𝚂𝚞𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚋𝚘𝚢 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙸𝚗𝚟𝚒𝚜𝚒𝚋𝚕𝚎 𝙶𝚒𝚛𝚕 | Steve Harrington

𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚆𝚎𝚒𝚛𝚍𝚘 𝚘𝚗 𝙼𝚊𝚙𝚕𝚎 𝚂𝚝𝚛𝚎𝚎𝚝

The next morning, I met with Nancy and Barb by my locker before class. We agreed to help Nancy study for her test with the time we had left. Barb held a stack of flashcards and went through each question and vocabulary word as Nancy gave her answer as quickly as she could. Nancy and I had almost every class together this year but I only had two with Barb.

"When alpha particles go through gold foil, they become..." Barb quizzed as she flipped the notecard over.

"Unoccupied space," Nancy said quickly.

"Nancy it sounds like you've got all of this stuff down. You're totally gonna ace the test," I tell her.

"I just want to make sure I'm prepared," She said, flattening her hair with her hand.

"A molecule that can-" Barb began before the notecards were ripped right out of her hand.

"Hey!" Nancy said before realizing who it was. Of course, it was Steve Harrington with his two goons trailing behind him who were much worse than he was. One of his friends, Tommy H. Stuck his finger into Barbs ear, giving her a wet Willy, no doubt. I gave him a dirty look right when I felt his girlfriend, Carol's foot go under mine, making me trip a little before regaining my balance.

"Assholes," I muttered.

"I think you've studied enough, Nance," Steve began, flipping through the notecards as if he actually wanted to read them.

"Steve-" Nancy began.

"I'm telling you, you know, you got this. Don't worry. Now, on to more important matters," Just as I expected, he thought the only important thing was what concerned him. He probably didn't even care if Nancy failed or not. "My dad has left town on a conference and my mom's gone with him, cause, you know, she doesn't trust him,"

"Good call," Tommy replied with a smirk on his face. 

"So are you in?"

"In for what?" Nancy asked.

"No parents? Big house?" Carol elaborated.

"A party?" A lot of trouble, more like it.

"Ding, ding, ding!" Carol said as Tommy snickered next to her.

"It's Tuesday," Nancy said, unsure of why they wanted to throw a party on a school night.

"It's Tuesday! Oh, my God," Tommy said mockingly. He and Carol laughed as Steve hit his shoulder.

"Come on. It'll be low key. It'll just be us. What do you say? Are you in or are you out?"

Nancy began to hesitate, trying to figure out whether she wanted to go or not. I wanted to scream at her to say no. A group of juniors late at night is just a big accident waiting to happen. Nancy was such a good kid that I didn't want her reputation to be ruined all because of some stupid guy.

"Oh God. Look," Carol said, looking in another direction. Everyone turned their heads to see Jonathan Byers pinning a lost poster for Will onto a school bulletin.

"Oh God, well that's depressing," Steve said with his hands on his hips.

"Should we say something?" Nancy asked, feeling bad for Jonathan. I nodded my head just as Carol began talking again.

"I don't think he speaks,"

"You just don't get it," I muttered under my breath, immediately regretting the words that slipped out of my mouth.

"What was that, Worm?" Carol asked, looking at me. Worm. A nickname that was invented when I first moved to Hawkins. As you can probably tell by now, I read a lot. I guess it was the first thing Tommy and Carol noticed when the first acknowledged my existence because they have only referred to my as Worm for the rest of the time I've known them. They must think they're so clever for stealing an elementary school nickname. "I didn't think you could speak either,"

"Nothing. I didn't say anything," I said, not wanting to cause problems.

"How much do you wanna bet he killed him?" Tommy asked. Steve hit him in the arm with a serious look on his face.

"Shut up," Steve said. I looked at him for a second before turning back to look at Jonathan.

Nancy ignored everyone and began walking towards Jonathan. Tommy, Carol, Steve, Barb, and I watched from a far as Jonathan turned around and the two began talking. I would join by her side, but I didn't want to intimidate him or anything by surrounding him with a bunch of people. I had always admired Nancy's kindness and watching Jonathan face light up as she talked to him only solidified that adoration. Suddenly, the bell rang and Nancy turned around to come back toward us as we all began to walk to our first period.

"Attention, faculty and students. At 8:00 p.m. tonight, there will be an assembly on the football field in support of Will Byers and his family," a voice on the p.a. announced as I headed into my English classroom with Barb. I felt a bit of an uneasy feeling in my stomach thinking of Will still being missing. It had been two days and he still wasn't home. Weird things like this never happened in Hawkins.