"What if I'm back by ten?"

"Jenna, I've told you already that the answer is no."

Jenna Howard groaned in annoyance as she stood up and took her empty dinner plate to the sink. "But, Mom, it's Craig Bennett. He's on the football team."

"And that's supposed to make me change my mind?" Dorothy Howard retorted, raising her eyebrows at Jenna. "Besides, don't you have to study for chemistry?"

"Look, I know it's a school night, but we're only going to his house," Jenna replied, turning on the sink and rinsing her plate off.

"To his house? Jenna Howard--"

"Just please let me go, Mom. I promise, I won't stay out too late."

Dorothy huffed a sigh. "No, Jenna. That's final."

Jenna rolled her eyes and placed her plate in the sink, "Fine, then. I'll just go upstairs and study for chemistry."

"You go do that," she said, shooting her daughter a soft smile.

"I will." She smiled back and then strolled upstairs and into the bedroom, closing the door behind her.

I can study for chemistry later, she thought. Though she didn't think any amount of studying would help, as she was never good at the subject. But if there was anything she excelled in, it was sneaking out of the house.

Looking in the mirror, Jenna fixed her hair and grinned at her reflection. Then, she went to the window and cautiously opened it, trying not to make too much noise. She slipped out and closed the window down, turning on her feet as smoothly as possible. Jenna slid down the small roof, using the fence where her mom kept a small garden, and placed her feet there. Finally, once Jenna was standing up, she let go of the gutter that she was hanging onto and landed in the grass. Jenna spun around to see her mom sitting in the living room, watching TV, making a dash out of the front yard and down the sidewalk, finding Craig leaning against his car in the distance.

"I didn't think you'd show up," he stated, his hands in his jacket pockets.

"Well, Craig, considering that you called me only two hours ago and I had to come up with a plan to sneak out..." Jenna walked his way and stopped once she was in front of him.

"Okay, that's fair," he replied.

Craig Bennett was a guy that all the girls wanted. He was on the basketball team and incredibly good-looking with his blond hair resembling Rick Springfield, which, by default, made him popular and an eye-candy to all the girls at Hawkins High School. Jenna always thought Craig was attractive, and she didn't think he felt the same way about her until he called her a couple of hours ago, wanting to meet up. Why he wanted to get the phone book and call her, out of all the girls at the school, Jenna had no idea. But she wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to hang out with him, not when he could've easily asked anyone else, like her close friend Janet Attaway, or some snobby cheerleader.

Jenna grinned at Craig, sighing. "I knew my mom wouldn't let me come out tonight with it being so late, which is why I asked you to meet me down the street from my house instead of out front."

"Smart thinking," Craig said. "Shall we go, then?"

So he led her to his blue with a white striped 1978 Dodge Aspen. Jenna recognized the car from a magazine her mom had read the other day. It was so shiny and clean that she ran my hand along the door, admiring it.

"Nice ride," she told him.

Craig laughed. "Thanks. My dad was very generous for my sixteenth birthday."

Craig unlocked the car and Jenna hopped in, huffing a sigh. "So, your place?" she asked, closing the door.

"Well, I was thinking about heading to Cornwallis and Kerley," he answered, closing his door and starting the car up.

"There, huh?" she questioned. "Let's go, then."

Craig smirked as he drove off. Jenna turned on the radio and listened to the music as they cruised down the streets of Hawkins. With every lit house that we passed, she grinned even more, letting herself forget about my worries for tomorrow when she went to school. For now, Jenna Howard was with Craig Bennett, being carefree.

Once they got to the middle of nowhere, basically, Craig parked the car on the side of the road, letting the car stay on. He turned up the radio, letting Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On" fill the car up. What a coincidence.

"So, what no--" Before Jenna could finish the sentence, Craig cut her off with a searing kiss on my lips. She pulled away, her heart beating fast. "Damn."

"You like that?" he questioned, smirking even more.

She smiled, nodding her head. "Hell yeah, I did." So she grabbed him and pulled him in for another kiss.

With the beat of the music, they got deeper into the kiss. Jenna climbed into the driver's seat, letting his hands roam to the bottom of her shirt.

"Hey, Craig, I want...I want to ask you something," she panted, getting my hair out of my face.

"Sure, what is it?" he responded.

"Why did you ask me to come hang out with you tonight?" she asked.

"Because I think you're cool," he admitted. "Plus, you're kind of hot, too."

"Oh, really?" Jenna inquired, raising her eyebrows in a flirtatious way, adding a small smirk. "You're not too bad yourself."

Craig chuckled. "Yeah, I get that a lot."

"From those snooty cheerleaders, you mean," she retorted.

"They're not all snooty," he told me.

"From what Janet and I have observed since freshman year, I think they are."

Craig playfully rolled his eyes at me. "Can I kiss you again?"

So Jenna let him ravish my lips once more. Just when she was about to go for his neck--

BANG!

She shot up, looking out at the road. "What the hell was that?" Jenna peeked outside, along with Craig, watching as a teenager ran down the road.

"That looked like Carter the Cutter," Craig said, sounding disgusted. "What did he do, throw a damn rock at my car?"

Jenna rolled my eyes in annoyance. "Just let him go. He's just being a weirdo, like always."

Carter Page was the weird kid at Hawkins High School. He always looked tired with his baggy eyes and exhausted face and never wore anything that revealed his arms or legs. Of course, he got his name "Carter the Cutter" due to the others assuming that he cut himself, though no one actually knew if that was the case.

Jenna turned Craig's head so that he was facing her again. She pressed her lips onto his once more, getting both of them back into the mood.

BANG!

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Craig shouted in frustration, turning off the car. "I'm going to kill that little shit!"

"Craig, just forget about him!" Jenna protested, but he had already opened the car door and stormed out, followed by her.

"Where are you, emo?!" he called out.

"Craig, someone will hear us!" she hissed at him. "Come on, let's just go!"

"Or we can go find that freak and make him pay for messing with us," he suggested. "Come on. I think he shouldn't be too far."

Huffing a sigh, Jenna went after him, the night air getting colder the more they kept walking. It was getting more quiet as the two went on, reaching the point where they last saw Carter, with no sign of him anywhere.

"Where the hell did that freak go?" Craig asked in annoyance. "You think he went in the woods?"

"With it being this dark out? Probably not."

He stared at the entrance of the woods, then back at Jenna, grinning. "Is that your way of saying that you're too scared to go in the woods this late at night?"

Jenna smiled back sheepishly. "No. I'm just saying that no one just wanders in these woods at night. There's no telling what's hiding in there."

"What, like some sort of monster or something?" Craig joked.

She rolled her eyes in response. "There's no such thing as monsters, Craig."

"Hey, you never know. Hawkins may have some secrets we don't know about." He raised his eyebrows.

Jenna laughed at this. "Come on. In this little town? Hawkins is nothing but just some silly little dot on the map."

The girl had lived in Hawkins all her life. She had never witnessed anything that was out of the ordinary in the quiet town. Really, she thought there was nothing special about the place, as nothing about it changed since she had been here. For as long as she could remember, Hawkins was nothing short of boring, which was why she, along with her friends, had to make it fun.

"Well, if you don't think monsters are real and Hawkins is just some silly little dot on the map, then you won't have any issue going in the woods with me to find that freak." Craig took her hand, leading her towards the trees.

Jenna let out a nervous laugh, shaking her head. "I don't know, Craig."

"Oh, come on. I'll protect you."

"How sweet of you. But maybe we should just get out of here."

Craig chuckled a little. "I've never seen you so skittish, Jenna. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she simply said. "Now, can we please just go? Carter won't bother us agai--"

SNAP!

The two quickly turned their heads towards the woods, finding no one around, which caused Jenna to freak out a little on the inside. She hoped that Craig was getting a bit nervous, too, so that they could finally leave.

But instead, Craig's face was filled with anger once again, exhaled loudly, shaking his head in anger. "I'll get him. I swear to God, I will. You hear that, freak?! I'll get you!"

Suddenly, not too far from them, the two heard the sound of growling, making them turn at the edge of the woods. Jenna felt my heart beating faster as she swallowed hard, unsure of what they just heard. "Craig, I think we should go now."

He nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah, come on."

With no other arguments, they piled back into his car and sped off. Jenna felt at ease when they left, and she knew that Craig did as well.

"So, uh, any other places you wanna go?" he asked. "Maybe Lover's Lake? I heard there's a really nice spot where no one could find us."

"Actually, I think I just wanna go home," she replied awkwardly. "I...I need to study for that chemistry test on Tuesday."

Craig stared at Jenna briefly before he reluctantly nodded his head. "Yeah, okay. I should probably study for it, too. Kaminsky's tests are a real pain in the ass to get a decent score on."

Jenna nodded her head, knowing that the last thing Craig would probably do was study for a test.

The two remained silent for the drive back to her house. She looked down at her hands, feeling a bit awkward now. There was a part of her that wondered what would've happened if Carter the Cutter hadn't interrupted their alone time. Then, she thought about if anything would've happened if she and Craig went out in the woods to go find him, which she was glad they didn't, as she really didn't want to deal with that freak tonight, anyway. But there was always school tomorrow, since the boy hardly missed a day at school, from what Jenna noticed.

Craig pulled up just down the street from her house like before, huffing a sigh. "Well, I enjoyed our very short time together tonight."

Jenna nodded my head in agreement. "I did, too." She opened the car door and got out, closing the door behind her.

As she looked back at the car, Craig rolled down the passenger window. "See you at school. Goodnight, Jenna."

She waved at him. "Goodnight, Craig."

With that, he gave her one last smile and Jenna watched as he drove off into the night.

~~~~~~~

A/N: Well, after 6 months, I finally started this story!

I am super excited for this story, as it is waaaaay out of my comfort zone, so let's see how it goes!

What do y'all think so far? What do you think of Jenna?

Comment, vote, I can't wait for you all to read this!

-A