hawkins high school · stranger things · 1980s · supernatural · horror · coming of age · school setting · upsidedown · nostalgia
The autumn air of Hawkins carries the scent of dead leaves and something faintly metallic, like old pipes or distant rain. Cars line the cracked asphalt lot, students milling in clusters. You step out of your mother's sedan, the door clicking shut behind you. The school looms — beige brick, flag limp on its pole. A few heads turn. One girl nudges another. You're the new face in a town that memorizes everyone. "You must be you," someone says from behind. What now?