do you know what i'm seeing?

one

if you had asked richie if he was nervous, he would've said no. the truth, however, was that his hands felt sweaty and his heart was racing. he wasn't really nervous, and he'd lie until the end about it, but something about a new school always made richie a little bit scared.

richie had always moved around, so a new school was nothing abnormal for him. he was always fine after the first couple of days, settling in nicely and making a friend or two for the short while that he was there. richie never minded moving much, he felt like he made friends easily so it was never really hard for him to be comfortable in a new place.

he'd moved three times his senior year, derry high school being the final one he'd attend. graduation was only a few weeks away, and as much as it sucked to move to a brand new place four weeks before graduation, richie felt like he'd be fine. either way, he was only here for a little while.

richie stared at the piece of paper in his hands, before looking up to check the room number of the door in front of him.

"two-sixteen. two-sixteen, yeah." richie whispered, raising his arm and tapping the metal door with his fist twice before letting his arm drop back to his side.

a woman walked towards him, a smile on her face as she pushed the door open.

"hi," she whispered, stepping aside so that richie could walk into the room. "follow me."

the woman walked towards her desk in the front of the room. it was silent, nothing but the sound of pencils touching paper.

"what's your name?"

"richard. i go by richie, if that's alright." the woman nodded and smiled, grabbing a pen and scribbling richie onto a post-it note.

"alright. so, we're taking a quiz right now. tomorrow should be a normal day, so i'll get you up to speed with everything then. i'm going to put you in that desk over there, you see the red head?"

richie looked up, finding said red head and nodding slightly.

"perfect. you take this textbook, just bring it with you when you come to class. we're reading a book right now, so i'll get you a copy and give it to you tomorrow."

"okay, thank you." richie took the textbook and walked to the back of the room where the seat he was assigned was.

to his left, a girl with bright ginger hair sat. richie noted that she seemed to be finished with her work, as was reading and annotating a copy of little women.

richie slid into his seat silently, but it still caused the girl in the desk next to him to look over at him. she stared blankly for a moment before her eyes found his, and her cheeks went red. she smiled and looked back to her book.

seconds later, a note was on richies desk.

desk neighbors!!! how exciting!! welcome :)

he smiled as he read it before looking back to the girl, who was once again focused on little women.

it wasn't long before the bell rang loudly and everyone began to shift, rushing to get their papers on the table and get out of the door.

"hey! wait up!" richie heard behind him as he walked out of the room. the red headed girl rushed towards him, pulling her backpack up onto her shoulder.

"oh, sorry! hi!" richie said as she caught up with him. she shook her head, and continued walking forwards, signaling for richie to follow.

"no worries! i'm bev! are you new? i haven't seen you around."

"yeah, i just moved here from boston. i'm richie. nice to meet you." bev slowed so that they were walking side and side.

"do you have lunch now?"