𝐩𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐮𝐭

iii. GIRLFRIEND

The next day on the 29th meant that their friend, Dustin Henderson was finally coming back from Camp Know Where and Charles came up with the idea where they not only welcome Dustin back with just hugs and "welcome back"s, he ended up convincing the party to make a banner for Dustin saying welcome back.

And then Max added to his idea that they get party noisemakers to add to the surprise, then Will excitedly agreed and said that they come up with a plan where they hide and use something as bait to bring Dustin out from his room once he got home and into the livingroom where they surprise him with the banner and the noisemakers.

     El offered she can use her powers and use his toys, bring them out to the livingroom and once they brought Dustin there, they would come out from their hiding spot and surprise him.

    And as soon as Charles told Mrs. Henderson, she excitedly agreed and let them into the house to set up before she left to go pick him up. They roll out the banner that said WELCOME BACK DUSTIN in red and blue paint. Charles did the banner with the help of Will and Max.

    They can hear the car rolling up into the driveway and got into their hiding spot, hearing Dustin head to his bedroom, just as Charles expected. Charles waited and told El to start, which she did as she closed her eyes. As the toys started coming out of the room, Charles looked at Max who looked at Lucas to nod, who nodded as well, smiling.

"Now!" Mike whispers to El who opened her eyes. She reached up and wiped her blood before they grabbed the stuff, the banner that Lucas and Charles were holding, all of them each had a noisemaker in their mouth. They approach Dustin in the livingroom who was holding an R2-D2.

He was probably wondering how the hell it came out of his room on its own and stopped powering all of the sudden. Max counts down, Charles between her and Lucas, the two boys holding up the banner as they stopped right behind Dustin.

Once Max got to three and stopped counting, they all blow their blow out noisemakers, causing Dustin to flinch and start screaming. He turns around and raised a can of hairspray, aiming it directly at Lucas as Charles gasped, turning away when Dustin started spraying, he wraps both arms around Will, covering both of their heads to avoid getting any hairspray in the eyes as Lucas was.

"Dustin, stop!" Charles yelled and then eventually Dustin realized and put down the spray, his eyes wide. Charles turns around and Max ushered out Lucas right away. "Dude! That was your way of saying thank you for our bomb ass welcome back surprise?" He said and Dustin scoffed.

"What do you expect? I've dealt with Demogorgons and Demo-dogs and bleeding bald girls." He said the last part more jokingly as he looks at El and Charles rolls his eyes, pulling Dustin into a hug, a tight one. He smiled, closing his eyes.

He pulled back, "welcome back." He says with a smile and Dustin smiles back. "It's good to be back." He said as he then hugged Will. "Oh! I got something to show you guys." He says excitedly and Charles chuckled, following him.

Dustin leads him to his room, Mike, El and Will following closely behind. In Dustin's room, Dustin turns to the four with some sort of windmill looking invention, holding it up. "I call it.. the Forever Clock." He says and Charles smiles.

"Alright? Powered by wind. Very useful in the apocalypse." He says, holding it out to Charles who takes it from him, Will reaching up and twisting the back of it that Dustin was doing. "Cool.." Charles mumbled, smiling a bit.

"Then I give you.. the Slammer." He says, holding it out towards Mike and El, the girl moving back and Mike just stares at it, not taken back. Dustin chuckles as Charles hands the Forever Clock to Will, looking at Dustin. "Pretty neat, huh?" He says and Charles just smiles at him. "But this.."

Dustin turns to them, holding his duffle bag. "This is my masterpiece." He says before setting it down, sitting down. They all sit down as well, curious as Will sets down the Forever Clock, leaning closer right next to Charles. "I would like you to meet.." Dustin says as he opens up the handbag.

"Cerebro."

Mike looks up in confusion as both Charles and Will stare at it. "What exactly are we looking at here?" Mike asked and Charles looks at him. "Looks like pieces of junk to me.." He shrugs and Mike chuckles as Dustin just gets offended.

"It is an unassembled one-of-a-kind battery-powered radio tower." Dustin says as he looks directly at Charles who just nods his head. "So, it's a.. a ham radio." Will says, looking at Dustin.

"The Cadillac of ham radios. This baby carries a crystal-clear connection over vast distances. I'm talking North Pole to South. I can talk to my girlfriend whenever and wherever I chose." He said the last part in a quite smug tone.

All of them give surprised looks, Mike and El looking at each other as Will and Charles look at one another before they look at Dustin again. "Girlfriend?" They say simultaneously.

The four are all holding stuff except for Charles, following Dustin out of his bedroom who had just told them all about his girlfriend from Camp Know Where. "Wait, so her name is Suzie?" Mike asked. "Suzie with a z. She's from Utah." Dustin says.

"Girls go to science camp?" Will asked who Charles looks at. "As I've said many times before, William, girls can do and say anything a boy can do." He said and lightly shrugged.

"Yeah, Suzie does. She's a genius."

Charles smirks, "is she cute?" He asked. "Think Phoebe Cates, only hotter." Dustin said and Charles looks up, thinking about it. "Hmm." Charles says. "What's going on?" Max asked.

"Going to talk to Dustin's girlfriend."

"Girlfriend?!"

authors note charles: is she cute?
will: 😡