"I'm sorry my heart's too big for my own good! I just want to be a good person!"
~
Theodore Chambers moves from his home in London to Hawkins and realizes this town isn't what it seems
Or
In which the new kid in town is thrown into all sorts of insa...
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chapter thirteen; i'm not a hero; says who?
"Teddy? Why aren't you asleep?" El softly asked, shrinking next to the boy resting in the corner of Mike's basement with his headphones on. After their sauna test, and rightfully all the children being shaken up, everyone spent the night at Mike's. Everyone was still asleep... well, everyone besides himself and El. It was late... no, early? Teddy peered at his watch to check the time seeing the girl before him. Only 6:20 AM. The sun just started to rise on the horizon, barely giving the room some natural light. The music, "Morning Train" by Sheena Easton, softly played in his ears and could still be heard by both of them upon him removing the headphones from his ears and resting them around his neck.
My baby takes the morning train He works from nine to five and then He takes another home again To find me waitin' for him
Teddy was asleep. Earlier, that is. He'd been awake... oh... only twenty minutes or so, give or take. He wasn't far into this tape. He moved away from his makeshift sleeping spot near the others to avoid bothering or accidentally waking someone up. He gently rubbed his eyes and flashed the girl a tiny smile as he adjusted to make room next to him, "I could ask the same to you, El. Did I wake you?"
"No." She meekly shrugged, scooting close to him, "Couldn't sleep."
Teddy agreed with a head nod, "Same." He didn't sleep well, only in bursts. The sight of Billy strangling El haunted Teddy's dreams. It flashed in out of nowhere sometimes, Teddy helplessly standing idle while El choked out. He watched the life drain from her eyes with Billy's dark eyes burning into his soul. After the first time, Teddy awoke in tears... the dream kept repeating throughout the night, even if it didn't start that way, it always managed to sneak its way in his mind. He softly shook his head once again as if to shake away the thoughts. El was right there before him, alive. "At least it's late.... well, early enough for it to be social acceptable to be awake. Any early and people judge." El tilted her head confused so Teddy clarified, "It's 6 AM. I mean, I'm an early riser myself and people don't judge morning people for what time they get up but judge night owls for staying up to the same time those other people wake up—it's a whole thing really. I... don't make too much sense this early in the morning. I'm sorry. I'm rambling—"
"It's okay." El smiled softly. She fiddled with the headphones, "What are you doing?"
"Listening to music." Teddy answered, unclipping the Walkman from his shorts to hold it up for El to see. El loved listening to music through her boom box, but never had the portable ones like Teddy and Max. She admired it, examining every part of it. "The Walkman was a Christmas gift. My old one started to break... I, well, it's a stupid story, but uh... I tripped while trying to dance and broke it a little." He admitted with a blush. It was embarrassing for him to walk up the stairs with a partial broken Walkman to his father and having to explain what happened.
