Chapter Text
Richie Tozier was six years old when he first met Eddie Kaspbrak.
“No! I don’t wanna go to school, you can’t make me!” Richie protested, dragging his feet on the concrete sidewalk as his mom tried to pull him along. First grade hadn’t even started yet and he already hated it. It wasn’t fair that Stan was in the other first grade class. The two of them had begged their kindergarten teacher to make sure they would be in the same class, but their efforts proved futile. It wasn’t fair. Stan was Richie’s only friend. The other kids always avoided him, called him mean names, pushed him around. Stan was the only one who never did. But he was stuck with the other kids, leaving Richie all alone. His mom dropped him off at the front doors, pressing a kiss to his forehead and pleading for him to behave. He pouted and went to stand in line with the rest of his new first grade class.
After the bell rang, their teacher led the class inside. She pointed out the name tags taped to each table and told everyone to go find the one that said their name. Richie found his easily and sat down in the hard plastic chair. A smaller boy took the seat next to him, but Richie ignored him. However, his curiosity got the best of him as he noticed a strange spray bottle type machine being placed on the table in front of the other boy. Weird. Maybe this new kid was a freak just like him.
“Alright kids, I’d like you now to turn to the other person at your table and share some things about yourselves. This will help you get to know each other a little better.”
Richie glanced towards the boy seated to his left and frowned. Something wasn’t right. The boy’s chest heaved as he struggled for breath. His face was pale, his hands shaky. Every time he tries to breathe, his lungs make a strange noise. Richie’s brow furrowed. Was he dying or something? Before he could say anything, the boy fumbled for the strange thing on the table and shoved it in his mouth. He pressed a button and inhaled deeply. After a moment, his breathing returned to normal, and he looked less close to passing out. But he was still shaky and pale. His head came to rest on the table, and he burst into tears. Richie did the only thing he could think to do. He slid his chair as close to the other boy as possible and rested his head on the table right next to him.
“Hey, knock knock,” Richie whispered in what was supposed to be an Irish accent but just sounded like a slightly different version of his own.
“Who’s there?” the other boy asked through his tears after a moment.
“Interrupting cow,” Richie answered, already starting to giggle a little bit.
“Interrupting cow w-”
“Moooooo!”
It was a bad joke. A really, really bad joke. But it was enough for both boys to burst out laughing. They both lifted their heads and Richie noticed that the other boy wasn’t crying anymore. He actually looked a little familiar. Neatly combed brown hair, freckled cheeks flushed pink, tear tracks drying on his face that he hastily wiped away. Richie recognized him from the other kindergarten class last year, but he didn’t know his name.
“Well hello there. My name is Richard Wentworth Tozier the First. But you can call me Richie. And what’s your name, dear boy?” Richie said, adopting an over the top and terrible posh British accent.
“Eddie. You’re weird,” the boy, Eddie, replied with a giggle.
It was then that their teacher stopped by and handed both boys blank maps of America and some crayons. She crouched down and asked if Eddie was okay, and Richie listened as he explained that yes, he was better now, he’d just been a little anxious. Once she was reassured, the teacher left the two boys alone to colour in their maps and continue talking.
“What’s that word mean?” Richie asked immediately as he grabbed a green crayon to scribble in California, “What you said to the teacher. An…. Anks… ansh… whatever it was.”
“Anxious? My mom says that’s what I am. Cause I don’t really like new things, they kinda scare me. And then sometimes I can’t breathe so good, cause I also got asthma,” Eddie explained, not looking up from his colouring.
Richie nodded, that made a lot of sense to him. The two boys went back to working in silence for a little bit. Well, it wasn’t completely silent. Richie was never able to be completely silent. He hummed to himself and kicked his heels against the legs of his chair and tapped his crayons on the table. Eddie was better at being quiet. He didn’t mind if Richie made a lot of noise, it actually helped him feel better and forget about his bad thoughts. After only about ten minutes of semi-quiet colouring, Richie spoke up again.
“If dinosaurs ruled the world, which kind do you think would be in charge?”
Eddie’s face scrunched up and he put down his purple crayon he’d been using to carefully colour in North Carolina. He tapped his chin with one finger, staring off into space. Eventually he blew out a heavy breath and turned to Richie with a grin on his face.
“Definitely a T Rex, they’re the biggest and the strongest,” he declared.
“Okay but,” Richie began slowly, “Here’s the thing. Yes they’re big and strong, but you know which else would be good? Velociraptors. Cause they’re super duper smart and can run really really really fast, and yeah, they’re real smart, they could probably learn how to rule the world better than a T Rex cause T Rexes are big dummies.”
Eddie giggled. The image of a huge T Rex bowing down to a teeny tiny little velociraptor in a crown came to mind, and to him that was absolutely hilarious. He shook his head vigorously.
“No, no, no. T Rexes would be the kings cause they can eat velociraptors. I read a book ‘bout dinosaurs once, and T Rexes got these big strong teeth that could chomp right through a velociraptor just like when people eat normal food. T Rexes would swallow the velociraptors right up. I just know they would,” he argued playfully.
Richie seemed to contemplate that rather deeply. Eventually he shrugged. “Yeah, I guess that makes sense. T Rexes can be the kings, and velociraptors can be like the second kings, right?”
“Exactly!” Eddie agreed.
The two boys shared a look with each other and started laughing so hard Eddie had to grab for his aspirator again. They were so loud their teacher had to come over and threaten to separate them. After that, not wanting to be moved, they fell into silence again and finished up colouring their maps. When he was all done, Richie flipped his paper over and scribbled something on the blank side. He slid it over to Eddie after a few minutes of writing.
Wanna be best friends? I already have one best friend, but you can be my second best friend cause he’s still in kindergarten. You seem very very very cool and fun, and you laughed at my jokes and think T Rexes are cool so we should be best friends.
Eddie studied the clumsy childish writing close for a moment, trying to decipher the message through the spelling errors. Once he was able to figure out what it said, he turned to Richie and nodded. Richie’s face lit up. Now he had two best friends, and that was the best thing in the entire world, in his opinion. He already knew he’d have to introduce Eddie to Stan at recess so they could also be best friends.
At the end of the day, Richie dragged Eddie outside to meet his mom. Recess had gone great, Eddie got to meet Stan, and Richie had met Eddie’s best friend, Bill, and the four of them all agreed to be best friends together. They spent the whole recess running around the playground and shrieking with laughter. Richie couldn’t believe he actually had three best friends now, when he’d started the day with only one. First grade was the best ever. Way better than kindergarten had been.
“C’mon Eddie Spaghetti, you’re so slow!” Richie whined, hand holding tight onto Eddie’s sleeve, “you gotta come see my mom, she’s the best mom in the whole world.”
Richie’s mom watched as her son and another boy raced towards her. She tried not to coo at how adorable they looked, tripping over each other and giggling as they slid to a stop in front of her. Richie’s glasses were sliding down his nose, and Eddie was clutching an aspirator in his hand, both with grins that showed off their missing front teeth. Oh how she wished she had a camera to capture the moment. She was so happy to see that her son had a new friend, and she could tell they’d stay friends for life.