✯ blue jay: a stenbrough fan fiction.

austin powers and henry bowers.

the losers were approaching derry high school as a group, well without mike, of course. they had thought it would be best to have at least one loser by each of their sides until further notice, considering what happened with henry the day before.

"alright. now, are we men, or are we mice?" richie shouted as they all adjusted their bike locks.
"we're mice!" the rest of the group shouted back. people were staring, but they didn't care.
"then let's start acting like it!"

luckily, all of the losers had their locker near one of the others, so they didn't worry about that. bill and stan, ben and eddie and bev and richie. they also had every one of their classes with another loser. they didn't run into any trouble at all, that was, until the end of the day.

stanley and richie had just finished their physical education class, it was the last class of the day, but they always managed to get held back for not doing anything. they were walking back from the changing room, when the big boy himself stepped out from the shadows. he was alone.

"funny seeing you here, trashmouth and neat freak." he snarled.
"you happy to see us, hen?" richie was being especially courageous lately, and stan didn't know if he liked it.
"certainly happy, now we can finished what we started."
"oh i see, do i make you horny, baby? maybe i'm not the one who should be coming out the closet," richie said.
"oh, you're really gonna get it, tozier-"

"hey asshole!" henry turned around, to be met with pepper-spray in his eyes. it was beverly. henry screamed in pain.

"come on you guys!" she shouted at the two, they all began running towards the exit.
"yeah, baby!" richie said, obviously with a voice.

-

somehow, then managed to escape henry, which certainly surprised them. they didn't think they would get away so easily, and they feared they would get the worse of it soon. but they tried not to think about it.

they were all hanging around in the clubhouse, where they hung out when they weren't at the quarry.

"richie, you should stop provoking him," beverly said, suddenly.
"but bev, it's so funny."
"that doesn't matter richie! if you keep making fun of him, he'll keep coming after us and we'll have to keep running and running and running. i want to run towards something, not away," bev said. the losers knew how dangerous henry was. they knew it even before he carved half of his name into ben.

"yeah, you're right bev," nobody said anything after that. it wasn't common that richie admitted he was wrong. they didn't know if they were quiet because they wanted to enjoy this rare occurrence, or if it made them realise how serious being on henry's bad side was.

last year, henry had put two kids in the hospital. he had attacked them, because they were two boys who henry's gang caught kissing. henry got away with it because his father was a police officer, which outraged the losers. it turns out the kids' parents were just as homophobic as henry, because they didn't say a word. 'if pain was the wake up call they needed to realise they were directly defying god, then so be it.' that was what one of the parents said when stan had decided to tell them what went down.

after that incident, coming out was something stanley hadn't even considered once. he had always knew he liked boys, but derry was not a place of acceptance. he knew the losers wouldn't care, if they did, they probably would have said something to richie, they had all known he wasn't completely straight. the losers were always the most accepting people in derry, maybe even all of maine.

anyway, henry's threats were not something to take lightly.
"l-let's all agree then. i-if henry tries to s-sp-speak to us, w-we ignore him. right?" bill said, breaking the silence.

"right!"

-

"h-hey stan!" bill ran up to stan, as they were all collecting their bikes to leave.
"yeah?"
"w-wanna come o-ov-over to my h-house for d-d-dinner l-later?"
"sure. what time?"
"6pm?" bill smiled.
"alright. see you then, big bill."

as stanley biked home, he couldn't help but think of bill.

-

"mum! i'm home!"
"welcome home stanley!"
andrea was in the living room, reading 'the shining'. she was surprisingly into horror books.

"hey mum, i've got to head out in a bit, i'm going to bill's for dinner. is that okay?"
"of course it is, birdy!" stan was glad his mother was smart enough not to call him that around richie, "i'm glad you made up with your friends. and that bill, you were always so close to him weren't you? i hope you can get back to that stage. you were always so happy."
"thanks mum," stanley gave andrea a hug before going up the stairs, towards his room.

"and stan?"
"yes mum?"
"you know i love you no matter what, right?"
"of course mum."

andrea always could see subtext quite easily.

-

it was 6pm sharp and stanley was knocking at the denbrough's front door. the door was opened by bill's mother.
"hello, dear. come on in."
stanley entered the house and was immediately met with warmth. warmth from the inside, but also warmth from george denbrough, hugging the life out of him.

"stanny! i remember you! i missed you!" stan hugged back, he missed georgie too. he was glad that the boy was only missing for a short while, and not dead in the sewers somewhere, with his arm missing. he was having fun in the rain one day, and went a little too far from the house. they found him wandering around on the other side of derry, it was always a mystery how he got there so quick. even after they found georgie, bills parents were a mess. his mother gave up a chance at a music career to be a stay at home mum, and bill's dad went drinking most nights. the majority of the time he didn't come back for a few days. his wife stopped worrying after a while. she knew he was out, cheating on her. but, she didn't divorce him because of their two kids and he still worked, provided money for them and payed the rent.

"bill's dad won't be joining us tonight, he had to stay late for work," bill's mum said, without missing a beat. she was used to it, after all.

"h-h-hey stan the man!" bill came downstairs and smiled at the curly-haired boy, prompting him to blush. nobody could resist bill's smile.

the rest of the night was pretty uneventful. georgie was the most talkative, as usual. near the end of the meal, the phone rang and mrs denbrough went to pick it up.

"hello? oh yes! its for you, stanley!" stanley took the phone from the women and smiled at her, she then sat back down in her spot.

"hello? stan?"
"hey mum."
"stanny! listen, i was thinking maybe you could stay at bill's tonight? i thought of maybe having a wine night, myself."

stanley smiled, his mother never got enough time on her own, it was the least he could do, "sure mum, i'll ask right now, hold on."
he looked over at the denbroughs, they were already looking at him.
"can i stay over tonight?" georgie and bill perked up a bit at that.
"of course stanley. you can stay in bill's room. that alright billy?" bill nodded, a bit too enthusiastically.

"they said yes, mum."
"awesome. i'll see you tomorrow, after school. okay, birdy?"
"okay mum. i love you."
"love you too!"