✵

leaving the streets of Callahan ideal for the local teenagers to frolic carelessly. For one group in particular, their agenda for the evening had been purely based around celebration.

Perhaps their celebrations were premature, after all, high school didn't let out for Summer for another week. But for Ringo Wheeler and her gang of friends, the week was just the beginning of their Summer blowout.

The blonde wasn't cold at all, but Ronny insisted she wear his letterman jacket anyway - probably as a sign of ownership more than genuine concern for her being cold. If she were half sober Ringo would have been bothered, but as it turns out - the more and more she drank, the less she cared for her independent, girl power ideologies.

They had started drinking the second classes had finished earlier that day, Ringo's school bag still laying in the back of Jeff's truck as she hadn't even ventured home yet. The later it got, the less she wanted to return and receive what was sure to be a devouring from her mother.

Katie squealed girlishly as Jeff roamed his hand over her bottom, causing the rest of the group to erupt into giggles. Their evening had consisted of numerous forms of entertainment they concocted to humour themselves - ranging from dragging each other around in a stray shopping cart, to smoking weed in an abandoned swimming pool.

Unfortunately for her, Ringo was reaching the inevitable part of the night where the alcohol no longer made her giddy, instead, it brought her mood down tenfold. None of her 'friends' noticed her sudden change in demeanour, or at the very least, they didn't mention it.

She wasn't quite sure why the group had brought her in, they weren't anything like the type of people Ringo liked to surround herself with. But when she first returned from Hawkins to Callahan High, her comeback was almost scarier than singlehandedly fending off an other worldly being.

Walking into the school that first day brought back a rush of memories, and none of them good. The sensation of being watched as she walked past, the constant humiliation about the fact everyone had seen her naked body - it was all too much to handle. In Hawkins, Ringo had Jessica, Steve, Nancy and Jonathan. In Orlando, she had no one.

To say she was fairly surprised when Katie Valentine, the single most popular girl in school, had asked if she wanted to sit with them at lunch would be an understatement. Ringo had pushed aside her distrust of the popular elite to accept her offer, figuring their ego would be easier handled than sitting alone at lunch.

It all took off from there, and soon enough the group welcomed Ringo in with open arms. It almost made her forget the friends she had back in Hawkins. Almost.

"Woah, isn't that his house?" Katie directed her question at Ringo, angling her head towards a quaint house to the right of them. Ringo visibly bristled at the sight of it.

"Yep," she answered drily. The house in question of course belonged to none other than Pete Townes, otherwise known as the asshole who hooked up with Ringo and showed everyone polaroids taken of her nude, sleeping body.

Pete hadn't been a problem for Ringo when she returned, in fact, the whole incident was pushed to the side now that she hung around with Katie and the gang. No one dared to yell derogatory comments at her when she walked the hallways, for fear of becoming a social pariah at the hands of Ronny and Jeff. Pete himself refused to even make eye contact with her.

"And isn't that his car?" Jeff questioned, a wide smirk appearing over his face. Ringo nodded her head silently, her lips curled in as she tried to mask her sudden uncomfortableness.

"Well, Townes' has a car," Ronny began, fishing for something in his pocket and unveiling a small pocket knife, beaming brilliantly as he held it up, "and I got this."

"No, that's not a good idea," Ringo shook her head adamantly. Drunk or not, she knew better than to toil with Pete. He had already stung her once.

"Ringo, baby," Ronny turned and draped his arm over shoulders, a lazy smile on his face as he pointed towards the car with the knife. "He humiliated you, made you a laughing stock in front of the whole school. Are you really gonna let him walk away from that without any repercussions?"

His words caused her face to flush in equal parts anger and embarrassment, she truly didn't think she'd ever be able to get over what he did to her.

"No, but if I got caught-"

"Leave her, Ronny," Jeff interjected, "I guess Wheeler left her balls behind in the trailer park."

The blonde narrowed her eyes dangerously at him after he spoke, gritting her teeth together, she reached for the blade and yanked it from Ronny's hand. Cheers of encouragement sounded from behind her as she marched towards the green car, unveiling the sharp blade by flicking the handle around.

She would show them exactly how tough she was. After all, she was Ringo Wheeler. The girl who fought off a real-life monster with an axe and lived to tell the tale. They had no idea how much balls she had.

Pushing aside the sober voice in her head screaming that this was a terrible idea, Ringo bent over and used all of her strength to run the knife into the back wheel of the car, creating a slit and eliciting a whoosh of air. The others whooped and hollered a couple of feet away as she followed suit with the other back wheel, fully intending to make sure he wouldn't be able to drive at all for a while.

As she moved towards the front, her actions were halted by the front porch light flicking on, causing the group to silence and Ringo to freeze.

"Ringo, come on!" Ronny whisper shouted, beckoning wildly, but she could barely hear him over the sudden rush of blood in her ears. The sight of a dark figure appearing at the screen door was enough to break her out of her haze, but when she turned to run back to her friends, they had already started to sprint off down the street, leaving her with no choice but to follow after them.

"Come on, Wheeler!" Jeff yelled from far ahead, barking out a laugh as she pumped her legs as fast as she could to catch up to them. They began to slow down when they reached the second street over, hoping that they weren't being followed, only then was Ringo able to catch up.

"What the fuck!" Ringo bellowed the second she reached them, the group laughing and hunched over breathlessly.

"Come on, that was amazing!" Katie chuckled, panting relentlessly.

"You just fucking left me there!" Ringo shoved Ronny by the arm, causing him to stumble to the side, before shoving the handheld pocket knife back into his own hands.

"Come on, baby," he shrugged nonchalantly, "better to have one person brought down than the whole group right?"

Ringo narrowed her eyes at the ground, unable to form a response as he wrapped his arm back around her shoulders and pecked the top of her head condescendingly.

The only thing she was able to think of at that moment was how wrong she was in thinking they were like her group back in Hawkins.

More specifically, how Steve didn't run away from her. How he ran straight back rather heroically into the house, despite the risk to his own life, to make sure she would've been alright. And she was repaying that by refusing to reach out to him.

✵

"You've really done it this time, Ringo Floyd Wheeler!" Her mother's voice screamed the literal instant she stepped inside the apartment, causing her to stumble in surprise by the volume and sharpness of it.

The girl in question rubbed her eyes blearily, having to lean against the doorframe due to her weakened balance and squint at the clock on the wall to see what time it was. It read five in the morning, meaning her mother had stayed up all night until she arrived home.

Guilt would have rushed through her, but all Ringo was able to process at that moment was the pain in her ankle after she fell on the stairs in their apartment block, three whole times before reaching their floor. And how comfortable the ground looked right now.

"What?" She mumbled, her hands moving to grip onto the table to support herself. Ringo was sure she had never been so drunk in her life. She was already fairly intoxicated after the incident at the Townes' house, but when Jeff suggested continuing their drinking session in his basement, nobody disagreed.

"I got a call from Marissa Townes, who told me that her son saw you slashing his tyres, Ringo!" Her mother had never yelled so loud in her life, too consumed by anger to give a damn about the time or the neighbours she would be waking.

"Chill out, mom," Ringo held her hands up to the sides of her head, her dizziness overcoming her. "He's the asshole that sent those pictures around."

"So what?! You think that justifies what you did?!" She screamed in response, face as red as a tomato. "She wanted to call the cops, Ringo! The only reason she didn't is because I told her I would pay tomorrow for all the damages you caused!"

"I'm sorry, okay?" She grumbled, her eyes fluttering closed as she swayed on her feet. "Can we please have this conversation tomorrow?"

"Look at the state you have gotten yourself into. Do you want to add underage drinking to the list of illegal activities you committed tonight? Is there anything else I need to know about before the cops come pounding down my door-"

Before she could rant any further, Ringo couldn't hold it in. Bending over, the sickly blonde emptied the contents of her stomach and vomited all over the carpet, and her mothers slippers.

✵

It was a morning like any other in the Wheeler household. Nancy and Mike bickered relentlessly over their bacon and eggs, Ted promptly pretended he couldn't hear them as he read the morning paper and Karen was trying to encourage her youngest daughter to eat up.

"All I'm saying is if you don't turn your music down after seven, I'm going to come in there and smash up your boom box," Nancy grinned sarcastically and spoke with a falsely sweet voice at Mike across the table, cutting through her bacon with a knife and fork.

"Why? Do you need the silence to hear Steve on the other line?" Mike dropped his fork to put his hands over his heart, screwing up his expression to mimic her. "Oh, Nancy! I haven't seen you in an hour! Please come to the window so I might look upon your ugly face!"

"No, I actually need peace and quiet so I can study! Some of us are going somewhere in life!" She fired back after rolling her eyes.

"Oh, I'm sorry, was it Jonathan on the other line then? Or are you still pretending you don't like each other?" His words caused her face to flush a dark red, lifting her foot up and sending it straight into Mike's shin bone, eliciting a yelp from him.

"Can you two just-" Karen whipped around, ready to give out to her arguing children, but was ultimately cut off by the shrill ring of the phone. The older woman sighed exasperatedly, dropping the spoon she was trying to drive into Holly's mouth. It was proving to be a futile attempt anyway, the toddler was only interested in Froot Loops.

"Hello?" She answered politely, throwing Nancy and Mike a sharp glare to silence them when they kicked off again.

"Karen," Julia sighed into the receiver, scraping her free fingers through her dark blonde hair before flicking the ash building at the end of her cigarette off.

"Julia!" Karen smiled, having not heard from the woman in months. Perhaps it was deemed inappropriate to talk with your husband's recently deceased brother's widow, when said widow was in the middle of divorce proceedings when the death occurred. "How are you doing?"

"Fine..." she lied, leaning back against the doorframe as she carefully eyed her daughter's bedroom door. "Alright, not fine."

"Why? What's the problem?" She pressed, rolling her eyes as Ted's hearing magically seemed to kick back in, her husband now fully paying attention to her conversation out of nosiness.

"It's Ringo, Karen," Julia continued, her voice thick with exhaustion. "I mean... it's been a month since he passed away. And I understand that he was her father, but she's been getting into more and more trouble since she came back to Florida, even before Barry-" Julia's voice choked up with emotion, deciding to end that sentence there. "She's completely off the rails, was she like this in Hawkins? Did something happen to her there?"

"Not that I'm aware of," Karen answered and placed her hand on her chest out of worry, wondering perhaps if the events at Halloween were having a part in Ringo's newfound chaotic tendencies. But of course, she couldn't tell Julia that. "Why, what happened exactly?"

"She's failing classes. She skips school and doesn't tell me, I find out from the school secretary who calls me while I'm at work. More than enough nights she disappears down the fire escape and comes home drunk, but last night was the final straw. I've completely lost control her of, Karen," the teenager's mother held back cries building in her throat, running her hand over her face after extinguishing what felt like her millionth cigarette that morning alone.

"Julia... that breaks my heart to hear," Karen admitted sadly, "when she was with us - she got good grades, never skipped school... maybe something is going on at school? I know she was bullied there after what happened last year."

"Or maybe it's me..." Julia whispered, hating that she felt a little insulted about how well Ringo thrived in Hawkins. It was no secret to her that she wasn't always the best of mothers, a trailer park was never the place she truly wanted to raise a baby. But life had gotten in the way, and Ringo had to grow up seeing things she never wanted her daughter to see in her lifetime - never mind as a child. Now, she was flourishing into a young woman, and Julia was completely losing grip of steering her into the right direction. There was only so many times she got that drunk before something bad would happen.

"Maybe Ringo would like to stay with us during Summer?" Karen offered after a beat of silence, causing everyone's heads to snap up at her words. Ted began to shake his head, eyes wide as he thought of having yet another moody teenager in the house. Karen waved off her husbands silent refusal with her hand, turning back to the phone. "Perhaps she needs to get away from Orlando, I'm sure she doesn't want the reminder of her father there. Not to mention, it'll give you some peace of mind for a while."

"Karen, I could never impose on you like that again.." Julia denied weakly, biting her nails as she contemplated the offer. She was on the brink of losing her job if she came in late yet another morning because her only child was sobbing relentlessly as she vomited into the toilet, this was the fourth occasion.

"You're not imposing, we loved having Ringo here before!" Karen urged, eyeing up her children's mixed reactions. Mike's lips had lifted into an excited smile, while Nancy's appeared more forced, something Karen noted she would have to enquire about later.

"I'm going to have a talk with her," Julia settled, mulling over the offer and finding herself unable to make such a decision so easily. Perhaps a change would be good for the teenager, who thrived academically and morally in Hawkins, previously. But Julia herself wasn't sure she could bear the thought of being alone for a few months, especially now that her husband was gone. As troubled as their marriage became at the end, he was still the love of her life.

Another solution proposed itself in her mind then, one that could either prove to be disastrous or mutually beneficial for both of them. But first, she would have to make some calls.

✵

"I can't believe this is the end of my junior year, I'm supposed to be graduating this time next year," Steve babbled on in the drivers seat, turning the wheel occasionally to stay on route. Nancy hadn't been listening for some time now, but she knew that with a nod of her head and a small smile - any man would believe that she was.

It was their final day of school, much to their shared relief, and Steve had offered to take Nancy to Brainshakes for a celebratory milkshake and bowl of fries. But the Wheeler girl was mentally preoccupied, she had been ever since yesterday.

It wasn't that she resented her cousin, truly she didn't. They had drifted slightly since Halloween, that much was true, but she couldn't bring herself to hate Ringo Wheeler. She knew that Ringo would never purposefully intend to develop feelings for Steve, and she definitely would never act upon them.

But, perhaps, it wasn't Ringo's advances that she was weary about.

As if to taunt her, a familiar song sounded through the radio by a band that was ever so repeatedly drawn back to her blonde-haired cousin. She watched with an ache in her heart as Steve reached for the knob, turning the volume up until the slow, sultry sounds of 'Gypsy' by Fleetwood Mac began to flood through the car.

It wasn't as if Steve was having an affair behind her back, she knew her jealousy and distrust was misplaced. Steve hadn't even seen Ringo since her departure, nor had he spoken to her - at Ringo's request.

But now there was a possibility that she was coming back. Nancy wasn't sure if she'd be able to hold onto Steve after that.

Sighing frustratedly, she reached for the knob and swiftly turned it down to silence. Steve threw her an incredulous look as a result, copying her action, but instead turning it the opposite direction.

"Steve, don't," she warned halfway through his turn of the knob. Smartly, he recognised the tone in her voice and let it go, sighing as he did so.

That cursed band, Nancy thought. Steve would never have been caught dead listening to them before Ringo arrived, but now he was suddenly a fan. Something about that didn't sit quite right with her.

So when they arrived at Brainshakes in silence, she plastered a small, innocent smile on her face as she always did. Hoping it would be enough until she could rush home and call the only person in her life she trusted with her many secrets - Jonathan.