𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲 𝐭𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫

Prologue.

NIKLAUS BAUREGARD was not so fond of having to move to not even to another town, but having to leave the country, over the seas to the United States. He wasn't so happy when he found out either but he was happy for his dad.

"I'm Niklaus." He said as he stood in front of the class, everyone immediately started whispering and it was probably because of his accent. "I moved here from Bristol, England. I moved here with my dad and little sister, Nic. I like video games. And.. um.." He looks to the teacher. "May I sit down already?" He asked and the teacher chuckled at him.

"Yeah, you may sit down, Niklaus. There's a seat in the back in front of Richard." She says and he nods before walking past all the other kids who were staring, he tried to ignore it as he did, before finally sitting in the empty seat. He stared at the board as the teacher started the lesson.

"Psst.. Psst. Hey!" He hears someone whisper before he felt something hit the back of his head. He sighs before turning around, "what?" He whispers and the bespectacled boy grinned. "Hi. I'm Richard Tozier. My friends call me Richie." He whispered and Niklaus nods. "Great for yo—" "How do you do that?" Richie asked in a hushed whisper.

"Do what?" Niklaus whispered back. "That accent?" Richie says and he rolled his eyes. "I don't have an accent!" Niklaus whisper yelled. "Yes, you do." Richie says with a smile on his face. "Richard. No offence but.. I don't see a purpose in this conversation." He says before turning away.

That wasn't the end of it however. Everytime he got a chance to be alone, to be able to be by himself, to sit and read in silence, Richie would approach him with either a joke or a dumb question. He really gets disappointed by both at this point. Nearing the end of the year, somewhere in October, Niklaus' little sister went missing. Richie was there to distract him from it for a bit. "Okay, so I was thinking, you should teach me how to do the accent." Richie said as he sat into the seat next to Niklaus.

"Huh? Oh, what? No. Not this again, Richard." Niklaus groans and Richie sighs. "Come on, I do impressions!" Richie tried to impress him but Niklaus just sighed again. Richie did many impressions that day, Niklaus found it funny but the end of the day, Niklaus was sad, he had to go home to his dad who was stressing a lot, both over work and over the fact that Nicole was missing.

And things haven't changed however as the months passed, they had a sad Christmas, without Nicole who the police said was probably dead by now. They had a terrible New Years Eve and it felt like the more the days passed the more Niklaus drifted from his dad. He thought he had no one but recently he has been hanging out with Richie and his friends a lot. He didn't only think Richie was fun to be around, but so were Stanley, Eddie and Bill.

Not only that but Bill's little brother also went missing in October, a week after Nicole did. Niklaus and Bill spoke a lot because of that, they got closer through that and if he had to admit it, Richie was sort of jealous. The two spoke more than he and Niklaus ever had, hung out more than they have. This led to him believing Niklaus liked Bill more than he liked Richie. Totally not true.

"Hey, you wanna go to the arcade together? Stan tells me you like that place. I don't see why not. There are video games there." Niklaus chuckled as he walked side by side with Richie into the school. He looks to the bespectacled boy who adjusted his backpack straps, the boy sighed.

"I'm busy." He said before walking more further ahead and faster as Niklaus started to slow down. He sighed then headed down the other way to the library where he ended up sitting in the stacks of for his first two classes of the day, in other words, skipping. He's never done it before but at least he had something to do while he was in there.

He read a book or two. Then Bill came walking down the library stack. "H-Hey Klaus." The boy says before sitting beside Niklaus. "Hey." Niklaus replied as he shuts the book he was holding. "I didn't see you in Science, f-f-figured I come l-look for y-you. That other n-n-new kid said h-he saw y-y-you come i-in here." Bill says and Niklaus sighs.

"There goes my hiding place." He mumbled and Bill chuckled softly at that. "Have you always stuttered, Bill?" Niklaus says as he looks at Bill beside him. "Oh, um.. I g-g-guess." He says and Niklaus nods as he looks away. "Um.. Did you see Richard anywhere? I think he's upset with me." He said as he looked at Bill again. "Oh, uh.. I s-s-saw him in Math c-class. He was a-a-asking about y-you.." Bill says and Niklaus nods, picking up his backpack.

"Come on, we have English soon, Bill." He says and as they leave the stacks, Niklaus tells Bill about phrases he can use for his stuttering. As the two exit the library, they bump into another student who Niklaus looked over at right away. "Oh, my bad. I'm sorry. We didn't see where we were going." He said instantly. "Oh, hey Richard, I was about to come look for you." He says when he realized as the three just stopped and stood there.

"Oh, what a surprise, Billiam and Nicholas." Richie said with crossed arms. "Billiam?" Bill said with his face scrunched up. "Nicholas? You know it's pronounced Niklaus!" Niklaus said as he crossed his arms over his chest with an annoyed look and Richie sighs. "Whatever. What did you want?" He asked and Niklaus was worried at this.

Richie never talked so rudely to him before. "I just wanted to ask if you still don't want to go to the arcade, like if you think you won't be busy anymore.." He says and Richie just stared at him with most annoyed look on his face.

"Why don't you go with Bill instead?" He said with the most serious and annoyed voice ever. "I'm gonna go.." Bill says when he noticed the tension between the two as Niklaus' eyebrows furrow together, confused. "Okay.." Niklaus said before Bill walked away and Richie sighs. "I'm gonna go too." He says, turning away but Niklaus grabs his arm, "hey, wait, no, no. What was that suppose to mean, like before, Richard?" He asked and Richie sighed as he turns back around to face Niklaus again.

"Just that you don't like me. I can tell you don't." He says as he pulled his arm away. "And it's fine, really, but you should've been honest with me. I introduced you to my friends and now you like them better." He says as he looks down, sighing.

"Anyway, it's whatever.. Just go to the arcade with Bill or something." He said as he looked up. "No. I don't wanna go with Bill, I wanna go with you, Richard." He says and Richie rolls his eyes. "I know you don't like me, okay? You always call me Richard, you always talk to my friends more than me. It's okay if you don't like me, not many people do." Richie says and Niklaus sighs. "I do like you. You're a great friend. I was just trying to get along with your friends.." He says and Richie looks down.

"I'm sorry." Richie days, looking at Niklaus in the eyes. "It's okay, Rich." Niklaus said with a small smile and Richie smiled instantly. "So.. is that offer to go to the arcade later still up?" He asked and Niklaus nods. "Of course, Rich." He says.

authors note kinda love them already