𝙼𝙸𝚂𝚂𝙸𝙽𝙶 || 𝚁.𝚃.

0.6

"Isn't that the home-schooled kids bike?" Hazel questioned as she saw it lying there. The group quickly moved on from her episode to look at what she was talking about.

"Yeah... and Bowers' car." Stan pointed out, causing Eddie to take a pump of his inhaler.

"Well, we have to go help him!" Beverly said putting the kick-stand up on her bike.

"We should?" asked Richie. Bev and Hazel looked back at him dumbfounded.

"Yes!" They both said and ran into the woods, the rest of the group following behind them. They listened for Mike's yells and finally found themselves across the way from him. He was on the ground, Henry on top of him with a rock.

Quickly, Hazel picked up a rock and threw it at him, hitting him in the head.

"Hey, dipshit! Leave him alone!" Hazel yelled at Henry. Henry got up, gingerly touching his bloody head, allowing Mike to run to her and the other's side. As much as Hazel hated seeing anyone in pain, because of the trauma she endured of her baby sister's death, she wanted Henry and his goons to feel pain.

Soon a 'Rock War' commenced, like Richie would say. The whole group was flinging rocks and aiming right for their heads, but Patrick was missing. Although, none of them did notice.

"Go blow your dad you mullet wearing asshole!" we're the words that finished the war. Hazel laughed at Richie's words as he flipped Henry off. He smiled, a small smile, hearing her laugh because of him. He liked that.

As they walked, Eddie had told Mike that Henry had already been after all of them. Mike was informed by the group that they were the 'Losers' and now he was one too.

That made Hazel a little upset. Although they had just saved him, the group accepted him as a 'Loser'. But Hazel hadn't been accepted as a 'Loser' or even considered one. She knew they had grown closer and although they might not have thought of her as a friend, she considered them her's. And even though they were 'Losers' she loved them equally and felt honored to be asked to hang out with them.

Richie slung an arm around Hazel as they walked, which she quickly shrugged off. The crew walked and walked until they found a stack of missing kid pictures in town. A band was marching by which Richie took advantage of and Eddie went to get ice cream for Richie, himself, and Hazel.

"I-it's like they've f-forgot all ab-about her because another k-kid w-went mi-missing." Bill said, fanning over the pictures of missing kids. Hazel sighed and agreed with him.

"The whole town forgets. It's like they know what's going on but they don't want to admit it." She spoke with a calm voice even though on the inside she felt like she was trembling. Ben and Mike both looked at her confused, not knowing about her sister. But Bev and Bill looked at her with apologetic smiles, Bill giving her a side hug and rubbing her arm comfortingly.

"What're you guys talking about?" Eddie approached, carefully handing Hazel her plastic bowl and waiting for Richie to get his cone.

"What they always talk about." Richie said, grabbing his ice cream from the boy's hand and letting Eddie figure it out himself.

Then Ben went on to talk about the correspondence between all of the major events happening in this town over the past century or so.

"It seems to be happening.."

"Every 27 years," Hazel spoke dryly as she let Richie take a spoonful of her ice cream. The group looked around eerily at the new thought, Hazel knowing that that was the reason behind the constant thought of every 27 years.

———

"Well maybe it can get inside our heads and turn into our fears." Mike offered. Hazel agreed knowing that it could.

"Maybe that's why I keep seeing this lady." Stan looked down only for Hazel to touch his arm and give him a comforting smile.

"Is she hot?" Richie questioned from the other side of her. Hazel instantly turned around and punched his shoulder, letting him know he went too far, but quietly giggled.

"No Richie! She's not hot, o-okay? A-and she's not real." He paused, blinking a few times, "N-none if it's real. Not me seeing this lady, Mike seeing the hands, Beverly with the blood, Eddie's leper, and Bill seeing Georgie. It's not real."

The group all looked down before turning to Hazel and Richie; the only two who hadn't seen IT.

"What're you scared of Rich?" Eddie asked. Richie pushed back his glasses, turning to the side and looking at a clown doing tricks on stage for the 4th of July.

"Clowns."

The group felt bad, his fear was just IT itself or so they thought. They wondered when he was going to see it. Then they turned to Hazel.

"Wha-" Bill began, but she cut him off.

"I-I already saw it okay?" She sputtered out, looking at her lap.

"You have? Why didn't you tell us?" Beverly asked, sitting down next to her in the space between her and Stanley.

"Because I was afraid okay?" Her voice cracks as she thinks about her encounter with IT. How she couldn't move from her spot as she watched the truth about her sister's death reoccur before her.

"W-What did y-you s-see?" Bill asked, sitting down beside her in the space between her and Richie.

"I-I saw what really happened to my sister." She said letting out a loud sob. She put her head in her hands and began crying, only for Bill to pull her close to his chest. She cried into his t-shirt as he rubbed her back soothingly.

Richie and Beverly watched, Richie filling with jealousy and Bev feeling sad. The others didn't really mind it, if they cried, he would've comforted them the same.

"It's all my fault.." She muttered over and over, truly feeling it was. She sat up suddenly, looking at Bill with teary eyes and rosy cheeks. Her sad expression killing Richie."I-if I had gotten home sooner from school o-or if I had met with her like I-I was supposed to o-"

"Hazel, it's not your fault." Bill told her, stopping her rambling and grabbing a hold of her hands. "It wasn't your fault, it wasn't. It was IT's." He said, not stuttering once.

The others stay quiet as they had their moment. Hazel smiled, a sad one, a really really sad one. Like she could break at any moment.

"Alright, now we find this son of a bitch and we kill him!" Eddie announced, his sudden bravery shocking the others. One by one they agreed with him, causing him to laugh as he pulled them into an awkward group hug on the bench.

"Thank you guys, so much." Hazel smiled, now a real one that made Richie melt. Her tear-stained cheeks were their natural rosy color and her eyes beamed with joy.

"No problem, Loser." Eddie laughed. Her smile grew larger, finally being accepted as a Loser. She was happy, now she had friends; a family.

"Alright enough with the crying," Ben pulled apart from everyone, Mike laughed and Beverly tussled Hazel's hair making her laugh.