a bird watcher. [stanley uris]

chapter four. [the new loser and the pharmacy]

we all rush over to him and i see that he is bleeding. i get on my knees and lift up his shirt and see a carved 'h'.

i breathe in. "did you run into henry?"

he nods his head.

i nod back. "of course bowers did this."  i say. "well, i'm happy you got away from him before he could carve anymore."

he smiles. "believe me, i am too."

richie walks up. "what is your name, haystack?"

the boy glances at richie. "i am ben. ben hanscom."

i nod. "well, nice to meet you, ben. i'm ava, and the loud mouth there, is richie. that's stan, that's bill, and that's eddie." i say, pointing to them. "we need to get you fixed up."

we help him get up and we all get on our bikes. ben gets on the back of bill's bike.

eddie just rambles on about random stuff.

"i mean it's great that we're helping the new kid, but we also need to think about our own safety. i mean, he's bleeding everyone, and you guys know there's an aids epidemic happening right now, as we speak. my mom's friend in new york got it just by touching a dirty pole in the subway. she got aids blood into her system through a hangnail...a hangnail!"

i just roll my eyes, as we go into an alley. eddie is just overreacting.

"and they amputate arms, legs...bu-but how do you amputate a waist? how do you amputate a waist?!?!" he says, all so fast.

"eddie! please. calm. down!" i yell.

he nods. "okay." he says.

we get off our bikes and lay them down. but stan uses his kickstand.

bill sets ben down on a box and then looks at richie.

"richie, s-stay here...come on." he says, then runs toward the pharmacy with eddie. stan stays back.

"i will stay with richie." i say."

"why?" stan asks.

"to make sure he doesn't do anything dumb." i say, laughing.

richie's face went from 'aww, she's gonna stay with me?!" to a face that says 'are you serious?'. i just smile at him.

stan laughs and nods. "okay, we will be right back." he then goes into the pharmacy  after eddie and bill.

richie looks at ben. "i'm glad i got to meet you before you died."

ben looks at him and i just glare at him.

"are you serious, richie?!" i shout at him. 'what did i just put myself into?'  i ask myself, in my thoughts.

- stan's pov -