Hopper glanced at the Maine kids in his rearview mirror. Richie was next to the left window, Nina was still sleeping against his shoulder, wrapped up in a thick quilt. Beverly was on her other side of her, tugging on the quilt. Mike had wanted to ride with them, but Hopper was quick to shut that down. One Mike was enough. True, Richie wasn't Mike, but he looked too like him. He was a good kid and all, but he was dating his daughter. Tradition dictated that he dislike the boy.

El noticed that her dad was looking back at their new companions...again and she turned in her seat to look back at them.

"Is she going to be alright?" she asked, nodding towards Nina. The girl had been sleeping for nearly twelve hours, with the exception of half an hour to use the bathroom and eat something.

"She'll be fine," Richie answered. "She just gets really tired after melding minds with people. When she did it with all of the losers-"

"Losers?" HOpper interrupted.

"Yeah," Richie said. "We call ourselves the losers club because...well...we're losers. Bill has a stutter, Neens is a NERD!" he shouted the word in her direction, but she only mumbled and tucked her face into her blanket. "Let's see...Bev somehow managed to get a bunch of assholes to spread a shitty rumor about her. Ben's fat, Mike - our Mike, not your Mike, he's homeschooled, Stan is a Jew, like one of those really orthodox ones who wears hannukahs and shit all the time."

"It's called a yarmulke, you racist fuck," Bev interrupted.

"Whatever," Richie said. "Anyway, we're losers and we know we're losers so we make tee shirts."

El raised an eyebrow at this. "You've made teeshirts?"

Richie stared at her awkwardly. It was hard for him to make jokes with El and he wasn't sure he liked it. She too most everything seriously and literally. "...No...we didn't make actual tee shirts."

Hopper smirked and shook his head, amused to see that El had managed to trip Mike's doppelganger up.

Blue, who was in the far back of the truck, barked a few times, attracting everyone's attention.

"Stop the car."

HOpper perked up at the sound of Nina's voice and he raised an eyebrow at this. "Why? Is there something out there?"

"If you don't stop the car then there'll be something in here," she replied shortly. "That something will be my breakfast."

Hopper cursed but signaled that he was pulling over before he parked the car on the grassy side of the highway they were driving on. Richie made no effort to get out of her way so she pushed the door open and crawled over him, ignoring his protests when her knee drove into his groin.

The others had stopped behind them and Joyce and Steve were getting out and moving forward to see what was wrong.

"Is everything," Joyce began.

Before she could finish her question the blond girl put herself onto her hands and knees and started to expel the contents of her stomach. Steve gagged himself at the sigh, but Joyce, having birthed and raised two boys, was used to things of the like. She rushed to the girl and gathered her loose, blond curls out of her face with one hand and rubbed her back with the other one.

"Are you okay kid?" Hopper asked cautiously, approaching when the wretching began to die down.

She nodded, "I'm fine...I just get car sick really bad. I hate cars."

"Oh," Hopper said. He hesitated for a moment before he went back to his car. He opened El's door and went into the glove compartment. When he came back he had a bottle of water and a handful of peppermints. "Here. Rinse your mouth with the water and then eat the peppermints. It should help with your stomach."

She wrinkled her nose at the candies her father was offering to her. "Peppermint?"

The face she made was so much like his daughter's, Sara, not El, that he had to smile. It was the first time he'd smiled at her. It was hard to let himself like this girl. She looked too much like her. "Yes, peppermint. I don't know why it helps, but my ex-wife was into some hippie crap and that one actually worked. It was a lifesaver with my kid."

She raised an eyebrow at this. "El was in the lab."

"Not...El," he said simply. Not wanting to talk about it, he shoved the peppermints into her hands and started back for the car. "Get back in the car when you're ready."

She stared at him, mouth half open and eyes wide. Joyce rubbed her back gently and explained, "His daughter died a while back...he doesn't mean to be cold. I think you remind him of her...do you want me to stay with you?"

Sara stared down at the peppermints and ground her teeth together. He had them in his car...where he used to have them when she was a kid. Sure, he didn't see her...but he hadn't forgotten her. It was a start "I'm okay...thank you...do you know how far we are from Derry?"

"Your friend, Bill says we're about halfway. We should be there tonight." Joyce answered.

"Do you think we can get some lunch soon?" she asked.

Joyce nodded, "Of course. I'll talk to Hopper. I'll be right back."

Sara didn't think she'd stay out of the car for much longer. She had a lot of think about and if she did it where she was it could be hours until she went back into the car. She looked at the peppermints her dad had given her and unwrapped one before putting it into her mouth and starting to suck on it.

Hey guys, thanks for all the reviews! I've basically doubled my reviews in this story in the past two days. Someone asked what time this story takes place due to the timeline differences in the original works, but I never really thought about it. Maybe somehwere inbetween the timelines. Just vaguely in 'the eighties' i guess. Anyway, I hope this is enough to tide you over for a bit. This was like halfway written and I can't sleep so I figured I'd work on it. Updates shall be slooooow until like January still. Sorry. REal life has to come first...frickin hate real life. Anyway, stay awesome guys.