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2

I ride back home on my bike, everyone goes there separate ways one by one, leaving me and Eddie. "So today was different huh" he states "yup, two new losers" I sigh. "Why don't you like Beverly?" he asks "It's a long story and I'd have to show you" I quickly answer "Okay, then show me" he clearly doesn't get the point but i give in "okay, why not" I smile.

We get to my house and knock on the door. "Hi honey, how was your day" My mum answers the door. "Good" I snap back and she looks behind me at Eddie, I grab his arm and drag him upstairs before my mum says anything embarrassing. "What was that about?" Eddie asks me. "Nothing" I answer, "Yes it was tell me", "No it's embarrassing", "I don't care have you met my mum, "No i haven't as a matter of fact" , "true, but just tell me" he stares at me and we sit in silence "tell me" he says breaking the silence and i roll my eyes "she thinks we're dating" i mumble, "huh what did you say"  Eddie shouts a bit louder. "she thinks we're dating" I speak up, he starts to laugh and then I join in.

"Anyways, tell me about Bev" he begged. I crouch down and pull a photo book out from under my bed. It's got a brown cover and is rather dusty "cool" he whispers and i giggle. I open it up and there's a bunch of pictures of me and Beverly. He looks at me and waits for me to say something...

There's a knock at my door and I hear my mum get it. I hear my best friends voice and run downstairs and hug her tightly "Bev your back it's been so long". She had just come back from staying in England for a couple years. I stare at her and she looks annoyed but sad at the same time "are you okay?" I ask and she shakes her head.

"Look we can't be friends anymore" she admitted, I looked at her confused "wha-why?" .
"Because Zoe, I learnt in England that I can't just be a nobody, everyone has to know my name and I can't do that with you" she glares at me.
"erm- why can't you do that with me" I ask. "because your a loser" she scoffs. "what did you just call me?" I ask "a loser" she repeats. I form a fist and my nails dig into my hands "a good for nothing loser" she mocks me, I punch her in the jaw and she looks shocked. "oh- you are in for it" she scoffs at me and i prepare myself for what she's gonna do but instead she walks away and flips me off on the way out, we were only 8.

I tell Eddie everything that happened that day. "So you don't like her because of a fight when you were 8" he mocks at me and laughs. "no" i sternly say
"so why?" he asks. "because, Eddie every single person i've gotten close to as friends or even more or less she's taken them from me. when i met Billy ,when he joined our school, I was his best friend but then Beverly made him fall for her and he stopped talking to me for ages but then she turned into the slag she is now and he came running back to me. That's why I don't want her to come tomorrow, I'm scared she'll steal you guys from me and your the most important people in my life, especially you, your my best friend"

He stares at me with a blank expression "what a bitch" he says " yeah I know" i reply. "But what if she's changed I mean you 13 now and you were 8 then so it's been 5 years" I can tell he's concerned but he is quite dumb " But what if she hasn't" I can feel tears forming in my eyes "okay, i think it's time for you to go now your mums probably concerned" i sigh. He grabs his bags and exits my room "bye Zo" "By Ed" I smile at him.

I had to make him leave because I could feel my tears coming and my heart and breathing speeding up quickly. I didn't want my friends to know about my anxiety because i'm afraid they'll think i'm weak. My head starts pounding like a drum and i try and control my breathing. There was only one person who knew about me and it was Henry, I had to get him. I went to his room "Henry.." I can hardly breathe. He runs to me "Zoe are you okay" he asks concerned. Henry can really be a dick sometimes but at other times he's the sweetest person there is. I shake my head. He tells me to close my eyes and control my breathing and to focus on his voice "you'll be okay Zoe, it'll pass, I know it's hard but you can do it". "It's not working" I panic, "zoe?" a voice from behind me says, I turn round and it's Eddie this makes my breathing even worse and I feel like i'm going to die and my chest is getting tighter. He comes over to me and hugs me and it works it stopped, I don't know what it was but it worked. "better?" he asks and i smile at him "yeah... why are you in here" I turn to Henry and he stares at me " okay bye Eddie" I say and he leaves.

The next day...

Ben,Billy,Stan,Rich and Ed were trying to see who could spit the best off the cliff "you guys are gross" I say and they take no notice of me ."Oh my god, that was terrible. I win." "You won?" "Yeah. You see my loogie, it went the farthest."
"It's about distance. It's mass."
"What is mass?" lIt doesn't matter how far it goes. It's how cool it looks and it's green or it's white."  Eddie and Richie were arguing yet again. I walk towards them and stand between Stanley and Billy. " Alright who's first?" he asks and we all stare at the drop below use.  "I'll go" I turn around and see Beverly, of course she came why wouldn't she she runs past us and stares at me then looks ahead of her "sissies!" she then jumps off the cliff. good i hope she dies... wait no I don't that's mean.

"what the fuck!" someone shouts but i don't catch who but it was probably Richie, he follows with "oh shit we just got shown off by a girl" and I stare at him, "I mean you don't count" he looks at me I walk towards him "good you better remember that you've been shown off by a girl multiple times" I smile before pushing him off the cliff and jump after him, followed by everyone else "ZOE YOU'RE SUCH AN ASSHOLE" Richie shouts at me as I swim towards him so i splash him "call me that one more time i dare you" I jokingly threaten him. He then jumps on to me pushing me under water so I grab his legs and pull him down to. We rose back up to the surface and I flip him off and swim off towards Eddie.
We all mess around in the quarry for a couple of hours when we get out.

Beverly blasts music out of her radio and all the boys are staring at her, I roll my eyes and playfully smack Eddie round the head "ow" he winces and Beverly sits up and everyone pretends they weren't just staring at her. Richie starts to go through bens bag "what's with the history project" he asks "oh well, when I first moved here,I really didn't have anyone to hang out with
so I just started spending time in the library" he answers "you went to the library?" I ask "on purpose?" Richie adds as if he was reading my mind. Beverly stands up and sits down next to Billy "I wanna see" and then she looks at me and smiles so I smile back. "What's the Black Spot?" I ask "The Black Spot was a night club that was burned down years ago by that racist cult." Eddie answers me. "The what?" I ask again "Don't you watch Geraldo?" Eddie squints at me. "Y-y-y-y-your hair..." Billy stutters "your hair looks beautiful." Ben finishes off  "Oh, right, thanks." she smiles whilst tucking a piece of her hair behind her ear, she had cut it all off "Here, pass." Richie says grabbing the folder off Billy "Why's it all murders and missing kids?" he asks. "Derry's not like any town I've ever been in before. They did a study once...it turns out people die or disappear six times the national average." Ben states. "You read that?" I ask "and that's just grown-ups. Kids are like worse way, way worse"  we all stare at each other in silence.

I break the silence by getting up and placing my hand on eddie and stanley's shoulders "right i'm going for a piss" i say as i walk away.

I walked a bit of a distance away from the group and i found a spot to piss. After I decided to go on a walk and get some air for a bit. As i turn the corner I see the group. That was weird because I walked away from them, "hey guys" I shout but they don't hear me. I walk towards them and i'm eventually stood next to them "guys..." my voice gets quieter. " Who cares about Zoe we have Bev now" Richie says "yeah I guess you have a point" Eddie replies. I immediately feel my heart break and my eyes start to form tears, this was my worst nightmare come true.

Ben was the first to notice me "oh hello Zoe" he says staring at me dead in the eyes, something felt wrong and not just the fact that they're being fake "Zoe come here" Bill says "no..." I whisper "come on Zoe come here" Eddie repeats as the group come closer to me "no" i shout and stumble back. "come down and play" Richie says as his voice distorts and his face transforms into the face of Betty Ripsom and eventually everyone else transform into other missing children. I start to run away as fast as I can. I turn around and as soon as i thought i lost them a clown appears and stares at me. I look back ahead of me and see the group on the cliff. I quickly dash towards them without taking my eyes off the clown.

I get to the cliff where everyone is sat and I stop running and catch my breath "shit zoe are you okay?" eddie asks me and i just nod "are you sure because you look like you've seen a ghost" Richie adds. I smile "yeah i'm sure" i say quietly and face the woods to see the clown slowly disappear behind the trees.