𝙨𝙞𝙗𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 [st/it]

₇ . welcome to derry

June 18th, 1985

The kids and Joyce all followed Jim up to the doorstep of the house. It had a porch in the front with chairs, and had 2 floors. He unlocked the door and they all lugged their suitcases through the front door. They all laughed as they dragged their bags up the stairs. Jim yelled up the stairs. "Don't pick your rooms already, we have to discuss that!"

Once the whole group was done unloading the cars, they all gathered in the living room, which was open to the kitchen. Also on the bottom floor was a laundry room, bathroom, and a bedroom. 

"There are three rooms and only one bathroom for all of us," said Dustin, already worrying about the sleeping arrangements.

"There's one down here too," said Joyce.

"Joyce and I will sleep down here and you kids can take the three upstairs," said Hopper. "But I want the girls to take one room and you boys can decide who's sleeping in which room. That means no sharing beds with your boyfriends or girlfriends," he gestured clearly at the two couples in the room.

Mike and El glanced at each other, disappointed, as did Max and Lucas. The kids ran back upstairs to check out the rooms. "I call this room!" said Dustin, running into the doorway of the biggest one. 

"Mike we can take this one," Will said to Mike.

"Actually, can I share with him?" asked Lucas. Mike looked like he was about to talk but he said nothing.

"Why?" said Dustin. He assumed it would be him with Lucas and Mike with Will, considering that he was closest to Lucas.

"So we can switch places with them, dumbass," said Max. She and El had already planned how they would ignore the rules in the few seconds they had been upstairs.

"Oh," said Will. 

"It's okay, we can have a single people party," said Dustin, holding up his hand to high-five Will. Will sighed as he walked into his room, ignoring Dustin's comment.

Mike, Lucas, El, and Max decided that it was best that they got the two smaller rooms across the hall from each other. That way, Mike and Max could walk across the hall and switch once Joyce and Hopper had gone to bed. Since El had grown up in the lab, she was really sensitive to light and was always woken up but the sunrise. That made their plan easy because she could just wake up Mike and they could go back before the adults woke up. It was a foolproof plan, and excited the kids because it gave them a sense of rebellion and that it would be a fun summer.

"I'm hungry," said Dustin. He went down to the fridge and opened it. Joyce walked into the kitchen at the same time.

"Oh shit, we need to get groceries," she said. In five minutes, she was out of the door with Will, Mike, Dustin,  and El. Hopper stayed behind to check out the rest of the house. There was no room for Max and Lucas in the car, so they decided to skateboard around a little and check out the neighborhood.

✰

Joyce parked her car outside of the grocery store. "Okay, I wrote a grocery list," she said, pulling a piece of paper from her back pocket. She tore it into thirds and gave a part of the list to Will and Mike and a list to El and Dustin. "Go get these things and any other snacks you want and meet me at the register."

Dustin grabbed El by the hand and ran with her straight into the grocery store, ready to pick the best snacks. Mike and Will walked at a more normal pace. They had to go get things from the produce section, so they weren't as excited.

Richie and Eddie were just finishing up in the ice cream aisle and needed popcorn and soda to finish off their movie marathon snack shopping.

"You see El, there's a huge difference between regular Cheetos and hot flaming Cheetos," said Dustin, holding up both.