Chapter Seventy-One: Tammy Thompson and Chrissy Cunningham

"Chrissy? Chrissy? You ready to try the dress on again? I loosened the back a little for you. Chrissy?! Did you hear me?! Open the door, Chrissy! OPEN THE DOOR, CHRISSY, OR I'M GONNA GUY YOU LIKE THE FAT PIG THAT YOU ARE!"

"GO AWAY! GO AWAY! GO AWAY!" 

"DID YOU HEAR ME?! CAN YOU HEAR ME?!"

"Riley...can you hear me? RILEY?!"

I bolted upright with a gasp, only to find that I had fallen asleep with my head on the counter at Family Video. I didn't even remember dozing off, but here I was, waking up from the most random and horrible nightmare about some random cheerleader in a bathroom. 

"About time!" Mike exclaimed, moving his hand from where he had been shaking my shoulder. "I called your name like twenty times."

"Sorry...I didn't even know I fell asleep." I said, rubbing a hand over my face. 

"Well? Do you have the letter?"

"Right, yeah." I took the letter out of my pocket, handing it to him. He took it, sliding it into his backpack.

"You sure you don't want to come?" He asked. 

"Of course I want to come," I said, walking around the counter to walk him to the door, "But I can't. We need the money."

"Yeah, I guess..." He said, clearly not understanding, "You know she misses you, right? Like a lot, she talks about it all the time in her letters."

"Yeah, I know. I miss her too." I told him. "Do me a favor and let her know that, will you?" He nodded, heading out the door. It just so happened to be closing time anyway, so I shut the door behind him and flipped over the 'Sorry, we're closed' sign just as Steve came out of the back office, whistling to himself and spinning the store key around his finger.

"You ready for screaming fans, sweaty teenagers, and sub par concession stand food?" He asked, coming to a stop in front of me. I smiled, taking off my vest and folding it over my arm.

"Am I ever." I said, taking the key from him as he threw an arm around my shoulders, leading me out the door. 

~~~

The gym was already packed by the time that we got there, and the basketball team was running out onto the floor to begin their warmups while the band played in the background. 

I combed through the players faces until I found Lucas, who waved excitedly. I smiled, waving back at him as Steve and I moved past the marching band to sit across the aisle from them, directly diagonal to Robin.

"Does it bother you that we might win a championship right after you graduated?" I asked, lightly bumping his shoulder with mine. 

"Yeah, that's an interesting point, thanks for bringing that up, Riley." I laughed, putting a hand on his back and looking out over the crowd. The Hawkins cheerleaders were standing on the other side of the gym, cheering, chanting and waving to the crowd. I never really took much notice of the cheerleaders when I was in high school...which is why I found myself concerned about the fact that the cheerleader in my dream was wearing a uniform identical to those of the girls jumping around on the gym floor below.

I looked down the line, studying each of their faces when I suddenly stopped on one that made my blood run cold. It wasn't just the uniforms that had somehow made their way into my subconscious mind...it was the cheerleader. The exact girl from my dream, who I had seen hiding in a bathroom stall, sobbing as someone shouted awful, grotesque things at her from the other side of the door, she was standing there, smiling and cheering as happy as ever.

It didn't do much to soothe my nerves when I realized that I had never seen her before. 

"Hey, Steve," I put a hand on his arm, "That Cheerleader...do you know who she is?"

I pointed her out and he leaned over, putting his head beside mine so that he could see who I was pointing out.

"Oh yeah, I remember her, that's um...oh gosh, what's her name...Christine? Kristin..." I swallowed nervously.

"Chrissy?" I asked, fighting to keep my voice steady.

"Yes! Chrissy, Chrissy Cunningham. That's right." He agreed, confirming my suspicions, "Why do you ask?" I shook my head.

"No reason." He shrugged, not really questioning this, but my heart began hammering in my chest. 

To any normal person, this might be some insane coincidence. They might have just assumed taht they were aware of her, having gone to high school at the same time, and that the dream was nothing more than some random freak occurrence. 

But I was not a normal person, and I couldn't just ignore the fact that I'd had a chilling, upside down-esque feeling hours before having a dream about a real person who I had never even seen before. Those were the type of occurrences that, in my life, I could not afford to write off as coincidence. 

My thoughts were cut off by one of the teachers walking over to the microphone that was set up in the middle of the gym.

"Now everyone, please rise for our national anthem. Singing for us tonight, we have a very special guest. All the way from Nashville, our very own Tammy Thompson!"

Robin whirled around to look at Steve and I, and I instantly remembered the conversation that we'd had when she decided to confide in him the same way she confided in me.

"Are you sure about this?" Robin asked, wiping her palms off on her pants as she paced in front of the Family Video desk.

"Am I sure?" I questioned. "Robin, no one is making you do this. It was your idea."

"I know! I know, its just, telling you and finally opening up to someone just felt so good, and you and Steve are kind of a package deal, so I don't want to have to wait until you're alone to talk to you about girls, because let's face it, you're never alone-"

"Robin, breathe," I prompted, miming taking a deep breath. She followed my movements. "Steve is one of your best friends. That's not going to change."

"Are you sure about that?" She shot back. I nodded.

"Yes. And This is coming from the girl who knows Steve Harrington, probably better than anyone." She nodded, blowing out a nervous breath. "But if you want to back out, you'd better hurry up and decide, because he's walking in right now."

"Food's here!' Steve called, walking up to the desk and setting down a bag of carry-out. "I am so hungry, its ridiculous."

He started digging into the bags, and I glanced at Robin, who was staring at Steve with nervous eyes. He pulled out his food, looking up when we didn't join him to see our stares.

"What are you doing, weirdos? Foods here, its time to eat." 

"I don't know what we're doing," I admitted, grabbing my food out of the bag as well, "Robin?"

"Um..." She glanced between us before turning to face Steve. "I have something to tell you."

"...Ok..." He said warily, putting his sandwich down on the desk. She bit her lip, looking at me. I nodded supportively. 

"Right, so...did you know that I...hated you in High School?" I raised my eyebrows, silently questioning her approach. 

"Makes sense, but ouch." Steve replied, leaning his elbow on the desk.

"Well uh, yeah, I did and um...did I ever tell you why?"

"No, I don't think so." She nodded, looking at me again. I nodded.

"Well, uh...it was because I was jealous. Like super jealous."

"Of me?" He asked skeptically. "What for?"

"Because...she wouldn't stop staring at you."

"Who?" He asked. "Also, why do you care if someone is staring at me? And how is that my fault-"

"Tammy Thompson," She continued, ignoring his questions, "I wanted her to look at me, but...she couldn't pull her eyes away from you and your stupid hair, and I was jealous, and I didn't understand because you asked dumb questions, and you were a douchebag, and-and you didn't even like her, and I would go home and just scream into my pillow."

"I...I really don't get what you're saying here." Robin shot me a pleading look, begging me to help her out.

"Basically, Robin is saying that she hated you in high school because Tammy Thompson had a crush on you and...she had a crush on Tammy Thompson." I simplified. He looked between us, still looking confused.

"But...Tammy Thompson's a girl." He pointed out.

"Steve..." She said this quietly, and I could tell that she was just waiting for him to blow up on her and say all of the horrible things that were no doubt playing out in her head. 

"Yeah?" He asked, glancin back and forth.

She gave him a knowing look, and so did I, waiting for him to put the pieces together. His eyebrows raised slightly as he figured it out.

"Oh."

"Oh."

"Holy crap."

"Yeah...Holy crap."

"I mean yeah...Tammy Thompson, you know, she's cute and all, but...I mean...she's a total dud." Robin looked up at me in shock and I laughed, not expecting this reaction.

"She is not." She denied seriously.

"Yes she is, she wants to be like, a singer. She wants to move to like, Nashville and crap."

"She has dreams."

"She can't even hold a tune! I mean, she's practically tone deaf, have you heard her? All the time, 'You see me now, tonight'." He sang in a nasally, off-key voice, causing both of us to laugh. "You need me more than ever-"

"She does not sound like that."

"She sounds exactly-that's a great impersonation of her."

"It really is." I laughed, putting a hand on his shoulder. He pointed at me.

"She does not sound like that. You sound like a muppet."

"She sounds like a muppet, she sounds like a muppet giving birth!"

We all burst out laughing before breaking into a horrific, muppet esque rendition Total Eclipse of the Heart.

It was for this reason, because of this conversation, that Steve and Robin began whispering across the bleachers as Tammy Thompson began to sing the National Anthem. 

"Told you." He whispered. "Muppet."

"Ok, she does sound like a muppet."

"Oh my gosh, totally." I looked over as Vickie, Robin's current crush, who stands beside her in the band, responded to her comment, "She sounds like Kermit."

"I was thinking it was more like Miss Piggy."

Steve shoved a thumb over at them, raising his eyebrows at me. I nodded, faking a smile before bringing my eyes back to the cheerleader again.

It was her...same uniform, same name, same girl. And heck, now that I think about it, I think I even recognized the School Girl's bathroom as the setting for the horrific nightmare that I'd had only a few moments earlier. So if the girl and the location are real, despite me never having seen her before...

Does that mean that I somehow dreamed something that actually happened? And if it did happen...

What was that thing that was accosting her in the bathroom?