The next morning is awkward. Mom wasn't back so that meant that they were on their own. Naturally, Jesse and Wyatt decided to drive to school already. The ride was silent as the little shit that was her brother, walked off.

Jesse got out of the car and leaned against her trunk for a moment to herself before going inside the building and meeting up with Nancy and Barb. The trio girls were talking about the chemistry test and Jesse felt the need to slam herself into the lockers for forgetting about the test,

"I'm screwed. Fuck fuck fuck!" Jesse groaned.

"I don't know honestly, I was probably gonna just skip or something. Maybe fake sick or an injury-"

"Will you relax, Jess? I'm sure you'd know a few things." Barb tells her, giving her the most calming smile as they walked down the hallway. Before Barbara can help her with the test, Steve walks by and tugs the papers out of Jesse's hands, Tommy pushing between us and flicking the back of Barb's neck before I can slap at him.

"Let me guess. Jones here forget to study?" Steve teases.

Jesse rolled her eyes, "Yeah, actually. What about it, Harrington."

"Because we're all concerned, Jess. I would copy off of Nancy when needed, she's got this."

Jesse narrowed her eyes as Steve seemingly mockingly teases her, "I can figure it out without cheating, thank you very much."

"Wow, harsh. How's your little brother?"

"Being a little shit as usual, besides why are you even asking? Do you care or trying to make a smart-ass comment?" Jesse grumbled as Steve raises his hands up in defense.

"Oh, relax, it was just small talk." Jesse rolled her eyes as Nancy told him to cool it off a bit, "Now, onto more important matters. My dad's left town on a conference and my mom's gone with him, 'cause, you know, she doesn't trust him."

"Good call." Tommy jokes.

He sends the two girls a hopeful look, "So, are you in?"

"In for what?" Nancy asks.

"No parents? Big house?" Carol speaks up, leaning on the wall with Tommy by her side.

"A party?"

"Ding, ding, ding." The shitty redhead sarcastically quips at Nancy.

"It's Tuesday," Barbara stated.

"'It's Tuesday'." Tommy mocks. "Oh my God."

Steve slaps at his best friend while the freckled boy and his girlfriend laugh, making Jesse give off an annoyed face.

"Come on. It'll be low-key. It'll just be us. What do you say? Are you in or are you out?"

"Um -" Before she can answer, the bell rang and Nancy dragged Jesse away. "Hey, get off me."

Nancy gives Jesse a look as though she lost all brain cells, "C'mon. We have to take this test. It's worth, like, a bunch of points."

Jesse was gonna protest but sadly, she had no saying in it. She was most likely gonna fail anyway so it wasn't gonna matter. She saw the look on Nancy's face, giving her an excited smile and Jesse groaned in realization.

"Shit, we aren't. Please tell me we aren't going to Harrington's stupid party tonight."

"C'mon, Jess. Don't leave me and Barb alone with Tommy and Carol." Nancy pleads for good measures. "Besides, Barb's going but she doesn't want to be alone with them, either."

Jesse narrowed her eyes at Nancy and sighed, "Fine. But only for Barb. And you're giving me your test answers and flashcards."

Nancy rolled her eyes, "Deal."

"Pull over, Pull over," Nancy instructed.

Barb stopped the car and looked at Nancy, her face feeling a bit frustrated. "What are we doing here? His house is three blocks away?"

"We can't park in the driveway," Nancy told them.

"Are you serious?" Jesse rolled her eyes, and Nancy sets down her lipstick for a few seconds.

"Yeah, the neighbors might see," Nancy said, continuing to fix up her makeup.

"This is so stupid. I'm just gonna drop you off and then me and Jess are going to study, maybe get ice cream on the way there."

"Oh, thank God." Jesse clasps her hands, perking up.

Nancy shakes her head. "Calm down, you guys. You both promised that you'd go. You're coming. We're gonna have a great time!"

"You would." Jesse told her, "He just wants to get into her pants." She leaned forward towards Barb.

"No, he doesn't."

"Nance, seriously." Jesse turns to Barb, giving out facts. "He invited you to his house. His parents aren't home. C'mon, you are not this stupid."

"Besides, Tommy and Carol are there."

"Tommy and Carol have been having sex, since, like, seventh grade." Barb points out. Jesse couldn't help but wrinkle her nose and move her head back in disgust. "It'll probably be just, like, a big orgy."

Jesse snorted, "Well that's a hard pass."

"Right?" Jesse high-fived Barb, exchanging each other a smile.

"Gross." Nancy muttered, only for Barb to still hear her.

"I'm serious!" Barb tells her, laughing a little.

"Alright, well... you two can be my guardians. Make sure I don't get drunk and do anything stupid." Barb and I watch as Nancy takes off her sweater and shirt to change her top, and Barb makes a face.

"Is that a new bra?"

"No!" Nancy attempts to lie, but they gave her identical looks of disbelief.

Eventually, they all get out and make the walk to Steve's house and up the driveway to the big red door and Nancy timidly knocks. It's too quiet, making Jesse a bit more irritated. Enough so that she banged on it a few times, making Nancy's eyes widened.

"Jess! Chill."

"I am Chill."

Seconds later the door is pulled open, and the girls look up to see Steve standing with a hand on his hip and a wide smirk plastered on his jerk yet handsome face.

"Hello, ladies."

The group of teens sat outside Steve's house by his pool. Jesse looked around, trying to keep her cool up for her two friends that basically kidnapped her there. She was only calmed thanks to Barbara's presence here otherwise she would've smacked Carol with a ring or something.

Steve at by where Nancy and Jesse were, stabbing a pocket knife into his can of bear, opening the top before chugging, as though he was impressing his friends and Nancy. Jesse couldn't help but roll her eyes once again, scoffing at the many things Steve does but at most fail.

But supposedly that's something that is at least interesting about him.

"Is that supposed to impress me?" Nancy asks, a flirtatious smile gracing her features.

"You're not?"

She smirks. "You're a cliché, you do realize that?"

"You're a cliché, what with your... your grades and your band practice." He throws her way.

"I'm not in band."

"She's not in band." Nancy and I both respond, sending each other a small grin.

"Okay, party girl. Why don't you just, uh, show us how it's done, then?" Steve asks, handing her the knife and an empty can of beer.

She takes it and stands, looking at me nervously, but I only give her a discreet nod. With a shrug she stabs it, opens it, and places her mouth on the small tear.

"Chug, chug, chug, chug, chug, chug... yes!" Steve and his friends cheer as she guzzles it down, but Barb only looks disappointed. I clap for Nancy, though. She did a good job, didn't even spill.

"Nicely done. Very impressive." Steve commends her, and she blushes, brushing her hair behind her ears.

"Thanks. I, uh, had a great teacher." Nancy glanced at Jesse with her arms crossed, causing the teens even Carol to turn and look at Jesse.

"What?!" Carol exclaimed, "Okay, listen here. I've never seen you at a party. How would you know?"

Jesse shrugged, her arms still crossed. "What can I say, I'm just full of surprises."

"Well," Steve went over and grabbed a can, handing it over to Jesse. "Care to demonstrate princess?"

Jesse rolled her eyes, grabbing the can before holding up her hand and Nancy tosses the knife at her She catches it with ease and cuts it open. She quickly chugs the cool beer as though she was in a party, the amounts of the liquid sliding down her throat as she chugged the emptying can. As soon as she was done, she threw the can aside and let out a "Woooo!" before grinning. Wiping the beer off her mouth.

"Damn!" Carol claps. "And here I thought all you were good for was scaring off people."

"I'm multi-talented."

"You've been drinking?" Barb asks, disappointment on her face.

Jesse shrugged, "It's been a long day."

"Too much screwing?" Tommy started, laughing as Jesse let out a silent growl,

"Tommy, buddy, I just dealt with someone who makes you look like a fucking saint. Let's take this shit easy otherwise you're not gonna be able to screw with Carol at all."

He holds up his hands in defeat, "Fine, fine, okay. Settle down. We'll go low smackdown tonight, how's that?"

"Better than the basic that's for sure." Jesse noticed Tommy's usual oogiling then gave out a wink at Carol, who rolls her eyes and crosses her arms in a huff.

"That's the spirit. Look at us, all getting along." Steve grinned, laying on his chair with his hands behind his fluffy hair.

"Barb, you want to try?" Nancy asks, attempting to bring our redheaded friend into the group.

"What? No. No, I don't want to, thanks."

"Come on."

"Nancy, she doesn't have to -" Jesse tries to intervene but Nancy interrupts, taking the knife from Jess and hands Barb a can of beer.

"It's fun, just give it a -"

"Nance -"

"Barb, it's okay. Don't -"

"Just, give it a shot."

With a high level of reluctance, Barb listens, only to miss the can and slice her hand. She caves in on herself in pain while Tommy lets out an unhelpful sound.

"Barb, you're bleeding -"

Jesse rolled her eyes as she picked up Barb, "It's fine Barb. I'll help you to the bathroom."

Steve gets up and Jesse noticed sense of worry in his face, being one of the only out of the three that didn't laugh at Barb's injure, "Hey uh, if you want The bathroom is down past the kitchen, and to the left."

"Thanks," Barb mumbles as Jesse helped her through the bathroom, taking a quick glance at Nancy before walking Barb through the bathroom.

Barb and Jesse reamined in the bathroom at most, helping her hand with the band-aids and paper towels. Afterwards, Barb notices the annoyed face on Jesse and frowned, "Hey, are you okay?"

Jesse looked at her, eyebrow raised. "You're the one bleeding, and you're asking me how I'm doing?"

She shrugs, whincing at bit at the stinging kits that was used, "You just look angry."

"Yeah, well, Nancy has a habit of doing that."

"She's just really into Steve." Barb waves it off, but Jesse can see the hurt in her eyes.

"Still annoying." Jesse sighed, "Seriously can't see what she sees in him."

"Yeah." Barb looks at her. "Are you alright?"

Jesse shrugged, "Just hate where we are now..."

"Hey, let's just stay around a few for Nance and then we'll leave okay?" Barb placed a comforting hand on Jesse, who sighed but nodded.

They both walked out of the bathroom, only to hear people walking up the stairs. They stare up at Nancy as she stands on the steps, wrapped in a towel. "Nancy. Where are you going?"

"Nowhere. Just... upstairs. To change. I... fell in the pool."

Jesse made a silent snort, raising her eyebrows, "Right."

Nancy nods, then looks at the two girls in concern. "Why don't you both go ahead and go home. I'll just... I'll get a ride, or something."

Jesse scoffed as Barb looked worried,

"Nance."

"Barb, Jess.... I'm fine."

Barb shakes her head. "This isn't you."

"I'm fine. Just, go ahead and go home, okay?"

With one last sad look she walks upstairs, leaving her friends on their own. Jesse turned to Barb, "Was I ever like this with a guy?"

"No, not really. You actually had good quality," Barb giggled.

Jesse in her days did dated few other people, though some turned out to be asses or pigs. There were few who were decent but they broke up when he moved and another only lasted a month until she decided that it wasn't gonna work out.

"Hey, why don't we sit outside for a bit? By the pool. Wait and see if Nance changes her mind."

Jesse sighed, "Fine. I suppose I don't wanna leave her here alone anyhow."

Jesse and Barb both climbed onto the diving board and sat with their backs to each other, Jesse felt the back of her hair resting on her shoulder as her feet swang under the pool,

"I hate this," Jesse mumbled enough for Barb to hear.

"I know..." Barb patted Jesse on the head.

"Like, what's the point of making us come if she was gonna ditch us? I had to sit through talking with Tommy and Carol, Barb. Tommy! And Carol!"

"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry you had to come by the way. I know you were planning on doing so much..."

Jesse shrugged, "It's all good I guess. I hate studying much anyway and as if I was gonna leave you here."

The two friends sat in comfortable silence on the edge of the pool, Jesse looking up at Steve's window and noticing Nancy without a shirt on. Jesse shivered a bit before looking away. Whatever they were doing was none of her business.

"Hey um," Jesse started, "I'm gonna go to the bathroom. You wanna leave and do something after that? Like, go get ice cream and study for that test I guess? Or just ice cream and hang out?"

Jesse couldn't help but saw a faint redness on Barb who nodded. "Yeah, I'd like that."

Jesse nods, leaving to make her way back inside before the lights start to flicker. Jesse stops for a second, turning around to face Barb exchanging questioning looks.

"What was that?" Jesse asked.

Barb straightened her glasses as growling sounds were heard and she looks up to see a giant big beast looming over them, face opening like some sort of lethal flower.

"JESSE BEHIND YOU!-" Barb warned,

Only for the slimy creature slithers both of them tight, Barb shrieks, and Jesse yelps as the three figures fall down on the pool and the world went black. No sign of any of the girls of the creature.

Nothing but the pool.