COMPLETE UNTIL SEASON FIVE
In 1980s Indiana, Judy Hopper and her group of young friends witness supernatural forces and secret government exploits. As they search for answers, they unravel a series of extraordinary mysteries. In the midst, love and...
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Like most mornings, Judy would make breakfast for the family before she went to school and Hopper went to work. Since it was Halloween, a very special day in Hawkins, Judy made French toast, which was more special than the usual bowl of cereal.
Hopper didn't really eat breakfast unless it was cereal, so he just drank a cup of black coffee. This morning he leaned against the sink behind Judy who was at the stove. The two of them were mindlessly going through their usual morning routine, without a word needed to be said.
Hopper looked over the rim of his cup, finding a white figure in front of him.
"Oh, Jesus!" He yelled.
At this exclamation from her father, Judy looked up frantically. "What?" Looking towards her father, trying to match his gaze, she turns around, finally seeing El.
"What the heck?" Judy asked through her quickened breathing.
"Ghost." El said from underneath the sheet she tore two eye holes into.
"Yeah." Hoppe said, monotone. He set his now empty cup in the sink and moved past the two girls in the kitchen to sit at the dining room table.
"Halloween." El said, still standing in front of Judy as she moved the toast to a couple plates.
"Sure is." Hopper said, seemingly annoyed. According to El, she had it all planned out. She'd be a ghost for Halloween and no one would even know who she was.
"Hey, right now it's breakfast, okay? Let's eat before I'm late for school." Judy said, pushing El to sit at the table. Taking off the sheet from El head and laying it on the back of the couch.
"They wouldn't see me." El said, looking angry at Hopper.
"Who wouldn't see you?" He said. Judy knew he knew what El was thinking of, he was just being mean at this point.
"The bad men." El said, but got quiet as Judy placed a hand on hers and gave her an empathetic smile. Judy made it clear that Hopper wouldn't allow her to go anywhere. "Trick or treat." She said quietly.
"You want to go trick or treating?" Hopper asked, before looking at Judy who just shrugged her shoulders. "Alright, look..." He continued. "How about I get off early tonight and I buy us a bunch of candy, and we can sit around and get fat, and we watch a scary movie together?"
Before any decisions could be made, Judy had to interject. "I have to study for a test with Nancy... I won't stay out too late though, so we can hang out." She said looking at both El and Hopper. "How's that for a compromise?"
"Compromise?" El asked, confused.
"C-O-M-promise. Compromise. How about we make that your word of the day, huh?" Judy says as she gets up from the table walking over to El's room. Reaching in, she picked up the small chalkboard the two of them had been using to draw pictures and study words with. She writes down the word, showing it to El across the cabin. "Compromise."
Watching his daughter deescalate what could have been a big problem, Hopper added in his two cents.
"It's something that's kinda in-between. It's like halfway happy."
"By five-one-five?" El asked.
"Five-fifteen. Yeah." Hopper agreed, and El looked at Judy who was walking back to the table now.
"I'll be back later than that, but I'll be back." She said.
Judy wasn't technically lying about being back later than normal but she did fib about the reason why. Tonight was Tina G's Halloween party. Tina hadn't even handed Judy a flier to invite her, and Judy wouldn't have protested it, but Steve was more than adamant at getting Judy to come. He was always trying to get her "out of her comfort zone" for some reason and always inviting her to come with him and Nancy on dates and stuff. Judy would generally decline given the look she would get from Nancy.
It actually turned out that in the last few months, Steve had talked to Judy more than Nancy. Late night talks on the phone with Nancy turned into late night talks with Steve. Slowly but surely Steve sort of filled in the gaps between the cracks in Judy and Nancy's friendship.
The same way Steve and Nancy had become different, Judy and Nancy had too. It all came out of grief and not knowing how to continue on. Still, it sometimes felt like Nancy didn't try as hard to hold on as the rest of them. But Judy tried not to judge too hard. She understood that grief was different for everyone.
Judy never thought that hard about it, it was actually too obvious for her to try and figure it out. Nancy was drifting away from everyone and there wasn't anything Judy or Steve could do. Things would just have to level out without them getting in the way. And Judy had her own life and things to worry about besides Nancy, not the didn't care of course, but what can you do with someone who isn't looking for help?
