Jeopardy- Stranger Things

Chapter Sixty

December 12th, 1983

"Why does George have to be the dungeon master this time?" Mike called ahead to Dustin and Lucas as they biked over to George's house.

"Because your last campaign was terrible," Lucas called back bluntly to him.

"It was not!" Mike protested.

"There were so many loose ends, Mike," Dustin called back, shaking his head, "And what was with all those flowers in that cave?"

"They were-"

"We don't care!" Lucas interrupted as Mike was about to justify his campaign, "We just want a decent campaign and George said he had a good one that Nick helped make."

"Yeah," Dustin called back,  "Nick's awesome!"

"There's no way she's playing," Mike said, "Girl's don't play D&D."

"Nick does," Dustin quipped back, "And I, for one, am excited about it," he said, pumping his eyebrows up and down as they neared George's house.

"Hey look!" Lucas called and pulled over at the side of the road, "Will's here," he said as Jonathan's car pulled up next to them.

"Thanks," Will said to his brother, who had agreed to drop him off a little ways down the road from George's so he wouldn't get embarrassed that Joyce had now forbidden him to go anywhere alone.

"Hey Will," the others all greeted as they hopped off their bikes to walk with Will seeing as he didn't have a bike with him.

"I'll pick you up at 9," Jonathan called out of the window as the boys walked up to George's. Will turned around and put his thumb up at Jonathan to indicate his agreement.

They heard a car engine start as they neared the driveway outside George's house and assumed it was Jonathan as he drove away. However, as they rounded the corner, to their surprise, there was a moving van parked in the driveway that was backing out onto the road.

The boys all froze and stared at each other. Without having to say a word, they all had the same plan. They raced down the driveway and when they found the front door unlocked raced inside, running down the empty hallway, past the empty kitchen and into George's bedroom, hoping they wouldn't find that empty too.

"Hey guys," George said calmly, "I've just finished setting the board up."

The boys stood in the doorway, panting and frowning at each other.

"What?" George asked, "Did you run here?"

December 11th, 1983

"No!" Nick protested firmly, folding her arms across her chest as she stared at her mother, "We're not going back."

"Yes, we are," Naomi protested and continued packing up the kitchen.

"No, you misunderstand me," Nick said, perfectly calmly with a hint of a smirk on her face, "You can go back. And by all means do! But I'm an adult now, I can stay if I want to."

Naomi stood up and stared at her daughter.

"Really?" she said angrily but it had no effect on Nick anymore, "Fine then!" Naomi scoffed, "You won't last. You can't look after yourself."

"You're wrong," Nick scoffed, "You're the one who can't look after yourself. You can't look after us either. I've been raising George ever since we got here. I can live here without you perfectly well and so can George."

Nick, for a second, feared she'd gone too far. She'd got carried away finally standing up to their neglectful mother and was now worried she'd pushed back too far and Naomi was going to drag them both kicking and screaming to her car and drive away to England with the house only half packed up.

But instead, Naomi packed up the last of the kitchen stuff and said: "I'll leave your bedrooms untouched then."

December 12th, 1983

"What's going on?" Lucas asked impatiently.

"What?" George asked innocently, causing the others to all groan.

"The removal van in your drive?" Lucas elaborated.

"Oh, that," George mumbled, "My mum moved out."

"What?" the boys all exploded.

Nick watched them as the boys all sat around on George's bedroom floor. She smiled at them, half sadly, half happily. She was glad she'd gotten around her mother. Nick wasn't going to let George be dragged away from the only friends he'd managed to make in his entire life without a fight. And for that, she was grateful. George was going to be able to stay with his friends. But she didn't know for how long.

Before Naomi had left, she made a point of thrusting a bunch of crumpled mortgage papers into Nick's hand. Watching her mother drive off out of the driveway, Nick unfolded the papers and came face to face with just how much money they would have to pay to be able to carry on living there. More money than she currently made.

As she lent in the doorway, watching George and his friends laugh as they played D&D happily, finally happy, after everything that had happened, Nick vowed then and there that, no matter the cost, she was going to make sure George never had to move away from the friends he so cherished. No matter the cost.