A Stranger Thing

Chapter 1: Strange Things

To put it bluntly, I came from a bad place. It wasn't always bad, and I wasn't sure when it had become that way, but I just knew that it was. I was raised by just my mother; no clue where my dad was, I wasn't even sure I had ever met him. My mom was fine for a while, until she wasn't. I was pretty sure I had memories of her, doing what a mother was supposed to, but that was so long ago.

Not to get too much into it, it's kind of a bummer.

She flew under the radar for a while and I was pretty much neglected growing up, until finally CPS became aware of the situation and shipped me off to my nearest relative, who happened to be my Aunt Joyce. My mother's sister.

Joyce wanted nothing to do with my mom, and I couldn't blame her. My mother had a habit of burning bridges. I wouldn't be surprised if she had done the same to her own sister. I had met my aunt before, but just when I was a baby. It had been so long, and I had no memories of her. But when she was notified that she had a niece (me) who needed to be placed and that she was the closest family, despite any ill feelings she had toward her sister, she knew she needed to help me. After all, I was just a kid, and it wasn't my fault that my mother had basically ruined her relationship with any family we had.

So two weeks after my fifteenth birthday, I went to go live with my Aunt Joyce, in a small town called Hawkins, Indiana. It was nothing special. When I first arrived I noted that it was pretty much like any other small town in the midwest. Nothing remarkable. I found out she had two sons, my cousins. One, Johnathan, was 16 and in the same grade as me. And the other one, Will, was 12.

When I had first gotten to the house, they didn't have a room for me set up yet as it had been such short notice. I didn't mind. Their house was already much nicer than what i was used to. It was weird though, to suddenly be a part of this family I had never met, that I barely even knew existed. I felt like i was intruding, despite Joyce reassuring me that I was family, and they were glad to have me.

The two boys, my cousins, seemed pretty quiet generally. They didn't make much of an effort to start conversations with me at first, which was understandable. We were practically strangers. And, as they soon found out, they would have to be sharing a room because of me. Considering I was a girl and should have my own space, (Joyce's words, not mine,) the two brothers would have to share a space. So I wouldn't blame them if they were slightly resentful.

When I moved to Hawkins, it was summer. Which meant no school, which meant no opportunities to make any friends. So Johnathan and Will were kind of my only options. Not that I was used to having many friends anyway, but even the most introverted person needs someone to talk to, at least once in a while.

At least Joyce made an effort though. And she kept the topics light too, which I appreciated. As much as I knew she wanted to, she didn't ask me about my home life before. She probably assumed if I wanted to tell her about it I would. So instead, she would talk to me about what life in Hawkins was like. She told me more about Johnathan and Will, and despite hardly having interacted with them, I was starting to feel like I knew them. Will was really into Dungeons and Dragons, and Johnathan was interested in photography. I thought that was cool, that they both had something like that to put all their energy into. I wished that I had something like that.

I appreciated Joyce talking to me and telling me things, because I wasn't much of a talker myself. I much preferred to listen. And it was nice to have someone decent to actually listen to, I hadn't had that before. Even if it was just my aunt.

As the months went by though, Johnathan and Will did start to warm up to me. And when the school year started, Johnathan and I would hangout at school, since we were in the same grade. And I soon saw that he didn't really have friends either. I didn't mind that, and I couldn't exactly judge him for it since him and I were in the same boat. I figured since he was my cousin, we kinda had to be friends, and it was better than nothing, so I rolled with it.