Chapter Text
“Okay, so, offense,” Richie said.
“It’s no offense,” Mike cut in.
“I don’t care if you guys are offended. I’m so fucking bored, swear to god,” Richie complained, laying down on the groud and closing his eyes.
It was early March, and the first signs of spring in Derry were starting to show, so the Losers were partaking in their yearly tradition of cleaning out the clubhouse. Ben was reinforcing the walls, Bev was sweeping it out, Stan and Eddie had brought some new decorations and comics, and Mike was rearranging some of their things with Bill. They all stopped to look at Richie, who had thrown aside his hammer.
“Okay, Richie, what do you want to do?” Ben asked, not unkindly. “I think I’m fine with the construction stuff.”
“I want to do something dumb and spontaneous! I want to… I don’t know… smash a bottle, or move to New York already, or go on a road trip.”
“Well, I’m not letting you smash any bottles!” Eddie said. “And we can’t move to New York with no place to live or diplomas or shit. And it’s fucking March, Rich, it would be a pretty sad roadtrip ion early New England spring.”
“Not some boring Derry-to-Boston trip,” Richie explained. “A cool one.”
“Boston’s cool,” Ben said, sounding hurt, at the same time Mike said “What’s wrong with Boston?”
“We could drive to California! Soak up some sun! Or, like Oregon! Or Idaho!”
“So anythere but Derry,” Bev sighed. “I gotta admit, a road trip sounds nice. We could all save some money and just go wherever we want.”
Richie sat up, dust covering the back of his t-shirt. “Let’s go, then!”
“Richie, we can’t just go,” Bill said calmly. “We need to plan things out and we’re already super busy with graduating and college stuff and the house and everything.”
“Let me plan it out! All you guys need to do is save up some money- most of us have jobs- my mom would let me take her car, I’ll have my full license by then-” Richie was pacing around the clubhouse in excitement. “Come on! We can do it right after we graduate! A Losers celebratory tour of the USA! And it’ll help us blow off steam and then we spend the rest of the summer getting ready to move out. I swear, guys, I can plan it all.”
Bill and Mike were starting to look convinced. Eddie, however, did not. “My mom barely lets me go to anybody’s house that isn’t Bill or Ben, how on earth will we convince her to let me drive around the country with you all? And Bev’s dad will just magically not notice his daughter missing for two weeks? And Mike has the farm! Ben has his work at the library!”
“I’m sure I could get your mom to let you go!” Ben said. “Sonia loves me. And if not, we bring in Bill and the Denbrough parents. And I could cash in my free hours if I work extra hard in the next few months, which won’t be hard because I’ll put the money towards the trip.”
“My grandpa can spare me for a few weeks,” Mike added, sitting down in the hammock. “I like this idea.”
Bev grinned. “Me, too! My dad has a trip he takes every year and he usually lets me stay home alone, we could go then?”
“Yesss!” Richie whooped. “The Losers Club: Senior Year! Bevvie, let me know when the trip is and we’ll go then, and everyone ask your parents- except Eddie, of course- and I’ll get working on it!”
“Wait!” Stanley said, and Richie tensed up, worrying there was some huge massive flaw in his plan he hadn’t realized. “Where do we go?”
There was silence, then everybody began to yell out ideas. “Arizona!” “Florida!” “We should go to Canada!” “New York!” “Northern Michigan!” Then, Ben offered :Southern California? San Diego?”
“Does anybody object to San Diego?” Mike asked. Nobody did.
“Lady and gents? San Diego it is!” Richie cheered.
“But first we clean this place out,” Ben reminded them.
“Oh, yeah. Right.”