Chapter One

The Move

A heavy sigh passed through through Piper's chapped lips, her eyes scanning as they drove down the freeway. Her foot tapped restlessly drowning out the soft music that was coming through the radio.

"How much longer."

Hopper looked over towards the teen sitting beside him, her head still turned towards the window so he wasn't able to read her expression. "Not much, no more than an hour."

To say the tension in the air was thick would be an understatement. Hopper's grip tightened more on the steering wheel as Piper's foot tapping seemed to grow louder and louder. She looked and turned towards him and nodded her head. Hopper knew it was't gonna be easy, especially with a teenager moving into his house. But he also knew it was going to be even more difficult seeing it was his niece that was moving in, and the reason for her move was the death of his sister.

"Look I know it's going to take some adjusting, but I also want you to know that you cane come to me and talk to me." He spoke softly

Piper sniffled softly and nods her head slowly. "I know, Uncle Jim. I just..."

She never finished her sentence and just let it hang off, turning her head back towards the window to watch the Indiana landscape pass by. Piper sighed heavily and rested into the passenger seat more, closing her eyes as she tried to will her body to relax.

"Piper!" Kathy shouted up the stairs towards her daughter, her eyes trained on the closed bedroom door, waiting for her daughter's head to pop out. She waited for a moment and didn't hear any movement. "Piper Ann Canton!"

Piper groaned loudly and threw her blanket over her head trying to block out her mother's voice. Her hopes of her mother just leaving her alone was quickly diminished as she heard her mothers loud footstep coming up the stairs. Her bedroom door crashed open against her dresser, knocking a few of her things off the top, causing the teen to pop up quickly.

"Mom!" She shouted with a edge of anger in her voice as she saw her scattered things across her floor. "What the hell?"

"Language!" Kathy glared down towards her sixteen year old daughter. "Did you forget what today is?"

Piper stared towards her mother, her features quickly changing from angry to confused.

"It's your father's company party." Kathy sighed and ran her hand through her brown, curled hair. "Now we're leaving to go and pick up his suit. We'll be home in an hour and I want you to be ready to go when we come back."

Piper rolled her eyes and laid back down across her bed, rolling over to have her back face towards her bedroom door. "Yeah, whatever mom."

Kathy stood up straight and shook her head before closing the door and heading back down the stairs. Her husband, James, stood at the end of the steps and chuckled softly before shaking his head.

Hours had passed and Piper looked towards the clock for the tenth time in four minutes,but it seemed that the time was ticking by slower and slower with each passing second. She rolled her eyes as she moved to take a seat on the couch, grabbing the remote to turn on the television. Piper just thought her parents forgot to pick her up after heading back from the store. This wouldn't be the first time. But something uneasy began to settle into her stomach. That something was wrong.

Piper gasped slightly and jolted up from the position she was laying in, looking around her with a sense of panic, before relaxing as she looked towards her Uncle.

"Hey, hey." He reached over and rubbed her shoulder softly "Everything ok?"

Piper looked through the windshield to see they had arrived back at her Uncle's home – well cabin. She nodded her head as her breathing started to even out, but her heart beating rapidly against her chest. She reached for the door handle and quickly exit the car, the chill Hawkin's air filling her lungs. Her green eyes looking over the woods surrounding Hopper's home.

"This is much different from Detroit." She whispered softly, turning around to face her Uncle and give him a weak smile.

They gathered her things from the back of his truck, slowly making their way inside, Piper following her uncle into her brand new bedroom.

"I know it's not much, and we can head into town to get you furniture and everything else that you might need." Hopper spoke before pushing the door open to the room.

It was a basic plain room with a double bed, side tables and a dresser. Nothing on the walls except for a empty shelf. She walked around the room, before turning back towards her Uncle.

"Thank you," She spoke before setting her bag down at the end of her bed. "I'd like that...heading into town."

He nodded his head and placed her other bag beside her dresser. "Now I have to head into the station for a few hours, but I'll be back in time for dinner and I'll bring some food from Benny's diner with me." He hesitated "If you need to reach me, I'll leave the number for the station on the counter. Are you going to be ok?"

Piper nodded her head. "Yeah. I'll be fine. I'll just unpack."

Hopper looked towards the girl still finding it hard to get a read from her. Her expression blank. He nodded his head one before turning and walking back down the hallway. Piper could hear him hesitate in the kitchen before the sound of the door closing gave her the signal that he was gone. She stood up and walked towards the window, watching as his police truck sped down the road towards town.

The silence sounded deafening to her ears. Never did Piper think she'd miss the sound of the city. She moved back to the bed and brought her knee's tightly to her chest, her head falling into her lap as she gently started to cry. Her soft cries quickly turning to hard sobs.

Her body tired out from her cries, waking up hours later to the cabin being encased in darkness, and soft snow falling outside the window. She sat up slowly and reached to turn on the side lamp. She yawned and rubbed her eyes gently, before looking around her new bedroom.

"Guess it's time to make this feel more like home" She spoke mostly to herself, before standing from the bed and opening the bag that sat at the end of her bed.

Hours passed by and Piper had nearly everything unpacked from her bags, a little life placed into the once barren room. Photos of her friends back home, and the few photos of her parents that she had left. It was nearing midnight when she was finally done, and it wasn't until her stomach growled, that she remembered Hopper's promise of dinner. She sighed heavily and left the room, turning on the main light. She grabbed the phone off the wall and the piece of paper off the counter before dialing the number for the station. It rang a few times before a older woman picked up.

"Hawkin's Police, this is Patti."

"H-hi...This is Piper Canton. I'm Jim Hopper's niece, he gave me this number to call..." Piper hesitated for a moment not really knowing what else to really say.

"Oh yes, he mentioned just in case you did call, sweetie. He left about" There was a pause "Five hours ago. You want me to call his radio? Let him know you called?"

"Yes please. Thank you."

Piper hung up quickly and moved the phone number onto the fridge under a magnet just in case she would need that number again. She walked around the cabin trying to find anything to eat but sadly all the found was a box of crackers and a jar of peanut butter. Better than nothing at all, she thought to herself. She grabbed a spoon from the silverware drawer, before moving to the couch and turning on the tv.

She jumped slightly to the sound of the door opening, quickly moving to look over the back of the couch and sighing with relief when she recognized Hopper.

"I know. I'm late." He sighed and set two bags of take out onto the side table beside the door. "But I ran into a little...issue."

"Issue?" She asked softly and sat up more, noticing movement behind her Uncle. "Whose with you?"

Hopper sighed heavily, and turned to the side slightly, a small girl standing behind him, cowering back as she noticed Piper sitting on the couch.

"T-This is El. She's going to be staying with us for a while." Hopper spoke, gently guiding El into the house. Piper stood gently from the couch, setting down her spoon and peanut butter.

Ten Months Later

Piper moved around the kitchen quickly as she tried to cook breakfast and make coffee for three people without burning the cabin down to the ground. The tv played softly from the living room, looking over her shoulder to see El looking intently towards the screen. Over the last ten months that tv had been her only real connection to the outside world – outside of Hopper and Piper. It took a while for the girl to take a warming to Piper. And it took even longer for Piper to full grasp the story behind El and how she and Hopper had come to know each other. But she was quickly convinced when El showed her her abilities.

"El, breakfast is ready!" She called out towards the living room as she poured coffee into a thermos, turning off all the burners before walking towards the door at the end of the hallway and knocking on it loudly. "Uncle Jim! Breakfast!"

She heard a grunt from behind the door, causing her to roll her eyes and head back down the hallway to sit down the table across from El. The girl looked up towards Piper, lightly picking at her eggs.

"They taste bad?" She looked towards El "Did I burn them?"

El shook her head "N-No. Eggs fine."

Piper looked towards her and could tell that was she was trying to tell her something just not finding the proper words. "Is it cause I leave for school today?" El nodded her head. "I'll only be gone for a few hours each day, and I'll come back so we can still watch movies and stuff."

"Promise?" El spoke, sitting up a little straighter in her seat.

"Promise" Piper spoke before starting to eat.

Hopper walked out of his bedroom door towards the table where the two girls sat, fixing his belt as he walked before grabbing his thermos and taking a drink.

"Perfect, Piper. Thank you." He walked towards the counter and grabbing his plate before leaning against the counter and started to nearly shovel the eggs into his mouth. "Now remember I'm working late tonight girls. Piper you come right home after school to be here with El."

Piper quickly cleared her plate as she looked towards the clock, knowing that Johnathan would be waiting for her at the end of the block to pick her up. She moved to kiss El gently on the forehead and ruffle her grown out hair, before grabbing her backpack.

"I'll be home. 3:15"

The moment she was in Jonathan Byers car, she reached into her bag to pull out the pack of cigarette's she hid from Hopper. The anxiety of starting at the a new school was slowly creeping through out her entire body. She lit on quickly before bringing it to her lips and taking a long drag. She cranked down the window quickly before blowing the smoke out the window.

"I don't know why you're so nervous." Jonathan chuckled and shook his head. "It's not like you're going in knowing no one. You have me, and sorta Nancy."

"And I'm also starting during senior year." She looked towards him, smoke billowing past her lips as she spoke.

Jonathan parked the car towards the back of the parking lot, groups of students heading down the small hill from the parking lot towards the middle and high school. Piper finished off her cigarette before opening the door and dropping the butt towards her feet outside the car. She looked around to see the stereo typical group of students talking and walking together.

Already her green eyes landed on the group of girls standing by the front of the lot looking towards her as they whispered and laughed together. Mean girls, she thought. Piper didn't look like them, she didn't have brand new clothes and her face painted with thick layers of makeup. And she knew that because she didn't look like them – Piper was already not accepted.

"Great" She spoke before grabbing her backpack "Guess things don't change no matter where you live, huh?"

Jonathan shook his head and shrugged before they began to make their way across the parking lot. Piper was grabbing her thick brown curls and pulling them back into a ponytail as the rev of a engine sounded from the gate. She stopped quickly in her steps to see a blue Camero speed past both her and Jonathan before parking at the far side.

"Fucking asshole," She shouted towards the car, watching as a girl with red hair quickly hop out and make her way to the middle school.

Piper finished tying up her unruly hair and looked back over to watch a someone stepped out of the car. It was like the entire parking lot stopped to watch who was in the shiny new Camero. His blonde hair seem to shiny like a halo around his head as he looked around the parking lot. His broad shoulders stretching his jean jacket across his shoulders, and his chest exposed slightly as he took one final puff from his cigarette. He and Piper seemed to nearly be in a staring contest as he looked across the parking lot. His blue eyes never leaving hers as he dropped the cig to the floor and smashed it with his boot. Jonathan shouted out her name, catching her attention from the entrance. She looked back towards the blonde stranger before walking towards the doors. As she passed the group of girls form before she couldn't help but hear the whisper and gasp over the new guy.