Growing Pains| Eleven Hopper/Jane Hopper

𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣

kit connor as...
Peter Clarke

graham verchere as...
Wesley Clarke

There was a big difference between Scott Clarke and Shane Clarke. Scott went on to be a middle school teacher, had a heart of gold, never married, never had kids, and truly cared for the ones around him. Shane took over the family business, followed in his fathers footsteps, married young, had two boys, and let his money go to his huge head. Growing up, things weren't much different back then. Scott was always kinder, more gentle then his brother ever was.

Peter liked to think he was more like his uncle then his father, but it was always just a hope, a dream perhaps.

Growing up into money and a shit ton of privilege wasn't something he realized until his teenage years. Peter never realized how arrogant he could be at times, how he threw around money as if it was nothing when the kid right next to him was showering in cold water back home. As he got older though, Peter saw what an asshole his father truly was. It didn't all sink in until parent night came around and Shane made a comment about Joyce Byers lack of money.

After that night, Peter made a promise to never be anything like his father.

He's done pretty well at it too. Ever since seventh grade he'd stepped back and took in the fact that money wasn't something everyone was blessed with and that things he said would come off terrible and like he'd been the worlds worst asshole. Now, the summer before freshman year, Peter kinda liked who he was. That's all that really matter anyways, liking who you were. He wanted to be more like his uncle, and he thought he'd gotten pretty close to it.

Obviously, the relationship with his father was no longer strong after he stopped laughing at his cruel jokes, never wanted to go golfing or on business trips with him anymore. Shane didn't understand how the boy he'd raised could hate him so much now, resent him in so many ways. And it really wasn't that Peter hated the guy, he just hated to think people assumed he was just like him because he was his dad. And yeah, the immature and privileged jokes about the lower income family really just wasn't funny in Peter mind.

That being said though, there was a sense of controlling that was held over the Clarke family. Shane and Scott's dad was like that, their mother too. Shane was just as bad, when he was home, and Darcy was too protective over the boys to let them truly do much.

Peter and Wesley rarely got to do anything that wasn't for their parents benefits or school events. Neither were bad kids, they both followed rules so well and never did anything to make their parents not trust them. But it's just how it was, the sense of having full control over their children, their property, was too intense with Shane and Darcy. That being said, it caused a need for rebellion in Peter mainly a sneaky side.

But it was an entirely different story when he snuck off the summer of 85' with a pair of pretty girls.

The Clarke business was relatively simple. Rich white man. Rich white man sees property he likes. Rich white man buys property he likes. Rich white man turns property he likes into a shitty place. The town had seen it plenty of times with Shane. Like when he bought the skating ring and turned it into a sports center. Or when he took away the pizza joint and turned it into a smoothie shack.

So when his toured The Gap with his youngest son, it caught the attention of two very angry teenage girls.

Peter had never seen so much fire from the red head in his life, never seen so much intimidation from the brunette. They both were so intense, so care free, so exactly the type of friends he needed right now. He was three months away from entering high school, no way was he gonna throw it away just to walk around Starcourt and listen to his father try and corrupt him into joining the family buissness in five years.

So, Peter took off with the pair of girls in hopes of achieving an adventure in the woods, maybe a day by the pool, visit some amusement parks. But no, instead, he gets wrapped up in fighting a creature that shouldn't even exist.

•

kylie speaks

mhmhmhm, i can already
smell you simps in the
comments. mhm mhm, i'm
calling it rn.

also, do y'all love the cover?
bc i'm obsessed with it.