𝗖𝗥𝗨𝗘𝗟 𝗦𝗨𝗠𝗠𝗘𝗥

⁀➷ CHAPTER ONE

FEW HOURS 'TILL SUMMER

ELAINE YOUNG LOVED the library.

The comfort she felt being surrounded by the smell of old and new books, the silence that enveloped her and pushed any distractions out. Only her and whatever book that found its way into her hands.

But not all distractions were bad. Some homeroom's, she was holed up in the library, sat across from none other than Bill Denbrough. 

She didn't mind his company, even though she was being paid to sit through homeroom and help with his stutter. She was his own personal speech tutor, something Greta Keene loved to tease her about.

Of course, Elaine didn't mind. Tutoring Bill meant extra credit from Mr. Sandberg (the nice English teacher) and extra credit boosted her chances of getting into better colleges. So the brunette would gladly throw out her homeroom time for the boy.

And then the death of Georgie Denbrough happened and Bill's stutter was back to square one. All of Elaine's work was thrown out the window, something that saddened her.

Because one step forward means 3 steps back.

The girl remembered looking out her window at the house across from hers, flashing lights and the blaring of a police car pulling in. But what caught her eye was the boy standing on his front porch, his parents on either side as tears streamed from his eyes.

Just for a second, his had met hers and right then she could see all the pain rushing from them. She knew just by that glance that Georgie, the young boy who loved when she read to him, was gone.

And they weren't getting him back.

🍄🌿

SILENCE HAD BEFALLEN the duo as Bill stared out the window, completely blocking out whatever Elaine had been saying. He didn't mean to, but his thoughts were filled with nothing but the echoing word of "summer."

The girl sighed, resting her head on her hand as she jotted a few notes down. A short phrase written in neat writing and a small doodle of a sunflower in the corner of the page.

She peered over at the distracted boy, smiling softly when she noticed his serene look. The first time he had looked anything different from brooding for the past few weeks.

Elaine sighed again, folding the note and holding it out in front of her "why don't we leave it at that, go have lunch with your friends."

He perked up, slowly taking the note with an uncertain look. But when he noticed her small smile, he let a wide grin take over his face "Thanks, Lanny."

"Oh, and" her words made him pause from where he had begun to walk out of the library and turn to face her. She hesitated before a tight-lipped smile graced her features "have a great summer, Denbrough."

Bill nodded, giving one last grin before he pushed his way out of the room.

The brunette girl bit her lip, cursing underneath her breath "why do you have to be such a dumbass, Elaine?"

Elaine swung her backpack over her shoulder, pulling her hair that had got stuck under, out and sent a quiet goodbye to the friendly librarian. Her eyes skimmed over to the only other student in the room, a kid in the grade beneath her, she expected.

Noticing her gaze, he awkwardly smiled and she returned it, quickly making her way out of the library. But she didn't get very far before a voice cut through her thoughts.

"Lanny? That's adorable."

She rolled her eyes, pushing down her smile as she turned to face her friend "shut up, Blue."

Annabeth Blue raised her arms in surrender, laughing quietly "you invite him to your party?" Elaine shook her head and the blonde clapped her hand on her shoulder "if there was a way that I could channel my energy into you, I would. 'Cause your confidence sucks ass."

"I have plenty confidence," she looked across the hall to where Bill was talking annimatidly with his friends "he's just a confidence wrecker. If you're blaming anyone, blame him."

She laughed loudly, causing heads to turn in their direction. Elaine punched her in the shoulder, her nose scrunched in annoyance. But with her short stature, she looked more like an angry puppy than scary.

"Bill...a confidence wrecker?" she questioned, raising an eyebrow when Elaine nodded curtly "that's it. Boys are disgusting, why would you want to look in the direction of one? But girls...that's a different story."

Anna nudged her in the side, and looked over to where Beverly was seen to be walking past "I'll be back, gotta go talk to someone that isn't a confidence wrecker."

"Ha-ha, so funny." the shorter girl rolled her eyes, watching as her best friend walked off to the redhead. Elaine stopped at her locker, opening it sluggishly "and then there was one."

"Do I not exist?" 

Elaine jumped slightly, turning to face a smirking Johnny Bowers leaning against the neighboring locker. The girl turned back to her locker and started applying another layer of lipgloss in the attached mirror.

She quickly fixed her white headband before meeting his eyes in the mirror "surprised to see your friend not attached to you, where is he?"

"Oh, you know. Around." he shrugged, leaning against the locker beside her "but I was thinking, me and Stevie are going to the kissing bridge later to smoke, you wanna go?"

Her eyes skimmed past his shoulder to where Bill stood at his locker, looking at the two curiously. But he immediately looked back into his locker, pulling out his last books for the day.

He knew that the two were somewhat friends, or well, Elaine didn't have a bone in her body to hate someone and Johnny took advantage of that. Of course, no one really knew how anyone could actually be friends with Johnny Bowers without being a psycho or having a death wish.

So most assumed they were hooking up, but Johnny quickly shut those rumors down. He saw her as sort of a less fucked up younger sister, someone that had consoled him after a really bad fight with his father and patched up a big shiner on the side of his face.

She pursed her lips, grabbing her English text book as she turned to the boy "once you learn basic grammar, I'll think about it."

John let out a breathy laugh, pushing a hand back through his hair "you're such a nerd, Ellie. But fine, I'll try and pay attention in English today...for you, my little annoying parrot!"

He yelled it down the hallway just as he rounded the corner, snickering when he heard her slam her locker closed.

authors note!

Y'all, I'm really bad at turning my thoughts into words, so if my writings bad, blame it on my brain and fucked up eyesight, not me.