I'm just stepping out of the bathroom when I hear noise coming from my bedroom. With a towel wrapped tightly around me, I peak through the cracked door, and I see Dustin... stealing my money out of my piggy bank.
"Hey!" I say as I slam the door open.
Dustin screams and quickly turns around.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I ask him as I step closer to the bed.
He's dumping out the money onto my neatly made bed.
"Dani, you don't understand. I need quarters." Dustin says.
"Yeah, it looks like you took more than quarters." I say, noticing some dollars missing.
"I'll pay you back, I swear. I'll do your chores for a month, like last time." He tries to bribe.
"No."
"No? But Dani-"
"You'll do my chores until next year."
It's October, so I don't think it's that big of a deal.
"And you'll give me some of your allowance every week, just so I know you'll pay me back." I say sternly.
"Okay, yeah, yeah it's a deal." Dustin says and holds out his hand for me to shake.
"Deal." I say shaking his hand.
We stop shaking hands and Dustin runs into his room. I shut my door and get dressed into some pajamas. Putting my glasses on, I sit down at my desk and call Nancy.
"Hello?" She asks when she picks up.
"Hey, Nance." I say.
"Oh, hey Dani. What's up?"
"Well, um, I've been thinking, and I think I should just wear my glasses tomorrow?" I say into the phone.
I got contacts today, so I won't have to wear glasses.
"It's not that I don't want to wear the contacts, I do... but-"
"But you don't want everyone to stare." Nancy finishes my sentence.
"Yeah..."
Over the summer, I changed more. My hair is longer and a little lighter from the summer sun. I have some curves. Guys don't exactly care about the glasses, but the comments will just get worse when I show up to school without them.
"Dani, you'll be fine. I'm sure you'll look great!" She says reassuring me.
"Ugh, okay. Will you walk in with me at least?"
"Sure. But Dani, you need to stop being so shy and timid. You're seventeen, eighteen in January. Maybe you could get a boyfriend? I'm sure you'll have guys lining up tomorrow."
I blush shyly, grab my necklace and hold it in-between my fingers.
"I... I don't know about that..."
"Trust me. Tomorrow, guys will be knocking at your door. Oh! have you figured out your Halloween costume yet?" Nancy asks as she changes the subject.
"Yeah, I'm going to be Sandy from Grease. I was going to be Madonna, but I figured everyone else is going to dress like her."
"Oh, Sandy is a great idea! You'll look great. Steve and I are dressing up as Joel and Lana from Risky Business." She says.
"Oh, cool, to be honest, I still haven't seen that movie."
"Well, don't tell Steve that. He'll be pissed." Nancy says as she laughs into the phone.
I laugh with her and I hear some noise on the other end. It sounds like Mrs. Wheeler.
"Hey, Dani, I have to go. Are you coming with Steve and I tomorrow?"
She's talking about seeing Barb's parents. Every week the three of us have dinner with them.
"Yeah."
"Okay, see you tomorrow." She says and hangs up.
**
"Two, I want you to find this man." Papa says and slides a picture across the table, to me.
I pull my knees up to my chest and stare at the picture.
"Come on Two. Just like we practiced." He says and leaves the room.
"If you don't do it," I hear Papa's voice say over the speaker, "You won't go into the Rainbow Room for a week. No playing with the other children... and you won't see Peter... for seven days."
Instantly, I shut my eyes and focus on finding this man. Papa's voice is still coming through the speakers. Once I find the man, I cut Papa out from the speakers, and use my abilities to now having the man's voice coming out of the speakers.
I tiredly open my eyes, not paying any mind to the voice coming through the speakers. This time, I don't feel my nose bleed. Papa walks into the room.
"You're getting stronger Two. Much, much stronger."
With that, I open my eyes and hear my alarm blaring. Don't smash it like the other one. I reach over and shut it off.
Another memory.
I get out of bed and get ready for school. This time, I leave my glasses at home.
**
I pull into the school parking lot. I'm about to park in a spot, but a blue Camaro cuts me off and steals it.
"What a jackass." A say to myself.
After looking for a decent spot, I see that there's one open next to Steve's car. I pull in, put my jeep in park and shut it off.
I have to give myself a little pep talk so I can be prepared for the snarky comments.
"Take a deep breath." I say closing my eyes.
I take a deep breath in and slowly let it out.
"If anyone says something shitty, just ignore them. You'll be fine. You'll... be... fine." I say as I open my eyes.
I grab my bag from the passenger seat and get out. I try to ignore everyone and just get to my locker. So far no one has said anything snarky to me yet. They either just smile, stare, or they say "Hi.". I grab my book for advanced bio. I shut my locker door and I'm met with Nancy, smiling at me.
"Aw, see! I told you that you'd look great." Nancy says. "Doesn't she look great, Steve?"
"Uh, oh, yeah. Yeah Dani, you look great." He says smiling at me.
"Thanks guys." I say shyly.
The bell rings indicating that we need to get to class.
"I'll see you guys later." I say and head to advanced biology.
**
"Hey, Robin." I say as I take my usual seat next to her.
"Hey, Dani." She says looking at me with her eyebrows raised.
"What?" I ask her skeptically.
"Oh nothing. Just something is missing from your face is all."
"Ha. Ha. Ha." I laugh mockingly.
"Serious question. If you don't like wearing contacts, then why do you?"
"Well, it's not that I don't like wearing them. I'm just worried that everyone is going to make fun of me for trying to fit in or something. Plus, they were actually kind of expensive, so my mom is making me wear them."
"Okay, I understand that your mom is making you... but why do you care about what people say?"
Before I can respond, the bell rings, signaling that class has started.
**
The bell finally rings for class to be over. We're filing out and Tina is standing outside handing flyers to her party.
"Hey. Be there." She says as she passes them out. "Hi, Dani." Tina says as she hands me one.
"Hey, Tina." I say and take the flyer from her.
"I like your new look by the way." She says as I walk away with Robin.
"Thanks." I reply quietly.
"Come and get sheet faced." Robin reads out loud.
"You should come." I say to her.
"Are you kidding me? Tina doesn't even like me, she didn't even hand me a flyer."
"I doubt she'll even care if you come."
"Yeah, no."
"Ple-" I go to say, but I'm cut off.
"Dani, you got invited to Tina's party!" Nancy says excitedly.
"Okay, I'm gonna go to my next class." Robin says.
"Okay, I'll see you at lunch." I say as she leaves.
"So? Are you going?" Nancy asks.
"Yeah, why not? But I have to go trick-or-treating with Dustin."
"Funny, Jonathan said the same thing about Will. You guys realize that they are old enough to go alone, right?"
Jonathan and I look at each other and with a shrug, we both reply with the same answer.
"My mom is making me." We say, simultaneously.
The three of us stop at Nancy and I's locker.
"Guys, they'll be fine." She says.
Next thing you know, Steve is picking Nancy off of the ground.
"God, take those stupid things off." Nancy says about Steve's sunglasses.
"I missed you." He says smiling as he takes them off.
I turn back towards my locker and I put my advanced bio book away. I grab my English book and shut my locker. I turn to leave but I nearly run into someone.
"How's it going." They say.
"Fine." I say, not really sure who this guy is.
"I'm Billy. Billy Hargrove." He says smiling at me.
"I'm Danielle. Danielle Henderson. Everyone calls me Dani." I say smiling back, quickly warming up to him.
"Pretty name, Danielle." Billy says as he lets my name flow off of his tongue. "Well, anyway, I just came up to you because I saw the flyer for that party in your hands. Do you want to get sheet faced with me?"
I laugh a little.
"Sure. Yeah, I'd love to." I say blushing.
"Cool, I'll pick you up at 8. Bye Dani." He says winking as he walks away.
"Holy shit." I hear Nancy say.
Slowly, I turn around.
"You got a date." She says smiling.
"I got a date." I smile and we start giggling a little.
"Oh my God, we can double date. Isn't that great Steve?"
"Oh yeah. That's awesome." He says with little to no enthusiasm.
**
After school, Nancy, Steve and I head over to the Holland's house for dinner. As we walk to the front door, we notice a "For Sale" sign in their front yard.
"Okay, ready?" Steve asks before he rings the doorbell.
"Yeah." Nancy and I say.
"Okay." Steve says as he rings the doorbell.
**
We're all sitting at the table, eating KFC when Marsha speaks up.
"I'm so sorry I didn't get to cook." She says. "I was gonna make that baked ziti you guys like so much, but I forgot about the time and before you know it, "Oh, my God, it's five o'clock"."
Nancy, Steve, and I reassure Marsha that it's not a big deal.
"It's fine." Nancy says.
"It's great." I say
"I love KFC." Steve says
"So, I noticed a "For Sale" sign out in your yard. Is that the neighbors' or..." Nancy says.
Nancy and I look at Mr. and Mrs. Holland waiting for a response. Steve is digging into the mashed potatoes and gravy.
"You wanna tell them?" Marsha asks Mr. Holland.
"Go ahead." He says as he continues eating.
Marsha looks at Nancy and I and says, "We hired a man named, Murray Bauman. Have either of you heard of him?"
"No." Nancy says.
"No. No, I don't think so." I say.
"He was an investigative journalist for the Chicago Sun-Times." Marsha says.
"He's pretty well known." Mr. Holland says as he hands Nancy a card.
"Anyway he's freelance now and he agreed to take the case."
"That's... that's great." Steve says with his mouth full. "No, that's really... That's great right?" He asks Nancy.
"Um, what exactly does that mean?" She asks Mr. and Mrs. Holland.
"Means he's gonna do what that lazy son of a bitch Jim Hop-" Mr. Holland goes to say but Marsha, comfortingly, puts her hand on his arm. Calming him down.
"Sorry." He whispers and takes a quick exhale. "What the Hawkins police haven't been capable of doing. Means we have a real detective on the case."
"It means... we're going to find our Barb." Marsha says smiling at me and Nancy.
Shit, don't cry Dani. Don't cry.
"If anyone can find her, it's this man. He already has leads. By God, he's worth every last penny."
"Is that why you're selling the house?" I ask.
"Don't worry about us sweetie. We're fine." Marsha tells me. "More than fine. For the first time in a long time, we're hopeful." She says to Nancy and I.
Shit, here come the tears.
"Um, excuse me. I'll be right back." Nancy says as she gets up from the table.
Somehow I manage to choke them down and continue eating. Steve takes a huge bite of chicken, looks over at me and smirks. All ready knowing what he's going to say, I just roll my eyes and continue eating.
"It's finger-lickin' good."