"Let me see the map." Lyn reaches back to try and grab the road atlas book from Dustin.
"No, it's not my map skills, Steve obviously took a wrong turn while I was sleeping." He kept it out of her reach.
"I don't think so, you've been up since we entered Maine and I follow all your directions and we're still not there yet. We should have been there like two hours ago." Steve screams.
"Pull up to this drug store." She points to the building.
"What? Are you crazy? You don't ask for directions in a small hick town like this? That is how horror movies start." Dustin screeches as Steve pulls into a parking spot in front of the store.
"You know the same thing can be said about Hawkins." She took off her seat belt and opened her door.
Dustin got out of the car to whisper to her. "The same thing should be said about Hawkins, one wrong turn in the woods and your Demogorgon food."
Steve sighs as he gets out and locks the car to follow them into the store. The drive to Portland, Maine from Hawkins was supposed to be about 16 hours. Lyn drove the first half and he drove the last. It was supposed to be eight hours of driving for him, but with Dustin's misdirection, it was ten hours. They weren't even where they were supposed to be.
Dustin was nagging her about the dangers of asking small-town people directions. "Shut the hell up, Dustin." Lyn turns around to hiss at him. "Look, I won't ask for direction. But, I do have to ask where the hell we are. Your map doesn't mean anything if you don't have a starting point." She whispers to him. She wanted to yell but wasn't about to announce to everyone in the store that her brother was insulting them when she needed their help.
"Let's get drinks and snacks while we're here." Steve grabbed a basket and put three water bottles in it. He throws in a bag of Cheetos for Lyn. She seems to like any chips that would make her fingers change colors. Dustin went over to throw a few three musketeer bars into the basket. He grabs a bag of trail mix for himself.
Lyn grabs the basket and walks up to the counter. A man in a white lab coat with the name tag Nobert Keene was standing behind it. She put the basket on the counter.
"Hey, you're not from around here are you? I think I would remember a pretty face like yours." The man leers at her as he rang up her stuff.
"Yeah, we're from Hawkins." She had to reframe herself from making a gross-out face. This man looked old enough to be her father. He was looking at her like she was a stripper offering him a free lap dance.
"Hawkins?" He put her items into a plastic bag.
"It's a small town outside of Chicago." She explains it the best way to someone who didn't live in Illinois.
"Where we have family and friends who would notice if we went missing," Dustin popped up from behind her. Steve slapped him in the back of his head. "Aw, what was that for?" He rubs the sore spot.
Keene shot Dustin a weird look before turning back to Lyn. "That would be thirteen fifty-two." He told her.
"I got the exact change." Steve pulled out his wallet to give it to the man.
"I hope you guys have a good time in Derry." He hands the bag to Steve.
"Thanks." Dustin grabs his sister and pulls her out of the store. They got the information they needed. He didn't want her to give the man any more information than she already did.
Steve put the bag on the passenger seat. Dustin took out the atlas book and turned it to the Maine section. "I don't see Derry. Either that old man lied to us or we weren't even in Maine." He glared at Steve like he was the one that got them lost.
"Yo-You a-re in Mai-ne." A voice made the Hawkins residents turn to see a group of kids on bikes.
"You alright, kid?" Steve asks the stuttering boy.
"He's fine. He just got a speech impediment." The boy with a fanny pack told them.
"You're not going to find Derry on the map. We're too small to be on any map. We can show you where you are. I love to help out beautiful senoritas." A boy with curly hair and large glasses winks at Lyn. Her jaw dropped at how similar the boy looked to Mike.
"Oh, I have rendered the madam speechless." He brags to his friend. He pushes the kickstand on his bike down and walks over to them. "Got a pen, I'll mark your map for you."
She dug through her purse to grab a pen. "Thanks for your help." She hands it to him.
"Like I said it's a pleasure to help a beautiful senorita." He winks at her again.
"Calm yourself, kid," Steve warns him.
Richie didn't pay him any mind. "You're right here." He drew a red dot.
"Where are you trying to go?" A tall boy with short brown curls asks.
"To Porl..." Steve was telling them when Dustin cut us off.
"None of your business," He snaps.
"Calm down dude, we don't care if you're going to Portland." The boy with glasses rolls his eyes. Dustin turns to glare at Steve for opening his mouth. "I'm Richie by the way." He stuck his hand out to Lyn.
"I'm Rosalyn." She put her hand in his. He raises it to his mouth to kiss it.
"That's Bill." He points to the boy that stutters. "That's Eddie, he got mommy issues." The boy wearing the fanny pack waved to them before flipping off his friend. "That Stan, he's Jewish." He points to the other teen with curls.
"Hi." She smiles at them. "That's Steve and this is Dustin. Don't mind him, he thinks you're going to send us to Leatherface," Lyn points at her two riding companions.
"And, I thought Richie had an active imagination," Eddie said.
"Suck it, Eddie." He points to his crouch.
"Con-t-trol Y-ou-rse-lf Rich-ie. The-ere a la-lady pres-sent." Bill glared at his friend.
"Aren't you sweet?" Lyn gently pinches the boy's cheek, making his face flush. She felt the boy tense up under her fingers when a roar of an engine was heard. She let go to see a blue muscle car stopped in front of Darling.
"Maybe it would be better if you let your boyfriend handle this." Eddie tried to tell her but Lyn's overprotective instinct of Darling wasn't letting her hear any of that. Steve follows her, taking the kid word for it.
"Sweet ride, you got there." The bulky driver nods to Steve.
"Sweet bitch too." A lanky boy with long black hair hangs his upper half out of the backseat window to smack his lips at Lyn.
Steve balls up his fists and clenches his jaw. Richie grabs the back of his shirt. "Don't do anything stupid, the one with the mullet's dad is the sheriff." He nods to the guy in the passenger seat.
Lyn never spares the boy in the back a glance. "Thanks, I take a lot of pride in my Darling." She reaches out to rub the hood of her car. "I like your ride too. A 1980 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, right? What do you have on her, an SLP Loudmouth?" His car was ridiculously loud. He had to have done something to it for it to roar like that.
He stares at her with an open mouth shocked that not only did she know the model of his car, but what he did to it. "You broke him. Not that he was right, to begin with." Rich tapped his head with a finger.
"Why you little shit? I'll beat the crap out of you." The driver waved his fist out the window.
"Aw, don't hurt my buddy here. He's been such a great help to me." She reached out to ruffle his curls. The young teen beams with pride at getting some attention from the older pretty girl.
"What are you going to do for us so we don't hurt him?" The mullet growls out from the passenger seat.
"She isn't doing shit for you." Steve stepped in front of her. "No move it the fuck along so we can be on our way." He points down the road.
"Look who finally grew some balls." The one with the mullet got out. The driver, the lanky guy, and another boy with bleach blonde hair follow him out of the car. The young teens quickly got off their bikes and stood behind Steve. "Oh, this seems to be a day for growing balls." He rolled his eyes at the younger teens.
"The only one that needs to grow some balls around here is you." Lyn snaps.
"What did you say to me, bitch?" He sneers.
"You heard me, jackass. All four of you got out of the car to fight him up. Fuck off. You probably never fought one on one before. I bet if you don't even bark if your boys ain't with you." She glares at the leader of the small pack. She hated guys like him. At least Billy, may his soul rest in peace, would fight you one on one even when he had his boys with him. Tommy H. is the same way. In Hawkins, the attitude was if you need your buddies to fight, then you should keep your mouth shut.
"Bitch, after we beat up these losers. We're going to take you for a joy ride." He growls. The lanky boy let out an excited howl at hearing that.
"You're just proving her point. How about it then? Me and you fight one on one." Steve points to himself then the mullet. His three friends were looking at him to see if he wanted them to back down.
As he sized Steve up, deciding if he could take him or not, a police car turned the corner. "HENRY! WHAT ARE YOU AND YOUR IDIOT FRIENDS DOING? YOU'RE BLOCKING THE DAMN ROAD, DUMBASS!" A policeman rolled down his window to yell out. The boys were quick to get back in the Trans Am and drive off.
The teens from Derry were disappointed. They wanted to see Henry get his ass beat by the out of towner. "Let's get going. You don't need to get arrested." Lyn pushed Steve towards the car.
"You guys should go too before they round the block." Steve nods to the boys.
"Ye-yeah, we sho-ould." Bill agrees. Richie gave them directions to get back to the main highway that was shown on the atlas.
"Thanks for the help." She gave each of them a kiss on the cheek before getting in the car.
Steve waved to them as Lyn drove down the road.
"Look at that Dustin we're about to get on the highway with directions by someone from a small town." She teases when she sees the cutoff.
"Whatev….AAAAAAHHHH!" He let out a high pitch screaming making his sister jump.
Steve, who was sleeping, woke up in a panic. "What's going on?"
"I knew this town was no good, look at that freak ass clown. He was covered in blood." Dustin points to the side of the road.
The older teens look to see nothing there. "Man, get some damn sleep." Steve shook his head before curling back up in his seat.
"You're telling me you don..." His sentence drops when he looks back to see the clown is gone. "He must have run into the bushes or something." He told his sister.
"Maybe you do need some sleep." Lyn took the cut off to the highway.
"No, I'm fine." He insisted.
"We were great up there, Suzie." Dustin gave her a big hug.
"Thanks, I wasn't sure we were going to win. They made some great points." Suzie shrugs humbly.
"Are you kidding? Their argument was weaker than a newborn compared to yours. Right, guys? Oh, this is my sister, Lyn. This is her boyfriend, my best friend, Steve Harrington. Guys, this is my amazing, brilliant, beautiful girlfriend, Suzie." He introduced them.
"Stop it, Dusty-poo." She gave him a light push.
"Hi, it's great to finally meet you. Dustin talks about you non-stop. You were great up there. It's good to know you're a captain debater because this one likes to argue a lot." She ruffled her brother's curls.
"I have noticed that." She gave her boyfriend a teasing smile.
"Hey Suzie, that was a great debate. The best debate competition I ever saw. I could tell that it was at a national level." Steve nods his head.
"How many debate competitions have you been to?" Suzie tilts her head. From what Dustin told her Steve was a loving guy but was a typical jock in a lot of ways.
"Well… none, but it doesn't make what I said untrue," He looks up at the ceiling as he shrugs.
"Stop trying so hard, Steve." Dustin rolled his eyes.
"You're adorable, babe." Lyn pats him on the back.
Thank you to Whitsky for the suggestion of them taking a road trip that gave me the inspiration for this crossover.