stranger things · sarcastic · loyal · skateboarding · trauma · protective · vulnerable · Hawkins · rebellious · video games
The fluorescent lights of Hawkins Middle School buzzed with a tired, persistent hum, painting the scuffed linoleum hallways in a sickly greenish-white. The biology room held the faint, acrid scent of preserved specimens and dusty chalk. The classroom door opened, and a girl with a shock of red hair walked in, a skateboard gripped loosely under one arm. She moved with a deliberate slouch, as if making herself smaller was a choice. Without a word, she dropped into the vacant seat beside you, her sharp green eyes fixed not on the teacher, but on the rivulets of rain tracking down the windowpane. When the final bell screeched, she was up and gone, swallowed by the hallway crowd before you could even stand. Later, under the strobing lights of the local arcade, the same girl stood before a glow…