CHAPTER ONE
THE WILSON GIRL

A brown-haired girl opened her eyes reluctantly as she heard the usual sound of her alarm. She extended her arm to turn her digital clock off, looking at the time: 7 am. Sighing, she pulled the blankets off and got out of bed. She would never get used to waking up this early, even if she had been doing it most of her life. She liked her sleep.

Going to the bathroom, she brushed her teeth and took a quick shower, getting ready for the day. It was summer, and she was working at the new mall in town, Starcourt Mall; specifically at the Chinese fast food restaurant Imperial Panda. It wasn't exactly her dream job, but it did the trick. All she needed was a bit of money, and to get away from home for a while.

Mavis Wilson had moved to Hawkins, Indiana back in 1982. She had been born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, but after her mother died in a car accident, her father decided to move back to his hometown; against Mavis' wishes, of course. But who was she to argue?

As she walked down the stairs, she spotted her dad sleeping in the living room. Letting out a small sigh, she walked towards him and picked up the beer cans that were on the floor next to him. This had become a regular occurrence for her. After moving to Hawkins, her father started to drink. At first it was just a few drinks every few days, but it had gotten worse with time. Mavis didn't know exactly what had caused it; maybe he was just trying to drown his sadness in alcohol, or maybe he just enjoyed drinking. What she did know however is that this was her dad now, and she had gotten used to it.

Once she had cleaned up the living room, she went to the kitchen and opened the fridge, looking for something to eat. But like always, there wasn't a lot to choose from. She closed the fridge and poured herself some cereal and milk as she made a mental note to go grocery shopping before work.

And that's what she did after she was done eating. There was a small supermarket near her house, so she quickly went there. Taking a shopping cart, she grabbed everything that she noticed was missing back home, and then paid for it. Once she was home again, she sorted everything out before going upstairs to grab her bag, which always contained her walkman with some of her favorite cassettes, and the book she was reading at the moment, which currently was The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. Then, she headed back downstairs.

Mavis didn't even bother saying goodbye to her dad, knowing he would only get angry if she did. And anyways, he knew where she would be since she literally didn't go anywhere else except the mall. Leaving her house, she locked the door behind her and grabbed her bike before she started to ride towards Starcourt Mall.

She looked at the scenery as she rode her bike. You could tell it was summer: a lot of kids were running and playing outside, enjoying the good weather. Families were either leaving town to go on vacation, or going to the town's pool. Just your usual summer day. But since it was a Saturday, there were more people outside, so Mavis knew the mall was going to be even more packed than usual. And she was dreading it. She had always had trouble when it came to socializing, but it was even harder when it came to strangers. However, socializing with strangers was a thing that came with her job, so she could not escape it. Sighing, she parked her bike in front of the mall. She preferred the days where the mall was almost empty; that way she could just do her thing. But granted, those days didn't come often.

Walking inside, she headed to Imperial Panda as she tried her best to avoid the mass of people, trying not to crash against anyone. And she was successful. Practice makes perfect, as they say. She nodded at her coworkers, walking past them to go to the back to get changed. Another reason why she didn't like working there: she had to wear a uniform. But hey, at least it wasn't as bad as the Scoops Ahoy one.

The ice cream parlor was right across the Chinese restaurant, and so Mavis found herself looking over there whenever she was bored. But could you blame her? It was hilarious to see Steve 'The Hair' Harrington wearing that sailor outfit. 

Speaking of the devil. Once she was back at the front, she looked over there, spotting a group of kids talking to him, and immediately recognizing one of them as Will Byers. She had been friends with Will's brother Jonathan back during their freshman year, the two being really close friends. However, Will's disappearance back in 1983 was a shock to everyone, especially to his family, and Mavis couldn't blame Jonathan for distancing himself. She did blame him for not reaching out afterwards, but that was another story.

"Hello, and welcome to Imperial Panda. What would you like to order?"

There were two reasons why Mavis hated working the register: number one, math wasn't her strongest subject in school; in fact, she sucked at it. And number two, customers. Customer service was not exactly her thing, as you could probably already tell. But as mentioned before, she needed the money. She didn't want to be dependent of her father anymore, so she took as many shifts as she could, the longer the better. Today was one of those days where she would be working all day.

"Excuse me, they just served me this dish and it's cold. It's not supposed to be cold."

She raised an eyebrow at the woman across the counter before looking at the dish. She couldn't be serious. Mavis plastered a small — and fake — smile on her face. "Ma'am, it's a salad. Salads are typically served cold."

"Are you questioning my knowledge about Japanese food?"

"This is a Chinese restaurant..." she said quietly.

"Whatever! I need you to fix this."

See? Customer service sucked.

Mavis was about to answer the lady when the power went off. Huh, that was weird. Frowning, she walked over to the light switch and moved it up and down. Nothing. She glanced outside and confirmed that the power had gone off in the whole mall, maybe even in all Hawkins. And it was strange, because yes, Starcourt Mall used a ton of electricity, but there hadn't been a power outage before. So what caused this one?

Before she could give it a lot of thought however, the power came back on. Apparently it had been nothing. She proceeded to answer the woman's complaint in the nicest tone she could find, and then continued on with her day, socializing with more customers and waiting for her shift to be over. Because yes, she took as many shifts as possible, but that didn't mean she enjoyed them.

"There is a delivery guy outside. He's here to pick up some boxes," one of the workers spoke.

Since there were no clients to attend, Mavis turned around to attend to it, but her boss came out of nowhere, getting in her way. "What have I told you about staying behind the register at all times?"

She just sighed and turned, heading back to the register. She had been working there ever since summer break started, and she worked as much as her boss, maybe even more. So yes, she found it weird that she was never allowed to assist with the delivery. Were they trying to hide something? Maybe it was something confidential, or something dangerous. Who knew, maybe they were even smuggling drugs. She rolled her eyes playfully at the thought. Ridiculous. As if.

Once the day was finally over, Mavis changed back into her clothes and left the restaurant, catching a glimpse of Steve and Robin closing the parlor as she exited the mall. It was late into the night, so it was dark outside. She had never been the type of person to be scared of the darkness, but ever since last Halloween... She shuddered at the memory. She'd better get home quickly if she didn't want history to repeat itself.

As she rode back home, the power outage was still lingering in the back of her mind. Mavis just couldn't help but think something weird was going on, especially as she connected it to what she had seen a few months back. What if both things were somehow related?

God, she could only hope she was wrong.

『••✎••』

mavis is finally here, everyone!! i love her so much, & i hope you guys love her just as much as i do🥰 be ready for shit to go down & to learn about my girl's trauma, because there is a lot to unpack with mavis wilson🤪

anyways, don't be a ghost reader (i love reading comments so please leave me some lol) & i'll see you the next chapter! 💙

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