Dotson and Harrington |Steve Harrington|

Another Beginning |chapter 1|

How do you describe a life so broken and frivolous, that has been destroyed time and time again? Two words. Jackylen Dotson. From the outside, her life seemed pretty normal. But from behind closed doors, nothing was close to perfect. Her mother had slowly started to leave home. Which didn't make him happy whatsoever.

Jackylen's fair can skin started to appear with black and blue markings all over her body. The life she was given didn't seem fair. Life at home was getting too complicated to manage.

She had to keep secrets from the people she loved. So as the new school year started to approach, Jackylen and her father decided to move to Hawkins, Indiana, a small town where everyone knows everyone. Right before the new school year started, Jackylen was introduced to her across the street by neighbor Nancy Wheeler.

She was a simple girl but really fun to hang around with once she was able to emerge from her social life. From what Jackylen could grasp, Nancy had good marks in school and had an awesome "boyfriend" named Steve. She also had a little brother named Mike who played D&D with his other three best friends Will, Lucas, and Dustin. Apparently he was the "game master" of this little fantasy game.

But Jackylen had more important things to worry about. The next day was her first day at Hawkins High school.a place of teenagers of all ages drink, smoke, party, without feeling any remote whatsoever. Hawkins, from what Jackylen could tell, was just like any other school she'd been to.

The night was still young, Jackylen was sitting in her room looking at some popular magazines she'd picked up from the gas station a few hours earlier. She flipped through pages of shirtless guys trying to model some skinny jeans that no one was going to buy.

As she continued to flip through the pages, she came across a girl who had dyed hair. Her bright strawberry blond perfectly complemented her hot pink boxed color she'd picked out. In Jackylen's eyes, the girl in the magazine seemed like she had everything planned out. Jackylen stared at the girl on the page wondering what she was like.

She started to hang upside down on her queen sized bed filled with her muted pink sheets. The slight sound of the cricket flowed through her room from her bedroom window on the second floor. She'd hadn't gonnen this much peace in  months. With everything that has been going on.

She could finally feel the peace and tranquility running through her cold veins before she heard a horrendous sound. The sound of glass breaking into a million pieces. The sound startled her so tremendously, she dropped her magazine and fell on her head.

"Oh come on," she said to herself. As she started to stand up, she could feel her heart drop to her feet. She could feel her anxiety running through her as she slowly started to walk downstairs where the noise was coming from.

As she took the last step on the stairs, she peeked behind the wall, she could see her father standing in the living room, livid about something. As she tried to take another step to look further, a creek had underneath her feet.

She closed her eyes as tight as she could, wishing the creek wasn't heard from across the room. It was like she was a little kid trying to play hide and seek. If she'd just closed her eyes, maybe he wouldn't see her.

"You little shit," she heard from her father. The sound of his deep voice chilled through her bones. That voice haunted her from the past two years. The past two years of torture. She could hear his footsteps walking towards the stairs. She slowly started to open her eyes to reveal the presents of her  father, staring her right in her face.

"Why haven't you cleaned up the house?" She tried to speak, but it seemed like the fear of what would happen got stuck in her throat.

"Uhm... I'm sorry... I'll do it right now," she muttered. He should feel is fist grab her upper arm and squizze if so hard to the point it would pop.

"You better right now. One you'll know what will happen," he reminded her, getting really close to her face. His blue eyes met with her dark brown eyes, as the fear started to build up. She could feel her arm start to bruise just like it always has. She could feel his grip lessen and his anger tower down. "Now. Get to it."

As he started to brush her, up to his bedroom, the coldness of his presents started to slowly flow out of the room. As she heard his bedroom door close, she let go of the breath she'd been holding for what seemed like forever. She could feel a tear let go with her breath.

She stood up and dusted her shorts and red plaid shirt off before heading towards the living room to pick up the pieces of glass on the ground that had broken. She got down on hee hands and knees and started to pick up the light blue glass off the oak wood floors.

With each glass picked up, cuts on her hands and knees started to appear. Some deeper than others. Finally after about ten minutes of cleaning, she could hear a knock at the front door.

"Come in," Jackylen called from the ground. She still continued to pick up glass, not paying attention to who was coming in. She could still feel her anxiety sitting there, like a long awaiting fear that something was about to happen.

"Jackylen..." the voice said. Jackylen quickly whipped away the existing tears and looked up at the figure.

"Hi Nancy," she said.

"Oh honey..." the Wheeler girl said, dropping to her hands and knees along with her friend. "How did this?"

"Oh it was me. I got mad and I threw the vace. It was stupid," she lied. Nancy continued to pick up the rest of the glass for her friend, and helped her stand up.

"Come on girl. Let's go to my house and help you clean up. There's blood on your face, hands, and knees," Nancy slightly chuckled. This made the young girl feel so much better about her situation earning her a little chuckle as well.

She put an arm around the young frightened girl and led her through the front door across the street where the porch light was still illuminating its bright yellowish orange color. The two story house on a little cul-de-sac.

Two wonderful parents and three very healthy children. A young high schooler trying to find herself, a young middle schooler who plays D&D, and a young blonde child.