𝐚𝐬𝐤 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐟 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐫𝐨𝐰
i.
veronica and mike were born roughly a week apart in april of 1971. while they did attend the same school their entire lives, the most one knew about the other was whatever minor observations made in school or offhand comments made over the years by singular shared thread at this time: will byers. the first major interaction between the two would be the 1982 hawkins middle school science fair. veronica had entered late, dragging her feet with her parents request for her to be more involved, and took first prize. mike was, justifiably, annoyed about it. outside of that, the two did not interact further.
ii.
with will’s disappearance, veronica stepped out of the sidelines to make an effort to find her cousin. in doing so, she inserted herself as something of a middle man ( a rogue ) between her aunt joyce and her cousin’s group of friends. veronica and mike formed an allyship over the week of will’s disappearance.
iii.
over the year following will’s return, veronica and mike grew close. veronica’s newfound concern and care for her cousin propped her in as an unofficial member of the party. mike’s distress about eleven paired with will’s ongoing recovery left the relatively unscathed sawyer to try a hand at comforting both. this time would sprout a friendship, and attachment, between the two: homework together, a shared interest in writing and swapping their own work to commend or critique, veronica more or less enjoying her time with the boys and especially with mike. throughout the events of this season, veronica still acts as something of a middle man between the byers and the party while primarily sticking beside mike as a natural consequence of the newfound attachment.
iv.
veronica and mike’s respective hero complexes and critical thinking are the initial things that bring them together. veronica, like mike, is a natural leader. however, veronica is not interested in being one. because of that, the two do not spar for command. instead, veronica assists and offers a more level headed outlook on situations in times of high pressure. the two work on the same wavelength and have an extremely easy time understanding the other. a good example of the major difference between the two is in the use of both my and carmen’s insect motifs. where carmen has insects crawling on mike, veronica’s motif has them neatly displaying in collections. veronica’s observing vs. mike’s interacting. veronica and mike are deeply caring, deeply private, and deeply emotional people and, while they handle these things in their own ways, have a consequently deep understanding of one another. neither of them needs to speak up to be understood and neither needs the other to do so to know if something is the matter. they’re in (relatively) perfect sync. however, this is bound to cause problems when they aren’t. and it does. they argue a lot but still maintain that unspoken understanding. overall, there’s a heavy admiration between the two. where they both struggle to respect a lot of those that they meet, the respect for one another is enormous. veronica and mike are, essentially, two sides of the same coin.
