THE KIDS AREN'T ALRIGHT ｡ STRANGER THINGS

2 - THE DEAD ZONE

Ink smudged the girl's fingertips, blue and black colouring looking odd against her stark skin, but she did not care about the markings that painted up her left hand, always the burden when doodling in pen. Actually, Daisy Lonsdale liked the way the ink told a story to onlookers, clearly pinning her as some sort of artist without blurting it out for the world to hear. She liked how the town people of Hawkins watched her, always saying how her great talent would shine one day. However, she did not like how the town folk still gossiped about her family and the runaway teenager that had fled into the night last year, never to come back.

"Oi, Daisy, wanna' pass me some popcorn?"

Daisy was looking up from her sketchbook, her uniform rustling with the sudden movement. Kennedy Khan stared across at her, holding out his hand. She snapped from her daydream, pen falling from her fingers. Hurrying, she pumped some oozing butter into the popcorn bucket and handed it over to the customer with a flash of teeth. "Here you go, enjoy the movie."

Hawk Theatre, or simply just nicknamed the Hawk was dead on a night like tonight, most town people staying indoors after the long weekend. Daisy Lonsdale would have enjoyed spending the night with Dottie Fields, cooped up in her bedroom and exchanging gossip while listening to some song on the record player, but sadly, she was stuck at work. "You know, if the manager wanders in and finds you drawing instead of cleaning—"

"He'll fire me?" Daisy suggested, trying to hide a smile from Kennedy, or just Ken to friends. The two teenagers had been working together for about four months now, but their friendship didn't span the Hawk because they ran in different social circles and in a town like Hawkins, social stigma still floated about. Ken was a budding musician, quite handy with a drum-kit, but sadly, his parents wanted more from him in academia and he felt obliged to do so. Daisy, on the other hand didn't really care for her mother's opinion, not these days anyway. "Nice joke."

Kennedy just shook his head with her comment, adjusting his glasses and turning away to serve the next customers, who were a group of teenagers, Steve Harrington among them. Daisy was already avoiding the boy's heavy gaze, pretending to be very interested in reorganising the shelf full of candy packets. "What's The Dead Zone about?" Carol Perkins hummed out, her body pressed very closely to Tommy Hagan, her long-term boyfriend. It was rumoured they had been having sex since the seventh grade.

"Kinda' like The Poltergeist," Kennedy was saying with a blank face.

Tommy H. snorted. "You wouldn't like it, babe. It's scary."

Carol smacked the boy with the back of her hand lightly. "Shut up, I can do horror!"

While the couple bickered some more, Daisy was moving down the counter, pretending to wipe down the bench in order to get away from the group of older students, kids her sister had once been friends with. Since the ordeal with her sister last year, Daisy made it her mission to stay clear from these kids, the very kids that went against her word when she voiced her opinion that Marigold would never just run away from Hawkins in the middle of the night without a word. Despite her best efforts though, one boy did not get the message, or care, that she wanted nothing more than to be left alone tonight.

"I'll take a Twix."

A glare was springing to Daisy's eyes with Steve Harrington's voice, the charm dripping from each word like it did every other time the boy spoke. Daisy knew he was some big heartthrob in town and even girls in her own grade fawned over him. She gave him credit, he was decent to glance upon but something stirred in her bones whenever he stepped out of his social bubble to speak with her, like heaven forbid, he was doing her a favour just by smiling across at her. Without speaking she snagged the chocolate bar from the shelf, almost pegging it in his direction. "Don't choke on it."