Cynophobia I Stanley Uris

chapter one

"Get lost, DJ," Gretta snapped, causing the blonde to roll her eyes. "This doesn't concern you."

Knowing it wasn't everyday that Gretta Keene offered one to leave, DJ didn't need to be told twice. She quickly walked out of the girls bathroom, smoothly dodging out of the way as Gretta went to bump into her.

She had left the classroom five minutes earlier than the rest, coming up with the lie that she had to use the restroom, which her teacher saw right through. Apparently, she was in a good mood, since she let DJ leave and wished her a good summer break. Maybe she just felt bad for her though, because Gretta and the rest of DJ's former friends were now bullying her and the blonde had used the excuse to leave earlier to avoid them. She would never know and in all honesty, DJ didn't care much either. Currently, she was just glad that the Keene girl had allowed her to leave.

She flinched as she heard Gretta kick a stall door, noticing that the girl seemed to be in a foul mood even more than usual.

"Are you in there by yourself, Beaver-ly?" were the last words DJ heard before the door to the girls' bathroom finally closed and she escaped into her freedom.

Outside, her eyes fell to the trash can, since she wanted to dump her middle school notebooks and other school things. Apparently, four guys beat her to it, but DJ didn't care about that. Swiftly, she walked over to them, so far being unnoticed, as she had learnt to sneak rather than stomp, after her falling out with Gretta.

"Best feeling ever." A guy with curls spoke up, causing DJ to nod slightly, while she grabbed her math notebooks to dump them.

"Yeah? Try tickling your pickle for the first time." One of DJ's mutuals retorted.

He wasn't really her friend, but from all the people she knew at this school she definitely enjoyed spending time with him the most. Richie, with his black hair, big glasses and an even bigger mouth, used to sit next to her in one of their shared classes. He also lived in the house next door to her, so sometimes they rode their bikes to school together.

"Richie, you're absolutely disgusting and I hope you're aware of that." DJ commented, which made the boys flinch in surprise, as none of them had noticed her until that moment.

"Woah," Richie exclaimed, grinning at the girl. "I didn't know you possessed these ninja powers."

DJ snorted at his words, before sending the other boys an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry for sneaking up on you guys. Your reaction was adorable though."

DJ's smile widened as the boys showed different reactions to her comment, amused by their responses. Richie just started stuttering some excuses, when Bill, the boy who's brother went missing, smiled kindly at her. The smallest of the guys blushed furiously, so that his cheeks were nearly as pink as his polo shirt. DJ's gaze turned to the last boy of the quartet, the one with the curls that somehow reminded her of noodles. He swallowed and adverted his eyes, looking down at the ground. She had to admit the boy had something cute about him.

"T-thank you..." Bill said somewhat cheekily, trailing off not knowing the girl's name.

"DJ." She introduced herself, finally dumping her school materials into the trash.

"DJ with a bad taste of music," Richie remarked, making the girl roll her eyes at his humor. "But no one is perfect. Well, just me, I am."

"You wish," the smallest of the guys commented, before he turned to DJ. "I'm Eddie Kaspbrak, this is Bill Denbrough, you know Richie and that's Stan, or well, Stanley Uris."

"It's nice to meet you," Stan exclaimed, looking at the girl on his right. "DJ can't be your name however."

Richie snorted loudly, "Right, DJ, forgot to mention that Stan the man is, like, really into grammar and being a proper adult."