Chapter 37: Ice Breaker
"Do you have everything?" Mrs. Denbrough asks as the three kids get ready for school. "Mia where are you?"
"Coming Aunt Sharon," Mia calls from upstairs. She turns back to her stack of books on her bed.
"Okay, Tempest, Geometry and Grammar," she says, grabbing the books and shoving them in the bag. "Pencils, rulers, erasers and…"
The teen shifts her supplies around, trying to find it.
"Where is it? Where is it?" her heart pounding in fear.
She then leans down to look under the bed.
"Bingo," she smirks, before packing the last thing.
"Bill, grab your coat," Sharon says.
"C-Come on Mom, it's still like f-fifty degrees out," he moans, shoving his sketchbook and list into his backpack.
"It doesn't matter. The weatherman says it's going be getting cold soon," she fires back, fishing his coat out of the closet. "Mia hurry up!"
"Coming!"
"Mommy, where are my socks?" Georgie calls, running through the house barefoot. The six-year-old is tearing the house apart looking for his favourite dinosaur to take to school for show and tell.
Sharon rolls her eyes and grits her teeth. "I thought I told Zack to take everything out of the dryer?"
Mia comes down in a sweatshirt and lugging her heavy backpack. Georgie races back and forth until she catches the back of his bag.
"Hang in there Squirt," she says. "Stay in one place so Aunt Sharon can give you your socks."
"I have to find my dinosaur!" he protests, trying to pull away from his cousin's grasp.
Mia peers through the zipper and sees something with green scales. She reaches in.
"Is this it?" she asks.
Georgie grabs the toy and holds onto it tightly, as Mrs. Denbrough returns with fresh socks.
Mia and Bill wait outside for Georgie and Mrs. Denbrough, who was driving them today.
A chilling autumn breeze permeates the air as the family from the Denbrough house head for school. Mr. Denbrough was carpooling with some coworkers, leaving the car for Mrs. Denbrough to run errands and for Mia to use it after school to get to the cabin for tutoring.
Mia slides into shotgun, while Bill and Georgie clamber into the back.
Sharon locks the door before fumbling to get the car started.
"Okay, so what time is tutoring?" Sharon asks, shoving the grocery list in her pocket.
"At about 3:30," Mia answers. She turns to her cousins. "Which means You guys will have to make your own way home," Mia says, as they leave the cul-de-sac.
"W-We know," Bill says.
"Will you be back by then Aunt Sharon?"
"I'm sure," she answers, steering onto one of the other roads. "I only need to do a bit of shopping in town."
"Mommy, will you pick me up a toy?" Georgie asks.
"Sorry, honey it's not that type of shopping."
"No fair." The six-year-old crosses his arms.
"Left here," Mia signals to her aunt, as she'd never driven them to school before.
Sharon pulls up to the school parking lot.
"Thanks a lot, Aunt Sharon," Mia says, exiting the car. "I'll see you after."
"Good luck today," she calls after her niece.
"T-Thanks Mom," Bill says, trying to avoid getting kissed goodbye.
"Bye Bill, hope your friend Will is there."
The teen bites his lip in annoyance. Georgie is the only one not to escape his mother's affection, kissing him on the head before sending him towards Hawkins Elementary.
"Love you, sweetheart," she says before watching her youngest take his dinosaur to school. As she's about to back up, a blue Camaro comes careening out of nowhere, heavy metal music blasting through the rolled-down windows, and zooms into the high school parking lot, barely missing the bumper of the station wagon.
"Teenagers," Sharon mutters in annoyance, before continuing to back out.
Mia heads towards the school when out of the corner of her eye, she sees a car coming, although the music gives her more of a heads up. She bolts onto the grass, barely being missed by the vehicle that pulls in front of the high school, taking up two spots as it goes.
"Asshole," she snarls under her breath. She gives the idiot the finger before continuing on. However, she notices her shoe is untied and stops to tie it.
This particular driver receives double for the bird, as his redheaded stepsister gets out of the passenger seat and flips him off too.
"One of these days you're going to get yourself killed," she screams at him over the music before grabbing her board and taking off to find her friends.
Billy lays back, cigarette dangling from his mouth, hand out the window.
He gazes around at the students heading towards their respective schools. A few girls wave at him, giggling like idiots and all he can muster is a small wave and smirk at them. A piece of clear plastic sheet is duct taped over his back window, not currently having the money to replace it. That little asshat who threw a rock at it better be good at hiding because if Billy ever caught the little bastard, he'll be eating his meals through a straw for six months. A bespectacled nerd if he recalled, who also had a filthy mouth. Hope he enjoyed a mouth full of broken teeth.
He scans around for something even remotely interesting and spots the chick he nearly mowed down.
She's bent over tying her shoe and she did have a nice ass. She's not smoking hot or anything like the usual chicks he rides around with, she's pretty average looking, but pretty enough.
He leans forward and leers at her further as she finishes tying her shoe and stands up.
Mia suddenly gets an uneasy feeling, the kind that made her skin crawl. She feels as though she's being watched… something way too common for her. Her heart pounds as she looks around to ensure her father is not there.
She sighs in relief as a middle-aged bearded man with a beer gut and unwashed clothes was nowhere to be seen on campus. Also, who would let someone like that near children anyways?
However, she does see who's watching her, the driver who nearly hit her. She stares at his aviator sunglasses, trying to find any kind of emotion but the only thing he does is breathe a waft of smoke from his cigarette.
She subtly flips him off once more before heading to class.
Billy just smirks.
"Baby Doll's got spunk," he muses to himself and decides whether he felt like actually going to class.
…
School was nothing particularly special. Act II in King Lear is not worthy of even a footnote in her day, even when Mia was asked to read. She read the part of the Fool and the teacher was impressed with her pronunciation. Most kids in the class struggled to say certain old English words, but she doesn't skip a beat. Thank you, Grandma Marion.
Mia reviews her lessons at lunch, becoming more nervous. What if Jane really didn't like her and wanted a new tutor? What if she flubbed everything and embarrassed herself? She can't risk getting a regular job if the chief fires her. The anxiety builds for the rest of the day as she waits for the final bell.
When it rings, she gets up and hurries out the door to her locker. Shoving in the books she needs before speed walking home.
Aunt Sharon is waiting with the keys in her hand.
"You'll do great," she smiles at her niece.
"Thanks," Mia answers before heading to the car.
She pulls out the map and begins to drive away.
…
Every day seems like one before. Eleven hears Papa's alarm clock blare to life. Annoyed and still tired, she slams a pillow over her head, waiting for him to get his butt off the chair and turn it off. Last night was nothing but hell and she just wanted to get some more sleep.
Papa goes around, showering and getting ready for work before making breakfast.
"El, breakfast."
The teen moans, trying to fall back asleep.
"If you don't your Eggos will get cold."
She moans again.
"All right, then no whipped cream."
The mention of making a deluxe Eggo supreme finally rouses her. Papa pulls the Eggos out of the toaster onto a plate and he sits down with his coffee to wait for her. She comes to the table in her pyjamas, still blinking sleep out of her eyes.
She goes for the whipped cream and syrup.
"Hold it," Hopper warns. "Fruit first."
El rolls her eyes.
"Don't give me that," he says sternly. "You know the rules."
Using her powers, Eleven floats an apple over to her plate and takes a bite out of it, glaring at her father as only a teenager can.
"And you know the rules for when Mia Rogers comes?"
"Don't be stupid," she recites. "And my name is Jane."
"Also, I'm going to add a new rule to that, try your best. I know school isn't always easy, but if you work hard, you will achieve a lot."
Eleven doesn't really respond, eating more of her apple before grabbing the whipped cream for her Eggos.
"I know you're mad that I didn't let you start high school with the others… but how about I make you a deal?"
The young teen looks at him, surprised and also excited.
"You work hard with this tutor, and I get good reports from her… then maybe… you might be able to go to regular school next semester."
"With Mike and my friends?" she asks.
"We'll see, work hard and we'll see," he says. "Do we have a deal?"
He holds his hand out.
With little hesitation, El shakes his hand eagerly.
"Okay."
"And try to tidy the cabin up for her, okay? Don't spend the whole day watching TV or reading those magazines."
Eleven just rolls her eyes again before digging into her latest Eggo creation.
"And no calling Mike until after tutoring. I'll be home at the usual time. Have a good day."
Jim finishes getting ready for work and stares at his daughter as she begins to do the dishes. She wasn't a little girl anymore. Very much a teenager and he just wanted her not to be in such a rush to grow up.
"Bye El."
"Bye Papa."
Eleven spends the next few hours listening to a few tapes that Max had lent her while straightening up. She uses her powers to do a few things, like sweeping without having to get off the couch and throwing Papa's dirty socks in the hamper… no one wanted to touch those anyway.
She makes a simple sandwich for herself for lunch and watches the clock, waiting for the tutor to come.
Unsure of what else to do, she decides to go into the Void for a few minutes to see what Mike and the others were up to. However, it was nothing special. School actually looked pretty boring sometimes. She also looked for her new friend Beverly, and she was smoking behind the school with some friends from Derry.
The sound of a car pulls her back to reality. She shoves the blindfold under the couch and turns off the static on the TV.
She peers through the front window as Mia approaches.
…
Inhaling, Mia reaches over and knocks on the door.
It takes a few minutes, but eventually, the door creaks open and two brown eyes peer out.
"Hi Jane," she says as nicely as she can.
"Hi," the girl says.
"Are you ready?"
The teen shrugs before opening the door to let in her tutor.
Mia steps onto the mat and looks around. Jane shuts the door and stands there.
"Sure, takes a while to get out here," Mia says.
"Yep."
"I hope I'm not late."
"No," Jane says.
The two go into silence. Mia removes her shoes and then brings her backpack to the old kitchen table. She sits down and pulls out all her supplies and spreads it out. Eleven takes her time getting to the table, a little shy and still hesitant.
"So, I'm thinking of starting with some Math, Geometry specifically because that's really the most fun type of Math there is, and then we'll do some grammar, and we'll end with a little more in English. Does that sound like a plan?"
El shrugs.
"Okay, well let's start with the basics…"
Mia opens the textbook to her marked page and begins going through how to find the area of a triangle. Pretty basic and she explains it the best that she can before trying to get Jane to do a question.
However, Jane doesn't even pick up a pencil. Her eyes glaze over slightly, the lack of sleep still haunting her. She tries to listen, and hold up her end of the deal with Papa, but it's hard to start so suddenly.
Mia sees this. Jane continues to stare at her, not really responding to what she was saying at all. She's lost the student already.
Mia sighs, knowing she's going to have to break the ice a little. A trick her grandfather taught her as a way to start a conversation and get people's attention.
She pulls out a bag of chocolate-covered peanut clusters from her backpack and opens them.
"Want one?" she offers her student.
El hesitates, unsure.
"They're just peanuts covered in chocolate," Mia says. "One of my grandpa's favourites."
Mia then takes a single cluster, tosses it up in the air and catches it in her mouth with ease.
Eleven looks surprised. Some tension is released.
The tutor knows she has the girl's attention. She then grabs another cluster, puts it on her thumb like she was flipping a coin and catches it once it's airborne.
The beginnings of a smile form on El's face. She's never seen someone do weird tricks like that.
"Want to see something impressive?" Mia asks.
The girl nods.
"Doing it blindfolded," she says, covering her eyes with one hand, tossing the cluster with the other, catching it and chewing it.
El giggles. The ice slowly cracked between them.
"That's cool," the younger girl says.
"Here one more," Mia says. She hands it to Jane.
"Throw it up high," she explains.
Mia stands up and waits for Eleven to throw it.
When the girl does, Mia catches it and smiles.
El laughs again.
"I'm like a trained seal," the tutor jokes. "I prefer my snacks airborne."
"So cool," she says.
"Yeah."
At that moment, Eleven knew that she was going to like Mia.
A/N: Please follow and review. Special thanks again to norozco772 and GlaringEyes for their reviews, it always makes my day.