I'm boring. I know it. He's not. But he is strange. ──────୨ৎ─────୨ৎ────── Jingling the keys, whipped from my back pocket, the car heaves into life. Just barely. "This hunk o' junk your car?" he yelps over the spluttering engine, beginning to rummage through the cassettes haphazardly and lazily thrown into any-which side pocket. Unamused, I grunt as it finally starts, beginning to roll over the gravelly bumps that make up my drive-way, "Yep. Aren't I lucky?" Steve, now fully involved in snooping, whistles as he whips out a shiny looking one in shades of sapphire, a woman frantically dancing in the centre. "Cyndi Lauper?" he teases, "Really? Wow." "Stop!" I groan, laughing, trying to smack it away from him whilst keeping both eyes stamped on the dim road, "That's totally my sister's." "Oh, yeah?" he snickers, twisting away and checking the back for the track-list, before belting out "But what if girls just wanna have fu-un?"

【 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝘃𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗼𝗻 x 𝘧𝘦𝘮!𝘰𝘤 】 𝙄𝙉 𝙒𝙃𝙄𝘾𝙃, Aven Hargrove was only seen and known as his twin, until a heartbroken boy pulled over on the side of the road and recognised her for who she truly was. 【 𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗘𝗥 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚𝗦; S2 - S4 】 status ↦ 𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 © 𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗟𝗩𝗥 , 2022

Lara Henderson is Dustin's older sister. She left Hawkins at fourteen to finish high school in another town. Four years later, she has built a quiet and predictable life far from the place she once called home. But everything begins to shift when Dustin's letters start to change. At first, they are long and enthusiastic and full of the usual chaos that only he can create. Then they become shorter and colder, as if he is carrying something too heavy to share. Her mother's phone calls make things worse. The pauses are long and the explanations vague. Will Byers disappeared for days and came back, but no one seems willing to say what actually happened. Jonathan does not respond when she tries to contact him. Joyce sounds exhausted. And Dustin, who always told her everything, suddenly feels miles away. To Lara, Hawkins has always been an ordinary town where nothing extraordinary should ever have happened. But her instinct tells her that something is wrong, and Dustin needs her. That alone is enough. When she returns, the city feels different. Too quiet, too cautious. The Byers' house carries a strange heaviness. Dustin's friends avoid certain topics. And Steve Harrington, who had once been only the popular boy from school, now stands out as someone unexpectedly kind and protective, someone who seems to understand more than he says. Lara knows nothing about portals or creatures. She has no idea what happened while she was gone. What she does know is that Hawkins is not the place she left, and neither is she.