end zone | STEVE HARRINGTON

two

CHAPTER TWO

season 2 episode 4 - will the wise

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ANASTASIA HAD SNUCK OUT OF THE CABIN early in the morning. It's not like she was planning on it, it just seemed to happen. One minute she was in her and Eleven's room sleeping and the next she was dressed and outside Hawkins high school.

She had been stood outside the high school for thirty minutes, after Hopper had been late last night she decided to get back at him. It was an incredibly dangerous idea, but she could look out for herself. After all, Hopper had broken a promise.

A promise had always been sacred to her, she had lost all hope when she was in the lab and now with Hopper and Eleven, they had formed a special bond that could never be broken. 

Suddenly Anastasia heard mumbled voices around her as people shoved past her, walking into the building. She was quickly pushed over, nearly falling when a hand caught onto her arm, she looked up seeing a kind looking brunette girl staring at her with concern filling her dark brown eyes.

"Are you okay?" The brunette asked Anastasia, who was looking down at her arm. She seemed to take the hint when she let go and folded her arms across her chest.

"I'm fine, thank you." Anastasia responded, looking behind the girl to see a group walking closer to them.

"Nancy Wheeler, are you new here? What's your name?" Nancy asked politely, not noticing the group standing behind her.

Anastasia thought for a moment thinking back to the rules that Hopper had given her, "Stasia, I have to go."

Nancy quickly nodded her head as Anastasia or rather 'Stasia' scurried past her making her way out of the school. She stared for another moment until her boyfriend, Steve Harrington, wrapped his arm around her shoulder and practically dragged her into school.

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Anastasia had gotten lost on the way home, and by the time it was dark outside she had finally made it back home to the cabin. She opened the door as quietly as possible but when she saw a pacing Hopper she knew she was in trouble.

Hopper, who had heard the door open and close stopped pacing and turned around to face her, all the worry slipping of his face but it was quickly replaced with anger. He hated the idea of her not being at home, where he knew it was safe but instead she had left and disregarded his rules that he had set out to protect her.

"Where the hell have you been?!" He shouted as she played with the hair tie on her wrist, clearly nervous.

She shrugged her shoulders, "School, then I got lost."

"School! I told you I would think about it, Anastasia." Hopper exclaimed, "You broke the rules."

"Stupid rules!" Anastasia shouted back, throwing her hands up in the air, as Hopper watched her.

Hopper began to walk over to the television, "You break rules, you get consequences. So, no television."

Anastasia rushed forwards to stop him, "You promised! All you care about is the stupid rules!"

"You put us all in danger today." Hopper roared as he continued to unplug the television from the different colored cords.

"I stay here all the time! I never leave, I left once and you leave all the time!" Anastasia continued to argue, "You lie!"

"I don't lie! I protect, I feed and I teach!" Hopper called out to her, as the two came face to face, "And all I ask for you is to follow three simple rules! Three rules, and you know what? You can't even do that!"

He walked out of the room as she slammed her hands off the cabinet, hearing him shout out angrily, "You're grounded"

"You know what that means? It means no more movie nights, no more television for a week." Hopper exclaimed, his face contouring into more anger.

She felt the tingle in her hands the more angry she got as he went to finally lift up the TV, when Hopper went over to pick it up she stood still as the TV wouldn't move when he continued to try and lift it up.

"All right. Knock it off, let go." He ordered her, nearly out of breathe from the heated argument which just made her shake her head, "Alright. Two weeks." He said as he tried to life it up again, "Let go! A month!"

"No!" Anastasia demanded stubbornly, unlike Eleven her nose didn't bleed when she used her powers as she was more in control of them.

"Well congratulations. You just graduated from no TV for a month to no TV at all!" Hopper announced as he finished unplugging it all, not at all concerned about Anastasia, he knew that no matter the argument she wouldn't hurt him.

"No! Stop it!" She shouted, running closer to the television, she wasn't worried that she wouldn't be able to use the TV but Anastasia knew that Eleven used it to contact Mike, and now because of her she wasn't able to because of her selfish actions.

"You have got to understand that there are consequences to your actions" Hopper reprimanded her.

Anastasia turned around to face him, her anger up to its maximum as she flew one of the frames of the side, just missing Hopper's head as he seethed out in anger at her behavior.

"You said you were nice! Not like the lab men!" She shouted out, pointing her finger at him.

"Really? I'm like those psychotic sons of bitches?" Hopper dryly chuckled, leaning against the wall as he rubbed his hand over his forehead.

"Yes! You lie all the time!" Anastasia exclaimed, her eyes brimmed with angry tears.

"As do you. So I guess that makes us the same, you brat." He remarked picking up the dictionary, "How about we look that up, B-R-A-T"

He passed the book to her as she stopped it mid air, her hand raised as she hurled it back to him making him hit it away, "Hey! What the hell is wrong with you?"

Hopper started walking closer but she pushed to couch into his leg, making him grunt in pain, as she stormed off to her room, pushing over a bookcase on her way as she heard Hopper continuously shouting out for her.

Locking the door closed, Anastasia sunk to the floor as Hopper pounded on the door, "Open this door! Open the damn door! You wanna go out in this world? You better grow up! Grow the hell up!"

Anastasia felt the strongest urge to scream at that very moment, all the anger she had been feeling building up inside of her as she quickly covered her ear. The scream that left her mouth echoing throughout the woods as the whole cabin shook, objects falling of the walls and the windows shattering as she opened her eyes, seeing the mist of red smoke floating away.

Hopper took a step back from her door as he lost his balance for a moment, and once he had restored it he stared for another moment hearing the soft sobs coming from his daughter as he walked away with a sigh.

Anastasia was left with a empty feeling, whilst she sobbed leaning her head against the wall.