it's the end of the world as we know it.

01. in which we meet frankie avery

october 1984

Frankie Avery, despite living in a small and boring midwestern town, always was more confident than he should appear. Sure, most of it was a facade, because if they really knew what happened behind closed doors with his asshole father, a lot of people would be concerned. But he didn't want people to know him as the kid with the troubled family, so maybe the smart mouth troublemaker stoner was a more appropriate way to go.

If you really wanted to dissect Frankie and his life, you'll have to go to the very beginning — July 8, 1966; in which Frank Avery was born to Adam and Carol Avery. Like any average person on the planet, he was born screaming into the world, which maybe should've been a sign to his mother about his future personality. If it said anything to the doctors, Frankie's father had an "important work meeting" he could not miss, despite his first child being born. It left Frankie and his mother in the small, cold and white room, and that's when Frankie could pinpoint his love and adoration for his mother.

Fast forward four years, and Stella was born. This one his father did show up for — such a sweet soul to care about Stella like that — Unlike Frankie, Stella was a bitch to take care of as she really decided to go with the terrible twos title. But the two siblings grew a tight bond together.

No one could have seen it coming, either, the terror that'd reign down onto the Avery household at any time of the day, it didn't stop Adam at all. But maybe it was from when he was let go of his job that unleashed this terrible demon from him, a monster that drank out his heart's content every night and would beat his kids and wife for the hell of it. So growing up, Frankie always took the brunt of his father's beatings so Stella wouldn't have to go to her elementary school classes with bruises on her arms, but it was less alarming for a middle schooler.

Frankie wondered if his father knew he was queer too, though it was probably obvious when in seventh grade, he added the "ie" to the end of his name and stopped going by Frank. Frank was a fucking stupid name anyway. Adam always told his son that he had a "faggot's music taste", but it never stopped Frankie from listening to things like Queen, Prince, and Sweet. If anything, he figured his mom knew, and he knew Stella knew though Frankie never told her. Being right next to the high school, rumors fly about like crazy between the two schools.

Speaking of school, Frankie went to the hell hole called Hawkins High. He was a senior there — Go Tigers! — in which he'd graduate the next spring of 1985. He was more than ecstatic for it, and the second Frankie graduated he desperately wished to skip town.

But now, he had someone to convince to skip town with, though Frankie wasn't sure if it would happen given the fact that they weren't even dating.

Last fall, a series of catastrophes hit the town in the span of a week. It started on November 6th when Will Byers went missing, and more followed suit. Barbra Holland, a girl in the grade below Frankie, went missing as well and then it was later said her car was found and she was found dead. Will Byers was the only one found alive in the town who had gone missing, following the aftermath of a funeral even for the kid.

Piquing his interest, Frankie began to watch Will's older brother, Jonathan, who was a junior. Honestly, Frankie wouldn't call it stalking. Maybe others would, but he's heard Jonathan's done creepier things than stalking, which made Frankie feel better about himself. It took him the entirety of August to memorize Jonathan's schedule of classes, and then it took a few weeks for Frankie to figure out where to place himself so he could... "conveniently" fall into place to befriend him. And yeah, it had been a whole month already and Frankie was convinced he had fallen in love.

When Frankie had finally worked up the courage to talk to Jonathan, they began sort of a ritual, where they'd walk together between every class and sit together at lunch. Frankie still didn't know a lot about Jonathan but Jonathan knew Frankie's whole life story; Frankie was a talker, it'd be a miracle to get him to shut up. Though Frankie knew a bit about Jonathan's family, he knew he was friends with Nancy Wheeler despite Frankie not once having a conversation with her the entire time he's been friends with Jonathan, and Frankie curiously watched the girl as she'd sit across the lunch room with her boyfriend Steve Harrington.