HONEY, I'M HOME
✧･ﾟ: * Nora, Max, Lucas, Will, El, and Mike are all hiding behind a wall in the Henderson Household.
Dustin is coming home today, and the gang had a brilliant idea to surprise him. They ignore all his radio calls as he enters within range, and then El will do her cool El stuff, and they'll all jump out carrying a homemade sign.
It's gonna be great!
They all quiet down as they hear a car pull into the driveway. Dustin's footsteps are heavy as he walks up the stairs, and the group can hear him flop down onto his bed. Mike signals to El, who then starts to make all robots beep and move to where they're waiting.
"Now," Mike whispers and all the noise stops. The party slowly creeps over behind Dustin who's kneeling, examining the toys.
With a count down on her fingers, Max mouths 'one,' and they all blow into the noise makers.
Dustin screams and turn around, spraying his Farrah Fawcett spray. . . directly into Lucas' face.
Nora laughs.
The two boys scream at each other until Dustin finally comes to his senses, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Holy shit!"
"Oh, my God," Max rushes over to the distressed Lucas. "Are you okay?"
"No!" Lucas shouts. "What the hell!" His hands stay over his face.
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!" Dustin yells as Max pushes Lucas out of the room to clean his eyes. "Thanks for the banner though! It's nice!"
Dustin looks at the other five and smiles. They smile back. Safer this way.
"How was camp?" Nora asks, trying move past the kerfuffle.
Dustin's face lights up. "Amazing! I made so many cool things! I have to show you guys! C'mon!" He carries his duffel bags off to his room as everyone else follows him. Putting one on a table, he pulls out two devices. "I call it. . . the Forever Clock," he holds up something like a miniature windmill. "Powered by wind. Very useful in the apocalypse."
Dustin hands it to Will who examines it from all angles before putting back on the table, watching Dustin present his next invention.
"Then, I give you. . . the Slammer!" Dustin holds up something like a regular hammer, but them he presses a button and moves a little. Wow. "Pretty neat, huh?" But this. . . this is my masterpiece."
Dustin picks up the other duffle bag and unzips it.
It's very anticlimactic.
He reveals a bunch of random chords and pieces of metal, causing most of the group to frown. "I would like you to meet. . ." Dustin announces. "Cerebro!"
"What exactly are we looking at?" Mike speaks up, saying what everyone's thinking.
"An unassembled, one-of-a-kind, battery powered radio tower!" Dustin grins and Nora smiles a little to encourage him, even though she didn't really get it.
"So, it's a. . . a ham radio," Will says.
"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 I want."
The group pauses. "Girlfriend?"
"Yeah. Her name is Suzie," Dustin ignores the looks of shock with a smug smile. "I met her at camp and I am going to use Cerebro to talk to her. Come on." Dustin zips up the bag and tosses it over his shoulder as he walks out of the room.
"Wait," Will says, and the rest of the group follows. "So, her name is Suzie?"
"That's Suzie with a 'Z,'" Dustin nods. "She's from Utah."
"Girls go to science camp?"
"Suzie does. She's a genius."
"Is she cute?" Nora speaks up. The group looks at her, but she just gives them a "what?" look.
"Think Phoebe Cates. Only hotter."
The group looks in appreciation. Wow.
"What's going on?" Max asks as her and Lucas watch the group head out the front door.
"We're going to talk to Dustin's girlfriend," Will grins.
Just like the others had, Max and Lucas shared a look before staring at Dustin with wide eyes. "Girlfriend?"
—
✧･ﾟ: * Nora feels like she's going to faint.
Dustin had insisted they all go out to Nelson farm and climb the highest hill in the history of the world for Suzie.
Nora would've found it romantic, had she not been about to die of heat stroke.
"Aren't we high enough?" Lucas pants, sweating as much as everyone else - except for Mike and El who are strolling about.
"Cerebro works best at a hundred meters," Dustin explains, definitely not tired.
"Y'know, I'm pretty sure people in Utah have telephones," Max states. She was probably more out of breath, considering she has to carry one of the bags.
"Yeah, but Suzie's Mormon."
"Oh, shit," Lucas' eyes widen. "She doesn't have electricity?"
"You're thinking of the Amish," Nora tells Lucas. Stupid.
"What are Mormons?" Will questions.
"Super religious white people," Dustin answers. "They have electricity and cars and stuff, but. . . since I'm not Mormon, her parents would never approve. It's all a bit. . . Shakespearean."
"Shakespearean?" Nora repeats.
"Yeah, like Romeo and Juliet."
Nora rolls her eyes.
"Star-crossed lovers."
"Got it," Max nods, not amused.
"Hey, guys!" Mike calls up making the rest of the group turn around. Nora's disoriented to see Mike and El still towards the bottom of the hill while everyone else is closer to the top. "This was fun and all, but, uh. . ."
"I have to go home," El says as Mike taps his watch.
"We're almost there," Dustin tries.
"Sorry, man," Mike shrugs. "Curfew."
"Good luck," El smiles as her and Mike walk down through the field, hand in hand.
"Curfew at four?" Dustin checks his watch.
"They're lying," Lucas says as everyone else nods.
"It's been like this all summer," Will sighs.
"It's romantic," Max shrugs, but Nora knows she hates it too.
"It's gross," Lucas corrects.
"It's annoying," Nora agrees.
"It's bullshit," Dustin states. "I just got home." Nora feels bad and keeps walking up.
"C'mon, Romeo," she pushes. "Suzie awaits, right?"
"Yeah," Dustin puts a smile on his face. "Their loss. Onwards and upwards!"
Max and Lucas groan but follow after Nora and Dustin anyways, trudging along.
"Will," Nora calls back when she doesn't notice the small boy. "You coming?"
Dustin turns too and sees Will watching the spot Mike and El once stood, "Will, come on!"
Will turns and runs after the four, catching up to where they are.
"Made it," Dustin sets the bags down at the top of the hill.
"Yeah, it only took five hours," Max groans. Nora hopes it's an over-exaggeration.
"Why couldn't we just play D&D?" Will asks, disappointed.
Nora stretches a little and turns to Lucas. "Do you have any water?"
"Oh, yeah," Lucas pulls it out of his bag. "I'm so thirsty."
"Yeah, me too-" Nora sticks her hand out for the canteen only to see Lucas gulping the water down all at once.
She stares with her lips slightly parted, hand still up.
"Did you seriously drink the rest of the water?" Max glares.
Lucas looks between the two angry girls before spitting some of the water in his mouth back into the bottle and handing it to Nora.
Nora grabs the bottle and throws the recycled water onto Lucas' face.
"I deserved that."
Dustin makes the group get started on building right away, assigning each of them a section. Nora's becoming more surprised by the second at how neatly everything's coming together, and she gives the creation an awed look.
"Pretty impressive right," Dustin smiles as everyone looks up. "Now, are you ready to meet my love?"
"Okay."
"Sure."
"Mhm."
"Yeah!"
Dustin takes a seat on the grass and holds the microphone up to his mouth. "Suzie? This is Dustin. Do you copy? Over." The only response is static and the group looks at Dustin arms crossed, eyebrows raised. "One sec. . . she's probably- she's still there." He presses the button again, "Suzie? This is Dustin. Do you copy? Over."
"Are you sure she's-" Max tries to start.
"Yes, yes. I'm sure she's there. It's just-" Dustin starts to respond as Lucas just nods. "Y'know, maybe she's just busy or-" Lucas keeps nodding. "It's around dinnertime. . . here. . . Suzie? Do you copy? This is Dustin. Over. Suzie? Do you copy? This is Dustin. Over."
As Dustin continues to talk to static, the other kids lie down on the grass, just staring up at the sky.
The sun sets within an hour, and Nora gets lost in the orange-pink shades. She appreciates the existence of a universe with sunsets all the way until the sky gets dark.
Then, she starts admiring the sprinkles of light the stars give off, and she makes heart shaped constellations with smiley faces in the middle.
She lay beside Will as Max and Lucas lay a few feet away on the opposite side, and Max suddenly shoots up. "Dustin! Come on! She's not there!"
Apparently, Nora is the only one enjoying the entire situation, whether Suzie is real or not.
"She's there, alright?" Dustin argues. "She'll pick up."
"Maybe Cerebro doesn't work," Will also sits up.
"Or maybe Suzie doesn't exist," Lucas does the same.
"She exists!" Dustin exclaims.
"She's a genius and she's hotter than Phoebe Cates? Not girl is that perfect," Lucas states.
Nora sits up at this, "oh, really?"
Max turns to Lucas at the same time, "is that so?"
Lucas shifts a little, looking at the girls he's made angry for the second time today. "I mean. . . you're perfect. . . you both are- you're both perfect. . . like. . . in your own wa- in your own special way-"
"Relax," Max laughs. "I was teasing."
Nora frowns. "I wasn't," she whispers, not thinking anyone heard until Will pats her shoulder a little.
"Nor and I are obviously perfect, and Dustin is obviously lying," Max continues and sticks her hand out for Lucas to take. "C'mon, Don Juan."
Lucas pulls himself up and the two walk off together as Dustin yells, "where are you going?"
"Home!" Max responds without either of them looking back.
"Well, I guess it's just us three," Dustin sighs as Will stands up, helping Nora up at the same time.
"Um," Will seems hesitant to start. "It's. . . late. . . Sorry. Maybe tomorrow we can play D&D like we used to? Something fun?"
"Yeah," Dustin says disappointed. "Sure."
"Welcome home," Will smiles, starting off.
"It's okay, Dustin," Nora throws an arm around his shoulders, feeling bad for him. Some friends they are. "You still have me," she grins in his face.
Dustin pushes her face away and walks back to the radio, both of them fall on the ground, sitting criss-cross opposite to each other.
The radio starts making weird noises and Dustin grabs it in a rush, Nora leans forward furrowing her brows.
"Suzie, is that you?" Dustin asks hurriedly.
The noise keeps going and Nora vaguely makes out a man's voice.
Suzie?
a/n:
whoever added my story to a list called "sniffing nutmeg all night" you are my new favorite person in the world