SEVEN: TERRIBLE/IN LOVE

DANIEL ALMOST WANTED TO PUKE AT THE WORDS, "A large iron rod was driven completely through his head." Good old Science class. "Phineas miraculously survived. He was fine."

The boy tuned out of the lesson, not caring for the gory details. Instead, he paid attention to Mike's avid look of curiosity and the fact that Dustin wasn't there. He hadn't seen any of the boys since last night, but Will seemed to be in a better mood than he was when Daniel left Mike's basement. He hated watching his best friend fall apart, but at least he seemed to be recovering from it.

In the middle of Mister Clarke's sentence, the door slammed in and Dustin came in panting. "I am so sorry, Mister Clarke. Really, I'm so sorry. Please continue with the class. Don't mind me. Really, continue, please. Thanks."

Daniel stifled a laugh at the boy's entrance, sharing an amused look with Mike. He still needed to tell Mike about his mother knowing what was going on with them, but he was scared. His mind was reverting back to last year's closeted, scared little boy kissing Mike for the first time. There was no way of knowing how his boyfriend was going to react. Therefore, he was neglecting to tell him. He knew he would have to tell him at one point, but he was hoping he wouldn't reach that point for awhile.

Dustin caught Daniel and the other boy's attention, whispering, "We have to meet. All of us. At lunch, AV club."

"Why?" Mike asked, practically taking the word from Daniel's mouth as the curly-haired boy was about to ask the same thing.

Dustin provided no further information besides, "I have something that you won't believe."

Needless to say, Daniel's curiosity and interest were peaked. With all the craziness secretly going on in Hawkins, it was impossible to figure out what Dustin was talking about. If he claimed the boys wouldn't believe it, they probably wouldn't. The boy always seemed to have a knack for figuring out or finding the weird and impossible. Maybe it was all the Star Wars he watched. Dustin turned around and whispered to Max, presumably also telling her about the meeting which Daniel didn't mind. He didn't hate Max, she honestly seemed pretty cool. He learned that just because someone new was joining the party didn't mean they were bad. Eleven taught him that.

The whispering seemed to catch Mister Clarke's attention. "Dustin!"

"Yes, my lord?" Dustin responded with zero hesitation, earning a few snickers from students in the class.

"Would you care to join the class now?" the teacher asked, sounding only slightly annoyed. Favoritism seemed to be working in Dustin's favor as if Dustin were any other student, Mister Clarke would surely be angrier.

With a nod, Dustin said, "Please, yes."

"The case of Phineas Gage."

"Phineas Gage," Dustin repeated, reaching into his backpack to pull out his textbook.

"Page 104."

"104."

Dustin pulled his book out and smiled eagerly at the teacher, turning to whisper the message to Max one last time before actually starting to pay attention as Mister Clarke resumed the lesson. Daniel was still zoned out, his mind wandering to impossible places in trying to figure out what the hell Dustin could be showing them in a few short hours. Mike turned, most likely noticing his boyfriend wasn't paying attention, nudging his shoulder and nodding towards the teacher at the front of the room. A silent way of telling him to pay attention. Daniel did find this slightly interested, he just didn't like looking at the skull with a bold, black line through it on the projector. He was never one for gore. Not even a simple line and a skull. He kept picturing an iron rod through someone's face in his head and it made him sick to his stomach. This is why he didn't like Science class.

HEATHER ALMOST FELT BAD WATCHING STEVE PLAY BASKETBALL. Normally the boy was good at it, but Asshole-From-The-Party whom Heather still didn't know the name of seemed to be better at the sport. Veronica, who was sitting on the bleachers next to her, hit her shoulder at a rapid pace, pointing towards the entrance where Nancy had just walked up.

"What you think she's here for?" the dark-haired girl whispered in Heather's ear, her eyes trained on the girl. "Didn't they break up? How did last night go, by the way?"

"Um, she's probably here to make amends which would suck because Steve kissed me last night," Heather whispered back, trying not to seem so obvious as she kept her eyes trained on the practice.

"What?" Veronica yelped before Heather clamped a hand over her mouth, telling her best friend to be quiet. She restated her question in a much more appropriate whisper, "What? He kissed you? What did you do?"

"I pushed him off and told him he wasn't in the right state of mind to be doing things like that," she answered, crossing her arms over chest and folding in on herself, "but I may have kissed him back a little. Only a little, though!"

Veronica sighed, "Fuck if he can make his move on you, I'm gonna go talk to Nancy. I feel like it's been forever since we talked. Ya know we kind, stopped talking to her after last year. Which was kind of douchey."

"Yeah, well, we weren't exactly her best friends in the first place, therefore, we don't have to feel bad," the dark-skinned girl said with a shrug. She nudged her best friend's shoulder, "Go talk to her. It's about time you make your move, it's been like two years since you first had a crush on her."

The dark-haired girl groaned overdramatically, "Don't remind me how long I've been suffering!" Both girls giggled before Veronica stood up and hopped down the bleachers and down by the entrance next to Nancy.

She would occasionally glance over to the two but mostly kept her eyes on the scrimmage. She flinched as Asshole-From-The-Party tripped Steve and got possession of the ball. Asshole made the shot and Steve got up just in time to watch it go through the net. Asshole cheered while Steve just stood there looking defeated.

"Steve?" Nancy called, Veronica and the girl pausing their conversation. Veronica turned and shot her best friend an annoyed look before saying goodbye to Nancy and walking back up the bleachers.

"What did you say to her?" Heather asked as soon as her best friend rejoined her. Steve was walking off somewhere with Nancy, but Heather was making a note of deliberately not paying attention to that.

"I just talked about the party, asked her if Steve and she really broke up. She apparently was so wasted, she didn't even remember that. She said whatever happened she was going to try and fix it and I think you'll be proud to know I bit my tongue instead of telling her that her relationship was doomed," Veronica described, leaning against Heather and resting her head on the other girl's shoulder. "I want her to be a lesbian, like, so badly."

Heather nodded solemnly, staring at the court that was now missing one player. "I know, Ronnie, I know. I just want them to be broken up for good, is that bad? Are we terrible people?"

"No, I don't think that makes us terrible," Veronica sighed, staring at the court as well. Both of them were silently yet eagerly waiting for the couple to return, hopefully as two separate and single people. This was getting worse and Heather only felt a million times worse after the events of last night. She and Steve stayed up and watched reruns of Doctor Who, a show Heather usually watched with her younger brother. It seemed so genuine and it seemed to easy to forget about the heartbreak. "It doesn't make us terrible. It just makes us in love."

( note! )

uhhh the pollywog is gonna make a grand entrance next chapter but I though y'all would wanna see some development with everyone's fav bad bitches, Veronica and Heather, because all the lesbian lovers here are probably suffering watching Veronica pine after Nancy for the past year so uhh we're gonna develop that soon so get fuckin ready