Chapter One:
The New Girl
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・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

      Maya looked toward the new girl, Beverly, as she talked to Bill. She thought that she was absolutely stunning.

      As in 'the most beautiful girl she's ever seen' stunning.

      Maya had always known something was different about how she felt compared to other girls in the town. The girls she knew would talk about boys day and night.

      But, she never felt like that towards boys. She did, however feel that way towards girls. That scared her at first, but over the years she grew to accept that that's the way she is and she can't change that. She was a lesbian.

      Knowing that about herself, and knowing how the world was, when asked she lied and faked crushes on boys.

       Just to fit in with the others, until she met this group of boys. The loser's club. She fit in here, without trying. The group was different, a good different.

      Maya cleared her throat, and looked away from the redheaded girl. She had been so caught up in her own world she had missed most of the conversation. Only catching the end, where Bill invited her to the quarry.

      Maya swallowed and nervously pulled at the hairtie she had on her wrist. It was something she did when she felt anxious about something or someone. It helped alleviate the nerves.

      Maya only stopped when she felt on a hand grab her wrist. When she looked over, she saw it was Richie, her very best friend, someone she would do anything for and someone she could tell anything to.

      Well, almost anything. She hadn't told him about how she was feeling, yet. She wasn't sure if she could, she wanted to she really, really did. But it scared her.

      "Are you okay?" He whispered, after leaning in close to her ear. She gave a short nod in reply, her eyes not leaving the girl in front of her.

      "I'm fine, Rich." Maya glanced over at him. "Promise."

      After Richie reluctantly let go and returned to annoying Eddie with his British accent, that's when the pretty girl noticed her.

      "Hi, I'm Beverly Marsh" she introduced herself with a smile on her face. She extended her hand for a shake.

      Wow. Maya thought. What a beautiful smile.

      "Oh- uh, right. Hi, I'm Maya, Maya Bennett. You're going to the quarry with us, right?" Maya stammered, sliding her hand into the older girl's hand and shaking it.

      Beverly nodded with a grin, "Yeah, are you?"

      "Yes! I'm so glad to finally not be the only girl. Richie can be so annoying to deal with alone." Maya laughed, looking over at him.

      "How rude!" Richie shouted back, before returning to his original task. Maya turned her head to stick her tongue out.

      "Well, I'll see you tomorrow!" Beverly smiled and turned to walk off.

      Maya gulped, why was she feeling this now? Especially towards her new and only female friend! It wasn't fair. The universe wasn't being fair to her. Beverly eas straight and she would never, ever, ever feel the same. Maya knew that. 

      "I-I, uh, I gotta go" she said quickly before turning and running off towards her house.

      "W-wait! Your b-b-bike!" Bill shouted after her, wheeling the bike towards her. Maya turned around and grabbed the bike from him. She muttered a quick thanks. She mounted the bike and started to ride towards her house, rather quickly.

      "Is she okay?" Ben asked, wincing as more antiseptic was poured on his wound. "Ow.."

      "Yeah, she's probably fine. Maybe it's because there's a new person in the group?" Stan reasoned, "We all know how Maya is about change."

      "I can check on her on the way home." Richie says, pushing his glasses up "If you know what I mean."

~~~

      Meanwhile, on her way to her house, Maya had a million thoughts running through her head.

      Maya wondered if she be able to tell anyone. Or would she have to live a lie her entire life? She didn't like the second option.

      She took a deep breath to calm herself as she stopped the bike infront of her house and leaned it against the porch. Climbing off of it, her mind was still racing. It's not fair. She repeated in her head.

      Why am I doomed to like straight girls?

      She opened the door and shut it quietly, immediately smelling something amazing from the kitchen.

      "Dad! Maya's home!" Josh called from the couch.

      "Hey, Josh. What's for dinner?" She said, trying to cover up her uneasiness about her situation that meeting Beverly brought up.

      He eyed her suspiciously, and she knew she would have to talk about it later, or at least talk about something later. Maya would have to come up with a lie, probably.

   "Dad's making pizza."  He seemed to shrug it off, causing Maya to let out a sigh of relief.

      "Awesome! I love pizza!" Maya shouted excitedly.

      "We know, sweetie, we know." Her dad called from the kitchen.

      She laughed before focusing her attention on the tv, some movie she wasn't interested in was playing. She had almost fallen asleep from boredom when there was a knock on the door.

      "Can you get it?" Josh asked, pointing to his leg that had a cast on it. He had broken it during a nasty fall from basketball. A bigger boy had fallen, causing three more to fall on Josh and crush his leg.

      She nodded before standing up snd walking over to the door. Throwing it open, her frown quickly turned into a bright smile at the sight of Richie.

      "Richie! Come in!" She said, stepping aside to let him in.

      "Thanks, Maya." He looked towards the couch and his eyes lit up with mischief "Josh the posh, my main man, my dude-" Richie shouted walking over towards him.

      "Don't start." Josh groaned, not taking his eyes off of the TV

       "Okay, moving on. Mr. B! Hey! How's it been?" He clapped his hands, leaning on the counter.

      "It's been good! I'm making pizza if you want to stay for dinner. Of course, if you want something different there's left overs in the fridge."

      "Pizza you say? I'm in." Maya smiled, this could get her out of that awkward talk with her brother tonight. She loved him, and trusted him, but she was still scared.

      Maya went back to the couch and sat down, with Richie next to her.

      "Dad, I'm gonna go to the quarry tomorrow, is that okay? Beverly will be there." She told her dad, turning around in the seat.

      "Beverly? Beverly Marsh? The one who slept with the whole school?" Josh asked.

      "Those rumors aren't true, Josh." She said rolling her eyes. "Honestly."

      "Yeah, I know. Greta's a bitch."

      "Language." David called from the kitchen, shutting the oven door after putting the pizza in it.

      "Sorry, dad, but it's true!"

      "It is! She spread these nasty rumors about her!" Maya said. The poor girl had her reputation ruined..

      "Oh.. poor thing.. you should invite her over for pizza. Pizza makes everything better." David nodded, sitting on his lazy chair.

      "What about me?" Richie whined, jokingly.

      "You can come anytime you want, you know that." David replied. He used to be good friends with Richie's parents, until they stopped caring about Richie. Now, Richie was like a second son to him. He was over most days for dinner. Of course, that wouldn't stop the dirty jokes towards Maya, but she didn't mind. She knew he didn't mean anything by it.

      "Thanks, Mr. B." Richie said in one of his accents. More specifically, the British one.

      While they watched the movie in silence, Maya's mind drifted towards a certain redheaded girl, and as this happened, her worry about if, and how, she could tell her friends about it.

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{ Word Count: 1319 }

{ A/n: None }

{ Edited Yes, 1-11-20 }