chapter 001 ,
copy that, blondie
[ three hundred and twenty-eight days later ]

THERE WERE MANY THINGS THAT LUCY ANDREWS HATED—hot weather, failing classes, shaving her legs—but there was little she disliked more than staying with her mother.

After their divorce, Paul and Heather Andrews had won shared custody over their children, even though both Lucy and Leo had stated they would have rather lived year-round with their father and only occasionally visit their mother... when they had to. But the judge decided in Heather's favor and set a schedule so that Leo and Lucy would be able to switch off between their parents' houses every two weeks. Insanely inconvenient for the kids and completely against what they wanted, but the court almost never decides on what the children want.

As a result of this schedule, Heather had implemented a weekly 'family dinner' with her kids. Neither Andrews child was a big fan of this arrangement—Leo had taken to spending all of his free time at the arcade with his party and thought having to sit at a table for two hours was a big waste of time; and Lucy just plain didn't like having to talk with her mother. Dinner with Heather meant two hours of choking down averagely cooked food and unpleasant conversations with her mom.

To put it simply, Heather had gone off the deep end after the divorce. Paul had picked himself up and dusted off his shoulders, but for Heather, the divorce was the beginning of the end. Lucy and Leo both knew it.

     "Ugh." Leo's nose scrunched up and he sat up on Lucy's bed to give her a disgusted look. "Do you smell that?"

     Lucy replied without taking her focus off the homework assignment on the desk in front of her. "She's making her signature meatloaf for dinner."

     "Oh, God," Leo said, dropping his head into a pillow. "She sucks at making meatloaf. Didn't she learn the last time? Or the time before that?"

"Nope," Lucy said, shaking her head slowly. "Yeah, she never learns. Do you want me to take you out for burgers later tonight, after she goes to bed?"

     His face lit up. "Holy shit, yes, please—"

     "Hey," Lucy said sharply, turning her head over her shoulder to glare at him. "I told you not to curse anymore. I don't care if Dustin does it, or whatever."

"Whatever," he said, throwing the pillow at the back of her head. "So what are we going to talk about tonight?"

"Well, I don't want her asking about Steve anymore," Lucy said, scratching a mark on her paper much harder than she needed to. She cleared her throat and set that paper off to the side. "She just won't take the fact that we broke up almost a year ago. And besides, he has a whole new girlfriend now—y'know, Mike's sister."

     Leo's face scrunched up. "He's dating Nancy?"

     Lucy nodded, her lips pursed cynically. "Yep. But what I mean to say is—I need you to help me keep her off the subject. And, while I'm thinking about it, it might be best to avoid the idea of exes overall. I think talking about Dad's new girlfriend would send Mom into another spiral."

     "And that means meatloaf for dinner every night," Leo deducted, groaning. He stuck out his tongue and gagged. "How does she actually eat that stuff? I mean, it's basically dog food and expired mashed potatoes pounded together into the shape of a big cylinder of.. disgustingness."

Lucy snickered. "Good way to describe it," she granted. "I don't think you should repeat that, though."

He laughed. His walkie talkie crackled for his attention, and he reached for it, pulling out the antenna and holding it up to his ear—the staticky, urgent voice of Mike Wheeler came through the speaker: "Ajax! Do you copy? Leo? Come in, Leo!"

     Lucy turned around curiously, pressing her hands against her knees and leaning forward curiously. "Is something wrong?"

     He gave her a clueless look, shrugging helplessly. He held down the speaking button. "This is Leo—I copy. Over."

     "Somebody beat Dustin's high score on Dig Dug! Over!"

     Leo's eyes widened. He held back a smile. "No way!"

     "Way!" Mike shouted. There was lots of noise in the background; Lucy figured he was at the arcade. "Get over here now! Over!"

     "Woah, hey," Lucy said to Leo, holding out a hand. "We're about to have dinner."

     "Lucy, c'mon, I gotta—"

     "Nope. No. You're not leaving me here alone with Mom." Lucy shook her head decisively, reaching for the walkie talkie. She cleared her throat and held down the button, speaking into the microphone, "This is, uh, Lucy—"

     Mike cut her off. "Code name?"

     She held back a groan. "Blondie here. Ajax has plans for dinner. He can make it by eight, 'kay? Will you guys still be there by then?"

     There came a moment of pause before Mike replied. "You have to say 'Over' so I know when you're done," he said finally. "But let me check with the group. Over."

     Lucy dropped the walkie talkie into her lap and looked to her younger brother, shaking her head. "Your D&D name is Ajax? Like the cleaning product?"

     He stuck out his tongue at her as the radio crackled again and she lifted it back to her ear.

"Tell Leo he can meet us at my place at eight. Over."

She gave her brother a look, and he nodded, holding out a hand for the walkie talkie back. She tossed it to him, then returned to her homework, tapping the eraser of her pencil against her lips as she tried once again on the calculus problem she'd been stuck on for hours by then.

     "I'll take you over to Mike's after dinner," she said over her shoulder. "But you have to help Mom clean up dishes."

     "Deal." He beamed. "And... is your offer for burgers still good?"

                        JONATHAN BYERS WAS ONE OF LUCY'S FAVORITE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD, but she couldn't help the roll of her eyes when he held out an orange flyer to her, grinning like an idiot.

     "You're going," he told her. "No room for argument, sorry."

"Jonathan," she scoffed, turning the combination lock for her locker and opening the door to shove her books in. "Please. I don't do parties. And, now that I think about it, neither do you. What's this about?"

He shrugged, shaking his head casually. "I, uh, I dunno. I mean, Nancy's making me go, so I really don't have a—"

     "Oh." Lucy kept her face hidden in her locker. "Nancy and Steve will be there? Yeah, no thanks. I'd rather stay home and eat my brother's candy."

"Come on," Jonathan begged, "I can't say no to Nancy. And if I have to go, so do you."

She scoffed and took the paper from his outstretched hand, her eyes skimming the spooky font adorning the paper. She lifted an eyebrow. "Come and get sheet-faced? Seriously?"

He laughed. "Bad pun, I know. But yeah, seriously... you're coming. I already told Nancy to tell Anna that you were, so."

"Wow, Jonathan, you almost sound popular."

The smile melted off his face. "Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"

Lucy shrugged innocently, shutting her locker door harder than necessary. "I'm just saying, you don't seem to recognize the fact that Nancy is in a relationship. She doesn't have feelings for you."

     Jonathan's brow furrowed. He shook his head. "What has gotten into you?"

     She met his eyes, twisting her lips off to the side. They held eye contact for a tense moment. Finally, Lucy looked away. "I just—" She sighed, shaking her head. "That was rude. I'm sorry. I do mean it, though, I just didn't mean to say it so harshly. That was an accident. But no, yeah, I did mean it. No. Yeah, sorry for, uh, being mean about it." She winced at her own rambling and cut herself off, shaking her head and exhaling a judgmental huff. "What I mean is, I'm sorry for being rude, but I meant what I said."

Jonathan stared at her with wide eyes beneath a creased brow. "Are you feeling okay?"

Lucy squeezed her eyes shut and covered her face with an open hand. She shook her head, disbelieving of her own idiocy. "Yeah, I'm—I'm fine. Not a lot of sleep recently, y'know. Leo kept me up last night ranting about D&D. Apparently he's reached a certain level and now has a really awesome new spell to use, or something—I don't know."

Jonathan smiled, lightly laughing at the blonde before him. He nodded, tucking his thumbs in his pockets and shrugging his shoulders. "Our brothers and their obsession with Dungeons and Dragons, right?"

     She gave him a faint smile over her shoulder as she returned her attention to her locker. "Right," she agreed, her voice echoing off the metal walls and bouncing back at her discordantly. She reached for her history textbook, hidden beneath a pile of jackets, empty lip gloss tubes, and old math papers with big red F's on them. Her eyes landed on a crumpled-up flyer in the very back, a familiar neon pink color. Scribbled on it in handwriting was a polite little message: You didn't deserve Steve, stuck-up bitch!

Lucy's face stayed expressionless as she reached back and grabbed the paper, crumbling it into a ball and shoving it deep into her pocket. God, she really needed to clear out her locker more often.

Jonathan caught her shift in emotion. "You alright? What was that?"

She managed a smile, lifting her shoulders aimlessly. "Just an uplifting message from my many delightful friends."

He tilted his head to the side, blinking slowly, looking unimpressed at her sarcasm. "They still leaving notes in your locker? That was almost a year ago, Jesus—"

"No, no," she said, waving a hand dismissively. "It's probably old. But either way, it doesn't matter. I don't care."

     "If you say so," he replied, though his tone gave Lucy the impression that he didn't believe her. "Look, about the party—"

     She slammed her door shut, cutting him off as she turned to face him completely, leaning one shoulder against the lockers. "I'll go. You've convinced me."

Clearly pleased with either himself or with her, Jonathan gave her a light smile, nodding. "Yeah, okay," he said. "Sounds good. I'll see you there. Also—it's a costume party, so, uh, be-sure-to-dress-up," he added all in one breath. And with that, he started off down the hall, hastily making his way away from her.

"Jonathan!" she called after him, her jaw hanging open. "Get back here! You know I don't do... costumes," she finished quietly, scoffing softly to herself. Her eyes trailed down to the flyer in her hand once more and she sighed. "I guess I have to find a costume, then."