self-acceptance // reddie

zero

"Oh, Richie," a girl loudly popped her bubblegum while twirling her platinum blonde hair with her finger. "You are so funny!" She giggled obnoxiously, practically undressing Richie in her mind. Richie Tozier was the biggest comedian of the senior class at Derry High School, and that got him any girl he wanted.

"Only for you, baby," he joked, giving the crowd of girls around him a wink that they could nearly melt over. "There ain't no one I'd rather be tellin' jokes to than you fine ladies, ya hear?" He attempted his best hillbilly accent, nailing it spot on. The girls erupted in laughter, drooling over the boy that stood in front of them. Nearly every girl— and the occasional boy— was head over heels for Richie Tozier.

The bell for first period rang, sending the group of teenagers in their separate ways. Richie headed to Spanish, his least favorite class of the day; there were no cute girls in that class, and he hated it. There was, however, one boy he was very fond of. He would consider that boy to be his best friend: Stanley Uris. Whenever Richie was around most boys, he would be overcome with nerves; he never understood it. Because of this, he chose to spend most of his time with girls, earning him the heartthrob persona that he wore so well. He slid into his squeaky desk, which was situated right next to Stan's seat. They performed their routine handshake that they made up in third grade.

"Hey, guess what, Tozier!" Stan grinned, pulling his bird notebook out of his backpack. Before Richie could guess, he continued with his story. "Yesterday, when I was bird watching, I saw a willow ptarmigan! I've been looking for that one forever!" Stan had a beautiful glow in his eyes when he talked about birds; Richie loved seeing him happy.

"Dude," Richie grinned; he was genuinely happy for Stan. "I have no idea what that is, but I'm happy for you! Look at you, Stan the Man! One of the days, you are going to discover a new bird species! And, hey! You could name it 'Trashmouth' after your number one guy!" Richie doubled over in laughter, appreciating his own joke more than Stan did. Richie always said that his obnoxious jokes were just practice for his future job: a stand-up comedian.

"Oh, Richie," Stan chuckled, flipping open his Spanish notebook. "What would I ever do without you?"

"Die, probably."

"¡Hola, clase! ¡Buenos días!" Señor Coleman greeted his students. Richie allowed himself to mentally check out and switch his thoughts to his personal life. As much as he hated it, his mind first swayed to the things he hated about himself: his glasses, his stupid jokes, and his whole personality in general. If he had the chance, there were many things Richie would change about himself. For the majority of his life, he had struggled with severe anxiety. For as long as he could remember, he had been insanely insecure, and he always thought that everything he did was wrong and a burden to everyone around him. Richie hated who he was, and he hated that he could not change it.

***

A/N:

okkkk so this is a story that ive had the idea for for a long time!! who knows if anyone will read it, but hopefullyyyy. most chapters will be longer than this; this chapter is mainly a prologue.