Chapter Text
Lizzie Hargrove was the happiest she’d been in weeks. There wasn’t a single cloud in the blue California sky, making it perfect weather for a day at the beach with her mother and twin brother. She was stretched out on a floral beach towel, a book in one hand as she watched the waves lap at the shoreline. Out in the ocean, she could still barely see her twin and her mother on their surfboards, riding the crest of a wave as it came towards the shore. Before long, the two paddled in and approached the beach towels the family had laid out.
“How’s the book, sweetie?” Her mother asked, smiling as Lizzie looked up from her book, but something felt… off. Lizzie tossed the book onto the fine sand of the beach, standing to look at her mother. She seemed different than how Lizzie remembered her. She carefully reached out to her mother’s arm, carefully placing a hand on her shoulder before everything went dark. There was no beach, no towel, no ocean, no family. “Mom? Billy? Mom?!” Lizzie shouted, desperately looking in the darkness for any sign of her family. Suddenly, Lizzie’s body jolted, leaving her on edge and anxious. She opened her eyes, only to find herself sitting up in her bed, the alarm clock across the room ticking quietly.
“God damn it,” Lizzie muttered, burying her face into her flat pillow as she felt a stinging tear roll down her cheek. It had been years since her mom left her dad, but that didn’t stop her from having nightmares where she was nearly haunted by her mother. Lizzie let out a shaky sigh into her pillow, doing everything she could to keep the tears welling in her eyes from falling. Just as she had finally calmed down from the shock of the dream, someone began to knock loudly on her door.
“Get up! It’s already seven,” Her father, Neil, grumbled, impatiently standing outside the door to Lizzie’s room. She dragged herself out of bed, flicking on the room light and shuffling over to the door before opening it. Neil simply shook his head dismissively at her before walking across the hallway to Billy’s bedroom. Lizzie shut the door softly, careful to not slam it in case her father heard it. She looked into the mirror she kept leaning against the wall, frowning at her appearance, which was still disheveled from sleep. Lizzie rummaged through the closet, glancing at each clothes hanger until she eventually pulled out a pair of jeans and a dark green sweater and changed quickly.
Lizzie absentmindedly grabbed her backpack, tossing it over her shoulder as she walked out to the kitchen before grabbing a box of cereal and sitting down at the small dining table.
“Morning,” She mumbled to her siblings, who were sat on either side of her. Billy stared at his twin with something bordering on slight disgust before returning his gaze to his plate. Max replied curtly, “Morning,” before absentmindedly stirring her bowl of cereal. It was clear that none of the three were particularly thrilled about today, considering how it marked their first day of school in Hawkins. For all of the bickering the three got into, the one thing they all agreed on was that Hawkins was the last place they wanted to be.
“Max, are you riding with me to school this morning, or…” Lizzie mumbled, looking at her younger stepsister who was still playing with her food. “Oh, um… yeah, I guess,” she replied, finally looking up. “We should probably leave soon, right? Dad would freak out if he found out we were late on our first day of school here.”
Lizzie nodded in agreement, fishing out the keys to her station wagon from her backpack. “Yeah. Let’s go,” she said as she stood up from the table, grabbing the bowl and box of cereal and putting them away before standing at the front door, waiting for Max to pick up her dishes. The two girls walked out into the screened porch where Neil was sitting and smoking a cigarette, hardly acknowledging the two as they left and got into Lizzie’s station wagon.
“You don’t have to call him ‘Dad’ in front of me, you know,” Lizzie shrugged, turning the key as the car rumbled to life.
Max stayed silent, sighing as she leaned her head up against the window. After the two sat in silence as Lizzie drove down the tree-lined street away from their neighborhood, she couldn’t take the silence anymore. Lizzie turned on the radio, fidgeting with the tuning knob until finally picking up a clear station on 94.5. Max frowned at the radio, but kept her irritation to herself and looked out the window until the two pulled into the parking lot of Hawkins High School.
“Have a good day, Max,” Lizzie said with a faint smile as she got out of the car, locking it once Max shut the passenger door.
“Yeah. You too,” Max mumbled, barely making eye contact with her sister before disappearing into the gaggle of pre-teens making their way into Hawkins Middle School.
As she walked towards the entrance of Hawkins High, Lizzie could feel the stares of other students burning into her, sizing her up. It made perfect sense to her why all eyes were on her, considering it was a small town that probably didn’t get new faces very often. Despite that, the stares still unsettled her as she walked into the front office, where she got her class schedule from the receptionist.
“Are you new here, Miss… Elizabeth?” The receptionist asked, chewing a piece of gum as she rummaged through a file cabinet for the schedule.
“Yes,” Lizzie replied quietly, watching as the receptionist moved from drawer to drawer in search of her folder. After a moment, the receptionist found the folder and retrieved the class schedule, handing it to her with a smile.
“Have a good day, Elizabeth,” The receptionist smiled, immediately going back to gossiping quietly with the other receptionist sat next to her.
Lizzie stepped out into the bustling main hallway of the school, glancing down at the paper in her hands in order to find her homeroom. She could barely make out the room number before folding the paper up and stuffing it in her pocket. She wandered the halls, struggling to get through the crowd of people filling the school. She stepped into a classroom, the eyes of the students in the desks all flocking to her before she realized this was the wrong room and scurrying out into the hallway.
After more looking, Lizzie finally found the room she was looking for. Room 133, Mrs. Click’s room. She stepped into the classroom, which was surprisingly cozy. A window was propped slightly open, letting in the crisp fall air. Lizzie started making her way to an empty desk next to a window before Mrs. Click stood up from her desk.
“Speaking of our new student, she's right on cue! Elizabeth Hargrove, is it? Why don’t you come up here and introduce yourself to the class? Just tell us what grade you're in, where you're from, and a fun fact about yourself.”