G O O D G I R L S [BILLY]

C H A P T E R O N E

New In Town
Hawkins, Indiana
1984

Orange, brown, and red invaded the once vibrant green rural scenery of small town Hawkins, Indiana. It was October, 1984, and fall had settled into the town like a wanderlust-ridden nomad brushing wistful past the trees and setting up camp to rest his weary bones for the night. The streets were growing cold, frost lining the windshields as the morning sun rose, and the grass was wearing thin as autumn became familiar with the wind.

Everything was normal here, or so it seemed.

Entangled in a love affair like no other, the mystery of the fall and the tragedy of the town spun a spider's web in the sky and covered the world in its silky mist. The inhabitants of Hawkins sulked dreamily through the days, a haze above their heads that lead them to see in a shade of foggy grey. An illusion cast itself like a shield in the minds of the people here, and they led their lives pretending that everything in their not-so-normal town was perfectly okay.

School had only just begun, and everything's gone back to the way it was. Back to how it was before - before what happened in Hawkins last year. The fear of flesh-eating beasts running rapid through the town lessened as AV Club and cheer tryouts promptly took its spot. While high school and middle school, and parties and drama seemed almost trivial now compared to what they knew could really happen in the world, they continued to manage like their world had never changed at all. If investing themselves in extracurriculars and boyfriends was the distraction they'd need, then so be it. That's just what they'd do.

Just as the trees began to shed their leaves, the fall brought a certain death to the haunting memories of last winter. Normalcy became a front that they wore so often that anything abnormal became a thought of the past. It was almost as though those who were involved let the memory of the events slip seamlessly in their mind, covered now in vines and cobwebs and placed on a shelf in the back never again to be touched. Trauma was a nomadic soul wondering aimlessly through the labyrinth of their mind, and they never knew when he'd visit again.

For now, buried in dust and tangled in wire, the peculiar plague that once sat still in their brains was replaced with an untainted, new life that came only with the birth of a new semester.

Penelope Christensen woke that dreary Wednesday with the hopes of her trauma leaving itself at the door. She'd slept in late again, a habit freshly formed as a result of her fear of what day might bring, and lugged her body through the hallway of her two-story home, looking for any excuse in the bathroom mirror to not have to go to school. She loved school, and always had, but lately it's felt harder and harder to get her heart back into it. But she knew somewhere inside of her that eventually all of the forcing herself into recovering would actually work. She splashed some water on her face, droplets trickling gently down her skin, and pushed back any thoughts that might hold her back from a good day. "Today will be epic," she whispered to her reflection, a ghost of a sanguine smile stretching softly on her lips.