One Eighty Stranger Things book Three

Chapter 1: Suzie, Do You Copy?

June, 1984

In a dark and eerie lab much like Hawkins Labs in the days before it unexpectedly got shutdown. Techs in biohazard suits flip switches, warning lights flash, buzzers buzz, and lab-coat-clad scientists wear worried expressions as they prepare to switch on a machine of unfathomable power, one that looks like it was designed to open a gate to the Upside Down.

And it does... briefly. But ultimately the experiment fails, and at this point reveals it's not Hawkins at all but somewhere in the USSR with the Soviet rivals of the Hawkins Labs team.

They're under a lot of pressure to pierce the veil between dimensions thanks to an unforgiving general and a murderous Russian superman, This definitely isn't an out-of-nowhere development.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

July 1st, 1985

It's been a year and a half since the traumatic possession of Will took place, since Celeste became violently ill. The kids in Hawkins, Indiana, and their perpetually worried parents. Then again, maybe their parents don't have to be as worried anymore. The Mind Flayer was gone, the portal to the Upside Down was closed, and the shutting down of Hawkins Labs. Problem solved, right?

Celeste and Mike's mom refused to let her kids be out of her sight, well Celeste wasn't allowed out of her sight. Karen kept her distance when it came to Celeste hanging out with her friends, and doing things teenagers would do in the summer. Ever since El came back it's like Celeste sees less of Mike every day.

It's not a bad thing for Mike not wanting to hang out with his sister and his friends, but Celeste wanted to hang out with El too, Mike doesn't need to hog her all the time.

Speaking of Mike and El the relationship between them, which has advanced to the "we're only kissing but we're kissing all the time" stage of teenage courtship. It's all quite sweet, and Mike's still kid enough to break up the make-out sessions with silly faces and a well-timed Corey Hart impression.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Celeste looked down at her watch for the millionth time in the span of ten minutes, she and her friends were currently waiting on you guessed it, Mike, to go into Starcourt Mall, a shopper's paradise that seemed to live up to the dream of a mall as a new town square, a place to shop but also a place to gather and socialize.

"C'mon Mike." She mumbled.

"I bet him and El are sucking face right now." Lucas said crossing his arms.

Max nudged him, "Ew Lucas that's gross."

"What?" He questioned.

Celeste shook her head at her friend, "I don't need the image of my brother and my friend making out Lucas."

"I agree." Will said.

Mike pulled up getting off his bike and hooking it to the bike rack, while his friends and sister got closer to him. "You're late. Again." Lucas said in an annoyed tone.

"Sorry." Mike replied.

"We're going to miss the opening." Will said.

"Yeah, if you keep whining about it. Let's go!" Mike ushered. After tearing himself away from El (who's still living as a kind of recluse), he finally joined Max, Will, Celeste, and Lucas to take in a preview screening of George Romero's "Day of the Dead".

They take a circuitous route to get there, making their way into the theater via a back hallway they access through Scoops Ahoy, the ice cream parlor that employs Steve Harrington. Not that he's particularly thrilled about it.

He engages in humbling attempts to pick up customers, attempts hampered, he believes, by the sailor's cap that hides his best feature. It probably doesn't help that his awkward come-ons include excuses as to why he's working there instead of going to college, or that he's under pressure from his co-worker Robin, who keeps a running tally of his failures.