╭                                                                 ╮
━━━━ " 📂  "

𝙋 𝘼 𝙍 𝘼 𝘿 𝙄 𝙎 𝙀

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HAWKINS, INDIANA
1983

SADIE KNEW HER BROTHER WAS HOME when she heard the metallic click of his bike being dragged the final few yards so that it was under the overhang, a thud following as he rather forcibly let go of the handle bars and it collided with the wooden wall.

The door pushed open and Dustin entered the Henderson residence. He was slightly out of breath, leaning against the wall. "Did you race here or something?" His eyes flickered across to his sister, who was cradling the dusty-maroon red phone to her ear, having pulled the armchair besides the kitchen counter. "What - no I'm not saying that to you Nance." Sadie frowned at her brother, who only shrugged as continued on his way.

Sadie sat up suddenly, pulling the phone away from her ear and covering the receiver. "Dusty - mind the cord." She hissed, directing her gaze towards the matching coloured spiral that connected the phone to the wall. "And our food is in the oven, so wash up quickly alright?"

Dustin nodded, making a point of carefully stepping over the cord as he disappearing to his room. Glad to not have caused any casualties, Sadie turned her attention back to her friend.

"Do you think it's too much?" Nancy's worried tone played through. "I mean.. Barb thought the shirt was a lot.. what if she finds out about the bra?"

"Barb isn't trying to punish you for liking him." Sadie shrugged, shifting her position so she could easily get up. Mews shifted in her lap. "She's just cautious... especially because it's Steve Harrington, you know?"

"Yeah I know - and I get that. But sometimes it feels like she's doubting me and-" The rest of Nancy's words were drowned out by the sound of the orange-shaped timer going off.

"I'm sorry Nance, my brother's home and I need to get everything sorted for dinner." Sadie frowned, gently pushing Mews off of her and sitting up. A couple more words were exchanged before a hurried; "Bye, see you tomorrow!" And the Henderson girl leaped up from the chair, throwing a slowly approaching Dustin the handset and hurrying over to the kitchen.

She pulled open the stove door and managed to get the pizza out without burning herself.

"It's a good job I caught that." Dustin approached, peering around her arm. "You got all the toppings again?"

"Well I ordered it when you weren't here, and besides it tastes better that way." Sadie replied. Sunday nights when the two siblings were alone was always pizza night. and the older sister would order in a pizza with either a select few toppings or all of them. This time it was all, and it had also arrived twenty minutes before she expected it to and had put it into the oven to warm up again.

"And the throwing thing?" Dustin waited for her response to his comment.

"I know you have semi-decent hand-eye coordination." Sadie shrugged. "The special pizza cutter is in that drawer,  I'm gonna put some food out for Mews because she won't stop meowing." The cat liked to eat at the same time as her owners - it was rather cute.

Dustin nodded, the pair of them doing as said and in no time at all, the both of them were curled up on the couch, the TV playing any random show they found with slices of pizza balanced on their hands.

"You were back pretty late today," Sadie commented, making sure to flick off a discarded bit of pepperoni. "Any later and Mom would've been back and then we both would've been in trouble."

"We played a ten-hour campaign... got cut off in the end." Dustin managed to get out through a mouthful. "Took two weeks to plan."

"And how did it end?" Sadie asked. Whilst she wasn't as much a particularly avid player of Dungeons and Dragons these days, she once had been, and with her knowledge of the game and closeness with her brother it made her the perfect person to have a conversation about it - and not many people would be.

"Demogorgon." Dustin sighed. "Will could've fireballed him or he could've cast a protection spell."

"Did he roll the thirteen?" Sadie asked, reaching for another slice. "Make sure we save Mom a couple, she'll have been on her feet all day."

"Yeah, yeah." The boy beside her nodded absentmindedly, putting down his plate and hurrying to finish chewing his mouthful. "Anyways, Will rolled the dice but the idiot threw them off the board and we couldn't find them. That was when Mrs Wheeler interrupted and Mike went upstairs - so we told him to make it up that we got the thirteen."

"And when you found them what did you have?"

"Seven." Dustin looked crestfallen and Sadie patted him on the back.

"I think Mom has some ice cream sandwiches in the freezer if that'll cheer you up? And maybe I could make hot cocoa later?" Sadie offered, a smile on her face. "I just have a little last bit to finish on fixing your walkie-talkie though."

"God - is that all you did today?" Dustin looked almost concerned as he looked at his sister.

"Of course not. I worked an hour or so at the cinema because Danny was off sick and Lily couldn't cover all of his shift. Then I went shopping with Nancy and Barb and got lunch.. and then I came back here and dismantled your walkie-talkie for the rest of the day." Sadie shrugged.

"Did you figure out what was wrong with it?" Dustin looked hopeful now that he heard his sister had spent quite some time trying to fix it.

"A few things came loose... I had to re-wire a bit but it was a pretty easy job." The Henderson girl paused. "Oh - do you want some ranch for your crusts?"

"Mhm - yeah, that sounds good." Dustin's attention moved back to the TV screen, which was now playing the Coca Cola ad. "So it's almost fixed?"

"Yup." Sadie nodded, gesturing over to the kitchen island as she passed him the bottle of dressing. "It's got the best lighting for me to work on things... you can watch me do the last bits if you want, but really it's just using a bit of solder to really make sure that everything is kept in place.  You know you really need to be more gentle with that thing."

"I will be." Dustin knew exactly what event had caused his walkie-talkie to stop working - it had fallen off his bike as he was pushing it up the drive, and then he proceeded to throw it onto his bed and miss.

Quite frankly it was a miracle it was still in working condition - Will had done that once and it had shattered the insides. Even Bob Newby - who worked at Radio Shack - couldn't help in fixing it, but had been very helpful with how Will could get another one.

Sadie had gone with the Byers' youngest son to that, listening carefully and ending up in a rather engaging conversation with the intelligent owner of the shop. Then she babysat him for free for a couple of months so that he could get his new one - all she wanted as payment was the bits from his old walkie-talkie and for Will to draw her a picture.

"Promise me?" Sadie held out her pinkie finger and Dustin rolled his eyes at the cliche. "Come on!" She shook her hand, moving it closer to him. "Promise me!"

"Fine, asshole, I promise," Dustin muttered, connecting their pinkies and firmly shaking.

"Good. Now aren't you glad you have a sister like me?" Sadie looked content as she sat back in her seat, holding down her plate for Mews to lick the last couple spots of Ranch off. When it was clean, she stacked it under Dustin's.

"Nancy changed... which officially makes you the favourite sister," Dustin admitted. "Mike says it's since she started dating Steve Harrington."

"Well, Will has always and will forever be my favourite so you know how it feels to be second place as well." Sadie simpered, rolling her eyes. " Anyways, I'm sure Nancy is just going through a rough patch with her family. She seems perfectly fine to me." Sadie replied, but she was twisting the clunky, colourful ring around her finger out of nerves.

At least that was what she hoped - for Sadie, Nancy just seemed a little stressed about the entire thing. With Steve came a new social status, as well as Carol and Tommy H, who followed him around all the time. She was just trying to do her best to make sure they had a good impression of her. Later on, Nancy would probably settle down and return to her normal self.

"You better not do that," Dustin added before he could stop himself, cheeks tinting pink at the realisation. "I mean - what - I.. hate you. Will would be devastated."

"Hate you too." Sadie raised her eyebrows, not buying it for one minute. "And Will has Jonathan, who takes pretty good photos and has great taste in music."

"Lucas and Mike then." Dustin noticed the look she gave him. "Mike has lost his sister in the metaphorical sense. You're all he has left."

"And I'm very grateful for that title, but Nancy-" Before Sadie could finish her sentence, the front door was pushed open and a dart of ginger joined Claudia as she bustled through the door. The pair had been so caught up in their conversation that they hadn't noticed the headlights shining through the drapes over the windows, and were taken by surprise for just a moment.

"Sadie, Dusty - you're still up!" Claudia smiled as she took off her coat, hanging it up on the coat stand. "And you left me pizza!"

"Of course Mom!" Dustin instantly has a gap-toothed smile on his face and helped her with her bags. "Yeah, we left you some pizza and Sadie was just about to do the dishes!"

"Oh you-" Sadie hissed, reaching to smack him across the back of his head but retracting her hand when Claudia looked towards her. "Yep.. that's right.. about to do the dishes."

Dustin and Sadie were undeniably close to their mom and - especially on Sundays - tried to be good kids. On every other Sunday, Claudia would be working the later shift at Bradley's Big Buy, and the two Henderson kids tried their very hardest to keep that day stress free for the woman.

"You're good kids." Claudia squished her daughter into a side-hug and Dustin pulled her onto the couch. "Oh and you have the dressing out already - Mews is in for a treat tonight!"

"She's already had some Mom." Sadie collected up the plates. "Remember what the vet said about her having too much human food? Not only will she get fat, but she'll get sick as well."

"Mewsy isn't getting fat!" Claudia smiled down at the ginger cat mewing at her feet. "Oh yes - come here darling." It took one swift pull on the cat to lift her up into the woman's lap.

As promised and without any proper fight with Dustin over the arrangement, Sadie got on with washing the dishes as Claudia ate.

"Sadie - we're almost out of Ranch, would you mind putting it on the list so I can pick it up tomorrow?" Claudia called.

"Already on it." Dustin slid from his seat, getting up and making his way over to the kitchen. Sadie was stacking the dishes on the side, wiping her hands dry on her jeans.

"I could've done it - I was two seconds away from finishing." Sadie shook her head, pulling out the plug and letting the dirty water out.

"Figured I could do something nice.. you know because you fixed my walkie-talkie." Dustin mumbled, searching the drawers for a pen before finding one and taking down the grocery list from where it was pinned up by an atom-symbol shaped magnet. Sadie had won it at one of the events at Camp Know Where at one of her first visits.

"I told you I didn't want anything for it." Sadie shook her head. "And speaking of your walkie-talkie, I need to go finish putting it back together and carefully clean it out of any dust that's gotten in it before I can even do that."

And with a couple more words exchanged with her Mom, Sadie moved down the colourfully decorated hallways to her room, where the intricate work would continue.

✧

As soon as Sadie was through the threshold of her room, she was sliding the door closed and pulling her belt from her waist, substituting the blouse she had been wearing for a much cosier sweater and discarding her jeans for sweatpants, a sigh escaping her lips as she tied her hair back, the layers that had been cut in at her last visit to the hair dressers already escaping from the tie.

She had wanted to look presentable for when her mom got home - and when Claudia finally did, it seemed to be the sign for her to change into much more comfortable clothes instead of continuing to wear the outfit she had put on to go out earlier that day.

Her stockinged feet padded across the floor - her socks that day were mismatched, one being white with three red stripes near the band and the second being patterned in several bright colours - and Sadie came to a stop by the bookshelf at one end of the room, surveying the shelf that wasn't filled with books, but instead cassettes in cases and vinyls hidden away in their paper covers. They were all lined up neatly, and on the same shelf was her record player, and somewhere on her desk was her Walkman.

After some consideration and a glance at her busy desk, Sadie extracted one of her newer records - Madonna's debut album - and carefully set it down on the platter and move the needle over it.

Moments later and the music was filling the room, luckily not too loud considering the time of night. With a second sigh, Sadie pulled the ponytail of blonde hair tighter and sat down at her desk, the brown leather office chair spinning on it's wheels as she hooked her foot around the back leg of her desk and pulled herself in.

A hand reached around and clicked on the desk lamp, adjusting the location of the bulb and bringing it closer down to the walkie-talkie sat on her desk. But before she got to work, she paused and searched for her glasses, finding them and pushing them up her nose, reaching for the second lamp on her desk.

In reality, it wasn't a lamp, but something she had converted into an adjustable set of magnifying glasses. She had taken apart the original lamp and removed the bulb, instead fitting it with a multitude of lenses of varying magnification. The lenses were attached to the old twisting stand and could be moved around at risk - incredibly useful when it came to it.

In fact, that's what Sadie's room was made up of. Things that were just incredibly useful when they were necessary.

But other than the multitude of experiments, books from the library and her own collection, dismantled walkie-talkies and lamps-turned-magnifying-glasses, Sadie's room seemed more that of a teenage girl.

The frame of her bed was decorated in rainbow fairy lights, the white sheets were layered over by a patchwork blanket that Claudia had made, and a knitted one over that. Several pillows, both decorative and useful lay by the headboard, above which was a multitude of posters from bands, movies and of scientific value.

Beside that was her bedside table, which was fairly neat with the small lamp, two books neatly stacked and the radio hidden behind them. A framed photo of her with her dad, mom and brother sat beside that, as well as a cassette with mixtape she was in the middle of making for Nancy and a multitude of batteries. Then beside that was her bookshelf and a small, comfy armchair angled beside it.

Opposite to that was the built-in wardrobe, the sliding doors inside already half open and nearing the side of her cheval mirror, which had necklaces and jewellery hanging from each ornate carving into the wood and the side of the glass had pictures glued on.

A lava lamp was hidden behind that mirror, as well as several boxes of parts that she needed. By the door was her second desk, which doubled both as a vanity and a much more organised desk for her to do her school work on - the first was always way too cluttered.

Hung up behind the vanity mirror was not only the electric guitar she hadn't played for a couple years, but even more posters, fairy lights and photographs, making sure that every inch of that particular wall was covered in something other than the paint.

Then, in the left over space, came her main desk. It was so incredibly cluttered with books and various bits and pieces - and now had a walkie-talkie in bits. A soldering iron was set up, the sponge below the stand already dry since she had used it.

Behind the folders and clutter was the only window in the room, a wide windowsill below it as it looked out onto the road that lead up to their drive. On said windowsill was all the trophies that Sadie had ever won, lined up in order of size and shared the space with framed certificates or pictures of her shaking hands with the judges or stood by her competition, bright smile on her face.

A plate and glass was stacked at one end, teetering far to close to the edge and almost falling into one of the many plants littered around the room. That didn't seem to be the only thing collecting dust, but several old troll dolls with varied brightly coloured hair was scattered around, as well as several candles Claudia had gotten for her.

Earrings and bead necklaces sat in a small dish, sheets of stickers set under it. Her Polaroid camera was nearby, which helped contribute to the many photos pinned up to her walls besides the less important certificates. A teddy bear was nestled on top of a silk sheet that covered a wicker basket, as well as a chest set sat beside that.

All in all, Sadie's room was a bit of a mess, in the most organised way possible as well as being incredibly cosy and homely.

She still couldn't find her Walkman though, and as she hummed the tune of that Cyndi Lauper song that was playing everywhere, she kept an eye for it whilst getting back to work on the walkie-talkie.

"Shit." A slight panic rose when she realised she couldn't find one of the major screws, one hand holding down the part she was focusing on as she scrambled to find it. Luckily, it had just rolled beneath a book jutting out from the pile and she easily retrieved it, screwing the last part in.

Now she just had to tidy up the protruding wires, which she just managed to tape down when there was a knock on the door.

"Come in!" Sadie was checking which side of the battery needed to go in and pushing it down, repeating with a second and then reaching for the black plastic cover.

Claudia bustled through the door after sliding it open, a pile of clothes in her hand that she carefully to placed down on her bed. "You're going to ruin your posture like that, sweetie." Claudia came to a stop besides her daughters desk. "Nancy's on the line, by the way, sounds a little panicked."

"You wouldn't mind telling her I'll just be a second?" Sadie thanked her mom as she left the room once again, her eyes scanning the desk before selecting a screw driver and pocketing the three plastic screws, picking up the walkie-talkie and heading out.

"Thanks Mom." She whispered as she picked up the phone form her, balancing it between her ear and raised shoulder. "Nance - hi, what's up?"

"I think I picked the wrong shirt." Nancy sounded almost a little panicked, and Sadie listened to her problem with one of the nails between her teeth, placing the cover perfectly in place before somehow managing to put the screw into place, beginning to twist it in.

"How can I help?" Sadie asked, adjusting her position so she was leaning against the wall more which allowed the phone between her two body parts to rest easier. "None of the stores are open any more.. but I think Ally might be happy to lend you one if I give her a call."

"I was thinking that he'd like your shirt more? I know it won't fit me better... but if I could just borrow it until tomorrow night so I can return it?" Nancy sounded hopeful. Sadie was only half focused on what she was saying, screwing in another nail. "I would ask Ally but..."

"No worries." Sadie cut her off, switching shoulders. "I doubt that Steve would even notice - he's a bit of an idiot - but I can come by in the morning and drop it off.. what time do you get up again?"

"He's not an idiot." Nancy protested. "Quarter to seven." She added meekly. "Thank you so much for this Sadie... and you wouldn't mind bringing that matching lip gloss with you either?"

"No of course not." Sadie said, finishing the last nail and sliding the screwdriver into her pocket, and after a couple more checks. holding the phone and moving down the hallway, she reached the door into Dustin's room and pulled it open. Her brother looked up, neither saying anything but his eyes lighting up when he saw the walkie-talkie. Sadie threw it at him, smiling when he caught it perfectly.

"Good catch!" She called after him when she slid the door closed, regretting just how tight she pulled the cord and returning to where it was attached to the wall.

"Good catch?" Nancy repeated. "Is there someone else there?"

"Just talking to my brother." Sadie replied, hand reaching up and fiddling with the miniature compass charm that hung on the silver chain around her neck. "But I'll see you tomorrow morning right? I can drive you to school if you want."

"I'll let my mom know you're coming over." Nancy replied. "See you tomorrow Sadie."

"Oh - Nancy - just quickly; you haven't happened to see my Walkman anywhere? I seemed to have lost it?"

"I don't think so, but Ill check my room, the basement and ask my mom if she's seen it." Nancy replied instantly, plan already laid out. "Bye Sadie."

"Bye Nance." Sadie smiled as she hung the phone back up, returning to her desk and deciding to clean it up a little before she got ready for bed.

But even that wouldn't help - all she found was the empty case that held her tape of Queen songs that she had been listening to last.