October 30th, 1984

Hawkins, Indiana

Byers House

"Eleanor let's go! We're gonna be late!" Jonathan yelled from the living room.

Sitting in Will's room, the boy awkwardly played with the zipper on his jacket, desperately trying to avoid my gaze. "If you don't wanna go, I can talk to mom about it?"

Will and I seemed to always have this same conversation on days like today. The day when mom would have to drag him back to Hawkins Laboratory, where they would hook him up to their machines and ask him questions about the Upside Down, and how he still suffers from the memories of that place.

"It's okay... I mean I have to go, right?" Shaking my head, I wrapped my arm around him, pulling him closer to me. "You never have to do anything you don't want. We can cancel it whenever you want, it's not their call."

"But it's what mom wants, she thinks it will help me, right?" Nodding, I stood up from Will's bed and smiled down at him. "She wants the best for you. So, are you okay with going?"

Nodding, Will stood up as well, grabbing the book bag that he had placed at the edge of his bed, "What if you came, too?" He asked hopefully, adjusting the straps of his bag on his shoulders.

Feeling the smile on my face slowly start to fade, I tried to hide the sadness inside me from him. "You know I would, but I'm not allowed to sit in. Only mom is."

Losing the hopeful glimmer in his eyes, Will's shoulders slumped slightly. "Right, I forgot."

"Nell! Let's go!" Jonathan yelled again from the living room, his voice was noticeably more agitated than the last time.

"Hey, I love you. And how about I buy you some candy for movie night? Skittles?" A small smile formed back on his face, nodding his head.

"You got it, see ya!" Running out of Will's room, I made my way down the hall to find Jonathan standing next to the door, holding my book bag in his hand.

"Took you long enough, let's go." Rolling his eyes, he lightly threw the bag towards me before opening the front door and making his way outside.

~~~

"Explain to me how the first bell hasn't even rung, yet you still lectured me this whole ride on how we are late?" I rolled my eyes as Jonathan set the car into park in the student lot.

"Well, we could've been late." He shrugged, staying seated in his spot in the car, watching a car pull in through the gate. "Late?" Letting out an irritated laugh, I followed his gaze through the lot, before my eyes landed on a certain BMW pulling up a few spots away from us.

In the front seat sat Nancy and Steve. "Oh... I see." I nodded and grabbed my bag from off the floor. "It isn't even like that." Jonathan let out a sigh and looked down at his lap, not able to look at how Nancy smiled up at Steve.

"What is it like?" I looked away from the couple and towards Jonathan. "I just... I like to know that she's happy."

Looking up from his lap, I watched Jonathan's gaze land on the two again as Steve leaned over the center console to kiss Nancy.

The kiss didn't last long, however, as a revving engine had grabbed not only the couple's attention but ours as well.

Stepping out of Jonathan's car, I watched as a blue Camaro shot through the parking lot, before coming to a halt in one of the upper parking spots of the lot.

"Since when did people move to Hawkins?" I asked Jonathan as he stepped out of the car too.

The drivers' side door of the Camaro opened and out stepped the new guy, with dirty blonde hair sporting a mullet and clad in a tight pair of jeans and a jean jacket.

Taking notice of the attention that he had gained from everyone in the parking lot, the new guy looked over his shoulder, scanning his eyes over the people behind him.

Locking eyes with the boy, he slowly brought a lit cigarette to his mouth before shooting a wink in my direction, slowly breathing in the cigarette's smoke.

Biting my lip to stop myself from scoffing, I moved my gaze away from the new guy, and instead locked eyes with the owner of the BMW that was parked a few spaces from me.

Letting go of my lip from between my teeth, I awkwardly looked down at the ground and turned away from Steve's gaze. "Well, he looks friendly." Jonathan said with a sarcastic grin on his face, flinging his bag over his shoulder. "If that's what you wanna call it." I muttered as I slid my bag over my shoulder.

"Jonathan! Eleanor!" Looking over my shoulder I spotted Nancy waving us over to the car.

Walking over to the couple, Jonathan and I awkwardly stood in front of them. Placing my hands in my jacket pockets I nodded a greeting to the couple, "Morning, Nance." Jonathan smiled down at Nancy while I flashed a quick smile in her direction before looking down at my watch, "Hey, I forgot I gotta talk to Mrs. Schwartz before class starts. See you in history, Nance."

Walking away from the group quickly, I could feel their gaze linger on me as I walked towards the school building.

Rolling my eyes at the lame excuse I made to avoid interaction with the couple. I made it into the school building and opted to waste my time in the library until school started.

~~~

"I just don't get the point." I stated as Nancy and I walked down the hall together and out of history. "It's U.S. history, what don't you get?" Shrugging off the question, I looked down at the worksheet that our teacher had assigned to us.

Joining us in the hall, Jonathan made his way next to Nancy. "She complaining again?" He joked while Nancy nodded in agreement, "Please, you're one to talk." I rolled my eyes at the two as we rounded the corner to be met by Tina holding a thick stack of florescent orange papers.

"Hey, Nance." Tina ignored Jonathan and me as she handed one of the papers to Nancy.

Continuing down the hall, Nancy came to a stop and turned back around to face Tina, "Can I get two more?"

Nodding, Tina passed another two slips to Nancy before going back to passing them out to the other students in the hall.

"You guys have got to come to this." Nancy grinned as she pushed the papers into Jonathan and I's chest. "Come and get sheet-faced." Jonathan read off the invitation with a smirk.

"Hard pass." I rolled my eyes at the invitation, placing it inside one of my folders. "Yeah, rather not." Jonathan agreed, stuffing the paper in his bag.

"Come on, I can't let you guys just sit at home alone on Halloween. That's just not acceptable." Nancy shook her head at our answer. "Relax, we aren't gonna be alone. We're taking Will trick-or-treating." Jonathan assured her.

"All night?" She questioned further. "Well yeah, you could join us if you want." I joked, knowing that she'd never be caught dead trick-or-treating with her little brother and his friends.

"No, no way. Besides, you guys will be home by 8:00, Jonathan you'll be listening to the Talking Heads, and Eleanor you'll be reading Vonnegut or something."

"Sounds like a nice night." Jonathan stated as we came to a stop at Nancy's locker. "Guys, just come. I mean, you might even meet someone." She stated, raising an eyebrow at us as she turned the dial of her locker.

"Well, when you put it that way-" I was cut off by Nancy letting out a scream as someone picked her up from behind. "Oh, my god!" Nancy laughed, turning around and playfully slapping Steve on the arm.

"What? I missed you." He grinned down at his girlfriend, pulling her back into his chest while Jonathan lightly tugged on my arm, giving me the cue that maybe we should leave the two alone.

"You okay?" I asked, looking up at Jonathan to see that any emotion he had before had completely drained from his face. "I don't know. Are you?"

~~~

By the time lunch had rolled around, Jonathan had decided to not eat with Nancy and me today, so the two of us headed for the library rather than the cafeteria after our second period.

"So, why don't you wanna go to the party?" Nancy asked as I pulled a bag of carrots out of my bag. "Why do you want me to go so badly? That's the real question here, Nance." I tried to joke with the girl, though her face stayed unamused.

"I'm being serious, Nell. Last year you would have killed to be invited to this party." She pulled out her bag of pretzels. Staying silent I just bit into a carrot, trying to mask the pain swelling in me from the thought last year. "Sorry, I just miss hanging out with you." She tried but that only made the pain worse.

"I'm not the one who's been canceling, Nancy." I finally let out some anger that was inside me but instantly regretted it. "I'm sorry, that was out of line..."

"No, it wasn't. You're right, after everything last year, we've been off." I nodded and awkwardly played with the ring on my finger, "Is it because of Steve and me?"

This was a question that I know Nancy had been holding in for a long time. After almost a year, Steve and I have had this awkward energy between us. Maybe it was him backing away from me, maybe it was me desperately shutting out my feelings for him.

Either way, the tension had become noticeable to Nancy time and time again. It's my own fault though.

Over the summer break, Steve's late-night visits became increasingly common. I don't know what I thought was going to come out of it, but obviously, nothing did. It took school starting back up for me to put a stop to the visits. The guilt still hangs over me every day, but it doesn't seem to affect Steve as much. Lucky him.

"Nance, I just miss when it was just us, you know? Our sleepovers, trips to the shitty mall, I even miss talking about stupid boys with you." Nodding she awkwardly looked down at the table, "Well, I can promise you that if you come to this party, it'll be just like old times."

Holding back my smile, I shook my head at the comment, "I don't know, Nance."

"Nell, come on. Plus I know you already have a costume, so you can't use that as an excuse." Rolling my eyes I held my pinky out to her, "If I go, if as in maybe. You promise to stay with me?"

Nodding vigorously, Nancy locked her pinky with mine, "Knew I could break you!" She raised her voice too high, earning a "Shhh!" From the old librarian.

Chocking down our giggles, we went back to quietly talking until the lunch bell rang.

~~~

After school had ended, I decided to walk home, rather than wait for Jonathan after his last class.

Stopping at the 7/11, I made my way inside to pick up Will his skittles when I bumped into someone. "My bad." I mumbled and went to walk around the person.

"Nellie, hey." Stopping in my tracks, I awkwardly turned around to be greeted by the smiling face of Steve.

"Hey..." I smiled up at him, clutching on tightly to the bag of skittles in my hand.

Awkwardly standing there, Steve looked around the store, before peering out the windows at the parking lot. "Where's Jonathan?"

"At school, he takes forever in the darkroom so I figured I'd rather walk home than stay at school for another hour."

"Oh, well could I give you a ride? Can't just let you walk the rest of the way." He smiles down at me.

"Sure, thanks." I smile up at him and made my way to the register while he grabbed a small bouquet of flowers from the front display.

"For Nance?" I asked as we made our way out of the store. "No, actually. We have a dinner tonight with Mr. and Mrs. Holland."

Furrowing my brow, I got into Steve's car, placing my bag on my lap. "Barbs parents? Why? Sorry, just Nancy didn't tell me..."

"Oh, sorry I thought she would have. With Barbs missing case still open, I think they just want to see how Nance is doing."

The rest of the ride home was silent, every once in a while I could feel Steve shift his gaze from the road and in my direction.

Coming to a stop in the driveway, I quickly grabbed my stuff and went to open the door, "So, you going to Tina's party tomorrow?" He asked, stopping me from leaving.

"Maybe, Nance tried talking me into it but I made plans with Will."

"Right, sorry. How has he been doing?" I shrugged and slumped slightly in my seat. "Honestly, I don't know. I'm scared to ask him too many questions, and he just wants things to go back to normal."

"Everything will go back to normal. Just, don't blame yourself, okay?" Placing his hand on top of mine, I had to stop myself from cringing before I slowly pulled my hand away.

Faking a smile, I nodded and quickly slipped out of the car, "Trying, thanks for the ride, Steve."