"Do you hear that? Listen…" I heard Mike Wheeler say from across the basement of his house. I was currently watching, or rather listening to, him and his friends play their D&D campaign. Looking from the spot at the ceiling I was immersed in, I smiled to myself at the group of boys. "Something is coming… something hungry for blood. A shadow grows on the wall behind you, swallowing you in darkness. It is almost here." I started to drown the young dungeon master out, going back to my spot in the ceiling and losing myself in my thoughts. Originally, I was there to hang out with Nancy, but Barb had called when I went to go get myself a glass of water. I had just gone down to the basement to see what all the excitement was, deciding to stay down there for a bit so Nancy and Barb could talk. I was brought back to planet Earth when I heard the boys arguing about what to do in terms of defense. "Don't be a pussy! Fireball him!" Chuckling to myself, I looked over at the clock on the wall and noticed that it was getting a little late. Silently so as not to disturb the kids, I walked over, hugged them all, and wandered back upstairs to Nancy's room. "I'm gonna head out, I'll see you at school tomorrow," I whispered to her and grabbed my things. On my way out, I quite literally ran into Mrs. Wheeler. "I am so sorry, Mrs. Wheeler. I wasn't paying attention." I ushered out an apology. "It's alright, Zeppelin. No need to worry about it." She gave a warm smile when she finished speaking. She continued walking in the direction of the basement and opened the door where Mike was heard yelling out, "Mom, we're in the middle of the campaign!" "You mean the end. It's 15 after." I went back downstairs to help the other three boys pack up while Mike argued with his mother. I and the boys headed outside listening to Lucas talk about Nancy in a lovesick manner. "She's got a boyfriend now," Dustin mentioned. "Does not." Both Lucas and Dustin went on like that for a while when Will inserted himself in agreement with Dustin. "Dustin's right. I've seen her hanging around that Steve guy." I shook my head at the kids. "I can't listen to this anymore. I'm gonna head home before you get me in trouble." I waved and started walking down the street, not caring that they were too immersed in their argument about Nancy to respond. The last thing I heard before their voices faded into the distance was Dustin saying, "You lost your chance. You should've gone for her when she had braces and no boobs."
Walking home, I was lost in thought about how I had even ended up in a friendship with Nancy. Sure, Ezra and I had grown up with her and our mom was great friends with hers, but we had nothing in common. She was the girl next door, pretty and smart, the kind of girl that any boy would love to have. I was the local punk, blasting my music way too loud and creating a 'ruckus'. The kind of person that people typically avoided. I didn't mind much. I had Will's brother Jonathan, my friend Dylan and Will, Lucas, Dustin, and Mike. I was content with being friends with a bunch of middle schoolers. As soon as my thoughts were concluded, I realized that I finally ended up at home. Sighing, I walked through the door and saw that the only person awake was my brother. "Hey dick. What are you watching?" He jumped at the sound of my voice, apparently not hearing me come in. "Jesus fuck, Zep. Do you ever not sneak up on people? I rented Poltergeist. I just started it if you want to watch it with me." I laughed at him and made my way to the kitchen for a drink. My brother and I were twins, although he was the older one. He was a handsome young man. He took after our father, while I took more after our mother. He had long, dark brown hair, and the greenest eyes anyone had seen. His cheekbones were nice and high upon his face with a defined jawline to go with it. His style was a little different than mine. While I was the local punk of Hawkins, he was more of the local metalhead. Both of us were supposedly trouble. "That depends on if you're gonna be a little bitch during it or not. Do you want me to grab you something to drink while I'm in here?" I heard him mutter something through the sounds of the television but couldn't make out what he had said. I took a guess that he was too immersed in the movie to answer properly so I just grabbed him a Pepsi anyway.
Two hours had passed, and the movie had finally ended. I looked over to see that Ezra had passed out at some point during it. Deciding to just leave him there, I threw away the soda cans and cleaned up a little bit, so I didn't get yelled at in the morning. Walking back into the living room, I grabbed the blanket that was on the lazy boy and covered my brother up and walked upstairs to get ready for bed. Gathering my things, I walked into the bathroom and washed my face, and brushed my teeth. Once I was done, I walked back into my room, clambered into bed, and slowly drifted off into a surprisingly peaceful sleep while thinking of how incredibly average my life was. Unbeknownst to me and the rest of the town, things would be getting a lot more interesting.