Red Rose - Will Byers

Pilot: The Change

Dear readers,
Today I'm going to tell you a story about an ordinary girl who had a lot of strange things happen to her.
Her name was Daniela.
I know, a normal name, common I might even say, given by a normal mother to her daughter. They lived in a normal town and had a normal life with the normal everyday problems of a normal single mother family.
One day, her mother warned her that they were going to move because she had found a better job but, like all normal children who are told that they are going to move from the city where they grew up and where they took root so suddenly, at first she didn't take it the news good. She locked herself in her room for a few hours. But in the end, she ended up accepting it.
Daniela, no matter how much she asked her, her mother refused to tell her where they were going to live.

-It's so irritating, Ju. She doesn't tell me where we're going no matter how much I insist. - Daniela said frustrated to her friend. -Speak only to pack your bags.
Juliana laughed.
-She just promises not to forget me and everyone in this town. She held out her pinky promise.
-I promise.- she said making a pinky promise.

The day of the trip arrived. After days of packing. The bags were in the car. The moving boxes were due to arrive two days later than they did.
She already had her Halloween costume in her suitcase. She, with a lot of help from her mother, made a dress like that of princesses. Daniela dressed as Lucy Pevensie. The girl loved the Chronicles of Narnia books very much. She had an entire collection except for the last book.
They went to an airport. They were going out of the country, concluded Daniela, but when they went to the line that said 'Hawkins, Indiana, North America' she heard that they weren't just going to leave Portugal, they were going to leave Europe.
Long plane trip. Blah blah blah. She read a little, slept a little, had some chips and crackers, and drank her can of Coke.
When she arrived at her destination, her mother woke her up. It must have been around midnight.
They took a taxi to the new house. She couldn't see very well because it was dark, so you could only see what was lit by the street lamps. It was a small street with very nice houses. The girl's mother turned the key in the door of a house painted tangerine orange and the door was a scarlet color that was different from the others. More colorful but smaller.
When the lights were turned on by the switch on the wall, she looked over and saw that they were empty and a calming, beautiful clear blue. It had two small bedrooms on the second floor with a bathroom each, a bathroom downstairs and a living room that connected to a kitchen.
They immediately went to lie down on the makeshift beds with some blankets and pillows that they had brought and others that the previous owners of the defeat had brought.
The next day would be Daniela's first day of school and because of the nervousness of entering a new school in the middle of the first semester, it took her a long time to finally fall asleep.

The next day, Daniela agreed early. So early that she was irritated that she couldn't get some more sleep before going to school.
Oh, Halloween. A date when the youngest dress up as who they would like to be and ask strangers for candy (something that doesn't make much sense as she grew up listening to her mother telling other adults never to accept candy from strangers). A day meant to be scary and fun.
Daniela donned her disguise. Her mother did a beautiful, simple and quick hairstyle. She covered it up with a bit of makeup or permanent ink number etched into her skin. Her mother never explained to her what the '012' tattoo meant, it was kind of a taboo subject. However, at the same time, her mother also insisted that she hide her from everyone and everything. Because of a feeling that her mother said that for her protection, she never got around to disobeying her (but she had already considered it).
Before they left, the mother made her take a bunch with the polaroid camera she had given me to take pictures of everything I wanted to remember about the city where I grew up, whether it was a friend or some place that brought me good recordings, and it was for those little colorful papers that showed her her house for 12 years that she looked at before getting out of the car when she arrived at the building belonging to the city council of that city.
The girl and her mother entered the school and, after talking to the director, he directed Daniela to the room where she would have her class while the mother kept the signature of the documents requested for the registration of the new student.
She entered the room after the director had the courtesy to open the door for her. He said something to the teacher and left.
-Drum roll Dustin - said the teacher to a kid in the front row with curly brown hair who started drumming on the table creating a rhythm as the teacher spoke - To join this journey of curiosity of ours, our latest passenger: Daniela!
She looked around. There must have been 20 kids there. And everyone, without exception, looked at Daniela. She felt her face flush and suddenly the living room floor seemed like a very interesting place to stare.
-Could you sit next to Will, please.
The professor pointed to an empty seat in the second row beside a young boy with bowl cut hair dressed as what he thought was one of the playful twins from The Lord of the Rings.
-And, Byers, if you can, I'd like you to guide your new colleague through this new world.
When taking out the science notebook and the case, she didn't realize it was open and ended up with its contents spread across the living room floor making a big fuss.
Daniela bent down to pick up her school supplies and the boy bent down to help her.
He whispered:
-Hey! I'm Will.
-I had already realized that - she whispered back to play and he looked away because he must have noticed that he turned tomato red - I was just kidding - whispered the redhead - By the way, I'm Daniela.
-That I had already noticed- she imitated what the redhead had said before and they both gave a small and silent laugh- Since you're young, in the next break I can show you the school. And if you want, you can come and have lunch with me, I'm sure my friends wouldn't mind.
-Mr. Byers, Miss. Silva, would you please listen to my class now and talk during the break?
-Yes, professor- they answered in unison, and finished picking up pencils and pens.
She looked at Will and nodded, and said without speaking, Thank you.
Will was the first person who made Daniela feel that that city could be her new home.

The bell rang. Daniela has never been so looking forward to a break. That hour seemed to last for hours.
Will grabbed her hand and guided her out of the room. Out of the confusion that is generated inside the room to the confusion that is generated in the corridors. Daniela hated crowds, too much noise, too many people, especially when they were all strangers to her.
The little boy took her to a quieter part and announced:
-And so let your exploration of this school's grounds begin, her majesty Lucy the valiant.- this was the way he chose to ask what she was dressed in.
-Forward, my dearest Peregrin Took.
Both started laughing and Will started to introduce him to the school.

At the end of the break, when Will was taking Daniela to the room where they would have the history class, they laughed because of some joke that one of them said and, then, their three friends appeared:
-Where are you, dude?
- We've been looking for you all this time. Where were you?
The dwarf with the darkest skin looked over to Will's side and saw a girl with fiery hair in a simple, long V braid, sky blue eyes, flawless smooth skin, and lips as pink as a rose and soft looking. The beautiful girl wore a medieval-style dress in black and yellow that reached to the floor and defined her developing body curves. They knew her name: Daniela, she was the new girl in the class.
The dark boy elbowed the other two and pointed at the redhead who blushed and tried to hide from her latest friend.
-I've been introducing Dani to the school.- she blushed at the nickname Will gave her when introducing her to his friends- Can I call you that? Dani?
-Of course, Will- she murmured, still a little flushed.
-This is Lucas,- he pointed to the dark-haired kid who noticed her over there first- Dustin- he pointed to the curly-haired kid who made the drum roll on the desk earlier in the morning- and Mike- he pointed to the kid with the black hair and the freckles.
-Are you going to come in or not?- said the history teacher.
And they went to class.

After an hour of class, we had a five-minute break, where Daniela found out that the four were masked as the four Hobbits from Lord of the Rings.
And after another hour of class it was time for lunch. It was her first day and she already had someone to eat with.
It was quite fun. She was quite shy at first but she felt more and more at ease, more included in that group.
When they were returning to the classroom. The redhead was humming a song that couldn't get out of her head: 'Hey, teacher, leave them kids alone / All in all it's just another brick in the wall'
BANG
Daniela almost jumped at the sound, but no one else reacted.
-Daniela! Hello! Earth calls Daniela!- Daniela looks at Dustin who is waving his hand in front of his face- Are you okay? Out of nowhere you stopped and you were paralyzed...
-Didn't you hear?- she asks.
-Hear what? Did someone called us?- asks Mike and Lucas, respectively.
-Didn't you hear that? It almost sounded like a gun going off.
-How so?- Will questions.
-That noise… Oh, never mind- she says and only then does she notice that there is a drop of blood running from her nose, something she quickly wipes away before anyone saw.
-Are you sure?- Will is intrigued like the others, she nods- Okay.
Daniela knew something was wrong there. She knew she wasn't crazy, but…a gun shot? Why a gun shot?
"What the hell is wrong with me?"