Andy Hopper had enough to deal with. She hated her mom's new boyfriend, she was still grieving the death of her sister, and she hadn't seen her dad in years. The last thing she needed was to be packed up and shipped off to the small town of Hawkins...
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THE SUN HAD SET AND THE DARK NIGHT HAD TAKEN OVER THE SKY, only adding to everyone's already growing anxiety. The darkness had a way of making everything much scarier. Maybe it was because you couldn't see the danger as it approached you.
After what felt like hours, the headlights of Hopper's car flooded into the room, making everyone spring from their seats and rush out the door. Outside Nancy enveloped Mike in a tight hug, gripping onto the boy tightly like she was making sure he wouldn't leave ever again. Joyce, like the wonderful mother she was, huddled the other boys into her. Andy didn't know any of them well enough to embrace them but the little girl with the shaved head shuffled over to her.
"Andy?"
She looked up at Andy with wide eyes that said more than her mouth ever would. "Eleven." Andy exhaled and opened her arms wide for the girl to move into if she wished. She did. Eleven fell forward and loosely wrapped her arms around Andy's waist. Even though they had only met fleetingly, Andy had shown such kindness to Eleven that she trusted her. She wanted the type of comfort only another girl could provide, like a sister.
"You know her?"
They pulled away and Andy opted to instead wrap an arm around Eleven's shoulders. She faced Hopper who stared at his daughter with an unimpressed expression.
"Yeah." Andy answered, giving him back an aloof expression of her own. "We met when she broke that mouthbreather Troy's arm."
Hopper breathed in deeply and slowly exhaled with his eyes shut and pinching the bridge of his nose. His signature look when it came to his daughter. Oh, how he wanted to yell, but it was so not the right time. Instead, he raised a hand and eyebrow at his daughter before storming back inside the house.
A short time later, they were all huddled around the coffee table inside the Byers' house. Andy sat on the arm of the chair her dad sat in while Mike explained the logic behind the Upside Down and the situation they were in.
"Okay, so, in this example we're the acrobat." He held an A4 piece of lined paper and pointed to a red stick figure who balanced on some type of tightrope that went from one side of the page to the other. "Will and Barbara, and that monster, they're this flea." He then pointed to a dot on the other side of the line. "And this is the Upside Down, where Will is hiding." He moved the marker to the area of open space below the line.
Andy nodded along as if she knew what Mike was talking about, but really she had become a little lost. She was good at science, but not other dimensions and tear in the universe good.
"Mr. Clarke said the only way to get there is through a rip of time and space. A gate" Mike continued. "That we tracked to Hawkins Lab." Lucas added. "With our compasses."
