Your little sister (Max) and mom have been having a hard time. You decide to move to Hawkins to help out, and while giving up California and your senior year might be hard, there is a boy across the trailer park who just might make it worth it...
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If you'd told yourself that you would be on your second ride in the back of a cop car within a week a few days ago, you would have laughed. You would have never believed it. And the fact that your sister was sitting right next to you? There was no way that this was reality. You even tried to pinch yourself, but all it did was give you a red mark. Nope. Not a dream.
After demanding a lawyer, you'd shut your mouth. The cops had plenty of comments to add, but you glared at the rest of the kids to shut up, at least until their parents were here, if not a lawyer. Officer Powell, the new chief of police, had assured you on the drive that they just wanted to know what was going on. According to him, no one suspected you of anything. You asked if he'd put that in writing and sign his name to it in front of three witnesses.
The man had sighed and nodded, and surprisingly, once you were deposited along with Lucas, Max, and Dustin at the Wheeler's house and reunited with parents, he did indeed write it out, sign it, and have three others sign that he said it. You were clutching that piece of paper in your hands while you sat next to Max on the couch, ready to shut up and call for a lawyer if the questions started getting too accusatory.
It didn't escape your notice that your mother was the only parent not there. You knew that she had work, but had they not called her? Even for Max? Maybe this was a good thing; she could obviously tell when you and Max were telling the truth, and tonight was going to call for a lot of lying. Still, it didn't feel great to know that she couldn't even show up.
"And what exactly were you all doing at the lake?" Powell asked, glancing between the three of you. Dustin grasped a pillow in his arms and looked at each of you in confusion and discomfort.
"It's comp–" Dustin started to wheeze out when Max interrupted.
"We were...we were just going for a walk," she said with more confidence than any of you felt.
The other officer, Callahan, clearly saw through the bullshit. "A walk? At 9:00 p.m.?
"To the lake," Dustin squeaked out. "We were gonna take a little swim. Little night swim." His voice was so high-pitched it was ridiculous.
"And they didn't want to go alone, out, so late, so I, uh, offered to chaperone," you offered, giving a tight smile.
"Dusty," the woman, who you assumed was Dustin's mom, said in disbelief. "Someone was just murdered there!" Oh shit, now it looked even worse. Yeah kiddos, let's go swimming in the lake a kid just died in. Shit.
Dustin answered his mother. "Yeah, we...we didn't realize that until we got there."
"That's why we didn't swim!" Lucas added, as though it were the most obvious course of action.
"And Nancy, was she with you at this night swim?" Mrs. Wheeler questioned emphatically. Her husband looked almost bored at the proceedings.
"No," Max shook her head at the same time as Dustin said "Yes" before catching himself.
