Chapter 1

Wednesday, September 9th, 1993, 8:25 am

It was cold.

Very cold.

It always was in Derry it has been for as long as everyone could remember.

Just a seemingly dull town on the outskirts of Bangor, Maine; there wasn't anything special to it. Unnoticed and forgotten, not many people even knew Derry existed, it kept to itself with its small narrow minded inhabitants, and uninteresting bouts of old gossip.It wasn't so much about what Derry had, but more about what it lacked - the joy, the warmth and the homeliness of other towns is something you wouldn't catch in here. No neighbourly spirit. No family get togethers. It was every man for himself, if you believed otherwise, it was bullshit.

Nothing changed with the times, and so, Derry remained, a cold town.

Eddie Kaspbrak, a short boy of 15, backpack and fanny pack strapped on tight, walked slowly along the empty streets, the only thing that could be heard at 8:25 in the morning, was the hard soles of his shoes, slapping against the pavement. He puffed out his cheeks, letting his warm breath flow out into the crisp, morning air, and watching as it turned into a smoky mist in front of him. Wisps of grey clouds had congregated in the sky sending down a soft drizzle onto those below, and Eddie pulled his dark green winter coat tighter around his body.

A raindrop landed on his neck, the shiver in his spine following along immediately, as well as the goosebumps and he found himself wishing that he'd brought an umbrella with him. Of course his mother had told him to, or more like tried to force one into his backpack, as she blabbered on about various illnesses, but he had managed to run out the door when she had turned around to grab his extra pills, hurrying away while her shouts echoed off of the silent houses that lined his street. But he would rather freeze than admit his mother was right, even if she had scared him with the horrors influenza could do to someone's immune system, clogging it up with mucus that would make you gag all day and night, but he didn't want to think about that right after breakfast.

And so, shivering slightly, he carried on walking, on his way to school. He didn't want to go to school, no one wants to go to school, a hellhole whose sole purpose was to numb your brain from boredom, split it open with confusion, and then obliterate it to smithereens with the stress that came with assignments and projects. No, no one in their sane mind would actually like that shit, Eddie thought as he kicked a stone to the curb. There wasn't anything in particular to look forward to either, no classes that Eddie liked, not even anything he was in the least good at, unless you counted being a human medical emergency kit, but that wasn't usually considered to be a skill.

His whole being just screamed untalented, he knew that of course, but tried to ignore it most of the time, he didn't need to his own thoughts to be chipping away at the self confidence that Henry Bowers had broken and stomped on. Multiple times. Henry bowers, arrogant prick, self-proclaimed ruler, and best of all, psychotic bully, don't we love a good villain to make this shithole that is Derry an even shitter shit hole. 

He made it his duty to terrorize the kids that couldn't stand up to him, and it was just Eddie's luck that he often fell victim to henry's antics. He had, one too many a time, ended up hiding behind the large tables in the abandoned janitor's office, where he had undoubtedly heard things, he wishes he could erase from his mind. He shuddered at the thought, too engrossed in the memories of those unwanted encounters that he didn't hear the yell of someone behind him, and seconds later was lying flat on his back, in a state of shock, at being knocked so harshly and as easily as a bowling pin.

"For fucks sake..." he heard a heavy someone groan from on top of his legs, "Why didn't you move out of the way dickhead ?"

The person who had so very rudely bumped into him, was now beginning to stand up, clumsily too, unfolding a pair of gangly legs and with his long arms brushing off the front of his jacket, that had been smeared with a bit of dirt. Eddie watched this man, no....boy incredulously from his place on the ground.

"Excuse me?" he said, offended that the person had the audacity to blame him for the fall.

"I said, "the boy was still focused on scratching the dirt off of his front, "Why didn't you-" his voice faltered as he finally made eye contact with Eddie, staring at him for a few seconds, which made Eddie raise an eyebrow quizzically, the boy then cleared his throat, looking away and mumbled quietly, "Why didn't you move?""I didn't hear you yell dickhead ""HOW is that possible, I'm pretty sure that all of Bangor heard me yell"Eddie scowled and retorted, "And I'm pretty sure you yelled when you were only 2 seconds away from me"The stranger scoffed and crouched to pick up his board, that was wedged in a patch of soil, for those random trees that are planted on the side walk, and the standing back up said ,"It was a solid five dude"Eddie rolled his eyes at the boys stupidity, "If it was a 'solid 5', you would have swerved out of the way or even stopped instead of crashing into me"The boy stopped for a moment to consider what Eddie had just said, "Touché, ok I'll give you that, let me help you up kid", he said offering a hand out.Eddie cringed at the way he called him 'kid', and moved away from the hand, ignoring it and shuffling to get up on his own. He then, walked straight past the stranger and continued on his path to school.The unknown boy jogged up behind him, skateboard tucked under his arms saying, "Hey, no need to be salty," but not getting any response then added, "I'm sorry okay? There I apologised." Still silence, tough crowd he thought, clearing his throat awkwardly. "What's your-""Why are you following me?" Eddie interrupted"Well there are these thing called streets" he explained slowly, "And we, as humans, have the basic right to walk down them, anywhere we want, isn't that crazy?"Eddie gave him a pointed look that radiated the words "No."There was a chuckle and a shake of his head, "I guess it's just a happy coincidence that we're walking in the same direction,""Not a very happy coincidence in my opinion," Eddie muttered looking at the ground and shifting to the right, as far away from this boy as possible."Well, we're walking together whether you like it or not" the other said, with an air of finality, deciding that it was a good choice for the both of them."I don't even know you" Eddie pointed out"Neither does your mom, but we still fuck every night"Eddie stared at the boy in pure disgust, did he just make- did he really just make a mom joke? He scrunched up his nose, and if it was even possible edged further away from him,"That's fucking disgusting""Not with me it is isn't," the boy said with an exaggerated wink, and then pinching the sides of his collar, pulling it outwards said, "Your man's got moves""Shut up""Not my fault you don't wanna know the juicy details" the stranger shrugged"Yeah, your right. I don't want to know any of the non-existent, juicy details""Woah woah woah they are very existent....just ask your sister in nine months""Can you stop talking about this, please.""Pretty sure you were the one who brought it up" he said in a matter of fact voice"What no! It was you when you said that-you know what, never mind. Just shut up""You already said that""But it doesn't seem to be working" Eddie grumbled"Hey, don't give me the long face. So as I was asking, what's your name?""You don't need to know.""Seeing as we just had a lengthy conversation about fucking your mom, I think I have a right to know"Come on," he said, nudging Eddie's arm with his bony elbow, "You know you want to tell me."Eddie stayed silent."Ok fine I'll go first, Richie Tozier's the name and being hilarious is my game." He announced, doing a little dance with jazz hands, and a shit faced grin."Ha ha" Eddie said, words dripping with more sarcasm."Knew you weren't a Grinch", said Richie, with a click of the tongue."Soo, now that I've told you my name, the only way to complete the exchange, is for you to tell me yours"Eddie sighed, knowing that there wasn't any way to get out of this, and decided to get it over and done with."Eddie Kaspbrak", he huffed, tightening the straps of his backpack."Huh, Eddie," Richie looked Eddie up and down, grinning at the small boys stature, "Cute name for a cute boy," 

...

"What?"

"What?"

There was a short silence, filled with only the crunch of gravel beneath their feet, and Richie re-adjusting the skateboard under his coat, the noise of which, eddie thought, was quite annoying as well as Richie inviting himself to walk along with eddie, for which reasons Eddie didn't know.

"So Eds, where are-""My name is Eddie""Yeah, I know that shortstack, you literally just told me"Eddie rolled his eyes as Richie continued to talk"So Eds, where-""I said-""So Eds" Richie said with an overly exaggerated tone, putting emphasis on 'Eds', and cutting of an annoyed Eddie, "Where are you going on this..." he paused to look up at the sky, which had dark tufts of clouds forming above their heads, gave a gentlemanly smile and said in a terrible British accent "Lovely morning,""I don't know sherlock, I decided I wanted to take a walk out in the cold in this heavy ass backpack. For fun."Richie nodded as if taking in everything Eddie said, "Reasonable, reasonable, I actually just came out here to skateboard, work on my moves a little, try not to get run over by a car, the usual."

Eddie gave Richie a sideways glance, not being able to tell whether the boy was joking or not. Richie didn't say anything, too engrossed in scraping something off of the edge of his skateboard, but then abruptly looked up at Eddie and said,"Yeah, so I'm going to school too, which grade are you in?""11" Eddie replied"Wait really?" Richie asked in shock, his already slow walk coming to a complete halt, the beginnings of a smile forming on his mouth, as he chuckled a bit."Yeah, whys that so funny?" Eddie asked defensively, already knowing the reason, don't say it, don't say it don't-"No offence dude, but you hardly look older than a 6th grader" Richie said, laughing at the annoyance that had taken over Eddie's face at being compared to a 12 year old."No I don't!" he muttered, but they both knew that was a lie, Eddie was rather small for his age, and while the other boys in his class had grown musclier and taller, with much deeper voices, he still remained the same scrawny little Eddie, not gaining any extra muscles, and not even beginning to go through his share of puberty, being stuck with the same slightly high pitched voice, which the occasional voice cracks. If he had been any taller, his body fat would have spread itself out, making him look like a lean, well exercised figure, but no, instead, it all lumped together, giving him a slight muffin top, and adding to the cuteness of his tiny frame, at least that's what Richie thought. It was quite funny watching him huff about not being small, and though he seemed to deny it, Eddie Kaspbrak was indeed very adorable. 

Richie, on the other hand, was tall and lean, standing about a whole head over Eddie, at 5'9, he had luckily experienced the changes of adulthood, growing out of his teenage body, into a far more good looking boy, with high cheekbones, and a prominent jawline. He had let his straight cropped hair grow out over the years, the black curls now falling down to just above his neck, over his ears and grazing his forehead. His gangly limbs however, ceased to disappear, and although they had gained a few pounds in muscle, he still remained lanky as ever, it was just a Richie Tozier quality that you couldn't get rid of. he certainly would have been the heartthrob of all the girls at Derry High if he ditched the glasses, but Richie would rather be single than blind, he didn't actually care about getting a girlfriend at all, never having pondered on its importance as much as the other guys at school did, never actually having found 'the one' to chase after. Richie's laughter died down, as he watched the irritated little boy stand there with his arms crossed waiting for the teasing to end.

"You finished?" he asked sarcastically, eyebrows raised, and a hard glare set on his face. "not quite," Richie said, bursting into another fir of laughter, Eddie's attempt at being intimidating had failed miserably, his scrunched-up face resembling that of an angry kitten. "Oh for god's sake," Eddie murmured, starting the walk back up again, leaving Richie to jog up behind him, still smiling, and fling an arm around eddies shoulder, saying, "Were you about to leave me Eduardo? I must say, my heart has been wounded!""Good." Eddie stated, shrugging the arm off of his shoulder, and turning a corner, he could just about see the dark red bricks of Derry High in front of him, and as much as he didn't want to go, he didn't really want to spend more time than needed with Richie either, and so quickened his pace.

"That wasn't very nice Eddie," said Richie pouting a little, as he too quickened his steps to match Eddie's."I don't care.""Well you should,""Who says?""Me dumbass, I think you're blind and deaf" 

If Eddie had gotten a dollar for every time he'd rolled his eyes in this single walk to school, he probably would have had $50,he shook his head slightly, walking up to the gates of hell looming above him, and braced himself for the shitty day ahead, walking in and weaving in and out through the large groups of people chattering on the grounds. 

"SEE YA 'ROUND EDS" he heard Richie shout loudly, and turned back to look at the boy, but he was gone, vanishing in the crowd of people, and disappearing off to who knows where. Eddie, faced the school once more, climbed up the front steps and pushed open the doors, even though there was 10 minutes until the bell would ring and the students were still milling around behind him, but eddie never really was one to socialize willingly. He walked down the corridor, towards his locker and once he'd got all he needed he slammed the little blue door shut, clutching some books to his chest, his mind wandering off back to Richie Tozier, What an asshat, God I hope I don't see him around, he thought and strolled off to his first class, relishing in the fact that it was Richie-free, and boy, was he wrong.

...

A/N   Hellooooo people I hope that's long enough for a first chapter. Just a note my chapters are usually 1000 words to 3000 words long lmao they aren't too consistent but yeahAnyways PLEASE tell me what you thought abt this chapter, do you like my style of writing? Lmk when you want another chapterrrr *Remember to vote*Until the next update mi amigos ;)