╭                                                                 ╮
━━━━ " 📂  "

𝙋 𝘼 𝙍 𝘼 𝘿 𝙄 𝙎 𝙀

╰                                                               ╯

SADIE WASN'T IN THE HABIT OF WAKING UP LATE, however she was in the habit of forgetting to set her alarm after the weekend and waking up to have books scattered around her from where she fell asleep reading.

That morning, the usual scene was joined by her Mom peering over her. "Am I going to have to set your alarm for you?" She asked once she saw her daughter's eyes open, bustling around to try and clean up some of the mess. "

"No... I've got it." The girl's hands dig into her mattress as she sat up, rubbing her eyes and blindly picking up one of the books, reaching around to place it on her bedside table.

Claudia tutted and took the book herself, placing it on the bookshelf. "Come on - I found pancake mix in the refrigerator." The woman placed a kiss on the top of her daughter's head and smoothed out her hair.

Sadie knew about the pancake mix - she had bought it the day before. "I got blueberries as well!" She called after the woman, covering her mouth as she yawned and shifting to the side of the bed, eyes landing on a faded flower-patterned mug with a familiar drink in it. "Thanks for the coffee!" The girl added as she pushed herself to her feet.

Padding over to her wardrobe, Sadie jumped as Mews wrapped herself around her legs, reaching down to scratch between her ears before selecting jeans and a striped sweater, quickly changing into them before sitting down by her mirror, hurriedly pulling her hair up.

She dabbed a little bit of makeup under her eyes and applied some mascara to her lashes to look a little more alive, pinching colour into the end of her nose and applying just the tiniest bit of lipgloss, before selecting another and throwing it in the direction of her bag, where the shirt she was lending to Nancy was sat.

After searching around for her Walkman a little longer she was forced to give up the search, shoving everything she needed into her bag, selecting a pair of shoes and almost forgetting her coffee as she left the room.

Sadie dumped her bag and shoes near to the front door, checking her appearance in the nearest reflective surface one more time. Dustin was already sat by the kitchen island, drizzling syrup over the pancakes that Claudia had made.

"I've put some bacon on as well." Mrs Henderson smiled at her daughter. "Hurry up and sit down, come on."

"Just a moment..." Sadie was checking she had everything, reaching for her set of keys from the bowl near the door and pocketing them. Finally she sat down, watching as Dustin scarfed down more pancake. "I'm going to Nancy's now so I can't drive you to school, do you want me to pick you up?" She asked, sliding her plate in front of her.

"I think I'm probably gonna go to Mike's." Dustin shrugged. "The campaign ended weird last night."

"Fair enough." Sadie shrugged. "Oh - and have you stolen my Walkman?"

"What?" Dustin replied - at least that's what she thought he said; his mouth was too full and he sprayed pancakes everywhere.

Behind them, the phone began to ring.

"I'll get it." Sadie's nose was wrinkled as she wiped her face in disgust, sliding off of the stool. "My Walkman." She repeated, turning back to Dustin. "Did you steal it?"

"What?" Dustin repeated again, looking a little more exasperated. "Of course I didn't!"

"Ok, ok." Sadie looked meaningfully over at Claudia, who was humming by the stovetop. "Shhh." She raised a finger to her lips to silence him properly as she reached for the phone, swallowing and assuming her sweetest tone. "Henderson House, how can I help?"

"Sadie - it's Joyce." The voice was instantly recognisable; she had heard it in real life and over the phone so many times. Will really liked having her babysit him, even if Jonathan was at home. That gave the two teenagers time to hang out when the usually didn't, and Sadie didn't mind to pose for Jonathan's photos of his teacher insisted he focused on human life as well as natural.

"Good morning Mrs Byers." Sadie leant against the wall, shrugging when she saw Dustin's expression. "Did Will asked you to call to remind Dustin to bring his copy of X-Men 134?"

Dustin's eyes widened. "Traitor!" He hissed.

"X-Men 134...?" Joyce repeated, clearly confused. "No - no I'm not calling for a comic book. I was just wondering.. er... erm did Will stay over last night?"

Sadie frowned. "Not.. that I know of?" She glanced around, as if the small boy would pop out of any shadow. "But hold on - I can ask." She took the receiver away from her ear. "Mom? Dusty? Did Will stay over here last night?"

All she got was resolute shakes of their heads.

Sadie moved the phone back to her ear. "I'm sorry Mrs Byers, I don't think he's here. I can check at the Wheelers  - I'm about to head over there now."

"Well - well - I called, but Karen said he wasn't." Joyce let out a sigh. "Could you keep an eye out for him?"

"Mrs Byers?" Sadie was beginning to get the distinct feeling of worry settling in her stomach. "Is everything okay?"

But before Sadie could get an answer, Claudia was bustling over. "Did you say Joyce is on the phone?" The younger girl nodded. "There are some pancakes and bacon on the side."

"Alright, thanks Mom. I'll keep an eye out, Mrs Byers." Sadie promised as she handed over the phone, sliding into the seat beside Dustin. Luckily, he didn't seem to pick up the majority of the conversation and was fashioning the bacon on top of one of the pancakes into a smiley face, two of the blueberries evenly spaced and looking like eyes.

Hopefully, it was just a misunderstanding on Joyce's behalf and Will would turn up at school, right as rain.

But Sadie couldn't help but worry otherwise, and would keep an eye out like promised.

✧

Will was nowhere to be seen on Sadie's drive from her house on Sycamore up onto Maple. At some point, she was confused between the point of hoping she would find him there and not; it was an awful image but if he had an accident then she would easily find him there. But not finding him there even meant he had an accident further down or was a lot or closer to his house than initially thought.

But alas, there was no sight of Will or his bike - which was relatively new and instantly recognisable - on her drive, and feeling a little disappointed Sadie pulled up at the end of the cul-de-sac right by the Wheeler's neatly kept front lawn. She leant across the console and pulled her bag over it (but not without accidentally letting it collide with the gear stick) and reached for the door handle.

It took her just a few seconds to cross the grass, not really caring about the path or driveway but almost wishing she took it as the dew set into the canvas areas of her shoes, coming to a stop by the front door, having carefully stepped over the small row of hedges that lined the path.

Normally she entered through the basement door, but at that time of the morning she knew nobody would be down there and it would give Mrs Wheeler the fright of her life if she suddenly emerged from the closed off staircase.

So instead of just walking in like she was usually permitted to do, Sadie reached for the doorbell, pressing it twice in quick succession and stepping back.

Ted opened the door for once, taking one look at Sadie and her car over her shoulder before holding the door for her and letting her step in.

"Nancy!" He called into the house. "Your friend's here!"

Moments later and Sadie could hear the thudding on the landing, Mrs Wheeler rushing over to give her husband his lunch and briefcase calling up for whoever it was to stop running.

"Oh thank god." Nancy was rushing down the stairs and very almost collided with a waiting Sadie. "You're a life saver!"

"It's all in there, but if you need my help just shoot." Sadie held out her bag, not worrying too much about it as Nancy disappeared again, ready to change out of her pajama shirt.

"Have a good day!" Mrs Wheeler called after Ted, before turning back around to Sadie. "Good morning sweetie, you came for Nancy?"

"Good morning." Sadie nodded, waving over at the breakfast table where a very excited Holly was beginning to splash her cereal around at the sight of the older girl. "Nancy called last night, asked to borrow a shirt and some lip gloss so I came to bring that."

"You should come over for a sleepover soon. It's been so long since you two had a girls night - I can go out and get a few of the latest products in the magazines and make some brownies and rent a movie for you two to watch." Mrs Wheeler suggested, smiling down at the girl. "Oh - just a moment."

She bustled back into the dining room to unclip Holly from her seat - she was beginning to make quite the noise at the visit from Sadie and was very close to throwing her bowl across the room.

Holly was only young, but she quickly became attached Sadie. It was since the very first time they met - something about the blonde girl had stopped the baby crying and in all honesty the Henderson girl loved children and would happily sit with Holly for hours as she got older, letting her nap on her whilst her and Nancy watched TV during their weekends spent together, or holding hands with her when Mrs Wheeler and her mom took the three girls on a shopping trip to the big mall a couple towns over.

"Hi Holly!" Sadie knelt down and let the girl run up to her and hug her. "You're all sticky, come on, let's go back to mommy and get you cleaned up."

She pulled the girl back into the dining room, watching as Mrs Wheeler managed to get Holly to stay still for long enough to get her cleaned up.

"You did manage to have breakfast before you came, didn't you?" Mrs Wheeler asked as she straightened herself up, Sadie giving into Holly's pleas and picking her up, balancing the little girl on her waist.

"Yes, thankfully I managed to get a few things in." Sadie confirmed. "Actually.. Mrs Wheeler, you wouldn't happen to have seen Will this morning, would you?"

"Did Joyce call you as well?" Karen began to tidy up the breakfast table. "I'm terribly worried about him, but Joyce just said that she thought he left early for school."

"Maybe he did.. I kept an eye out on my way here but I didn't see any signs of him." Sadie replied, and despite the serious topic she was smiling at Holly as the little girl fiddled with a curl of her hair.

"Sadie?" A new voice joined the mix and Mrs Wheeler glanced warningly at the Henderson girl as she looked over at Mike - it seemed she wasn't supposed to be saying anything about his potentially missing best friend, which made sense; it would just freak him out only for Will to turn up in an hour or so.

"Hi Mike." Sadie grinned. "How was the campaign last night - I heard it got cut short."

"Yeah.. just a bit." Mike nodded. He looked confused for a moment. "Er - why are you here?"

"Dropping off something to Nancy, and I'll be driving her to school." Sadie paused, glancing at the girl in her arms "Mrs Wheeler - would you want me to drop Holly off at daycare on my way?"

"No, no." Karen shook her head. "Thank you for offering though - hit me and Holly are going to go to the park today, right Hol?"

Holly nodded, reaching for her mom, who extracted her with ease from Sadie's arm.

"And what about Will's defeat of the Demogorgon?" Sadie asked, thinking back to what Dustin told her. "Did he manage to get the thirteen?"

"No.. it was a seven, actually." Mike shrugged. "But it's fine, I'll probably start planning the next campaign soon and try and make sure we don't have to finish earlier."

"Death to a Demogorgon is a noble way to go either way. And good idea - hey, you didn't happen to see my Walkman down in the basement?" Sadie asked, desperate to try and find it before digging into her pocket money to go and buy another one from Radio Shack.

It wasn't the amount of money that was the problem really. Kind of. Sadie had all her money separated into two different funds. One was what she was actually saving money in, and the other was the money she could freely spend. Perhaps she would dip a little into her savings - perhaps ten dollars or so to add to the thirty she could take from her spending money.

But no, money was fortunately no problem for the oldest Henderson girl. Her problem wasn't really a problem at all - it was just that she would often get into very long chats with Bob Newby about new technological advances or questions she had about other things. They once had a conversation about the new development of MTV that lasted for about an hour and half.

(It had only come to an end because Claudia called the shop; Sadie had only mentioned going into to pick up a few pieces as she went and got a few items from the food shop. It wasn't hard to guess where she had gotten distracted: she was a lot more interested in radios then Eggos, to say the least.)

"No, sorry." Mike shrugged, sitting on the bottom step to do up the laces of his shoes. "Hey!" He exclaimed as Nancy came down again, holding Sadie's bag out to her.

"Thank you!" Sadie slung the strap over her shoulder. "We'll be going then.. bye bye Holly!" She grinned as she waved at the little girl, following Nancy towards the front door.

Sadie was half way out and in the beginnings of a conversation with Nancy when she paused, turning back.

"Mike? I fixed Dustin's walkie-talkie last night, so if there's any problems with it just let me know so I can figure out what's making the connection go wrong." She called back inside, a smile gracing her features as she met Mike's eyes, before closing the door.

It was hard not to like Sadie Henderson, even when he had just overheard her talking to him mom about his best friend not returning home the night before.

✧

"Come on - get out!" Sadie urged, eyes upon the girl in her passenger seat. "We have Biology first period and if I miss that then I have to catch up tonight and if I'm late again that woman is going to kill me."

"She wouldn't dare and you know it. Who else is going to be ready to answer all her questions about obscure human bones?" Nancy was collecting her stuff, checking her appearance in the small mirror that was set in the overhead sun visor.

"Who doesn't know about floating hyoid bone? It is only present in humans and it's floating!" Sadie used her hands to emphasis her point. "Not so much floating but more.. disconnected but still!"

"Yeah, I'm sure your floating bone does you so much good." Nancy pushed her door open and the girl beside her followed suit.

"It is actually pretty useful." Sadie slammed her door shut. "It helps with tongue movement and swallowing, which you would know if you weren't too busy thinking about that idiot Harrington. And we need to hurry not only for Biology but because you promised Barb you would keep her up to date before class."

"Right." Nancy nodding, pace quickening as they crossed the parking lot. "And he's not an idiot - not like Carol and Tommy H."

"But he's friends with them, isn't he?" Sadie made sure her gaze was fully on Nancy as Charlie McCorkle walked past; he had been attempting to get her to go to Lover's Lake with him for a while. He wasn't actually interested in her; just wanted to be the one to break the nerd or whatever.

"That doesn't mean he's anything like them." Nancy replied as they pushed open the door, only taking a few steps into the school before to they were joined by a third girl.

"So, did he call?" Barb asked, easily keeping up with the two as they walked towards where Nancy and Sadie's lockers were.

"Keep your voice down!" Nancy hissed, glancing around as if everyone was suddenly interested in them; they weren't, they never were.

"Well, did he?" Barb pressed, looking over to Sadie for answers.

"She called me at least five thousand times so I doubt Steve had the ability to get a call in edge ways." Sadie gave a much more information-filled answer and the Wheeler girl just shook her head.

"I told you both - multiple times - it's not like that!" Nancy insisted, even though the ear that Sadie could see courtesy of the dark hair pulled back over it was turning a little pink. "Okay, I mean, yes, he likes me... but not like that."

They came to a stop by the two lockers beside each other, Nancy and Sadie reaching for the locks, twisting them until they reached the number. Barb stood by them both, watching.

"We just...." Nancy pulled the locker door open. "Made out a couple of times."

"'We just... made out a couple times'." Barb mocked in a dreamy tone. "Nance, seriously, you're gonna be so cool now it's ridiculous."

"Which will help my social standing massively." Sadie nodded as she shoved textbooks into her locker. Barb and Nancy stared at her. "Well I'm not exactly know as the next Carol Perkins, am I? I bet she has no idea what a hyoid bone is."

"...Hyoid bone?" Barb repeated, forever curious to what was going in the Henderson girl's mind.

"It's a floating bone in your neck." Nancy explained briefly. "And no, I'm not."

"You better still hang out with me, that's all I'm saying." Barb replied with a shrug. "I know Sadie won't abandon me, but if you become friends with Carol or Tommy H-"

"Who still tries to grab my ass every time I walk past him whilst he says something about sex with him will 'blow my little nerdy mind'." Sadie interjected, nodding as Barb pointed to her. "But he doesn't dare do it when Carol is around."

"Remember when he last cheated on her?" Barb looked thoughtful. "Everyone soon found out about that.... but that's off topic - you better not become friends with them."

"That's gross!" Nancy's nose wrinkled at the insinuation "Okay, I'm telling you, it was a one-time..." Barb and Sadie gave her matching looks and she corrected herself. "... two-time thing."

She turned to her locker, pausing as she found a piece of paper folded up and slipped inside. Upon it, scrawled in blue marker 'Meet Me. Bathroom - Steve.'

"You were saying?" Barb raised an eyebrow.

"So eloquent... look how he's used two capital letters in a two word sentence." Sadie read over her shoulder, sarcasm dripping from her tone. "And the description - oh it's amazing!"

Sadie watched as Nancy turned to her, clearly not appreciating it. "Alright, alright, I'll shut up. Go to the bathroom, I'll tell Bixby you've got a.. feminine problem if you're late." She threatened.

"Don't you dare tell her that." Nancy closed her locker door and stepped away. "Barb - don't let her say that, I won't be late I swear!"

And with that, the two remaining girls were left as Nancy hurried towards a bathroom, with no choice other than to go to Biology and brave a period of Mrs Bixby sniping at them first thing on a Monday morning.