October 3, 1988
Stan was still at the Grace Baptist Church, sitting under the sukkah(booth) and eating his meals with his family. It was a long four weeks for Stan. Stan had to stay out of school on Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, the first two days of Sukkot, today, and tomorrow. His strict father, who was a rabbi demanded to his school that he be let out during these days. The school complied and let Stan be excused with no penalty as a result of his father's authority.
Stan's friends: Bill, Richie, and Eddie visited Stan after school to see how he was doing. He always guided them through the traditions of the aforementioned Jewish holidays. He also taught them about the prayers, the customs, and the food during those celebrations. All three of them were able to visit Stan during the days he was absent from school. Except Bill couldn't attend Stan's weeklong Sukkot celebration since he caught the flu two days before start of Sukkot.
Stan didn't see Bill for roughly a week now and that bothered him. What bothered him even more was that Bill's little brother got into a deadly encounter with a clown. Richie and Eddie came to him that Saturday afternoon and told him that Bill and his family went to the hospital. Stan asked when they would return, neither Richie or Eddie knew. The next day, Richie and Eddie came to him and told him that the Denbroughs are back, safe and sound. Stan was very relieved to hear that and hoped that they were recovering well.
While Stan and his family were eating their meals, Eddie came bursting into the synagogue. Stan sat up with alarm as he watched the panting Eddie hobble over to the booth.
Eddie stopped before him before taking a big puff from his aspirator.
"Eddie?" Stan asked. "Why are you in a hurry? Where's Richie?"
Eddie held up a finger for Stan to wait so he could catch his breath.
"Richie went to Bill's house." Eddie told him while still huffing and puffing.
"Why? What for?"
"*wheeze* Something happened to him."
"Did he get hurt?"
"No."
"Then what happened?"
Eddie kneeled down and whispered in Stan's ear. "Something just happened to Richie. And not only him, something happened to me and Bill too."
Stan whispered back. "What happened to you guys?"
"Well...how should I put it? Um...we gained...superpowers." Eddie said.
Stan moved away from Eddie and looked at him like he was crazy.
"Wh...what?!"
"It's true! Look! I didn't want to believe it either! But it really happened to the three of us! We'll show you when I get back!" Eddie furiously whispered.
"Mr. Eddie, are you coming back to enjoy today's festivities?" One of Stan's aunts called out to him.
"Don't worry, Aunt Matea!" Eddie said as he made his way out of the synogogue. "I'll be back and I will be bringing the rest of Stan's friends with me!"
"Okay! Have a safe trip!" She said as Eddie left the synagogue.
Stan continued to eat his food while contemplating over the well-being of his friends. He knew that his friends could be a little crazy but he didn't expect them to go over board. Eddie was the asthmatic hypochondriac who rambles about hazards whenever he gets stressed, Richie was the Trashmouth who wouldn't stop making vulgar jokes at inappropriate times, and Bill had a big brother complex and a hero complex.
But now from what Eddie was telling him, Stan was worried that his friends went insane. Stan didn't believe in magical or paranormal phenomena, unlike his friends. Stan was more rooted in reality and enjoyed studying real-life birds. He loved birds, from their beautiful plumage, wings and fascinating behavior.
Fortunately for him, Jewish Holidays didn't restrict him from bird-watching. The only things that weren't allowed on Jewish holidays was working, going to school, driving, writing, and using electrical devices.
Stan sighed as he finished eating his food. After he was done, he helped his family and friends clean the table before praying farewell to the booth.
On this particular day, they prayed for rain in Hebrew and prayed for G-d to remember their deceased relatives. Stan still wasn't very fluent in Hebrew, but he could read the language okay.
After that, he went outside to get some fresh air with his family's permission. He breathed in the crisp autumn air and stared at the birds flying by. Stan sat on the bench and watched the dead leaves blow away in the wind as he worried about his friends.
Looking back at the synagogue, Stan thought it would be best to pay his friends a visit. Without riding his bike, he ran to Bill's house as fast as he could.
When Stan finally reached Bill's house, he rang the doorbell and Bill's mother opened it.
"Stanley Uris! What brings you here?"
"I'm here to see my friends. May I come in, Mrs. Denbrough?"
In response, she smiled and opened the door a bit more to let Stan through.
When Stan entered the house, a very familiar little boy skittered up the stairs.
"Billy! It's your friend!" His brother said.
"Bill!" Stan called as he went up the staircase.
"Stan, yo-yo-you're here!" Bill said in surprise as Richie and Eddie ran to him.
"STAN!" Richie and Eddie yelled simultaneously as they pulled him inside Bill's bedroom and closed the door shut.
"Guys? What's going on?" Stan asked worriedly as he looked at each of his friends.
Eddie was the first to respond. "Okay, look! Remember I told you at the church that we have superpowers?"
Stan stared awkwardly. "...Yeah, why?"
Eddie rambled off. "Well, OBVIOUSLY we have no idea HOW OR WHERE we got them! The only thing we know is that Bill's manifested last Saturday at the hospital, mine manifested before 2nd Period at school, and Richie's manifested when we were talking on the phone! We still don't know what caused it and whether or not we're gonna stay like that forever! And if our parents find out, they might send us to the FBI or something-" "Eddie." "then they would experiment on us like lab animals-" "Eddie." "And what if they cut our bodies open-"
"EDDIE!" Bill yelled in exasperation.
"WHAT?!" Eddie yelled back.
"Eddie, we're no-no-not going to stay like this forever, we'll find the reason behind it an-an-and put an end to it." Bill said.
"So what do you think caused it?" Stan asked.
"Georgie and I sa-sa-saw a man in the diner with glowing blue-green eyes on Sunday. He-he-he-he was staring at us for so-so-some reason. He didn't have fo-fo-fo-food on his table and no-no-no-no else seemed to notice hi-hi-hi-him."
"Glowing blue-green eyes?" Eddie asked suddenly.
"Y-y-yeah, why Eddie?" Bill asked him.
"Because I saw him during Health class, he had strange glowing eyes I've never seen before in my entire life. He just talked to me, asked if I was okay, gave me some advice. He didn't mention anything out of the ordinary." Eddie told them.
"So yo-yo-you met him too? Who-who-who was he?" Bill asked surprised.
"He said he was Mr. Maturin, the new Latin teacher for our school." Eddie said.
"New teachers?!" Stan cried out. "How come no one told me about this?!"
"Sorry, Stan. It was just announced today. They hadn't told us before." Richie said.
"So who are the new teachers?" Stan asked cautiously.
"Mr. Maturin is the new Latin teacher and Mr. Gray is the new Dance teacher." Richie filled in for Stan.
"Okay so, Latin and Dance are the two new subjects taught at our school?" Stan asked.
"Yep. We gotta decide if we want to take either of the classes by the end of the week. They start next Monday." Richie informed Stan.
"And we can't take Latin and another Foreign Language class at the same time. For example, if you are currently taking Spanish but want to take Latin, you gotta drop Spanish and take Latin instead. Same thing goes for Dance class, if you are currently taking Phys Ed class but want to go to Dance, you gotta drop Phys Ed for Dance." Eddie said.
"That's it?" Stan asked to be sure.
"Yep, that's it!" Richie said.
"Okay, I'm thinking of dropping Phys Ed so I can take Dance." Stan said before he asked his friends. "What about you guys?"
"We-We-We're all thinking doing the sa-sa-sa-sa-same. But I wan-wan-wanna take Latin." Bill said.
"Great! Then we can practice dancing together! To make sure we get the routines right!" Stan happily suggested.
"But where would we practice?" Eddie asked.
The four of them went silent, not sure of how to deal with the problem.
"We can go prac-practice backyard." Bill suggested.
"But what if it's raining?" Eddie asked.
"Then I-I-I-I guess the living room." Bill answered.
"So um..." Stan started awkwardly. "Back to the topic on hand, what are your..."superpowers"?"
"Oh that!" Eddie said. "Well..."
Richie answered for him. "Bill has the ability to fix anything he touches, Eddie can hypnotize people, and I can change my own voice however I want."
"So...this isn't roleplay?" Stan asked, unsure.
"No-no-no, it's real!" Bill said. "Here, let m-m-m-me show you!"
Bill took a piece of blank paper and ripped it into shreds.
Stan watched carefully as Bill put both of his hands on the paper shreds and concentrated.
Bill's hands glowed a slight blue-green as the shreds lifted and danced together in a tornado formation. The shreds reassembled themselves to where they were before fixing themselves together like glue.
"Whoa!" Stan couldn't believe what he was seeing and carefully lifted up the newly-fixed paper. There were no folds or tear marks in the paper, it looked brand new!
"Let me try! Let me try!" Richie exclaimed before clearing his throat.
What Stan didn't expect to hear from Richie's mouth was Eddie's voice! And there were faint blue-green soundwaves coming from his mouth!
"Hi, I'm Eddie Kaspbrak. I have a b*tchy mom at home who is just as big as a humpback whale! Yeah!" Richie said in Eddie's voice and fistpumped.
"BEEP BEEP RICHIE!" Bill and Stan called him out.
Obviously, Eddie was not amused by Richie's acidic comments towards his mother. "Take that back, Richie!"
"Oh yeah?" Richie smiled a sly smile at him. "Make me!"
Eddie looked at Richie right in the eyes and Richie's expression slackened.
Both Bill and Stan could see that Eddie's eyes were glowing blue-green and they were streaming into Richie's eyes.
"Now apologize." Eddie sternly commanded Richie.
Richie's eyes were blank but Richie spoke, "I'm sorry for insulting your mother, Eddie."
Eddie released his mental grasp on Richie and Richie snapped out of his puppetlike trance.
"Whoa!" Richie shook his head. "What just happened?!"
"Eddie just made you apologize to him." Stan told Richie.
"Whoa?! Really?! I KNEW IT!" Richie congratulated himself.
"NO RICHIE! This is serious! You guys somehow got superpowers and there is no explanation to HOW you got them! Don't you just want them to go away?! So you can have a normal life?!" Stan frantically asked.
"Yeah guys, Stan's right." Eddie said. "I don't want to stay like this forever."
"Eh...I'm fine with the way I am now. Superpowers are cool!" Richie said.
"R-R-R-Richie!" Bill scolded him.
"All right! All right! Je***! Don't be such a buzzkill!" Richie groaned.
Stan looked at the clock and saw that he'd been away for one hour. "Oh no!"
Bill, Richie, and Eddie knew what Stan's expression meant and out of Bill's bedroom behind him.
Bill's mom ignored them as she continued playing the piano and Bill's little brother watched the boys go out the front door.
Bill, Richie, and Eddie rode on their bikes while Stan ran on the sidewalk behind them back to the Grace Baptist Church.
The Church was just down Witcham Street, so it wouldn't take long to reach it.
But while they were on their way back, they came across a person riding on his bike furiously towards them.
The person was covered in layers of fabric from head to toe. They were also obscuring his face, making it hard for him to see where he was going.
Richie and Eddie cried with alarm as they saw the person barreling towards them. "OH SH*T!" "NONONONONONONONONO!" "BILL LOOK OUT!" "OUT OF THE WAY!"
Before the mysterious person could bump into the trio, Stan frantically threw out his hands and yelled, "STOP!"
What happened next surprised everyone. An invisible force pushed the mysteriously-clothed person back and he landed on the ground with a muffled "oomph!" The bike also clattered on top of the boy too, adding more pain to that person.
"OH MY G*D! ARE YOU OKAY?!" Eddie yelled.
Bill, Richie, and Eddie dropped their bikes in alarm and ran to the injured stranger.
Bill and Eddie helped the poor guy up while Richie and Stan lifted the bike off him.
Before either of them could ask the guy what was going on, a familiar car honk sounded.
"OH NO! Not these sh*theads again!" Richie complained as his friends and the mysterious guy turned their attention towards the sound.
It was the Bowers' Gang again, this time they were in their signature Plymouth Fury. All four of them had slimy smirks on their faces.
"Well, if isn't Stuttering Bill, Beaver Boy, Asthma Kid, and The Jew!" Henry exclaimed.
"F-F-F-F-F-F*CK OFF, BOWERS!" Bill yelled angrily.
"YEAH! F*CK OFF, A**HOLES!" Richie flipped his middle fingers at them.
"Or you're gonna do WHAT?" Vic asked mockingly.
Without hesitating, Eddie furiously marched up to them and locked eyes with all four of the Bowers Gang.
"GO AWAY." Eddie commanded, his eyes currently blazing a bright blue-green.
In an instant, they went into a daze and then drove away from the five without a single word.
Eddie felt a little dizzy after forcing the entire Bowers' Gang to leave them alone and was about to fall.
"I got you Eddie!" Richie said as he, Bill, and Stan caught him.
The stranger looked shocked by what just happened and went to them.
"What did you just do?!" The guy asked.
Bill, Richie, Eddie, and Stan froze. Someone outside their group had just witnessed one of them using their powers. They stayed silent, trying to come up with an excuse.
"Is it happening to you too?" The guy asked.
Their heads shot up in surprise.
"Huh?" Richie cocked his head to the side.
"That glow! I saw your eyes glowing while you were hypnotizing the Bowers' Gang!" The guy said to Eddie.
"Wait?" Eddie said. "You've seen that glow before?"
The guy nodded. "I have. My hands glow when I touch someone or something."
"Wait, you got superpowers too?!" Richie asked excitedly.
"If you can call it that." The guy replied as he took one of his gloves off and revealed a dark-skinned hand.
He went up to Bill and was about to put his hand on his.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! What are you doing?!" Stan tried to stop him from doing something dangerous to his friend.
"Don't worry, it won't affect him. It only affects me when I touch him." The stranger assured him.
The four of them carefully watched as his hand touched Bill's and it glowed blue-green. Bill's body was also glowing a bit as the stranger fell into a daze.
Stan, Richie, and Eddie cautiously checked Bill as the stranger held onto his hand.
"...Bill?" Eddie asked, still concerned for his friend.
"G-Guys, I'm fi-fine. Still conscious." Bill reassured them.
After a few seconds, the stranger snapped back to reality and let go Bill.
"What did you just do to him?" Stan asked the stranger suspiciously.
"I only learned his history by touching him, nothing to worry about." He answered promptly.