𝐡𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲 ➵ stranger things

xxii

➵

CLAUDIA AND ELEVEN SAT IN the back of Hopper's police car, both girls fiddling with their fingers as their excitement and nervousness could not be tamed. Eleven couldn't wait to see what this whole cheesy dance Snowball event was about while Claudia couldn't stop her mind replaying the scenes that rolled the last time she went to the Snowball. It was just the beginning of being a runaway when she saw Mike dancing with someone who wasn't her.

But she had to forget those days, because tonight was going to be different than when she was ten years old. She had to let everyone know that she was back from hell, and that she was going to stay. Of course, this will be the first time where everyone from her school will see her again, and she didn't know if Savanna would still be there or not.

"Well, here we are." The voice of Hopper's snapped Claudia out of her thoughts and she turned her head to her right, seeing the large building and the music that bellowed from inside. Eleven nodded her head and smiled, saying goodbye to Hopper before she got out of the car as she waited for Claudia. It was the brunette's cue to leave and so she was about to open the door when Claudia stopped herself, and she looked over her shoulder at the older man.

"Hopper," She began when she let go of the car's handle. Hopper turned his head so he was looking over at her, waiting on her to talk, "I just wanted to say thank you for everything you had done for both Eleven and I. We appreciate it, we really do."

Hopper chuckled when hearing Claudia, "It's okay, Claudia." He answered and he could see a faint smile on her olive skinned face, "Now go, you don't want to be late."

Claudia opened the car's door and took a step onto the concrete's floor. After getting out, she turned around and smiled at the policeman before looking at Eleven - who had been waiting for her - and locked arms with her. Eleven looked down at Claudia's dress and smiled brightly, "You wore this dress when I first met you," The telekinesis girl had said in which Claudia nodded her head, she thought back to that day in the diner where they spoke for the first time; Eleven was wearing a hospital's robe with her hair in buzzcut while Claudia wore her dirty and ripped purple dress as her hair was long and messy.

But the girls looked older and mature now, they looked gorgeous.

She laughed a little bit, "That's true, I did." Claudia replied, "You ready?"

Eleven nodded as an answer and the two girls opened the large doors that lead inside the building.

It looked exactly the same way it did last time Claudia had been here, and she didn't know whether she liked that or not. It had the same blue and white decorations, the word 'Snowball' printed right in front of their eyes and a lot of teenagers that were dancing together, some to be in groups of girls and boys.

And just with perfect timing, a slow song by the name of 'Every breath you take' from The Police began to play through the room and Claudia let out a small sigh, "Great," She murmured under her breath when seeing all the students gather up into pairs as they swayed together. The problem was, Claudia wasn't very good at dancing nor had she done it before so having to answer whoever asked to dance with her was always going to end up with 'pass'.