✧✧✧

❝ in the end, we'll all become stories. ❞
—MARGARET ATWOOD

I FELT the previous evening puncture my senses as I groaned into my pillow, a headache vibrating through my brain as I recalled the voice of Richie Tozier. I felt distaste as I realized he was the most revolting thought that coursed through me the moment I had awoken.

As my torso began to plant itself upwards, the creak of my unstable bed frame buzzed through the room causing me to fear the wrath of my mother.

As predicted, my mother's voice boomed all the way from her room into mine.

"Fix that fucking bed, Stephanie," she shouted.

I rolled my eyes as I bit my tongue to avoid her whiplash. The thoughts of my bed being her fault for wasting money on booze reverberating through my mind.

I slid from my scattered bed sheets to prepare myself for the day, the slightest bit excited that I had an excuse to leave my treacherous household.

I stroked my flames of hair with my brush and threw on the only comfortable dress that I would consider wearing.

I despised dresses with a passion—the entire statement of them just repulsing me. Being girly to me meant being a damsel in distress or filtering your thoughts so they'd be perceived as 'classy' to attract boys.

I didn't care about boys and felt that I could handle my own situations without crying for help. I wasn't a fragile piece of glass, I could depend on myself.

I slipped into the dress; the red contrasting to my bright hair and white polka-dots scattering each available corner. I threw on a pair of tattered white sneakers and ruffled the ends of my copper hair, completely destroying the brushed out locks from just a moment ago.

I exited my room to sneak through the door of the house but was interrupted by my mother's piercing gaze.

"Where are you off to?" She questioned, hands skimming her boney hips as her ruffled locks of red hair swayed to the bob of her head.

My mother had always targeted me for hatred, my knowledge of the reasoning being very difficult to decipher.

I always thought mothers wanted the best for their daughters, but my mother cared about getting laid more than tucking me in at night.

"Just out with Beverly Marsh," I squeaked in reply.

"Ha," she snorted, "Beverly Marsh, as in the kid that has had affairs with half the town?"

I gripped the door handle aggressively, my palms being splattered in coats of white. "She's not like that," I defended.

"You don't even know her, Stephanie."

I cringed at my full name spilling from her lips. I loathed the sound of my full name due to how feminine it sounded, and the way my mother pronounced it with bitter distaste.

"Yes, I do," I retaliated.

My mother's expression contoured from curious to irritated as she got closer to me, her calloused palms gripping mine with force.

"If you speak back to me one more time, Stephanie Smith," she began. "I'll make sure that Beverly Marsh doesn't ever catch a glimpse of you again, understand?"

I nodded my head as I felt tears burning from the back of my eyelids fluttering neurotically. "Yes, mother."

"I'm glad I made myself clear," she said coldly. "Now go on, I don't want to hear your annoying squeaking any much longer."

With her words, I exited the rustic and tattered house in tears, gently rubbing the now drenched areas of my face before I came into view of Beverly's apartment.

I climbed up the stairs—making sure to take a breath before my knuckles met the door—and swallowed my emotions at once, a façade overcoming my features.

After practicing the cliche lie of stating I was okay, masking my emotions became second nature to me—which became very convenient over the years.

Without hesitation, I was met with Beverly's grinning and excited demeanor, completely wiping my memory of what took place before my arrival.

"Ready to go swimming?" She asked.

I noticed a feature that adjusted her appearance drastically. "You cut your hair?"

"Oh," she ran her fingers through her now chopped off embers of locks. "Yeah, I needed a change."

"You look very pretty, I like it," I announced, playing with the trimmed ends gently.

She burst into a radiant grace of smiles as she laughed at me in embarrassment. "Thanks, Stef."

We both exited her house to make our way to the quarry, running to retrieve Beverly's bike from next to her building.

"Shit, I forgot my bike," I cursed as I realized I had stormed off without it.

"S'okay, you can ride with me," she suggested, indicating for me to take a seat on the front.

A grin pierced my features as I reluctantly adjusted myself to be comfortably seated upon the front of her bike.

We laughed as Beverly jokingly bumped on rocks to make the ride rocky, which also caused me to scream in fear.

"Don't fucking do that or this bike will be so far up your ass it'll come out of your nose," I growled as she mockingly chuckled towards me.

"How do you come up with that, Stef," she giggled.

"With what?"

"Like you can easily insult someone without thinking, it's a talent really."

"Well if you must know, it's a gift I've acquired, I must put it to good use," I spoke with a mocking distressed tone, imitating a terrible actress.

We laughed in unison as Beverly peered through a large pathway that steered downward into the forest that led to the quarry, the ride becoming much scarier than before due to the steep hill.

Just as the bike dove right into the pathway, I noticed a peculiar red balloon swaying around a tree. As I turned my head back to face straight ahead, I noticed a giant clown towering over us in one of the large trees. His hair-raising features consisting of a petrifying twitch of the lips and unnerving golden eyes piercing my vision as I aggressively shut my eyelids to avoid staring at him any longer.

Before a scream could pour into the atmosphere, I opened my eyes to reveal that he was gone—completely vanished from his previous spot.

My head violently switched from both sides as I started slamming my hands upon the handlebars of the bike, shouting at Beverly to stop.

"I—I—I saw. . ." I spoke in between catching my breath.

"What? What happened, Stef?" She asked, throwing her bike to the ground after I adjusted myself to the ground.

"I don't know," I admitted, my body clenching with pulsing fear.

Beverly grabbed my arms as she tried to study my bewildered reaction. "Stef, it's okay—"

"I'm fine," I breathed, slapping her hands off me abruptly. "Let's just go to the quarry."

Beverly nodded her head quietly with a slightly saddened expression as we continued our journey further into the forest, spotting the quarry up ahead.

My heart rate adjusted to normal after some silence passed through us and I somehow managed to convince myself that I had probably just been riding too fast on Beverly's bike and saw misleading shapes.

I tried to decode the images of the blood-curdling clown, reminding myself that I was a child that sparked too much of an imagination for a creature like that to be real.

Once we made it to our deserted location, we noticed the group of boys—Bill, Stanley, Eddie, Richie, and Ben—eyes all plastered to the bottom of the lake as they stood dressed down in their underwear.

I shook my head of the thoughts that coursed through my mind as I picked up my pace to meet the group of boys perched on the edge of the cliff.

Bill spoke up as they kept their eyes trained on the water. "Who's going first?"

"I'll go," Beverly announced, snickering to herself as she willingly discarded her clothing, ripping her classic floral dress off her petite figure. "Sissies."

They all gazed at her in awe as she dove right into the lake without hesitation. I felt envy swallow any ounce of confidence I had lurking through me as I managed to catch a glimpse of Beverly's slim figure.

Richie shouted from above just before her body hit the water. "What the fuck!"

"She's right, you are all sissies," I mocked as I stood over with them, watching her get engulfed by the water.

"Holy shit, we just got showed up by a girl," Richie said to the group of petrified boys.

"Do we have to do that now?" Stanley croaked nervously.

"Yes," Eddie clarified with anxiousness, though I could see he was still in denial himself as his twig-like legs vibrated from the alert of his pulsing nerves.

Beverly became impatient as she shouted from below, "come on!"

"Shit," Stanley muttered as they all turned to each other with fear painted across their features.

"Why don't you go first step on me," Richie asked, "couldn't find a push-up bra to get some sort of action in there?"

"Sorry Richie, push-up bras are out of stock because of you, saggy tits," I huffed.

"Richie, I don't think you can make a comeback from that," Stanley chuckled toward Richie, causing him to roll his eyes.

"I'll have you know, the only thing saggy about me is my ba—" he began, being cut off when my anger possessed me to shove his torso into the water.

Once his body fled back up to the surface, he shouted back to me, "oh, you're gonna get it, Copperhead!"

I howled in laughter as I peeled my dress off my body—my nerves tingling due to the newfound exposure and my own lack of confidence engulfing me.

The remaining group of boys turned to me in bewilderment as I prepared myself to dive in. "Never mind sissies, you guys are all straight up pussies."

"Listen, if I jump I could risk getting a fractured skull, drowning, infectious diseases caused by the river, because who knows what swims in that, and—" Eddie's blabbering being the last sentence I heard before jumping off the edge of the quarry.

I flung my torso into the crystallized body of water as the sun glared at my skin. I felt the rush of adrenaline burn through me once I hit the water, my eyes wandering to the top of the surface as the sun gleamed through the jeweled pigments.

As I reached the surface for air, I turned to see that I couldn't find Richie or Beverly but was surprised by the grasp of a pair of lanky arms wrapped around my mouth as I was shoved back underwater.

I kicked at whoever held on to me with as much strength as I could muster, earning the vibration of a groan slightly audible underwater.

I gasped for air as my head broke the barrier to the surface, my hair whipping water from my face.

Richie shot upward as well, gasping for breath in between his fits of laughter.

"You fucking punk," I cried, "I'm gonna drown your scrawny ass."

"Try me, Copperhead," he challenged.

I yanked him by his neck, grasping his head with aggressive tugs as I dipped his head back into the water. He struggled for air as he pulled at my grip.

"I have a better way to solve this, Stef," Beverly called out to me.

"Enlighten me."

"Chicken fight!" She exclaimed.

I dropped my grasp on Richie and swam over to Beverly, climbing on to her shoulders.

I hadn't noticed the rest of the boys make it into the water, but Bill swam over to us with Richie perched over his shoulders as well.

Beverly got close enough for me to yank Richie by the shoulders, earning laughter from every corner to spill into the atmosphere.

With enough strength, I took down Richie with the clench of my grip. His torso plummeted off of Bill's shoulders straight into the water.

After Richie lost to me, Eddie, Stanley, and Ben finally joined us; Eddie climbing on Bill and Stanley climbing on Ben.

I versed both boys and lost to Stanley as he shoved me straight into the body of water with contagious giggles.

"Who's tough now, Stef?" Stanley chuckled with newfound confidence radiating from him.

"Sorry Stan, but still me."

"I call bullshit on that, Stef," he shook his head with a witty grin still trailing upon his features.

I starred at Stan, acknowledging the light gleaming through his golden locks and shining upon his pale flesh. Stan was undeniably attractive, but I'd never care to admit that, so I just shamelessly gazed at him with a content expression.

Richie suddenly swam back over to where I was located while disrupting me of my previous thoughts, greeting me with his irritating splashing. I wiped the excess water from my eyes as we announced the battle of a water fight, causing the entire group to participate as well.

"Wow Copperhead, your hair looks like a bloody toenail when it's wet," Richie shouted in between his aggressive assault on me with the water.

"Wow bug-eyes, you're the reason I'm pro-abortion."

"Fuck off, Copperhead, at least I can get laid, you're just gonna be stuck using Eddie's mom's dildo for the rest of your life!"

"Hey!" Eddie piped up, "stop talking about my mom, Richie!"

"It's okay Eds, mama bear loves me."

"No she doesn't, nobody loves you, asshole." Eddie growled toward him as Richie playfully slapped water at him.

Just as I was about to conjure another insult at the annoying trashmouth, the boys appeared alarmed at the brushing of their feet from underwater.

"I knew it, I knew it, I'm going to get aids, I warned you idiots, I told you, I'm totally gonna die," Eddie squealed, his voice shrieking to a feminine range.

"Eds, could you say your prayers later," Richie groaned.

"DO NOT CALL ME EDS, RICHIE!" Eddie screamed as he swam out of the water angrily.

Bill dove under to see what it was. "It's a turtle," he announced.

Beverly and I laughed at them as we both decided to exit the water to cool off in the sun. The boys followed us back up to the top of the quarry, all scattering around rocks as we laid down on our discarded clothing.

A boom box was sat on a rock causing Beverly to grin with utter excitement. She switched through the stations as it settled on 'Bust a Move' by Young Mc.

Beverly pulled out a pair of sunglasses from the pocket of her dress and used it to shield her irises from the sun. I let my eyelids flutter closed as I laid down next to her, my hand balanced on my forehead to shield my eyes from the sun.

The upbeat rhythm of the music occupied the silence of the atmosphere as Beverly and I both let the heat of the sun to dry us off.

Beverly nudged my hand lightly as I kept my eyes shut. "Psst."

"What," I replied quietly.

"They're staring at us," she observed, "for some odd reason, Richie is starring at you."

I felt a wave of disgust resurface through me as I perched up on to my elbows.

"Hey, dickheads," I shrieked, "we don't stare at your small dicks all day, how about you occupy yourselves."

With my words, they broke their gaze from us as they turned to chat amongst themselves.

Richie turned to Ben, rummaging through his backpack. "News flash Ben, schools out for summah', " he mocked in a British accent as he pretended to hold a microphone to his lips.

I recalled the many voices Richie used to practice in elementary school as I sighed in irritation.

"Oh, that? That's not school stuff," Ben explained.

Richie pulled out a strange postcard. "Who sent you this?"

Ben's face struck crimson as he yanked the card from Richie's possession. "No one."

Instead, Richie dug further into Ben's belongings to pull out a binder of strange news articles.

"What's with the history project?" Eddie asked.

"Oh—well. . . when I first moved here I didn't really have anyone to hang out with," Ben clarified, "so, I just started spending time in the library.

The group passed the binder around, showing everyone Ben's collection.

"You went to the library?" Richie spoke with utter disbelief, "on purpose?"

"Oh, I wanna see!" Beverly insisted.

Beverly and I were both curious as we made our way to the rocks. The only available spaces next to Bill—which Beverly had already claimed—and Richie.

"What's the black spot?" Stanley asked, skimming one of the articles.

"The black spot was that nightclub burned down years ago by that racist cult," Eddie explained to Stanley.

"What?" Stanley asked still confused.

"Haven't you ever watched Geraldo?" Eddie replied to Stanley in confusion.

Richie elbowed me, causing me to yelp in pain. "You're so fucking annoying, can you just drop dead," I hissed.

"Ladies first."

"That's why I asked you to go first," I said, poking him in the stomach roughly.

"So, does that make you a boy?" He teased.

"Stupid trashmouth!" I groaned, pushing him off the rock we were situated on.

"Nice grip," Stanley complimented with his eyebrows slightly raised.

"Thanks."

"Okay, calm down, step on me," Richie spoke up as he got up from the ground, indicating Bill to pass him the binder as he took back his seat next to me. "Here, pass it."

He skimmed through the articles once again with curiosity. "Why's it all murders and missing kids?"

"Derry's not like any town I've ever been in before," Ben said, "they did a study once and it turns out people die here or disappear six times the national average."

"You read that?" Beverly questioned.

"That's just grown-ups, kids are worst," Ben continued to explain, "way, way worst."

The atmosphere got hair-raising as silence sat upon Ben's previous words.

"I've got more stuff if you wanna see it," Ben suggested.

Eddie frantically shook his head. "No, no."

I slapped Eddie who was sat on the other side of me, earning a shriek from him.

"Stef, that hurt," he whined.

"Then stop being a baby or you'll go missing," I deadpanned.

"That is so not funny," he said with a quiver of nervousness.

We got up and got dressed as we decided to follow Ben to his house.

Who knew Ben's discovery would change our lives forever.