Disclaimer: I don't own the ideas, characters, or plot of Stranger Things and IT(2017)
A/N: hello, I'm back. Sorry this took so long, shits been going down. School was just cancelled for the rest of the year so I guess I can kiss my senior year goodbye. Anyway, i want to thank everyone for all the love this has already gotten. Most of everyone who left a review was a guest so I can't exactly reply, but I want to say that I love the suggestions and thoughts you give me. Please keep it up! I apologize for any grammar or spelling errors, and I hope you enjoy!
- blockthewriter
Max turned to Ross and gave her a firm nod, straightening her back with a small smirk against her lips. Ross turned to Lucas and nodded, who passed it all the way down the line to Mike.
He signaled Eleven with hushed, "Now!"
A moment later, she could heard all of the toys' whirring and moving fall to a stop, and Max peeked her head around the corner. She gestured for the rest of them to move out, and Ross slipped through the door frame quietly, smiling when she saw Dustin kneeling on the carpet.
He was holding some sort of spray can in one hand, and a Star Wars toy in the other, and he was completely oblivious as they all snuck up behind him. (She wasn't sure how he didn't hear them. Seven kids sneaking up on another all at once wasn't the most silent activity, as much as they wished it was).
They tucked party blowers between their lips, Richie grabbed the bucket of shredded paper they were using as confetti, and Lucas held up the 'Welcome Home' sign that Ross and Will had drawn up.
Dustin stood up, holding the toy in his hands, and Max held up her hand to give them the count down. On three, they all leaned towards him and blew on the noise makers, and Richie tossed the faux confetti in the air.
Dustin...didn't take it well.
He turned around screaming like he'd just witnessed the murder of his imaginary dog, finger pressed down on the nozzle or a Farrah Faucet (Steve was giving him lessons) spray can. Lucas was the one unfortunate enough to take the onslaught at point blank range.
Simultaneously, all of them but Lucas jumped backwards to avoid hair spray to the face. Lucas had started screaming the moment Dustin turned the can on him, eyes squeezed shut and mouth wide open. After a moment, he lifted his hands up like that was going to make things better.
"Close your mouth, Lucas!"
.
They could hear Lucas whining from the kitchen, screeching and shooting out a stream of curses every few seconds. It was as loud as Richie's laughter, and between him and Lucas they could hear Max make the occasional comment every once in awhile.
For a good thirty seconds all three of them were quiet, but they heard Lucas shout, "I was just asking!" It was immediately followed by a high pitched scream and Richie howling with laughter.
They were in Dustin's room, standing around as he showed them his trinkets and doohickey's he made at Camp Know-Where. He'd been off to wherever it was actually located since summer had started.
"I call it...the forever clock."
The Forever Clock looked like some sort of mini handmade windmill. Ross wasn't sure where he got the clock part from.
"Alright? Powered by wind," he said, turning the crank on the back. "Very useful in the apocalypse."
"You're turning it by yourself. Doesn't that mean it's man powered?" Ross asked. She only received a sharp look in return, and the object was passed off to Will.
Mike watched Will as he fiddled around with it, but Eleven kept her gaze trained on Dustin as he grabbed another thing.
Having Eleven around was a welcome change...but also a weird one. She never actually thought that El would be hanging out with them, and of course there were lots of restrictions and rules, but having her around a lot was mind boggling. Especially because it was almost like watching her grow up.
When she was allowed out of the cabin to hang out with them, her ability to talk properly had improved a lot since they'd first met. But in the few months she'd been around all of them it had progressed even more, to the point where she could carry a whole conversation without moments of pulling silence from her as she gathered her words. It still sounded like she was adjusting to talking with proper grammar, but it was getting there.
It was also weird because it was like watching her develop a personality. Not to say she didn't have a personality before, but it was hard to express things and feelings when you were locked in a lab for most of your life and the restricted to a tiny cabin in the woods. She didn't really speak unless spoken to, but she would crack a random joke every once in a while that nearly had them all to tears.
The only thing that really off put Ross about it all was her relationship with Mike. They spent a lot of alone time together, to the point where they were by themselves more than they were with the group. Which was fine and all, but she wanted to spend time with both of them. Mike was her best friend and El was just being introduced into the world (albeit not a lot of it. She wasn't allowed in public with big crowds).They were young, and Ross thought that they should spend more time with the group before they entered high school and things like relationships got serious.
Besides, if Lucas and Max could figure out their time management to have alone time but also hang out with friends all the time, she didn't see why Mike and El couldn't.
But regardless she was happy that El was with them. She wasn't as close with her as she would've liked to be, but it was better than not having her around at all.
"Then, I give you," Dustin continued, spinning towards them, "the Slammer."
"What in the fuck," Ross muttered under her breath, eyeing the invention he presented themselves
The Slammer was some weird contraption with a hammer attached to the end, and when he pressed a button it started to move back and forth erratically.
Dustin held it out for her and she leaned backwards, eyebrows darting upwards when he gave her a sly grin. He changed direction and pointed it in El and Mike's direction, and El must've had the same thoughts as her, because she pulled backwards too, tugging Mike with her. Meanwhile he was looking at the thing with what Ross could only call mild fascination.
"Pretty neat, huh?" Dustin asked.
Something like that, Ross supposed.
"But this..." he continued, turning around to grab the straps of an old looking blue and yellow duffle bag. It looked like it was packed to it's maximum capacity and seemed heavy. "...is my masterpiece."
He sat it down as gently as he could on the ground between them all, and they kneeled down around him to get a close look at whatever was inside.
"I would like you to meet," He unzipped the bag, "Cerebro."
The bag is packed full of a bunch of technical looking stuff that Ross knew she would never be able to understand unless someone gave her a coloring guide with a step by step explanation on what it was and what it did. She wasn't alone, though. El had the same look, and so did Mike and Will (who were considerably more nerdy than either of them).
"What exactly are we looking at here?" Mike asked.
For Dustin's part, he didn't look put off at all by their confusion, and continued without missing a beat. "An unassembled one-of-a-kind battery-powered radio tower." He was all smiles as he watched for their reactions, nodding at them as they stared blankly back.
"So," Will started, "it's a...a ham radio."
"The Cadillacof ham radios," Dustin stressed. "This baby carries a crystal-clear connection over vast distances. I'm talking North Pole to South." He drew his hand across the air for clarification.
"That sounds a little exaggerated," Ross said, eyeing the contents of the bag. "Are you sure?"
"One hundred percent," Dustin said, filled with pride. "So Ican talk to my girlfriend whenever and wherever I choose."
Ross turned to look at him so quick, she was surprised she didn't snap her neck. She glanced at the others real fast, just to confirm she heard correctly (because really? Dustin? Girlfriend? Last she checked he was married to the Voyage of Curiosity), and then turned her gaze back to him.
"Girlfriend?" They all asked at once.
He nodded proudly.
Ross was up in an instant. "Lucas! Lucas!" She ran to the door and started down the hall. "You'll never guess what just happened!"
.
"Why are you guys talking about Shakespeare?" Richie asked from his spot in the grass. "School's over, fuck English class!"
Him and Ross were laying a few feet apart, probably baking in the sun's glare. The moment they arrived at Dustin's so called 'perfect location', Richie had seen the size of the hill they'd have to climb and immediately challenged Ross to a race. Needless to say, the hill was practically a mountain in terms of sprinting up it, and they didn't make it to the top.
Mainly because Richie was getting tired and he couldn't let Ross win, so he tackled her onto the ground and claimed he tripped.
"Dustin says him and Suzie are like Romeo and Juliet," Will explained as they approached.
"You do know how Romeo and Juliet ended, right?" Ross asked, pushing herself up into a sitting position.
"I didn't mean it literally!" Dustin defended himself. "I meant—"
"Hey, guys!"
Richie sat up so he could see Mike, who was standing in the grass with El, a bit farther down the hill from them.
He already knew what was coming. Mike and El had to go have their daily make out sessions. He didn't know whether to be annoyed or impressed.
"This is fun and all," Mike started. "But, uh..." He lifted his wrist up and tapped the watch there.
"I have to go home," Eleven said with an apologetic smile.
Dustin gestured go the top of the hill. "We're almost there."
"Sorry, man," Mike shrugged. "Curfew."
"Oh, boo you!" Ross exclaimed, giving him a thumbs down. Mike gave her a funny smile and shrugged again, before turning down the hill with El following him closely behind.
"Good luck!" She wished them, waving with a big smile.
"No, you good luck!" Richie yelled back with a silly Russian accent. He shook his fists at their backs. "Go to house! Share kisses! Leave door three inches!"
Mike looked over his shoulder to flip him the bird, but otherwise didn't respond.
"Curfew at four?" Dustin asked incredulously.
"They're lying," Lucas said, shaking his head.
"It's been like this all summer," Will added.
"It's romantic," Max said with a small smile.
"It's gross."
"It's bullshit. I just got home," Dustin said, clearly disappointed. Richie felt a little bad. He'd been gone for nearly the whole summer and had hardly gotten to hang out with Mike and Eleven, or any of them for that matter.
"Well, their loss, right?" He continued a moment later, trying to sound upbeat. "Onwards and upwards! Susie awaits!"
Richie groaned and picked himself out of the itchy grass, moving slowly to trudge up the hill behind Max, Dustin, and Lucas. He didn't notice that Will and Ross weren't following until Dustin yelled for them to hurry up.
He glanced over his shoulder to see Will spin around back towards them and help Ross up onto her feet.
She asked him something and he stuttered out an answer, and after a short pause she nodded up towards them and linked her arm with him, pulling him along with her.
Richie smiled at her when she caught his gaze, and turned back forward.
Unlike her and Mike's friendship, her and Will's didn't make him jealous on any sort of scale. For one, those two just weren't as close as her and Wheeler, but it was also hard to be mad because Will was just such a likable person.
Sure, he asked to play D&D a lot, and Richie had no idea what the fuck that was about, but other than that he was just all around a lovable guy. Shy and quiet in public but funny and loud when someone got him riled up. He played along with Richie's jokes all the time, which was something he would've never expected from the kid. Sometimes he reminded Richie of Eddie, except Will didn't get pissed at every other conversation they had.
It was almost a welcome change. Almost.
.
By the time they actually made it to the top, Richie was sweating his balls off. He was tempted to take off his shirt but also knew that the glaring sun was leaving his face looking like a tomato as it was, and he didn't need the rest of him looking the same. They were all tired, irritated, and looking ready go collapse on the spot, except maybe for Dustin. He must've eaten a bowl of Too Enthusiastic For My Own Goodcereal this morning, because his positive attitude was making Richie want to stab him at the moment.
"Made it," the Henderson kid said, grinning at them all.
Don't kill him. Don't kill him.
"Yeah, it only took five hours," Max snipped at him as she sat down on the grass.
"I'm living here now," Richie said hotly, setting down the case he'd relieved Max off earlier (because he's such a gentleman). He plopped down right next to her and crossed his arms. "I made it up, I'm not fucking going back down."
"Why couldn't we just play D&D?" Will asked.
Richie nodded. He would've rather watched them play D&D (ignore them as they play and read a comic instead) than have to hike up that fucking hill.
"I agree. D&D has air conditioning," Ross said from where she stood. She threw her head back and looked up, shaking her fists at the sky. "Where's the air conditioning up here?" She dropped onto her knees and took a deep breath, pushing her hair out of her face. Richie wondered if she regretted not bringing a pony tail.
"Ross," Richie said, pulling in her attention. "You. Me. My house. AC. Ice cream. My mom's lemonade."
She arched an eyebrow at him.
"Only catch: no clothes."
She stared at him for a moment before looking over to Dustin. "That might be worth it."
The others all gave tired chuckles, and Dustin leaned over to swat at her.
"You're all dramatic," he said.
"I'm not dramatic, I'm thirsty," Lucas said, sitting down next to Ross. "So thirsty." He unscrewed the canteen he had hung around his neck and proceeded to completely drain it within a matter of seconds.
"Did you seriouslyjust drink the rest of our water?" Max asked him, looking like the poster child of unimpressed girlfriends.
This should be good.
Lucas paused for a second (looking a bit scared) before he spit what little water he still had in his mouth back into the canteen. The smile he wore looked like it was hurting his face as he held it out to her.
"Oh, that's golden," Richie laughed from the grass. "Lukey Pooky sure is a charmer, huh, Mayfield?" He rolled out of the way as she leaned over to hit him.
For the next hour or two, they worked on setting up Dustin's radio, Cerebro, as he insisted Richie call it. He gave them instructions the whole time, leading them like the head of some dysfunctional construction crew. There was the occasional complaining, but surprisingly from everyone but Richie.
"That seems backwards to me," Lucas said when Dustin pointed it out. He squinted his eyes at Richie and asked, "You okay? Is the heat getting to you."
"Now, I'm feelin' just fine, darlin', but bless your sweet heart for askin'," he said with a Southern Belle accent. But then he shrugged and dropped it as he said, "Back in Derry, me and my friends made an underground club house. Haystack was a natural born architect or some shit, he helped us build a dam at the barrens, too. We got in trouble for it, but it was still cool."
"An underground club house?" Max asked, raising her eyebrows.
"Sounds awesome," Will said.
Richie nodded. "Oh yeah. There was a hammock and you could only get in through a trap door in the ground. Stanley bought everyone these fucking stupid shower caps so spiders wouldn't get in our hair and shit."
"Hey, spiders are no joke," Ross said, pointing at him. "Nothing should have that many legs."
"You're going to have an aneurysm when you discover these things called millipedes," he said to her.
"Alright, we're off topic," Dustin said, stopping the would-be-argument in it's tracks. "Let's get back to work. The sooner we finish this the better."
When they finally did get the thing finished and set up, Richie had to admit that he was kind of proud of it. It was lopsided and looked like it was seconds away from collapsing, but it was up all the same.
Dimly, he thought of how much better it would probably look if Ben were here helping.
"Pretty impressive, right?" Dustin asked when they all took a few steps back to take it in.
"Almost as impressive as my wang," Richie said without missing a beat.
They all gave him bland looks and he snickered. He couldn't help himself. He waved for Dustin to continue with whatever they were to do next.
"Well, on that note, ready to meet my love?"
"Okay, sure," Max said.
"Yeah," Will agreed. Dustin sat himself down on the ground and picked up the radio, switching it on and holding it do his lips.
"Suzie, this is Dustin," he said with a smile. "Do you copy? Over."
He waited a moment for a response as static filled the air. When nothing came over, he looked up at them and help up a finger.
"One sec. She's probably...she's still there." He speaks into the radio again, "Suzie, this is Dustin. Do you copy? Over."
Above him, they all exchange glances.
"I'm sure she's still there. It's just.."
"Yeah," Lucas nodded and it's reassurance.
"You know, maybe she's like, busy or—"
"Yeah."
"It could be around dinner time."
"Yup," Max said as Lucas hummed along with her.
Dustin help up his hands like what can ya do?and then went back to the radio.
"Suzie, do you copy? This is Dustin. Over."
.
An hour or so later and Dustin was still at it. The moon was high up above them and the temperature had dropped to something relatively bearable without blankets. Dustin was on his feet, speaking into the radio while everyone else was sprawled out on the ground.
"Suzie! This is Dustin. Do you copy?" At this point, the kid sounded like a broken record player. "Over."
Richie had gotten used to the sound of the static after hearing it for so long. The rest of them had set up camp in the grass nearly 10 minutes after Henderson's failed attempts at contacting his girlfriend. At first Richie cracked all kinds of jokes, but not only was it seeming to actually upset Dustin, but it was ticking off Max's especially short fuse for the day. She'd be kinda snappy after Lucas pointed out her zit.
The couple was using the dufflebag as a makeshift pillow beneath their heads, and only a few feet away Richie, Will, and Ross were laying in some sort of triangle, using each other's stomachs as pillows. Ross's head was on Will's stomach, Will's on Richie's, and Richie's on Ross's. They were all pressed so close together that the body heat kept him from complaining about the slight breeze.
Will had his eyes closed but would occasionally glance over in Dustin's direction like he had to make sure the guy was doing okay after every lack of response. Richie was staring at the sky, trying to spy the stars between the clouds (which he could never map out. He only knew the Big Dipper and that was because Ross taught him). Ross herself had her eyes closed, and the steady tempo of her breathing made Richie assume she was sleeping.
"Suzie," Dustin repeated for the millionth time. "This is your Dustin. Do you copy? Over."
More static.
"Suzie—"
"Dustin, come on," Max snapped out. "She's not there."
"She's there, alright?" He said stubbornly. "She'll pick up."
That girl was not picking up any time soon, but Dustin wasn't going to take no for an answer.
Will sat up suddenly, startling Ross awake. "Maybe Cerebro doesn't work."
"Or maybe Suzie doesn't exist!" It seemed that Lucas had adjusted his temper to Max's.
"She exists!"
"She's a genius and she's hotter than Phoebe Cates? No girl is that perfect," Lucas said. Wrong choice of words, buddy.
"Is that so?" Max asked, sitting up straight.
Sinclair stumbled over his words. "I mea...you're perfect. I—I mean, like, per—perfect in your own way. In your special—in your own special way."
Wow.
"Nice save, Sinclair," Richie said. Ross snorted in her spot.
To his surprise, Max didn't bite Lucas's head off.
"Relax, I was teasing," she said instead with a chuckle. Then her voice turned to ice. "I'm obviously perfect and Dustin's obviously lying."
Everyone's smile at their silly banter dropped as Max stood up and extended her hand to Lucas.
"Come on, Don Juan." She pulled him into his feet and together they began to walk off.
It was pretty clear where they were going but Dustin felt the need to ask anyway. "Where are you going?"
"Home," Max said over her shoulder.
They started in a jog down the hill, and Will started to get up, pushing on Ross gently to get her to do the same.
Dustin was still facing the retreating forms of Max and Lucas when he said, "And then there were four."
He turned to face them and his shoulders slumped when he found them standing.
Poor guy. He's getting disappointed left and right.
"Um...it's late," Will said. Ross yawned and set and hand in his shoulder.
"I promised my dad that I would let Miss B drive me home," she explained, sleep still lacing her voice.
"Sorry," Will offered. "Maybe tomorrow we can play D&D? Or something fun. Like we used to?"
"Yeah, sure," Dustin said.
"Welcome home," Will said with a smile.
Ross gave Dustin a quick hug. "I believe you about Suzie. See you later. Bye, Richie."
"See ya guys," Richie said as they started to jog off.
"I don't suppose you believe me, do you?" Dustin asked once they descended past their range of sight.
Richie scooted across the grass until he was next to the radio and waited for Dustin to sit down across from him.
He decided to be honest, for some reason.
"At first, not really. But I don't see why you'd have any reason to like about it. Plus, Ross thinks you're telling the truth, so..." He shrugged like it was no big deal, and Dustin raised his eyebrow.
"You believe me because Ross believed me?" He asked skeptically.
"I don't know if any of you guys have noticed, but she has this uncanny ability to tell when other people are lying," Richie told him. "She's like a human lie detector."
Dustin opened his mouth to respond because no, none of them had noticed, but then paused. He screwed up his face, closed his mouth, and looked off into the distance like he was remembering something. He opened his mouth once more to respond, but was suddenly cut off by the distorted noises that had began to burst from the radio.
"Shit," he exclaimed, bending over to reach for the hand held. He pulled it towards him and spoke into it, "Suzie? Suzie, is that you?"
Richie was surprised at the gruff, deep voice that came though, clearly not English or female.
"That's Suzie?!" He asked incredulously.
"Of course not!" Dustin hissed at him. He cranked up the volume like that would help the quality of the sound coming through. It didn't, but they were still able to realize that the language was familiar, and shared a glance.
"Is that fucking Russian?"