hi everyone, this is pretty late but this story hit 300k (almost 350k now wtf), which is just so incredible ! i just wanted to thank everyone because it seems to surreal to me - i never thought i would reach 50k, let alone 300k. i remember when i hit 20k i celebrated it with my friends and i was so excited ! the fact that so many people are reading this story is just astounding to me, i almost can't believe it. so prepare for a really long, genuine author's note because i just appreciate you guys so much and i'm just shocked. i'm also posting this because i just hit 1k followers, which is another milestone i literally NEVER IMAGINED reaching. like 100 followers was crazy to me, the fact that 1000 people follow me is just insane wtf.
in this chapter after this author's note, i will be posting some bonus scenes i wrote, so stick around if you want to read those, or feel free to skip to them !
sorry if this author's note seems arrogant or egotistical or something ?? i promise i don't mean it like that, i'm just being genuine with what i'm saying uwu, i promise this isn't me trying to flex or something like that ! reaching 300k just has me emotional and i just wanted to be real with you guys i supposed ? idk it might be dumb but you all mean a lot to me so !
i'm just so glad that you guys like sar, james and katie, and the story that i created for them. this story has been so important for my writing, it's what got me back into creating stories that i would actually post instead of just keeping them to myself. for a super long time i completely lost confidence in my writing (because to be fair it wasn't all that great back then, but i can appreciate that old stuff now!) and this story is exactly what i needed: a really long work which i could concentrate on and love and would improve my writing overtime. i probably would have never continued if i didn't receive so much support from all of you guys - your votes and comments literally still make my day and i still get so happy when i see them. i'm sorry i struggle to reply to your comments sometimes - either i don't, or it takes me a long time to - it's just that i'm often super busy, even though i'd love to reply to every single one! maybe it doesn't seem like it but i appreciate you all so much and you all make me so happy!
this story also helped me to make so many friendships, some which have literally lasted from the first few months of posting this story in december 2017 (i still can't believe this story was posted a year and a half-ago now, it seems like just a few months ago when i was rushing to get the first chapters out so i could just get sara's idea out there). i'm going to write lil notes to them so skip this if u don't want stuff to get sappy but i just thought they deserved a spot in my author's note bc they've had a big impact on me and my writing. check out all these lovely people's work and writing, they're all so talented !!!
first of all, harley ( harlellanatorrero ) who was one of the first people to read this story and who has somehow been reading ever since. you were like my first supporter, voter & commenter and i love u sm wtf. THANKS FOR JUST STICKING AROUND THIS LONG ITS BEEN OVER A YEAR AND ILYSM
next is to freyja ( mccIained ) who is my darling, ik we don't talk much anymore but i love u ! i still can't believe we were introduced bc we both had sara hopper stories and i still regret that you took yours down bc damn i wanted to read it so bad :( (uh if u still have it pls consider not deleting it bc it was amazing) BUT I LOVE U SM AND I JUST ADORE U OK U DESERVE THE WORLD. WE WERE SARA HOPPER BUDS & IT REMAINS THAT WAY I JUST LOVE U LOADS
SUMMER ( depurate ) I LOVE U SM BBY LIKE you're just so sweet & i miss talking to you as much as we used to, even tho ik we're both busy ! i remember i started talking to you at the same time i did freyja bc u were having a conversation in my comment section & i was like HI and i just love u loads bb !! dm me if u ever wanna talk or need help with anything ! i just appreciate you sm and you deserve everything ilysm
to atlas ( skytaints ) idk if you'll respond but ilysm !! ik we hardly talk but i just appreciate you loads, and your poetry is to die for, and i just lysm ?? like oof JUST ILY
to ZELDA ( 616JEANGREY ) IK WE DIDN'T MEET ON HERE BUT WHATEVER i love u sm like you used to intimidate me on twitter but i wanted to be your friend so i rted one of your gc things, i think it was your ava one, and i got accepted, and that was literally almost a year ago now and wtf i can't believe we've known each other that long. you were the one who got me involved with so many internet friends and ik sometimes we don't talk a heap but i consider you one of my friends? you're just really important to me and i thought you deserved to be on here bc your support on my stories is so lovely AND YOUR WRITING IS AMAZING
to linnea ( theeffingunicorn ) whore i love u sm ik you tell me to choke daily but I LOVE U, you were also one of the first supporters on my stories and i ?? just ??? love u sm ?? you're also one of my oldest wp friends and wow just ilysm, your support is to die for and your stories and incredible and i just LOVE U. IF U EVER NEED SOMEONE I'M HERE OKAY, even if i am kinda dummie ok i love u
to sahar ( -sarcasticpotter ) omg ik we don't talk a lot but ily, your stories are amazing and i'm so grateful for when we do talk. i'm sorry our timezones are so out of wack. i just want to thank you for your support on my stories and i'd love to chat more !! ilysm wow
there are so many more people i want to thank but just don't have the space to, because it would be so so long. and to everyone who reads this story, i just want to take this space to tell you honestly how much this means to me. ik some people see wp authors as just these beings in the void who write books with lots of reads, but i'm an actual student living in australia and i read every single one of your comments, and every one of your votes just lights me up, and i appreciate literally every single one of you. you guys have really helped me through shit by just existing and voting on my stories, and you've helped me so much with keeping on writing? like really guys, ilysm.
also shoutout to all the hours i spent on writing instead of my schoolwork, rip my grades. as i'm writing this i have a maths test tmr that i haven't prepared for rip omg :'(
NOW, here are a couple of bonus scenes which i imagined that would have occurred during the length of dreamwalker, between season 2 and 3, or are just random scenes inspired by prompts - please enjoy them! they're kinda pointless but i found them fun to write! a lot of these were based off of prompts from prompt lists etc.
o1.
—the rollerblading incident of 1985.
SARA HAD NEVER said she was good at rollerblading, that was something that Steve had simply assumed, and Sar was too stubborn and embarrassed to tell him otherwise. So, when a brand new and exciting roller rink had opened, Steve had insisted on taking her. Sara wasn't a pussy, so she said yes.
As far as Sar remembered, she had only rollerbladed three times in her life. The first, she'd fallen on her face and almost broken her nose about five minutes into the activity. The second time, her feet had pulled in different directions and she'd virtually done the splits, when she'd never done the splits before in her life. And the third she broke James' arm by falling onto him and sending him into one of the glass fences.
So yeah, Sar wasn't very good at rollerblading. But Steve didn't have to know that.
The roller rink blasted out pop music that echoed around the small space, mingling with the sound of laughter and intertwining voices. Sar was lacing yellow rollerblades around her ankles, while Steve had gone for a pale blue. He'd told her that when he was younger, he and his mother would go on business trips with his father—and there were always roller rinks in the bigger cities. He knew what he was doing. Sar did not.
It had started out with her messing up the lacing. That should have been an immediate sign, but Steve was rather oblivious and just helped her calmly, knowing his girlfriend could just be a clutz sometimes. The second sign was when her feet had come out from under her when they were half-skating half-walking to the rink entrance. She'd fallen hard on her ass with a small cry, and Steve had skated over to help lift her up. His hands were warm in her own and Sar was reminded of how much she adored him as she'd looked into his copper eyes. "You okay?" he'd said in that voice which made her melt, and she just nodded. Sara Hopper should have told Steve right then and there, but it was too late now. She was much too far into this mess. To tell Steve was to subject herself to his ridicule for the rest of her life, and Sar wasn't quite prepared for that. It would be fine. It's just rollerblading.
She really should have taken into account the fact that she had almost no coordination.
The third sign of her rollerblading incapability was when her feet first hit the slippery rink and she immediately had to grab the railing. "It's not that hard," Steve had said, because of course he was a rollerblading pro. "Just take my hand and you'll get used to it again in no time." Steve was very surely wrong.
But each of these signs were simply steppingstones leading to a disastrous event that occurred about 20 minutes into their session. Sar had moved away from the railing and was now skating while holding Steve's hand, practically leaning on him—who was probably starting to catch onto the fact she was not a good skater. She did not feel confident, but thought she was starting to get the hang of it.
Feeling brave enough to slide away from Steve, Sar let go of his hand and skated a little in front of him. She turned and skated backwards. "Hey, look, no hands!" she exclaimed, raising her fingers in the air. "I'm a pro!"
Whatever forces controlled her life must have hated her because at that moment they decided that she would pass over a very slippery strip of wood flooring. One of her feet moved back a little too far and she tried to save herself, overcorrected, and fell as she flung her feet in the air. Her feet took out poor Steve, who was just trying to have a good time, and sent him crashing down right on top of her, elbows stabbing into her stomach. It was just at this moment that Carol from high school happened to be skating past, and was completely upended by Sar and Steve's collapsing bodies.
She tripped right over them, and Sar heard her chin strike the floor. Carol made an audible noise of pain, before practically snarling, as if Steve and Sara had done it on purpose. Her friends dragged her up to her feet. "Bitch!" Carol yelled, and Sar couldn't help but burst into peals of laughter despite the fact that she was going to get bruises on her ass and Steve was crushing her with his full weight. She dropped her head back against the rink with giggles.
"Ow, shit." She pushed at Steve, who was groaning with his face in her collarbone. "Ow, ow, get off, you're squashing me." Sar managed to shove him off of her and he flopped onto the floor. "Ouch."
Steve banged his forehead on the rink floor, groaning as he just lay there. "What the Hell was that?"
Her blue eyes turned to him guiltily. "Uh, would this be a good time to tell you I can't skateboard for shit?"
"I know that, Sar! I was trying to help you." He glanced at her with his copper irises, filled with earth and coffee and caramel. She pouted at him, wincing at the pain in her abdomen where Steve had fallen on her. "You're an idiot, you know that?"
"That's supposed to be my line!" Sar protested, sliding towards him on the floor. Skaters were going around them now, confused at whatever scene was playing out. She touched his face a little, "Sorry." He just gave her a smile, groaning and dropping his face back into the floor. "We should probably get up before Carol comes back to run us over."
Steve started to laugh, because they'd completely knocked Carol off her feet, and it seemed pretty ridiculous. "Probably. Let's not though." He pulled her arm out from beneath her, forcing the blonde girl to lay beside him as they recovered from their pain. They stayed on their backs like that, glancing at the ceiling, until the skating attendant had to come over to tell them they needed to get up off the floor.
o2.
—after-school basketball.
( written for @ripavengers's march prompt challenge on twt: sport )
SAR HAD BEEN forced to wait at school to take Katie and Max home after sport, and Steve had kindly offered to stay with her. After finishing their sparse Chemistry homework, the two had wandered to the gymnasium, looking to find something to do.
She held up a basketball over her head. "Hey—let's play!"
Steve furrowed his eyebrows. "Have you ever played basketball before, Sar?" He crossed his arms passively over his chest in a way which meant he knew the answer already.
Sar tucked a strand of blonde hair behind her ear and pushed the sleeves of her yellow sweater up, exposing the black numbers on her wrist. "Um, I'm pretty sure I can play basketball," Sar countered with a raised brow, spinning the ball on her finger. It fell, and she lunged to catch it. Her eyebrows shot up. "Uh, definitely."
A smile caught the corners of Steve's lips, lifting them. "Sure," he chuckled, pushing away of his position by the sidelines and stepping over their discarded schoolbags. "Do you know the rules?"
Sar's blue eyes followed him innocently. "Only from what I've seen you play. It can't be that hard, can it?" He snickered at her. Sar squinted accusingly at him. "Look, you think I had time for sports with all this monster hunting stuff going on? And catching up on all those years I missed of school? No way." She chucked the ball up in the air and caught it, backing away from him. "So? Let's play!"
Steve shrugged, smiling. "Yeah, why not?" His eyes glanced around them. "You go for that goal—" he pointed to the far side of the court, "and I'll go for this one? Okay?"
Sar shrugged, tossing the ball to him. "Okay." It sounded easy enough. Steve was taller than her, but Sar was pretty sure he wasn't as agile. She could definitely out-goal him.
"Hey, stand here." He took hold of her hand gently so they both stood face-to-face on the centre line. "I'm gonna toss the ball, alright? Then we start." Sar nodded, eagerly, watching as he reached above his head and threw the basketball up.
He must have misjudged his toss because she managed to jump in the air and catch it herself, barging past Steve in an attempt to escape. She'd only made it a few steps before he snatched the basketball from her hands, tearing off across the court. "That's not fair!" She exclaimed, spinning to face Steve and sprinting after him. Her blonde hair tossed around her in its ponytail.
"What, because I'm faster than you? Tough luck, Hopper!"
Sar gave an offended shout. "I could outrun you against a Demogorgon, Steve!"
He chuckled. "Bullshit!"
He was telling the truth—he was faster than her, but that didn't stop her from chasing him with all her strength. Her boots skidded on the ground. "Hey, give that back!"
Somehow, she reached him and grabbed hold of the ball, attempting to tear it away. When he kept hold of it she tugged again, not letting go. Steve laughed, "There's no tug-of-war in basketball, Sar!"
She squinted her eyes at him. "I think you're making up the rules anyway! You know I don't know them!" Sar successfully tugged the ball from his fingers and dashed around him, breaking out in a run. The girl attempted to dribble the ball as she'd seen Steve do in his many games she'd come to watch. The ball bounced off her toe and went skidding across the court. "Oh!" Sar made chase after the fast-rolling ball, reaching out to grab it.
Before she could catch it, Steve grabbed her by the waist, lifting her off the ground. He spun her once in the air while she kicked, and dropped her in the opposite direction.
Sar stumbled slightly as Steve ran to grab the ball. "Hey—that was a dirty move, Harrington!" She slipped in front of him as he neared her goal, raising her hands. "No, no! It's my first time, Steve!" she exclaimed in protest, trying to block the ball.
Steve gave her a playful yet infuriating look as he lined up the shot, keeping it just out of her arm's length so that she couldn't snatch it from him, even when she stood on her toes.
As he threw the ball, she leapt into the air and hit the ball off the heel of her hand with a force a volleyball player would be proud of. The basketball drove itself directly into Steve's face. His head snapped back from the force of the hit and the ball rebounded with velocity back up over Sar's head. "Ow, shit!"
Sar clasped her hands over her mouth. "Oh, shit!" she exclaimed. Steve stumbled back, clutching his nose. He was blinking rapidly, clearly in immense pain, and blood dripped through his fingers onto the gym floor. Sar made a soft, shocked noise, approaching Steve sensitively. "Let me see," Sar murmured, pulling his hands away gently and cradling his face. His nose was red and swollen, puffy already and caked with blood.
Steve faced his head towards the ceiling to stop the blood dripping down his chin. When he spoke, his voice was thick and slurred, "I think y' br'ke m' nose."
"Oh, crap, I'm sorry." She dabbed the blood away with the sleeve of her bomber jacket. Her cheeks were bright pink. "I'm really sorry, Steve."
Steve squeezed his eyes and looked up at her, pained. "Why'd y' do a v'lleyb'll shot?" he mumbled, dropping his head. "'ts bask'tb'll Sar." He groaned and put another hand over his bloody nose.
Sar winced. "Do you need me to drive you to the hospital?" she offered.
•°•☆•°•
LATER, Sar sat at the wheel of her car, legs splayed out in front of her as she stared across the school parking lot blankly. Katie and Max came walking out of the gates from their field hockey match—she'd had to call them from the hospital waiting room. Katie had a smudge of dirt across her face and knees from when she'd obviously fallen, but there was a mischievous smile on her face. She grinned widely as she opened the door and slid into the car, cheeks rosy and amused. The little devil.
"I can't believe you broke Steve's nose," Katie snickered, hand intertwined with Max Mayfield's. It almost seemed as if they were never separated.
Sar threw her head back in embarrassment. "Shut up," Sar groaned and Max hid a grin. Sar turned her head back to look at her. "Oh— not you too! If you tell those little shits about it, I'm throwing you out." She clasped a hand over his face. "God, Nance and Jonathan are going to kill themselves laughing at me. I should just drop out of school now."
Kate nodded, "That's probably a good idea." Sar snorted and dropped her head to her chest in embarrassed amusement.
"Poor Steve," Sar groaned.
Max grinned at Sar through her red hair. "Is that the second boy's nose you've broken in Hawkins?" she asked mischievously.
"Max—I swear to God!"
o3.
—sodas & skateboards.
( written's for torddkin's colour palette prompts on tumblr )
THE NEON SIGNS of a gas station flickered as the smell of summer air and clear skies filled the wind. It was a perfect day to be out-and-about in Hawkins.
A girl on a skateboard with red hair flew down the hill past the gas prices sign at an incredibly fast speed. She was balanced on the board perfectly, knees just slightly bent and the wind beating serenely against her face. Her weight guided the board down the street with perfected and a somehow graceful style. She looked happier than she'd been in quite a long time.
A shout came from behind her and Max turned her head just in time to see Katie Hopper swerve and hit the curb with her board. "Ah!" Katie yelled, skateboard coming out from beneath her. She flew a few meters into the air, gaining impressive height, and hit the grass face-first, sending dirt spraying up behind her.
Max watched in slight horror. "Shit, Kate, are you alright?" The girl leapt off her skateboard, throwing the precious thing somewhere on the grass as carelessly as one might throw a dead flower, and moved towards the girl on the ground.
Katie groaned, lifting her face out of the dirt. There was blood which clung to the grass beneath her hands and bloomed like petals around her knees. "Ow." She managed to prop herself up and turn herself over, just as Maxine Mayfield bent over the girl with long, draping hair and a concerned expression on her face. Katie burst out laughing, knowing how stupid she must have looked, and Max chuckled a little too, because the whole situation had been pretty silly. "Ow, that really hurt."
"It looked like it did." Max knelt in the dirt beside her, fingers fumbling in her pockets for the patching up supplies she always brought with her while skateboarding. There were a few crumpled Band-Aids she found as Katie sat recovering in the grass, all pretty with some blood smeared on her face from where her fingers had rubbed, and long legs crossed. Open wounds were patched on her knees. Max thought it was lucky she hadn't broken a wrist. "Just sit still, alright? I'll patch you up." Katie pushed strands of her long hair out of her face, tangling a bit of blood in them. The multi-coloured striped shirt she'd brought recently was splattered with mud, alongside her favourite pair of shorts.
Max watched with concentration, calloused fingers opening the Band-Aid as gently as she possibly could, hair fluttering around her face. She stuck it down with as much precision as the clumsy girl was able to muster, fingers smearing in the blood. "Buy me a soda later?" Katie proposed, wincing as Max pressed the cool Band-Aid on her hot, bloody skin. She bit her lip and Max smiled, laughing a bit.
"Yeah, I'll get you a soda, silly. Why on Earth did you swerve like that?" She stuck the next Band-Aid down, fingers smeared in red as Katie watched in faint pain. Max pushed Kate's back behind her ear before it could get in the way.
Twelve blushed slightly, turning her face towards the sun so Max wouldn't catch whatever she was feeling. She hid her bashful expression and replaced it with one of embarrassment when she answered the question. "I've never skateboarded before! It just happened! One minute I was following what you said, and then whoop! I'm face-planting in some dirt." Max giggled, and Katie watched her with the expression of pure adoration written across her face.
Max's blue eyes noticed Katie's gaze. "What are you looking at?" Max asked.
Kate smiled at her, taking in the curve of her face, her gentle eyes, the freckles on her skin. "Oh, nothing," she said, with the softest grin, eyes sparkling.
The red-haired girl made a face, a smile pulling across her features. She reached out a hand, helping to pull Katie to her feet, who made a noise of objection as the grazes of her knees ached and burned. "Come on, let's go get some sodas." The red-head girl didn't let go of Katie's fingers, even when she reached to grab her skateboard, and Katie her own. She held them in her own as if Katie wouldn't be able to walk without them—her last lifeline.
o4.
—a flower a day helps the love to stay.
( written for @ripavengers's july prompt challenge on twt by the same name )
THE FIRST TIME Steve had brought Sara flowers, she'd been sick after seeing the Mind Flayer in Will's mind. The flowers he'd dropped at her house were yellow daffodils—her favourite colour—which in the language of flowers symbolised a new beginning. Steve might have asked dumb questions and almost failed his senior year English class, but he knew what those flowers were saying: that he promised to always be there for her.
The second time was the day after their first kiss, when Sar had been sleeping off the hours of monster hunting and bloody noses, and he'd woken her up by climbing through her window. She'd almost attacked him on sight before she realised that the strange man was, in fact, her boyfriend being an idiot. He'd apologised for scaring her, admitting that he was a little afraid of her dad, and he held a bouquet of gardenias in his hand, which shimmered like flowers dripped in moonlight. Sar had drifted over to him and smelt the silvery-white flowers, and Sar knew what he was telling her through them. "You been researching the meaning of flowers for me, Harrington?" To which he only blushed and shoved the pretty bouquet into her hands.
To her surprise, Steve turned up at her house the day after with a bouquet of bright yellow dandelions that Sar swept into her arms and hugged to her chest, because they looked like rays of sunshine. She'd thanked him profusely and placed them in a vase on her desk, alongside the bunch of gardenias.
The same thing had happened the next day, and the next, until her whole room was full of blooms like a garden: in the corners of her room, her shelves, her desk and dresser and bedside table. They were splattered in a rainbow of pink and peach and blue and red and yellow, punctured by the shades of green which framed every one of them. It was like she was living in a forest. Steve loved giving her yellow flowers. He knew they were her favourite, and so they became a frequent recurrence. It was still unknown where Steve was getting his knowledge of flowers from, and Sar half expected he was asking Nancy—that, or he'd checked out a library book just for that reason. Sar thought she might never know. Her room always smelt beautiful: of roses, lilacs, alstroemeria and amaryllis, and it stuck to her skin like perfume.
"Your flowers, madam," Steve had presented once as he handed her a bouquet of red carnations and chrysanthemums, which conveyed love. He did so with a bow and a smile on his face, and Sar laughed and called him an idiot and kissed him. The flowers smelt like hope and sunshine, and they joined the daisies on her bedside table.
The day after the carnations, when Steve turned up at her house, Sar had been expecting him to be waiting with flowers like every other day. It had been over a month of him doing so, and they'd fallen into a cute little routine. But this time, when he climbed through her window, there were not any flowers in his hands, and Steve was looking embarrassed, threading a hand through his luscious locks of hair. "I'm kinda broke," confessed Steve, "flowers are really expensive and I spent all my money on them."
Sar made a face and shook her head at him, a smile gracing her pretty peach-coloured lips. "You know I'm still going to be with you even if I don't get flowers, right?" She appreciated the gesture of course, and she wouldn't deny that she loved getting them, but that wasn't the point. A surprised laugh left her lips as she pulled her brows together fondly. She moved forward so they were chest-to-chest and he placed his hands on her waist as she tilted her head up at him. "I don't care about the flowers, I just want to spend time with you."
Steve shrugged as his thumbs ran over her hipbones and he looked down at her. "I don't know. You might leave me for a flower-shop dealer."
The prettiest chuckle left her mouth, pale-gold hair catching in every ray of morning sun and lighting up like the petals of a sunflower in sunrise. "Shut up," she said, and kissed him in her bedroom with the scent of tulips and hyacinths in the air.
o5.
—ferris wheels, waltzez, carousels, oh my !
( written for @ripavengers's july prompt challenge on twt by the same name )
THE FAIRGROUND WAS bursting with groups of people and sound and colour. It was all a little overwhelming, but it was so, so pretty, that Katie forgot a little about that part. Her eyes grazed the fair with wonder and delight, green eyes shimmering with stars and nebulas.
Max Mayfield stood beside her, following the line of Katie's gaze—across the carousel, the food-stalls, the rides that spun around and around—and holding the two fair tickets that had let them in clenched in her hand. "What, you've never been to a fair before?"
Katie was grinning, "You think they had fairs in the lab?" She was radiating excitement, lips spread wide to reveal her white teeth. Max giggled a little at that, tucking strands of hair behind her ear as she cast her eyes towards the sky, as if Katie was a bit of an idiot, but in a sweetheart way.
"Of course not. I'm just surprised." Her eyebrows raised a little on her face.
Kate looked around, spring-green eyes glittering like lily pads in the midday sun, "So where do we start?
Max Mayfield pondered a little, poppy-red hair flittering across her face. She shrugged and tucked strands of it behind her ears, looking back at Twelve. "Wherever you want. Mom gave me some money, so we can go on any of the rides. There's ice-cream, and prize stalls, some rides—and oh! A Ferris wheel!" She pointed towards the large structure rotating slowly, glimmering with a hundred peach-coloured lights and lifting towards the bright sun. Her hand reached out to grip Katie's and stared at the pretty thing. "Let's ride that! You've never been on one before? It's not very fun, but it has a nice view!" Kate followed Max's excited form, who was already fumbling to get out her mother's money from her purse.
"What do you do?" Katie asked as they pushed through the crowds, shoving teenage girls and groups of mothers with children out of their way. Her eyes watched the turning structure with awe.
Max scrunched up her face, shooting a look back at the other girl. "You don't really... do anything. You just... sit. It's just really calming." The line was relatively short, and Max drew enough crumpled ones out of her bag to pay for their ride tickets. "My mom and dad used to take me on the one in California. It was way bigger than this," she laughed, "but this is still really nice. It reminds me of when we lived there."
The ride stopped, and the operator opened the door for the two girls. They clambered in, so they sat facing each other in the red seats, waiting for it to move. "California... do you miss it?" Kate asked, leaning her chin on her hands and staring at the park.
"Yeah, definitely. I miss almost everything about it: the weather, the beaches... —my dad." She watched Katie gently, pressing her lips together.
"Do you want to go back there?"
The Ferris wheel began to rise a little to let the next group on, and Katie gripped the rail in awe, peering down at where they hovered above the ground. Max had to think about her answer, strangely silent with her brows drawn in. "I mean... sometimes. It was my home. But there are good things here too. Things that make me want to stick around." She kicked Katie's ankle gently with a smile, and the blonde girl looked up and over at her and smiled sweetly.
"Yeah. I don't really miss Wyoming," Katie said, and then giggled a little. "Or the lab. I think I'd like this place to be my home. Maybe it can be yours too."
Max thought long and hard about it, blue eyes tracing the lines and curves of the sky. The Ferris wheel began to move. "Yeah. Maybe." She offered Katie a sincere smile, eyes crinkling softly. She was so incredibly beautiful that moment, Katie wished she had Sar's talent for art, so she could paint her. Katie glanced back out at the park which was being carried away from them. Glimmering lights and bright spinning colours caught her eye. "Hey, what's that?" Katie asked, pointing towards a spinning ride and leaning dangerously far out of the Ferris wheel cage.
"The carousel?"
"Yeah! Can we go on it!" Katie's pale-golden hair was fluttering around her face as she looked back to Max with excitement and hope written across her features.
Max's eyebrows pulled in, but she smiled. "I mean, I'm pretty sure it's a kid's ride, but yeah, if you want."
A grin plastered itself on Kate's face. "Cool." She hung her arms over the railing's side, letting the gentle air breeze press against them. Her scar shone in the sunshine, and Max observed that she thought it was quite pretty. "Thanks for bringing me out here, Max. I don't realise how much of the world I've missed." She didn't turn back to look at the red-haired girl, but instead upon the crowds of people, glowing rides, and the forest that surrounded them. Her finger traced a soft pattern in the wind.
Maxine just smiled and watched her, "That's okay, Kate. Any time."
that's all the bonus scenes i've written so far, i'm sure i'll put more at the end of moonmaiden !
i think i'm literally going to die when this story ends along with stranger things. this and its characters will always mean the world to me. i lowkey don't know how i'm going to let them go omfg, i'm dreading it a little already. how tf am i gonna stop writing sar wth.
there will be a katie spin-off fic after moonmaiden part three however, so make sure to check that out !!
feel free to ask me any questions you want here, about the story or me or writing in general gjkghdkjhf bc i just love talking to you guys ! i can't tell if this author's note is super egotistical but whatever i just love u all loads wowww ily
this author's note was literally 6,200 words omg i'm gonna go now but wtf ily all sm
poppy x