CHAPTER THREE 003. a deal in the woods PLACEBO -CRAWLERS
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ADELADE'S CAR WAS PRETTY beat up when it came into her possession.
Like most things passed down to her from her mother's family, the vehicle was filled with stories instead of working parts, and greatly failed to live up to the American standard. It was a gaudy orange colour to start — a fact which made Addie physically gasp when she first set eyes on it — and came with an unflattering brown rust on the wheels as well as the left tire rims. The leather was ripped in sections and sewn back together; worst of all, Adelade's seat had been perminately altered to include a boost for her aunt, who at the best of times reached a terrifying 5ft tall. This would've been fine if Adelade was the same, but her father had gifted her 5 extra inches that made driving rather uncomfortable.
She remembered Heather cackling when she saw it.
It was typical, Heather squeezed out between bouts of laughter. It was typical that the girl who cared the most about looks, was given the ugliest car to ever grace Hawkin's roads.
But how could Addie say no? With no money of her own, and a prepaid debt from her aunt and uncle who shipped the car all the way from Washington state, she was stuck with the damn thing until graduation at least. There was little hope that Tammy would take it before then ( secretly, Tammy avoided her test, as the car would then be in her name instead ). So until then, she was stuck with the most unflattering ride of her life.
There was only one way her and her sister could maneuver around the problem.
As expected, the car brought attention during the first few weeks as it sat collecting more rust in the car park. She heard whispers about it in the halls — almost everything different was news in Hawkins — and found out through Jason one morning that the damned machine had been given a name of reference in the senior and junior classes. Her car was known fondly as the traffic cone, which up until that point had no claimed driver. Luckily enough, Tammy's early morning piano practice meant the two were in school before anybody could see them exit, and most nights, they were the last car to make their way back home.
The traffic cone became a legend in the corridors after a little time; it became a game of sorts to find the driver, and an even more complex game for Addie to keep the vehicle to herself. Heather was a good sport at keeping it under wraps, and whenever the others graced the Thompson house with a visit, the car was swiftly parked a couple of streets over to avoid being caught. Not even Emma knew the car was their's, which made it even harder at times to keep up with one of Tammy and Addie's only secrets.
On the bright side, it made it easier to keep watch of Emma during her Friday deals with Eddie Munson.
Over their Senior year, Tammy was becoming undone by her sister's influence. Addie knew that while they both had fifteen more minutes of class, neither of them were particularly fond of chemistry. It was the easiest class for Adelade to convince her sister to skip when she wanted to avoid the hustle and bustle at the end of the day, so the two often found themselves sat in their car on a Friday afternoon at least fifteen minutes before the bell. Sometimes they'd speed off to avoid being caught in the dreaded car. Mostly though, the two sat in their seats with music gently filling their silent observation of Hawkins High, until they began to spot the middle school kids escape from their own section of the school. They took this time to do seperate kinds of unwinding; Tammy wrote in her journal, while Addie watched the football field as she became lost in thought.
