𝒊 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒂 𝒅𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚

𝟎𝟏. 𝐀 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐂𝐊 𝐀𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐎𝐎𝐑

Jim let out a loud audible breath, when the knocking wouldn't stop, despite the amount of times he shouted at the unannounced guest to go away. He threw his television remote down next to him, on the couch. He pushed up off his knees and stomped towards the door. He turned the knob and looked out at his eye level,

"Hey Pops." Jim looked down to the small girl that the words escaped from. In front of him stood his 12 year old daughter, the girl he hadn't seen since Christmas time, last year.

"Dodo..." Dorothy scoffed at the nickname. He decided on it the moment she was born in '71.

"Your mother said you wouldn't be in until this weekend." Hopper had been frantically trying to get his guest room fit for his teenage daughter ever since his ex-wife called him early this summer, informing him she'd be moving for the school year, and indefinitely.

The date was August 24th, 1983. Dorothy would start seventh grade at Hawkins Middle School in just one week.

Dorothy walked into her father's small cabin. She dropped her duffel bag down in what she assumed was her room. The room was bare. The walls were a horrid color that slightly resembled puke. A bed was in the far left corner with two lackluster pillows and a torn comforter. There was a tv tray set up as a side table with a lamp set atop it. The dresser on the right wall had dirt all over it and not even a mirror above it. Dorothy was slightly horrified. She looked back at her father, her eyebrows raised.

"I thought I had a few more days, before you'd be here." Jim sounded apologetic, genuinely. "I only moved into this cabin a couple weeks ago. There wasn't enough room for the both of us at my trailer."
Dorothy gave a small smile up at her father. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, careful not to make a face at the less than pleasant scent that filled her nose. She walked closer to her dad and slung her small arms around his torso, she barely could get her hands to touch around his back.

The two spent the week cleaning up the cabin and getting Dorothy's room to feel a little more like Dorothy. They painted the walls a pale pink, bought new bedding, and a proper nightstand. She even convinced Hopper to splurge on a decent sized mirror for above her dresser, that they had cleaned.

It was finally time for her first day of school. She looked at her reflection and pulled her two braids that she had spent what felt like an hour perfecting. She had a floral turtleneck, poking out from under her pale purple shirt. She tightened the brown belt around her white shorts and smiled at herself in the mirror.

"Have a good first day, kid." Hopper waved out the window at Dorothy as she headed to the front door of the middle school. She held her chest up high, determined to make a good first impression. She was roaming the hall's when she heard a small, scrawny boy with a dreadful (but unfortunately common around here) bowl cut.

"Hey guys, I think that's Hopper's girl." Dorothy focuses on the group of boys that are now discussing her identity. With the tiny boy, are, what Dorothy has decided to name them, curly, bandana, and grumpy. She walks over to them and readjusts her backpack straps, giving the boys a wide smile.

"Dorothy Hopper, indeed. That's the namesake." Dorothy was met with mixed reactions. Bandana and Grumpy both seemed to have judgement written all over their face. Tiny just seemed apprehensive, while Curls matched her wide smile. Curls introduced them all to her and she learned their real names, Tiny was Will, Curls was Dustin, Bandana was Lucas, and Grumpy was Mike.

Despite learning this, she'd continue to call them the nicknames she'd picked that day. They would be friends for the rest of their lives, despite the tricky start that they would have over the next year.