Opposite But Identical

Chapter 6: The One Where Richie Gets His Cast Off

After almost a month, Richie was finally going to get his cast off, and he was absolutely ecstatic. He was also extremely lucky, considering that the Wheelers were going to Disney World the next week. Mrs. Wheeler's wrist was still in a cast, but her head injury was much better. She held the video recorder up. "July 30th, 1985! Richard is getting his cast off today! Give the camera a smile, Richie!"

Richie smiled and shot her some finger guns. He loved being on camera. So much, in fact, that he was convinced that he was going to be a cast member on Saturday Night Live someday. At the hospital, Richie did some more impressions for Dr. Andy as he got his cast off.

As Mrs. Wheeler and Richie walked out of the hospital, Richie joked, "I'm free! I can run," he ran in circles around his mom, "I can do jumping jacks ... this is amazing!" He yelled as he did jumping jacks in the middle of the hospital parking lot. When they got home, the Losers were waiting for him.

"Look, guys!" Richie said, then proceeded to do a terrible cartwheel that ended with him landing on his ass. "Ta-da!"

The Losers stared at him blankly, then Ben started clapping. Richie stood up and bowed. "Thank you, Benjamin, thank you."

They all got on their bikes to go to the quarry before Karen said, "Wait! Bring Mike with you! It could be fun, some sibling bonding time for you two. You don't get along as well as you used to."

"Mom, we've never gotten along," Richie retorted, putting up his kickstand, "And besides, he's a buzzkill! Please don't make him go with us." Either way, Mike still ended up going despite both of the twin's wishes. Once they got to the quarry, Mike sat on a big rock bored while Richie and his friends swam. Eddie swam up to Richie.

"Why don't you invite him in? He looks miserable." Eddie was right. Mike was laying on the rock, looking like he'd rather be in Kansas during tornado season than there with his brother and his friends at the quarry.

"No way. He doesn't invite me to do things with his friends," Richie said, slicking his curly wet hair back out of his eyes, "I don't get why I should ask him to come down. He's going to act like a ginormous asshole either way."

"Just try it. I feel kinda bad for him."

"Ughhhhh ... fine," he squeezed Eddie's hand under the water, "Anything for you, Eddie Spaghetti."

"Don't call me that."

Richie ran up to his twin and said, "Hey, you wanna come swim with us?"

Mike scoffed. "No. I don't even want to be here, let alone swim with you."

Richie wasn't exactly surprised by Mike's response, but his feelings were still a little hurt. He looked in the distance and pretended to see something. "Hey, what's that?" He said, knitting his eyebrows together underneath his huge glasses.

Mike got up. "Huh?" he said as he stood next to the cliff. "I don't see any-" Richie took his opportunity and shoved him into the water. Throwing off his glasses, Richie jumped in after his brother.

"You asshole!" Mike yelled, jumping on him while Richie laughed. They rolled around in the water, fighting. Unsurprisingly, things got out of hand pretty quickly and they started punching each other. Bill and Mike Hanlon ran over to break them up. When they got them off of each other, Richie had a black eye and Mike had a bloody nose.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" Richie screamed.

"With me? You're the one who pushed me in!"

"Only because you were being a douchebag!"

"Whatever," Mike said, wiping his nose as he got out of the water, "I'm leaving."

The Losers all turned to look at Richie. "Why would you push him in?" Bev asked.