15. Hawkins High '84

A.N. Hello my lovely readers,

Only 9 days till Volume 2 is released of Stranger Things!!!

How is everyone doing with that new Volume 2 trailer released? I know I am struggling to wrap my mind around everything I saw and now all the theories my mind has come up with. Let's keep our fingers crossed nothing bad happens to all of our favorite characters!

I just wanted to hop on here and let you all know this chapter and the next will be a throwback chapter, giving you all more of an insight to some of the characters from a last sense.

I hope you all enjoy!!

Xoxo,Nik <3

☾.˚˖⁺✦ Hawkins High '84 ✦˙⊹˚☽

TW // Horror

Song Guide: Bad Reputation by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts

The second Victoria had realized Steve hadn't been the one to tug on her ankle, immediate panic arose throughout her body. The confused and concerned look on Steve's face had been the last thing she saw until a slithering texture wrapped itself around her ankle, pulling her to the depths below.

The texture of what had a grasp on her felt strangely familiar. She had felt this before. Vecna. The vines. That is what had made its way back to her.

Her screams echoed into the water around her, yet the only sound she was met with was silence. One thing she had found comfort for with the water, was the quietness of it.

Something she also shared with the time she had almost lost her life to that same stillness that brought tranquility to her.

There was no point in fighting it as she knew she would soon lose. The reflection of her life was beginning to display itself before her. Except it wasn't the moment you would expect in the few seconds before you die. Not the moment that is commonly known as 'life flashed before her eyes'.

It was far from that.

Her mind had began to yell at her in the voice of Billy Hargrove.

"Doesn't look like you hate him that bad enough! Do you want to be Team Captain or not Henderson?"

The mocking laughs had welcomed her again as well.

"Steve, why did you push her?"

"Dude, not cool!"

"Bro, does she even know how to swim?"

Everything in her mind felt like a whirlwind of taunts.

She felt her body be pulled out into the bitter air as for the fewest seconds she was flying very slowly. Her skin felt frozen to the touch. Her arms flailed for something to hold onto as she felt her body falling. Victoria gasped for air, being thankful she could breathe oxygen and not water.

Her eyes grew wide to the sight of dark skies that had red lightning shoot across it. It was a glimpse until her body slammed into the ground, knocking the air out of her lungs.

Her screams echoed into this new and unfamiliar world. She felt scrapes form onto her back and arms from being dragged across the ground.

Snapping back into reality, she tried to tear her ankle free. "Come on! Fuck!"

The major thought rushing through her mind now was that she was being dragged straight to Vecna. She struggled with breaking loose as frustrated tears slipped down her cheeks.

Chills ran down her spine as screams of another broke into the atmosphere. She whipped her head back as she saw Steve from a distance being pulled the opposite way.

"Steve?", her shaky voice broke out in the realization he was in danger.

"Steve!", she cried out in a desperate need to reach him.

She continuously scraped at the vine not caring if she was damaging her own skin beneath it. Letting out frustrated screams until she managed to get herself loose finding herself rolling through the bumpy ground, smacking her head roughly against the surface.

Welcoming back the calmness of the silence once again.

☾.˚˖⁺✦˙⊹˚☽

Traveling Back to Hawkins High '84

Victoria was awakened by the sounds of a car nearly breaking down. This was the familiar noise to be Eddie's van. His vehicle could be easily pinpointed around Hawkins. It was an awful clamor that even, Victoria was too embarrassed to drive in.

"Jesus, E, can you not get your car fixed or something?"

Eddie caressed the surface of his dashboard. "Hey, I love this piece of shit just the way it is. Besides don't you love making an entrance to school?"

"Not the exact entrance I imagined to be making..."

Eddie pulled up into his typical parking spot hidden away in the back of the school. Victoria could practically feel the car give out from underneath them as it settled to a still position.

Taking a shaky breath of relief that somehow Eddie's van hadn't erupted in smoke, she was the first to hop out. Eddie followed quick behind her. "Come on, you're gonna miss me when I graduate."

"If you graduate, may I remind you you're failing Mrs. O'Donalds class and we're only in the second month of school."

He mimicked a stabbing sensation to his heart, "Why thou you doeth me this way?"

She blew him a kiss as they departed ways to go to their individual lockers. Feeling the sensation as if someone was trailing behind her. She paused in her step as she spun to find Dustin and all his friends dressed up in their ghostbuster costumes.

"Oh, um I didn't realize I needed protection of the ghosts that haunt Hawkins High.", she teased the boys as she wiggled her fingers towards them.

Not a single laugh escaped from their faces as she felt the odd tension amongst them all. She tried to read the expressions on their faces, most of it being of fear. "Okay, what gives. What are you guys even doing on this side of school? Dustin?"

Dustin's eyes glanced nervously around his sister, almost as if he had been scared of someone. Mike was the one to speak, "Can you walk us to class?"

She rested her hands on her hips eyeing the four boys down. Unsure if this had been a joke or not.

"You want me to walk you four to class?"

The group of them nodded their heads. "Please, no one else is dressed!", Lucas pleaded.

Victoria glanced around the hall in realization there had been no other person dressed for the occasion of today being Halloween.

She sighed, "Alright, let's go."

Walking down the hall the group of five then became a group of six with Victoria's cheery friend, Chrissy, joining them.

"Sooooo!"

"So?"

"Party tonight?", a large grin crossed the blonde girl's face.

Victoria groaned, "Absolutely not, on a school night? You know my mom would never let me go."

Chrissy frowned as she eyed the group of boys snooping in into their conversation, "How come they always get away with it?"

Dustin nodded with a devious smile, "I'm the favorite that's why?"

The brunette girl shrugged her shoulders, "There's no fighting that one."

The blonde girl patted her chin in thought as they continued to walk the halls of Hawkins High. "Aha!"

She was quick to turn startling the group of boys. "Oops, sorry... But you!", she pointed at Dustin.

"Five bucks if you help Vic sneak out tonight."

"Excuse me, no-", Chrissy slammed her hand over Victoria's mouth.

"The adults are talking here."

The brunette girl attempted to talk through her hand to interject, but it was useless as she crossed her arms over her chest in annoyance.

"How about it Dustin?"

"Ten."

"Five."

"Ten."

"Six."

"Eight."

"Ugh, fine."

Chrissy released her hand that had now been licked by Victoria. "Gross, VV, what the hell?"

"Seriously, negotiating with my little brother?"

"Yes, so find a last minute outfit for tonight because we're going to the big Halloween Bash!"

☾.˚˖⁺✦˙⊹˚☽

"Bye mom, we'll see you later!"

"Okay, take care. Victoria, take care of your brother and the boys."

"Will do, mom."

The Henderson siblings exited their home. Both walking down the road side by side. They reached down the road and turned left now out of sight of their mother who had the habit of watching them from the window.

Victoria looked around for her blonde friend, this had been the exact spot she had told her to meet at. Dustin had been looking at his sister strangely. "What are you supposed to be dressed as with dad's trench coat?"

The mention of their father was a constant painful reminder that he had abandoned them. Dustin was too young to really have much of a connection with him, but Victoria had the hardest blow when he left.

The trench coat she had stolen from one of the boxes in the attic was dad's, but she lied. "It's not dad's."

Her brother frowned, "Then where did you get it?"

"Eddie's uncle, don't you have to meet up with your friends anyways?"

"Yeah, actually I do.", the boy responded offended by the way his sister had spoken to him.

Without another word, she watched her brother stomp away from her. She sighed to herself feeling bad for snapping at him. Any mention of their father was just a trigger to her.

The familiar exciting yells from Chrissy came from down the road, quickly approaching as she was hanging out of the window of the car. The car pulled forward as Victoria took a look in the car noticing Jason had been the one driving it.

The smile she suddenly had to seeing her friend was quick to vanish as she saw two other of the basketball players sitting in the backseat. She disliked them very much, mainly because of Jason. He was obnoxious and not a good match for a friend.

Jason had a bright smile on his face, "Get in, there's one spot in the back with your name on it."

She rolled her eyes as she squeezed in the back with the other two. This night was off to a great start. The halloween party had been near by, so the car ride was bearable. "Oh, thank goodness."

Victoria practically fell out of Jason's car from how quickly she was dying to be released from that torture chamber.

Chrissy was dying of laughter as she followed behind her friend, "Please, tell me your last minute costume was not to be dressed as a flasher."

A smirk arose the brunette girl's face as she turned to look at her friend. "Well, now that you mentioned it."

She revealed the costume underneath as the blonde girl shielded her eyes. "Ah, my eyes. I can't see."

"Oh, shush. You act like we've never seen each other naked before."

"Oh, that's hot.", one of Jason's friends blurted out gaining him a disgusted look from the two girls.

"On that note, you do look hot, VV."

Victoria smiled at her friend as she laid the trench coat on top of Jason's car. She had put together a very skimpy lifeguard outfit that highlighted her breasts and curves.

With a lucky whistle around her neck and her hair curls perfectly plumped. She was pretty proud of how she had managed to put all this together on such a short notice.

The two girls paraded into the party as the music was now blaring into their ears. It was already as chaotic as Victoria had imagined it to be.

Chrissy had spent so many months trying to drag her friend to come to parties again, and this one felt a bit more safe. No pools or lakes nearby. Not that she was scared anymore as she had conquered her fear with water from joining the Hawkins Swim Team.

She was even going to try out to be Team Captain next week. This had been something she was striving for, anything to knock Steve Harrington off his high ground at Hawkins.

Speaking of which her eyes had fallen on the brunette boy who was now chasing after what seemed to be his drunk girlfriend, Nancy Wheeler, into the restroom.

Her eyes being stuck on the boy she craved revenge on causing her to crash into someone unfamiliar. "Oh, I'm so sorry."

The boy before her was silent as he eyed her up and down with his entrancing blue eyes. Blonde curls rested on his shoulders slightly drenched in sweat. A toothpick rested in between his lips along with a sexy smile. "Hey."

The sound of his voice was rich, making Victoria wanting to hear more of it. The brunette girl was typically very picky when it came to the male species, but something about this boy seemed irresistible. "H-Hi."

He pulled the toothpick from out of his mouth now twirling it around in his fingers as he licked his bottom lip causing every part of the girl to feel nervous.

Victoria was never one to feel nervous around boys, she usually loved to challenge them. But with this blonde curly haired boy, it was a curiosity she wanted to know more of.

"Don't think I've gotten the pleasure of catching your name."

"Victoria."

"Victoria.", he repeated back to her.

"Yeah.", she found herself stupidly smiling at him. "What's, uh, your name?"

"Billy."

"Billy.", she mimicked his way of repeated his name back to him.

He smiled. "So, lifeguard huh?"

His eyes drifted down to her breasts then to her exposed legs and back up to not her eyes, but to her lips. "Y-Yeah."

Moments later led to a drinking competition between her and the new boy in town. They both yelled into the room of people as cheers erupted at the amount of alcohol the two were consuming. This had been the most fun, Victoria had in a long time.

Walking back over to where the drinks were being held, she felt someone rudely bump into her. "Heyyy!", she began to slur her words coming face to face with Steve Harrington.

☾.˚˖⁺✦˙⊹˚☽

Steve's Pov

"You don't love me?"

The girl Steve had fallen deeply in love with looked him dead in the eyes in such a distasteful manner, almost as if she had so much bundled up hatred for him.

"It's all bullshit.", was her only response.

Not being able to contain being in the same space as Nancy, Steve found himself storming out of the bathroom. Overwhelmed with feelings of hurt and disappointment.

He pushed his way through the crowd of people trying to keep himself from bursting into tears. Attempting to glide through a group, he was instead pushed into a girl.

"Heyyy!", she slurred her words to him.

"Sorry... Henderson?"

Steve had recognized the brunette girl to be the same girl who had hated him since his Sophomore year of high school. He never understood why, but because of it he grew a dislike for the girl. So the feelings were mutual between the two.

He was crossing his fingers for her not to notice his glossy eyes, but then realized she was too drunk to even acknowledge anything correctly.

"Harringgggtonnn.", she tried to say in a rude manner.

"Real nice, getting plastered, so what you can fall asleep while swimming at practice tomorrow?"

She frowned at the boy's words, "What scared a girllll is gonna beat you at being captain this year?"

Steve scoffed now glancing anywhere else then at the brunette girl. He was searching for one of her two friends, she seemed to always be with, Chrissy and Eddie. Neither of them to be in sight. "Hey, so um who's taking you home?"

"Why does it matter to you?"

The brunette boy rubbed his temples in frustration, "Listen, you're clearly not in any state to be driving or walking home. That's all..."

He was praying that one of her friends would come through to take her home, but with good conscious he knew he would not be able to leave her here to fall in the hands of some creep.

She reached for another cup of coke and rum as he was quick to snatch it away from her, annoyed that he had to do this with yet another girl that night. "Hey!"

"Nope, come on. I'll take you home."

She crossed her arms now scrunching her nose at him, "No."

He let out an agitated sigh, leaving her here was seeming like a good option at this moment until Billy Hargrove walked up swinging his arm over the brunette girl. "This kid bothering you, Victoria?"

The girl began to giggle uncontrollably as her hand caressed Billy's bare chest. Was Steve really that willing to go through all this trouble for a girl who practically hated his guts?

Be the bigger person, Steve, he told himself.

"I'm actually taking her home, Hargrove."

"Ah, Harrington. Heard so much about you, but don't you actually have a drunk girlfriend to take care of?"

Steve's jaw tensed up to the mention of Nancy. His fists tightening beside him.

"Go on now. Go take care of your hungover girl while I'll take care of this one, how about it?"

If it had been any other boy taking claim over Victoria, Steve would have considered leaving her in the hands of someone else to deal with. But it wasn't anyone else, it was Billy.

He didn't trust the blonde boy, doesn't have much of a good reputation following him either since the second he stepped foot at Hawkins High.

"No, I'm taking Hend- I'm taking Victoria home, it's on my way back to my place."

"I'm not going with youuuu, I want Billyyyy."

Billy cocked a smile at her as Steve watched his eyes drift to the girl's body rather than looking at her face. The brunette boy can feel the rush of blood pumping through his veins as a bit of anger settled in.

He couldn't explain what he was feeling in that moment, but the way Billy was looking at Victoria was something that was upsetting him greatly.

Steve went to grab hold of Victoria's hand being met by Billy stepping in front of her. "Was I not clear enough, Harrington?"

"Yeah, no, you were, but I'm still taking her home and I'm not asking for your permission."

The brunette boy stepped behind Billy now dragging Victoria out the house with his heart racing. He was so sure in that moment the blonde boy would have beaten his ass, but somehow he had made it out alive and well.

Assisting Victoria into his car was a disorder of actions. The continuous complaints of her not wanting to leave Billy and gripping onto the car door brought Steve close to just leaving her on the lawn.

But he didn't, he managed to place her into his car as he reached forward to buckle her seatbelt. She grasped onto his face unexpectedly as she analyzed him. "You have pretty eyes."

Feeling slightly uncomfortable and accepting of the compliment, he pulled away now closing the door and getting to the driver's side to finally leave.

Victoria muttered, "I'm going to be Team Captain this year, just you wait."

He laughed not wanting to egg her on in an argument. She pointed at herself proudly, "Hawkins greatest swimmer right here."

She was a pretty good swimmer, but Steve knew he was still the best out of the two of them. Although, she would be the only other person on their swim team that could have a chance at beating him.

Soon enough, Victoria drifted to sleep in the passenger seat. Steve glanced her way getting the perfect view of her face under the moonlit night. He never thought she was an ugly girl, always knew she was attractive, but looking at her now she had hidden beauty that he was now discovering.