𝐌𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐄'𝐒 𝐌𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑 ── ROBIN BUCKLEY [𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐔𝐄𝐃]

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐢𝐯𝐞

STAGE ZERO: GO TO STEVE'S PARTY

1983

𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐁𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐟𝐞𝐰 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬. Nancy Wheeler and Steve Harrington were going strong. Mike Wheeler was paranoid of his family finding the girl he found last night in their basement. Mollie Wheeler was just focused on studying for her exams. She had a friend in Jonathan and somewhat Barb. And with the older Byres picking her up for school, Mollie (while trying her best just to pass her exam by studying) helped him out up posters for his brother.

From afar, Steve Harrington and his gang of Tommy, Carol, Nancy and (reluctantly) Barb stared at the pair. Having just invited them round his house for a party tonight, Steve tried to convince Nancy to come... Well, that was until they spotted the freak pair.

Looking over, Carol was the first to spot them, saying, "Oh, God. Look."

"Oh, God, that's depressing." Steve muttered under his breath as he watched Mollie help Jonathan pin the poster up onto the cork board.

Feeling bad, Nancy swallowed the lump in her throat. She felt awful for Jonathan, losing a brother must be hard. At least her sister had the dignity to help him. And right now, her supposed friends were making fun of the two. Clearly her throat, Nancy shyly asked, "Should we say something?"

"I don't think he speaks to anyone but the other freak." Carol responded, chewing her gum she hardly thought about the fact that one of them was Nancy's sister.

Looking down, Nancy bit her lip – hiding her grown as Tommy added, "How much you want to bet they killed him together?"

Seeing Nancy upset, Steve hit Tommy's chest, muttering to him, "Shut up. That's her sister, dude."

Swallowing hard, Nancy ignored the group and took off in the direction of the two. Jonathan was pining up the final bits of the poster. Mollie trying to reassure him while leaning up against the pin board. Finally reaching the pair, Nancy waited for their conversation to naturally end and spoke up, "Hey."

Turing to see her, Jonathan was puzzled. He looked nervously to Mollie and then back to Nancy as he responded with his greetings. Mollie greeting her sister (with a confused tone) as well.

Starting off was tricky for Nancy. She didn't want to offend Jonathan. She felt bad. She just didn't know how to say it. "I just...I wanted to say, you know, um...I'm sorry about everything." Looking behind her, Nancy realised her group of so-called friends were watching her. Trying to hide her nervousness, Nancy grew more confident to mask her unwillingness to be seen as a freak. "Everyone's thinking about you. It sucks."

"Yeah." Jonathan agreed, not willing to make eye contact with the other Wheeler. Seeing this, Mollie took Jonathan hand and rubbed circles in reassurance.