"I swear, if I'm dying tonight because of you, I'm gonna haunt your ass so hard, Harrington!"
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah! I'm gonna go full Poltergeist and shit!"
"Then bring it, Graveswood."
"Challenge accepted."
***
In which after years of suppressing their...
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Chapter Fifty-Five: Hey
(The Pollywog)
***
Rowan stifled a yawn as she shovelled cereal into her mouth. Her eyelids felt heavy and her head ached and she wanted to crawl back into bed, but Rowan stubbornly refused the urge. Besides, compared to the hangover she'd gotten when she and Eddie had a few beers when he turned sixteen plus the one where she had her first drink at hers and Robin's first sleepover, this exhaustion was nothing.
Still, Rowan would like nothing more than to blow up the sun as it kept stabbing into her skull.
"Can the sun not be the sun for a single fucking minute?" Rowan groused, hand fisted in her hair.
Aunt Aco snorted. "Sorry kid. As much as I sympathise, that isn't possible."
"Let me dream, Aunt Aco," Rowan bemoaned between mouthfuls of cereal. "Let me dream."
Her aunt snorted again as she cleaned the dishes from her own breakfast and Rowan sat in sullen annoyance at the flaming ball in the sky. Both not being able to keep their eyes from the empty chair at the dining table.
When Rowan woke up and didn't see Alistair at the dining table eating some burnt toast, she'd gone into panic mode, her mind running with the frantic fear that Dr. Owens had gone back on his word, that the lab had took her brother, that Brenner had somehow risen from the dead and had taken Alistair in the dead of night. Only her aunt telling her that Alistair had stayed over at the Byers' calmed her down, but Rowan would be lying if she didn't feel antsy at not seeing her brother, even though she knew he was safe and sound at Will's.
After all, it was at his home that the Demogorgon had taken Will.
After breakfast, everything passed in a blur with the soundtrack of the Siouxsie And The Banshees and Fleetwood Mac mixtape Eddie had made her last Christmas playing in the background. But in the end, Rowan was dressed, organised for school and in her aunt's car, headphones on her ears and reading one of the psychology books Dr. Owens had managed to get for her as Aunt Aco zoomed into downtown Hawkins and toward the school, screeching into the parking lot with a cloud of smoke trailing from the wheels, Rowan only slightly jostled (she was used to her aunt's and Eddie's reckless driving).
"Have a great day at school, kid!" her aunt shouted as she shoved a fistful of lunch money at her, which Rowan gratefully took. "Study hard, cheat if you must, and punch anyone who disrespects you! See you and Alistair this afternoon! Love you!"
