"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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one; some things change and some never do
"I don't like change. I never really have. I... I thought it disrupted the flow I'd have. I'd freak out... I mean, I still do... freak out... like a lot, not as much as I used to, but still," Teddy slowly admitted. He kept his gaze down, picking at his nails and the skin around them. Dry blood stained his fingertips and on the inside of the nail due to this constant habit. It got worse over the past few months... everything did. But he was working on it. Slowly, but surely, Teddy worked through all his thoughts and feelings. Some days were good. Some days were not. Sometimes, like at this moment, he struggled with his words, but he wanted to be as accurate as possible. He didn't want to lie. No, there was no point lying here. His breath wavered as he slowly continued, "I like to believe I had a plan when it came to life... I reluctantly threw it out the window when I moved to the States... and everything else followed that."
Teddy liked consistency. He liked patterns. He liked creating plans and jotting down notes and information. He liked organization. He liked when everything followed as it was supposed to. He had schedules, plans, an order to things in his life, that was how he saw the world... but reality never followed plans, not Teddy's plans at least. Something always had to change.
"Would you say that change has been bad?"
Change—change was a good thing. That's what everyone said. It's what they always said. They said it to his father and him upon the divorce finalizing. They said it when he moved to the United States. They said it when he hit puberty. They said it last summer. They said it now. Change was always happening and there was nothing he could do about it.
Over these last few years, changes occurred more often than consistency in his life. Not even four years ago, his life was monotonous, living with his abusive mother and struggling father, every day almost the same... a tumbling effect of their divorce, custody agreements, moving to the States, dealing with the Mind Flayer and the Upside Down all followed. The changes only ramped up: he had a girlfriend, his mother died a gruesome death, and he started therapy. All three occurred within a few months. Even still, big changes were happening in his life... but with those changes, Teddy noted how some things stayed the same and that's how he coped with the rapid changes life threw his way.
To begin with, he started high school. That was the biggest one. After an awkward transition from secondary school into two years of middle school, the time came for the final four years of the American public school system. Mixed emotions were turning inside Teddy. First, happiness. Teddy loved school. He loved learning. He loved the routine school provided him. But a more prominent emotion found its way into his heart: the pitfall of sadness. This was supposed to be his first school year with El. They looked forward to it, Teddy rambled about how awesome it was to her... they were supposed to go together, and now, the mere thought of school only reminded Teddy that they were states apart.
