Neighbors - Strangerthingsau

Chapter 2

The Arrival

Welcome to Hawkins! El smiled at the sign as the car passed it. She couldn't help but feel comfortable in this town. Back in Chicago, El felt like whenever she went out in public (which rarely ever happened), she found herself looking over her shoulder a lot.

"Ten minutes, we should be there." Hopper said softly looking at the girl who was facing the window.

"Okay." El replied even softer than Hopper.

"You excited? You finally get to go to a public school, meet some people, live with other people."

"Yes." El smiled softly. El was looking forward to everything about this new town, but at the same time she was terrified. She had never really been around a lot of people at once and when she was, it made for a bad memory.

Hopper notice the nervousness coming from his adoptive daughter. He grabbed her hand and said, "Hey. Everything will be alright."

"Promise?"

"Promise." Hopper reassured before returning gazed back to the road as comfortable silence came over the car.

About ten minutes later they pulled up to their new house. The house was a somewhat big house. It had two levels and a beautiful lawn that was glowing green. El was just getting out of the car when Joyce came outside with both Will and Jonathan. Joyce went to go say hello to Hopper giving him a kiss and a hug. Jonathan was already starting to work on unloading the moving van. Will was just about to join his brother, but before he did he gave El a little wave and smile, which she responded doing the exact same thing and also went to the back of the van to start to unload.

"So Hopper and I are going to be upstairs, down the hall. While El, you will be upstairs, first door to your right, okay?" Joyce said handing Will a box to carry inside.

"Okay." El replied getting a hug from Joyce. She grabbed a box that would belong in her room and went to go find her room. She followed Joyce's directions and went into her new room. She set down the box and looked around getting used to her new surroundings. The room was a pretty good size. It had an ordinary sized closet and a bay window.

"It's a pretty big room, uh?" El turned around to see Will standing in the door frame with a box in hand.

El smiled and gently let out a small giggle. "Yeah."

"It's biggest room out of the three of us kids." Will said walking in the room and putting down a box that had El's room written on it.

"Really?"

"Yeah, we figured you would want it. Jonathan didn't need it because he's going off to college soon, and I am only really in my room when I sleep or draw."

"Thank you." El smiled at her new brother and they both walked out to grab more boxes to bring inside.

On the third round up to her bedroom Will spoke again. "So, my friends are really excited to meet you."

"They know about me." El asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I told them about you when I first heard that mom and Hop were engaged. They might come over soon just to meet you, and don't worry they're really nice."

El quietly laughed in in response.

"Max is definitely the most excited one. She kept bringing you up every ten minutes when we were packing yesterday."

"Max?"

"Yeah, she's the only girl in our group so she's pretty happy knowing that there's going to be another girl around." Will said getting another small laugh from her.

"She sounds nice."

"She is, for the most part."

"Oh?" El said wanting to know more.

"She-uh... she sets her own boundaries."

"Boundaries?"

"Yeah, her own limits. I told her to back off of them until you get used to Hawkins though."

El smiled at her brother, grateful, but also confused by his explanation of Max.

"They are thinking about coming up here tomorrow and we're going to go to the movies, you can come if you want." Will said as they head back to the van.

"No thanks, I think I need to unpack first." El said, though happy she got an invite, she didn't want to be the odd one out with his friend group.

"Oh, okay. But if you changed your mind you're more than welcome to come."

"Thanks."

The rest of the day was full of unpacking and getting settled into their new house.