bar Mitzvah, anyways? Eds says they slice the tip of your d-duh-dick off."

"Yeah and I think the Rabbi's gonna pull down your pants, turn to the crowd and say, 'Where's the beef?!'," Richie joked, making the rest of them laugh.

Emma was the only girl in the group of losers. Bill had taken her under his wing when she'd moved there three years prior after a terrible accident had killed Emma's mother and older sister. Emma had been the lone survivor, as her dad hadn't been with them. Emma had walked away with a hearing aids, or so said everyone who'd heard she survived. She's lucky, they'd all taunting, not even considering she was now motherless and an only child.

Jesse Sanderson had been heartbroken, to say the least. Not wanting to stay in Chicago, he moved himself and his only remaining family back to the house he'd grown up in, which sat directly across the street from the Denbroughs.

That's how she and Bill had met. She was forced to become accustomed to boy language right away. She had no girl friends, no women to tell her about manners and "lady-likeness". Not that she cared. She probably still would have ended up with the Losers regardless.

Emma and Eddie were the smallest in the group, but Emma made sure to make herself heard. She was nearly as loud as Richie when she wanted to be and she had a personality that closely resembled all the boys. Loud like Richie, sweet like Stan, careful like Eddie, and determined like Bill.

The boys never underestimated her, especially when it came to the debate team, which she was the star of. No one ever wanted to argue with Emma.

Even though she was near deaf— she could only hear if she had her hearing aids in— the boys treated her like a normal person. That's not to say that Richie didn't make jokes about her, though, because Richie made jokes about all of the Losers.

"At the Bar Mitzvah, I read from the Torah, and, suddenly, I become a man," Stan explained.

"I think I could think of a lot funner ways to become a man."

"Too bad you'll never actually become one," Emma joked, earning laughs from the rest of the boys.

"Oh, shit," Richie said as the group passed Henry Bowers and his gang of thugs. All four boys smirked as the Losers passed. No doubt they'd be jumping them in the near future.

"Think they'll sign my yearbook?" Richie asked once they were out of earshot.  "'Dear Richie, sorry for taking a hot, steaming dump in your backpack last March. Have a great summer!'"

Emma fiddled with her hearing aid. "Sorry, I didn't catch that, Trashmouth. All I could hear was an annoying buzzing sound," she said.

The other boys only smirked.

"Okay, that joke was only funny the first dozen times you said it," said Richie bitterly.

The kids made their way outside, where they immediately hit up the trash cans to rid their bags of all the leftover crap from school. Pencils, books, and old tests all went flying into the cans.

"Best feeling ever," Stanley said with a grin.

"Yeah? Try tickling your pickle for the first time."

"Beep beep, Richie," Emma said. Beep beep meant Richie's comment had gone too far.

"Hey, what do you guys wanna do tomorrow?" asked Eddie, changing the subject.

"I start my training."

"Training?"

"Street Fighter," said Richie as if it were obvious.

"Is that how you wanna spend your summer? Inside of an arcade?"

"Beats spending it inside of your mother. Oh!" Richie raised his hand for a high-five, but Stan slapped it away.

"What if we go to the quarry?"

"Guys, the b-barrens," said Bill.

Bill had been sick the day his little brother, Georgie, had gone missing. That's what he'd told his friends. It had been eight months now and everyone had given up hope that little Georgie Denbrough would ever return home. After the flood had swept through Derry back in October, a terrible, cold winter had struck Maine. Even if Georgie had survived the flooding, there was no way he'd lasted through winter.

But Bill would simply not listen to reason. He would not give up on the idea that Georgie was out there somewhere, scared and alone with nothing more than his galoshes and a tiny paper boat.

Jesse Sanderson, who was a police officer for DPD, had voiced his thoughts to Emma. She'd tried to stay optimistic in the first few months after he'd disappeared that Georgie was still alive. No way could that little boy have survived. Until they found his body, no one could say just what had happened to him.

After awhile, Emma and the others gave up looking, but still remained supportive for Bill. His parents had given up parenting. Aside from his friends, the kid had no one. Not his teachers, not the police. Derry had turned their backs on him.

The Losers had wanted to get out of the search for the summer, focusing solely on having fun while they were still kids. Bill had other plans.

"Right," said Stan patiently, giving Bill a reassuring smile.

"Betty Ripsom's mom," Eddie said, looking beyond the Losers to the mother who stood staring at each kid that left the school. Unfortunately, Derry was no stranger to disappearances. Along with Georgie, several other kids had gone missing. Betty was the most recent one.

"Is she really expecting to see her come out of that school?" Stan asked.

"What else can she do? No one's even looking anymore," Emma replied.

"As if Betty's been hiding in Home Ec for the last few weeks," said Eds.

"Think they'll find her?"

"Sure," said Richie. "In a ditch, covered in worms and maggots and smelling like Eddie's mom's underwear."

"God," Emma groaned.

"Shut up! That's freaking disgusting," Eddie responded.

"She's not dead. She's muh-missing," said Bill.

Richie immediately looked guilty. "Right. Sorry, Bill. She's missing."

The group was quiet for all of five seconds as they turned toward the bike racks. Then, Richie opened his mouth again. "You know, the barrens aren't that bad. Who knows? We might have fun splashing around in shitty water."

Right as he finished his sentence, his backpack was jerked backward and Richie was sent flying right into Stan, both boys toppling over like dominoes.

Patrick Hockstetter grabbed up Stan's kippah. "Nice frisbee, flamer," he said, before flinging it through an open bus window.

One of Bowers' other cronies— Belch Huggins— burped right in Eddie's ear just as Bowers shoulder-checked Bill.

Hockstetter ripped one of Emma's hearing aids out and threw it into the grass. Emma went to lunge at Patrick, but Stan grabbed hold of the back of her school bag.

In a furious stutter, Bill called out, "you s-suh-suck, Bowers!", thus causing the three boys to stop dead in their tracks.

"Shut up, Bill," Eds said.

Henry turned slowly, a dangerous scowl on his face. "S-s-s-say somethin', B-B-Buh-Billy?" He inched closer. "You got a free ride this year because of your little brother. Ride's over, Denbrough."

Something caught Bowers' attention and Emma turned to see what it was. She caught sight of her dad, as well as Sheriff Bowers— Henry's dad— standing over by their cruiser. Betty's mom was standing nearby, still bawling and hoping one of the kids running around the schoolyard would turn out to be hers.

Henry reeled back on Bill. "This summer's gonna be a hurt train for you and your faggot friends." He licked his palm before smearing his slobber across Bill's face. The three bullies turned away again and the Losers let them walk away without another word.

"I wish he'd go missing," said Richie.

"He's probably the one doing it," Eddie agreed.

"Yeah I can't hear you guys, but I agree," said Emma, who turned to stoop down in the grass to look for her hearing aid. The other boys turned to help her. Eds finally found it and handed it to her. Emma groaned as she pulled bits of grass and dirt out of the tiny machine.

"You should probably sanitize that," Eddie said as Emma adjusted the thing back into her ear.

"For the first time, I'd have to agree with you. Who knows where Hockstetter's hands have been."

"Probably up his ass," Richie said.

The losers parted ways. Bill walked home alone today as Emma was off to piano. Emma had begged her dad to let her take lessons, as she'd done before they'd moved to Derry. Her mother had been a singer and she could play the piano upside down and backwards with her eyes closed. It had taken a lot to convince Jesse to let her continue playing, especially because of the hearing aids, but he'd finally given in just to get Emma to stop nagging him about it.

Emma had dreamed of being a musician just like her mom, but Jesse seemed to only show interest in her other artistic abilities. The artwork she did made him proud. When she sang, it just reminded him too much of Liz.