𝐋𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐨𝐧 -𝐋.𝐒

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐤𝐢𝐝 <16>

AUTUMN IN HAWKINS WAS LIKE LIVING IN A MOVIE. It was by far, the best season of the year. Well, it is according to Alice, anyway. She only loves the season so much because of what comes along with it. She absolutely loved Halloween. A tone. Much more than any other holiday. By a mile.

But who could blame her?

Dressing up for one night a year while getting candy thrown at you like nothing else? What's not to like?

Normally, she was totally prepared for Halloween. But this year was different. She hadn't even thought about her costume yet, and Halloween was coming up this week. She was a wreck. And she hadn't a clue how she managed to forget all about her favourite holiday.

She had no time to think anymore it's as if her life had been consumed by, school- the teachers were giving out bucket loads of homework, boys- Lucas Sinclair in particular and of course it.

The upside down.

She wanted to sit in her room and not leave until she came up with an idea. But she just couldn't. She couldn't think. Plus, she had far more important things to do, like take back her winning title on the Pac-man machine at the arcade which Dustin had stolen in spite.

For weeks on end she had been saving up lose change in order to kick his ass. And she was looking forward to it. He had claimed the title from her last month when he spent all his birthday money trying to claim yet another arcade game, and Alice was willing to do everything to claim that title back.

She had managed to find a fair amount of cash, enough to beat Dustin anyway. She didn't think he was that good. She sure hoped so anyway.

Frankly, Alice was actually rather surprised she was allowed out at the arcade at such a late hour. At first she was reluctant on asking her mother to go. She had expected her to say no, but to her surprise she said yes. Who would have thought?

Ever since the event of last year, Alice had felt as though she was on house arrest. It certainly felt like that anyway. Constantly having to be in before sundown and her mother fussing over absolutely everything. If she was even a few seconds late, she got the 'I worry for you' speech. She was tired of hearing those words.

Where she had been, who she was with, what was she doing. She wished it could be back to the way things were before. But it couldn't. Not for now anyway. Not for a long time.

But that's not the point. The point was that Alice was allowed to go to the arcade, which she was forever grateful of.

However, the problem was, her money had been stolen. She always kept her money jar below her drawers in her room, and conveniently a few minutes after Steve was in her room, that jar went missing. And what was even more suspicious was that Steve had locked himself in his bedroom for the past fifteen minutes, which is how long Alice had been looking for her jar.

"Mom, he's done it again. Steve, stole my money!"

"Alice, what is the matter with you?" Jennifer Harrington asked angrily from across the hall. All she wanted was to fold the laundry quickly so she could back to reading her new book.

"He keeps taking shit from my room!" Alice replied as she furiously pounded on her brother's door. "Open this door, or I swear to god!"

"Alice! Keep your voice down. It's late, and people in this house are trying to sleep ." Her mother scoffed rolling her eyes at her children's childish behaviour.