A Reddie Story

3: Friends [Eddie]

(a week later)

I still can NOT believe that I agreed to let Richie be my work partner for this project. I was doing just fine by myself, if I'm being completely honest. But, I guess I felt bad that his partner absolutely sucked. Well, I'm stuck with him now, so I'll have to deal with it.

The bell rang to go to our next class and, believe it or not, Richie is in it. Seriously, how did I not notice this before?

"So, Eds, if me and your mother were to make-out tonight, d'you think you'd be able to handle all the noise?" RIchie said, elbowing me and grinning.

"What the fuck, Rich" I say."That's not funny! You don't even know my mom!"

"That's what you think. I actually know her quite well, Eds."

I raise my eyebrows at him. "Yeah, right. You haven't even been to my house."

"Well, then you should have me over someday! I would love to see Mrs. K again." He says, dragging out the "o" in love.

"Richie, my mother would hate you. She'll probably think I'll get some sort of sickness from you!" I say with worry in my voice.

"Eds, you've been hanging out with me for, what? A week? And, look at you! You're just fine. You're not breaking out or having an asthma attack! What is there to worry about?" He says, trying to lighten up the mood.

"Haha.. yeah.." I say as we enter our next class.

Before I sit down at my desk, I wipe it down, as well as my seat, with a sanitizing wipe. I spray it with sanitizing spray and wipe it down with another wipe to make sure it's nice and clean before I sit down to make sure I don't get any infections. 

"You scared of the germs, eddie? oH nO i'M gOnNa HaVe An AsThMa aTtAcK o-or, I'm GoNnA bReAk OuT iN hIvEs." A voice says from behind me, cackling.

 Of course, I recognize that voice. Henry Bowers, the biggest school bully. He picks on people with disabilities, like me. But, he also picks on Richie and.. Richie has no actual disability. He just has a loud fucking trashmouth.

Knowing Richie, he would probably laugh at this and say, "Hell yeah, I have a fucking trashmouth! It fucks your mom every night!" Because, that's just Richie.

"F-fuh-fuck off, B-bowers." I hear another kid say. I look behind me to see Bill. 

"Oh, I'm sorry B-b-buh-billy. I d-d-didn't realize I was offending you and your f-f-fag friend." Henry says, poorly mocking Bill's stutter. 

Bill rolls his eyes and sits down at his desk. Sadly, Henry sits right next to me so, I have to deal with his annoying shit all the time. Well, mainly before and after class because he's a perfect fucking angel in front of the teachers even though everyone knows he's a bully. He just puts the act on so that the teachers don't call his dad, the Chief of Police. Which, is reasonable-ISH.

As class was in session, it was very quiet. This was nothing out of the ordinary. It's usually always quiet in Ms. Wheeler's class. She's pretty strict with all the talking. We all learned that on the first day of school. 

"I don't want to hear any talking in this class this whole year. Unless I call on you to speak, of course. I  don't want you guys getting too loud. If you speak without permission, I will be sending you to the dean's office." She had said.

Some kids did try to test that theory and, she did exactly what she said she was going to do. Surprisingly, Richie was not one of them.

But, of course, the deans didn't care. Kids got sent to the office so many times for talking in Ms. Wheeler's class. The deans just sent the kids back to class with a warning. But, the students never spoke again and the classroom has been quiet ever since.

It still surprises me how Richie is able to keep his mouth shut for a WHOLE class period. He ALWAYS talks even if there's nothing to talk about. Yes, I've learned a lot about him in the whole week that I've known him. But, there's probably so much more to learn about this trashmouth.

Instead of doing my work for Ms. Wheeler's class, I sit there thinking about everything that has happened this past week. Because, why would I do my work?

I've made two new friends, which is two more than the average amount of friends I made this whole school year.. Instead of making friends before this, I just got bullied for my stupid asthma. Like, it's not my fault I was born with it! Now, the two friends that I have made are complete opposites. I don't get how they became friends but they fit surprisingly well together. Their names are Richie (obviously) and Stanley. Stanley is a huge bird nerd who also gets bullied. He gets bullied because he's Jewish. It's crazy what you can get bullied for, y'know?

Stanley and Richie are also friends with Bill but I'm not super close with him yet. He's a pretty cool guy, though. He gets bullied because of his stutter but, since his brother went "missing", the bullying has died down a little bit. His stutter gets pretty bad sometimes but it's not completely unbearable. It just takes a little bit to get used to.

Us four make a pretty good group. We all get bullied for shit we can't control! We like to call ourselves the Losers. Bill made it up. He's kinda, like, the "leader" of the group. He keeps us together for the most part.

As I come out of thought, I realize that I probably looked crazy because I had zoned out. I was just staring at the board in front of me with all the instructions for the assignment written on it. I looked down at my paper. I had no idea what I was doing. As soon as I tried to actually focus, the bell rang.