❁

who was holding billy up by the collar of his denim jacket. "will you stop that?" meadow raised her voice, prying steve off of him. "he's not doing anything wrong." steve looked between the two of them, his eyes evidently showing that he didn't believe her. "besides, i'm not your damn property, harrington."

with that, meadow turned and left the boys by her car, knowing that she had absolutely no alibi for being this late to class. sure enough, she was at least five minutes late, and had gotten herself a tardy. she was lucky she wasn't in detention.

after her first class, the girl headed to the library to pick up her new history book, greeting the librarian with a smile. out of the corner of her eye, she noticed steve, who was sitting by nancy, a book placed between them. meadow turned away from them as soon as steve made eye contact with her, thanking the librarian for the book before leaving the library so she could head to class.

all of meadow's classes throughout the day passed by agonizingly slowly, but thankfully she didn't have much homework, so she would definitely be able to watch a horror movie before it got too dark. as meadow walked out of her advanced physics class, a paper was shoved into her hands. the girl looked up to see nancy wheeler, who held a small pile of orange papers.

"what's this?" meadow asked, exasperated. she skimmed the heading, gathering that one of the popular girls, tina, was having a party. "nancy, i really don't want to go to a party tomorrow." she sighed as the other girl followed her to her locker.

she handed nancy the paper, but she forced it back in her friend's hands. "no, you're going." she insisted, watching as meadow sent her a 'no i'm not' look, putting one of her books back into her locker. "come on, you haven't been out in forever!"

"and it's for good reason." meadow replied, looking at nancy. "i don't want to go to parties! i need to be home for dustin tomorrow while he's trick or treating. and besides, i'd much rather watch a movie and do some extra credit."

nancy, unsatisfied with that response, just put the paper in meadow's open backpack. "you think about it, and if you get bored tomorrow night and think 'oh, i wonder if someone invited me to a really awesome party?' then come meet me there."

as she finished speaking, steve rounded the corner, picking nancy up and twirling her around. meadow rolled her eyes at the two, quickly slamming her locker and making her way to class. steve looked at her briefly as she walked away, slightly shaking his head as if to remind his eyes to stop focusing on her, moving back to kiss nancy.

meadow made her way to her car, preparing to head back home. as she got into the parking lot, she noticed that a boy was already waiting for her by her car, and she recognized him as billy. she rolled her eyes, opening her car door while completely ignoring him. not phased, billy dropped his cigarette to the ground, stomping his foot on it.

"meadow henderson." he greeted, watching as she simply raised her brows in acknowledgement as she attempted to get into her vehicle. "are you going to that party tomorrow?"

she was about to tell him that she had absolutely no intention of going to the party, when out of the corner of her eye, meadow saw steve and nancy leaning on his car, kissing. "you know what...," she said as she turned back to billy, "yeah, i'll be there."

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

dustin was quick to wake meadow up the next morning, exclaiming that it was halloween. now, in the henderson household, halloween was undoubtedly the best holiday of the year. although meadow had warned the "party" boys that no one else would be wearing costumes, they had persisted, planning to go to school in their ghostbusters group costume.

the night prior, dustin had barely mentioned max, only saying that the person who beat him at dig dug was the new girl at school. meadow saw that her little brother had evidently taken a liking to the girl, but had decided not to mention it until he did, knowing that he would eventually say something.

claudia held her camera out in front of dustin's face, taking photos of his 'pearls' and his ghostbusters costume. meadow reluctantly joined one of the photos, smiling with her brother. boy was her mother a sucker for an excessive amount of polaroids.

school was boring as always for meadow, who didn't have any homework ('no homework tonight, have a happy halloween!', as each of her teachers had exclaimed happily). she had managed to avoid steve harrington for the whole school day, and thankfully hadn't even run into billy. apparently, word around hawkins high was that he was the school's new heart throb, something meadow couldn't understand.

"you're coming to the party, right?" nancy asked as she ran over to meadow, who was walking out to her car.

"yeah, but only because i have nothing better to do." meadow said, to which the other girl happily squealed. "and please don't make me be a third wheel the whole time, or i'm going back home." she said. after deciding on a time to meet at the party, meadow got in her car and headed back to her house.

the girl got home before dustin, who was riding his bike home as normal. the younger henderson came through the door in his ghostbusters costume, clearly upset. "what happened now?" meadow asked, looking up from her popcorn. she was watching friday the 13th, but dustin quickly turned it off, wanting her undivided attention. "hey, why'd you turn off the movie?"

"somebody tried to run us over." he said, immediately sending meadow to her feet.

she practically yelled, beginning to pace back and forth around her room. "so, do you know who it was? do you know who tried to run you over? a license plate, anything? should we call the cops?"

dustin shook his head. "all i know is that they had a blue car. i think i saw max in the passenger seat but i'm not sure."

meadow sighed, remembering billy's blue chevrolet camaro. "i think i know who that was. and if i see him tonight, he'll wish he never met me."

the boys eyes widened as he sat down. "that's not even the worst of it!" meadow raised a brow, not knowing what could be worse than that. "no one else was wearing a costume!"

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

meadow never really knew how to dress for a party, much less a halloween one. she hadn't planned to be going to any sort of halloween party, so she hadn't made any effort to get a costume for the year. after looking her closet up and down and coming to the conclusion that she had no good clothes, she opted for her everyday look: high waisted jeans and a black metallica shirt, complimented by her beaten up white converse.

after curling her hair and making sure dustin left for mike's house safely, she got in her gray car to head to tina's party.

outside of the house, it was a full on rager, and meadow noticed billy and his crowd drinking alcohol. the boy was downing an entire can of beer, the group around him cheering him on as he did so. once he dropped the can, he noticed meadow, who was approaching him. "i was hoping i'd see you tonight, henderson!" billy called, and she could feel her jaw clenching.

"same here." she replied, watching as billy smiled through his cigarette. "i honestly wanted to ask you something." the boy raised a brow, intrigued, likely believing that she was going to ask him out. "i wanted to ask you.. why you tried to run over my brother and his friends."

billy laughed, dropping his cigarette to the floor. "look, henderson, i had no idea it was your brother. if i did, i never would have-"

she didn't let him finish, knocking her fist square into his cheek. no one messed with her brother. the boy stumbled back, clearly shocked by the force of her punch. the crowd behind him all shouted an assorted arrangement of 'oh shit's and 'woah's. "mess with my brother again, see what happens." she spat.

this was gonna be a fun night.