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Heroes | Stranger Things x Fem!Henderson!Reader (Interactive!) | Chapter 38 - Right Back Where We Started

SUMMARY: You’ve been here before. The demogorgons, the Mind Flayer, Vecna. You’ve already experienced and lived it all, being an outcast and nerd that learns what it means to become found family and a hero. Except…you got it all wrong the first time. By a strange twist of fate, can you get it right this time?

INTERACTIVE: This story is completely interactive! Place votes at the end of each chapter to determine which paths you go down! Every decision matters!!

A/N: Yes, Mr. Parker is 1980’s Peter Parker :) He’s the high school’s Mr. Clarke!

WARNINGS: Marijuana consumption, ‘King Steve’, Reader low key hates Steve, Eddie is embarrassing, callbacks to Act l.

WC: 10.7K

Heroes Act l Masterlist!

Heroes Act ll Masterlist!

Main Masterlist!

November 6th 1983

“This feels kinda illegal…”

“It is.”

His rusty, barely running, van was parked right where Cornwallis and Kerley met.

The thick air in the confined space smelled of bergamot, weed, and old cologne.

Music played softly from the outdated radio.

In the driver's seat, he fiddled around with the plastic bag in his hand, reaching over the girl, more specifically you, in the passenger seat.

Your legs were propped up on the dashboard and he shoved them down, opening the glove box and rummaging around in there.

“Well excuse me,” you muttered, rolling your eyes.

The girl in the backseat pressed one hand on the driver’s seat, the other on the passenger’s seat, for support. “This is crazy shady,” she said, tone worried. “I mean, a van at the edge of the woods? Illegal substances? We’re just asking for something bad to happen,” she rambled, speaking a million miles a minute.

Any sane person wouldn’t have understood a word she just spewed out. Fortunately for you and the driver, you had been friends long enough to understand what seemed to be a foreign language.

The boy in the driver’s seat flashed a triumphant smile after his ring covered fingers wrapped around his black lighter. He shut the glove box and turned around to face the paranoid girl in the back. “Relax, Robin,” he calmly said. “No one ever comes down here,” he reassured her. “Besides, you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”

Robin closed her eyes and let out a sigh through her mouth. “No, I want to,” she clarified. “It’s just, how many more times can we get caught with weed before we’re arrested?”

You’d been caught more times than you could count.

Chief of Police, Jim Hopper, was so sick and tired of seeing you three in his office three times a week.

If he had a penny for every time he’d seen you three, he would have enough money to move to another state and pick up a new job. Far, far, away from you and your friends.

It was now your turn to face Robin. “Well if it makes you feel any better, Eddie has like, hard drugs on him right now so they’ll for sure let us go as he’s seen as the true criminal.”

Eddie immediately turned his head towards you, eyes wide and mad. He specifically told you not to tell Robin because he knew she’d flip. “I swear I’m gonna-” he began to threaten you through clenched teeth.

“What?!” Robin exclaimed. “Eddie I told you-”

“It’s just coke!” He shouted back at her. “It’s not that big of a-”

“Uh…no, it’s pretty big,” you interrupted. “Like, what? Three, four bags?” you egged on, a small smirk playing at your lips.

“Eddie!” Robin shouted, eyes wide in horror.

“I’m selling it to someone after this!” Eddie reasoned.

Robin squeezed her eyes shut, gripping the seats of the van tighter in her hands. “Holy shit,” she breathed out. “You’re like, seriously a drug dealer. Like, the real deal.”

Eddie blinked, blank expression. “I thought that’s been established.”

You and Robin had known Eddie ever since you got into middle school, which was a few years ago.

He was a year older than you both, making him a junior while you two were stuck as sophomores.

Eddie was…odd.

Peculiar, even.

But, that did nothing but spark your interest.

You were never one for conformity and neither was he.

You and Robin had been friends since elementary school, and when middle school rolled around and she joined band, she met him. Someone older with slightly more experience, knowing how to navigate middle school, and high school once you got there.

Naturally, you were introduced to him as well, and as if it happened over night, you three became a friend group.

Three of the biggest outcasts of Hawkins High had a stronger bond than the popular kids and their romantic relationships.

“I know,” Robin agreed, slowly opening her eyes, releasing her firm grip from the seats. “I just never thought you were serious.”

Eddie scoffed, turning around to face forward, and pulled a freshly rolled blunt out of his bag, putting the tip of it in his mouth and lighting the other end.

He inhaled slowly, eyes closed. You watched him intently as he pulled the blunt from his lips, exhaling the smoke, filling the air with the aroma of cannabis.

Eddie opened his eyes and passed the blunt over to you.

You’d done it one too many times to count and expected to go just as the other times.

Your fingers grazed over his, accepting the substance. You put the end of the blunt into your mouth and inhaled.

“Oh shit!” Eddie exclaimed, turning to you. “I forgot to tell you-”

The smoke you inhaled into your lungs was strong. Burning.

You pulled the blunt away from your mouth and coughed, perhaps dramatically, and shook your head.

“What- The- Fuck-” you managed between coughs.

Robin raised her brows, eyes darting between an Eddie who was hiding his smile, and you, who was choking. “That’s never happened before,” she noted.

You scowled at Eddie and he gave you a sheepish smile. “Sorry,” he apologized. “Forgot to tell you it’s stronger than usual.”

“No shit.” You coughed again.

He stuck his fingers out. “Here,” he said, taking the killer blunt out of your hands. “Don’t inhale so much,” he explained, putting it up to his mouth again, showing you how to do it properly.

He handed it back to you and you tried again, this time, only coughing a bit. You passed it back to Robin who stared at it momentarily before inhaling and exhaling the smoke, coughing and pressing her brows together. “Keep it,” she said, handing it back to Eddie.

He accepted it and offered it to you. You shook your head, clearing your throat.

Whatever he did to that, was going to cost you in P.E.

You sighed, your body relaxing, as you leaned back in your seat, wrapping your arms around your stomach. Your eyes stared out into the dark woods.

Robin yawned from the backseat and propped her head on the side of your seat, hooded eyes wandering your face. Eddie was busy smoking when Robin started mumbling along to the song on the radio.

“It’s gotta be a strange twist of fate.”

“Telling me that heaven can wait.”

“Telling me to get it right this time.”

You shut your eyes in annoyance, Eddie doing the same.

“Robin,” you groaned. “Shut up, please.”

Robin continued to sing, you and Eddie sharing an annoyed glance.

There was a problem.

A major problem.

The timeline had reset and with it, your memories.

Meaning, you knew absolutely nothing about what was going to go down for the next six years.

You just started over completely on a blank canvas, right back at the very beginning.

But the same exact story was not about to be told.

We’ve already been there before.

This was new.

A new branched timeline.

And with it, a new story, though one constant remained.

Henry was determined to fix what you broke.

No matter the cost.

“Dude,” Eddie groaned, tossing his head back against his seat, Robin’s voice off key with the song. “For my own sanity, I’m begging you to stop.”

Robin ignored it and you buried your face in your hands with a sigh, as she thumped your seat, singing along.

You, Robin, and Eddie had been friends for so long and hung out far too much that you started to feel incredibly close.

So, Robin signing was more annoying to you than anything else on the planet and neither you nor Eddie were ashamed to let her know.

Though, she didn’t give a shit, so it didn’t matter.

Your face was still buried in the palms of your hands when suddenly, the mix of Robin’s slightly slurred words and the radio began to fade out.

Your ears started to ring slightly and a sense of impending doom bloomed in your chest.

You couldn't put your finger on it, but you felt like something was about to happen.

Like…whatever was about to occur would change the trajectory of your life.

Eddie noticed the way your body tensed. He could only assume it was because of the weed. The boy glanced over to you, taking another drag from the blunt, smoke seeping out of his nose and mouth. “You alright?” he asked.

You didn’t look his way, eyes shut as you nodded, moving your hands to rest in the palm of your lap. “I just feel like…” you trailed off, heart beating a quicker rhythm than before. “I don’t know,” you sighed, unable to explain the way you were feeling. “You ever get that gut feeling that something really bad is about to happen?” you asked, eyes still closed.

Eddie hummed, Robin’s singing gradually growing worse as the song came to an end.

“I had a bad feeling about you skating down that handrail the other day and what do you know? You ate shit,” Eddie said, taking another drag and looking over at you with an amused smile.

You finally opened your eyes, turning your head to him with a deadpanned expression. “I did not eat shit.”

Eddie raised his brows. “Oh, really?”

You nodded affirmatively. “Really.”

Eddie hummed, putting out his blunt in the ashtray on the dashboard, the smoke dying out in an instant. He reached over to you, grabbing your wrist gently with his ring clad fingers. He lifted your arm, looking down at your elbow. “What’s that?”

You looked down, his hand still on your wrist. A bright pink bandaid was clinging to your skin. “I fell.”

“Yeah, off the handrail,” he laughed.

And truth be told, you did.

Your friend group was out late one night in downtown Hawkins. You thought it would be a great idea to try and skate down the handrail outside of the library, and when you reached the end of said handrail, you did in fact ‘eat shit’, Eddie’s words.

Colorful bandaids were all over your body. Elbows, knees, and even one of your hands.

He let go of your wrist and you crossed your arms, giving him a playful eye roll as you turned your head away from him to look out the window into the woods.

The song came to an end, and unfortunately for Robin, the radio decided that Olivia Newton-John wouldn’t be on an endless loop. Robin leaned forward, resting her chin on your seat. “I’m hungry,” she complained.

Eddie hummed, leaning his head back on the seat in an awkward position to face Robin. “I could eat.” He glanced over at you. “You hungry?”

You didn’t respond because you were busy.

Busy looking out into the woods and trying to figure out what exactly it was that you were seeing.

Eddie shifted, leaning forward to follow your line of sight. He didn’t see anything and tapped your shoulder gently. “Hey, you okay?”

You sat frozen, eyes narrowed. “What is that?” you asked.

Eddie leaned forward over the center console as Robin leaned further into the front of the van, looking past your shoulder.

The woods were dark, desolate, empty, and oddly eerie despite growing up around them your entire life.

Robin rested her hand on your shoulder to keep herself balanced. “Uh…I mean Eddie’s window is, like, dirty as shit so I can barely see anything…” she trailed off, earning a side eye from Eddie. “But I don’t see anything.”

You turned around in shock, now looking to Eddie for confirmation that you weren’t losing your mind. “You see it too, right?”

Eddie leaned forward some more. “Where?”

You tapped your finger on the glass. “There.”

Eddie’s eyes scanned the woods. Branches swayed against one another, the leaves dancing as they fell from the wood. “I mean, the wind is pushing the branches, but I don’t see anything else.”

Eddie noticed the way your breathing had shifted. You were tense.

Scared.

Something in the woods was scaring you.

Something in which neither he nor Robin could see.

Eddie stared at you momentarily, watching as you sat almost entranced by what was lurking in the woods. “Do you see something?” he asked, growing worried.

You swallowed hard before nodding. “Yeah,” you said just barely above a whisper.

Eddie hesitated, brows pressing together as his heart hammered in his chest. “What do you see?”

How were you meant to describe it?

It was tall, lengthy, and fleshy.

Almost…like a human.

It was a habitual biped just like one. It had two arms, two legs, just like people.

Except…

Its face.

“I- I don’t know,” you faltered, voice wavering. “It’s like a person but…no face.”

Eddie’s face fell but his fear didn’t last long because Robin smacked the back of his head so hard that his entire head jolted to the side.

“Ow!” he yelled, rubbing the part she hit. “What the fuck was that for?!”

“Look what you did to her!” Robin yelled back. “You’re making her hallucinate with the weed!”

Eddie rolled his eyes, turning the car back on, the engine starting. “I’m not making her do anything! It’s not my fault she’s a lightweight!”

Before putting the van in drive, Eddie handed you a bottle of water. “Here, drink this.”

You didn’t move, you appeared to be frozen in time as you stared at the nonexistent monster out the window.

Eddie sighed, tapping the bottle against your hand gently. “Hey,” he said softly, making you finally look at him. “There’s no monsters out here, it’s just us.”

“I mean, Eddie might look like a monster but I promise he’s not,” Robin reassured you.

Eddie pulled his lips into a tight line. “Right…” he trailed off. “Anyway, drink this. I’m gonna make a delivery super fast and then we’ll grab dinner.”

You accepted the bottle, though you couldn’t shake the feeling that something…or…someone was watching.

“No!” Robin exclaimed. “I don’t wanna go make a drug delivery!”

“You’re not even making it,” Eddie groaned. “You’re waiting in the car a few blocks down.”

Eddie put the van in drive as Robin ridiculed him for ‘taking two innocent teenage girls on a drug run’.

As his van drove down the street, away from the woods, something did emerge from the dark trees.

That monster you saw just moments ago.

You saw it before your friends did, as if you somehow tapped into the future, but they didn’t get the chance to witness it, for Eddie Munson had driven away just seconds before the monster appeared.

Eddie’s van pulled into the diner parking lot, after he had dropped off some drugs to a buyer.

You climbed out of the passenger’s seat, shutting the door behind you after your sneakers landed on the pavement.

Robin and Eddie were convinced that you were high out of your mind, given that you saw a monster without a face.

Because…monsters with no faces did not exist.

You didn’t feel all that high, maybe a little calmer than normal despite what you saw and how you felt, but you assumed that maybe it was just Eddie’s mysterious weed. He was a weird guy after all, so who knew what he did to the weed you smoked.

Robin sighed dramatically, cracking her neck and back before yawning and closing her door. “Thank the universe that this stupid diner is still open.”

Eddie shut his door and locked the van before putting his keys into his pocket, walking up to the door with you, and Robin already following suit. He held the door open for you and motioned for you to go inside with that usual charming smile of his.

You thanked him and waltzed right inside, Robin passing by Eddie as she walked in. “I hate this diner,” Eddie said, following behind Robin.

She gasped dramatically and quirked a brow. “But they have the best milkshakes in all of Indiana!”

Eddie shrugged. “I mean, they’re alright.”

Inside was warm, and the smell of fried food filled your nose, suddenly making you hungry. The diner was empty for the most part, just a few people at the bar with cups of coffee, presumably on break from their night shifts.

The waitress at the front led you three over to a booth, Robin rambling on and on about why the diner on the edge of Hawkins was so good.

You sat down in the booth, Robin sitting beside you, closer than necessary with her knee against yours, though you didn’t mind.

Personal space with someone you knew since elementary school had practically become nonexistent. Robin was attached to your hip, always touching you in one way or another.

She cracked open her menu, eyes scanning over the options. “I just don’t get it. This place is amazing. Why do you hate it so much?”

Eddie rubbed his eyes with his hands. “I don’t know,” he laughed awkwardly, moving his hands away from his face and opening his menu. “I have this really vague memory of going on a date…” he trailed off, looking up at the ceiling and blinking in thought. “Not date?” he thought out loud, trying his best to remember. “I dunno. Point is, I have this weird memory of being with a girl here and I thought it was all going well but turns out she wasn’t really into me.”

Eddie shrugged, unbothered, and looked over the menu. “Chocolate milkshake!” he exclaimed, easily distracted.

You glanced up at Eddie with a raised brow, Robin doing the same.

Robin laughed, shaking her head. “When did you go out with a girl?”

Eddie hummed in thought, not bothering to look up. “Uhhh…I dunno. Vague memory as I said.”

“Must’ve been a dream. You’re women repellent in a human form.”

You laughed loudly, shaking your head. Eddie looked up with an exaggerated shocked expression. “How dare you!”

Robin shrugged, setting her menu down. A few moments later your waitress came by and took your orders, returning in a few minutes with water and milkshakes.

The bell above the door rang and you and Robin both glanced up. Robin’s face contorted into one of disgust while yours was slightly confused.

“What?” Eddie asked, glancing between you and Robin.

Robin leaned across the table, eyes still locked on the targets. “Okay, don’t make it obvious, but if you look behind you, you’ll see that Steve Harrington and Nancy Wheeler just walked in together.”

Clearly, Eddie hadn’t heard what Robin said first.

Or he just didn’t care because he instantly turned all the way around from his spot in the booth, looking up above the wooden back part. His chains rattled loudly as he did so, which caught the attention of both Harrington and Wheeler who turned around, making direct eye contact with Eddie.

You instantly sank down in your seat, trying to hide yourself from the embarrassment.

Eddie turned around to face you and Robin, nodding his head. “Holy shit it is them!”

Robin practically jumped over the table, shoving his shoulder. “Dude!” she whisper shouted. “Shut up!”

Harrington and Wheeler followed this waitress to their table, passing by yours.

You were still sunk down in your seat, covering your face as if to block out sunlight that wasn’t even present.

The two glanced over at your table in either confusion or disgust, maybe both, who knew.

Robin’s head dropped as Eddie smiled at them, giving them a casual, “Hi,” with a dorky head nod.

“You’re so embarrassing,” Robin grumbled once the two were out of ear shot and at their table.

Eddie shrugged. “Embarrassment is a social construct in which I do not partake in.”

You moved your hand away from your face and sat up straight, glancing over your shoulder to see Harrington and Wheeler paying you and your friends no mind. “We know,” you grumbled, turning back around to face your friends.

Eddie sipped on his milkshake, not a care in the world. “What do you guys think they’re doing hanging out together? Didn’t know Wheeler liked people like Harrington, then again, she does seem like a priss.”

Robin groaned, throwing her head back. “She’s such a priss!” she agreed. “They’re probably together. They’d make a good couple, the priss and the asshole.”

Your expression dropped slightly. “Can we not talk shit about two people that are, like, less than ten feet away from us?”

“Okay, fine, maybe Wheeler doesn’t deserve it,” Eddie agreed. “But Harrington? I don’t give a shit if he can hear me. I can’t stand that guy.”

And you honestly couldn’t either. You had no idea why someone like Nancy Wheeler would be hanging out, or in a relationship, with him.

Then again, you didn’t really care because the thought of Steve Harrington rarely crossed your mind.

He was irrelevant to you as you were irrelevant to him.

“No, no, Nance,” Steve sighed, running his hands down his face. “You’re not listening to me.”

Nancy smiled awkwardly, shifting in her seat. “I am,” she insisted. “You’ve been having weird dreams, so what?”

Steve groaned, leaning closer over the table and lowering his voice as if anyone around could hear him. And maybe that was because the person he was talking about was just a few feet away. “They’re not just any kind of dreams.”

Nancy sighed, sipping on her drink slowly, stalling as she figured out what to say. Once she decided, she removed the mug from her lips, setting it down gently. “Steve, I really don’t understand,” she said honestly. “Why are you so bothered by them?”

“Because it’s not normal,” Steve said with an odd look in his eyes that Nancy couldn’t quite place. “I’ve never once looked at her a day in my life and now she’s all I see when I close my eyes at night.”

Nancy pulled her lips into a tight line as she shrugged. “Maybe you’re just falling for her, I don’t know.”

Steve’s jaw dropped in almost a look of disgust. “Gross!” he exclaimed. “I would never ever, ever, and I mean ever, under any circumstance fall in love with that Henderson girl!”

Nancy’s eyes widened. “Well you’re the one who keeps dreaming about her!”

“I don’t even know if they’re dreams.”

Nancy quirked a brow. “What?”

Steve sucked his teeth, leaning back in his seat and crossing his arms over his chest as he bit his lower lip, staring at the table. He blinked, tone now coming out far more leveled. “I can’t explain it but it just feels so real. Like…it’s happened before…?”

Nancy stared at Steve a little dumbfounded. To her knowledge, Steve had never once had a romantic encounter with you of all people. Sure, he was ‘King Steve’ of Hawkins High and messed around with nearly every girl on campus, but you? Never. “Sounds like you just have a crush on her.”

“Can you stop?!” Steve almost shouted. “She’s so weird!”

By now, he was lucky that you and your friends had gone outside, because with how loud and defensive he got, you would’ve for sure heard him.

Nancy rolled her eyes. “Weird how? Weird because she doesn’t give a shit what other people think?”

It was halfway true.

For the most part you didn’t care what anyone thought of you, unless of course Eddie was embarrassing you in the middle of the diner.

Steve’s face twisted into one of disgust. “I mean, she’s such a nerd. She likes those weird comic books and Star Wars. She skates and hangs out with Buckley and Munson, who are both in band. Munson plays that weird D&D game so by association I assume she does.”

Nancy stared at Steve extremely unamused as he ranted on and on about how ‘weird’ you were.

“Oh!” he exclaimed, remembering something. “The other day, I saw her bump into a chair and apologize to the chair. Who the hell does that?”

Nancy scoffed, shaking her head. “You’re genuinely so ridiculous,” she sighed. “I mean, you’re totally helpless.”

Steve raised his brows. “I’m helpless?” he repeated as if the words left a bitter taste on his tongue.

“Yeah,” Nancy said as if it were obvious. “You’re so judgy.”

Steve shrugged. “It’s not judgy. She’s just…too much,” he decided. “I don’t like too much. I like simple.”

Nancy looked out the window and away from Steve, unable to converse with him much longer before she lost her mind.

Steve followed her line of sight and watched as Eddie and Robin sat on the pavement. Robin was rambling about something as Eddie nodded along.

You were riding your skateboard in the parking lot, landing a kickflip with ease.

Your board rolled down the concrete and stopped in front of Eddie who stood up instantly.

Nancy and Steve couldn’t hear what he said, but whatever he said must’ve been the funniest thing in the world because you bursted out laughing which made him flash you that typical charming smile of his.

Steve narrowed his eyes as he watched you back away with one foot on your board. You gave Eddie a thumbs up and he flashed you one back.

Robin dropped her head as she shook it, already knowing what dumb shit you were about to do.

You pushed yourself off of your board, riding straight towards Eddie at lightning speed.

Within seconds, you were hurdling towards Eddie. Before you crashed into him, he managed to wrap his arms around you, picking you up off of your board as it rammed into the wall of the diner.

You giggled as he spun you around, setting you onto the ground.

Steve slowly turned his head to face Nancy who had a look in her eyes that he couldn’t quite place.

Nancy looked over at Steve with the faintest smile. “Don’t you ever wish we had that?” she asked softly.

Steve glanced out the window again. “Had what?”

Now Robin was standing, ruffling Eddie’s hair as he tried to swat her off, making you laugh.

“Real friends,” Nancy finished.

Later that night, you were fresh out of the shower and a book in your lap. You twirled a highlighter in between your fingers as you bit down on the pen between your teeth.

You were in the middle of annotating your book when sound of your door flying open startled you, causing you to jump.

You looked up and your eyes landed on your little brother holding a pizza box half the size of him in his hands. “Hi!” he exclaimed with the brightest smile.

You sighed, relaxing your tense shoulders. “Hey, Dustin,” you breathed out.

Dustin waltzed into the room, slamming the door shut behind him. He kicked his shoes off and jumped into your bed with his pizza box.

You watched him intently, slightly annoyed that someone as small as him could make so much noise.

He sat crisscrossed at the edge of your bed and you put your highlighter and pen into your book and closed it, placing it beside you. “I brought you the last slice!” he exclaimed happily, opening the pizza box to reveal a soggy piece of sausage and pepperoni pizza.

He and his friends were in Mike’s basement for ten hours playing D&D, having pizza for dinner. Dustin was thoughtful enough to bring you the last slice.

You gave your little brother a soft smile and accepted the pizza, taking a bite as he placed the box carelessly on the floor.

“Dustin!” you scolded him.

He immediately put his hands up as if he had been caught committing a crime. “I’ll pick it up when I leave!”

You rolled your eyes and sighed. “How was your D&D campaign?” you asked curiously.

Dustin rambled on and on about it, talking about a demogorgon, Will, fireballs, cast protection, and a million other things you didn’t necessarily understand much about.

“I don’t get it,” you admitted.

You were a nerd to a certain extent. Your little brother and Eddie were super into Dungeons and Dragons, so everything you knew about the game was due to their rambles. They invited you to play on multiple occasions, and you hadn’t. You weren’t entirely interested in the game, but you loved to hear about their campaigns.

Dustin groaned as his palm met his face. “Basically, the demogorgon, it may or may not have gotten Will. We couldn’t find the dice.”

You hummed and went to take another bite of pizza.

“What about you?” Dustin asked, leaning in. “You go smoke again?”

You froze mid bite, eyes wide. “No!”

Dustin laughed and pointed a finger at you. “Yeah you did, didn’t you?”

You swallowed the food in your mouth and rolled your eyes. “Go to bed. It’s a school night and I'm exhausted,” you yawned.

Dustin jumped out of your bed, grabbing the pizza box off of the floor. “Yeah cause of all that pot you smoked.”

Your eyes widened and you reached for a stuffed bear on your bed and threw it at him, right as he left, shutting the door behind him.

You missed.

You groaned seeing his shoes left carelessly on your bedroom floor.

The next morning, you rode your skateboard down to Hawkins High, your brother following close behind on his bike, making a turn to the middle school.

In the parking lot, you met up with Eddie and Robin before being forced to go your separate ways to get to first period.

You tossed your skateboard onto the ground of the crowded hallway, skating your way towards your locker.

Your eyes widened slightly as you made eye contact with Principal Higgins.

You scrambled off of your skateboard, reaching to pick it up off of the ground. You cleared your throat, scratching the back of your neck as you looked everywhere but at him.

“Henderson,” he said, and immediately you knew you were about to get in trouble again for riding your skateboard in the hallways.

“Yes, sir?” you asked, trying to sound as innocent as possible, though it didn’t matter because he already saw you.

“You want to keep that skateboard?” he asked, a stern look on his face.

You glanced down at your board, random stickers scattered all across the bottom and some random drawing Robin made with a sharpie back in the sixth grade looking right back at you.

“Yeah,” you nodded as you slowly walked past him.

“Keep it off the ground,” he scolded you for probably the millionth time that semester.

You held the skateboard up in the air, the wheels facing the ceiling. “Sure. Yeah," you mumbled, walking past him.

“Wheels up!”

You rose the board higher, not even bothering to look back at him. “Like that?”

“That’s it,” he called after you.

You smirked as you rounded the corner, tossing the board back onto the ground and riding it down the end of the hallway to your locker.

Upon arriving at your locker, you kicked your foot off of the board, leaving one on top. You twisted the code into your lock and opened it up, shrugging your backpack off of your shoulders to empty out some textbooks you wouldn’t need until later.

You zipped up your backpack, slinging it back over your shoulders.

You grabbed your walkman and clipped it to your jeans, headphones dangling around your neck as you shut your locker and kicked your board up, catching it with ease. You turned around to walk away when you had to do a double take.

Because Steve Harrington was across the hallway leaning against his locker staring right at you.

You immediately, on instinct, gave him a dirty look.

He must’ve realized he was staring because he jumped slightly, eyes going wide as he looked away awkwardly.

You rolled your eyes and walked away to your first class.

Unfortunately for Steve, Nancy had seen the entire encounter and wasn’t going to let it go. “I don’t know if you knew this, but you were totally staring at her like a creep,” she teased.

Steve rolled his eyes, turning to face Nancy as she opened up her locker. “I was not staring.”

“Hmm…” she hummed, narrowing her eyes as she clutched her textbooks close to her chest. “You were and she caught you, but okay.”

Steve huffed, watching as students passed down the hallway.

It was kind of hard to not stare at the girl he had been dreaming about cuddling on the couch and watching Star Wars with.

Which was odd because why the hell would he even be watching Star Wars? He hated that nerdy crap.

You went on about your day as usual, sitting in the back of your math class with your headphones glued to your ears as you read a book instead of doing boring algebra, meeting Eddie and Robin in the halls during passing period before heading to your history class and trying not to fall asleep learning about things you already knew about.

When lunch rolled around you were excited to go skate around in the parking lot while Eddie and Robin ate on the hood of his van.

You went to your last two classes, some random elective you found more interesting than it should’ve been and then P.E. where some jock nearly took you out on the basketball court.

After school you stopped by Hawkins Middle to grab your brother, which was when the next odd thing happened to you.

The kids were filing out and you stood by the bike racks, standing on your tippy toes to see through the sea of middle schoolers to find your brother.

Soon enough, your eyes landed on him and his friends, one of them actually not within sight.

Him, Mike, and Lucas made their way over to the bike rack. You smiled and greeted them. “Hey, guys. Say, where’s Will?” you asked.

Lucas shrugged, taking his bike off of the rack. “Didn’t show today.”

Your brows pressed together as you watched Dustin’s little fingers wrap around the handlebars of his bike. “Didn’t show is an understatement,” he said. “The chief came in and started asking us a bunch of questions.”

Your eyes widened, realizing that Will didn’t just not show because of a stomach bug.

He was missing.

“Yeah,” Mike sighed. “We wanted to help look but he told us to stay out of it.”

“He said it wasn’t some ‘Lord of the Rings’ book,” Lucas added.

“He meant ‘The Hobbit’ but, whatever,” Dustin said, earning an eye roll from Lucas.

You pulled your lips into a tight line, trying to find the right words to say. “Well…” you trailed off, clutching your skateboard a little tighter. “Maybe he’s right. Maybe you guys should stay out of it.”

Lucas narrowed his eyes at you, already getting snippy. “If Eddie or Robin went missing, would you stay out of it?”

You opened your mouth but nothing came out, because deep down you knew you’d ignore every red flag and do everything in your power to find them.

“That doesn’t count,” you deflected.

“Yes it does,” Mike sassed. “And you saying that tells me that you would.”

You rolled your eyes. Your little brother’s friends, especially Mike, made you more mad than they should’ve. You didn’t know what it was, maybe it was his sass, but he irked your soul.

Eddie and Robin teased you for having beef with a middle schooler, but they just didn’t get it.

“Has anyone ever told you how insufferable you are, Wheeler?” you asked, eyes narrowed at the kid.

Lucas snorted as he laughed, pointing his finger at you. “Sometimes I like you more than Dustin.”

Dustin’s hands shot up. “Hey!”

You smiled softly. “Okay, but all jokes aside, don’t do anything stupid,” you said. “Even though Mike is annoying beyond repair, I’d like for all of you shitheads to be safe. Can you guys do that?”

They all nodded.

Not because they weren’t going to look for Will.

But because while they looked for Will they’d take extra precaution to not get caught up in some deadly shit.

That same night, while you were sprawled out on Eddie’s bed while he played guitar, Robin rummaging through his cassette tapes, Dustin was having conflicts of his own.

A desire to tell you the truth.

He went out with Lucas, Mike, and Dustin to find Will, only to stumble across some oddball girl around their age with a buzz cut in a t-shirt way too large to fit her small frame.

The three boys, and the random girl, were down in Mike’s basement. While the girl was getting changed into dry clothes, Lucas tried to get his friends to wake up and realize the gravity of the situation.

“She’s probably a psycho,” Lucas reasoned with the boys.

Dustin’s eyes lit up in fear. “Like Michael Myers…”

“Exactly!” Lucas exclaimed. “We should’ve never brought her here!” he reasoned.

“So you just wanted to leave her out in that storm?” Mike asked a rhetorical question. Something in his heart was telling him to stay, telling him to protect her at all costs.

She could barely speak and was found right where Will went missing. He wanted to step up and keep her safe.

“Yes!” Lucas replied. “We went out to find Will, not another problem.

Dustin was beginning to side with Lucas. “I think we should tell your mom,” he suggested, thinking that perhaps telling an adult would be the best option.

“I second that,” Lucas nodded, body becoming less tense as someone else in the room finally agreed.

Mike scoffed, becoming more and more agitated. “Who’s crazy now?!”

“How is that crazy?” Lucas challenged.

“Because we weren’t supposed to be out tonight, remember?” Mike reminded his friend.

“So?”

“So, if I tell my mom and she tells your mom…” he trailed off. He turned his head towards Dustin. “…and your mom,” he continued.

“Our houses become Alcatraz,” Lucas finished, realizing that Mike may have had a point.

“Exactly,” Mike said affirmatively. “We’ll never find Will.”

The group was silent for a moment, taking it all in.

Suddenly, a lightbulb popped up above Dustin’s head. “What if we told my sister?” he suggested. “She’s basically an adult, she’ll know what to do.”

Lucas and Mike looked at each other. Lucas shrugged, not seeing it as being a bad idea.

Mike disagreed. “First of all, she’s not an adult. Second, we promised her to stay out of it. What if she snitches because we went out when we weren’t supposed to?”

Dustin gave Mike a dirty look. “She would never do that!” he said, becoming defensive. “On top of that, we technically promised to not to not get caught up in deadly shit, which we didn’t.”

Lucas sucked his teeth. “I don’t know, man,” Lucas sighed. “I’d rather her be mad at us for five seconds than to not tell her. Maybe she’ll know what to do.”

Suddenly, the bathroom door creaked open and out walked the mysterious girl with a shaved head that the boys met in the woods.

The boys turned to face her and Dustin immediately walked over. “Should we tell my sister about you?” Dustin asked, making the girl’s eyes widen.

Not because she was completely ignorant to family dynamics, which the boys had assumed because she seemed to not understand most things such as the concept of friendship.

But…

Because of something else.

Dustin’s sister…

She knew more about it than her silence led on.

“Don’t worry, she’s totally cool,” he said. “Except for that one time she chased me around the house with a knife, but we were little kids.”

Mike walked over and smacked Dustin’s arm. “Stop it! You’re scaring her!”

“How?!” Dustin defended himself. “I’m just telling her!”

Mike groaned and rolled his eyes. “We’re not telling your sister,” he stated bluntly. “The more people involved, the worse. Alright?”

Dustin put his hands on the back of his head as he began to pace. “Oh, no,” he breathed out. “I tell my sister everything, I can’t not tell her, Mike!”

“We'll, you're going to have to. She can’t know.”

And so that night, Dustin acted completely out of character, ignoring you at all costs as to not accidentally slip up.

The next morning, Nancy Wheeler and Barbara Holland walked down the halls of Hawkins High, reviewing chemistry flash cards before Steve snatched them out of Barbara’s hands, earning a “Hey!” from Nancy.

They stopped at the middle of the hallway, Tommy H. poking his finger at Barb’s ear. She furrowed her brows and rubbed her hand along the spot he touched.

She was starting to have second thoughts about Nancy hanging out with “the cool kids”. Somehow, her best friend had been dragged into the wrong crowd, becoming friends with Steve, Tommy H., and Carol.

“I think you’ve studied enough, Nance,” Steve said, looking through her flash cards.

“Steve,” she tried to reason.

“I’m telling you, you know, you got this,” he encouraged her. “Don’t worry,” he said, turning his attention to his new friend. “Now, on to more important matters. My dad has left town for a conference and my mom’s gone with him,” he said with a cheeky smile and raised brows. “Because, you know, she doesn’t trust him,” he rambled on.

Steve never actually saw two people be in love. His parents were never really there and he believed they never truly loved each other.

He never wanted that in a relationship. He always wanted something built on trust and true love, something for his kid, or kids, to look up to.

Hence why he, the most popular guy in Hawkins High, was still single.

He was looking for ‘the one’, which was ironic given he had screwed around with nearly every girl on campus.

“So, are you in?” he asked Nancy.

“In for what?” she asked, genuinely confused.

Carol rolled her eyes. “No parents? Big house?” she asked with raised brows.

Then, it hit Nancy. “A party?” she mumbled.

“Ding ding ding!”

“It’s…Tuesday…” Nancy trailed off.

She wasn’t used to this. The spontaneous acts, the parties, the sneaking around. That wasn’t Nancy Wheeler.

“Oh, my God! It’s Tuesday!” Tommy H. mocked her.

Steve hit Tommy H. in the chest, but his snickering continued.

“Come on,” Steve went on. “It’ll be low key. It’ll just be us. What do you say? Are you in or are you out?”

“Umm…” Nancy trailed off, pulling her textbooks closer to her chest.

Before she could respond, Carol spoke up. “Oh, God,” she grumbled, eyeing someone who had just walked in up and down. “Look.”

The group turned their heads.

“Oh, God, that’s depressing,” Steve added, looking straight ahead.

Jonathan Byers was hanging up Will’s missing poster on the bulletin board.

Nancy watched with a soft expression. She couldn’t imagine what it could be like to be in Johnathan’s shoes. Missing brother and no leads, as far as most people knew. “Should we say something?” she suggested.

Right before Carol went to speak, their eyes landed on the front door again.

Your backpack was slung lazily over one shoulder, your hand holding the strap in place. In your other arm was your skateboard. Your walkman was attached to your hip, your headphones blasting a random song as you hummed along.

You halted, looking over at Jonathan who was hanging up the missing poster.

You only spoke to him on the rare occasion that you crossed paths while Will and Dustin were hanging out at the Wheeler house.

Now would be the time to talk.

Your expression softened. Your fingers hit the pause button on your walkman as you put your headphones around your neck. “Hey,” you said.

The boy turned around and looked at you with wide eyes, almost shocked that you were speaking to him. “Hey,” he replied, gripping onto the side of his bag.

You swallowed hard, finding the words to say. “I’m…I’m really sorry,” you apologized. “I can’t imagine what you’re going through.”

Jonathan nodded, eyes never meeting yours. He looked down at his shoes. “Yeah…” he muttered.

Your heart ached. “If you ever need anything, I’m here,” you shrugged, nodding affirmatively.

While you couldn’t make Will magically come back and solve all of Jonathan’s problems, you could be a shoulder for him to lean on for support.

His eyes finally met yours and he gave you a small smile. “Thank you.”

You rocked back on your heels awkwardly, wanting to say more, but running out of things to say.

Oddly enough, he broke the silence first. “What are you listening to?”

You blinked. “Huh?”

“Your headphones,” he said, pointing at them.

Right.

Duh.

Idiot.

“Oh!” you laughed awkwardly, reaching for them as if they weren’t there.

As if it were fabricated in his mind.

“Yeah,” you nodded. “Uhm, Cydni Lauper. Time After Time.”

Jonathan hummed with a small nod. “Is that your favorite song?” he asked curiously.

You smiled like a dork as you nodded. “Yeah.”

You weren’t sure what it was, but there was just something about the song that drew you in. It felt oddly familiar and reminded you of something you couldn’t quite put your finger on.

You supposed it was the Cyndi Lauper effect.

“What do you listen to?” you asked.

Jonathan blinked, his lips curving upward. “Oh, uh…usually the same stuff these days. I like the Clash.”

Your eyes lit up. “No way, me too!”

Jonathan’s smile grew. “What?!” he exclaimed, practically jumping out of his shoes. “I- I love The Clash!”

“What’s your favorite song?” you asked curiously.

He told you, followed by naming nearly every single song they released, clearly unable to just pick one, which made you laugh.

Meanwhile, a few feet away, the popular kids were staring you both down.

Carol fake gagged. “Of course they’re talking.”

“They’re probably banging,” Tommy H. joked.

Steve snorted, earning a stern look from Nancy, making him shrug. “It was funny,” he said.

Nancy shook her head with an eye roll, walking away, Barbra following. She saw something in Steve most people didn’t.

He was actually a good guy beneath his popular jock persona.

But it was times like that she wasn’t so sure she wanted to be around him.

Not to mention, the way he spoke about you at the diner. She didn’t know you very well, but she never once went out of her way to speak poorly of you.

She also thought you were a little weird, but she never said anything. Most people were odd anyway. She just figured you two wouldn’t make the best of friends.

You walked into your last period, physics, tossing your skateboard and bag to the ground. You pulled out a pencil and a notebook, ready to take notes.

As you were opening your notebook, Steve Harrington walked in, taking his usual seat in the desk beside you.

You’d been seated by each other the entire semester thus far and never spoke a word.

Perhaps you assumed he was a douche bag like the rest of his friends.

Perhaps he assumed you were weird like the rest of your friends.

Regardless, a word was never spoken.

Not until today.

Your psychics teacher was perched on the edge of his desk with a bright smile on his face. As soon as the bell rang, he began his lecture.

“As we all know, we’ve been going through these chapters fairly quickly,” he began. “We’ve covered many important topics so far and now it’s time to show what you know with a group project.”

The classroom was full of groans and hushed whispers.

Everyone dreaded projects, especially group ones.

You subconsciously began to look around the room, wondering who could be in your group. You didn’t necessarily know anyone in your class.

Your teacher got the class to quiet down, continuing with instructions. “Groups will simply be you and a partner. Your task is to design and build an experiment demonstrating one physics principle that we’ve studied this semester and it’ll be due as your final. You must demonstrate a measurable physics phenomenon, create a hypothesis, collect your experimental data, build your experiment, and present what you find at our end of the year science fair.”

The class began to groan loudly, already not wanting to participate, though, your interest was immediately sparked, a million ideas already running through your genius brain.

Someone in the back raised their hand, the teacher calling on them. “I’m lost,” they admitted, numerous students nodding along. “What are we supposed to make?”

“Good question,” your teacher said. “I’m encouraging everyone to get as creative as possible, however I’m expecting to get projects such as laser experiments, electromagnets, pendulums, solar ovens, things of that nature.”

Your teacher climbed off the desk, grabbing a stack of papers and beginning to pass them out. “There’s more instructions on your packet here, as well as your groups. I would personally spend this class period reviewing instructions with your partner, deciding when to work on it outside of class, and maybe coming up with a few ideas on what to create. I’d also ask any questions now if you have them.”

He dropped a packet onto your desk and you flipped through the pages, ending on the last page where the groups were listed.

You found your name and your heart dropped when you found the second name.

You and Steve Harrington were paired together.

You dropped your head down, eyes shut. “Lord, if you can hear me, please strike me down now,” you muttered to yourself.

Beside you, Steve’s brows were pressed together as he skimmed the pages, not understanding a single thing. He ended up on the last page and froze when he saw you two were paired together. “Oh, you’ve gotta be shitting me,” he groaned.

You side eyed him as he looked over to you, eyes narrowed.

You shot up out of your seat, him following suit.

You both made your way up to the front of the classroom, making your way to your teacher’s desk. Immediately, you both started speaking over one another.

“Mr. Parker, I can’t-”

“This just isn’t going to work-”

“He doesn’t even listen!”

“She’s just going to bully me the whole time-”

“He’s an idiot!”

“She’s the weirdest person I’ve met!”

“I’d rather work alone-”

“Can I just have a new partner?”

Mr. Parker’s eyes were wide as he looked between the two of you. “Guys, guys,” he said, getting you both to stop talking. “One at a time, I don’t understand.”

“I can’t work with him,” you spoke up instantly.

Mr. Parker raised his brows. “Why?”

You scoffed. “What do you mean why? Look at him,” you said, motioning a hand to him.

“What the hell?!” Steve exclaimed. “You know what, I don’t want to work with you!” he fired back.

“Good because I don’t want to work with you either!”

“Okay,” Mr. Parker sighed, lifting his hand up to get you and Steve to stop. “Let’s not be cruel to one another, alright?”

“He’s an idiot,” you deadpanned. “I can’t put up with that, Mr. Parker.”

Mr. Parker pulled his lips into a tight line. “He’s not an idiot-”

“He is and you know it,” you interrupted. “Please, tell me, what’s his grade in the class?”

Mr. Parker gave Steve a sheepish look as the poor boy’s shoulder’s slouched. “Look,” Mr. Parker sighed. “I split people up so that they’ll succeed. If I were to put him with another student, I’m afraid it wouldn’t do as well. I want you all to pass the class and you’re my brightest student, Henderson. I mean, you’re in a class full of juniors as a sophomore. I think Harrington could learn a lot from working with you.”

You groaned. “No, please, Mr. Parker,” you begged. "You're my favorite teacher, don’t do this to me.”

Mr. Parker gave you an apologetic look. “I’m sorry, but I think you’ll find a lot of value in this.”

You stared at him for a moment, taking a deep breath. You shook your head slowly. “I’m disappointed in you,” you grumbled before turning on your heel to go back to your desk.

“That’s your favorite student?” Steve deadpanned, arms crossed over his chest.

Mr. Parker smiled with a shrug. “Well maybe if you weren’t such an asshole, you’d find her much more pleasant.”

Steve’s jaw dropped. “Me? An asshole?”

He wasn’t even shocked that his own teacher called him an asshole. He was the cooler teacher on campus, awfully young too. He had just turned twenty three a few weeks ago and every student on campus adored him.

Mr. Parker nodded. “You. An asshole.”

“How? She’s the one calling me an idiot!”

Mr. Parker hummed. “Well…you kind of are, but…”

“Dude!”

“I’m joking!” Mr. Parker laughed, leaning back in his chair, kicking his feet up onto the wooden desk. “Want my advice?” “Get a new partner?” Steve asked with hope.

“No,” Mr. Parker chuckled. “Be nice.”

Steve’s face twisted into disgust. “Be nice?” he repeated, earning a nod from his teacher. “She’s so weird,” he grimaced. “Like, totally, unusually weird.”

“Funny. Weird nerd is passing the class while popular jock is failing miserably.”

Steve ran a hand down his face. “Why does she have to be my partner? You can’t pair me up with another one of these nerds?”

Mr. Parker hummed and tapped his chin in a fake thought. “Uh…No. I like seeing you and Henderson suffer."

Steve groaned and threw his head back. “You’re a terrible teacher. You might just be an even worse assistant coach.”

Mr. Parker gasped, clutching his chest. “What the hell?! You’re benched Harrington!”

Steve rolled his eyes and walked back to his desk, knowing damn well he wasn’t benched. He was a starter and no one could take that away from him.

At least not yet.

He sighed as he plopped down in his seat, glancing over at you with a confused look.

You had one foot in the chair you were sitting on, the other firmly on the ground as you scribbled in your grid notebook. You completely ignored the fact that Steve was sitting beside you.

Steve sat up in his seat, looking over to see a grid paper with a sketch of…something, he didn’t know what the hell it was.

You had some bullet points on the side and now it looked like you were sketching some kind of analog meter.

“Uh…” Steve finally spoke up, reaching for his pen and spinning it around in between his fingers. “Care to explain what you're doing?”

You didn’t look up, pencil still dragging led along the paper. “Something.”

“Oh, yeah,” Steve scoffed. “Couldn’t have ever guessed that,” he said sarcastically.

“Even if I told you what I was doing,” you began, eyes still fixated on what you were scribbling. “You wouldn’t comprehend what I was telling you.”

“Try me,” Steve challenged.

“Sketching out a variable oscillator with a tuning dial that continuously changes frequency,” you said, still not looking up.

Steve blinked. “Visible what now?”

You sighed, putting your pencil down and finally looking up at him. “Variable oscillator,” you corrected.

Steve nodded. “Right. Yeah. I- I know what that is, yeah.”

You raised your brows as you nodded slowly, not believing him. “For sure.”

“Do you have a prediction?” he asked.

“Hypothesis,” you corrected.

“Yeah. That.”

You sighed, already growing annoyed. “Certain frequencies can produce more robust resonance in conductive materials and could potentially have the ability to amplify weaker electromagnetic signals.”

Steve blinked. “Oh…yeah. I get it.”

You narrowed your eyes at him. “Uh huh.”

Steve shifted awkwardly, clicking his pen a few times. “So…” he trailed off. “Like…what exactly are we doing?”

You tilted your head slightly. “I thought you understood?”

“Uh, I do,” Steve said as if it were obvious. “I just, you know, wanna make sure that we’re all on the same page here,” he said, shifting in his seat awkwardly.

You laughed, shaking your head. “A variable oscillator is basically a machine that creates a signal that repeats, but you can alter how fast it does. It can be used in music and all kinds of technology, but I’m thinking for the sake of the project, we use a radio as it’s far more simple,” you explained. “So in this case, the variable oscillator changes the frequency as you tune the radio into different stations.”

Steve nodded along. “Yeah, yeah, that’s what I thought.”

“Yeah, sure,” you deadpanned, earning a glare from Steve. “Anyway, we need to get supplies and get started as soon as possible to make sure everything’s good to go before the science fair. I have some stuff at home I think we can use, but I don’t have everything, so I made a list,” you said, turning your notebook so he could see.”

Steve’s eyes skimmed over the page. “What the hell,” he muttered, eyes looking up at you. “How do you just know what materials you need to build this thing?”

You shrugged. “I mean, this is just the main stuff that I can think of off the top of my head. I’m probably gonna swing by the library and see what books I can find on radio engineering to see what else we need.”

Steve raised his brows, slightly impressed by you.

He knew you were a nerd, but now he was thinking you were a genius.

He nodded along. “Sounds good. So, uh, when do you want to meet up?”

You hummed. “I guess tonight? After school you go pick this stuff up, I’ll gather stuff from my house and some books from the library?”

Steve sucked his teeth, looking down at the ground. “You see, I totally would but my friends are coming over tonight.”

You rolled your eyes, deciding to just do everything yourself. “Okay, I’ll just do it myself then.”

“You don’t have to,” Steve reasoned. “We could meet up earlier at my place and then you could stay with us after and work on it by yourself,” he offered.

Your nose scrunched as you shook your head. “Hard pass,” you said dryly, making his face contort into one of confusion. “You know, telling me to stay at your house while all your friends are over to work on something you should also be contributing to is ridiculously ignorant.”

Steve threw a hand up. “How is that ignorant? I’m being considerate and letting you stay to finish the project.”

You raised your brows in disbelief. You couldn’t fathom the nerve of this guy. As much as you’d totally want to stay and do work alone while his friends were over, Mrs. Wheeler invited you and Dustin, as well as Mike and Lucas, over for dinner. “You really are an idiot,” you scoffed. “And for the record, you cannot build what we’re making in one night, dingus.”

Steve put his hands up in defense. “Okay, nerd.”

You rolled your eyes for probably the twentieth time that day and grabbed all your stuff, notebook, pencil, backpack, and skateboard.

“Where are you going?” Steve asked.

“Away from you,” you snapped.

“Okay,” he teased with a smile as you walked towards Mr. Parker’s desk to show him your idea. “My house. Five. Don’t be late.”

You flashed him a sarcastic smile and thumbs up. A chair slid across the ground as you pulled it up to Mr. Parker’s desk, tossing all your stuff down.

You smiled, turning your notebook around to show him. “Check this out.”

Mr. Parker smirked, leaning over his desk to look into your notebook. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

Immediately, he was impressed, not even batting an eye at your ambition.

Within the confines of the lab walls, the lights buzzed in a way that would be unsettling to most, but it was oddly familiar to the girl with a shaved head.

Her knees were pulled to her chest as she sat in the cold metal chair, looking down at a photograph on the metal table.

A man, much older than her, someone she learned to refer to as Papa, rested a hand on her shoulder. “I need you to find her,” he explained, looking down at the picture.

A picture of a baby girl, newborn at that.

“She would be much older now,” the man explained. “A teenager. Do you think you can handle it, Eleven?”

Eleven stared down at the picture. “Bad?” she asked quietly.

He shook his head. “No, no,” he clarified. “She’s just…been missing for years. We need to find her and bring her back.”

Eleven blinked, eyes still fixated on the baby. “Here?”

“Exactly,” he nodded. “We need to bring her back home. So can you find her?”

Eleven swallowed before nodding and as soon as she did so, she was attached to machines, a blindfold covering her eyes as she searched for the missing person.

Within seconds, she entered the Void.

Muffled talking could be heard from around her as she slowly opened her eyes.

In the distance, someone was hanging upside down off of a bed, music playing softly from a radio. An X-Men comic was covering their face.

Her feet slowly carried her closer to her bed, and the closer she got, the more she could make out the faint hums of the person on the bed.

The polish on their nails were chipped, rings wrapped around their fingers as it drummed against the pages to the beat of the song.

Just then, the sound of a door flying open against the hinges made Eleven gasp.

Suddenly, a boy with curly hair entered the scene, slamming the door shut and running before jumping on top of the bed.

“Dustin!” the person lectured, dropping the comic and sitting up straight.

The boy, now known to Eleven as Dustin, smiled. “Sorry,” he apologized, your name falling from his lips right after.

You rolled your eyes, moving to sit more comfortably. “How many times do I have to tell you to stop barging in here? Can you knock?” you lectured.

Dustin shrugged. “Nothing bad has ever happened. I mean, you’re in high school now and still sleep with stuffed animals,” he said, picking up a little teddy bear off of your bed.

You groaned, plopping down on your back. “I hate high school,” you muttered. “Being a freshman sucks.”

Dustin giggled. “But you’re so cool now! I can’t wait to go to high school!”

You shrugged. “It’s only cool if you’re popular,” you said. “Anyway, what are you doing in here? What do you want?”

“Oh!” Dustin exclaimed. “I wanted to tell you about the insane campaign we had today at Mike’s! We ended up right back where we started!”

You raised a brow, still lying on your back, but turning your head to face him properly. “What?”

“I know!” Dustin said excitedly. “Our party ended up in a time loop, so now we have to go through everything all over again.”

“That’s stupid,” you chuckled, turning your head to look back up at the ceiling.

Dustin shook his head adamantly. “Nuh huh. Do you realize how cool that is? Do you realize how many possibilities that opens for us?”

You shrugged. “Okay, but like, what if it just loops again?” you asked. “How do you get out of the loop?”

“Well, we have new perspectives and knowledge, so we could get it right this time and break the loop,” Dustin explained.

You pursed your lips in thought. “Still stupid.”

Dustin scoffed, throwing his hand up. “How is that stupid?!”

“Is that not going to tell the same exact story, but now you make all the right decisions so nothing bad ever happens? That’s, like, ridiculous plot armor, dude.”

“That’s not true,” Dustin disagreed. “If we go down a new route, new information occurs. A new story is told, but sure the basis of the story is the same.” Dustin leaned back to lie down beside you. “I see this as an absolute win.”

Eleven stood there in shock as she watched the girl she was tasked to find.

You seemed…

To be everything she wanted.

Free.

Happy.

A real human being with a life outside of the confines of a lab whose walls hummed too loudly with lights that strained the eyes.

And that was the day she told her first lie.

She said she hadn’t found you when she knew exactly where you were.

It's time to vote!

Remember, all decisions will impact the story!

It will strengthen certain friendship dynamics, relationship dynamics, and even shape you, the reader!

All actions will have consequences, whether that be positive, negative, or both. In some chapters, there will be hints at what might occur if you chose to go down a certain route, so pay close attention!

Choose wisely!

Also, for all polls, the choices that don't win will be featured in a non-cannon, 'What If...? chapter, where I'II briefly explain what impact that decision would've made on the story.

What’s your move tonight?

Go to Steve’s and work on the project, then head to the Wheeler’s for dinner

Go to Steve’s house and work on the project, then stay at his place

Voting ended onJul 18

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Chapter 39 - Time Convergence

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Eleven when Dustin mentioned his sister that she totally didn’t find in the Void a year ago because Brenner is totally not looking for her

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