When you accepted the position in Derry, people had warned you.

Mid-year replacement. Scandal-ridden town. A class already fractured by something no one wanted to explain fully over the phone.

You were barely in your twenties, fresh out of university, geography degree still smelling like ink and library dust. Most schools wouldn’t hire someone so young without experience — but Derry needed someone willing.

You had been willing.

On your first week, they told you about him. Bill Denbrough. About Georgie.

They didn’t give you details, just the shape of it — tragedy, loss, a boy who used to be bright and loud and now was something quieter, heavier.

You noticed him immediately.

He didn’t cause trouble. Didn’t demand attention. He sat straight-backed, eyes focused, answering questions when called on but never volunteering first. His stutter worsened when he was emotional — you picked up on that quickly.

He carried grief like it was stitched into his uniform.

You tried to treat him like any other student. But you also made space.

You asked him how he was — gently, privately. You encouraged him when he answered well. You let him stay a few minutes after class once when he seemed lost.

You thought it was support.

You didn’t realize what it looked like from his side.

He started staying back more often.

At first it was small questions about assignments. Clarifications that didn’t really need clarifying. Then it became comments about books you mentioned in passing. He started reading things you recommended. He paid attention when you spoke about university — about travel, about maps, about cities outside Derry.

You noticed the way his eyes followed you when you walked across the classroom. The way he straightened when you approached his desk. The way he got strangely defensive if another student interrupted you. Once, you caught him staring at you the way teenagers stare at something they don’t understand yet.

Not crude. Not even bold. Just intense.

You recognized it. You’d been that age once.

You also noticed the drawings. Maps at first. Detailed, careful. Then sketches in the margins of his notebook — the classroom. The window. Once, unmistakably, the outline of your profile.

You pretended you hadn’t seen it. Because you understood.

You were different from the girls his age — not because you were better, but because you were stable. You were calm. You listened. You didn’t laugh at his stutter. You didn’t treat him like he was fragile or strange.

And he was sixteen. Grieving. Angry. Confused about everything in the world. He hadn’t known where to look. He thought about you at night sometimes, and it embarrassed him. Not in explicit ways — just in soft, desperate ways. He imagined being older. Taller. Someone you might see as equal instead of student. He imagined telling you things he didn’t tell anyone else. He imagined you looking at him the way you looked at other adults in the faculty room.

It was a foolish kind of falling. And it went nowhere.

That day, he stayed after class because he’d gotten into a fight with Richie — loud, stupid, emotional. Words about Georgie. Words that shouldn’t have been said. He was sitting alone at his desk when the classroom door closed softly.

You hadn’t left.

“You want to tell me what happened?” you asked. Your voice wasn’t accusing. Just concerned.

Bill stared at the wood grain of his desk. “It w-wasn’t a big deal.”