19. time zones

                                    

                                          
TIME ZONES
June 28th, 1985
⏰ 12:30 pm, 📍Hawkins, Indiana
༺♥༻ Dustin comes home from camp today!
The gang and El came up with an amazing idea to surprise Dustin the day he comes home, so everyone came to Dustin's house when his mom left to pick him up. His mom is in on it, obviously. 
They all stand up against the wall, holding a homemade sign and noise makers to add to the surprise factor. 
Dustin kept nonstop calling from his walkie-talkie, saying that he was 'returning to base', but no one answered. They want him to be as surprised as possible. 
When the front door opened, Stephanie can hear Dustin sigh as he sat down on his bed. 
Then Mike whispers, "now," signaling El to start all her fancy telekinetic stuff. El sets off some of his toys that he has buried in his closet and makes them walk down the hallway. 
They all can hear Dustin's heavy breathing as his footsteps creeped forward. 
"Now," Mike whispers. 
El opened her eyes which made the toys stop moving and beeping.
When Dustin's distracted, examining each robot, everyone creeps behind him, Stephanie holding their sign reading, Welcome Home, Dustin!, drawn with every color marker they found.
Max silently counts down with her fingers, mouthing along with the numbers. Three, two, one. 
Dustin turns around, screaming like he's being ambushed. Well, he kinda is... 
As he's screaming, he's also using his weapon—Farrah Fawcett hairspray. Weaponizing his hairspray against Stephanie. Particularly, right in her eyes. 
Dustin's screaming, Stephanie's screaming, Max is practically swinging at Dustin reaching for the can. That is, until Dustin comes to his senses and stops spraying. "Oh, shit!" He throws the can on the floor and covers his mouth with his hand. "Oh, shit! I'm sorry!" 
Stephanie tries to fan air into her eyes, but fails to find relief. "It's—oh, shit. It's fine. Yup. It's fine. I'm fine."
Max takes Stephanie's hand and walks her to the sink, where she turns on the faucet and guides Stephanie to the running water because she's basically legally blind at this point. Stephanie screams when the water touches her eyes, feeling as though she's set on fire.
"Oh, shit, Steph." Max grabs a towel and hands it to Stephanie who's still fighting for her life in the water. 
Stephanie stands up, trying to open her eyes but is greeted by a yellow and red blob, who she assumes is Max. 
She takes the towel and rubs her eyes with it, with no hope for her mascara anymore. When she takes the towel away from her eyes, she refocuses on Max, who is slightly clearer now. "Is my vision impaired, or do you look different?" 
"No I'm just..." Max takes the time to think. "Getting hotter every moment." She flips her hair and poses like a model. 
"Hot," Stephanie says, pretending she can see and isn't writhing in stinging Farrah Fawcett hell.