Grace was running through the woods of Hawkins, Indiana at top speed, tears of terror running down her face as the sound of footsteps behind her grew closer.
Suddenly, an arm shot out from behind a thick tree and dragged her behind it as well. Before Grace could scream, a hand covered her mouth. Looking up she saw two boys and a girl. One of the boys and the girl looked about the same age, while the other boy was probably older than she was by a couple years.
The girl had red hair, light blue eyes and freckles. She was wearing a red jacket and jeans, and her lips were pursed. The younger boy had curly brown hair under a green cap and brown eyes. His lips were slightly parted and Grace could see that he had braces. The older boy had some pretty fabulous chocolate colored hair and brown eyes. In his right hand he was holding a wooden bat with nails in it, causing her eyes to widen in fear.
The younger boy noticed her terror and held a hand to his lips, signalling for her to be silent.
The four waited in silence, listening as the creature stalked past the tree they were hiding behind. When it was far enough away, they darted out from behind their hiding spot and ran through the woods, eventually reaching a large house.
The older boy took a key out of his jacket pocket and opened the door, shoving the kids inside first before entering himself. When the door was securely locked behind them, he turned around and placed his hand on his hips.
"Alright, so, ummm," he began awkwardly, "I'm Steve Harrington, and these two punks are Dustin and Max," he gestured to each kid respectively. "This is my house and it's currently being used as a safehouse for all the survivors that we find running around. Uh, so let me introduce you to the rest of us."
He led her through the entrance and into a large, messy kitchen. There were at least a dozen other people in the room, sitting in various places. Four kids around Dustin and Max's age were sitting at the table. There was a dark skinned boy wearing a bandana around his head, a girl with short, curly brown hair, a grumpy looking boy with black hair holding her hand, and a nervous skinny boy with a bowl cut. Two adults were pacing the room, sharing a single cigarette. On the counter was a blond boy, who the male adult glared at when he caught him trying to steal a cigarette himself. He had blue eyes full of mischief, but he was fiddling with his fingers, showing just how nervous he was. Another dark skinned boy, older than the previous one, was tapping his fingers anxiously against the counter he was leaning on next to the blond boy. Two girls were in the corner whispering to each other, one blonde and the other a curly haired brunette. A brunet boy had his arm wrapped around the blonde girl, trying to give them both some comfort. Finally, there was a couple in the other corner of the kitchen, looking uncomfortably around the room.
Steve cleared his throat, trying to gain everyone's attention. When that failed, Dustin stepped up.
"Hey! Steve would like to speak. You're being very disrespectful." The people around the room gave him incredulous looks, but he ignored them and turned back to Steve. "Go ahead bud."
Steve rolled his eyes before speaking. "We found another stray. This is… uh, actually, I forgot to ask."
Grace stepped forwards a little bit and looked around nervously, fiddling with the hem of her lavender sweater. "Um, I'm Grace."
"Steve, dude, I know your house is big, but it's not that big. You can only fit so many people in here." the blond boy said.
Steve narrows his eyes. "You're right JJ. You're totally welcome to leave."
JJ had nothing to say to that, so he remained silent.
Steve clapped his hands together awkwardly. "Oooooookaaaaay, um, so there's three guest bedrooms upstairs plus my own and my parents, uh, I don't know how you guys want to divide that up amongst yourselves."
"How about all us kids share a room?" Dustin suggested.
"Absolutely not!" Hopper and Steve shout at the same time.
Mike spoke up, "Why not?"
Steve turned on his mom voice, "Because, two of you are girls, and I know the thoughts that go through fourteen year old boys' heads. You're not sharing a room."
"Okay, how about this," Joyce intervened, "Hopper, how about you share a room with the younger boys, I can share another with the two girls, the older girls can have the master bedroom, Steve can have his own room and the older boys can share the third guest bedroom?"
Everyone seemed to agree with this and they all split up to go to their respective rooms.
After everyone was split up, Joyce and Steve handed out pillows and clothes to everyone, making sure everyone was comfortable.
After the girls had all changed into Steve's old too-big sweats and T-shirts they turned to Grace and began introducing themselves.
"I'm Kiara," the tall girl with light brown skin and curly hair said.
"Sarah," the blonde said quietly, holding out her hand.
"I'm Nancy," the last girl said. She had shoulder length brown hair, dark blue eyes, and wore an expression that made Grace want to avoid her.
"I'm Grace." she said again.
The four girls stood around awkwardly, unsure of what to say next. Nancy was the first to turn away, making up a spot for herself in the comfy armchair in the corner of the room, as far away from the other girls as possible.
Sarah glanced between Grace and Kiara uncertainly before speaking. "Ummm, is it alright if I maybe go find John B? It's just that I feel a lot safer with him."
Kiara placed a hand on her shoulder, "Yeah, that's perfectly fine." Sarah nodded and left the room, going to the boys' room next door.
Grace suddenly felt as if she had been left with a couple of hungry wolves, and desperately wanted to escape.
"Uhh, I need to, uh, bathroom!" Grace darted out of the room and immediately hit something solid and warm.
"Woah there, slow down. You just rushed out of there like a bat out of hell." Grace looked up and was met with the ocean blue eyes of JJ.
"It just, uh, felt really awkward in there." Grace muttered, stepping back to put some space between herself and the boy.
"Yeah, Kie is kind of scary, but she won't bite. Nancy, however, I'm not sure. That girl's got a dark side.
Grace just nodded.
"How about you just stay with us tonight? Sarah's already in there with John B. Pope's great and Jonathan is nice enough, just really quiet and awkward." JJ suggested.
Grace shrugged. JJ smiled a little and led her to the bedroom, where Sarah had gone. John B and Sarah were curled up on the bed, (JARAH FOREVER) with Pope in the armchair. A pallet had been set up on the floor for JJ, made up of pillows and blankets. When Pope saw another girl enter the room, he sighed. (Pope is so fed up with everybody) (He really is)
"Here," he said, getting up from the recliner, "I'll take the floor, you can have this."
"Thank you," Grace murmured, getting comfortable.
There was silence, the only noise being the sound of rustling sheets as people tried to find a comfortable position. After a few minutes, Grace fell into a restless sleep.
[Later]
Everyone in Steve's house was woken up by an incessant pounding on the front door. As quietly as they could, they peaked out from their bedroom doors, asking each other with their eyes what was going on. Finally, Steve huffed, marching down the stairs to answer the door. Everyone followed him.
When Steve opened the door, a tall, grey eyed, brown haired boy was standing there, a scowl on his face.
"Is Sarah Cameron here?" he asked, his voice tired, "I've been looking for her everywhere. Dad wants her home." (hell nah)
Sarah was standing to the left of the doorway where the new arrival couldn't see her, frantically shaking her head. John B put his arms around her, pulling her further away from the door. He gave a sharp look to Steve, silently telling him to keep quiet. Sadly, like himself, Steve Harrington was a terrible liar.
"Uh, no, sorry, she's not here. But if she stops by I'll let you know." He went to close the door, but the other boy slammed his hand against it, stopping it from shutting.
"I don't like being lied to." He said darkly, crowding into Steve's space and causing him to backup, allowing the boy entrance into the house. Slamming the door behind him, the boy's eyes quickly found Sarah, and his gaze darkened.
Stalking towards her, he growled, "C'mon Sarah. It's time to go home. I'm not going to disappoint dad again by not bringing him his favorite child." He spat the last two words as if they were poison, and reached out for Sarah.
John B's hand knocked his arm out of the way.
"No, Rafe. I'm not going home." Sarah argued, her voice shaking. Rafe sighed angrily, obviously getting frustrated.
"Woah, man, hey, chill," Steve said, trying (and failing) to defuse the situation.
Rafe whipped around and grabbed Steve by the collar of his shirt, pinning him to the wall. (I'm sorry, but whenever guys do that I think it's the hottest thing) (you mean when guys pin each other against a wall? uhhhh…)(Yeeeaaaahhh…) Steve gripped Rafe's wrists, trying to force the other boy off of him. It wasn't working, Rafe was too strong.
"Stay out of this," Rafe growled.
Rafe suddenly drops him, and turns back to Sarah. "Let's go."
Sarah shook her head. "Rafe, there are monsters out there. It's a miracle-" "or a curse," JJ muttered- "That you even made it here alive. We're safe here. And I'm never going home again if I can help it."
"C'mon man," John B intervened, "Can't we just have one peaceful night? (John B being the worst peacemaker) (Yeah, but it's not like JJ is any better, neither is Kie, and Pope doesn't want anything to do with this.) (Pope is the literal definition of unbothered) (Pope is 100% done with these people) (So true) Tomorrow, we'll talk about this, alright?"
Rafe took a deep breath before nodding. He was outnumbered, and as psychotic as he was, he still had some sense of self preservation and didn't feel like facing off with a monster tonight.
"Okaaaay, so does the couch sound alright or…?" Steve spoke, earning himself a hard glare from Rafe. Steve rolled his eyes. "Dude, I'm trying to help you, not that you deserve it," the glare deepened. Steve sighed, "The living room is this way, come on." After a moment's hesitation, Rafe followed Steve through the entryway and down the hallway leading to the living room.
Everyone else stood silently.
"Should we follow them to make sure Rafe doesn't kill him?" Kie asked.
"Nah," JJ said, "he'll be fine."
They all gave him an incredulous look, but JJ ignored them. "Well, I'm off to bed. See you all tomorrow."
JJ turned to go up the stairs and then stopped, seeing all the kids huddled at the top of the stairs, listening to everything that had been going on.
Sarah sighed, obviously tired. "Let's go guys, get back to bed." She herded the kids to bed while everyone else went back to their respective bedrooms.
Grace had remained silent throughout the whole ordeal, terrified of being noticed by Rafe. He was not someone that she wanted to cross. Despite what JJ had said, she worried about what Rafe would do to Steve when left unsupervised.
Nobody got any sleep that night.