Into The Woods » Stranger Things (m.w) (ON HIATUS)

○Volume 14 - Will's Funeral

"Do you want me to make you anything to eat? Your school let me come home early." Her mother asked, stroking her middle child's cheek with her thumb. She used to do it when Grace was sad.

"Uh sure, just a sandwich or something." She replied, drying her tears and slightly smiling. Her mother nodded and returned a smile and hurried back into the kitchen. The girl curiously followed her mom and began to talk. "We're going to Will's funeral tomorrow, right?" Lizzy softly nodded. "We're going alright. It's the least we can do. For Jon. For Joyce." She paused and irritatedly shook before continuing. "For Lonnie." Grace's eyes widened.

"Lonnie?" She couldn't stand the man. Even more than that - she hated him. The things he used to call Will were so despicable. Grace knew the only person that hated him more than her was her mother. Lizzy despised the man for abandoning her best friend and his sons. She didn't consider him to be a father. He didn't deserve that title.

"He'll be there tomorrow. He's with Joyce right now. I tried to visit her but.. he wouldn't let me in. Dad'll be home early tonight. He was so reluctant to even go to work today but I made him go. He'll be off tomorrow too." She was rambling on, clearly frustrated by being rejected to see Joyce. "Mom." She held her mother's wrist. She was furiously spreading butter on the piece of bread that was meant for Grace's sandwich but now had a hole through it. She scoffed after realising she had unwittingly attacked the slice of bread.

"How about we go out for ice cream?" She smiled.

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The whole trip to the ice cream parlour was fun and distracting. They'd talked about the most random stuff and Grace had finally felt truly happy for once in the week. Like a weight had been lifted of her shoulders. Her mom always knew how to cheer her up.

Eventually, they had to leave. Tabitha was due to be dropped of at home by her supervisor who helped her at school and Delancey would be finished school an hour after that. Tabby practically tackled her as soon as she saw her older sister standing in the stairway of their house. She hugged the girl back with a giggle.

"I'm sorry Will died." Tabby signed, her heart hurt. Her sister loved Will like an older brother just like how Delancey loved him like a little brother.

Speaking of Delancey, the older girl came through the door a long while later and immediately found her little sisters in the family room playing board games to distract themselves from the impending funeral. "Hey kiddos, I'm home." She kissed her youngest sister's cheek to alert Tabby of her presence, to which she smiled and continued to play the game with Grace. When she turned around, Grace could tell that she wasn't the only Knightwood sister that was hurt about loosing someone.

Barb was gone. Her parents had been worried sick, they had called Mrs Knightwood to make sure their daughter wasn't staying with Lance and had forgotten to inform them. "I-uh-met Jon today. Well - me and Nance met Jon today." She corrected herself. Grace's face lit up. She hadn't seen him for the entire past week. Delancey was friends with Jon but there was a teenage awkwardness that brewed between them that prevented them from being as close as they used to be.
"What'd he say?" Delancey hesitated for a moment before answering. Should she tell Grace about the picture they'd found? The picture of Barb and the faceless monster? The kid was already traumatized enough, she didn't need this. "Oh, we were just talking about the funeral. Helping him plan stuff out. He asked for you guys." Grace, honestly, couldn't wait to see Jonathan. He really was like the older brother she never had. Deep down she had always hoped that Lance would've dated Jon but then she didn't want to force a relationship onto her sister that didn't exist.

They'd been awkward the past year, she'd went from accompanying him to photography locations to giving him brief smiles in the hallway. She was popular, he wasn't. It was just teenage bullshit designed to segregate the little guy and give assholes with egos an ever bigger excuse to act like assholes. The police had interrogated her and Nance. Nancy even had her mom with her. They were allowed to go home early but she decided to go to the Wheeler household knowing her mother would probably be at the middle school. Then they pieced the photo Nancy found after Steve broke Jon's camera.