THE LOSERS WERE MAKING THEIR WAY TO THE BARRENS. Bill had told them to meet him there after school, and they all reluctantly agreed, knowing better than to try and argue with him. Eddie had just finished a story about why he took so long, and Stan sighed, "I still don't understand how launching a soda bottle can take a door knob completely off the door."

"Eddie's mom is a door knob," Richie said excitedly, jumping at the chance to make a joke about his friend's mother. The Kaspbrak boy just rolled his eyes, knowing what was about to come. He had grown accustomed to these jokes over the years. Richie laughed out, "Everyone gets a turn."

"You're such an idiot," Eddie scoffed as they trudged down the hill and toward the opening of the sewer. They had spent too many afternoons there. Bill was obsessed because his little brother Georgie disappeared into the gutter months ago.

When they heard the sound of voices, they turned around, and Stan pointed out, "Hey, there's Bill."

"Holy shit, am I seeing what I think I'm seeing?" Richie asked as their friend came into view with someone familiar trailing behind him. They all knew who it was, but they had to check their eyes multiple times because that was the last person on Earth they had expected to see talking to Bill.

Eddie was in disbelief. They all were. He stated, "That's Hayley Forbes." He sounded like he was checking with his friends to make sure that he was seeing everything correctly.

"How the actual fuck did he manage that?" Richie questioned, his eyebrows raised comically high.

Stan suggested, "Maybe she hit her head." It seemed the only logical explanation because why would a girl like Hayley Forbes come down to the sewers with them? The entire concept was ridiculous.

But it was definitely her, and she smiled once she and Bill reached them, ignoring how they were all gaping at her. "Hey, guys. Mind if H-Hayley hangs out with us?" the Denbrough boy asked, although he knew the answer already.

Despite how badly they had talked about her over the years (about her being popular and having no personality and not knowing Bill existed), all three boys answered positively at the same time. Eddie said, "Yeah, I guess that'd be okay."

"I'm good with that," Stan confirmed, clearly trying to play it cool and not act like the prettiest girl in school was wondering if she could 'hang out' with them.

Richie just said, "Hell yes."

"Thanks," Hayley replied happily, smiling that dazzling smile at each of them in turn before turning her eyes to Bill once again. All of the boy stared at him, as if waiting for him to melt under her gaze.

They started toward the opening of the Barrens once again, and everyone had gotten over their initial shock and was starting to act normal again. Stan pointed at every plant he saw and said, "That's poison ivy. And that's poison ivy. And that's poison ivy."

"Where? Where's the poison ivy?" Eddie asked, whipping his head around and watching where he stepped.

Richie groaned in annoyance. "No where, not every fucking plant is poison ivy, Stanley."

"Okay, well, I'm starting to get itchy now, and I'm pretty sure this is not good for me," Eddie said worriedly. Hayley had heard about his mom. She might not be the most protective parent in the world, but she was a close second.

Bill stepped into the water of the sewer, and Hayley walked along the side with him, trying not to get her shoes too wet or dirty. The boy with glasses that magnified his eyes turned back and questioned, "Do you use the same bathroom as your mother?"

"Sometimes, yeah," Eddie answered, and he and Stan stayed outside while Richie entered a few yards behind the other two, making faces at the water.

"Then you probably have crabs." Hayley laughed.

"That is so not funny." She laughed again.

Hayley looked around, and she realized that she had no clue why they were there. It did not seem like the most fun place to hang out, if she was being honest, although she did appreciate the adventure. She quizzed, "Why are we in here?"

"Bill's looking for his probably-dead brother," Richie called back, causing Bill to wince and the others to shoot him a look.

The Forbes girl turned back to the boy closest to her, raising her eyebrows at him. "Georgie?"

"H-He disappeared into the sewers. No one's seen him since," Bill explained, his voice sounding more nervous than ever, probably because he was talking about something that wasn't particularly pleasant at all.

Hayley nodded, recalling going over to his house for the funeral. She thought the boy had died, but it was apparent that Bill believed something else. "I remember that."

"Yeah, you brought f-flowers," he reminded her. He could still picture her in that black dress, handing him the vase with the arrangement of flowers she had done herself. He looked up at her nervously."Sorry if this isn't what you imagined when I asked you to hang out."

"No, I like it. I love doing things that I never expected to be doing," she assured him. She enjoyed spontaneity, and this was definitely not something she had thought she would be doing after the last day of school.

Bill looked back at his friends. Richie was still the only one in the sewer, and he was about five feet from the entrance. "Aren't you guys coming in?"

"No, that's gray water," Eddie answered, shaking his head immediately.

Hayley frowned in confusion. It was definitely gray and gross, but she figured that if she could venture inside, so could they. Richie asked, "What the hell is gray water?"

"It's basically piss and shit. So I'm just telling you..." Eddie clarified, holding his hands up in defense. "You guys are splashing around in millions of gallons of Derry pee. I can smell it from here."

"It's probably just your breath wafting back into your face," Richie retorted.

"Have you ever heard of a staph infection?"

"I'll show you a 'staff' infection."

As Eddie jumped out the way of a splash of water sent toward him, he ranted, "That's so unsanitary. These... you guys are like swimming in a toilet bowl right now. Have you ever heard of listeria? Are you retarded? You're the reason we're in this situation."

"Guys!" Bill shouted because his and Hayley's attention was on something else entirely.

He was holding a sneaker that was drenched with the gray water. It smelled terrible, but it looked like it belonged to a kid. Stan muttered, "Don't tell me that's..."

"No. Georgie wore galoshes," the Denbrough boy assured them, and Hayley breathed out a sigh of relief. She had been panicking because that would have been a truly terrible thing to stumble across.

She turned her head and looked at the shoe, trying to examine it without touching it. She observed, "It looks like a girl's."

"It's Betty Ripsom's," Richie confirmed, walking over and checking the name on the inside of the shoe. Hayley immediately took a step back, uncomfortable with the idea of being near a shoe that belonged to a missing girl.

As Eddie began panicking, Richie turned back to him and commented, "How do you think Betty feels... Going around these tunnels with only one fucking shoe?"

"What if she's still here?" Stan offered. Bill walked forward, shining his flashlight further down to see if he could pick up any more clues that may help him find his brother and some of the other missing children.

"My mom will have an aneurysm if she finds out we were playing down here. I'm serious," Eddie told them, and Hayley would hate to be on the wrong side of that woman. From what she had seen of her around town, she was terrifying. "Bill?"

Bill pointed out, "I-If I were Betty Ripsom, I would want us to find me. G-Georgie too."

"What if I don't want to find them?" Eddie asked, causing them all to turn their attention on him because it was getting a little deep. "I mean, no offense, Bill, but I do not want to end up like... I don't want to go missing either."

"He has a point," Stan agreed.

Bill turned to him. "You too?" Hayley felt like she shouldn't say anything. She had no right to weigh into their friendship debates when she had only been there for ten minutes.

"It's summer... We're supposed to be having fun. This isn't funny. This is scary and disgusting," Stand continued, and Bill looked like he was about to respond before a loud splash startled them all.

Bill, Hayley, and Richie ran out of the sewers and toward the river, where the sound had come from. All five of them stood there and watched as a boy climbed to his feet in the water, covered in blood and mud.

Richie shouted, "Holy shit, what happened to you?"