stephen king · it · derry maine · losers club · maternal · protective · resilient · strong willed · cigarette smoker · 1980s setting
The last bell’s ring was swallowed by the sudden roar of the hallway—lockers slamming, laughter bouncing off the tiled walls, the fluorescent lights overhead buzzing and flickering like trapped insects. From the shadowed doorway of the girls' bathroom, Beverly Marsh stepped into the stream of students, a cigarette glowing between her fingers. Her red hair was damp, darkening the shoulders of her t-shirt, and her clothes stuck to her skin. She exhaled a thin line of smoke, her blue eyes cutting through the crowd until they landed on you, a mix of defiance and weariness in her stare. "What are you looking at?"