My Old School

35 Sweet Goodbyes

Chrissy Cunningham was an all-around nice girl, and everyone in Hawkins agreed. She was a pretty, fit, and seemingly happy head cheerleader. Her boyfriend, Jason, was the captain of his basketball team. A more perfect couple couldn't have existed. I recall gazing at the two of them from afar during their clandestine lunches at school; It was like looking at an L.L Bean ad in motion. Jason always seemed to find a way to make Chrissy feel special, not that he really had to. On Valentine's Day she would get dozens of deep red roses delivered to her desk, or on Christmas he would make a show of getting her something lavish. I secretly wondered what it would be like to be the object of someone's affection; I wondered what it would be like to be something everyone had ever hoped and wanted for. But Chrissy and I couldn't have been any more different, so the idea that this would happen to me was out of the question. I would simply resign myself to fantasizing about a life that more closely resembled her own.

It wasn't that I was unattractive, if anything, that was part of the problem, according to the faculty at Hawkins High School. My long legs and ample bust scared the boys my age but beckoned older men. I had piles of curly flaxen hair that puffed out even more in the humidity of the summer; I didn't bother to tease it further, even though it was considered in fashion to do so. I'd been told that I could pass for Traci Lords. In short, I possessed a sex appeal that I didn't even understand. My parents were hippies, true children of the 60's who had both ended up getting busted for drug trafficking when I was in middle school. I remembered the day when the woman from social services had dragged me from my class to explain this to me and further explained that if I didn't have any extended family I would be placed into foster care. My parents were not exactly close with their own families; My father had left a small town in Luckenbach, Texas once he hit sixteen to avoid ending up a cattle rancher. My mother was Pottawatomi and lived on the Match-e-be-nash-she-wish Reservation outside of Wayland, Michigan. My father and her met at a bar outside of the reservation and she never returned. I had my mother's surname of Mukwa because her and my father never legally married. This left me with no family to turn to, at least none that I had known how to contact.

Hopper, who had ironically been the one to arrest my parents, declared he would take me. I assumed it was due to him feeling guilty about putting me in such a situation, but I never pushed to ask why. Hopper wasn't bad to live with, his only real rule was that I call if I was going to be late. "Shouldn't you be out with your friend or something? It's Friday." He asked when he noticed I was still holed up in my room in an oversized Grateful Dead t-shirt. I shrugged as I turned the page of my book, it was 'The Hobbit', and I was so enthralled that I had forgotten my lack of a social life. I had never been invited to birthday parties, sleepovers, or even just out to play. Hopper tried to make up excuses, but I knew it was because the parents of my classmates didn't feel comfortable with them being around me after everything with my own family had occurred. Only when I was sure he had left for the evening did I feel comfortable enough to rifle through my stash box. 

I made sure to blow the smoke out of my window, I would light a candle or something after; Incense was out of the question, as it would just make it more obvious. I was sure he had an inkling, but I think he was happy it wasn't some other more deadly substance. Or maybe he just felt bad because I didn't have any friends. My mind mulled over these thoughts while 'In the Flesh?' echoed through my room. 'So, ya thought ya might like to go to the show?' I had assumed the lights outside were just some lost hikers with their flashlights. 'To feel the warm thrill of confusion' But the lights didn't seem to be that of this world...God this pot was better than usual. 'That space cadet glow' I shut the lights off in my own room and peered out the window to get a better view. 'Tell me is something eluding you, sunshine? Is this not what you expected to see?' It was coming from the laboratory, that I was most certain of, I felt my breath hitch in anticipation. 'If you want to find out what's behind these cold eyes. You'll just have to claw your way through this disguise.' Before the guitar riff could begin, an almost demonic noise echoed over the speakers. I felt my heart racing as the lights that were once off began to flicker rapidly. "What the fuck." I muttered as I backed into the corner of my room. I began to wonder if Reefer Rick had laced this weed, but it all seemed too vivid to just be a hallucination.