TIME ZONES
June 28th, 1985
⏰ 12:30 pm, 📍Hawkins, Indiana
༺♥༻ Dustin comes home from camp today!
The gang and El came up with an amazing idea to surprise Dustin the day he comes home, so everyone came to Dustin's house when his mom left to pick him up. His mom is in on it, obviously.
They all stand up against the wall, holding a homemade sign and noise makers to add to the surprise factor.
Dustin kept nonstop calling from his walkie-talkie, saying that he was 'returning to base', but no one answered. They want him to be as surprised as possible.
When the front door opened, Stephanie can hear Dustin sigh as he sat down on his bed.
Then Mike whispers, "now," signaling El to start all her fancy telekinetic stuff. El sets off some of his toys that he has buried in his closet and makes them walk down the hallway.
They all can hear Dustin's heavy breathing as his footsteps creeped forward.
"Now," Mike whispers.
El opened her eyes which made the toys stop moving and beeping.
When Dustin's distracted, examining each robot, everyone creeps behind him, Stephanie holding their sign reading, Welcome Home, Dustin!, drawn with every color marker they found.
Max silently counts down with her fingers, mouthing along with the numbers. Three, two, one.
Dustin turns around, screaming like he's being ambushed. Well, he kinda is...
As he's screaming, he's also using his weapon—Farrah Fawcett hairspray. Weaponizing his hairspray against Stephanie. Particularly, right in her eyes.
Dustin's screaming, Stephanie's screaming, Max is practically swinging at Dustin reaching for the can. That is, until Dustin comes to his senses and stops spraying. "Oh, shit!" He throws the can on the floor and covers his mouth with his hand. "Oh, shit! I'm sorry!"
Stephanie tries to fan air into her eyes, but fails to find relief. "It's—oh, shit. It's fine. Yup. It's fine. I'm fine."
Max takes Stephanie's hand and walks her to the sink, where she turns on the faucet and guides Stephanie to the running water because she's basically legally blind at this point. Stephanie screams when the water touches her eyes, feeling as though she's set on fire.
"Oh, shit, Steph." Max grabs a towel and hands it to Stephanie who's still fighting for her life in the water.
Stephanie stands up, trying to open her eyes but is greeted by a yellow and red blob, who she assumes is Max.
She takes the towel and rubs her eyes with it, with no hope for her mascara anymore. When she takes the towel away from her eyes, she refocuses on Max, who is slightly clearer now. "Is my vision impaired, or do you look different?"
"No I'm just..." Max takes the time to think. "Getting hotter every moment." She flips her hair and poses like a model.
"Hot," Stephanie says, pretending she can see and isn't writhing in stinging Farrah Fawcett hell.
"Does it still sting?" Max asks, after a few seconds of silence.
"Yeah," Stephanie responds, barely able to finish before Max pushes her head back into the water.
Stephanie lets out another scream until she pulls Max's hand off of her head and lifts her head out of the water. "Do you enjoy this?"
"Yes," Max says with a straight face as if the answer is obvious.
"You are insane," Stephanie says pointing her finger at Max.
Max is about to answer before she starts staring behind Stephanie. "What's going on?" she asks the people behind her, making Stephanie turn around and see Lucas, Dustin, Will, El, and Mike all holding bags and walking out the door
"We're going to talk to Dustin's girlfriend," Will says, smiling.
"Girlfriend?" Max and Stephanie say at the same time, equally as confused.
The door closes while Max and Stephanie look at each other and smile, then run to follow them.
————
4:00 pm
༺♥༻ Stephanie is literally melting.
They have been lugging countless pounds of metal up what seems to be the highest hill in Hawkins. Or even the whole world.
"Aren't we high enough?" Stephanie pants.
"Cerebro works best at a hundred meters," Dustin says, leading the pack.
"We've already walked like, eight hundred meters," Stephanie mumbles to herself.
"You know, I'm pretty sure people in Utah have telephones," Max says, glaring at Dustin.
"Yeah, but Suzie's Mormon," Dustin argues.
"Oh shit! She doesn't have electricity?" Lucas asks, totally serious.
"That's the Amish, Lucas," Max and Stephanie say at the same time, rolling their eyes.
"What are Mormons?" Will chimes in.
"Super religious white people," Dustin starts, speeding up his walking. "They have electricity and cars and stuff, but since I'm not Mormon, her parents would never approve."
Stephanie starts to think about what it would feel like to have parents that actually cared about what she did. Stephanie could probably get a forehead tattoo and they wouldn't notice. Her mom might be popular around town, but that doesn't mean that she's a good parent.
"It's all a bit...Shakespearean," Dustin claims.
"Shakespearean?" Stephanie repeats, trying to confirm what Dustin said.
"Yeah," Dustin smiles. "Like Romeo and Juliet"
Max chuckles. "Right."
Dustin turns around. "Star-crossed lovers."
"I got it." Max looks at Stephanie with an annoyed look.
Before Stephanie could answer, a voice comes from far away. "Hey, guys!"
The gang turns around, confused. Mike and El are farther down the hill.
"This is fun and all, but, uh..." Mike taps his watch.
"I have to go home," El finishes.
"We're almost there." Dustin gestures to the hill behind them.
"Sorry, man. Curfew." Mike turns around and holds El's hand.
Dustin checks his watch. "Curfew at four?"
"They're lying," Lucas says, throwing his hands in the air.
Will sighs. "It's been like this all summer."
Max shrugs her shoulders. "It's romantic."
"It's gross," Stephanie says, crossing her arms.
"It's bullshit." Dustin looks at the ground. "I just got home...Well, their loss, right?" Dustin turns around. "Onwards and upwards! Suzie awaits!"
Dustin continues walking, which is followed by groans from Max, Stephanie, and Lucas.
They turn around, continuing walking.
Stephanie notices that Will isn't following them. "Will, come on!"
At the sounds of Stephanie's voice, he turns around and runs to catch up.
Once Will makes it to the rest of the gang, Stephanie asks, "are you okay?"
"Yeah. All good," Will answers with a slight smile.
After trudging up the rest of the hill, Dustin stops. "Made it."
"Yeah, only took five hours," Max sighs while setting the suitcase she was holding on the ground.
Will also throws his bag on the ground. "Why couldn't we just play D&D?"
Stephanie doesn't say anything because she's too out of breath, and instead grabs the water bottle she was holding and chugs the rest of it.
Once the water bottle is empty, Stephanie throws it on the ground and sees Lucas spitting water back into his bottle and offers it to Max.
Gross.
Max just shakes her head and walks away. Rightfully so.
The group gets to work by attaching metal pipes, wrapping aluminum foil around umbrellas, and wrapping coils around metal sticks.
After what seems like almost an hour of building, everyone helps Dustin make Cerebro stand.
Dustin stares at his creation. "Pretty impressive, right?"
The party agrees.
"Now," Dustin sits down and picks up the microphone, "you ready to meet my love?"
"Okay, sure." Max shrugs.
Dustin turns the radio on. "Suzie, this is Dustin. Do you copy? Over."
No response.
"One sec. She's probably...She's still there," Dustin mumbles, flustered.
"Suzie, this is Dustin. Do you copy? Over."
Stephanie coughs, making fun of the radio silence from Dustin's apparent girlfriend.
Dustin looks up at what was left of the party. "I'm sure she's there. It's just-"
"Yeah," Lucas agrees.
"You know, maybe she's, like, busy or-"
Lucas continues, probably not wanting Dustin to be embarrassed. "Yeah."
"It's around dinner time."
"Mmm," Lucas looks away awkwardly.
Max nods her head. "Yep."
"But, isn't Utah like, two hours behind us?" Stephanie points out.
Dustin shrugs. "Early dinner?" Then he goes back to his radio. "Suzie, do you copy? This is Dustin. Over."
No response.
"Suzie, do you copy? This is Dustin. Over."
No response.
————
9:00 pm
༺♥༻ The sun is setting now, and still, no response from Suzie.
Each party member had their own doubts that Suzie was real, maybe even Dustin doubted himself too.
After maybe a million more Suzie-do-you-copies, the sun is now gone, the moon is up, and the air is getting colder.
The rest of the party gave up on Suzie and are dozing off on the ground. Dustin is getting more adamant that she's there.
"Suzie, this is Dustin. Do you copy Over?"
Max and Stephanie are laying next to each other, staring at the stars and trying to relax, but Dustin's voice hammers into their heads every five seconds. Stephanie is positive that after this night, her inner monologue will only consist of Suzie, do you copy? This is Dustin. Over. For the rest of her whole life.
"Suzie—"
"Dustin, come on! She's not there," Max snaps, not being able to take it anymore.
"She's there, alright? She'll pick up," Dustin says, equally as annoyed.
"You're more delusional than Steve who thinks he's getting a girlfriend anytime soon," Stephanie says, tracing the stars with her finger.
Will sits up. "Maybe Cerebro doesn't work."
"Or maybe Suzie doesn't exist," Lucas shouts.
"She exists!" Dustin defends himself.
"She's a genius and she's hotter than Phoebe Cates." Lucas sits up from beside Will. "No girl is that perfect."
"Is that so?" Max interrogates Lucas.
"I mean...you're perfect." Lucas stutters through his response. "I mean, like, perfect in your own way. In your special—your own special way."
"And?" Max nods her head to Stephanie.
Lucas looks lost. "And what..?"
Now Max's nods are becoming bigger.
"Oh! And—and Stephanie." Lucas points to Stephanie. "Both of you. Together. Yeah. Perfect in...in your own way."
Neither girl breaks their death stare at Lucas.
"Was that the right answer?" Lucas basically whispers.
Max breaks her stare and laughs. "Relax, I was teasing." Max puts her arm around Stephanie. "We're obviously perfect and Dustin's obviously lying."
Stephanie looks at Dustin, who is visibly offended.
Max stands up and pulls Stephanie up with her. "Come on, Steph."
"Where are you going?" Dustin yells.
Max turns around, still holding Stephanie's hand. "Home!"
Max and Stephanie start their trek back down the hill, holding hands.
༺♥༻
max is too good for lucas anyway
women4life
4/15/23