-3rd person view-
Will and Joyce were eating breakfast at the table the next morning, when they heard panicking and grunting coming from Jonathan's room.
They heard a thump out the window, and Jonathan came out of his room, buttoning his clothes on.
Joyce got up. "Hey, hey, hey," She said, trying to grab her oldest son's attention before leaving the house without a trace. "Wait up!"
"Oh, no, I'll eat at work. I'm late."
"No," Joyce smiled. "Your cheek," She said, rubbing the large and obvious hickey mark left on Jonathan's right cheek.
"All right, all right," He said, prying her hand off. "I gotta run, see you later."
"Ah! All right," She said, backing off and back to her seat at the table.
"Ugh. Gross." Her younger teenage son, Will, commented.
"Well," She said, sitting back down. "I don't think you're gonna think it's gross when you fall in love,"
"I'm not gonna fall in love." He retorted, grabbing the syrup.
"Really? You don't have any particular interest in anyone?"
"No."
"Really? Not even anyone? Not even... Kylie?" She grinned.
"No, Mom. I'm not gonna fall in love," He retorted once more.
"Okay." Joyce said, poking at her eggs with a lowkey grin.
But her attention was pulled away at the pile of magnets and papers that had fallen off the fridge, and gathered together in the ground. "Hey," She said, getting back up. "What happened here?"
"I don't know," Will murmured, as Joyce picked up each piece, one by one, and plastered them back onto the fridge.
She then stopped and looked at one picture in particular, that Will had drawn the year prior.
It was her boyfriend, or rather, ex-boyfriend, Bob Newby, who had died the year prior.
The picture was drawn in order to remember him and what he did.
She grabbed another fridge magnet and put the drawing back up.
-
-Kylie's POV-
So we had planned a surprise party thing for Dustin, who was supposed to return from camp today.
We were hiding, lined up behind one wall in particular, waiting for the right moment.
It was Max, Lucas, Will, me, Mike, and El.
So the plan was for El to use her powers to magically start the toys in Dustin's room to room, causing him to go to the living room, where we'd surprise him.
Then EL started using her powers, and I could hear the faint sound of robot toys talking.
The the faint sounds of even more toys and shit, and even a train toy.
"It's just a dream," I heard him say to himself, panicking. "You're dreaming." I laughed quietly to myself.
"Now!" Mike whisper shouted to El, who opened her eyes, and the sounds of the toys stopped.
We snuck out, to see Dustin knelt down on one knee, looking at his toys.
Lucas held the sign, and the rest of us had part blower kazoo things (I forgot what they were called XD).
Max gave us the 3, 2, 1, and then we blew our kazoo thingies, and Dustin, in return, he screamed, turned around, and sprayed Lucas in the face with his... Farrah Fawcett spray?
He and Lucas were now both screaming, and everyone else had backed up.
-
So currently, Max was helping Lucas get the spray out of his eyes, and the rest of us were looking at what Dustin has made during camp.
"I call it... the Forever Clock." Dustin said, grabbing what looked like a windmill thing. "All right? Powered by wind. Very useful in the apocalypse." He handed it to Will. "Then, I give you... the Slammer." He grabbed like a hammer mechanism looking thing, which kinda rumbled and vibrated, headed it towards Mike and El, who were holding onto each other, and backed away. Dustin chuckled. "Pretty neat, huh? But this... this is my masterpiece." He said, putting a blue duffel bag onto the floor, and zipped it open. "I would like you to meet... Cerebro."
Inside the duffel bag was a load of wires and mechanisms and I had no clue what it was. I don't think any of us did.
"What exactly are we looking at here?" Mike asked, clearly confused.
"An unassembled, one-of-a-kind battery-powered radio tower!" He said, proudly.
"So, it's a... a ham radio." Will concluded, dully.
"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 and wherever I choose."
Everyone's eyes widened at the word "girlfriend."
"GIRLFRIEND?!" We all jinxed.
Dustin grinned widely.
Dustin carried the duffel bad as we decided to set Cerebro up.
"Wait, so her name is Suzie?" Mike asked.
"Suzie with a z. She's from Utah." Dustin responded.
"Girls go to science camp?" Will asked.
"I'd go," I said.
"Suzie does. She's a genius."
"Is she cute?" Mike asked.
"Think Phoebe Cates, only hotter."
"Phoebe Cates? Really?" I said.
We passed y the front hallway.
"What's going on?" Max asked, as Lucas getting running his eyes over with hot water.
"Going to talk to Dustin's girlfriend," Will responded gleefully.
"GIRLFRIEND?!" Max and Lucas jinxed.
We all headed out.
-
We were heading up someone's farm, to the highest possible point in Hawkins, because, apparently, according to Dustin, it's the only way for Cerebro to work.
"Aren't we high enough?" Lucas asked.
"Cerebro works best at a hundred meters."
"You know, I'm pretty sure people in Utah have telephones." Max said.
"Yeah, but Suzie's Mormon."
"Oh, shit. She doesn't have electricity?" Lucas asked.
"Oh, that's the Amish," Max said.
"What are Mormons?" Will asked.
"Super religious white people." Dustin responded. "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?" Max asked.
"Yeah. Like Romeo and Juliet."
"Right." She said.
"Star crossed lovers--"
"I got it," She said.
"Hey, guys!" Mike yelled from behind us, holding El's hand.
We all turned around.
"This is fun and all, but, uh..." Mike said.
"I have to go home." El said.
"We're almost there!" Dustin pointed out.
"Sorry, man. Curfew!" Mike yelled.
"Curfew?" I muttered.
"Come on, let's go," Mike said, tugging El's hand as they ran down the hill.
"Good luck!" El said.
"Curfew at 4?" Dustin asked.
"Exactly!" I said.
"They're lying," Lucas said.
"It's been like this all summer." Will said.
"It's romantic," Max said.
"It's gross," Will said.
"It's annoying," I said.
"It's bullshit!" Dustin said. "I just got home." We watched them giggle into the distance. "Well, their loss, right?" He said, trying to be positive. "Onwards and upwards! Suzie awaits!"
Everyone groaned.
I started going up for about 10 seconds when I realized that Will wasn't with us. All of us.
"Will, come on!" Dustin yelled down at him.
Will looked panicked.
He started rushing up.
I stayed back a second.
"Hey. You okay?"
"Y-Yeah," He stammered.
"You sure? You just seem... shaken up again, like last night."
"Yeah, I'm fine..." He said. I didn't wanna pressure him, so I got going.
I know that something isn't right though. I knew he wasn't fine.
After several more minutes, we arrived.
I was fully out of breath by this point. And sweaty. And ready to collapse and fall and die.
"Made it," Dustin said.
"Yeah, only took five hours," Max grunted.
"And breath and sweat and energy," I said. "I need a break," I said, practically falling on my face in the ground, gasping for air.
"Why couldn't we just play D&D?" Will asked.
"I'm so thirsty," Lucas said, as me and Max watched him chug down the rest of his and Max's water.
"Did you seriously just drink the rest of our water?" Max asked, annoyed.
Lucas looked take aback and started spitting the water back into the bottle, and with a wide and apologetic grin, he offered it to her.
Max looked down at the bottle, and back at Lucas, and shook her head.
I opened my water bottle, took a quick sip. "You can have some of mine, just fountain it," I said, dragging my feet.
"Thank you, Kylie, for being a good friend," She said, taking the water bottle, death glaring Lucas and started water falling.
Anyways, we cleared out our bags and started putting everything together.
-
Now, a big tower thingy or whatever was standing in front of us.
"Pretty impressive, right?" Dustin asked us. "Now, you ready to meet my love?" Dustin asked.
"Okay, sure," Max said.
"Yeah," Will said.
The radio turned out, and Dustin held the microphone to his mouth. "Suzie, this is Dustin, do you copy? Over."
No response.
"One sec, she's probably... She's still there. Suzie... this is Dustin. Do you copy? Over."
We all exchanged looks.
No response still
"I'm sure she's there. It's just--"
"Yeah," Lucas said.
"You know, maybe's she's like, busy or--"
"Yeah," Lucas said again.
"It's around dinnertime."
"Mmm."
"Yep." Max said.
"Here." Dustin finished.
"Suzie, do you copy? This is Dustin. Over."
No response.
"Suzie, do you copy? This is Dustin. Over."
-
It's been several hours now.
It's nighttime now.
I'm trying my ABSOLUTE HARDEST to stay awake by this point.
"Do you copy? This is Dustin, over."
I was honestly getting tired of listening to the same thing over and over.
"SuZIE! This is Dustin, do you copy? Over."
No response, big surprise.
"Suzie! This is your Dustin, do you copy? Over. Suzie--"
"Dustin, come on! She's not there." Max said, finally breaking the silence.
"She's there, all right? She'll pick up." Dustin retorted.
"Maybe Cerebro doesn't work." Will suggested.
"Or maybe Suzie doesn't exist." Lucas suggested.
"She exists!" Dustin said, offended.
"If he was faking it, I doubt we'd have gone through all this trouble, right?" I said.
"She's a genius AND she's hotter than Phoebe Cates? No girl is THAT perfect!" Lucas said.
Max got up. "Is that so?"
Lucas got up and I could tell he took back what he said.
"I mean... you're perfect. I mean, like per-- perfect in your own way-- In your special-- your own special way--" Lucas stammered.
Max chuckled. "Relax, I was just teasing. I'm obviously perfect and Dustin's obviously lying." She got up. "Come on, Don Juan." She and Lucas then left.
"Where are you going?" Dustin asked.
"Home!" Max said.
"Well, I guess it's just you and me, Byers and Stell."
Will was already getting up. I was about to pick myself back up.
"Um... it's late. Sorry. Maybe tomorrow we can play D&D. Or something fun, like we used to?"
"Yeah, sure." Dustin said, clearly disappointed.
"Welcome... home." Will said, before leaving.
"Yeah. Welcome home." Dustin said, sarcastically.
It was a few seconds before I said something.
"I believe she's real," I said, and Dustin gave me a weak smile. "If she wasn't, I doubt we'd had gone through all this trouble."
"Thanks." Dustin said. "At least someone believes me."
"And I mean, friends don't lie. So why would you lie to us unless you didn't wanna be friends anymore?" I said.
Suddenly then, Cerebro started crackling.
Both of our ears perked up.
"Shit," Dustin said, getting down. The sound was distorted. "Shit." He grabbed the mic. "Suzie? Suzie, is that you?"
But it wasn't Suzie. It was a grown man, speaking... Russian?
"Is that Russian?" I asked.
"I-I don't know," Dustin stuttered.
We both stopped. Dustin turned the volume up.
"Holy shit," I said.
There were whole phrases.
I just wish I could understand what they were saying...
"That's fluent Russian," I said.
"Oh, my God," Dustin said.
Oh, Lordy.
What the hell's gonna happen next in Hawkins?