³𝐆𝐎𝐍𝐄, 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐨𝐧 ✔

001-starcourt mall

"BYE, MARISSA!" CARLA CALLED TO THE WOMAN WHO WAS PLACING BOOKS BACK IN THEIR RIGHTFUL SPOTS.

"See you, honey!" Marissa, the woman shelving books, yelled back.  Normally, she'd be against yelling in the library, but who was there to care? Her and Carla were the only two people left in the place. 

After making sure her boss knew of her departure, Carla exited the library keys jangling in her pocket.  As she opened the doors, the humid, summer, air was quick to hit her, making her wish she could spend a few more minutes within the air conditioned building.  Despite being past eight o'clock, the air still decided against growing cold.  That was summer in Hawkins for you; always hot and always humid.

Strolling towards her car—which was the only one, other than Marissa's, in the lot—Carla took in the emptiness that the night gave.  While Hawkins library was never a crowded place to begin with, after closing gave it an even more empty aspect.  There was no teenage chatter, or music blasting from speakers. It was quiet.

The quietness that the library offered was one of the reasons Carla decided to take a job interview for a position there.  After everything she'd gone through, Carla needed a peaceful area to work in, somewhere that didn't remind her of the past and allowed her to restart.

Turns out, the library was perfect for just that.  It gave her a chance to help people, one of her best traits, as well as interact with new faces. Faces who knew her as the nice girl at the front desk and nothing more about her.

The library was somewhere that she could escape the chaos that was Hawkins. It gave her the best chance at fulfilling her goal of having the most normal summer possible. In 1983, with Will's disappearance, her life had been flipped upside down, and she hadn't been able to get it back...until now.

With the monsters dead, and the Upside Down gone from their lives, Carla was finally able to try and get her normal life back. With a secure job, she was able to keep the past out of her mind, and start filling it with the future instead. She could worry about whether or not she restocked the newspapers instead of worrying about demo-dogs and the scars on her wrists.

It felt good to finally know she'd no longer have to worry about monsters to say the least.

Tossing the keys to the library into her cup holder, Carla took a seat and started up her car, eyes flashing to the walkie talkie that was sitting in her passenger seat.  Ever since she started working later, she'd been put on baby sitter duty—more or less.  

The kids weren't really kids anymore—they were officially teens—and the parents seemed to have noticed this, and gave them a new level of freedom and longer curfews.   With the new Starcourt Mall catching their eyes, you could imagine their faces when they realized Carla worked later hours at a place not too far away.

Mike had been the one to beg Carla to become their carpool system, promising to pay her back—how, Carla wasn't exactly sure yet—and being the sister she was, the Wheeler agreed.  This 'carpool system' involved her driving any of the five that needed it to the mall and taking them back when they'd finished doing whatever was necessary that day. 

Carla truly didn't mind driving them back and forth almost every day, as long as Mike eventually ended up paying her back somehow.  Plus, she had nothing better to do after her shift, so there wasn't an excuse to say no anyway—they deserved to explore the new found world that was being a teenager.

 So, here she was, picking up her own personal walkie—which the party had all pitched in to buy her—to make sure they were all ready for the daily routine of her picking them up.  To make sure everyone was ready, and so Carla knew where she'd have to go, Lucas had decided they all got her a walkie.  It was sweet, and made it easier on everyone.