1983 || Stranger Things

ᴛᴡᴇɴᴛʏ-ғɪᴠᴇ | ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴀɴsʜᴇᴇ

      Later that day, Steve, Dustin and Julie arrived at the old junkyard to prepare for when Dart followed the trail of meat. Steve had his sunglasses on and was surveying the area. "Oh, yeah. Yeah, this will do." he commented. "This will do just fine. Good call, dude." Steve said to Dustin as he walked away.

      Julie smiled at the boy. "You did good." she said, patting his shoulder as she followed Steve.

      The boys continued throwing meat, Julie did her best to avoid it. Once their buckets were almost completely empty, Dustin and Steve made a small pile in the center of the junkyard, Julie watching them. "I said medium-well!" a premature voice that belonged to Lucas yelled, causing all three of them to look up.

      From the edge of the junkyard, Lucas was waving at the trio while holding his bike. What surprised Julie was a certain red-head standing next to him. Julie cocked her head to the side, her mouth agape as Max and Lucas walked closer to them.

      "Who's that?" Steve asked, noticing Julie and Dustin's reactions.

      "That would be my sister," Julie said, walking to meet Max with her arms crossed to make fun of Max. "You know?"

      "You have powers?" Max countered with sarcasam, her arms still crossed. She still didn't believe anything that Lucas told her at the arcade.

      "You snuck out?" Julie asked, knowing full well that Billy would not let Max go out with a boy.

      "You're with Steve?" Max asked as she looked behind Julie at the boy Julie had talked about.

      "You're wearing my jacket?" Julie hadn't worn the green jacket for a few years, but it was still her's in her eyes.

      Max looked down at said jacket and then looked back at Julie and shrugged. Julie sighed and brought Max into a sister-ly hug, feeling gulty that Max was now roped into this mess.

      "Love to interupt, because we have shit to do. Let's go." Steve said, walking up to Julie and tugging on her ponytail to gain her attention.

      "Can I have my bat?" Julie asked, pulling away from Max and leading her to where Steve was walking.

      Steve shook his head. "Not until you help me."

      Julie rolled her eyes. "Bitch," she mumbled, smiling slightly as Max giggled.

      While Dustin and Lucas conversed behind an old red car, Steve, Max and Julie went to work. Rather, Max and Steve were working. Julie was sitting against an old bus with her eyes closed, trying to regain the strength she had lost while walking all day. Julie wanted to be able to hear if Dart was coming, and she couldn't do it very well when she was tired. Max, of course, thought her sister was just being lazy.

      "Hey! Dickheads! How come the only one helping me out is this random girl?" Julie heard Steve ask Lucas and Dustin. "We lose light in 40 minutes. Let's go. Let's go, I said."

      "All right, asshole! God!" Dustin said.

      "Julie's not helping." Lucas pointed out. With her eyes still closed, Julie flipped him off.

      "She's working so she can save your asses." Steve said.

      Lucas and Dustin joined the other four in collecting scrap metal. Julie eventually felt bad for making them do all of the work, so she got up and helped, despite Steve's request for her to sit down. They gathered old barrels, boarded up the bus, and did everything possible to protect themselves from Dart.

•••

      When night had fallen, Lucas was at the top of the bus with his binoculars on lookout, and the other four were down in the bus waiting. Steve sat on the ground repeatedly flipping his lighter open and closed. Julie sat across from Steve, listening to music quietly as she played with her bat. Max sat in a seat, watching Steve and Julie closely.