friday, december 11th

Beth felt absolutely ridiculous as she stepped out of her mother's car, earning weird looks from a few middle-schoolers who were passing by.

She desperately tried to pull her jacket on better, to cover her outfit underneath. She said goodbye to her mom, slammed the car door shut and started walking towards Hawkins Middle School.

Tonight was the first big night. The pre- big night. The middle night? Whatever. Beth's week had passed in a moment, and tonight came around faster than she thought. The moment with Robin -from last week- was already fading on her mind. Some silent agreement was made, and the two didn't speak about it.

Yes, Beth was wearing the maid's outfit. She had the full outfit on, except for shoes. Everyone had been instructed to come in full costume since there's wasn't a proper dressing room available.

The girl felt stupid and cold on her little skirt and apron, walking trough the school's parking lot. She finally reached the door, stopping to read a big sign taped on the glass.

is proud to present

"Proud to present? Who added that?" Beth read aloud, shook her head and opened the door.

It felt really weird to walk trough the middle school's hallways, especially on a friday night when they were empty. Beth hadn't been there since her own middle-school years.

Some lost memories appeared back in her mind, but she quickly hushed them away.

After two wrong turns, she found her way to the backdoor of the gym. (Who gets lost in their own middle school? Me.)

She chatted with everyone, and obviously made a joke or two about Robin's shoes. The nervousness was tangible in the air, it could be heard in everyone's voice and seen in their movements. This was just the dress rehearsal, but it still made Beth's heart beat a little bit faster.

When Beth was tying her shoelaces for the one last time, she started hearing muffled voices coming from the auditorium.

Beth quickly rushed to the curtain separating the stage from the audience; she was soon joined by Robin.

The girls peeked trough the curtains, their heads popping out to the crowd. There was some sort of a scene going on, four boys were throwing a tantrum over something and their teacher was trying to calm them down.

"Hey, that's Mr. Clarke! Wasn't he our science teacher?" Beth whispered, recognising the man talking with the boys.

"Yeah. I thought he looked familiar." Robin huffed.

The loud conversation of the boys and the teacher was now audible to everyone behind the curtain, gathering more attention.

"What's going on there?" Kate joined the two, peeking over Beth's shoulder to see the crowd. She gasped as she recognised the boys.

She pointed at one who was standing a bit further away from the other three. "That one, with the bowl cut. That's the Byer's kid."

Beth suddenly remembered him. "Will." She whispered. "He was missing last year."

"Exactly." Kate nodded. "And that one-" a dark-haired boy walked over to Will, grabbed him softly by the shoulder and the pair walked away to sit down. "That's Nancy Wheeler's brother."

Beth watched the two boys walk over to the last row and sit next to a ginger-haired girl whose eye-roll was noticable even from the stage.

"Mike Wheeler." Robin suddenly spoke. "Yeah. When I worked at the theater, he would always be whining for extra tickets for dumb reasons."

Beth laughed quietly and Robin gave her a quick side-eye.

The two other boys who the girls couldn't name, still continued fighting over something with their teacher.

"I just don't understand why we are here!" One of them yelled, capturing everyone's attention.

"Yeah, me neither!" The other one backed.

"Obviously this is a waste of time. It's an ancient story, mediocre acting-"

"Dustin!" Mr.Clarke snapped.

"I'm just saying, we were interrupted. We have better things to do." The boy stated.

The teacher pushed the boys by their shoulders, rushing them to go and sit down aswell.

That's when Beth noticed a random girl in the audience pointing directly at the three girls, while whispering something to her friend.

"Evacuate, we've been spotted!" She hissed, and the three girls backed of, closing the curtain while laughing.

"Okay, what that little gnome said out there was pretty harsh." Robin said, eyes wide in shock.

"Kids are a tough crowd." Beth laughed.

Their conversation was interrupted by Ms.Grace, who walked over to the group and hushed them away from the curtain. "Girls, we have only ten minutes. Time to get ready!"

They played it well. 45 minutes were over in a second. Beth remembered all her lines, Josh and Tammy danced tolerably, not one mean child laughed in the audience.

All in all, great success. After the curtain was pulled in and then back out, everyone joined hands in a long line, bowing over and over again. Beth couldn't stop smiling. She held tightly to the one's beside her, devoured the claps and cheers from the audience, bowed once more.

She might just have been on the top of the world.

—

Now it was time for the party.

About an hour later,

Beth was again, running around her room, nervously checking the clock every five minutes. She was very close to being late. Not to the party, that had already started like, ten minutes ago, but to meeting Robin. She was supposed to meet the girl in 15 minutes, and she still had to walk there. The girls' plan was to be 'fashionably late'.

Maybe that was just a dumb idea, and they would end up actually being late; though Beth was sure that Tammy wouldn't mind.

Her euphoria from the show had slightly faded, when she spent half an hour picking a proper outfit -it had to be something classy, but chill, but party-like, but nice, but cool, but comfortable.. the list goes on and on. It wasn't easy, especially when she had zero experience about parties and what to wear in them.

She went to check herself on the mirror for the final look. She had ended up with flared jeans and a dark blue shirt -which had a neckline much deeper than her usual shirts. Still, her outfit was way below the border of slutty. So, maybe she was good. Classy, cool and comfortable.

"Mom!" The girl screamed, struggling to get her necklace on.

"What is it?" Sandy walked upstairs, peeking into her daughter's room. Her eyes widened, and a motherly smile made Beth stop on the spot.

"Mom, no pictures! We agreed on this!"

"Please." Her mother pleaded, still smiling.

"Honey, you look great. I need to take some."

"No!" The girl whined. "Can you help me with this?"

Sandy walked over to the mirror, moved Beth's hair aside and managed to lock the necklace.

"Thanks." Beth said, adjusting her hair for the last time, as her mother was still staring. The girl sighed deeply.

"Fine, one picture."

Sandy rushed downstairs to get the camera, and Beth followed her much slower.

And she stepped out to the cold evening.