ONE: PEOPLE LIKE THEM

"DANNY, C'MON! WE'RE GONNA BE LATE!" the voice of Heather Jacobs rang through the halls of the house from downstairs. She sounded slightly irritated, the jingle of her keys audible.

"Coming, I'm coming!" the much smaller voice of her brother, Daniel, shouted, running down the stairs at a mile a minute.

Heather, who was waiting with the front door open, rolled her eyes at her brother, "Backpack!"

"Right!" Daniel backtracked his steps and grabbed his black backpack off of the counter. "Oh, we're totally on time, H!"

"Not if you keep jabbering, let's go, let's go!" The two kids stepped outside, Heather locking the door behind them. A few neighbors were out doing their morning chores, but the most noticeable one was Steve Harrington seemingly waiting beside his car.

"Hey Heather!" he called from next door with a wave, completely ignoring the young boy.

She just rolled her eyes and got into her car, throwing her and her brother's bags in the back as he settled into the passenger seat.

"Why do you ignore him?" Daniel asked, sounding curious as he fiddled with the radio. He settled on an old Pink Floyd song, which satisfied both siblings.

Heather shrugged, "He only notices me because I'm the only black girl in our school."

"There's no way that's true! There's plenty of girls like you at my school!" he argued with a scoff. "And Lucas! Lucas is there, too! Why isn't it the same for your school?"

"Danny, we live in buttfuck, nowhere, you really think there's gonna be a ton of girls like me? This is Indiana, it's the whitest state in the country," she sighed, going slightly above the speed limit in order to get both of them to school on time.

"Um. . ." Daniel thought for a minute, "Idaho. Idaho is the whitest state."

Heather laughed, "Okay, how about they're tied?"

"I can deal with a tie."

"You're such a dork, Danny," his sister chuckled endearingly, glancing over at him for a minute. "No wonder you and the Wheeler kid get along so well, y'all are both losers. The only cool one in that group is Lucas."

"Hey!" Daniel immediately went to the defense of his friends, "Mike, Dustin, and Will are cool!"

"Sure thing buddy," she assured sarcastically as she pulled into a parking space, "Alright, now get outta my car."

"It's Mom's car, but okay," he said with a smile as he stepped out and grabbed his bag. He grabbed Heather's as well, tossing it at her. She caught it and slung it over her shoulder casually as she began to walk towards the high school.

"See ya, Heather!" he called out. She turned and waved with a smile as he went to meet his friends at the bike rack. The four boys had just pulled up on their matching bikes when he walked up to them. "Hey, guys!"

"Hey, Daniel!" Mike Wheeler was the first to greet him, "You're coming over for the D&D campaign tonight, right? You can spend the night."

"Mike, you know I'm not into that stuff."

"So?" Lucas cut in with a shrug, "We still need the whole party there."

"Yeah!" Will and Dustin both agreed.

"Please?" Mike asked, giving Daniel shameless puppy dog eyes in an attempt to convince him.

Something about that look made Daniel's heart flutter mysteriously, so he obliged, "Okay, fine. I'll go to your stupid campaign."

Mike immediately looked wildly offended, "It's not stupid! C'mon I worked so hard to write it!"

Daniel rolled his eyes with a smile, "Yeah, yeah, whatever. C'mon guys, let's get to class."

"Hey, Dan, um, how's Heather?" Dustin asked as the five of them began walking into Hawkins Middle School.

"First, Nancy, now Heather?" Daniel sighed, "Come on, dude."

"What?" he argued, "I'm just concerned about your coincidentally hot sister's wellbeing."

"Gross," Lucas shook his head.

"HEY, GUYS!" Heather greeted her three friends with a smile. Barb, Nancy, and Veronica were all crowded around the Wheeler girl's locker, looking deep into conversation. "What's up?"

"Nancy was invited to Steve Harrington's tomorrow night," Veronica explained, "I'm coming over to yours so we can spy on them."

"I'm right here, Ronnie," Nancy pointed out with a sigh, rolling her eyes. "Steve and I are just friends. Besides, we all know he's only got eyes for you, Heather. Whether you like it or not."

"I don't get why he's so obsessed with me!" the dark-skinned girl shrugged, her voice riddled with disbelief, "Like, he was waiting for me to leave my house this morning. That's creepy, right?"

"You guys are next door neighbors that go to the same school, it's not too wild of an idea that he might be outside his house at the same time you are," Barb cut in, always the voice of reason. Nancy and Veronica nodded, but Heather scoffed.

"Then how come he waits outside his car even though he's ready to go? Always waving to me, but never talking to my brother whom he's known literally since he was born. He hasn't even known me that long."

"How old were you when your mom adopted you?" Nancy asked, curiosity in her voice. People typically assumed she was the adopted one, which was funny.

"We moved into the neighborhood when I was six. We adopted Daniel when he was about a month old," she explained. Nancy's eyes widened slightly and she didn't say anything more. "And no, I don't have a rich white daddy that bought that house either."

"I didn't say you did!" Nancy defended.

"Hey, Heather, me and you have algebra right now, maybe we should get going," Veronica suggested, tugging on the dark-skinned girl's arm, clearly attempting to defuse the situation.

Heather caught on, but obliged anyway, "Yeah, let's go. I'll see y'all in third."

The girls departed, Veronica linking her arm with Heather's as they started walking. They were almost to their class when a certain boy stepped in front of them, stopping them in their path. "Hey, Heather do you wanna come to my party?"

"I'm busy."

"I-I didn't even say what day it was," Steve stumbled over his words, clearing his throat and trying to regain his cool, "Um, it's in a couple days. Veronica, you can come, too. Nancy and Barb are gonna be there. So are Tommy and Carol."

"Steve, no offense," Heather began in a cool yet cutting tone, "but I would literally rather choke than spend more than five minutes with Tommy and Carol. Thanks for the invite, but Ronnie and I are both busy tomorrow night. We'll be doing girly things like painting our nails and shit. I don't really feel like spending my Saturday night shotgunning cheap beer and disappointing my parents. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a class to get to."

Steve didn't even have a chance to respond before the girls pushed past him and kept on walking to class.

"Dude!" Veronica exclaimed as soon as the boy was out of earshot, "the coolest guy in school just asked you to his party and you fucking destroyed him. What the hell was that?"

"I don't get why you seem to want him around so bad, Ronnie, we both know he's not your type," Heather snickered, shoving her best friend's shoulder lightly. "Besides, everyone knows Nancy likes him. I'll let her have him."

"Heather," Veronica whined, "No! I don't want her to be taken."

"What? You think a girl like her likes girls? She's the type of girl who drops out of college after two years because she got married and had a kid and moved into a house with a white picket fence and golden retriever. Don't fuck with girls like her. Just like I don't fuck with boys like Steve. You know what Steve is gonna become? He's gonna work a dead-end desk job and he'll hang himself by his tie by the time he's thirty-five. Don't fuck with people like them."

( note! )

in case y'all can't tell, heather is a fuckin edgelord