CHAPTER ONE.
surprise!

IM BACK BITCHES

i'll come back and put nineteen's outfit in once i make it

ALSO YES I DID DELETE THIS THE FIRST TIME because i literally didn't even write one section of the book that needed to be written so that's what i've been doing lmao how embarrassing 😔😔

ALSO-ALSO the outfit in the media is just at the beginning of the chapter, not when they surprise dustin and stuff
—

JUNE 28, 1984

men with gas masks and rubber gloves attach tubes and sockets to the machine, quickly and diligently. they do their jobs, prepping the device. a man walks over to the small control box next to it, and pushes one button. the lights come on.

up in the box that peers over the machine, two men in lab coats walk in with a briefcase. the first man sets it down and opens it, pulling out two keys. he hands a key to the second man and they walk over to the controls. they insert the keys in a slot and look at one another. they nod once and turn the keys.

the machine powers up, electric bolts bouncing from the center to the side. it begins turning, spinning faster and faster. the tongs open up, and an electric blue beam shoots out.

it shoots at a wall, the upside down, burning it. it opens up the upside down, splitting it in two. vines and slimy substances slither out the sides slightly.

before it barely gets out, it suddenly starts to go wrong then, the power controls and devices around the room explode.

the machine shuts down fast and the men in the box look down in confusion and disappointment.

and then it explodes, electric bolts streaming out of it, and killing everyone. the men are thrown back, screaming in agony as their insides are burned up. the men in the box watch through the glass in shock.

as they then go down to check everything out and negotiate, in a testing room in hawkins lab, a young girl with rosy cheeks and bangs is laying flat on her back, gasping for air. nurses check her arms and legs for anything, coming up empty, and a woman with brown hair soothes her, pushing her bangs back from her face.

blood and tears run down her cheeks as a chord and strap are wrapped around her arm. her vitals are checked frantically as she breathes deeply. she squeezes her eyes shut and wails, the stinging in her chest becoming too much to bear.

the nurses wear rubber gloves to avoid being electrocuted as bright electrical bolts circle around the girl's fingers. her veins run blue and her eyes glow white as she gasps, throwing her head back and looking to the bright ceiling lights. the nurses hold her down and try to talk to her.

"no!" she sobs out. the same woman consoles her, leaning over her and trying to calm her down. "it's okay, nineteen, it's okay. just calm down."

"no, i killed them!" the girl wails. "it's my fault!" the people continue to hold her down, but she's relentless. she tried to stop the machine to keep them from opening the gate, but she ruined it and they all died.

it was her fault.

—

ONE YEAR LATER

a pair of black dirty high-top converse step over the giant humps in the ground, making sure to not crush the fake or real flowers.

the feet stop in the middle section of the graveyard. there's a small engraved tombstone with another engraved metal plate laying right in front of it in the ground. a hand reaches down and lays some small, side-road picked yellow flowers on top of it.

nineteen stops, adjusts hopper's gigantic navy blue flannel that swallows her, and takes a deep breath in, kneeling down.

MARY ANNE WALSH
1950 - 1984
- beloved daughter, teacher, and friend -
rest in peace

she reaches out, taking the old dried up yellow flowers and stuffing them in the flannel pocket on her breast. she leaves them for mary every friday she visits, taking the flowers from a week ago home. hopper never asked about them.

about a month after everything went down in 1984, right before the snowball, hopper met with sam owens to discuss family arrangements. there, the older man gave hopper nineteen and eleven's legal certificates, and told him that the first person nineteen ever trusted was buried up at hawkin's only cemetery. he told hopper to take her up there whenever she wanted.

he took her up there the first chance he could, explaining funerals and graves delicately. she remained quiet, listening to his words intently. it was a cold, december evening.

and so she went the next day, and the next one, and the next one and well, you get the picture. hopper thought she needed it. she needed to get out all of her sadness and frustration, but it soon became a little concerning when she would start coming home crying, running straight to her room and into eleven's arms.

hopper found it difficult to do, but he put an end to it. or, he attempted to anyway. he ended up actually asking joyce byers over to the cabin for a day and she talked to nineteen about the stages of grief. she tried to help her move on, saying that it was okay to visit loved ones' graves often but not daily. you wouldn't heal that way.

will had gotten mad at his mom for going to the cabin... and not taking him with her. he had become close with nineteen and eleven. mostly nineteen, though. nineteen very quickly realized that since he had never had a sister, and someone who could understand him without him having to even say anything, he latched onto her very fast.

nineteen sits down, crossing her legs. she blows air out of her mouth, puffing her cheeks.

"hi." she says softly, tilting her head. "i can't stay long because i have to get home or hopper will be mad." she dusts off the top of the headstone.

"nothing happened today. will just read to me about dungeons and dragons. he seemed happy. i'm glad he's feeling better. he deserves it." the blue-eyed girl smiles at the ground, thinking of the boy.

she suddenly looks up as if she remembered something. "he also said dustin comes back tomorrow. i'm excited to see him. steve has missed him a lot. he talks about him all the time. i hope he missed us. max said that we were gonna surprise him, so i hope he likes it. she said it'll be fun." nineteen trails off.

the girl sniffs again and reaches down, pulling at the grass. she squeezes her eyes shut, sighing and spreading her legs out. she opens her mouth, ready to talk about what she's wanted to talk about for days. "i had a dream a few days ago. about my mama." she tells the headstone. "we were in a-a field. a field of flowers. pink and purple ones. i was laying down and she was wearing a red dress... and i had my head in her lap and she was playing with my hair. the sun was bright and there was a big tree." she stops and looks off. "she was beautiful."

"maybe.. maybe you guys are together right now."

back in february, against hopper's wishes, nineteen tried to find her mom.

not actually, no. hopper would've never allowed her to leave hawkins. she did through the radio. eleven helped her, tying the bandana around her eyes for her and cleaning the blood and tears off of her cheeks.

instead of finding her mother, she found darkness and a small tombstone.

she had cried for the next week straight, unable to focus on anything else. that was when hopper felt that he should bring in his backup again, thus joyce making another visit to the cabin.

"i miss you." nineteen then says. "i want you here. i want to be with you." she cuts herself off, looking down and covering her eyes. she sniffles loudly. "i hate that he killed you. i wish i could have done something. i wish-"

she chokes on her words and shakes her head, looking down. she wipes the tears that fall and tucks her hair behind her hair anxiously. she looks down at the black watch on her right hand. "hopper's gonna be mad if i don't go now. i wish i could stay." she stands up, and then bends down, wrapping her arms around the headstone.

"goodbye, mary. i'll see you later."

she turns away and gets to the dirt road when she stops and turns. she looks to the headstone directly facing the road and her eyebrows slant painfully.

BOB NEWBY
1948 - 1984
hawkin's resident superhero

she stares at it momentarily, hesitant to look away. she knew of bob and what happened to him. it made her sad to think of him.

she glances at it once more before swallowing and turning away. the brunette exits the cemetery quickly, making sure to cut through the woods instead of the side of the road. who knows who would try to pick her up this time around.

she walks in the direction of the cabin, where eleven and hopper were settled in, waiting on her.

hopper's mad that you're late.

nineteen lightly groans. eleven sounded content, laying in bed with a waffle in hand.

i'm almost there.

she sighs and walks faster slightly, eyebrows coming together in annoyance.

she doesn't walk very long at all before she gets a cold chill. she stops dead in her tracks.

oh, no.

nineteen swallows, hearing will's voice echo in her head. she reaches up, touching the back of her neck. goosebumps run across her skin, making her shiver.

she turns around slowly, looking behind her, but not hearing or seeing anything. she then turns in the direction of the road, and walks towards it a little bit. she doesn't hear or see anything, only the trees as the sun starts to completely go away.

nineteen turns back quickly, beginning to run to get back home as soon as possible.

when she gets home, hopper is sitting in his reclining chair watching television. nineteen takes off her shoes at the door and walks quickly over to him and practically throws her body over his as she hugs him around his neck.

he chuckles half-heartedly and hugs her back. she pulls back and smiles, getting up and going to her room.

-

true to will's word, dustin was on his way back the next day.

the party had come up with a plan to ignore him all day and then surprise him at his house when he got home. nineteen had been confused. why would they ignore him? but will had explained how it would be better to surprise him happily.

they talked it out with dustin's mom, who nineteen thought was the greatest thing since poptarts, and she agreed that it would be fun.

nineteen and the kids all gather behind the wall once they hear the henderson car pull into the driveway. nineteen feels butterflies fly around in her stomach (a phrase dustin himself had taught her).

he storms in, and goes straight to his room. nineteen looks down the line to her friends, them not knowing he's sad that they've ignored him.

"blue, your hair is floating again." lucas whispers, after catching her gaze. the kids all look at her as she sets her hand on her hair to flatten it. she had gotten too excited.

"alright. do it." mike then says to eleven, and she closes her eyes.

a few seconds later, they hear the toys in dustin's room start up quickly. they move down the hall as dustin follows.

"it's just a dream. you're dreaming." she hears him say as the toys get to the living room.

"now!" mike suddenly whispers, looking down at eleven. she opens her eyes and the kids hear the toy's noises stop.

max leads them out quietly, shushing them silently. nineteen puts the party horn in her mouth. she ends up beside will and he shoots her a happily nervous look.

they stand behind dustin who's holding one of his toys and a can of hairspray. lucas holds up a sign. max holds up her hand as she counts down when to blow the horns.

she takes all her fingers away and nineteen blows the party horn happily.

before anyone can react, dustin screams and turns around, spraying lucas right in the face with the hairspray.

lucas screams and nineteen stumbles back in alarm. how did that just happen? she looks over to will, who mirrors her expression.

"what the hell?!" max yells, pulling lucas away. he lets out anguished cries as she tugs him out of the living room. nineteen watches them go, wincing at how much pain lucas is in.

forgetting about it quickly due to her excitement of dustin being back, nineteen walks to him quickly and hugs him happily. he smiles at her. "welcome back." she tells him.

"good to be back."

mike, will, and eleven greet him as well, and the boys talk about what he's missed and what he's done for the past month.

"oh! i've got something new to show you that you'll definitely like." he then grins. the four kids share looks, and then follow dustin to his room.

he brings out a little windmill type device that twirls when he spins something on the back.

"i call it.. the forever clock." he says. "all right? powered by wind. very useful in the apocalypse." he hands it to will, who inspects it.

"then, i give you.. the slammer." he holds up a hammer that's duct taped with metal around it. he clicks a button and it begins to vibrate heavily. nineteen stares at it wide-eyed. he moves it closer to them, making nineteen step forward in interest. she feels a small tug as eleven holds one hand around mike's arm and the other just laying on nineteen's sleeve.

dustin chuckles, as nineteen comes face to face with it.
"pretty neat, huh?" he asks as she grabs it carefully. she watches it go, beginning to laugh in joy. nineteen laughing loudly was rare. the three boys share amused looks as she giggles.

she turns it around in her hands as she steps back beside eleven.

"but this.." he begins. nineteen looks up, turning off the switch on the side of the slammer. "..this is my masterpiece." he picks up his duffel bag and slams it down on the ground. the kids all bend down in front of it.

"i would like you to meet.." he unzips it and sits back. ".. cerebro."

nineteen looks into the bag curiously. if there's one word that she could describe it that she actually knows, it would be junk.

the rest of the kids seem to share her thoughts. "what exactly are we looking at here?" mike asks.

"an unassembled one of a kind battery-powered radio tower." he says, grinning. nineteen's eyebrows scrunch together.

"so," will starts. "it's a.. a ham radio."

"the cadillac of ham radios." dustin specifies. "this baby carries a crystal-clear connection over vast distances. i'm talking north pole to south." he sits back again.

"i can talk to my girlfriend whenever and wherever i choose."

nineteen looks to her friends to her right in surprise. her eyes widen as she turns back to dustin.

"girlfriend?"

—

hey guys!!!!!! first chapter!! how are you guys doing?

ALSO i thought about this halfway through writing this chapter and i'm gonna start leaving headcanons about nineteen at the end of each chapter.

headcanon: after nineteen was legally settled in with hopper, he noticed just how touch starved nineteen was. eleven was as well, definitely. but it was like nineteen needed to be touching someone. she often held eleven's hands randomly, and would sit on hopper's lap as if he was reading a bedtime story to her.