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| 𝑆𝐼𝑁𝐶𝐸𝑅𝐸𝐿𝑌, 𝑁𝑂𝐵𝑂𝐷𝑌. |
ɪɴ ᴡʜɪᴄʜ ᴋᴏᴅʏ ᴠᴀɴᴅᴀʟ ʜᴀs ᴛᴏ sᴀʏ ɢᴏᴏʙʏᴇ ᴛᴏ ʜɪs
ғʀɪᴇɴᴅs ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ᴀʙʟᴇ ᴛᴏ ɢᴏ ʙᴀᴄᴋ ʜɪs ᴏʟᴅ ᴏɴᴇs.
𝑍𝐸𝑅𝑂 | 𝑝𝑟𝑒-𝑠𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑛𝑒.
𝑊𝐻𝑌 𝑀𝑂𝑉𝐸 𝐴𝑊𝐴𝑌 𝐴𝑇 𝐴𝐿𝐿 𝐼𝐹 𝑌𝑂𝑈'𝐿𝐿 𝐽𝑈𝑆𝑇 𝐶𝑂𝑀𝐸 𝐵𝐴𝐶𝐾 𝐴𝑇 𝑇𝐻𝐸 𝐸𝑁𝐷?
"𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑖𝑡'𝑠 ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑑, ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤𝑠 𝑖'𝑣𝑒 𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑑.
𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑖𝑡 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑘𝑒𝑒𝑝𝑠 𝑔𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑟."
(ᴛᴡ; ᴍᴇɴᴛɪᴏɴs ᴏғ ғᴏᴏᴅ, ᴅᴇᴀᴛʜ.)
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A LOT OF PEOPLE BELIEVE that the moment that you're born, your life begins. The second that the artificial light that shines down from the hospital ceiling hits your eyes, your life has started, and you've become a person with responsibilities and duties that you'll have to spend forever taking care of. You'll spend the next few years learning how to talk, to smile, to cry, to walk, and then, you become a teenager and you'll attend a school that teaches you absolutely nothing, and on your eighteenth birthday, when you legally become an adult, you're thrown out onto your ass into the real world which, of course, you aren't prepared for. Everything, from the day of your birth to the day that you die, has been mapped out for you since your first tears, and you don't really get a say in anything.
But for Kody Vandal, things have always seemed different. He believes that his life didn't start then. Sure, he believes that his life was planned from the beginning and, again, he doesn't have any other choice than to blow out the candles on his birthday every year and accept the fact that, yes this is his life and he can't do anything about it. But Kody Vandal does not believe that his life started in the hospital when he took his first real breath of air, or in the carpeted living room of his mother's childhood home where he took his first steps, or even when he threw the sugary cereal that his mother had lovingly put in a colorful bowl off of his high chair and yelled out his first word ("papa!"), to which his parents responded with surprised gasps, teary eyes, and affectionate cuddling.
No, Kody Vandal thinks that his life really, truly began during the summer before his tenth birthday, when his parents sat him down at the dinner table (they would've sat his baby sister down as well, if she had even been old enough to understand what the conversation was about) and told him that they were moving out of Hawkins, the only town he ever knew. He believes that his life started when it changed, when the normalcy of his life was stripped away and he was left confused and tired and feeling alone.
Kody knew what 'moving away' meant. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't just a teeny, tiny bit excited, because moving away means a new house, and a new neighborhood, and a new school, and new friends, which were all great in his eyes. How couldn't they be? But he also knew that 'moving away' also means scary interactions with strangers and getting used to new roads, and a lot of goodbyes to a lot of people who he had known for his whole life and who he'd probably never see again.
Which was why Kody was crying on the warm morning of July twelfth, as his father carried the last of the boxes out of his home (well, not anymore) and into the trunk of their beige station wagon. He hugged his friends tighter than he'd ever hugged them before, and he reminded them, each and every one, of his phone number, and where they were going to be moving, and that he wanted to hear from them every chance they got, because they were the best friends he'd ever had despite the fact that he's a little over a year older than all of them.
And Mike had nodded furiously, and Will had repeated the plan back to Kody to confirm, and Lucas had wrapped the boy in a tight hug one last time, because they wanted all of that, too. They wanted to call every day because they already missed him so much, and they wanted to hear him talk about his adventures on the sunny beaches of California, and they wanted to tell him what fourth grade was like even though he had already gone through it himself. And everything was going to be just like normal. It was fine, the only difference being that Kody Vandal was no longer a five-minute bike ride away anymore.
Kody thinks, even now, that it was a good plan. Was it naive? Sure, but they were just kids. And to kids, anything seems possible. A few phone calls is nothing. It was absolutely foolproof. They'd still be the best of friends, and it would've been perfect - if they had actually gone through with it.
Because even though Kody Vandal had phoned Mike Wheeler practically the second he and his family reached their new house in California and told him all about how pretty the beaches were and how much he missed them already, the boys soon learned that nothing lasts forever. July washed away like the sand on the shores that Kody loved so much, and before long, he was a fifth grader. He befriended Roman Mullard, the boy who lived just a few houses down on his block. And through Roman, Kody met his new friend's step-sister Kathleen Donovan, whom they called 'Kit' for short, and Max Mayfield, the girl who was like Kody in an uncanny amount of ways.
And Mike, Lucas, and Will entered fourth grade together and they met Dustin Henderson, and they thought he was funny and sweet and he was welcomed into their friend group almost instantly. And even though the boys told themselves that Dustin was not a replacement for Kody, they still allowed the curly-haired boy to sit in the same wooden chair that Kody would always sit in, and wear the same costume that Kody would always wear during their campaigns until Kody was no longer a part of the group, and it was Dustin instead.
But Kody's happy in California. Really, he is. His favorite space in all of Clovis is Roman's bedroom, since it's their main hangout spot when they don't want to actually go into town (not that there's much to do anyway). Sometimes, Kit will put on a record and they'll all dance around while they giggle and push each other around playfully. Other times they'll just sit in their own spaces quietly, never saying anything but at the same time, saying everything.
Today is one of the quiet days. And lying here on the carpeted floor of Roman's bedroom is nice, Kody thinks. Kit is sitting at Roman's desk, her fingers spread apart as she paints them each with a slick brush of lavender nail polish. Roman is sitting criss-crossed on his bed with an open book that Kody doesn't bother to retain the name of in his lap. And Max is right beside Kody, lying on her back, her fingers wrapped around his. It's a scene that they've been in many times before. Sometimes it'll be Max who sits at the desk and rambles about the stupid boys who she saw at the arcade that afternoon, or Kody who jumps onto the bed where Roman is lying and begins to wrestle with the boy, despite the fact that he's significantly taller and stronger than Kody is.
But not today. Today they don't feel like talking about their arcade experiences and wrestling with each other. They don't really have the energy for it. How could they? Kody's moving again. And while Max, Kit, and Roman have never had to really say goodbye to a friend, Kody has. All of the memories of his final farewell with Will, Mike, and Lucas come rushing back at this moment, and he's on the verge of tears, but he'll be damned if he lets them fall.
No, he's not fucking okay. Would you be if you've met your platonic soulmates at the age of ten and not three years later, you have to say goodbye to them forever? Of course he wants to cry. He hates this. He really fucking hates this.
It's Kit who breaks the silence that's plagued their friend group since Kody explained the situation.
"I don't want you to move away," she says, and it's not really anything revolutionary. Roman and Max don't want Kody to move away either, but maybe saying it will make things a bit easier. Kody checks in with his body and nope, it doesn't, but Kit continues anyway. "I just don't get it. Why did you even move away from Hawkins if you're just gonna move back?"
"Beats me," Kody replies, and he thanks God that his voice isn't shaky or breaking. But what he says is a lie. He does know. His mother told him directly. It's not like he wasn't aware before, though. He knew how much Loretta had been struggling to pay for food and clothes and their house bills after her husband died. Kody had tried to help out by mowing lawns and walking neighborhood dogs, but there's only so much that chore money can do for adult responsibilities. And it didn't help that Loretta had told him that she didn't want him to be exhausting himself with those chores even though, ironically, it was her that had purple bags underneath her eyes and couldn't get through a sentence without yawning. And, Kody guesses, Hawkins is cheaper, for whatever reason.
Kody untangles his fingers from Max's and gets up from the floor, maybe to try and hide the tears that are dangerously close to falling, and walks towards Roman's open window. It's the middle of June, and the stuffy breeze that drifts into the room reminds him of the morning that he moved away from Hawkins all those years ago. His hands rest on the dusty window sill and Kody stares down Crimson Street down to his house, a nice one-story that his parents had fallen in love with and determined the start of their "new beginning". Perhaps it was the pregnancy of Kody's youngest sister Caroline that inspired that in the first place.
Seeing it now, a large moving truck parked in the driveway and uniform-clad men walking in and out of his house with boxes filled with his belongings, hurts. That's the only word that Kody can really think of to describe how he feels right now. Sure, he lived in Hawkins for a huge chunk of his childhood, but he had never felt as at home as he does now in California. Maybe he had Roman, Kit, and Max to thank for that. Who knows?
"What's Hawkins like?" Max asks as she sits up, and Kody turns away from the window to face her. He's always thought that Max was pretty, even when her cheeks were still chubby and her eyes were still innocent and friendly. She's got this long, wavy hair that he's always found beautiful, like a magical princess out of a Disney movie or something. In fact, Kody even had a crush on the poor girl at one point, a fact that Mischievous Max (as Kody likes to call her occasionally) often likes to bring up to tease him about.
But somehow, today, she looks different. She's still got those same red locks of hair that tickle her nose (much to her annoyance, so the residents of Clovis will often see her wearing black headbands to keep the strands out of her hair) and those cute freckles that spread all over her cheeks and forehead, but today, Max Mayfield looks like an adult. Like some kind of mature woman who knows everything, who aged beautifully but dramatically. Kody remembers that she looked like this as she climbed through his bedroom window on the summer night that her father and mother broke the news of their divorce to her, and how she wore the same expression that she wears now as she sat on his creaky bed, her hands clasped together in her lap, refusing to cry but eventually giving in when Kody wrapped his lanky arms around her and rubbed comforting circles on her back.
Kody shrugs. "Boring, I guess. School sucks, teachers suck, kids are annoying. I remember that there were these two fuckers - I don't remember their names but holy shit, they got on my nerves. Like, once, they walked up to me and my friends on the playground - and keep in mind, these kids were, like, way older than us, like two years or something - and they started fucking with us. They were fucking assholes. God, I hated them."
Kit and Max share a look and giggle. "I can't believe you lived in Hawkins for nine fucking years, and all you remember is two bullies that messed with you and how shitty the teachers were," Max says with a smile pulling at her lips. Kody rolls his eyes but grins regardless, and soon they're all chuckling softly, perhaps no longer about what Max said but about something, and it feels nice because it's been a while since they've actually laughed with one another. "Hawkins sounds really bad, though."
Kody shrugs again, and he takes his spot on the floor beside Max once more, but not before swiping a flat pillow from Roman's bed, which makes his friend playfully glare at him, to which Kody responds by sticking his tongue out at him. "It's not awful, honestly. My friends were cool. You'd like them, Red." Kody smiles at Max, who grins back. "We used to play this game: Dungeons & Dragons. It was fun. I don't even remember how to play anymore."
"No fucking way!" Roman exclaims, and he shoots up from the bed to point an accusing finger at Kody. "You're a fucking nerd!"
Kody gasps and covers his mouth with his hand dramatically while backing away from his friend as if he's going to hit him and stopping only when his back comes in contact with the wall. "You take that back, Roman Mullard Jr! I am no such thing!"
"You are!" Roman says without lowering his hand. "That one kid from English, think his name's Jake or something - he asked me if I wanted to be a part of his party or some shit and I told him, 'Dude, I have no fucking clue what that means,' and he explained it to me and oh, my God, it sounded like some Lord of the Rings shit!"
"Roman, I've already told you, no one reads those fantasy books except you," Kit says. "Sounds like you're a bit of a nerd yourself."
"Oh, fuck off, Kit. You're twelve and you still play with barbies."
"That was one time, Roman, and I was playing with our little sister, you asshole!"
Kody and Max make eye contact this time, and they begin to giggle as Kit rushes forward, tackles Roman onto the floor, and begins to softly hit him repeatedly on the head with the book that he had been reading just moments before. But the feeling suddenly turns bittersweet because he should be happy since this is a happy moment but he can't, because knows that the men over at his house are almost done stuffing all of the Vandal family's packed boxes into the moving truck and before long, they'll be piling into their station wagon and driving back to his childhood town of Hawkins, Indiana where his new life will begin.
A life he wanted for so long after he moved away, but not anymore.
Max seems to be the only one that notices Kody's smile slowly fade into the subtlest of frowns, since Kit is still attacking her stepbrother and Roman is a bit preoccupied with attempting to stop Kit from inflicting any further damage. She stares at him for a while until Kody looks up at her, and all she does is smile at him, because really, it's all she can do, and she hopes that Kody will smile back.
He does.
And just for that moment, things seem okay to Kody. Like he can sit here forever, smiling at Max Mayfield, the girl who became his best friend ever in the span of three years, and the whole world will stop spinning for just these four kids and Kody can live the rest of his life growing up with his best friends, but of course, all good things must come to an end.
He just wishes "the end" would come a bit slower, because there's a harsh rapping on the closed door of the bedroom and all eight eyes dart towards it before they all look at each other, because they know what's about to happen.
The door creaks open and Mrs. Mullard steps in, a misty look in her eyes as she glances around the room, her gaze trailing over her daughter and Max and her stepson until she finally finds the only person she could be looking for in this situation, and when she finds him, her plump lips turn down into a tense frown as if she's about to cry, but she sniffles, collects herself, and says the few words that make all four kids want to die and sob at the same time.
"Kody, darling, your mother's at the door. I think everything's ready."
And even though it hurts Kody deep inside to hug his best friends in the same way that he hugged his best friends in Hawkins all those years ago and tell them the same plan he had constructed in his nine-year-old mind (even if he knows it didn't work the last time), he does anyway. And I suppose this is how the story of Kody Vandal begins. With the death of his father, three middle-school friends, and a moving truck.
Sorry in advance.
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A/N:
IM SO EXCITED TO SHARE THIS
BOOK WITH YOU ALL IM SO PROUD
OF IT AND EXCITED FOR THE PLOT AND
IM ALREADY IN LOVE WITH KODY AND
I HOPE YOU ARE TOO <3
anyway i hope you all enjoyed the
chapter and if you did please consider
voting and commenting! it would help a ton!
love you all,
olivia <3
06/17/2021
[©-ᴇᴅᴅɪᴇᴍʏʟᴏᴠᴇᴇ]