Strange as IT Seems

Chapter 43: Under the Surface

"Can we please look at the toy store?" Georgie begs after the trio leaves Scoops Ahoy. He races ahead, nearly bumping into several shoppers and risking dropping his cone on them.

"Georgie come here!" Mia demands, sick of trying to keep pace and wrangle him while apologizing to the strangers he nearly rams into. "It's like trying to herd a cat."

"I want to go to the toy store," he whines.

"H-How about we f-finish our ice cream, f-first?" Bill suggests.

He finds a bench nearby and sits down, Mia follows suit, but the six-year-old remains standing, angry at his supervisors.

"I want to go now." he continues to whine.

"Grandma Marian always says that whining is not going to get you what you want any faster, except maybe to your room, so Squirt just chill out," Mia says.

Turning on a pouting face, Georgie stomps to the ledge next to the bench where a large fake tree had been planted to give the mall a natural "ambience" and continues to lick his ice cream, refusing to look at his brother and cousin. His face was smeared with pink and blue residue.

Mia licks her cone while Bill rolls his eyes and they both let out a sigh of relief.

"What time did Aunt Sharon say we need to be back?"

"5:30" Bill replies.

"It's 4:00, which gives us time to appease Thomas, who is pouting over there. Is there anything that you need to get here?"

Bill shakes his head.

The two sit in silence for a while, just watching the people as they walk past. All in their own little worlds, going about their lives like everything was perfect. But both kids knew better. Everyone had their skeletons and their insecurities. They all had the darkness that they refused to acknowledge, especially in front of other people. It was all a façade, to keep the world at peace.

The jazzercise people, heading over to the studio to see their blonde instructor, hoping to shed that last of the weight and end the summer looking good in those bathing suits. The frazzled mothers push their tired and cranky toddlers in their strollers while they move to the next sale, spending money they do not always have and wracking up debt that could be spent elsewhere. Higher class people, dressed in the fanciest regale, sometimes carrying tiny dogs in purses, trying to seem important and their arms filled with shopping bags, flaunting their wealth even though they felt very little on the inside. The teenagers, strutting around, trying to act cool, chatting with their friends about the latest trends or what was on MTV, pretending to be people that they weren't and panicking inside that their secret might be exposed. The lone individuals who simply had nothing better to do than walk around, killing time before having to home to their lives once more. All of it seemed normal and mundane, but all had their secrets, even the ones observing them.

Bill had a stutter, that made him incredibly shy and insecure. It prevented him from speaking his mind and kids mocked him endlessly for it. While the move to Hawkins allowed for a fresh start, he knew that the minute he was forced to give a presentation, the mocking would start again. High school was tough enough as it was, but having a stutter never helped. Plus, his friend group had blown up and the only people he talked with were his parents, his brother, his cousin, and sometimes Beverly, Ben and Will. The new friend shared the same interests as him. Plus, the fantasy story they were working on was the only creative outlet he had and the only time he got out of the house other than for school. Back in Derry, the Loser's Club had the arcade, the movie theatre, their clubhouse etc. He used to be out until nearly dusk every night. Now, most of the time he was in his room. Deep down he missed all his other friends. While they sometimes fought, he missed the laughs they shared and the dumb things that they did.