Saturday, June 29, 1985

Mike and El sat on El's bed, facing each other, sneaking kisses here and there, listening to music as El worked on school. The radio was playing in the background.

El looked at her boyfriend for him to check her answer, and he pecked her on the lips before singing along to the radio,

"And nobody wants to know you now," he grabbed her hands and moved them along with his. "Nobody wants to show you-!"

"Mike! Mike, stop! Stop!" El couldn't help but laugh as she covered his mouth with her hands. He pulled them off and shook them again.

"So if you're lost and on your own-!"

"Mike! Stop! Mike! Mike!"

"You can never surrender!"

"Stop!" she laughed.

"What, you don't like it?" he grinned at her.

"No!" she laughed again and kissed him.

In the living room, Hopper let out a huge burp and yelled,

"You two cool it in there! I'm trying to watch my show!"

"Yeah, yeah!" Mike called back, and turned the radio down a little, and let El continue her work until it was time for him to leave and meet up with the rest of their friends at the mall.

"You're late." Lucas grumbled, arms crossed. He, Will and Max were waiting by the bike rack.

"Sorry!" Mike said, hopping off his bike quickly.

"Again." Lucas continued.

"We're gonna miss the opening." Will said.

"Yeah, if you keep whining about it. Let's go!" Mike retorted.

"If you guys keep whining about it." Lucas mocked

"Just stop talking, dude. Jeez." Mike rolled his eyes. "And I didn't even say guys!"

"Let me guess." Lucas paused for a second, "you were busy." he smacked his lips.

"Real mature, Lucas." Mike rolled his eyes once again.

The group of teens made their way to Scoops Ahoy- passing by Lucas' sister Erica in the process, which was always a hilarious encounter- where their favorite babysitter was working tonight.

Upon stepping up to the counter, Mike stared the short haired coworker of said babysitter in the eye as he rang the bell repeatedly.

"Hey, dingus, your children are here." she called.

"Again, really?" Mike rang the bell again.

"You offered." Lucas told him. Steve scoffed and motioned for them to follow him.

"Come on. I swear, if anybody hears about this-"

"We're dead." they chorused.

Once they were settled in their seats, Mike said,

"See? We made it."

"Still missed the previews."

"Still made it, fart face." Max grinned at her boyfriend and he huffed. Someone shushed them and Will started handing out their snacks.

They watched intently for a few minutes, and suddenly the movie began to slow to a stop and everyone started shouting and the power went out completely.

"Awe man!" Will grumbled. "I wonder if it went out in the whole mall?" he asked, looking at Mike. Mike shrugged, stuffing his mouth with whatever candy he had in his hand. Will chuckled and rolled his eyes, squirming a little as he felt cool air on the back of his neck. I must be under a vent, he thought, rubbing at his neck.

Suddenly, the lights flickered back on and the movie was going again, and everyone in the theater cheered.

Sunday, June 30, 1985

"Do you have an obsession with being late to shit, Wheeler?" Max asked, shoving Mike as they walked side by side towards the cabin.

"You're literally late too, Max." he huffed.

"Yeah and? I'm usually on time for everything, what's your excuse?"

"What's yours?" he retorted, shoving her back. "One, it's the middle of the summer and we're walking through the woods at eight in the damn morning, and two, I had to stop by Melvalds to buy supplies since you guys were too lazy to do it last night after the movie, and you know Mrs. Byers loves to talk." he shook the bag of supplies in her face and she shoved him again, snorting. He used the paper board in his other hand to smack her, though the only damage it could really do was give her a gnarly paper cut. Which it didn't, so when she punched him in the arm as hard as she could after, it was only to be an ass.

"You guys are late!" Lucas yelled from the porch, where he, El and Will were sitting on the steps waiting.

"Yeah, yeah." Mike grumbled, and looked at Max. "See, he said the both of us. Not just me."

"Shut it, Wheeler." she rolled her eyes.

"You have everything?" Will asked.

"Yes, I have everything." Mike said, holding it out to him. Will gladly took it, ushering Lucas in front of him and towards the front door. El gave him her usual greeting of a bear-hug and a kiss, and greeted Max with a handshake the two have been coming up with, before entering the cabin themselves.

"This is Gold Leader, returning to base. Do you copy? Over." Dustin huffed, repeating the line a couple more times into his supercom before switching it up, "This is goddamn Gold Leader-!"

"Dusty!" his mother exclaimed, shaking her head at him.

"What?" he asked.

"Relax, for goodness sake, Dusty."

"They should be answering, I know I'm in range." he grumbled.

"You've been gone for an entire month, Honeybun, maybe they just… forgot."

Yeah, like that made him feel any better.

"Yeah, Mike definitely would." he grumbled. "All wrapped up in his girlfriend."

"Mike has a girlfriend?" she asked.

"What, no?" he looked at her, as if she shocked him, realizing what he said.

"But-"

"Oh look, there's a cat!"

For once, his mom's love for cats proved to be helpful.

His mom dropped him off at home and left again to pick up some groceries. He dropped his things on the floor of his room and walked up to the tank Yertle was in, and chuckled.

"Well, at least someone's happy I'm home."

He let out a loud shriek as his toy robot started whirring and beeping, his other belongings that made noise- only if you pressed a button- beginning to make noises as well and came out from their places in his closet.

Robots and vehicles started walking out of his bedroom door and down the hallway in a line- and all he could think to do was grab the hairspray off his desk in case he needed to use it as a weapon.

He stuck the now open spray can out of his bedroom first, before sliding into the hall, the toys making their way to the living room.

"It's just a dream. You're dreaming."

The toys suddenly stop as soon as he's entered the living room, and then, there are multiple noises coming from behind him and he screamed, turning around and spraying those behind it. Lucas started screaming as the hairspray burned his eyes, and everyone stumbled away from the line of fire, Mike pulling El behind him while she clung onto his arm, squinting and hoping it didn't reach her eyes- or anyone else's.

While Max helped Lucas clean his eyes with the water in the kitchen, Dustin brought it upon himself to show the rest of his friends all his new inventions she made at camp.

"I call it... the Forever Clock. All right? Powered by wind. Very useful in the apocalypse." he shoved the weird windmill looking thing into Will's arms and went onto the next thing. "Then, I give you… the Slammer!" he held up what seemed to be a mechanical hammer and moved it closer to Mike and El. Mike turned them away a little, a smirk forming on his face as he gave the hammer to Will, giggling a little. "Pretty neat, huh? But this… this is my masterpiece." he let out a grunt as he dropped a heavy looking duffle bag in front of them, and they all crouched down to look at it.

"I would like you to meet," he paused for dramatic effect, grinning, "Cerebro!"

"What exactly are we looking at here?" Mike asked, tilting his head slightly in confusion.

"An unassembled one-of-a-kind, battery-powered radio tower."

"So, it's a uh, a ham radio?" Will asked. Dustin grinned at him.

"The Cadillac of ham radios. This baby carries a crystal-clear connection over vast distances." he started doing weird motions with his hands as he explained. "I'm talking North Pole to South. I can talk to my girlfriend whenever and wherever I choose."

"Girlfriend?" they chorused, looking at each other in shock, while Dustin grinned proudly.

He handed them each something to carry and marched out of his room, the other three scrambling to follow him.

"Wait, so her name is Suzie?" Mike asked. Dustin glanced back at him and nodded.

"Suzie with a "z". She's from Utah."

"Girls go to science camp?" Will asked.

"Suzie does. She's a genius."

"Is she cute?" El asked.

"Think Phoebe Cates, only hotter."

"I don't know who that is."

"What's going on?" Max asked, noticing the group rushing towards the front door.

"We're going to talk to Dustin's girlfriend." Will said, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Girlfriend?" they exclaimed, and followed, slamming the door behind them.

"Are we high enough yet?"

Max snorted at the phrasing.

"Cerebro works best at a hundred meters." Dustin said, completely ignoring the comment.

"How the hell do you even know if this is a hundred meters or not?" Max grunted. Dustin ignored her and continued on.

"You know, I'm pretty sure people in Utah have telephones."

"Yeah, but Suzie's Mormon." Dustin explained.

"Oh, shit. She doesn't have electricity?" Lucas asked.

"No, that's the Amish." Max corrected him.

"Oh."

"What are Mormons?" Will asked.

"Super religious white people. They have electricity and cars and stuff, but…" Dustin shrugged, "since I'm not Mormon, her parents would never approve of our relationship."

They finally reached the top, and the group of six put Cerebro up without many problems, thankfully, but they sat there for hours, Dustin trying to contact Suzie, and in between learned what everyone had been up to over the summer. Max and Lucas hung out a lot, going to the arcade and movies, the small skatepark that had opened up, and the public pool when Billy wasn't there. Mike and El also hung out a lot, but that was nothing new, but Will was included a lot, and she'd gotten a lot of her work books done so far.

Suzie still wasn't answering, and Mike could tell Dustin was not only embarrassed, but seemed a little hurt by the fact.

"Isn't Utah like… two hours behind us?" Mike asked. Dustin nodded.

"Of course you would know that, Wheeler." Max snorted.

"Shut up." he rolled his eyes. "But she could be eating dinner right now or something, man, or she's not even home yet. You never know."

"Yeah, you're right." Dustin nodded.

"And as cool as she may be, I'm sure it's difficult to put this thing together by yourself." Mike continued.

"Yeah, it's probably gonna take her a little longer than us to put it up." Will joined it.

"I wouldn't sweat it, dude." Lucas smacked him on the back.

"If you don't hear from her tonight, just try again tomorrow." Max added. "There's more to life than stupid boys, you know? She's got a life too." it was a slight jab at Mike, and he silently flipped her off.

"Ugh, I know. Thanks guys. For not making fun of me."

"Oh we're still gonna make fun of you. Especially after she responds."

Nancy angrily grabbed the half eaten sandwiches and threw them into the trash can. She hated this job- no, she hated the men at this job. She wore blue rubber gloves that most would use only to wash dishes, to keep their hands from drying up because of the soap, and to keep from feeling the slimy, gross food left on plates and silverware. They made her hands sweaty and felt gross when she took them off, but she was not going to be touching the half eaten food with her bare hands. Absolutely not.

She had no idea why she stayed late- after everyone had gone home. She was barely paid anything for this job as it is, she wouldn't be getting any more for staying and cleaning. She wasn't a janitor.

Being a janitor would probably be a lot better at this point, she thought angrily.

The phone suddenly rang, a high pitched noise that made her jump, and she paused, looking through the doorway at the phone sitting on the desk. She walked towards it as it rang for a second time, snatching off her gloves to answer it.

"Hawkins Post?" Her eyes widened, and said, "Um, hold on- I'm sorry, can you repeat that?"

She scrambled for a pen and grabbed the pad of sticky notes from the other side of the desk and began writing what the person on the other end of the line told her.

Doris Driscoll

4819 Cornwallis RD

DISEASE… RATS

Eventually, Mike and El had to leave so she'd be back in time for curfew, promising to see them all the next day. Dustin still hadn't had any luck contacting Suzie, and it was dark out when Max and Lucas decided to leave as well.

"I'm sorry, Dustin." Will apologized, standing up. "I don't want to be out too late. Maybe we can play D&D tomorrow?" he suggested.

"Yeah, maybe." Dustin frowned. "Stay safe. See you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow."

Dustin stayed for a few more minutes, and sighed, beginning to get up when he heard static on the radio.

"Suzie? Suzie, is that you?"

A weird voice spoke over the radio, in a language he couldn't understand. The volume increased, and Dustin, despite being clueless as to what they were saying, he brought out his tape recorder and turned it on.

In Russian, the voice spoke,

The silver cat feeds… when blue meets yellow in the west… A trip to China sounds nice... If you tread lightly… The week is long… The silver cat feeds... Beautiful, isn't it?

Not too far away, Billy's life was changing forever.

"911, what's your emergency?"

"Is someone there? Hello? What do you want? Hey! I said, what do you want? I said, what do you want?"

Billy was gone.

"Knock, knock!" Hopper knocked on the door frame before opening the door and going inside, only to find his adopted daughter hunched over her work book, and her boyfriend flipping through index cards. The damn cat was curled up in the corner of the room, on a little cat tree Hopper got for her. "Alright, that's enough." he grabbed the work book right out from under her, holding it behind his back.

"Hey!" she exclaimed.

"Woah, what the hell?" Mike asked, looking up from the index cards.

"Why'd you take it?" El demanded, scooting to the edge of the bed, about to try and get up to take it from him again.

"We've gotta have a talk, us three." he replied.

"What'd we do?" Mike asked, confused.

"Tomorrow is literally July first, and you two have done nothing but sit on your asses in here or in the living room, reading, and quite frankly, I'm sick of it."

"You're sending mixed signals here, Hop." Mike said, glancing at his girlfriend who looked just as confused. "You want us to be out getting into trouble…?"

"No, I want you to go your asses outside and have fun." he said. "For one week. It's not healthy for you to be cooped up inside, hell, even last year El would go outside and do things with me, but now, all you two do is sit inside and study! I understand you want to get your work done, kid, but you need a break. You'll get burnt out on school before you even get there."

"Am I… grounded from doing school?" she asked, tilting her head to the side, the ends of her hair just barely going past her shoulder now.

"No, you're not grounded at all. In fact, tomorrow, you kids are going out."

"Out? Outside?" Mike asked. Hopper pinched the bridge of his nose.

"For a kid as smart as you, kid, you sure are pretty dense."

"Nancy tells me that all the time." Mike replied easily.

"What I mean is, you two and the rest of your group of friends are going out. I literally do not care where you go, as long as you are careful, safe and cautious of your whereabouts and who is around you."

"Wait, El has permission to go out?" Mike asked. El perked up at that.

"Technically, no." Hopper shook his head. "Owens hasn't given the okay yet, but considering he thinks you'll be good to start school next year, I think it would be fine. But it's just for tomorrow, okay? We'll start kind of introducing you to the town in a couple weeks."

"So she could go to the mall?" Mike asked. "And see a movie?" Hopper nodded.

"But like I said, you have to be cautious. The mall is huge, and there'll be a lot of people there."

"It's kind of perfect, honestly." Mike said. "Who would question a group of friends walking around the mall?"

"Maybe so, but you still need to be careful." Hopper said.

"Awesome!" El nearly tackled Hopper in a hug, and he laughed, hugging her back and ruffling her hair.

"I'm giving this back to you just for tonight," he handed her the work book, "but tomorrow, I'm taking all of your work books to the station and locking them up in my desk so you can't work on them." she groaned and flicked his mustache.

"How long?" she asked.

"Just a couple days," he told her. "So you can have fun. It's not to punish you."

"I know."

Monday, July 1, 1985

Nancy stared at the notepad with Mrs. Driscoll's name, address and number on it, Diseased rats scribbled underneath. The coffee she was pouring spilled out onto the counter.

"Oh, shit, shit." she muttered, slamming the coffee pot down onto the counter.

"Whoopsie-daisy!" Bruce laughed. She raised her eyebrows and gave a forced smile. "Careful there, Nancy Drew. Careful! Pouring coffee's a tough gig, eh?" he and the rest of his buddies in the office cackled. She turned back around and scrubbed at the mess she made.

She knocked on her bosses door, announcing her entrance, "And here you are, two creams, two sugars."

"Thanks, sweetheart."

"Of course."

"Tom?" she asked.

"Hm?"

"I really hate to ask this, but do you think one of the other girls

could run and grab lunch today?"

"They're needed at their desks." he tilted his head to the side.

"I know, I just, um… I really need to go to the doctor." she rolled her eyes a little, acting as though even she were uncomfortable with the conversation, much like he would be in just a moment. "I've been having some… uh… Girl problems." he let out a wheeze.

She marched to the room where Jonathan was located, opening the door with a grin.

"Oh, come on! The light!" he exclaimed.

"Sorry. Let's go!"

"Look, I just…" he glanced at his girlfriend nervously. "I don't know if this is a good idea anymore."

"Really?" she looked at him, an eyebrow raised as they made their way to his car. "Because I feel like it's the best idea I've had all summer!"

"Look, all I'm saying is, what harm is there in asking?"

"The harm in asking, is that Tom will say no." They looked over the roof of the car at each other. "We ask for forgiveness, not permission. And if this story's as good as I think it's gonna be, then Tom won't care. In fact, he'll thank us." she said, confident.

"Or the old lady is nuts and the story blows up in our face and Tom fires us."

"And then we never have to work at this shithole again." she opened the door and got in, slamming it behind her.

Hopper dropped El off at the Wheeler's around nine that morning, and it was now nearing ten and Mike was still out cold. But El was okay with waiting, Max had already arrived, and according to her, Lucas would be there around ten thirty and Will was on his way. They watched cartoons with Holly until they heard a loud thump from above, and Rosie came running down the stairs and into the kitchen, Mike following not close behind. Her leash was attached to her collar, but her human was not.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit." he said after every step down he took. "Please don't shit in the kitchen, please don't shit in the kitchen." he begged the dog, not paying the girls in the living room any attention as he used the rail to swing himself a little faster down the hall, running into the kitchen, picking the leash up and yanking open the door for Rosie to go out.

"Michael! What have I told you about running in the house!" Karen scolded.

"Would you rather her poop in the kitchen?" he asked, closing the door behind him. "Lord have mercy on my soul." she muttered.

"When did Wheeler get so fast?" Max snorted.

"When Rosie kept pooping on the stairs." El replied. "And he had to clean it up."

"He tells you things like that in confidence, does he?" Max asked.

"Yes."

A couple minutes later, Mike came back in, a jumping Rosie coming in behind him, a squeaky toy in her mouth. He unhooked the leash and hung it around his neck to take back upstairs, and crouched a little to look at her.

"You like the toy?" he asked in a baby voice. Rosie barked, dropping the toy and Mike snatched it up, holding it away from her. She barked again and jumped up, trying

"Michael!" Karen scolded once again. He looked her dead in the eye and squeezed the toy, making it squeak loudly. "I'm gonna shove that thing-"

"Jeez, mom!" he laughed. "Sorry, sorry, it was just easy. I won't do it again." he threw the toy down the hall and she ran for it. He leaned on the counter, resting on his elbows as he watched his mom chop fruit and toss them into a bowl.

"Did you sleep okay last night?" she asked, glancing at him for a moment.

"Yeah, that bed is ridiculously comfortable." he chuckled, scratching the top of his bed. "I honestly wanna get back in it, but I have plans."

"Is that so? I had no idea." she said, raising an eyebrow. It was obvious in her tone that she was lying, but he didn't pay enough attention to realize it as he began rambling about what Hopper told him and El last night.

"Yeah, Hopper is like, grounding El from doing school work because he thinks we need to go out and do something."

"Which he's right. You're very pale, Sweetie."

"Okay first, rude." he narrowed his eyes at her and she grinned, glancing at the two girls who decided to eavesdrop, sneaking into the hallway. They were grinning at her. "Second, it's not like I would tan if I stayed outside all day anyways."

"True." she nodded. He made an affronted noise at her but continued speaking,

"But he gave us permission to take El to the mall. The mall mom. She's gonna love it. There's a Burger King there so maybe everyone will wanna get something from there, I don't know if she's ever had it. We're probably gonna see a movie- I know I can get Steve to sneak us in again. There's lights and colors literally everywhere, and God. I just know she's gonna love it." Karen smiled at her son. He was so in love with this young lady, it was adorable.

"Do you think she'll be getting any new clothes?" she asked, curious. "I'm sure Max would be happy to help her find a few new outfits."

"I don't know if he gave her any money." Mike said. "And I only have like… three dollars and fifty cents so I can't exactly contribute." He could easily take some out of Nancy's stash, but he's sure she'd really kill him this time.

"Well, I'll give you a little something to hold you over for today." she told him. "But you should go get ready, Will is on his way over and Lucas will be here at ten thirty." he made a face at her.

"How do you know that?" he asked.

"Those two." she nodded her head towards the two, who were standing at the doorway of the kitchen now, arms linked together and grinning when he looked back at them, nearly falling over laughing at his reaction.

He let out a weird noise and slapped a hand over his mouth to keep from really getting yelled at by his mom.

"How long have you been here?" he squeaked, standing correctly and turning to face them completely.

"Since well before the shit incident." Max replied smugly.

"I've been here since nine." El told him.

"Why didn't you wake me up?" he asked. She shrugged.

"I've been watching cartoons with Holly." she told him.

"Well, next time wake my lazy ass up." he told her. She smiled at him. "I'm gonna go get ready. I'll be back down in ten." he said, leaning down to kiss her cheek as he walked past the two. She turned to watch him walk down the hall and sighed, smiling to herself as she turned back around. Max and Karen were looking at her, grins on their faces.

"What?" she asked.

"You and my son." Karen replied, and left it at that

Max just laughed when El looked at her in confusion.

So yes, season three of Stranger Things is being written into this story- only it's being rewritten in a few different ways. Mainly, I'm only going to be writing the things with the younger characters, like I have with the whole story. It'll still be pretty similar to the show, but it has a few of my own touches here and there!