ONE: LOLITA AND THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL

"Hey, Lolita! Hey!" Eddie Kaspbrak called as he ran down the hallway towards the girl. When he finally reached her, he crashed into her back and nearly fell to the floor, and would have, if she hadn't caught him. He righted himself, taking a puff of his inhaler.

She offered him a small smile. "Hey, Eddie Spaghetti." She greeted. "And you know it's Lola. Not Lolita." She started to walk in the direction of the doors, where dozens of students poured out, on their way into summer vacation. Eddie followed her while zipping and unzipping his fanny pack. She recognized this behavior—after knowing him since childhood, she could tell that it was a nervous tick, similar to how her left eye tended to twitch when she was scared.

The boy's eyes flitted to the papers taped to the door window, then immediately went back to the bright, smiling girl. "Me and Bill and Richie and Stan are going to the Barrens tomorrow. You in?" He asked.

"The Barrens? As in where the sewers let out?" Lola replied with raised eyebrows. "Why are you going there?"

They stepped out into the bright sunlight, and Lola stopped for a moment to soak in the warmth and the feeling of freedom that came with summer vacation. Eddie couldn't help but watch her for a minute; she was energy in its purest, most radiant form, often said to be the prettiest girl in their grade.

When Lola had had enough, and they began walking again, Eddie sighed. "It's Bill's idea. He thinks he's going to find Georgie's–Georgie's body washed up there." He sounded scared, and he was. He was terrified, not only of all the possible sources of disease down at the Barrens, but of finding long-dead Georgie Denbrough's body.

She went to respond, but before she could get a word out, she spotted a huddle in the parking lot out of the corner of her eye. In it were three short boys, with one taller boy hovering over them. She recognized the taller one's mullet.

"Shit," she muttered, and grabbed Eddie's hand. She dragged him behind her as she stormed over to the commotion.

"Lola, don't get in the mid—" Eddie wheezed and took a puff of his inhaler. She rolled her eyes at the nervous asthmatic and continued to approach her friends.

Henry Bowers was lifting his fist when Lola shoved in between him and Richie Tozier, her four-eyed best friend.

She narrowed her brown eyes. "Don't fucking do it, Bowers. Think about Charlie. Do you think he'd like you beating up his little sister's friends?" She growled. One hand was on Richie's arm, keeping him behind her, while the other was clenched a handful of Henry's shirt; despite her being a foot shorter than the older boy, and three years his junior, her words made him go pale.

"It wasn't my fault," he whispered, then glanced from her to Bill Denbrough. "Look, I gave you two this year because of your brothers. But this summer's gonna be a whole world of hurt. For the both of you." Henry ripped her hand from his shirt, pushed her backwards so hard that she stumbled into Richie—who fell to the ground with her landing on top of him—and stalked away with his friends.

Lola breathed a sigh of relief, still on top of Richie, before rolling off of him. She lay on the gravel, hands over her eyes, and muttered something about castration and murder. Richie poked her bare kneecap.

"Y'know, Green, you should wear dresses more often."

"Shut up, Tozier."

"Alrighty then."

The dark-haired girl accepted the hand that Stanley Uris extended to her, and allowed him to help her up. She brushed dust and dirt from her clothes, then grinned widely at the four boys in front of her.

"So, we going to the Barrens?" She asked.

Two of them nodded in unison, while it took Eddie and Stan several seconds to follow suit.

Each of the children in front of her had the same question in their heads: Why did Henry Bowers of all people back off when Lola's brother's name was mentioned?

🎈

Lola Green was often asked why she hug out with a gang of losers such as Stan, Richie, Bill, and Eddie. She often replied that they were her losers, and that she liked them anyway. Not as often, however, depending on who asked and how they asked, she would reply with a punch in the teeth.

So that was why Lola found herself ankle deep, soaking her new sneakers, in what Eddie described as 'gray water.'

"What even is gray water?" She asked him, briefly leaning into Richie when she almost lost her balance.

Eddie sighed, frustrated, and angrily said, "It's-It's basically piss and shit! I'm just trying to tell you that you're splashing around in millions of gallons of Derry pee." The others laughed at his exclamation and took a step farther into the large sewer pipe. Their feet splashed in the murky water, and she didn't even want to think about what she was standing in.

Richie, glancing at Lola, lifted the stick he had been poking around with to his nose, sniffed it, and grinned. "Doesn't smell like caca to me, Señor!" He joked in one of his silly accents.

Stan, Bill, and even Eddie, who wouldn't step foot in the pipe, shared a look; they all knew Richie did most of his joking around to make Lola laugh, especially after her brother died. And by the large smile that spread across Lola's face, Richie knew he had succeeded.

"Okay, I can smell that from here, Richie." Lola said with a grimace.

She lost track of the conversation when her eyes caught on a small, white thing floating in the water. She took a few steps toward it, feet sloshing, and picked it up, not worrying about what might get on her hands.

It was a shoe. A sneaker, to be more specific.

"Guys," she said quietly. All four heads snapped to her. "Look at this."

The boys looked at her nervously before looking at the shoe. Stan, barely daring to take a step closer, muttered, "Shit, don't tell me that's..." Lola could tell that he was thinking of Georgie Denbrough, just by the way his eyes flickered to Bill every few seconds.

Bill was the first to take the shoe from her hands, and he inspected it. "N-No." His attempt to stop the stutter that had earned him the nickname of Stuttering Bill was obvious. "Juh-Georgie wore guh-guh-galoshes."

She looked up at him. "Whose is it?" She asked; the boys, minus Stan and Eddie, crowded around Lola and Bill to look at the shoe.

Looking at the words written inside of it, Richie replied, "Betty Ripsom's."

There was a sharp intake of breath from the group. Betty had gone missing weeks ago, and it was rumored that she was dead, not just "disappeared."

"Shit!" Eddie shrieked. "Oh god, oh fuck." He dry-heaved, like he was going to throw up everywhere. He began to hyperventilate.

Lola sloshed over to him and grabbed his frail arm. "Eddie, calm down! Relax!" She said, trying to stop him from going into full panic-attack mode, which was known to be destructive.

Looking at the girl like she was insane, he replied, "No, I will not calm down! You're holding a missing girl's shoe, Bill!" He started to wheeze, and he pulled his inhaler out of his fanny pack. There was a hissing sound as he inhaled the medication, and his breathing returned to normal.

"Billy, come on," Lola said. "Eddie's right. We should go ho—"

She was cut off by a loud splashing sound coming from outside. She whipped around, dark hair fanning around her face, to find what the source of the sound was. She made her way over to where Eddie and Stan stood, just inside the tunnel, and peered over their shoulders.

The new kid—what was his name? thought Lola—had fallen into the mucky water, clutching his chubby side as blood seeped through his fingers.

Lola, Richie, and Eddie all shared an incredulous look. "What the fuck, man? What happened to you?" Richie asked.

The boy only said one word in response:

"Help."

🎈

Lola didn't know how she ended up waiting outside Keene's Pharmacy with Richie and the new kid—whose name was Ben—while the others went inside to buy medical supplies. It was just a matter of chance, or more accurately, a matter of who was better at rock-paper-scissors.

The girl sighed, plopping down next to Ben on one of the crates stacked along the side of the building. Richie instantly sat down on top of her, which caused her to screech and shriek, "Ugh, get off me, Trashmouth!" She shoved him off, and he turned back to her with a grin.

"C'mon, Green, I thought you'd like having me on top of you!" He exclaimed, laughing.

"In your dreams."

"You're always in my dreams, hot stuff."

"You're disgusting."

"You know you love it."

Ben had watched the whole exchange with furrowed brows and a confused expression. "Are you two, like, going steady, or something?" He asked.

Lola and Richie both pretended to gag and wretch, making puking noises. When they were done mock-hurling, they looked at each other and, simultaneously, burst into cackles. They continued to laugh until they were out of breath and wheezing, leaning against each other for support.

Nearly a whole minute later, the two calmed down, and Lola tried to regain her breath. "We're best friends. And if we weren't—blegh. Never in a million years." She punctuated her sentence with a loud, unladylike snort.

Richie frowned playfully at her, although there was a sliver of truth in his expression. "I'm not that bad, am I, Lolita?" He joked, slinging an arm around her shoulders. She didn't move away from him, but she did elbow him in the ribs.

"You're absolutely vile, darling." She replied, badly mimicking his already-awful British accent. Then, with a pinch to Richie's knee, she said, "And don't call me Lolita."

The pair fell into giggles again, when Bill, Eddie, and Stan came around the corner, each carrying an armful of medical supplies. The shortest boy dumped his items into Lola's arms before kneeling in front of Ben; he began to go to work.

With a shit-eating grin, Richie called, "You've got to suck the wound! Suck the wound!"

"Hey, why don't you shut the fuck up, Einstein?" Eddie snapped, sending a glare over his shoulder at the other boy. He continued to bandage Ben's wound, a deep gash that appeared to be the letter H.

Looking closer at it, Lola asked, "How the hell did you even get that sucker?" She lightly pressed her finger on the skin around the cut, and Ben jumped.

His eyes flitted to and from each member of the group. "I-uh, fell?"

It seemed more like a question than an answer, and he sounded so unsure that it was obvious that he was lying, and badly, too.

Richie snorted. "Sure, fell onto Henry Bowers, more like."

A few minutes later, with a relatively tense silence spanning the time, Eddie announced that he was done, and Ben hurriedly pulled his shirt down to cover his stomach. Everyone except Richie, Ben, and Lola hopped on their bikes.

"Hey, we're going to the Quarry to swim tomorrow. Do you want to come?" Lola paused, waiting for an answer. When Ben nodded fervently, she smiled sweetly, and the expression lit up her whole face. "Great! See you at two!"

She sent him a wave before hopping on the back of Richie's bike and holding on tightly to him as he peddled away.

hello friends!!! ion like this ending but it's whatever. hopefully this chapter gave you a good look into lolas character & her relationship with the losers. obviously this is a richie fanfic but the relationships between lola and her friends are VERY important and filled with love and all that sappy shit

anyway, that's all!!

love, haley