~REDDIE ONESHOTS~

Schoolwork

"Mr. Kaspbrak, pay attention to the board please!!" Mrs. Gerald yelled, snapping Eddie out of his daze. 

"Uh, um, sorry Miss!" Eddie quickly responded, not wanting to get on his history teacher's bad side.

He'd been staring at Richie across the room. He had perfect, soft curls, deep brown eyes, and huge glasses to top off his somewhat dorky look. He'd been friends with him ever since they were kids, but he started to feel even closer to him lately.

Ugh, who am I kidding? Richie liking a boy? Eddie wondered. Richie always talked about girls and sex and whatnot - he surely wouldn't give up his high sense of dignity with talk of him being gay.

Eddie himself wasn't even sure if he was gay. All he knew was that Richie made him happy - protecting him from Henry Bowers' tormenting, biking home with him, paying him surprise visits, and making situations better with his humor.

"Alright class, we're going to be writing a one page response to our reading on imperialism. You have 20 minutes. Chop chop!" Mrs. Gerald ordered before spinning on her swivel chair to face her messy desk.

Eddie was a paragraph in to his response, but still felt distracted. If another student caught him glancing in Richie's direction, he played it off like he was reading a poster or the clock. 

Wait, did he look my way? Nevermind, it probably wasn't him.

After rushing to write his last thoughts on paper, Mrs. Gerald announced that there was a minute left. He started proofreading his work. 'Imperialist counties grew powerful and richie...' 

Wait, WHAT? 

Eddie came to the shocking realization that every time he wrote "rich," he actually wrote "richie." Panicking, he grabbed his eraser but remembered he'd written in pen.

Shit, shit, shit!! I can't let anyone see this!

Eddie attempted to scribble over his crush's name, but just as his pen hit the paper, it was snatched from under his hand by his teacher. "Time's up kids!" she announced, grabbing papers whether they were done or not.

"No!" Eddie yelled aloud before realizing it. 

"Is something wrong, Edward?" She asked, the class turning to see what the fuss was about.

"Um, no. Sorry again," he replied, not wanting to make it seem like he'd completely embarrassed himself. Besides, only the teacher would see this, right? 

Wrong. 

Eddie watched as the teacher passed out the papers randomly back to the students. Chances were that the student his paper was given to would surely notice and tease him about it the rest of the year.

Nice going, Eddie. You're already a loser and now they have another reason to pick on you, he thought.

He looked over at Richie, who looked back up at him with a slight blush before turning away. Then realization set in. 

FUCK! Richie Tozier must have gotten my paper! 

He felt like infinitely face-palming himself. Could this get any worse?

"After reading their paper, write some comments so they can improve their work for next time!" Mrs. Gerald announced.

Eddie got Ben's paper. Ben was shy being the new kid and all, but from what Eddie knew, he was pretty smart. He quickly wrote some comments before the teacher collected each paper.

"Richard, can you pass these back out to their writers, please?" She asked, adjusting her pointy glasses. 

"Sureee, Miss," Richie sighed and got up to grab the papers.

After what felt like an eternity, Richie reached Eddie's desk, their fingers accidentally brushing when he passed the paper to the boy. Richie looked at him with a light smile, both boys blushing before he moved on to the next desk.

Eddie frantically grabbed his paper to see what he had commented. Written in the corner in blue pen, it read "You'll always be my favorite loser. -R" with a small heart. Eddie grinned and turned towards Richie back at his desk, who grinned back.