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Eddie had been watching the new kid from afar for a solid month before he first realised that something was off about him. Of course, if you asked him, he didn’t know much about the new kid, had never even once looked his way, and honestly couldn’t care less about him. He knew he was lying, his best friend Bill knew he was lying, most of the class knew he was lying at this point, but it was one of the unspoken secrets that no one ever brought up to Eddie’s face.
The Toziers had moved into town at the end of November. The whole town, it seemed, had been waiting to see who would more into the old house, which had stood vacant for the better part of a year before the ‘sold’ sign was dug into the front lawn. They finally got to find out on a Saturday morning. The weather had started getting a bit chilly during the past two weeks, the wind pulling bright colored leaves from trees, and most people didn’t leave home without at least a coat. The new family, however, had seemed not to notice the temperature dropping daily, and were still dressed as if they were living in sunny California, where they were moving from. People had seen Maggie, the mother, wearing a long, loose, grey sundress, a cardigan tied around her waist, grabbing boxes from the family car and walking to the house. The eldest, a son with unruly dark hair and big round glasses, had not been any better, sporting a tank top and jeans. They both had been unaffected by the cold, chatting animatedly as they emptied the minivan. Once they were done, they walked into the house and weren’t seen again until three days later, when Diana, the cashier at Walgreens, said she rang up an insane amount of groceries for two people and talked to the boy (‘’Very polite, a nice young man’’).
Two weeks later was the day Eddie had seen the boy for the first time. As he walked in for his first class of the morning, he saw a teen he’d never seen before sitting at the back of the room. This had surprised Eddie, since he prided himself on getting to class ten minutes early everyday and usually never saw anyone until the first bell rang. He sat at his desk, taking out his books like he always did. He didn’t talk, neither did the other teen, sitting in silence until class began.
His mom had warned him about the newcomers (‘’We don’t know much about them, Eddie-bear, but they are strange. Different. You should definitely stay away from them, honey’’). Eddie, however, couldn’t stop staring. He stared all through second period, looked at him from the corner of his eye during lunch, and stole glances all the way until the last bell of the day rang and Eddie was left wondering where the day had gone.
The first thing that ticked Eddie off about Richie was how he missed school every couple days, yet none of the teachers ever said anything about it. (‘’It just doesn’t make any sense! He complained to Bill about it. Why wouldn’t he get into any trouble for it, but we skip one class and they threaten us with detention?’’). Bill shrugged, putting down his sandwich, and told him, bluntly, that if he was that curious about it, he should find out the truth himself. Eddie scoffed – ridiculous! First of all, he didn’t care about it that much, no matter what Bill thought, and even if he did, he wasn’t the type to nose around and spy on people!
Which is how, two days later, Eddie found himself spying on Richie Tozier after math class. He had missed school the days before, and Eddie wanted to see how he was going to get out of this one. He stayed behind, taking forever to pack his backpack, while the new kid talked with their teacher, a balding middle-aged man who was known to be unforgiving to slackers and bad students. He was expecting the dark-haired teen to get told off, maybe (hopefully) yelled at a little, but was surprised to hear the teacher laugh along to whatever he was saying.
- Right, Mr S, thanks for understanding! I knew the rumours about you weren’t true. You do have a heart!
- You’re a funny one, Tozier. Make sure to do the homework before next class or you’ll get behind for the exam!
He’d never heard the teacher talk that way ever, and Eddie couldn’t really believe what he’d just witnessed had actually happened. It was so out of character! If any other student had done this, had said this, they would get detention for at least a week. As he picked up his bag and left the classroom, he couldn’t help but feel disappointed. He hadn’t truly learned anything, except that the Tozier kid apparently had a way with words that saved him from getting detention.
He walked to his locker, thinking about how he was going to tell Bill at lunch that his plan was no good. A hand on his shoulder made him jump. He looked to his left to see Richie Tozier grinning down at him.
- If you wanted to talk to me that badly, you should have just done it, instead of staring at me like a cute little stalker!
He then winked comically. Eddie scoffed. The first time he was talking to him and he was already annoyed with him.
From that day on, Richie walked with him between classes and sometimes hung out with Eddie and Bill at lunch, which is how Eddie figured out the second thing that wasn’t quite right with Richie Tozier.