The spring was flying by in Derry. The trees were beginning to sprout their leaves, the dandelions were growing, and the town started to smell like rain showers after the rain drops hit the soil. Although the snow was all melted, there was still a cold chill in the air, especially with all the thunder storms and blasts of wind storms. The weather system had become a monster.
Winter had become a bit withdrawn from her friends, spending only a few days a week with them, but mostly spending her time with Henry. After the last experience they had on the stage with the turtle, she tried to spend less time after school with Eddie and more time with Henry. She sometimes thought about her and Eddie standing on the stage, looking at each other's faces as adults. It was that unknown feeling between the both of them that made her wonder what it was, but she also didn't want to know. She just wanted to spend all her time with Henry. Even though she saw Eddie in their dance class, she tried her best to keep things cordial between the two of them.
Henry and her spent most of their time having sex. Their hormones were on fire whenever they saw each other, and every opportunity they found, they would find a way to make love - in her bed, on his bed when he could sneak her upstairs so his parents wouldn't know, against the wall in the showers in school, in an empty classroom, and they frequented a picnic table secluded in The Barrens. So many days after school, if the weather was good, she would lay on the table as he stood up and fucked her pussy. A few times while she laid there, he would go on his knees and eat her out until she was squirming and moaning as loud as she could.
The sexual relationship didn't just make Henry even more in love with her, but as the spring approached and they kept having more and more sex, he seemed to be developing an obsession for her. Winter didn't notice how his piercing stares looked to the rest of the student body. When she wasn't looking, he would stare at her like she was the only thing in the world, like he was lost in a tunnel and looking into a light that hypnotized him. Winter loved that stare though, because he only looked at her with that love in his eyes and no one else. It wasn't just Henry's love for her that made him look at her like he did, but It was a force growing in Derry, and It was beginning to use Henry as a temple before It was ready to take It's own physical form.
Friday May 23, 1997 (Two days before the disappearance)
Half of the school was in the auditorium for an assembly. The school was having assembly's all day because they needed to have a meeting with all the students before the end of the day, and since they closed off the balcony of the auditorium, they needed to do twice as many assemblys than they would have needed to if the balcony was open.
Bill, Richie, Stan and Eddie sat together by the stage as the principal started his introduction about the topics he needed to cover. The guys turned around looking to see if Winter was in the auditorium.
"Where's Winter?" Eddie asked as he kept looking around for his friend. He noticed how she was acting differently around him, but he always took every opportunity he could to talk to her, and maybe within time, she would open up to why she felt freaked out that day when the turtle changed them into adults.
Richie shrugged, "Probably fucking Henry on the picnic table that they think is so invisible to everyone else."
"Don't fucking bring up that we saw them that one time, Richie!" Stan nudged him.
"Like I would..."
Eddie thought about that day he saw Winter laying naked on the picnic table with her legs sprawled open. She had her bra on and Henry was covering her pussy with his head as he ate her out. He remembered how she was squirming with pleasure and how her face looked like she was in ecstasy, and her moans made him feel things he never felt before. If he didn't feel like a pervert watching his friend getting eaten out, he would have stayed longer to look at her womanly body. As he was growing older, he was becoming curious about sex. All four of them were, and all four of them stared at their friend that day as she was in a world of pleasure.
Winter and Henry had snuck onto the balcony of the auditorium and went to a dark corner where no one would be able to see them from the ground floor. They were already in the middle of one of their fucking sessions. He laid on top of her and tried to keep low so no one would see them.
Henry stared deeply into her eyes as they tried to muffle their moans so no one would hear them. He would get more turned on whenever he saw her face while she moaned and her eyes almost rolling back as he fucked her hard. He loved how submissive she was when they had sex; He felt like he had all the control and he could fuck her as hard as he wanted and she would orgasm whenever he pounded harder into her pussy.
Winter tried her best to stay quiet but would whimper and moan into Henry's ear as she pushed his head down to her neck so he could suck on her skin. Whenever her hands went anywhere on his body, he could feel a rush of ecstasy and it made him go crazy.
They could hear the assembly beginning, but they were so caught up in each other, that they weren't listening. Henry's love for her as they had sex made him feel almost sickly, like he needed every inch of her, he wanted all of her time, and to stay this close to her forever.
"Fuck..." Winter whimpered as she grabbed onto the wall beside them and arched her back for him to push his cock in as deep as it could go.
Henry moaned when her juices orgasmed all over his cock. She was so warm and so tight. There was no better feeling in the world than being inside of her... She was the love of his life.
"Oh, my God!" With a louder groan than what Henry anticipated, he thrusted his cock as deep inside her as it would go and came in her pussy.
The student body below heard the loud groan and wondered what it was as everyone looked around, not able to see where it came from. The noise caused some chatter in the auditorium.
Richie, Eddie, Bill and Stan all looked at each other and tried not to explode with laughter. They all knew what Henry's final groan sounded like. They only knew because they would wait and talk or play cards at the other side of The Barrens while Henry and Winter had sex on the picnic table. They felt uncomfortable trying to walk by them on their way home when they were doing it. They didn't want to be seen, so they waited for Henry's final groan to know that they were done and were about to leave.
"Holy shit!" Richie laughed as the four of them looked up to the balcony of the auditorium where they noticed movement. Only the four of them knew where the sound came from. The rest of the students looked back to the stage where the principal stood, waiting to get the students attention back.
Henry and Winter put their clothes back on and scooched over to the wall in the darkness where Henry sat against the wall and Winter sat in between his legs. He held her close to his body as she leaned on him for comfort. They watched the principal as he began to speak:
"We have had some of the students from the school go missing this past week, and it's not just the school... It's all over Derry. The Police Department of Derry has declared that there will be a 7PM curfew for all the kids in town."
As Winter watched, Henry was watching her intensely, not caring about what the principal was talking about. He had his nose resting on her cheek as he breathed in her scent and left tiny kisses on her cheek.
"I love you so much," he whispered. She felt his warm breath on the side of her face as he breathed in and out from his nose.
She turned to him and kissed his lips, "I love you too, Henry." She rested her forehead on his cheek and closed her eyes.
"What would I do without you?" he whispered seriously as he looked at her feminine facial features.
After the assembly, the school went their separate ways to their next class. It was Winter's lunch and she was going to find her lunch buddies, Richie and Eddie.
She went to the washroom to fix her sex-hair before going to find her guy friends. She stared at herself in the mirror as she brushed out all the tangles with her fingers. There were noticeable feet on the floor in the middle stall, but Winter figured someone was in there doing their business. Before she was about to leave, the washroom door swung open.
"You in here, you little slut?" Greta from Winter's Sociology class walked in with two other girls. Her curly blond hair was perfectly framing her face that was covered with a whole department store of makeup.
Greta didn't expect to see Winter in the washroom and the two of them exchanged looks at each other for a moment before Greta went back to whatever she was doing.
"Beaverly, get out here and face me!" she went to the middle stall that was closed and kicked the door as hard as she could, sending herself backwards. She tried to kick it again.
"Leave me alone, Greta! I haven't done anything to you!"
"Your existence is what you've done to me!" She kicked the door again, this time it slammed open and it hit the girl inside on the forehead. It was the girl Bill would wave to whenever they passed each other in the halls, Beverly Marsh.
"You're a bitch!" Winter said to Greta before she could even think about whether she wanted to get in on the drama or not.
Greta and the other girls turned towards Winter and stared at her with surprise and disbelief.
"What did you call me?" Greta walked up to Winter slowly, chewing her bubble dum obnoxiously loud.
Winter rolled her eyes, "What? You can't hear?"
"Listen, Winter!" she over emphasized her name. "I've heard about you and I know you're a little slut too!"
"Is that the only insult you know?" Winter said sarcastically. "You're the sluttiest looking girl in the school so I don't know why you're picking on her. Do you actually have a face or do you draw it on every morning?"
Greta walked up closer to Winter and sized her up. Winter kept looking into Greta's eyes, letting her know that she didn't intimidate her.
"I'll take care of you later, you little dweeb!" Greta turned to Beverly, "Catch you later, Ashtray!"
The three girls left dramatically, leaving Beverly and Winter alone in the washroom. They looked at each other.
"Are you okay? Your heads bleeding a little bit," Winter commented as she grabbed a tissue of toilet paper and put it to her cut. "It's not bad, just keep pressure on it until the bleeding stops."
"I fucking hate blood..." Beverly commented. "Thanks for defending me. You didn't have to though... nobody does."
"No, that girl and her little followers are bitches. Somebody needs to let them know," Winter said as she grabbed her backpack.
Beverly smiled at her, "You're Bill's friend... The girl who sang at the show..."
Winter smiled, "Yep! That's me. I'm Winter Callaghan."
"Beverly Marsh. You can call me Bev."
Bev and her walked out of the washroom together and walked down the hallway as they chatted. For a moment, Winter nearly forgot that she saw Bev as an adult at the show. She didn't want to say anything about it, but it was a thought that stuck at the back of her mind.
"Are you on lunch right now?" Winter asked Bev.
"No, I just was leaving for an appointment. Greta caught me at the worst time. She's had it in for me since eighth grade."
They continued to walk towards where Richie, Eddie and Winter usually hang out. As usual, Eddie and Richie were busy playing card games on the floor.
"I am kiiiiiiing of the foooooorrest!" Richie sang loudly and rolled his tongue as he did his Cowardly Lion impression from the Wizard of Oz. It looked like he beat Eddie at another game of cards, as usual.
"That's it! You're not shuffling anymore!" Eddie said to him very quickly. "I think you rig the game so that you always win. It's not cool, Richie! Super not cool!"
Winter and Bev walked up to them. The two guys looked up towards the girls.
"Hey Winter!" Eddie said first, followed by Richie. Eddie and Richie looked from both the girls. They looked at Winter for a longer amount of time. Winter realized that all the guys in the group had been doing that lately, staring at her, especially Eddie. She didn't know what was up with that.
"Hey guys..."
"Did you enjoy the assembly?" Richie asked Winter. Eddie quickly smacked his arm to shut him up.
Winter gave them a questionable look, "Yeah, it was alright." She shook off the weird comment and said, "This is Bev. Is it cool if she hung out with all of us sometime?"
"But this creates a riff in our Seinfeld gang, Winter! We can only have one Elaine!" Richie joked.
Winter turned to Bev, "Don't mind him. He comes off as snarky, but he's really just a goof."
Richie stuck his tongue out at Winter, "Proudest goof in the community, actually!"
"This is Eddie. He's a bit of a paranoid germaphobe but he's really a sweetheart," Winter motioned over to Eddie and smiled.
Eddie's cheeks began to flush a bit, "I'm not that bad of a germaphobe, Winter, but I'll happily take the sweetheart part."
It took a moment for it to dawn on Eddie and Richie like it did for Winter, but they realized that it was the girl in the audience who they saw as an adult. They stared at her for a few seconds to figure out if their assumptions were right.
Winter smiled at the both of them. She turned back to Bev, "There's also Bill and Stan, but they have class right now. You already knew we were friends with Bill though," Winter laughed softly.
"Who do you hang out with, Bev?" Richie asked.
"I just have my friend, Ben. He's been the new kid since Christmas time. He actually went to the show, too, when you guys performed. Other than him, I don't really have friends."
As if sharing one brain, Winter, Eddie and Richie all thought: Ben!?
"Maybe I'll bring him around if you all want to hang out sometime," Bev suggested.
"Yeah, sounds good!" Winter smiled at her, trying to hide the surprise from her expression. Richie and Eddie weren't doing a very good job at trying to hide their surprise at the mention of the name 'Ben' from the same girl that they all saw in the audience turn into an adult.
"I better go to my appointment. It was nice meeting you guys. Thanks again for saving my ass in the washroom, Winter."
Bev smiled as she walked away and waved at the three of them.
Winter sat beside Eddie and Richie on the floor.
"She said 'Ben'? I did hear her right, right? She said 'Ben'?" Eddie said with his hand in the air. "Ben and her were the two in the audience with that Mike kid and Henry!"
"You just catch up?" Richie said sarcastically.
"I'm trying to make sense of this, Richie! You don't have to be an ass!" Eddie said as he pulled out his puffer to take an inhale. He breathed it in deeply.
Curiously, Winter asked Eddie, "Can I see your puffer?"
Eddie looked at her confused, "Sure?" He handed her the puffer.
Winter took out the canister to read it, wondering if the ingredients were listed. As she studied the words on the canister, she looked quickly at Eddie questionably.
"How long have you been taking a puffer?"
"Since I was a baby... Why?" he looked panicked.
"There's no medical ingredients in this... Not even steroids... It's only made up of H2O and NS..." She looked at his confused face and went on to explain, "H2O is water..."
"I think we got that part, Einstein!" Richie added in.
"NS is medical abbreviation for Normal Saline Solution. It's a mix of water and 0.9 percent of Sodium Chloride, which is just salt. It moves mucus when you inhale it and that's why you feel like you can breathe better after you take it, but there's no active medical ingredients in here... It's all natural... A total placebo effect. I guess your doctor gives you this prescription to get your mom off his back about your 'deteriorating' health, and he probably just nods and smiles at your mom when she says you're sick and have Asthma..." As Winter kept talking, she felt a pinch in her gut, like a hatred for Eddie's mom, and she didn't know where it came from. "I think your mom needs to get checked for Munchausen syndrome by proxy!" She threw the puffer in Eddie's lap angrily as she got up to her feet and walked away, feeling that unknown hatred for his mom.
Eddie stared at her as she walked away with his mouth dropped open in shock. Richie laughed as hard as he could.
"That was awesome!" Richie said as he nudged Eddie's shoulder.
Eddie looked down at his puffer and back to where he could still see Winter walking away.
"Did you hear all that medical mumbo-jumbo coming from her? You must be in love!" Richie continued to laugh as Eddie kept watching her until she disappeared.
"I can't... I can't believe she knew all those medical things... How did she know all that?" Eddie said flabbergasted. "My mom should get checked for Munchkin by proxy? What the fuck is that?"
"I think it means your mom is psycho."