Chapter Text
There was nothing commemorable about the old, beat up '67, bright red pickup truck. Nothing ceremonious about the way it rolled onto Dart Street on that scorching summer day in the middle of July the summer of 1981.
Any of the residents of the small neighborhood- those that bothered to look up, that is- would not have a single clue that the occupant of the passenger seat would change the cul-de-sac for years to come.
Specifically, for a little, faded gray house that the red truck was just pulling past the driveway of.
The gray house was home to three people. One man and his two sons, one of which had just turned eight, and the other nearing eighteen. The youngest of the trio would be the most impacted by the red pickup truck. For better or for worse.
A brown mop of hair could be seen as a young girl laid her arm on the sill of the window and gently rested her head upon it, eyes sweeping back and forth as she took in her surroundings. There was a sort of boredness on her face that would make any onlooker believe that she had been staring at this street for her whole life. And in some ways, she had.
In her eight years on earth, she had moved a total of twelve times in that old, red pickup truck. And each time, the new house they moved to was in a similarly rundown, beat up neighborhood such as the one she was currently rolling through. Even though the towns changed, that much stayed the same.
Just like all the years prior, all of her worldly possessions were shoved into boxes in the back of the truck, swaying from side to side slightly due to the gravel that had immediately replaced the pavement as soon as they got off the highway.
She let out a small huff of air, effectively blowing away a stray piece of hair that had fallen in front of her eyes as she did so.
From beside her, her father glanced at her and grunted, "This place is gonna be different, girl." He said in that gruff voice of his that made it hard to tell whether or not he was annoyed all the time.
The girl didn't bother to respond, continuing to lazily look out the window while trying not to roll her eyes. He always said that, but in the end, it didn't matter. It never did.
When the vehicle finally came to a stop, it was in an uneven driveway in front of a small, red house. The girl hopped out of the truck as soon as it came to a halt and examined her newly established living residence.
The shutters that had probably been white once upon a time, seemed one minor storm away from falling off. The paint of the siding was chipped, but overall, it wasn't terrible.
Momentarily, her eyes strayed away when a blue bird flew from her roof. She allowed her vision to follow it as it made its way down a few houses before coming to a stop on another roof, that of which belonged to a gray house. Underneath where the bird landed was a boy, about her age, sitting on the front steps of his porch, stick in hand, seemingly drawing shapes in the dirt by his feet.
As if being able to sense her gaze, the boys head turned up, looking slightly taken aback when his eyes met hers.
"Well?" Her fathers voice made her drag her eyes away from the boy as he came to stand proudly beside her, "What do you think?"
"I wish it were blue." She mumbled sarcastically. As if her opinion on the house would matter anyway.
"Hey," The smack he gave her upside the head wasn't enough to hurt, but it was firm, "Don't sass me, girl."
She scowled, crossing her arms, but choosing to remain silent.
He grunted, nudging her towards the car, "Come on, grab a box and get to unloading."
.·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙ ✩ *̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙ .
It didn't take long to distribute the boxes shoved full of trinkets and clothes into the respective rooms of the new house, and when it was done, the girl's father dismissed her with a grunt and nodding of his head, a telltale sign that he wanted to be alone.
She lasted a total of three minutes in her new room, one that appeared to be smaller by a few feet than her previous one, before she realized that all of her comic books were in the bottom of a box in the living room, where her father was currently sprawled out on the ratty couch that had come with the house. And of course, the last thing she wanted was to bother him, so she took one look out her window, which was situated at the back of the house, and crept down the stairs before slipping outside.
From her room, she had seen what looked to be a vast amount of woods, and she had nothing but time to kill, so why not do a little exploring?
As she walked past a half-fallen over fence that made up her small backyard, she began kicking back and forth the toes of the red converse that had been passed down to her from her last neighbor who had been kind enough to give them to her after noticing that the ones she had were too small. As she kicked her foot, she watched as dirt and rocks scattered in her wake.
When she reached the woods, she was quick to realize that it wasn't this dark, void of life place that the movies made it out to be- to which she was grateful.
In fact, it was even peaceful for the girl, roaming amongst the trees in near silence. The only sounds breaking it up being from the nature surrounding her.
She wandered for a while before finding a fallen over tree trunk to sit on, letting her legs dangle over the side as she swung them back and forth, humming a quiet melody to herself.
The silence was broken a few moments later by the sound of a snapping stick that made her head whip up quickly and eyes find the source of the sound.
A boy stood a couple yards away, frozen in place with a crushed branch under his left foot, ears tinted pink when he realized he was caught. It took the girl a moment before she realized it was the boy that had been sitting out on the porch when she first pulled up to her new home.
Her eyes narrowed and she quickly hopped down from where she had previously been perched, "What're you doin'?" She demanded, "You followin' me?"
The boy finally seemed to have gotten over the fact that she had spotted him and his eyes narrowed as well as he crossed his arms over his chest with a scoff, "Nah, I ain't followin' ya."
"Sure looks like you are." She countered.
The two fell into a silence for a moment, staring each other down, neither one willing to be the first one to look away.
In the end, it was the boy who spoke first, "You new around here?"
It was a stupid question. Everyone knew everyone around these parts. Yet, he couldn't stop himself from letting the words tumble out of his mouth.
"Yeah," The girl mumbled, kicking her foot against the ground, "Just moved in."
"What's yer name?" It seemed like he was blurting out one idiotic thing after another. He just couldn't keep his damn mouth shut.
"Evelyn." She informed him, only after eyeing him for another moment, "What's yours?"
The boy's nose scrunched up, "Evelyn? That sounds like such a princess name."
Evelyn's eyes narrowed yet again, "Oh? And your name is so much better?"
"It's Daryl." He said, confident that his name most certainly was better than a princess one at the very least.
The brunette smirked to herself, "I dunno, Darlina sounds like a princess name to me."
Daryl's ears went red again and he clenched his fists at his side, "It's Daryl." He repeated.
Evelyn seemed to only be encouraged by his anger, "Darlina."
He scowled, turning his head away to hopefully keep her from seeing his face grow warm, "Whatever." He mumbled.
She studied him for another moment before declaring, "You're weird."
His head snapped up to meet hers and for the first time, she noticed how strikingly blue they were, "So are you." He shot back.
Evelyn didn't say anything in return. Simply looked at him for another moment before turning on her heel and going back in the direction of her house, leaving behind a stunned Daryl, who quite honestly had no idea what just happened.
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"Where've ya been?" Came the slurred voice of none other than Merle, Daryl's older brother, as soon as he softly shut the door behind him.
Daryl shrugged, looking at his brother, laying out on the couch with a beer in hand. Their dad must not be home. "Out in the woods."
"Ya see that new girl?" He asked, eyes glued to the local news station on the beat up television that sat a couple feet away.
"Yeah... she called me Darlina." Daryl mumbled, before his eyes went wide and his face went red as a tomato almost immediately. Why would he ever tell Merle something like that?
His older brother cackled, "Darlina?" He laughed loudly, "Oh, I'm startin' to like that girl, little brother."