•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐎𝐍𝐄

•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧

     ADELINE BYERS WORD OF THE DAY WAS "UNEVENTFUL". As in, this school year will be spectacularly uneventful. Of course, it hasn't happened yet, but a girl could dream. After everything that she and her brother (and everyone, really) went through, she decided that she'd be perfectly happy if nothing exciting happened... ever.

At the same time, also because of everything they'd gone through, she did have that nagging feeling that things wouldn't end up as boring as she'd like. After all, she now knew what kind of monsters were out there.

The moment her alarm went off, she sat up and mentally told herself that today would be a good first day. She got up half an hour earlier than normal to attempt to give herself a cute hairdo.

And she was going to put together a nicer outfit since it was the first day and all, but she decided against it at the last minute. After all, who did she have to impress?

It took a lot longer than anticipated because the next thing to happen was the bathroom door swinging open, revealing her best friend, Steve Harrington, on the other side.

"Didn't you hear me honk? We gotta go or we're gonna be late!"

"Good morning to you too sunshine."

"Are you even ready yet?"

"Wait how do you know I wasn't in here changing?"

"Because the door wouldn't have opened. Now chop chop!"

Adeline groaned as she rushed to her room and grabbed her backpack. Taking a few extra seconds to quickly look inside and make sure she had enough notebooks, pens, pencils, and highlighters, she zipped it shut and took one last look in the mirror.

"Anytime now Addie," Steve huffed.

"Okay okay sorry I'm ready!"

When she exited her room and walked down the hall to the kitchen, Will sat patiently waiting, shoes and backpack already on. Steve on the other hand, stood impatiently waiting, tapping the watch on his wrist.

"You look pretty Addie," Will commented as he stood up and followed them out to Steve's car.

"Aww, c'mere!" A chase ensued, with Will just barely beating his sister to the car. He hopped into the front seat, a big grin on his face.

It was a somewhat new tradition that on the first day of each school year, Steve would pick Addie and Will up and they'd all ride to and from school together. Once Addie got her license, they decided that they'd alternate giving each other rides to school, jumping at the opportunity to save a little gas money.

(a/n: pretend you get your license at 15 lol)

That sort of changed when Steve started dating Nancy Wheeler, but Addie didn't mind. It was just sort of unspoken that their carpooling was a thing of the past.

But out of the blue Steve called their house phone last night and told Addie (and Will) to be ready as usual for the first day. A little suspicious, but not wanting to question a free ride, Addie agreed. So when she walked out to the car and didn't see Nancy and Mike in the car too, she was still confused.

"Shit," Addie sighed once they'd left the neighborhood. Will turned around to glance at his sister, a little worry visible in his facial expression.

"You okay Addie?"

She smiled and nodded in response. The whole... situation, brought the siblings a lot closer.

"I'm good, just realized that my first breakfast of senior year will have to be from the cafeteria," she made a face, not even wanting to think about what slop they were serving this morning. Lunch's were alright, but breakfast... good luck.

"That would be the case, IF you didn't have the coolest, most awesome best friend in the entire world!" Steve exclaimed, motioning for Will to grab something at his feet.

His face lit up as he produced a big bag with that familiar yellow "M" on it.

"And he's so humble too!" She laughed, leaning forward to see what was in the bag. "Seriously though you're a lifesaver. I'll leave early and get breakfast tomorrow."

A short drive later, and they pulled in to the school parking lot. The 3 got out, Will hugging Addie and thanking Steve before running off to the junior high to find his friends.

Addie spotted Nancy, who was saying bye to Mike as he ran off after Will. When she turned and saw Addie and Steve, but only smiled / waved at Addie before turning and heading towards the school, that's when she knew something was up.

"What did you—"

"I don't know," Steve shrugged, already anticipating her question.

"Really, you have no idea why she's ignoring you like that?" Addie raised an eyebrow.

Holding his hands up in defense, Steve shrugged again, insisting he had no idea why Nancy could be upset at him right now.

After comparing their new schedules, they were pleased to see that they had 4 out of 6 classes were together despite being in different grades. Addie had always been a bit of an overachiever and usually tested into higher level classes.

"So ringleader, where's your posse?" Addie asked, looking around.

"Alright they're your friends too," Steve rolled his eyes, but let a little laughter slip.

"I mean, I guess. The difference being if you weren't there I definitely wouldn't be, but you'd still hang out with them even if I didn't."

"In this scenario why aren't you hanging out with us?"

"I don't know, I'm just saying if I didn't exist or something. The only thing I have in common with Tommy for example, is that we're both friends with you."

"Hey he's not a bad—"

"He's an asshole." Addie laughed, knowing Steve couldn't disagree.

The first half of the day went by quickly, and before everyone knew it, it was time for lunch. Addie rushed to her locker, wanting as much time to eat as possible.

"Crap," Addie cursed herself more mentally when she realized that she grabbed one of the wrong textbooks. She turned to Steve, who stood leaning against his locker, waving at friends who passed by. "You go ahead I'll catch up in a minute."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, and maybe go find your girlfriend and fix whatever you did while you're at it."

"Hey how do you know that I'm the one that did something??"

Addie sighed. "Because I know how you can be when you're mad or upset."

"Alright you win! See you in the cafeteria."

As she made her way to her locker, she felt someone bump into her, causing her to almost lose her balance.

"I am so sorry—"

"Hey watch where you're going freak!"

Addie spun around to see Jason Carver glaring at the person who'd bumped into her.

She wasn't that familiar with Jason, and in fact she's pretty sure he was a grade below her. But he was already a part of the popular crowd, thus making them acquaintances at best.

"Jason it's fine, it was an accident." He looked like he wanted to say something else, but his girlfriend came by just then, stopping to say hi to Addie as she grabbed his hand and continued down the hall.

"Sorry about that," Addie turned to the guy still standing in front of her. "For the record, I don't think you're a freak, Jason just has major anger issues."

The boy gave her a shy smile, "it's fine, I've been called worse."

"Yo Eddie you coming or what?!" A boy shouted down the hall, causing Eddie to groan and turn around, shouting back just as loud that he'd be right there.

After apologizing again, he took off down the hall.

Eddie, Addie repeats the name to herself. She's seen him around the halls a few times since her freshman year, but this is the first time she's heard his name. And he must be a senior, because she hasn't had any classes with him.

Laughing to herself as she thinks about how the year is already off to a great start, Addie turns back to open her locker. After swapping out the necessary textbooks, she closes it and shrugs her backpack off to put the books inside.

Before she even had a chance to react or move out of the way, someone else bumped into Addie, this time causing 2 of her books to fall to the floor.

"I'm so sorry!" it was a fault of Addie's, partly why those she was close with, were so protective of her. Even if something wasn't her fault, which this clearly wasn't, Addie was quick to apologize.

"Why don't y— oh."

Glancing up at the person that crashed into her, the first thought she had was wow, his eyes are a pretty blue.

"Uh, sorry about that," the boy bent down to pick up Addie's dropped textbooks. "I wasn't looking where I was going."

"It's okay," Addie smiled. "Are you new to Hawkins?"

"That obvious? Guess I shouldn't have my head down looking at my schedule."

She laughed, partly from nerves. "No I just meant I don't think I've seen you around school before."

"I'm Billy," he held out a hand.

Addie was a little surprised, not used to people her own age being so formal. Still, she held out her hand and they shook.

"Adeline, but everyone calls me Addie."

"Beautiful name for a beautiful girl, Adeline." He smirked, and Addie knew from their brief interaction that he was a 'ladies man' and that smirk even though they just met let her know he probably got any girl he wanted.

"Thanks," she zipped up her backpack and put it back on, wondering how their conversation would end. It seemed rude to just leave him to fend for himself at lunch, but at the same time she didn't want to make him feel obligated to join her table if he didn't want to.

"Addie you good?" they both turned to see Steve had returned and was now standing right next to Addie.

"Just talking to my new friend here," Billy flashed a smile.

Steve nodded but didn't return the smile, and Addie was quick to notice.

"Alright well, our friends are waiting for us, so..."

"Umm, bye Billy it was nice meeting you, maybe I'll see you around!" Addie turned around and waved as Steve practically dragged her to the cafeteria. Once they were no longer in Billy's line of vision, Addie came to a sudden stop and stared at the strange guy she called her best friend.

"What?" He shrugged.

"Wanna tell me what the hell that was? He was nice, and he bumped into me on accident."

"Guy's a creep. Surprised you didn't see him pull into school, or hear him too. Car's so loud, he's a tool."

Hearing that, she rolled her eyes. "You've got to be kidding me. I love you but you are not the best judge of character. And I seem to remember you were a "tool" not so long ago too."

"I'm just trying t—"

"To scare off any guy that wants to talk to me? You had no right to butt in like that." Addie crossed her arms, becoming more upset.

"I just think he's bad news." Steve shrugged, not understanding why Addie was so upset.

"Did you not hear what I JUST said? This time last year you were the bad news. And where do you get off interfering with someone I might want to be friends with? And why did you come back anyway, I said I'd meet you in the cafeteria."

"Tommy said he saw—"

Addie laughed, cutting Steve off. "Riiiight. Because Tommy definitely has my best interests at heart. You know what on second thought I think I'll skip lunch today. Might get ahead on some studying and fixing my notes, already have a quiz on Friday."

"Seriously? Because I scared some guy off?"

"First of all I don't think you scared him off, you dragged me away. Second of all, yes, seriously. You're a real jerk sometimes." Addie finally walked off, ignoring Steve calling her name.

"Addie! C'mon Addie I'm sorry!"

•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧

Once she got to the library, Addie was actually glad she decided to go there. She really did have a quiz on Friday and knew she'd need all the studying she could get. Okay, she was a straight A student who never earned less than 95% on any tests and quizzes, but the extra studying wouldn't hurt.

Still though, she was hungry. And annoyed at Steve, she was already mentally preparing to rush to her brother's car after school and make up some excuse why her and Will needed a ride home.

After a few minutes of studying, Addie felt the presence of someone standing next to her.

"Is this seat taken?"

"Oh, Billy! Hi, no, sorry here let me just..." she quickly gathered the papers that she had scattered across the table.

Billy took a seat across from her, but Addie noticed he set his backpack down on the floor, not actually taking anything out.

"Are you here to study too?"

"No, just saw you walk in here and figured I'd say hi, we didn't get to finish our conversation by your locker."

Addie blushed a little from embarrassment. "Yeah, sorry about Steve, he's kind of..."

"An over protective boyfriend? I get it."

"Oh no no no," Addie shook her head. "We're not dating. Never have. He's my best friend."

Billy raised his eyebrows, clearly surprised and a little skeptical.

"I've known him since we were kids," she continued. "He's always been like that."

"You sure he's not in love with you?"

Addie had been taking a sip from a bottle of water, and nearly did a spit take from how caught off guard she was. "Steve? No way."

"If you say so," Billy shrugged, but he didn't believe it. He'd seen the way Steve looked at him when he saw that Addie was the girl he was talking to.

But part of that excited him. If there was one thing Billy Hargrove loved, it was a challenge.

•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧

a/n: hopefully people caught on but with the new update, yes that was eddie munson referenced ❤️ if my math is correct, this is his first attempt at senior year. because season 3 would be his second, we know that since season 4 he's doing it for the 3rd time.