Jopper Highschool headcannon
Need you to trust me on this one. Itās longwinded but stick with it I beg you.
Okay so we know Joyce and Hopper smoked together in highschool so we can assume they were a bit older when they did this but apart from this thereās no other real reference to their time at highschool together / their assumed friendship.
⦠so what if they werenāt really friends?
What if Lonnie and Hopper were friends?
And Joyce being Lonnieās girlfriend, she began hanging out with their group a lot (like how Nancy hung out with Steveās group back in s1). Hopper was popular but a bit more quiet and laid back than the rest of his friends. Joyce was well known, but not āinā the popular crowd- quite an artsy and likeable girl. After school one day Lonnies group were stood around smoking like they usually were before leaving and Joyce comes over find to her boyfriend to get a ride home but Lonnie is off somewhere else, like in detention or whatever and heās forgot to tell Joyce that he wonāt be around to take her home. The other boys laugh a bit but Hopper doesnāt. He instead offers her a cigarette. She takes one and he lights it, and they stand smoking. The other boys and their girlfriend all slowly leave, leaving only Hopper and Joyce smoking together āwaiting for Lonnieā in a comfortable silence. After a while Hopper turns to Joyce and says āyou know, heās probably going to be in there another hour or so. I can drop you home if youāre just waiting for him for a ride.ā
Joyce, annoyed that Lonnie didnāt tell her that he wouldnāt be around, takes him up on the offer and Hopper drives Joyce home. After that Joyce starts talking to Hopper more whenever she runs into him and although they donāt have many classes together, they share the same free study period that no one else seems to have so they sit in the library together, or outside on Hoppers car, or just share a cigarette outside. Hopper realises he has a fat crush but obviously doesnāt do anything about because thatās his FRIENDS girlfriend and obviously she doesnāt feel the same. He enjoys the time they spend together but the closer he gets with Joyce the more he feels himself drifting away from Lonnie and their group. He realises that Lonnie is actually a really shitty person and he treats Joyce quite horribly too- always leaving her high and dry at parties he would drag her to, making her the but of the joke when she would stand with them, talking about her really crudely when she wasnāt there. Hopper hated it.
One day Lonnie says something about Joyce and Hopper has enough. He just puts out his cigarette and walks away, deciding there and then to cut ties with them. Lonnie follows and confronts him. They argue and Hopper says that he shouldnāt be talking about Joyce that way. Lonnie accuses Hopper of liking his girlfriend, and asking what they really get up to in their study periods. They fight, they get physical, someone breaks it up. Hopper never hangs out with them again and becomes a bit of a lone wolf type of guy (maybe becomes friends with Bennie). He avoids Joyce for a couple of weeks, knowing that Lonnie has probably spun her a story about how Hopper has a crush on her so they got into a fight, and although that isnāt technically wrong, he doesnāt want to tell Joyce all the things Lonnie has been saying about her and he certainly doesnāt want to admit WHY it makes him so mad.
But Joyce being Joyce, she corners Hopper while heās smoking under the bleachers and confronts him, demanding to know why heās been avoiding her and saying āI thought we were friends, Hop?!? And you suddenly decide to start ignoring me?! You owe me an explaination at the very least.ā And Hopper being just as stubborn as he is now, just shrugs, and Joyce storms away.
And thatās where Joyce and Hopper part ways in their final year of highschool :(