/ "and i have to speculate that god himself did make us into corresponding shapes like puzzle pieces from the clay" /
Michelle "Mickey" Hopper has a lot of problems. An alcoholic father ignoring the loss of his youngest daughter, her sister, Sarah...
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...Friday, May 4, 1984... just like heaven - the cure
Steve's leg bounced up and down impatiently as the last few minutes of his final class of the day ticked down. Today was a special day. After almost six months, he would get the reunion with his best friend that he'd been waiting for. Six months of letters, six months of trips to Illinois just to see her face for a while, six months of wishing he could hug her and spin her around in his arms again. And today was the day he finally could.
When the final bell rang, Steve literally ran out of the classroom. He saw Nancy at her locker and stood at her side, bouncing up and down. "Excited?" she asked amusedly.
"Eh, just a little. What's taking you so long?" he said as she finally pulled her backpack from her locker. Nancy closed it as Steve pulled her away towards the high school parking lot.
At the same time, Jonathan Byers was headed towards his car. When Nancy saw him, she stopped Steve in his tracks and nodded towards the other teenager. Steve winced slightly, but sucked it up for Nancy's sake and went towards Jonathan's beat up Ford.
"Hey, Jonathan," Nancy said, bringing his attention towards them. "We're having this little welcome back party for Mickey at Steve's. Would you wanna... come with us?"
Jonathan glanced at Steve nervously, and the older boy forced a small smile. "Uh... yeah, I know. Will, he and the boys are so excited. You know, to see Mickey instead of just re-reading all of her letters."
Nancy smiled. "Come on, I know you're excited to see her, too."
Jonathan sighed and laughed lightly. "I do wanna hear what she thinks of the Cure album I sent her."
"Exactly!"
Jonathan looked at Steve again. "Come on, man. It'll be fun," Steve encouraged. "Mick would love to see you."
The Byers boy looked between the two and nodded, heading to the drivers' side seat of his car. Nancy took Steve's hand gratefully as they got into his car, leading Jonathan to his large house where only six months prior, Jonathan only watched the party with his camera from afar.
...
Mickey's fingers dug into her cuticles as she rode back into town in Hopper's police van. She quickly stopped the movement, though, and instead snapped a rubber band on her wrist and settled her hands in her lap.
The Indiana countryside whisked by as they approached the outskirts of Hawkins. "So this new cabin of ours... how far out of the way is it?" Mickey asked.
"For El's safety, it's not a little cul-de-sac home," he said. "But it's a little better than our last place. Closer to town, but hidden in the woods... It gets the job done."
Mickey smiled over at her father. He was doing better. She could tell just by looking at him. His expression was clear every time she'd seen him, always absent of the haze of beer or whatever else he took to get him through the previous year. And now, he was a father of two again. She guessed that that had to do something good for his mental health. "I'll take your word for it." Then, as she looked back out the window, she recognized the neighborhood they were driving into. "Wait..."
