There's No Place Like Hawkins//Stranger Things. SH

TWENTY FIVE

Trick Or Treat, Freak

"Oh! I want to see those pearls. Yeah!" Claudia Henderson squealed as she took pictures of Dustin in his Ghostbuster costume. Dustin grinned as he held up the hand-made ghost trap thing. Catherine entered the room and headed straight for her cat, Mews, picking her up to cuddle her.

"Who you gonna call?!" The teen cried, scratching Mews' head right behind her ears.

"Ghostbusters!" Dustin cried and the two began to sing the theme song while their mother took more photos.

"Oh, Catherine, pose with your brother." Claudia waved her eldest to stand next to Dustin and they posed for more pictures, Mews still in Catherine's arms.

A few minutes later, and after many more pictures being taken by Claudia, Cat finally placed Mews down on her favourite armchair. "Alright, I have to go. I'll see you later." She waved to her two family members before heading out the front door to her bike. She dusted the cat hair off of herself before hopping onto her bike and cycling to Hawkins' High School. God, she really needed to get a car. And her licence.

***

Nancy and Steve greeted Cat as they met her outside the school library during their free period. "What's up, Losers!" Cat called out to them, sending the two a smile.

"We're the losers?" Steve asked her, shoving her shoulder playfully. "You're the one covered in cat hair, Cat."

Catherine shrugged as she followed Nancy through the door to the library. "What can I say? I love my fur baby." The three teens found a table to work at and placed their bags on the table before sitting down and starting the work they needed to do. Catherine stared blankly at her maths paper, not understanding anything. She looked up when Nancy got up to go sharpen her pencil before turning her attention to Steve. "Hey, Steve." She whispered, gaining the boy's attention. Steve looked at the small brunette who sat opposite him.

"What's up?"

"Maths. I don't fucking understand this shit."

Steve pulled the paper she was working on towards him to see what the girl was stuck on. His eyebrows furrowed as he read the equations Cat was trying to work out. "What are you meant to be doing?"

Catherine shrugged. "I don't know. I don't even know what part of maths this is."

Steve's eyes moved from the maths work to Catherine. "How do you not know what part of maths this is? I'm not that good at maths, but even I would know what part of maths the homework is."

"I don't know. I just...." She let out a sigh as her fingers played with the hairband she wore on her wrist. "I haven't been able to focus with everything that's going on..." She trailed off as her eyes landed on Nancy. She tilted her head in confusion as Nancy continued to sharpen her pencil, noticing the girl's attention was elsewhere. "Hey, Steve." Steve's eyes met Cat's and he stayed silent, waiting for her to continue. Cat looked away from Nancy so she was looking at her best friend. "Is Nancy okay?"

"I'm not sure." Steve replied honestly. The two of them got up from their seats and walked over to their friend to see if she was alright.

"Nancy?" Cat called, trying to get the girl's attention.

Steve put her hand on his girlfriend's shoulder. "Nancy." Nancy jumped out of her trance, looking at Steve with wide eyes. "What's going on? Are you okay?" Nancy turned her face away from her two friends and Cat followed her gaze to a girl who looked slightly similar to Barb. Her mouth formed a small 'O' as she understood. Steve looked to where the two girls were looking, his hand still on Nancy's shoulder.

***

"I can't keep doing this." Nancy said as the three of them stood in a private room of the library.

"Doing what?" Steve asked her.

"Pretending like everything's okay." Nancy elaborated. Cat nodded, knowing exactly how Nancy felt.

"What are you talking about?"

"Barbara. It's like everyone forgot."

"Well, I didn't. I don't think I could ever forget Barb." Cat said, shifting her body so she could sit more comfortably on top of the table.

"It's like nobody cares. Except her parents." Nancy continued.

"And us." Cat pointed out, placing her hand on Nancy's arm to try and provide some form of comfort to her friend.

"And now they're selling their house-" Nancy began to ramble.

"Nance-" Steve tried.

"And they're going to spend the rest of their lives looking for her."

"I know."

"It's destroying them."

Cat bit the inside of her cheek, feeling the guilt start to build up inside her again. She wasn't sure how much longer she could take before she accidentally spilled the truth to someone. And to make matters worse, she was still shaken up about the so-called episode she had last night.

"I know. Okay? I get it. But listen, there's nothing we can do about it."

"As much as I hate to admit it, Nancy, Stevie here does have a point." Cat said as she fiddled with her hairband again.

"No. We could tell them the truth."

"And get ourselves killed? No, no thanks." Cat said, her hands moving to fiddle with the locket around her neck.

"Cat has a point. You know we can't do that."

"We don't have to tell them everything."

"This isn't some game, Nance. Cat's right. If they found out that we told any..." He paused, going over to blinds and pulling them shut so that no one could see into the room and read their lips. He walked back over the girls. "They could put us in jail. Okay? Or worse, they could destroy our families. And like Cat mentioned earlier, they could kill us. They could do anything they want. Okay? Just think about what you're saying."

Cat nodded her head, agreeing with Steve while Nancy just stood there in silence. Cat rubbed her hand up and down Nancy's arm, trying to comfort the girl.

"Hey..." Steve placed his hand on Nancy's arm, sitting next to Catherine on the table as Nancy stared at the floor, her arms crossed over her chest. "Hey, hey... Hey, it's..." Steve sighed. "It's hard, but let's... let's just go to Tina's stupid party..." Nancy's gaze moved from the floor to Steve, their eyes meeting. It made Cat feel like she was intruding on an important moment between the two. "Wear our stupid costumes that we've been working on for a stupid amount of time," Steve continued, moving closer to Nancy, "and just pretend like we're stupid teenagers, okay? Can we just do that, just for tonight?"

"Okay." Nancy answered.

Steve nodded. "Come here." He pulled her into a hug and the two wrapped their arms around each other. Cat took that as her queue to leave, her stomach dropping at the sight of her two best friends- one of them being her huge crush.

***

Edited: 17/4/2020

Edit 2: 9/9/2021