𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐄𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐁𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐨𝐟𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐭 october 1985, three months later
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𝐇𝐚𝐰𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐬, 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐚were the words headlining almost every newspaper across the country following what had happened at Starcourt. The incident had brought a ton of negative press to the small town, so much so that conspiracies about chemical leaks and corrupt mayors were still being thrown around over three months later.
The first month after the incident had been the hardest few weeks of Lily's life. She had attended both Hopper and Heather's funerals, along with Billy's. Max had timidly asked her if she wanted to go with her, and Lily had agreed, wanting to take the younger girl under her wing.
However, the worst had been Cindy's funeral. Never in a million years did Lily imagine she'd be reading a eulogy for her best friend, at the age of eighteen. She could barely look at Mr and Mrs Maddison as she had took her place at the altar and shakily started reading from a tear stained piece of paper. But, the second Mrs Maddison left her seat to hug her, Lily burst into tears. She would never be able to tell Cindy's parents the truth about her death.
Three gruelling months later and Lily was sat in the drivers seat of her Cadillac, slowly making her way up the Byers' long driveway. News of the family moving away had recently spread through the town like wildfire and Lily had heard from Max that Eleven was going with them. Knowing Joyce was likely to struggle to afford an additional family member, she had piled together some of her unwanted clothes to give to Eleven.
She was driving over to the house by herself. Steve and Robin were in the town centre, trying to get themselves a job at the video rental store, which was one of their last options. The search for a new job had been going on for a while. Ever since Starcourt Mall had burned down, jobs were extremely hard to come by in the small town.
When she reached the Byers' house, Joyce was outside, shoving a pile of boxes into a large removal van. Pulling up behind the van, she climbed out of the car, "Hey, Mrs Byers" She called, "Is El around? I cleared out a bunch of stuff the other day and found some clothes that look like they'd fit her" She asked, grabbing a box from the trunk.
"Oh hi Lily, she should be in the house" Joyce replied, smiling at her warmly, "How are you getting on? Jonathan told me you're back in school now".
Lily had since quit her job at the pool and had surprised everyone she knew by applying to retake her senior year at Hawkins High. Her Principal had phoned her a few days after she'd sent her application to offer her a place in September, and she'd accepted. She felt like she owed it to Cindy to start making her life more worthwhile and she figured passing her finals was a good place to start.
