𝒊 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒂 𝒅𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚

𝟎𝟐. 𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐇 𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐃𝐄

The date was now October 30th, 1984.

"C'mon Dottie! You're friends are here." Hopper called to his daughter. Dottie threw on her jean jacket before running to her front door. As she opened she saw Dustin holding his groin,

"Can I please pee?" Dustin said elongating the please.

"Sorry! No time!" Dustin audibly groaned as Dottie grabbed his arm to turn him around back to the car. To Dustin, this gesture seemed insensitive but for Dottie it was unfortunately necessary. 

Dustin and the rest of the crew didn't know that past that front door El was sleeping in the bed where Dottie had just left. Hopper had made Dottie swear to keep El's location a secret. And because it was for her safety, Dottie immediately obliged. But it was hard lying to her best friends, especially Mike. The fact that he was less than twenty feet away from El and neither of them even knew. Dottie never told El that when she was picked up in the morning for school, Mike was sitting in the car too. It would crush the fragile girl. There was also no way of predicting if El would run out the door and blow her cover. Usually she was asleep when Dottie was picked up, which was easy enough. Dustin walking into the house was the definition of a bad idea. So, he two head out to the car. Dustin jumped into the back next to Lucas, who Dottie waved to, and then she waved to Mike and Will who were in the third row.

"Hey Dot." Dottie followed the voice and brought her attention to the driver's seat where Winnie, Dustin's older sister, was sitting.

"Hey Win." Dottie greeted back.

As soon as she put the car back in drive, Winnie's hand was on the volume dial where she turned up "Bad Reputation". Dottie banged her head along as they drove out of the woods, on their way to school.

The boys and Dottie all waved goodbye to Winnie as she dropped them off at the front entrance. The party all went their separate ways to their lockers before they'd meet back up in first period, Science.

Dottie was on her way to Science, beating the bell as usual when she noticed Will was frozen at his locker, looking at a piece of paper. She walked up to him and noticed it was an old newspaper clipping from when he was missing, but their was "Zombie Boy" written in green marker and Will's eyes were crossed out. She snatched the paper out of his hand and crumpled it up, shoving it in her pocket.

"Don't let them get to you, Tiny. They're just mad you escaped death. You're basically the main character." Dottie said matter of factly, "Which I guess makes me, the love interest." Dottie said with a wink. Ever since she'd arrived in town and saw the way the kids bullied Will, she came up with a scheme to be his 'girlfriend' to help get the bullies off his back. She linked her arm with Will's as the bell rang and they walked to first period. As much as it killed her to be late, she'd do anything for her best friend. The five kids sat together up front and listened attentively as Mr. Clarke spoke. They all loved his class. Not only because they had it all together, but because Mr. Clarke had been their mentor for middle school. He ran the AV club and even gave the kids advice on things regarding the upside down even though they never had the decency to inform him with all the details. The attention was taken away from the lesson when the classroom's door opened and the principal and a redhead girl walked in.

"Ah, this must be our new student." Mr. Clarke addressed her. The girl's eyes were glued to the floor and Dottie had perked up when she walked in. Dottie knew exactly how it felt to be the new kid. She was this girl last year.

"Indeed it is. All yours." The principal said before he left, leaving Max at Mr. Clarke's mercy. All the boys eyes were drawn to the girl as she walked straight past Mr. Clarke in search of a chair.

"All right. Hold up there. You don't get away that easy." Mr. Clarke said stopping her. She rolled her eyes. "Come on up. Don't be shy." The girl begrudgingly stood next to Mr. Clarke's desk. "Dustin, drum roll." Dustin closed his textbook and began tapping on it, just as Mr. Clarke requested. Dottie stifled a laugh and shook her head at the extremes Mr. Clarke was going to. While she thought it was entertaining to watch, she knew how unfortunate it was when you were the kid being forced to stand in front of the class.