All but two members of the Losers Club had already gone home since they left the school. Richie just bailed on the rest and went straight home, but promised that he would hang out with them the next day; Stan had to go to the synagogue so he could practice his Torah for the Bar Mitzvah that would be taking place the following month; and Eddie had to get home early so his paranoid and protective mother wouldn't be worried about him.

So the only ones that remained were Steph and Bill. And neither of them minded at all.

In fact, Steph was happy that it was only the two of them walking home now; it made her smile softly knowing that, perhaps, her closest friend besides Beverly was in a much better mood than he had been over the past several months. Despite the fact that he had a little run-in with the Bowers Gang, he still managed to put a smile on his face for the young girl walking beside him. And his happiness was contagious, since it also stuck with her, just like it always did since they were younger.

But the confusing part was this: she had absolutely no idea why she was particularly happy in Bill's presence on a daily basis. It was weird and confusing, but she decided to forget about it for the time being and try to pay attention to what Bill was talking about, but she couldn't keep her mind off of it. It frustrated her, but she couldn't stop it from happening. This thought had entered her mind so many times that she couldn't even count, and it left her puzzled every time.

Ever since Georgie's disappearance eight months ago, Steph had felt something different towards Bill that she couldn't even explain at all. It had all started the day she found out about the little boy vanishing into thin air, and that was when her anxiety and paranoia began, two things she wished she could run away from entirely. She had always felt safe in Derry, despite the fact that she knew something was off about the small town; but now, everything was different, and she wished it would go back to the way it was all those months ago.

But something also changed that Steph couldn't quite put her finger on, since it confused her so badly. All she could do was think about it as the memory of that day lingered in her mind.

It was the fourteenth of October and the rainy day had been overwhelming Steph more than ever; but, then again, it had been raining for three days straight and Jamie had been driving her to school so the young girl wouldn't get sick. Steph had appreciated this, but missed riding her bike to school a lot. At least it was better than taking the school bus, where all of the kids would laugh at her. She didn't have to do that anymore, much to her relief.

School was now over for the week and Steph had just gotten to her bedroom, unable to take her dog, Cherokee, for a walk due to the poor weather conditions. But the dog was laying down on the floor, sleeping peacefully, while the pre-teen was sitting on her bed, listening to her music on her Walkman. It was one of the only activities she could do that wasn't boring in the slightest, especially when the lyrics of Just Like Heaven by The Cure began ringing through her eardrums.

Show me, show me, show me how you do that trick
The one that makes me scream she said
The one that makes me laugh she said
Threw her arms around my neck

Leaning her head back against her pillows, Steph began to silently think to herself, immediately missing the presence of her friends. She hoped that they were doing okay without her around outside of school, since she couldn't hang out with them as much as she wanted to. She couldn't help it; she was a kid that had to obey her mother because it was something she couldn't control. But that was okay, since Steph loved her mother to pieces and she would do anything for her, despite the fact that she wasn't in the same room as her.

Steph's thoughts then slowly drifted towards Bill, which made sympathy and concern flood her emotions for the time being. She hated the fact that he couldn't come to school due to his severe cold, which had caused him to be absent from school for the past week. Steph would visit him every now and then to give him some warm food that she helped Jamie make, and he appreciated it every time. Each time Steph visited him, she would stay for hours at a time, and they would grow closer as friends, which neither of them minded at all.

Based on how his condition was the day before, it seemed as if his sickness would go away within the next two days, which made Steph happy to know.

You, soft and only, you lost and lonely
You, strange as angels
Dancing in the deepest oceans
Twisting in the water

Just as the song was drawing to a close, two things happened at the same time: one, Cherokee's ears perked up as if something bad had went down; two, the door to Steph's bedroom opened and she was met with the sight of a crying Jamie, wiping at her face with a tissue. The latter of the two made the young girl sit up in worry as her mother sniffed through her tears. She couldn't say anything, never seeing her mother this emotional before.

But, after a few seconds of silence, Steph was finally able to gather the courage to part her lips to speak. "Mom, what's wrong?" she asked in a very small and minuscule voice; it shocked her at how quiet she was when she had said those words. It was almost as if either God or the Devil himself had stolen her vocal cords much like the Sea Witch had stolen Ariel's voice in the fairytale, The Little Mermaid. It felt just like the story that had given her nightmares as a kid.

Jamie refused to answer her question at first, her sea green eyes brimming with what could have been millions of tears; after a few seconds, a few more fell down her gentle cheeks as she stared at her daughter. She hated the fact that she had to be the person to tell Steph the horrific and shocking news that she had just received over the telephone. It was something that she never wanted to hear and it was something she wanted to keep Steph in the dark about.

But she had a problem with her wish: she couldn't hide it from Steph forever, and the young girl would find out anyway.

Jamie sighed, finally deciding to tell her daughter the truth as she walked over to her bed and sat down in front of Steph. Wiping more of her tears away with the tissue, she struggled to meet the girl's eyes as she explained what she needed to say.

"Steph..." she began, wiping another tear from her eye. "I... I just got a call from Mrs. Denbrough and... she told me something awful..." She paused for a moment as she sobbed a little, but she eventually continued. "Sweetheart... um... Georgie's gone missing... He went outside a few hours ago, and they never found him... I know how close you are to the young boy, and I'm so... so so sorry, honey..." She cried even more as she awaited her daughter's reply.

Steph's face fell faster than it ever had in her entire childhood, and it was to the point that it shocked her immensely. In that instant, her skin turned a grayish color, her mouth hung open, her lips slight parted, and her midnight blue eyes were as wide as they could stretch. Her heart dropped to the neverending pit of her stomach at those dreadful words, not even able to process them completely for a few moments.

"Wait... what?!" exclaimed Steph out of utter shock. "Did you just say that Georgie's missing?! Mom, please tell me this is a joke! Please!" As she waited for Jamie to tell her daughter that she was playing a cruel prank on her, the young girl was trying to hold back her tears that formed in the corners of her eyes; she blinked them away for a moment as Cherokee hopped onto the bed beside her, and she ran a hand over his light brown fur to calm herself down.

But her worries and emotions returned tenfold when her mother shook her head.

"No," said Jamie quietly. "I'm not joking... You know I would never joke about something like that... I'm being serious. Georgie is missing, sweetheart."

A single tear suddenly fell down Steph's cheek as she —

"Steph?"

The young girl flinched slightly as she was brought back to reality; she felt something wet on her cheek and she wiped the spare tear away. She then turned to the boy standing beside her and looking at her, a concerned expression in his blue-green eyes that asked the question she knew he wanted to ask. In an attempt to do away with her best friend's worries, she gave him a friendly smile.

But what Steph was about to learn was that she would never be able to fool William Denbrough... even if she tried to for the rest of her life.

"Y-You okay?" asked Bill in a worried tone, his voice as gentle as it could have ever been, which always made Steph grateful. Bill could have his moments of anger that would scare her, but he was still shy and quiet, mostly because of the dreaded stutter that the boy hated so much. Despite his struggle to speak at times, he still managed to be as polite as he could be, even after what had happened eight months prior to today.

Out of all of the current members of the Losers Club, Steph was probably the one that Bill was the closest with. He never really knew why, he just felt as if the girl was the one he could trust the most out of all of his best friends; the blonde was also the nicest of his four friends, even if she had a sassy attitude at times. But he never really care about that, and always looked past it, much to Steph's relief. The stutterer found her to be very polite and kind to people, and he even had to admit that she was pretty... very pretty. So he never actually understood why she was a loser to begin with, despite the fact that she was also quiet.

Bill was also very protective over the girl and always panicked if she hurt herself even slightly. This was because of something that had happened about a month before Georgie went missing, and it made his blood boil just thinking about it. Because of this, he tried to forget about it for now, but one specific part stuck out in his mind.

"Bowers and his goons were tormenting her near the bathrooms just earlier... And it looks like Hockstetter decided to have a little too much fun..."

He blinked a few times to rid himself of the horrid memory, but he was at least grateful that it had brought him and Steph closer together as friends. He tried to hide the fact that he was protective over the girl, even though she would realize it at times but she pretended that it didn't happen. But, what the pre-teen didn't know was that Bill was feeling something different towards her, and it wasn't even a bad thing. But he was mainly feeling concerned for her in that current moment.

"Yeah, I'm fine..." answered Steph, although she was lying. "Just... happy that this school year is over with, you know?" She saw Bill nod in response, since he agreed with her on the subject. This, in turn, made her smile softly.

Bill, continuing to nod, replied with, "Me t-t-too." He then turned to look in front of his bike again. "I just w-w-wuh-wish that we didn't have t-t-t..." He struggled to form the word and, in the process, his tongue pressed roughly against the roof of his mouth and he bit it when he found that the sentence wouldn't slip out the way he wanted it to.

"...that we didn't have to get bullied so much?" Steph finished with an effortless sort of ease that made Bill ever so slightly jealous. He nodded nonetheless.

The two fell into a peaceful silence again, which was the most common thing to occur between them, and Steph was okay with that. They did need their times to think about whatever they needed to and it made her happy to know this. It only ever happened between them specifically and she never really knew why. Did she question it? Of course she freaking didn't. She never did; there was no need to whatsoever.

But, in turn, she found herself feeling a little nervous because of the silence; however, she chose to not let this bother her and she tried to shake it away from her mind. Taking a few deep breaths, she just continued walking alongside Bill as he walked her home, just like he did every day after school. It always warmed her heart when he would do this, even if he didn't have to.

"Do you want m-m-m-me to help you with b-b-buh-babysitting Justin a-and Amber tonight?"

Steph looked at Bill, not surprised at the question that he asked every time she babysat the O'Connor's. She giggled after he asked it again as she shook her head lightly. "Bill, you've asked that question one too many times! You don't have to have my permission anymore, okay? Of course you can lend a helping hand. Besides, you know Justin and Amber looove you more than they love me, and I'm kind of jealous of you."

"But th-th-that's just because I l-l-l-let them do whatever the hell they wuh-want," replied Bill, a light smirk touching his lips as his blue-green eyes locked with Steph's midnight blue ones. She playfully rolled her eyes at this as she shook her head.

"And that's something you shouldn't do," she warned him. "You see, Denbrough, the purpose of being a babysitter is to, while the parents are gone, make the kids behave... to make them be good. Do you get what I'm saying here?" She was expecting him to nod his head in response, but she got something totally unexpected.

Bill instead shook his head from side to side instantly as the smirk grew more apparent. "Uh... no," he replied in a sly tone, continuing to walk while Steph scoffed at this. She playfully smacked Bill's shoulder and he laughed in response, which, in turn, made the pre-teen girl laugh along with him. That was one thing she couldn't understand: Bill Denbrough's laughter was contagious, and that was something that kind of annoyed her. Every time he laughed, she would laugh as well.

"But yes, you can help me with the kids," she answered genuinely, giving Bill a true smile. "Plus, their parents love having you help me, and it isn't easy for me sometimes..."

Bill nodded in reply, an understanding expression in his eyes as he looked at her. "I g-get it," he said, "but i-i-it-it's okay. They're good kuh-kids..."

Steph chuckled. "I assume you're right, Denbrough..." she responded playfully, making them both laugh afterwards.

They just remained talking until Bill told her that he had to go home, but he promised her that he would be at the O'Connor's in a few hours. They hugged each other goodbye before going their separate ways, Steph hearing Bill practicing his speech therapy as he dragged his bicycle, Silver, alongside him.

He thrusts his fist against the post, and still insists he sees the ghost...

( these chapters are gonna keep getting longer, are they? probably. i hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! be looking forward to the next one! )

-denbroughswife