Prologue
~Prologue~
Richie’s POV :
I looked out the window as I watched the world go by, my father thought it was a good idea to get out of Derry for a while, he claims it will be a short trip and yet he made me pack all of my belongings into a couple of bags. We were passing by countrysides and occasionally small towns, I saw a sign “You are now entering Hawkins, Indiana” I was kind of surprised that we were in a different state already. I watched a bunch of houses and little shops go by out the window, there were flower shops and families walking around having fun and there was a library. I thought about the library for a moment remembering all of the things that Ben told my friends and I about what had happened in Derry and eventually my mind was on a spiral through the memories of Pennywise and all of the sadness and fear that clown had put us through, a few tears leaked from the corners of my eyes but I quickly wiped them away when I felt them there. I looked out the window again feeling the car slowing down, there was a building in front of us which was falling apart a little but it was quaint and cosy, but there were the dreaded words above the door “Miss Poppy’s Home For Lost Children” it had a light yellow background and the words were a lime green color, the paint was peeling from the sign just like it was peeling from the sides of the rest of the house. My father grabbed my stuff from the car and shoved me as a sign that I needed to move, I began walking but I was in a daze, my eyes were watery again but for different reasons this time, I must have fucked up bad for my father to want to put me up for adoption in a random town in a different state.
I walked in with my father to the front desk and started talking to her as though they had planned for this, I stared at them incredulous that this was gonna happen. “So Richard, will you please follow me so I can show you your room?” the lady my father had been speaking to asked, I nodded completely silent, “I’m sorry, but you have to share a room with one of the other boys here, he’ll tell you the schedule and everything you need to know about this place, I will see you at dinner.” she opened a door and left me standing in the doorway with my stuff in my arms. There was a boy laying on a bed in the corner of the far left of the room, his side of the room had posters and was pretty dark while the side that would be mine was empty and colorless, “So, you’re the new kid. My name is Michael, what’s your name?” the boy asked, he had pitch black hair and looked like a cross between the stereotypical nerd and goth, “H-hi, I’m Richie..” I trailed off feeling very awkward. I walked into the room and put my stuff down at the foot of my bed, not bothering to unpack, I had a feeling that I wouldn’t be here for long.
~A day later~
I woke up feeling tired, though that wasn’t out of the norm for me, I blindly grabbed in the general direction of my bedside table to find my glasses. I found my glasses and put them on my face, I was in the bed supplied for me by the orphanage, I got up and grabbed a clean white t-shirt, jeans and boxers. I checked to see if Michael was awake, from what I could see he was not, I quickly and quietly changed then I quietly went downstairs. I went into the kitchen to see Miss Poppy making breakfast, “Good Morning” I said quietly, Miss Poppy flinched, not expecting someone to be awake around 6:00 a.m. “Richard, you scared me. What are you doing up this early?” Miss Poppy said with concern in her voice, “Usually wake up pretty early because I had to go to school at early hours, it’s a habit, uh- sorry for startling you..” I felt kinda bad for startling Miss Poppy, worried of making a bad first impression I decided on being quite instead of my loud and obnoxious self from Derry Maine. Miss Poppy must have noticed that I was nervous, “It’s okay dear, I don’t have the best hearing so I wouldn’t have heard you coming either way.” I smiled at her feeling kind of shy since I had never had this kind of affection shown to me before. “Do you need any help?” I asked gesturing to the bacon and eggs that she was preparing for breakfast, “That would be much-appreciated dear, but you are new here and I don’t want you to get hurt, this burner doesn’t turn off correctly.” I nodded understandingly, “Okay, I’ll just wait and we can chat then?” I said as a question not knowing if she was ok with me staying and talking her ear off, she chuckled, “Of course dear.”
We chatted until she was done cooking and had to go call the others down for breakfast, I sat patiently waiting for her to return so I could meet the other kids that were here. I heard the thumping of several pairs of feet on wooden flooring, I looked up at the door and saw two identical girls only around the age of five staring at me half hiding behind the doorway, next to them was a boy who looked around a year younger than the girls, standing in the doorway were a couple kids around eight or nine, lastly there was Michael. Michael was silently laughing at my shyness under the intense stares of the other kids, or at least that’s what I assumed he was laughing at. Miss Poppy bustled in and passed each kid their food and they all sat at the table that was in here with me, Michael sat next to me and pointed to each kid while telling me their names, I learned that the twin girls were names, Katie and Cassie, the young boy was Michael’s little brother and his name was Christopher, the eight-year-old was a boy named Jacob with his older sister who was nine and named Lacy. I spoke to them all for a little while getting to know them better until it felt we had known each other for years, it felt like a lovely family. Miss Poppy cleared her throat, “Okay, everyone today is adoption day, so be on your best behavior.” I looked at Michael questioningly, “Adoption day is the day where families come in and talk to us to see what we are like so they know if they want to adopt any of us. We wear nicer clothes usually so they have a better impression but I prefer to dress like myself to so they don’t expect any different from my true self.” Michael explained. I nodded and cleared my plate, I help Miss Poppy wash the dishes even though she insisted that I shouldn’t, I then went up to Michael and my room to get even more ready for the day. I put on a Hawaiian button-down that had pineapples on it over my white t-shirt leaving it unbuttoned, I ran my fingers through my hair in an attempt to make it look nicer but only succeeding in making it look crazier. Miss Poppy poked her head into our room, “Hey you two, it’s time to come down.” she smiled then went down the hall to get some other kids, I stood and went downstairs following Michael. Miss Poppy instructed us to stand side by side so the people adopting us could see all of our features, we were standing in order of age, Michael was at the end with me right next to him, then Lacy and Jacob, after them came Cassie and Katie with Christopher standing at the very end of the line. A couple came in looking at all of us then choosing Cassie and Katie, a few people just looked at us trying to decide if they wanted to adopt now or later. Then a family of three came in and the adults looked at us thinking and looking over the files that Miss Poppy had with more in-depth searching, their daughter who was a couple years older than me looked at all of us, I averted my eyes when she looked at me finding the floor much more interesting. I heard her giggle and I looked up to see her looking at me giggling, I blushed and looked at the floor again. The adults quietly talked to each other seeming to be arguing, then the girl went over and whispered something to her parents which made them stop talking and think, they whispered something to Miss Poppy, Miss Poppy beamed at what she heard. “Richard go get you things, you have been adopted.” Miss Poppy said cheerfully, I smiled and went up to Michael and my room, I grabbed my bags and came back down.
I smiled at the family that would be adopting me, I was asked a lot of questions about my likes and dislikes, I responded truthfully and happily. “Hey, do you think you could call me Richie? Calling me by my first name makes me feel like I’m in trouble.” I blurted after being called Richard for the fifth time, “Sure Richie.” my new sister Nancy responded.
~Maybe a couple of days later, when Richie is all settled in~
It was finally time for school, I asked Mom to list me under the name Michael instead of Richard, she was confused but did it anyway. I act a lot different from my old self around this new family, I’m quieter and I let my inner nerd out as well as finally getting back into the habit of reading a ton of books. When I was younger I had a thirst for knowledge but my “mother” told me that only fags like to read books and that being a fag was wrong, I stopped reading books so I wouldn’t get hurt for going against her rules.
I walked up the front steps and went to the office, “Uh, hi, I’m Michael Wheeler, here to pick up my schedule..” I said to the lady behind the ever iconic front desk, “Ok, here you are Mr. Wheeler. I’ll call for Mr. Byers to come get you to show you around then you can go.” she pressed a button and spoke into a mic, “William Byers, come to the office please, William Byers.” I jumped when I heard her voice coming through the speaker system. A few minutes later a short boy with light brown hair in the style of a bowl cut came into the office, “Y-you asked for me?” he questioned in a small voice, “William Byers, this is Michael Wheeler and he is new, since he has the same schedule as you, you will show him around the school during lunch and direct him to the correct classes. Am I clear?” she asked ‘Will’ in a stern tone, “O-of course ma’am, this way Michael.” and he walked out of the room. Will walked me to a classroom and opened the door, he walked over to the teacher while I stood a bit farther back, Will whispered something into his ear and he nodded then looked at me, “We have a new addition to our class today, his name is Michael Wheeler, please make him feel welcome.” the teacher announced, “Mr. Wheeler please sit by Will.” the teacher smiled at me nicely.
~Timeskip to Lunch cause I’m not gonna write a paragraph about three classes~
Will and I walked to the lunch room to grab some food then go to the library to meet up with his friends, as soon as we got into the lunchroom though, a couple of guys walked up to Will and I, they started to call him a fag and said that it would be funny if he went missing, deciding to be the sensible one of the group I punched them both in their stupid faces. I smiled feeling as though I had accomplished something. “Your dead Frog Face.” one of them screamed at me and I just started to babble to them about where I come from in an accent to make them thoroughly confused, it seemed to be working because they were looking at me like I was mad, Will looked confused and I just kept talking in a Swedish accent talking about how cats lay eggs.
Will looked completely baffled by the number of topics I was going through in one sentence and at how wild or inappropriate some of them could be or seem, “And then I saw a platypus for the first time and my thoughts on it were like ‘da hell?? how does this amazing thing exist??’ and my first instinct was to go and pet it but then I started to think ‘what if it bites’ and when I think about things that bite I think about my friend Eddie’s mom” and I kept this topic going for a while, the two bullies looking at me incredulously and Will looking at me like I’m some kind of wizard as well as half of the other students crowding around me to listen to my tall tales. The bullies eventually got bored and left so I took that as the cue to stop for a while, I took a breath and looked over at Will, “So, are we going to go hang with your friends or what?” I asked, Will had a shocked look on his face but he snapped out of his little daze and spoke, “Yeah, they’ll be wondering where I am by now.” we left the lunchroom leaving a crowd of bewildered students in our wake.
We walked into the school’s library to see barely anyone besides the librarian in there, there were two boys sitting at a table in the back, one of them had dark skin short hair and was wearing a red denim jacket with a soft collar over a striped shirt, the other boy had shortish curly hair with a baseball cap on over it that was red blue and white, he was wearing a blue button up hoodie that had a plaid inside with a green shirt under it saying “Waupaca” with a deer on, Will started to walk over to them, one of them looked up, “Thank god you’re finally here, I thought you were attacked by Troy or something.” curly hair said, “Oh but I was Dustin, Mike here stopped him.” Will said excitedly. Will explained in full detail how I stopped this ‘Troy’ guy, they laughed at some of the things I said in my ‘babble-a-thon’, I was getting a little bored so I looked at some over the book titles nearby. We were in the section for Japanese comics, I saw some titles that sounded cool so I picked a few off the shelf and began reading. After I finished the fourth book of a series called Dr.Slump, Will came over and formally introduced me to his friends, “This is Lucas” he said pointing to the darker skinned boy, “And this is Dustin.” he said pointing to the curly haired boy, “So, Michael, did you just move to Hawkins? Cause I haven’t seen you around before.” Dustin asked right after Will introduced us not evening giving me a chance to say hello to either of them, “Yeah I just got here a couple of days ago.” I kept the answers short as to not scare them away, “That’s cool. Where did you live before Hawkins?” Dustin asked I looked at him blankly, “I lived in Derry Maine, it is a really boring town, but I miss my friends from there.” I stated, Lucas hit Dustin on the upside of his head while Will looked at me with some sympathy.
And that’s how I met my best friends in Indiana.
