mike stood anxiously beside his parents and sisters to see his brother. he saw a train pull into the station and strained his neck to look for him. and that's when he saw him. mike ran over to Richie. 

oh, god. he was so skinny. his parents must have starved him. there was a big bruise on his right eye and one that was visible on his leg. he had a splint on his left middle finger and his eyes were just really... sad looking. 

he looked absolutely petrified. mike knew the feeling. as soon as richie saw mike his sad frown turned into a sh*t eating grin and his sad eyes changed completely.

richie ran straight over to mike and gave him a big hug as soon as he was close enough. it practically knocked the two of them over, but they didn't care. he felt richie crying against him and realised that he was crying too. when they separated, mike dragged richie o ver to see nancy, holly, and his parents. 

"so this is nancy, baby holly, and my stepdad.. you obviously already know mom so.." richie felt like he was whole again. he was going to have a real, actual, family. 

"wow.. my two boys.. together!" karen was crying. she pulled the two of them into a hug.

"well, we'd better get going." ted said. 

richie awkwardly got into their vehicle and sat by mike. 

"so... you got a hot girlfriend? or boyfriend, how do i know what you're into?" asked Richie.

mike went pink. 

"i mean.. i kinda have a girlfriend..." richie laughed. 

"do you have any cool places to go here?" 

"i dunno.. we have a movie theater an d an arcade, but that's about it."

"so what do you do for fun?" 

"well.. me and my friends play dungeons and dragons, and av club is fun.."

"nerd alert!" 

"hey! they're fun!"

"alrighty, whatever you say Mikey!" mike rolled his eyes. as they drove, richie saw a small kid holding a red balloon. when richie saw it he shuddered and that sh*t eating  grin washed away from his face. weird, mike thought.

when they finally pulled into mike's house, they all hopped out of the car. nancy took richie's bags, and mike gave him a tour of their house. their bedroom had a bunk bed in it, and when Richie saw it, he screamed, "I CALL TOP BUNK!!"

"so, when do i get to meet your friends.. most importantly, your giiirlfriend?"

"shut up... and... i don't know.. maybe i could see if they could come over tonight! i mean- if thats okay with you..." 

"nope! the more new faces to annoy, the happier i am!" mike rolled his eyes... again. he felt like he might be doing that alot from now on. 

richie reached into his pocket and took out a little plastic abject that looked like an inhaler. 

"why do you have that?" asked Mike.

"oh... i...." he was staring sadly at the object, "i used to carry it around for my friend.. just in case. he has real bad asthema." he climbed up the ladder to their bunk bed and put it on his bunk. 

"ugh.. i really miss them."

"maybe they can visit someday?" 

richie's face lit up. 

"really?" mike nodded. 

"what're their names?" 

"oof.. we've got.. billiam, stan-the-man, haystack, mikey, eddie spaghetti- he's the one with asthema- and of course, beaverly." richie had taken out a picture of seven kids and pointed out each one. 

"yep- that's the losers for ya!" richie saw mike's confused face, and said, " we call ourselves the losers club."

"why?" 

"oh, ya know.. the outcasts."

"hmmm.... okay."

"i wear the name proudly!" shouted Richie. 

"okay, but why are you the outcasts?" 

"welp... stan the man uris over there's a Jew, i'm your good old trashmouth, billy boy has a stutter, mikey's from the only black family round' derry, eds is a germaphobic, four foot tall cutie, benny's a lil' chubby, um... and there are rumors about Bevvy... that she's a slut and all... but its totally not true. she's only kissed billy twice, and she's never had a boyfriend, or girlfriend, if you please. dunno... guess Bowers- he's the neighborhood phsyco and jerk... well... i'd say patrick is a bit more phycotic but..... okey dokey.. gettin' a lil' bit off topic..... what was i saying... oh yeah! i guess he just picked us out as his main targets so....."

"okay, well, i'm gonna go see about my friends, okay? and you're sure you don't care?"

"nah, I don't whatevah makes yah happy mikey!" 

mike ran downstars and asked his mom, who was too happy to care what they did and happily agreed, to have his friends over. at her reply, he called every one of his friends, who, thank god, all were able to come, and then ran back upstairs to tell his twin that they would all be over in an hour. 

"alrighty, so we get to have fun with yo friends soon!" richie grinned and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. 

"oh my god, stop!" mike said. 

"you did it wrong, you're supposed to say 'beep beep'!" said richie. 

"what?"

"thats what my friends do.. its the only way to shut good ole' trashmouth up! that or sucking my-"

"beep beep!" 

"your getting the hang of it, kiddo!" 

"don't call me that." 

"you did it wrong."

"beep beep."

"tell me your friends' names."

"guess it doesn't work very well, does it."

"sometimes, now tell me their names."

"why?! you'll meet them later?!" 

"because then i can use my phsycic powers to guess who's who."

mike froze at the mention of phsycic powers. 

"fine," he huffed, "dustin, lucas, eleven,-"

"eleven?"

"yes eleven-"

"is that a nickname?"

"no, just let me finish. "

"fie then-"

"beep, beep!" 

"okay so, dustin, lucas, max, eleven, and will."

"so your friends name is eleven?" 

"yes." 

"but that's a number."

"beep, beep, richard!"

and it finally worked. 

when mike's friends finally arrived, richie walked around them, inspecting them closely and strooking a fake beard as they stared in amazement at the twins' similarity. 

"this one is max." Richie pointed at max. 

"and that's thirteen-" richie pointed at 11

"eleven." said mike. 

"sorry, seven."

"beep, Beep!" 

"eleven." he pointed at eleven again, emphasizing his words. 

"will." he pointed at will. 

mike gawked at him. how did he know?

"lucas" he pointed at dustin.

"and dustin." he pointed at lucas. 

"well, i guess your 'phsycic powers'" mike made finger quotes, " were a little off today, because you mixed up dustin and lucas, but otherwise, you got a perfect. i'm just surprised you remembered all of the names... except eleven, but i know it was an act.."

"phhhhh, i was close enough!" 

eleven tugged on Mike's shirt. 

"mike... why is there.. two?" 

"oh! i guess you've never seen twins before! he's my brother, just we were born on the same day, and lots of twins look aike."

"richie..." she said. 

"how did she know my name?" 

mike shrugged and said, "well, they knew you were coming and i said over the phone so..." but mike was pretty sure that eleven was using her powers to know...

so the seven kids wandered down into the basement. 

AN HOUR LATER:

"why are you hurt?" said Eleven, pointing to the bruise on richie's face. 

richie's face automatically lost its cheesy smile. 

"oh um... "

richie rubbed the back of his neck. the others saw the sadness in his eyes. 

"i- got into a fight." he said. only El didn't know what had happened. she didn't really understand the concept. 

'you alright?' mike mouthed to richie. he shrugged. 

"be right back." said El. she got up and ran upstairs, with Richie looking up at her wearing a confused expression.