(He picks his head up, pretty much at all that. His eyes shine with a dim curiosity, because he doesn't fully comprehend how deep that sort of thing runs. There's quite a bit of processing going on in his head and he sits up a little straighter, thankfully. Especially when she says she'll believe him.)

Laura's got me as a friend. And I know the others will like her. She'll be one of us too. (Even as a girl, he is positive of that. They weren't a boy-exclusive group, even if they were a boy-dominate one.)

...Why? Girls call boys stupid all the time too. It's just a dumb thing we say.

(Boys and girls alike, he means, at their age. He's been told he was a dumb boy all the time.

But of course, Eddie has no clue about privilege, about systematic oppression. Feminism was alive and well in the 1950s, but only if you were personally involved with it, and there definitely was no one in Derry advertising that kind of mentality. Sure he knew girls could fight and do important things, but his thoughts on the whole thing? Still pretty muddled.)

He is. (Eddie thinks very hard, very carefully. He peers away from his camera and yes, he is absolutely making sure Richie isn't near enough to hear.)

I doubt I'd be alive if it weren't for him. And summer would have been a lot scarier.