CATH DELANEY
( backstory )

NOTE: Inevitably there will be spoilers in this chapter, concerning Cath's childhood and other events taking place prior to the timeline of the books. If you feel this will interfere with your reading experience, please wait with this chapter and come back when you would like!

E A R L Y
L I F E

Catherine 'Cath' Martha Delaney was born on February 20th, 1971 in Hawkins, Indiana to Martha and Thomas Delaney. She has one older sister, Daphne Delaney, and there is an approximate five year age gap between them. Her mother's biological parents were  together of Norwegian and English descent (her adoptive had predominantly Scottish and Irish ancestry) and on her father's side she has very strong Irish roots, as well as some Swiss.

The birth of Cath was very traumatic for both she and her mother. Shortly after she was born, their health took a turn for the worst: she was premature and had to be kept alive in an incubator, and Martha's body was slowly shutting down due to an amniotic fluid embolism. After multiple occasions throughout the week where it was almost fatal, Cath began to pull through. But sadly, her mother did not. Martha passed away on the February 21st, 1971 — merely hours after her daughter's birth.

The abrupt and unexpected nature of Cath's mother dying was detrimental to the entire family. Her father, Thomas, was inconsolable and on edge (looking back on it, he most likely suffered from severe postnatal depression) although he felt incredibly lucky to have been left behind his two daughters, a source of light through his darkness. Daphne became more distant from her father, as he was a changed man, and looked more to her friends — Amy Nakamura and Felix Rancourt — or within herself for her consolation.

And as for Cath, it had possibly the biggest impact of all. Thomas found it extremely difficult to talk about her death, as he never quite got the help he needed in grieving her or helping with his children afterwards. Daphne took after her father, she too treating it as a taboo subject in the house (although she hated it being like that). The secrecy and the withholding of information about her mother consequently made Cath feel a sort of subconscious survivor's guilt and she became a very quiet and lonely person. This early onset insecurity has never left her entirely since.

This reclusion from within created a difficulty in making friends. Cath was painfully shy and socially anxious, therefore making it difficult for people to see her true personality underneath it — she is often misinterpreted as bland or indifferent. Although, she certainly had a few great companions along the way...

When she was in Kindergarten, she stuck around a lot with Will Byers. He was technically her first ever friend, since they met when they were infants and were often laid together to play (this was during the years when Thomas turned to Joyce Byers and others to help babysit when he was getting their life back on track, following Martha's death). But on top of this, their gentleness and kindness immediately clicked, the two children playing quietly and fondly together. They grew apart in Elementary School, unfortunately, as changes to friendship groups swept Cath away to befriend Stacy Albright. Both of them still shared a fondness for each other, however, as she clearly remembers when being home sick with severe Bronchitis that Will was the only friend of hers who came to visit (it was here too that he gave her a stuffed bunny, which she's always had sitting in her room since). 

Stacy, in the beginning, was a great friend to Cath. The two of them were inseparable for years and always hung out together — it wasn't until they were about seven years old, when cliques began forming amongst the kids, Stacy abruptly left her to go hang out with other girls without explanation. She barely looked her in the eye since. Cath was shocked, not knowing what she had done wrong. Was this her fault?

One of the most important friendships in her life, if not the most important, was with her sister, Daphne. From an early age her older sister was incredibly nurturing and took her under her wing. She has fond memories of going to and from school with her, baking together and Daphne reading stories to her before bed. Cath remembers how wildly she would tell these stories, with such passion and creativity that she could never do herself. Daphne was her closest substitute for the mother figure she'd never had, and was also her best friend at the time.

L A T E R
L I F E

When Cath was about eight, and Daphne thirteen years old, their dynamic began to change. She felt her older sister slowly drifting away from her — Daphne became more and more reluctant to have Cath tagging along all the time, bit by bit distancing herself from her. It made her wonder if she was doing something wrong; was her sister sick of her? Some told her it was just a phase, but it didn't help, and Cath grew even more self-critical, battling feelings of uselessness also stemmed from her experience with Stacy.

For a while, Cath hung out mostly by herself at school. Sometimes she would drift between different friendship groups; other times she would sit by herself. During this time, she really honed her love of reading — with no one to talk to she would retreat to the library during and after school, and here she made a special friend in Colette Rancourt (the mother of Daphne's friend, Felix, who had also always been very friendly towards her). Colette always recommended her books, would listen to her thoughts about her most recent read, and most importantly would spent some much-needed time with her.

It wasn't until she was made lab partners with Sandy Brooks that she found a friendship group to be with — along with two other girls, Pamela Gillespie and Gina Lawson. On the outset they seemed to find common ground in their academic interests, so it was from there that she began hanging out with them. There was always a space at their table, and for the first time in a while, Cath didn't feel look like a loner at school. And she didn't mind if it meant she felt like a loner still, even when she was sitting with them...

One event that always did bring the girls together was the Hawkins Middle Science Fair. Sandy in particular, a fiercely competitive academic, was very keen, planning months in advance so they could fight for first place. But every year they usually finished as runners-up, losing every time to the same group of boys: Mike Wheeler, Lucas Sinclair, Will Byers and Dustin Henderson. It was not until the most recent Science Fair, with their levitating pen experiment, that the girls finally tasted victory and took first place.

Not long after this would Cath be finding herself spending much more time with those runners-up: for when, on the cold night of November 6th, 1983 Will Byers suddenly vanishes, it's up to her and his friends to investigate the strange circumstances of his disappearance.

✖️✖️✖️

[ CATH, MY SWEET, SWEET BABY 🥺💞 she deserves the world and i intend to give it to her ]

[ this backstory chapter was a little shorter than what it would be for my other OCs, since cath is a wee child at the age of twelve when the timeline starts at paranormal, whereas usually my oc's "starting ages" tend to range from 16-18, so i tried to drag it out a little. ]