- GIRLS ON FILM -

Chapter One: The Vanishing of Will Byers

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Hawkins, Indiana.

Also known as the literally most boring place on planet Earth. The place that made even North Dakota seem exhilarating, to give that more weight, most teens in 1983 believed that North Dakota was fake because it was so uninteresting.

Hawkins, Indiana was a small town, to say the least. It was a place where everyone knew everyone and everything. So boring that even when stupid jocks like Tommy Hagan threw parties everyone knew. Elementary school kids bring home the word to their older siblings and middle schoolers hoping to snag an invite. Even parents knew that the innocent bonfire or party was not so innocent. Riddled with booze, marijuana, spiked vodka punch, and perhaps even deviant activities. It was the 80s after all.

But Hawkins was so boring that even who got too shit-faced to walk home or who passed out in Carol Perkins' bushes was viable gossip for middle-aged men and women. Middle-aged men and women gossiped about teenagers because that's how dreadfully boring Hawkins, Indiana was.

Did you hear? Jessica saw Steve Harrington sneaking into the Wheeler's house!

Oh God, did you hear? Daniel Jones was the only one to fail the algebra test!

Yes, but did you hear about Janet Bender? She passed out on the Hagan's front lawn and the police picked her up!

Did you hear about Jonathan Byers? Lily said he only hangs out with his eleven-year-old brother... and he'll be a junior!                      

Did you hear?

Did you hear?

Did you hear?

Those three words were a staple in every Hawkins resident's vocabulary. Mothers at bunco nights or bingo or whatever the hell a slew of mothers does when together, gossiping about their own kids. Fathers at the gas station chatting nonchalantly about girls their sons deemed as bad news.

Mothers telling private stories about their children and fathers viewing teenage girls as sluts just because their sons said so?

Did they realize what they were doing?

Guess that was small-town culture, talk about who you want when you want and someone was bound to join in. Leading into a twenty-minute rant about who hates who and all that jazz, but see the offending person in the supermarket and they're back to being friends.

There was only one perk to living in the smallest, most boring town in the United States and that was it was always quiet. Just the lovely sounds of crickets or chirping birds to provide comfortable tranquility. No bustling sidewalks or honking horns or even cars driving up and down the roads. Hawkins, Indiana was quiet and boring... but a great place to sleep. Unless, of course, the house phone rings every five minutes and has been since 7:45 this morning.

The shrill ringing of the phone for the sixth time, she'd been counting, was the straw that broke the camel's back. The brunette sat up stick straight in her bed, throwing the comforter off her body and groaning. Lips turned down in a grimacing scowl, as she began to pull out the overnight curlers in her hair.

"Dad!" She shouted through her closed door, huffing and finally getting out of bed. Her freshly curled hair bouncing as she pulled open the door. Rolling her eyes at her father, passed out on the couch with the tv chatting to itself quietly. She saw the empty bottles on the table and took a deep breath, knowing he probably drank one too many Banquets and fell asleep.