A NEW AND IMPROVED VERSION
Ryan Fordman has lived next door to Steve Harrington her entire life. Her entire life, he'd always been a window away, occasionally shouting across the space between their houses. They were inseparable... at least, they we...
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Steve's car sped down the road, Ryan riding shotgun with her pistol in the pocket of her sweatshirt, Dustin in the backseat explaining their next problem as he leaned forward, all while Steve kept his eyes on the road ahead of them. Apparently, the tadpole thing Dustin had shown Ryan just the other day had managed to grow into a large monster and he had no idea how to handle it.
"Wait a second," Steve paused, glancing over at Dustin leaning in the middle of them. "How big?"
"First it was like this." Dustin made a small space with his hands, expanding them. "Now it's like that."
Ryan didn't speak as she glanced at the distance between Dustin's hands. Just the other day, the thing was barely the size of her hand, now it was the size of a small house cat. How the hell did it manage to grow so fast?
"I swear to god man," Steve muttered, shaking his head as he focused back on the road. "It's just some little lizard."
"It's not a lizard!" Dustin exclaimed.
"How do you know?" Steve shot back. Ryan sighed, resting her head against the window as the boys argued.
"How do I know it's not a lizard?"
"Yeah, how do you know it's not just a lizard?"
"Because it's face opened up and he ate my cat." Dustin snapped, leaning back in his seat.
Ryan sat up from the window as Steve fell quiet, trying to wrap his mind around what Dustin had just said. She turned around in her seat, giving Dustin a stern look, "It's face opened up?"
"Umm, yeah," Dustin smiled sheepishly, shifting awkwardly under her stern gaze. "So maybe it's from the Upside Down."
"MAYBE?" She screeched, Steve turning to look at her with wide eyes. "What do you mean maybe it's from the Upside Down? How could you take in a baby monster from the Upside Down?"
"I didn't know at the time!" Dustin said defensively. "You saw it! It didn't look like a monster, it looked like a lizard!"
Ryan sighed loudly, turning back around in her seat to stare out of the windshield. Just her damn luck. Another monster to fight. Again. Steve glanced over at her for a second, not sure what to say. She looked so- tired. Then, her expression changed. Now she was determined.
"I'm sorry." Dustin apologized quietly.
"It's fine, Dusty." She said, shaking her head. "Just don't take in the weird thing in your trash can next time, cool?"
*•*•*
Aaron held Mike's shoulders tightly as the doctors wheeled Will into one of their empty study rooms, much like the ones he had been in numerous times before during Will's usual sessions. Will yelled and screamed in agony, trashing on the gurney as the doctors swarmed around him.
