"I may be a pretty shitty boyfriend, but turns out i'm actually a pretty damn good babysitter"
"Oh yeah, I can see it now : Steve Harrington, Mom of the year"
In which a pessimistic Jennifer Hopper may be what a heartbroken Steve Harrington needs.
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Wake up, make breakfast for El, make sure the shutters are down and all entrances are locked, go to school, go to work, come back to the cabin, make dinner, take care of El, go to sleep.
That was the routine that Jenny Hopper had developed ever since her dad brought home a freezing, malnourished girl who Jenny knew as Eleven.
When she heard from Dustin about how Eleven had saved them from the demogorgon but had vanished with the monster into thin air, she presumed the girl was dead. But one day, when a knocking interrupted her biology homework, she opened the door to find her Dad, an 'I'll explain later' expression on his face, with the mysterious girl she thought she'd never see again.
The Hopper household certainly got a lot more interesting from that day on, with them having to jump from house to secret cabin, a cabin that the three of them worked hard to make habitable. Not that Jenny was complaining, of course. She secretly liked having another girl in the house, to talk to and help chastise her Dad whenever he was being a slob. However, her heart did grow heavy whenever she thought about how similar being with El was to being with Sara.
Sara had been five when she was diagnosed and eventually died from cancer. Jenny was ten, and she still remembers sitting at the end of Sara's bed every-night while her Dad read them a bedtime story, occasionally reading a line or two to help with the voices, and showering Sara in compliments while doing her makeup because she told her that she didn't feel pretty without her hair.
Jenny wasn't a big fan of people. She thought they were mean, selfish and fake, even as a ten year-old. This outlook on life resulted in very few friends, but this didn't concern her, because she had her sister, who exuded so much positivity that it balanced out her older sister's pessimism.
But when Sara disappeared, any bit of positivity that she had, disappeared too.
When given the choice, Jenny decided to stay with her dad, figuring he would need her a lot more than her mother, who moved as far away from Hawkins and jenny as she could to start a new life with a new family. She had made the right decision too, because Jenny was the only thing keeping Chief Hopper from passing out in an alley every night after drowning his sorrows in bourbon. He still drank more than he should, and worried her with the amount of cigarettes he smoked, but with her support and love, he was managing.
They were a team, and the night Jim Hopper showed up on the front steps with Eleven, a silent agreement was made between the father and daughter, to protect this misunderstood girl from harm until they could give her a proper life, even if it meant lying to their friends.
••••••••••
After completing her morning routine, Jenny left the locked cabin, hopped in her car and made her way to Hawkins High school.
She wore a white t-shirt that tucked into her usual light denim jeans, a thick black belt holding them up, and white Chuck Taylor's, that had definitely seen better days. She had a navy and green flannel thrown over her t-shirt, hanging open loosely and her signature black corduroy jacket, protecting her from the cold weather.
Reaching the school and singing along to 'We built this city' by Starship, she drove into an empty parking space beside a car she knew belonged to her friend, Jonathan Byers.
"Jon!" she said, leaning her head out of the open car window and giving him a cheeky smile, "what brings you here this fine morning?"
Slightly amused, Jonathan rolled his eyes at her, as he climbed out of the front seat of his car. "Just trying to get an education so that i can leave this place and be away from you."
"No, you know I would simply track you down. You're never leaving me," she smiled, getting out of her car and nudging him in the side.
Jenny couldn't remember a time where her and Jonathan weren't friends. They had met in kindergarten, when Jenny shoved Gary Chester, who had stolen one of Jonathan's blocks, on to the ground and returned the block to Jonathan. They have remained close ever since, bonding over their unfortunate families and their big dreams for the future. And well, after monster hunting together, they were pretty much inseparable.
Sure, she had acquaintances, and people that she partied with, but Jonathan was her only true friend.
"So, Jonny," she started, " any plans for Halloween?"
He smiled shyly and shrugged his shoulders. "You know, the usual, read Vonnegut and listen to some music."
"Sounds great. If I don't find a party with free food and booze that night, I just might join you," she nodded.
The pair continued to talk about Vonnegut, leaning up against their cars, until a loud rumbling of a car engine caught their attention, the song 'Rock you like a hurricane' playing over it.
They soon found the culprit to be a blue Camaro, that sped through the parking lot before stopping a few spaces away from Jenny and Jonathan. The whole school was fixated on the unfamiliar car, the same thought going through their heads.
"Fresh meat," the brunette smirked, wagging her eyebrows at Johnathan, who smiled at his friend, shaking his head.
Jenny was surprised to see MADMAX exit the vehicle before skating away, a fed up expression on her freckled face, but quickly forgot about Max when a boy her age, dressed head to toe in tight denim got out of the drivers seat, a cigarette dangling from his smirking lips. He rocked a styled mullet and due to the tightness of his white t-shirt, an outline of some impressive abs were visible to all.
Jenny admired the boys car, before turning to admire the boy. She looked him up and down and gave him her best flirty smile, a smile that had worked on many boys before, and her heavy eyes.
"Nice car," she flirted.
The boy smirked and winked at her, then took the cigarette out of his mouth and sauntered off, the female population of Hawkins High watching and giggling as he left.
Jonathan scoffed, not believing how dumb his friend was acting over a boy who obviously spent too much time in-front of the mirror.
The girl squinted at her friend, not liking his judgement, "Oh don't look at me like that! Do you know how many times I've caught you drooling over Nancy Wheeler?"
Embarrassed, Johnathan Byers turned away from her and started to walk towards the school building, a laughing Jennifer Hopper trailing after him.
She stopped when she stepped on a sheet of paper, she presumed had been accidentally dropped. Deciding to be a good person and win some karma points for the day, she picked it up and searched for the name of the person she was going to have to return it to.
Steve Harrington was scrawled on the top right corner of the sheet and Jenny couldn't stop herself from reading the jock's essay, and cringing once she read the opening paragraph.
"Jesus," she muttered, "pretty boy needs some help."
