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Welcome to Hawkins High, your typical small town high school in Hawkins, Indiana.
Two girls sing along in their car to popular music playing on the radio, when Hawkins' own Steve Harrington, pretty -- but trying hard not to be (and failing) pulls his rundown car up next to theirs and scowls with indignation at their choice of music. He gets out of the car and hurries toward the front of the school. As he walks through the front door he passes a girl hanging a poster for prom. Steve rolls his eyes and with a loud sigh he rips the poster down.
The girl yells at him, but Steve just continues down the hallway, not paying her any attention.
In the counselor's office sits Mike and Nancy Wheeler, the siblings just moved to Hawkins, ready for a fresh start. Mike sits to the left, wearing ripped skinny jeans and a button up flannel. He sits slumped over in the chair. His sister, Nancy, sits up with her chin held high, she is wearing a nice dress and a blue sweater over top.
Across from him sits Ms. Kelly, the schools main guidance counselor, typing on her computer, not paying any attention to the kids across from her. She mutters to herself as she types. Finally she looks up at them and smiles.
"So, lets start with Mike. Here we go," she says. She closes the tab on her computer and pulls up Mike's transcript and prints it out.
"9 schools in 10 years, my my... Army brat?" she asks.
"Uh no," he starts, "we just. moved around alot. Our dad…"
Ms. Kelly gives him a small smile and stands walking towards the window in her office, and then continues.
"That’s enough. I'm sure you won't find Hawkins any different than your old school. Same little asswipe shit-for-brains everywhere."
Nancy and Mike look at each other in alarm. Nancy turns to look at Ms. Kelly and says, " Excuse me. Did you just say... Am I in the right office?"
Ms Kelly just laughs and tells them, " Not anymore you’re not. I’ve got deviants to see and a novel to finish." She starts to shoo them out. " Now scoot. Scoot!"
"Okay. Thanks." Mike says in a questioning voice. They both rise to leave and pass the school's resident bad boy coming in to Ms. Kelly's office. He has long, curly hair and is wearing dark skinny jeans with chains hanging from the belt loops, a Metallica shirt with jean vest that is covered in pins over top and big, chunky boots. He stands in front off Ms. Kelly's, waiting for her to acknowledge him. Ms. Kelly looks down at her file and up at the boy.
"Eddie Munson, I see we're making our visits a weekly ritual." She gives him a disapproving glance. He answers with a charming smile.
"Only so we can have these moments together," he starts. Ms Kelly just rolls her eyes at him and he brings his hand up to his face to play with a strand of hair. "Should I, uh, get the lights?" Eddie asks.
"Oh very clever, trailer boy. Says here you exposed yourself in the cafeteria?" Ms Kelly looks at him with an amused look on her face, one of her eyebrows raised. Eddie gives an aloof smile. "I was joking with the lunch lady. It was a bratwurst." Ms Kelly gives out a startled laugh,"Bratwurst?" she asks while looking him up and down, smirking. "Aren’t we the optimist? Next time keep it in your pants, okay? Scoot!" Eddie gives a small bow and then turns to leave, walking out the door. Ms Kelly sits back down in her chair and pulls back up the tab she was working on, writing a new sentence. "bratwurst," she mutters to herself.
Mike walks out of the main office alone, a girl with red hair introduced herself to Nancy as Barb and they both had left to find Nancy's classes. Mike looks around a lost expression on his face, when a boy around his age walks up to him and holds out his hand.
" Mike Wheeler?" he asks. "I'm Dustin Henderson, I’m supposed to show you around."
Mike goes to shake his hand, "Oh hi," Mike let's out a sigh of relief, "Thank God! You know, normally they send down one of those audio/video geeks." Mike gives a small chuckle, putting his hands in his found pockets.
Dustin blushes, he raises his hands to the back of his neck, "You know, I do. I know what you mean, yeah." He lets out a nervous giggle. From down the hall a boy, wearing an open button down with a white t-shirt underneath tucked into his pants, pushing a cart full of film equipment rolls alongside them.
"Hey Dustin, where should I put those slides?" He asks.
Dustin jumps and goes to push Mike away, he turns towards the other boy and whispers, "Not now Will!"
Dustin turns back to Mike and lets his hands fall from Mike's shoulders. "So, uh, Mike. Here’s the breakdown." Dustin starts to lead Mike down the hallway pointing to different groups of people as they go.
"Over there you’ve got your basic beautiful people. Now listen. Unless they talk to you first, don’t bother."
Mike turns to him and looks confused, But wait. Is that your rule or theirs?" Dustin rolls his eyes,"Watch," Dustin turns to the group as they pass, "Hey, Jason."
Jason looks at Dustin with disgust, "Loser," he spits. Dustin and Mike round the corner and Dustin looks at Mike,"See that?"
The boys make it to the courtyard as they continue their walk passing by more groups of students. As they pass by a group of kids all holding coffee, Dustin speaks up, "To the left we have the coffee kids. Very edgy. Don’t make any sudden moves around them."
They step down and pass a table full of white boys with dreadlocks and prerequisite Jamaican berets.
"And these delusionals are the White Rasta. Uh, they’re big Marley fans. They think they're black. Semi-political, but mostly…"
"Smoke a lot of Weed?"
"Yeah."
They now approach a few kids dressed as urban cowboys. Mike stops and turns to Dustin, "Wait wait. Let me guess. Cowboys?"
Dustin snorts a laugh, "Yeah but, the closest they’ve come to a cow is Macdonald’s."
They both crack a smile then move on, approaching a group of studious-looking teens who are bent over textbooks at a table.
"These are your future MBAs- they're all Ivy League accepted." Dustin turns to the group and gives a small wave," Hey guys. How ya doin’?"
The group all give him an annoyed look and roll their eyes, they turn back to what they were previously doing and continue to ignore Dustin.
"Yesterday I was their god!"
"What happened?"
"Erica Sinclair started a rumor that I...that I buy my Izods at an outlet mall."
"So they kicked you out?"
"Hostile takeover. But don’t worry. They’ll pay. Now over here…"
Mike interrupts Dustin, no longer paying attention to their conversation. "Oh my god!"
Dustin follows his line of sight till his eyes land on Jane Hopper, or to most El. She has her hair with loose curls falling over her shoulders, she wears a nice, pink sun dress with cherries on it and red flats.
Mike gives a dreaming sigh then asks, "What group is she in?"
Dustin just rolls his eyes and sighs, "The “don’t even think about it” group. That’s Jane Hopper, but everyone calls her El. She's a sophomore."
"I burn! I pine! I perish!" Mike exclaims.
"Of course you do." Dustin sighs "You know, she’s beautiful and deep. Pure."
El walks by with her friend, Angela, they both hold their school books and seem deep in conversation.
"Yup, see, there’s a difference between “like”and “love”. Because I like my Sketchers, but I love my Prada backpack." El said.
Angela's face had a look of confusion,"But I love my Sketchers."
El just smiled and said, "That’s because you don’t have a Prada backpack."
Angela smiled and looked Enamored with El's wisdom. They both turn the corner and leave.
Dustin turns to Mike and with a sigh, tells him, "Listen. Forget her. Incredibly uptight father, and it’s a widely known fact that the Hopper siblings aren’t allowed to date."
Mike just looked on, dazed, not really listening, and definitely not forgetting El.