George and Nicole Harper had never had an easy life. From one set of divorced parents to another, these half siblings have had it tough.
Ever since their mother, Naomi, split from George's father and forced them to move from England back to her hom...
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The boys snuck back into school and headed straight to the radio. Mike still had Mr Clarke's keys tucked in his trouser pocket. No one even glanced their way as they walked through school. George supposed they'd caused enough of a scene for one day.
His lip stung from where it had split. He could taste blood still, unsure whether it was the dried blood on his lip or somewhere inside his mouth had ruptured. He didn't want to know, not particularly. This was the first time he'd been beaten up before. He didn't like it. Everything hurt, even breathing somehow hurt his face. His cheeks were swollen and both his eyes were already bruised and swelling. His eyelids were starting to close on their own where the flesh underneath them had risen. He had to strain just to keep his eyes focused.
George was content to sit back and let El handle this. He was in no state to argue with Lucas, who was once again being skeptical and kept glancing at Mike and frowning. He had no patience to listen to Mike's countless theories and had no energy to enthuse about it all with Dustin. He just wanted to step back and watch. So that's what he did.
George leant against the wall, arms folded across his chest, and watched as El took a seat in front of the Heathkit. Mike flicked the switch to turn it on and everything lit up. There was a whisper of static as everything started up. El shuffled in her seat.
Everyone stood behind her, eagerly watching. She just sat there for a minute, looking at everything, no doubt working out how to use it all, if Mike was right, that was.
"Now what?" Lucas asked impatiently, George could hear it in his voice. Lucas wasn't convinced this was going to work.
Neither was George, if he was being honest. He couldn't truly believe that Will was missing, they'd even been to his funeral, but a strange girl whom they'd never met, who they know nothing about, was going to find him in a different dimension. It sounded crazy. It was crazy! But crazy was all George had. He didn't want to admit that Will was gone. So he clung on to crazy.
"She'll find him." Mike affirmed, peering over El's shoulder and sending her encouraging glances that she didn't see. Instead, she shut her eyes.
The machines whirred and lights started to shine a little bit brighter. This had to be coincidence though. Sometimes they had power surges. The static hissed. A steady pur filled the room.
"Is it working?" George asked sullenly, he didn't want to get his hopes up. There was always a reasonable explanation to these sorts of things, you just had to find them. Lights going brighter, power surge. Static, old machinery...except the Heathkit was brand new.
"She's doing it!" Mike beamed, although how he knew was a mystery to George, "She's finding him!"
"This is crazy." Dustin marveled.
"Calm down, she just closed her eyes." Lucas said, rolling his eyes but never looking too far away from El. He was hopeful too.
The steady rumbling of static slowly built up. It was like listening to a baseline on a record and playing as loud as it would go. It was the same sort of low rumbling that you could feel in your chest. Like your heart was going to explode.
