Trauma - Hopper Fan fiction

14. The plan

Hopper woke a groggy Jamie up the next morning at 6:30 AM.

"Daaaad", Jamie said annoyingly as she turned towards the wall in Joyce's guest bed and pulled the covers over her head. Jamie caught a glimpse of the time and rolled her eyes.

"It's freaking 6:30", she groaned.

"I know what time it is. Maybe you'll keep that in mind next time I tell you and El to go to bed. Now come on, get up. Do you wanna go to school or not?"

Jamie quickly sat up in the bed and rubbed her eyes. "What do you mean school? I can't just walk in there and go to class", she yawned.

"I know that", Hopper rolled his eyes. "We're going to go register you, now hurry up and get in the shower. Will still has to get in and I still need to get to work."

Jamie huffed as she carefully climbed over El and used her dad's shoulder for support. "I don't have any clean clo-"

"Here. Put these on", Hopper said handing Jamie a shopping bag full of clothes.

"What's this?"

"It was going to be part of your birthday present that I shouldn't even give you, and don't think that I forgot to talk to you about that little stunt you pulled either."

"Thank you", Jamie said awkwardly as she took the bag and headed to the bathroom.

Hopper went to the kitchen to start breakfast. When he looked in the fridge and saw that they didn't have the majority of things for a decent home cooked breakfast, he took a deep breath.

"Fuck it", he said quietly to himself as he took out a package of bacon and a box of eggos and popped some in the toaster. Hopper went to the front porch periodically to smoke as he continued to pop waffles in the toaster four at a time. Jamie and Will both made their way to the kitchen after Hopper called for them, which was awkward for both teens given that they've never really had a real conversation with each other.

Hopper put the left overs in the microwave for El and Joyce as Jamie and Will cleared the table.
When Hopper disappeared into the back, Will decided to make small talk.

"So, uh... I hear your birthday's tomorrow", he said shyly.

"Yeah", Jamie said as the corner of her mouth twitched up into a smile. "I'll be 16. How old are you?"

"Oh, I turned 14 a few months ago."

"Cool", Jamie said as Hopper returned and headed out the front door. Will and Jamie hurriedly followed and hopped into the back seat of Hopper's newly repaired blazer. When her dad started driving rather fast, Jamie looked at the time and whispered to Will.

"What time does school start?"

"8:00"

It was 7:56 when Hopper parked the blazer and Will hopped out to meet his friends who decided to wait for him. The gang of kids all looked back at Jamie who sat in the back of the blazer and waved at them. As they waved back wondering why she was there, Jamie asked her dad the same thing.

"What made you want to register me for school?", Jamie asked as her dad flipped through a folder.

"Just taking some precautions. Hopefully, you can start in a few days."

"So... you don't want me to stay inside?"

"I did... but if your mom is serious about this whole court ordeal then we need to get a head start on things like putting you in school, activities, things like that. Which also means that if need be, you need to be ready to testify against your mom and David."