THIS STORY HAS BEEN DISCONTINUED.

❝ She was a wild fire, unrelenting in her fury, careless of any destruction left behind her.
He was a coursing river, steadfast and pure, as unchanging as the sea it runs from.
So different, yet so necessary to the other's survival. ❞

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❝ WE AREN'T PERFECT
BUT WE'RE
CLOSE ENOUGH! ❞

S O M E H O W,
despite the elaborate
fairytales that had been forged
by poets and authors and lovers
long before us, we were not
a match made in heaven.

Our colors, no matter how
brilliantly they shined on
their own, did not meld together
right away like we thought they
were supposed to.

Love should be easy,
they told us,
love shouldn't be hard.

But, love is hard.
Love is full of work and
sacrifices and tears and pain.
Ours, most of all.

So, our vibrant banners flew
side by side, never really
knowing the potential they held
to come together more magnificently
than they could ever be on
their own.

And only when they decided to
march to the same drum, did we
discover that fate is far better an
author than any of us could ever
hope to be.

And that the matches
made in hell are far
more fun to read about.

OR

T H E  S T O R Y
of how Valerie Fairchild is a whole lot more intertwined with the under wiring of her sleepy town than she might realize.

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VALERIE FAIRCHILD
❝ I know Melvald's does not sell bats with nails in them, you barbarian! ❞

portrayed by Alexis Bledel

JOLENE FAIRCHILD
❝ Of course I can tell when you're lying, you have my eyes. ❞

portrayed by Lauren Graham

WITH

Joe Keery as
STEVE HARRINGTON
John Reynolds as
OFFICER "BUDDY" CALLAHAN
David Harbour as
CHIEF JIM HOPPER
Charlie Heaton as
JONATHAN BYERS
Winona Ryder as
JOYCE BYERS
Chester Rushing as
TOMMY HAGAN
Chelsea Talmadge as
CAROL PERKINS

AND

the rest of the
Stranger Things Cast
as
THEMSELVES

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　　 . 　 　 * 　　 · 　
　 　 　 + 　 　 * 　 ⋆
　 ·

✺ * 　　 　 　
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　✵ ·　 · * . 　
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　 ·

VALERIE FAIRCHILD'S LIFE, unfortunately for her, was a rather complicated one. It wasn't as if she was unhappy or needed for anything, not at all. In fact, when she thought back on her childhood, only happy memories came to the surface. Days spent running around her backyard, barefoot and giggling. And many nights spent curled up on the couch with her mom and brother, watching movies and eating horrifically unhealthy foods and being happy.

It was only after she started growing up did things take a detour towards the troublesome.

Valerie never really knew her father.

He was a flaky, uncaring man, from what she understood. Never home, and always looking for reasons to leave when he was. Valerie's mother met him when she was just twenty years old, young and naive, as most men like Valerie's father liked their women. They had a whirlwind romance, despite their some ten year age gap, and Valerie came into the picture very soon thereafter.

Jerry Callahan brought a son into the marriage—young Phil, but everyone just called him Buddy. His mother was taken by the Big C, and when he was just barely a toddler, Jerry packed them up and left for his hometown of Hawkins, Indiana. Jerry's mother still lived there, in the very house he grew up in, and he knew he couldn't raise his boy alone.

The Callahans lived in domestic bliss for a whole year before their marriage started to circle the drain. Jerry grew restless, like a bird who needed to migrate, and Jolene grew resentful of her unplanned nuclear family. When Valerie was only two, Jerry filled a suitcase with his belongings and headed for the horizon while his family slept. He left behind Buddy, who wept for weeks and still mourns for his absent father to this day. Good luck was all his note said when Jolene found it the next morning, scrawled onto the back of a takeout menu. (Jolene still can't order food from China House.)

Sometimes, Valerie thinks about her father. She wonders what he might be like, if he would ruffle her hair or call her kiddo or buy her ice cream. But, then she reminds herself that she had Buddy. Who, by all accounts could be a rotten, stupid older brother when he wanted to be, but usually, mostly, he was pretty cool. He bought her records and cassettes, he drove her around when she asked, and he helped her with her homework on many occasions. Valerie didn't need that dumb, old, absent Jerry Callahan, because she had someone better.

Not to mention, her mother was basically superwoman. She kicked it into high gear once Jerry was gone, got another job, found a little house for her shrunken family, and she loved them fiercely. Buddy's grandmother offered to take Buddy in, but Jolene wouldn't have it. After all, Buddy had spent his life being uprooted, going through changes and healing from the aftermath. Jolene didn't see a point in putting him through more than a kid of ten should have to be.

So Valerie grew up in the outer suburbs of Hawkins, surrounded by people who loved her, even though her father wasn't one of them. And when she was in the first grade, just seven years old, she met Stevie Harrington.

He was a loud, little guy, with an unruly mop of hair and big, brown eyes. They sat next to each other–Harrington and Fairchild being so close in the alphabet and all–and one day the teacher assigned them to clean up duty during recess. Stevie stuck a pair of pipe cleaners too far up his nose and had to go to the nurse, and Val wasn't sure that she ever met someone so funny. (Not even Buddy.) And they were inseparable, glued together at the hip, ever since.

That is, until the summer before eighth grade.

❝ ISN'T IT STRANGE HOW THE SHADE CAN BURN?
HOW YOU CAN GO TO
SCHOOL BUT YOU CAN NEVER LEARN? ❞

haderology
Check out WHEN DOVES CRY!

sadiesuns
Check out BORN TO DIE!
Check out REJECTS!
Check out SWEET LOVER!

all rights for Stranger Things goes to the Duffer Brothers

all rights for Gilmore Girls' character relationships and any similar plot lines goes to Amy Sherman-Palladino

the cover of this book is loosely based on the theatrical release poster for
BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA
which was illustrated by Drew Struzan

all rights to the premise of this sub plot belong to me !

—
So, here we go with the rewrite!
Sorry it took me so long, a lot of life happened. But, hopefully things are back to normal and I can get back to what I love most! Writing!
Thanks for sticking around
and happy reading!