thinking about a stranger things au where they all live in california
just imagine. no upside down, no powers, they're all safe and happy. jane joins the party as the new girl instead of max when the byers adopt her. she was adopted when they were young teens, so she is still in contact with her non-biological sister kali who just maybe got adopted by none other than wayne munson.
cue them all getting jobs in the same mall. mike and max at the scoops ahoy, will, jane and argyle at the surferboys pizza to their left, steve and robin at the family video on their right, dustin and lucas at the arcade across from them, jonathan and nancy and nancy at the cinema in the corner and eddie and kali at the music shop on the floor above.
surfer boys pizza lets scoops ahoy share a storage room for non-refrigerated items. max is NOT happy about this because she keeps walking in on mike and will making out there on their breaks. eventually, she's so unfazed by it that whenever it happens, she just grabs mike's arm and forcibly separates them and pushes mike to the counter to deal with the customers.
eddie and kali fight over their music tastes constantly (punk vs metalhead hostility)
jonathan and nancy love sneaking their friends and the kids into movies for free as a "fuck you to the corporate assholes making the big bucks"
they make weekly movie nights a thing, where everybody goes over to steve's to watch some movie that robin picks out. max and mike bring ice cream, the surferboy squad bring pizza, jonathan and nancy bring popcorn, eddie and kali bring beers for the adults (and the teens who steal them when they're not looking), dustin and lucas pool their savings and buy a bunch of sweets so that they arent the only ones not bringing anything.
the wonder twins befriend argyle, eventually convincing him to share some of his weed with them. consequently, the party frequently get stoned together. lucas the athlete and biology nerd insists that they never smoke it because of how bad it is for your lungs, so the kids become impressively expert at baking.
they live near the coast, so every so often the gang pile into eddie and argyles vans and head down to the beach for the day
there's a shit tonne of ship potential too... feel free to rb with headcanons!