Chapter Text
DECEMBER 21ST, 2013
FRANKFORT, ILLINOIS
It was a uncharacteristically sunny-ish day. Some snow had fallen these past two months sure, but most of it has melted by now.
Kate walks into her room with a small, worn out, box. Parting the very trendy, as she would say, curtain of lime colored beads that she hung in her doorway as she stepped inside. Which funnily enough, happened to match her lime colored walls. She collapsed onto her bed as she opened it.
It was just a bunch of old photos of her parents and their friends, nothing special. Kate didn’t know why she liked looking through them so much, she just did. Maybe it was because a part of her felt attached to their little hometown called Hawkins, and even a little melancholic about the childhood she could’ve had there. Surrounded by them, and all of her true friends.
But she was as close as you could get to that without actually living there. They were always there like clockwork even before she was born, every summer, every Christmas, every holiday break there ever was, It was nearly pointless that they even moved at all. Half of her life, maybe even more, was spent in Hawkins.
She’s only asked why a few times, and most of those asks were years ago. It was a sensitive subject, according to Brittany at least. That track though, her father and mother were so hush-hush about their childhood. Kate always had to do her own digging about the shit that went down, and she never really found much.
An aggressive, annoyingly recognizable knock on her doorframe snaps her out of whatever trance she was in.
“What?” She snarks, snapping her head around.
“Mom wants you to move your ass, she wants to leave in 5 minutes.” Her brother, Jacob, replies. Making a face he always tends to make whenever he’s slightly offended, or upset, or annoyed, or any slightly negative emotion really.
“Yeah, okay, dipshit I get it. As if you’re even packed…” Kate scoffs as quickly gets up and slams the door in his face. He was only 3 years younger than her and still acted like such a brat for his age.
He scrunches his nose as the little wind that the force of the slamming blows into his face, another so-claimed “annoying” tic he has.
“Asshole…” he mutters under his breath as he heads towards his room, knowing she was actually not that far off.
He began angry tossing things into his backpack and suitcase. Comic books, boxers, the works really.
‘She doesn’t get it’ He thinks sitting on his bed with his head in his hands. ‘She doesn’t get me…’
A part of him, a guilty part of him kind of dreaded this trips back to Hawkins. He doesn’t really have a million different friends here, his sister might agree with him, even though she definitely has a bit more. But, they come even more sparingly in Hawkins too, and he knows for a fact that his sister can’t relate to that at all.
It’s not really his fault though, he was kinda screwed from the beginning in that department. Most of his parents friends only have kids Kate’s age or older, so he usually hangs around Kate and her group until they get sick of her. There are a few his age technically, but they come in painfully small numbers.
He felt a little like Kevin McCallister half the time, especially during the holidays. Sometimes he wished he would get stuck in a Home Alone situation just so everyone one would just stop ignoring him. But that felt like such a dumb thing to think.
He attempts to run his hands through his hair, but they get a little stuck. ‘Stupid thick curls’ he thinks, he was just lucky in this particular moment that his hair wasn’t as course as his dad’s or his hairstyle would’ve been totally ruined.
“Hey,” He quickly turns around from his bags. “I thought you said that mom wanted us to haul ass. let’s go, c’mon…” Kate smirks, suitcase in one hand while her stupid vada brad— vera-whatever duffle bags slung over the opposite shoulder. He can vividly remember her begging mom for it.
Jacob clamored down the stairs after her, heading through the front door into their driveway. There parents in their own busy chaos that seemed to revolve around the car.
“Suitcases,” Their father called to them like he was checking off a list, holding out both hands in anticipation. The two siblings quickly replied by rolling them down towards him, which he seamlessly caught and started loading them into the trunk.
“Okay you two,” Mom sighed, stepping into the driver’s side. “Let’s get this show on the road. You know how Mike gets when anyone is there later than him…”
Kate’s father seemed to be quite amused at that, letting out a chuckle as he closed the trunk and made his way to the passenger seat. “As if Wheeler has been on time to anything in his life before, and who said you were driving?”
For some reason, it was almost as if he was genuinely hurt, and it nearly made Kate want to burst out laughing hysterically. His expressiveness and enthusiasm never failed to catch her off guard, not matter how many times he got like that, nor the fact that she’s been told that she acts nearly the same too.
“It’s his anxiety, you know that. And second of all, don’t even start with me Lucas…”
“Sorry, sorry…” Another thing about her dad, he knows when to back off, no wonder him and her mom have been able to stay together for so long.
Lucas turns around in his seat to face the two. “Alright kiddos, you ready to hit the road?”
“Yes, please.” Kate sighs, popping in her wired earbuds. Jacob notices they’re plugged into her ipod nano instead of her phone, and then quickly remembers her telling him it was because she didn’t have to worry about it dying on her during long trips. It was in a pretty rude way too, like it was obvious or something, ugh.
“Yup” Jacob then replied, popping his ‘p’ while he stared out the window.
“You heard them…” Lucas muttered, buckling his seatbelt. Purposely trying to annoy Max at this point.
Which proved to be slightly successful, her eye twitching a little as she side-eyed him. But her little smirk gave away that it was all in vain truly.
This was going to be a long two weeks clearly, maybe that wasn’t entirely a bad thing though.
Not yet at least.