Jeopardy- Stranger Things

Chapter Twelve

November 7th, 1983

George and Nick sat in an oddly tense quiet at dinner that evening. They'd usually talk about their days or whatever normal families talked about but this evening felt wrong. Nick wanted to talk she just couldn't find the words. George kept looking up at her then back down at his plate. Sometimes he'd half open his mouth, as if he were about to say something, then would shut it and stare at his plate again. George couldn't shake that awful feeling he'd had all day. He knew there was something going with Will, he just knew it! He couldn't get the day's events out of his head.

"Good day at school?" Nick asked eventually, although, if she was being honest, she wasn't really interested. She couldn't get Joyce's disappearance from work out of her head. It just wasn't like her.

George shrugged. For the first time in his life he wasn't sure if he should tell his sister about his day. They had shared everything with each other. All through their childhoods they hadn't kept a single secret. But Will was missing and he had been questioned by the police. He didn't know if she would freak out and stop him from looking for his friend and he just couldn't take that risk.

George knew full well that Nick was protective of him. All his friends who had sisters said they'd avoid them like the plague, especially Mike and Nancy. But Nick had been more like a mum to him that a sister. She had been more like a mum to him than their own mum. If the others were worried their mum's wouldn't let them go and look for Will then he should be worried Nick wouldn't let him go, right?

Nick narrowed her eyes at George. He shifted in his seat. She must know something's wrong, he thought, they were never this quiet around each other. They'd gotten on well all their lives, which was odd for siblings. George had found it weird that his friend's siblings shut them out but quickly realised it was his relationship with his sister that was the weird one.

Truth be told, Nick never wanted a brother. Ideally, she'd have wanted her parents to stay together but when that fantasy fell apart so did all her others. Nick blamed her mum entirely for her cynical attitude to life. As far as Nick was concerned, when life gives you lemons you get on with it without complaining.

When George was born, Nick knew Naomi wouldn't behave any differently. Nick saw this new baby, her new baby brother, and remembered her childhood, with both her parents in those blissful years when they were still together. Then she remembered how crushed she had been when her parents split and Naomi let her down time after time. From the day of George's birth, a five year old Nick had loved him. She took it upon herself to never let George suffer the way she did. If Nick's own childhood and current-hood had been ruined by Naomi, she sure as hell wasn't going to let that happen to George too.

"How was work?" George grumbled as he pushed potatoes around his plate abscent-mindedly.

"It was..." Nick faltered.

For the first time in her life she wasn't sure if she should tell George about what had happened with Joyce. She had always been 100% honest with him, she supposed as an overcompensation to Naomi's complete secrecy. But this was George's friend's mum who had just up and disappeared. Nick didn't want George to have to worry about disappearances. He was young and deserved to be carefree. But the last thing Nick wanted to do was to turn into her mother. She took a deep breath.

"Joyce didn't turn up for work today." She said as simply as she could. George's head snapped up to look at her, "It was...weird. She needs that job and she just didn't turn up. But I'm probably over thinking this and I don't want you to worry about this at all, or Will for that matter so could you not mention it-"

"Will wasn't at school today and the police came in to question me because they think he's missing."

Nick's mouth fell open. Her eyes widened. Her fork fell from her grip and clattered to the floor

"What?!"

*

"Please Nick!" George begged, following Nick around the kitchen as she cleared up after dinner. "Everyone else is going."

"No."

"But Will's missing! He could be in real danger!"

"That's exactly why you're not going."

"Because Will's in trouble?!" He protested, trying to guilt her into letting him go.

"No, because you'd be putting yourself in 'real danger'." She said firmly, using his own words against him. George frowned. "I mean it, George. If you go out looking for Will and go missing too, our mum won't be doing nearly as much as Joyce is doing for her son." Nick affirmed telling him the cold hard truth. But George could only see it has her stopping him from helping his friend.

George scowled at her and turned on his heels, storming to his bedroom. Nick shut her eyes and sighed deeply at the drumming of his heavy footsteps and the slamming of his bedroom door. Nick slumped into a kitchen chair and rest her head on her hands, leaning her elbows on the table. George didn't trust her anymore. She had done the one thing she swore she'd never do: she'd turned into her mother.