Darlin' // Richie Tozier

Chapter 1

Great. Just great. In a whole new place; in a whole new school and it's the last day. Yes, not only am I new, but I got the absolute pleasure of arriving at the last week of the school year. It isn't my fault, though, if it wasn't for my dad's lazy ass to stop paying bills and get in trouble with the police, I probably wouldn't be here. But guess what? Nothing can be changed now.

I sit in the classroom waiting for the bell to ring, anxiously looking up at the clock every second.

"-and make sure you stay safe. We don't want anything uh... bad to happen to anyone."

I was slightly confused about the early curfews at first, but I had overheard a few kids talking about the incident that happened not long before I got to the town of Derry.

"Yeah, and he was just...gone. No one saw him again," a blonde girl said. She hugged her body and rubbed her arm slightly.

"It's freaky, all these kids are going missing and the town is trying their best to keep us safe," said another girl.

I walked past them and overheard the blonde speak again.

"I mean, it IS true that we lose kids six times more than the national average."

That one sentence kept me very cautious and I couldn't get it out of my head.

Six times more than the national average...

It's all very strange to me, it's hardly believable that kids are disappearing so much.

The bell finally rang and I shot up out of my seat to leave, waving at my teacher as I walked out to my locker. Since I am new, and I came the last week of the year, I didn't have to get much of anything for school supplies, so I just took a notebook out to keep for writing.

I closed the door and hugged my notebook to my chest, squeezing through the crowded halls of the school.

Won't have to deal with it this summer, I thought.

I walked out the doors at the front of the school and went down the stairs only to bump into someone.

I looked up in fear as I saw an older boy scowling down at me. His hair was brown and it looked as if he hadn't taken a shower in weeks.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw two boys lying on the ground along with two others staring over in my direction.

The boy in front of me turned his body towards me and squinted his eyes, putting his hands on my shoulders. I couldn't move. It was like I was glued to my spot.

"Who. The. Fuck. Do you think you are?" he asked me with a glare.

I looked behind him and saw two boys looking at me with smirks on their faces as they watched my petrified face.

The boy right in front of me shook my shoulders to regain my attention and I looked into his dark eyes in fear.

"Who the fuck decides to bump into me?"

He looks at me as if he's studying my face and smiles devilishly.

"So the newbie decides to bump into me, eh?"