𝐀𝐍 𝐈𝐍𝐕𝐈𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐎 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐕𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐓𝐎𝐍'𝐒 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐘

⋆୨୧ ₊ﾟ🧸 ⊹ɞ 🍯

      DJ'S MIND FLOODED WITH THOUGHTS AS SHE PICKED NANCY UP AT HER HOUSE. Was that girl going to follow through the plan? Was she going to be okay afterwards? What if something happened? She just tried blocking those thoughts as best as she could and tried to mentally prepare herself for her Chemistry test.

     Barb had met up with them, as usual and Nancy handed her flash cards to Barb to help both DJ and Nancy study for the test. Nancy had been one to study the whole week before the test to mentally prepare herself. DJ, on the other hand, had always studied last minute (it would probably explain her C+ in the class). This time, she was trying to be more prepared, though. Studying in class, whenever she could. She really needed this test to bring her grade up.

     "'When alpha particles go through gold foil, they become...'" Barb said and waited for an answer from one of the two. "Unoccupied space." Nancy remembered and Barb nodded at the girl, moving to the next flash card. DJ looked dumbfounded next to her and looked at the ground in confusion once Nancy answered the question.

     "'A molecule that can—'" Barb has been interrupted by Steve Harrington coming out of the blue in the hall and taking the flash cards out of Barb's hand.

      Tommy had given Barb a wet willy in her ear and Barb covered her ear. Steve had accidentally bumped into DJ and the girl stood still as Steve glanced her way for a moment before scanning back to the flash cards. "Oh, sorry, Henderson." Steve said and DJ remained frozen, looking down at her book to avoid Steve's eyes or maybe just him altogether. "I think you've studied enough, Nance." Steve started, looking up at Nancy.

      "Steve—"

       "I'm telling you, you know, you got this." Steve said and DJ dug her face into her book and Barb sends over a subtle smirk over to her. "Now, on to more important matters. My dad has left town on a conference and my mom's gone with him, 'cause, you know, she doesn't trust him—"

       "Good call." Tommy comments.

       "And my sister's going to be over at a sleepover... so are you in?" Steve questions and Nancy furrows her eyebrows. "In for what?" Nancy asks, confused slightly. Carol looks at Nancy and raised her eyebrows. "No parents? Big house?"

       Nancy looked back at the slightly older teens in front of her. "A party?" Nancy guessed, finally understanding. "Ding, ding, ding!" Carol tells, causing DJ to roll her eyes at her in annoyance.
     "It's Tuesday." Nancy says. "It's Tuesday! Oh, my God." Tommy mocks. "Yeah, because that's how the week works." DJ mumbled under her breath but it was loud enough for Barb to hear.

      "Come on," Steve continues, sensing that Henderson wasn't quite enjoying their newfound presence. "It'll be low key. It'll just be us. You can invite your friends, if you want to." DJ's eyes widen as Steve motions to her and Barb. He offered Nancy to invite her? Of all people?

       "What do you say? Are you in or are you out?" Steve finished, looking at Nancy and her friends.

       A party? At Steve Harrington's house? I don't know whether to be excited or scared. DJ thought. This was like a 'once-in-a-lifetime' opportunity for a high school girl, to be at the popular boy's house. But before Nancy has a chance to even think about it, Carol speaks up.

       "Oh, God. Look." She scoffed and everyone looked over to where she was looking and saw Jonathan Byers putting up a flyer. DJ assumes that it was a MISSING flyer about Will.

       "Oh, God, that's depressing." Steve comments, placing a hand on his hip. Nancy looks over to Jonathan. "Should we say something?" She asks. "I don't think he speaks." Carol snarks, making DJ ball up her fists.

      "How much you want to bet he killed him?" Tommy questions, chuckling and Steve gives him a look and shoves him. "Shut up."

      DJ shakes her head and finally has had enough and looks at the two boys and Carol, scoffing. "You guys are assholes, you know that?" Usually, DJ had never been that type of person to speak up like she did but she was just so sick and tired of Tommy, Steve and Carol, especially since they were talking about Jonathan like that.

      Wanting to avoid their snarky comments, the girl walks on over to Jonathan, going to say 'hi' to him. She wanted to do anything just to get away from them. Maybe going to the party wouldn't be a good idea.

       "Hey, Jon." DJ greets, holding her books to her chest. "Oh, hey, Deej." Jonathan greets back. The boy looked like he hadn't gotten sleep in the span of Will going missing, but he still had a polite smile on his face. "I, uh, I wanted to see how you were doing." She told.

       Jonathan nods, "Yeah, I'm... I don't know, actually." He answers and DJ nods in understanding. She couldn't even imagine what he was going through right now. If it was Dustin, she'd be a complete wreck. She was already upset enough about Will going missing. And she didn't even know how to respond to him. I mean, what do you say to someone who's brother just went missing?

       DJ notices Nancy walk over to the two. "Hey." She greeted to Jonathan, approaching them. "Hey." Jonathan looks at the girl in front of him. Nancy tries to speak, it seemed like she didn't know what to say either. "I just... I wanted to say, you know, um... I'm sorry about everything. Everyone's thinking about you. It sucks." Nancy told and DJ smiles at the effort Nancy is putting into consoling him.

       "Yeah." Jonathan nodded. "I'm sure he's fine. He's a smart kid." Nancy assures. The school bell had rung. "We have to go. Chem test." DJ told.

        "Good luck." Jonathan wishes and both DJ and Nancy thank him and walk back towards the group they had come from.

       As expected, Steve walked Nancy to class and DJ tagged along, heading into class before she had to witness Steve and Nancy have one last make-out session before they both headed to class.

       Nancy had entered the classroom and sat in her regular spot next to DJ. "So, are you gonna go to the party?" DJ asked, curiously as she grabbed a pencil out of her bag.

"I want to, but I want you guys to come with me. I mean, it'd be awkward if it were just me. I don't even know Tommy and Carol that well and I get a kind of vibe that they don't like me." Nancy explained and DJ nodded, understanding.

"Well, I'll go... if you want me to." DJ told. Honestly, she didn't want to go because of Tommy and Carol, but she didn't want to leave Nancy hanging out by herself. If Nancy felt that she was going to be judged the entire night, DJ offered to feel the judged with her.

Nancy smiled, "Okay, cool. Thanks, Deej." The girl smiles back at the girl and then realized what she had done. She wasn't much of a partier, so why on earth would she agree to this? And then a lightbulb went off in her head — she happened to be friends with the biggest partier there was. The trick was getting him to go to said party.

DJ leaned over and then asked the question, hesitantly. "Uh... do you think my friend JJ can come along, too? He could help set the edge off a bit." DJ asked and Nancy thinks and shrugs, "I don't see why not, but... I'll check with Steve." Nancy told and DJ smiles, "Cool."

⋆୨୧ ₊ﾟ🧸 ⊹ɞ 🍯

AS USUAL, DJ HAD DRIVEN NANCY HOME AND SHE DECIDED TO CALL HER MOM AT THE WHEELERS. She asked her mother over the phone if she could stay out a little longer tonight because of this 'thing they had going on for Will tonight at the school'.

       I mean, it was true, she just was going to Steve's party instead. Her mother had allowed her to go and to just be home by midnight on the dot.

As Mrs. Wheeler cooked dinner in the kitchen, Nancy decided to call Barb and see if she would go with her and DJ to the party.
DJ, on the other hand, decided to go and see if the plan that Mike had created for that strange girl had worked. She told Nancy that she was going to the bathroom and she snuck into Mike's room, where she saw her brother go into when he and Lucas arrived at the house. "Hey." She greeted the boys, shutting the door quietly behind her.

DJ looked over at the girl who was sitting on Mike's bed. Maybe their plan didn't work. "I thought you were sending her back?" DJ was confused and crossed her arms, looking at the girl. "She knows about Will." Mike told and DJ furrowed her eyebrows. "What do you mean she knows about Will?" She asks.

"She pointed at him, at his picture. She knew he was missing. I could tell." Mike held up a picture of him, Dustin, Mike and Lucas back when they won a science fair award. DJ knew what it was because she took the picture herself.

"You could tell?" Lucas asked, a little skeptical of the situation at hand and frankly, so was DJ.

"Just think about it. Do you really think it was a coincidence that we found her on Mirkwood, the same place where Will disappeared?" Mike questions. Dustin nods, "That is weird."

"And she said bad people are after her. I think maybe these bad people are the same ones that took Will. I think she knows what happened to him." Mike assumes. DJ sat back and watched as the group continued to argue. What Mike was saying was totally nuts. DJ had never seen this girl a day in her life and she's saying she know Will?

"Then why doesn't she tell us?" Lucas questions and looks over at the girl. "Do you know where he is?" He approaches her and shakes her. "Do you know where Will is?" He interrogated, grabbing her by the shoulders.

"Lucas—" DJ tries after seeing how frightened the girl is. "Stop it, you're scaring her!" Mike defends the girl.  "She should be scared!" Lucas shouts. "If you know where he is, tell us!" The girl just looked up at Lucas with a scared expression written on her face.

Lucas shakes his head. "This is nuts. We have to take her to your mom." He tells. "I agree with Lucas." DJ adds, pointing a finger up.

Dustin looks at his sister. "But, Deej, what if she is our key to finding Will?" He questions. "I know, Dustin, but... this is completely crazy! How could she even know Will?" This whole situation did sound nuts.

Lucas sighs, shaking off. "We're telling your mom!" He tells. "No!" Mike yells. "Eleven said telling any adult would put us in danger."

"We're already in enough danger with her being here." DJ told. Dustin looks at Mike as soon as he hears the word 'danger'. "What kind of danger?" He asks.

"Her name is Eleven?" Lucas asks, ignoring Dustin's question. "El for short." Mike answers.

"Mike, what kind of danger?" Dustin repeats, raising his voice this time. "Danger danger." Mike states, holding a finger gun to his head and then to Lucas's head and Lucas quickly slaps his hand away.

"No, no, no!" He shouts. "We're going back to plan A. We're telling your mom." Lucas heads over to the door and opens it and it slams shut by itself, causing DJ to flinch.

Lucas tries to open the door again and it slams again and locks this time. DJ turns slowly at the girl as she is suddenly standing up. Her expression went from frightened to assertive. Blood is coming out of her nose and the only word that came out of her mouth was: "No."

DJ's eyes widened at the girl and then she looked at Lucas. "Well, you heard the lady. We're not doing it." She had to admit, she had been slightly scared of the girl in the moment and was glad Lucas was standing in front of her in case the girl found her as a threat.

     She suddenly put her hand on the doorknob, ready to sneak out back into Nancy's room and looked over at the group of boys and the girl in front of her and held her free hand in the air. "You can trust me, I'm not gonna tell anyone." She told, looking at the girl now named Eleven.

     Dustin looks at the girl and nods. "Yeah, you don't need to worry about her. She's not gonna tell anybody." He assures. "I should go, I told Nancy I was in the bathroom." DJ said and got out of the room and headed towards Nancy's room and she had been finished with her phone call with Barb and now it was time for DJ to call JJ.

     Luckily, JJ answered and DJ explained the entire situation in why she was inviting him to the party. JJ was rolling up a blunt as metal music blared in his room, beer cans were all over the floor. JJ held the phone up between his ear and his shoulder as he rolled.

     "So, let me get this straight. You want me to come to Steve 'The Hair' Harrington's party just so your prissy friend, Nancy, isn't alone?" JJ questioned.

     "It's just one party, Jayje," DJ told. "I figured you could bring some special delights, take the edge off and voilà, you're free to go."

     "So, I'm just your dealer?" JJ asked. "Wow, Deej, I thought we had something special." DJ heard the sarcasm in his voice. "JJ, you're the best partier I know. This is my first party that isn't a pre-teen party. I want you there." DJ told.

     "You do realize Steve Harrington and his posse all hate me and think I'm a dirtbag, correct?" DJ shrugged, "Well, you're not exactly the friendliest person on the planet, JJ."

     JJ flops down onto his rickety bed and sighs: "What's in it for me?" He questions. "Well, you're helping out your best sophomore buddy in the entire world with being cool and you get more customers."

    "Yeah, more customers that could just rip me off." JJ flips over towards the light near his bed. "I mean, one time Tommy H gave me a fake $20 bill when I gave him tree. It was the good shit, too."

    "JJ, please," DJ was practically begging at this point. "Do this for me? Free rides anywhere getaway driver or not for two— three weeks!" She bribed.

     DJ could practically hear JJ's cocked eyebrow and knew he needed more initiative than that. "A month?" DJ questioned but JJ didn't budge. "Okay, fine! The rest of the school year!"

    "See you at Steve's." DJ heard JJ smirk as he had hung up the phone. DJ put the phone down and Nancy looked DJ's way. "Is he coming?" Nancy asked. "We'll see," DJ shrugged. "Knowing JJ, he either shows up late or he doesn't show up at all."

    "Nancy, DJ! Dinner!" Mrs. Wheeler calls the two girls downstairs. "Coming!" Nancy shouts back. "We leave in an hour?" DJ stands, "I'm driving."

    DJ and Nancy both join the Wheeler family as well as Mike, Dustin and Lucas for dinner.

    Dinner at the Wheeler household was always so quiet. All that could be heard was the awkward chewing. DJ took a bite of her meatloaf and glanced between Dustin and Nancy. Sometimes, DJ didn't mind the silence but there were times where she loathed it and just wanted someone to talk. And usually, the boys did their talking and often started the ruckus about DnD or something but this time, it was quiet. Even Mrs. Wheeler noticed.

"Something wrong with the meatloaf?" Mrs. Wheeler asked the boys. Dustin shakes his head. "Oh, no, I had two bologna sandwiches for lunch. I don't know why." He shrugs. Lucas chuckled and looked at Mrs. Wheeler. "Me, too."

Nancy smiles at her mother. "It's delicious, Mommy." She tells. "Thank you, sweetie." Karen says. Nancy looks at DJ and the girl waits for her friend to ask her mother.

"So, there's this... special assembly thing tonight...
for Will at the school field. DJ's driving." Nancy told. "Why am I just hearing about this?" Karen furrows her eyebrows. "I thought you knew." Nancy tells. The older Wheeler woman sighs: "I told you, I don't want you out after dark until Will is found."

"I know, I know, but it'd be super weird if we're not there. I mean, everyone's going. And DJ and I will be together no matter what." Nancy explained and DJ nodded in assurance and Karen looked at the two girls and sighed. "Just... be back by 10:00."

Both Nancy and DJ sneak a sly smile at one another, feeling achieved that their lie worked. "Why don't you take the boys, too?" Mrs. Wheeler suggests and the boys all spit out a strong 'no' in different ways.

Mrs. Wheeler looks at the boys confused. "Don't you think you should be there? For Will?" Suddenly, Mike spits out his milk and DJ's eyes widen and she gasps a bit, seeing Eleven walking down to the basement and right behind Karen.

Dustin is quick to bang on the table with his hands, getting the attention from Mrs. Wheeler so she wouldn't turn around. "Dustin!" DJ scolds like a mother, whispering harshly at the boy. "Sorry. Spasm." Dustin apologizes.

Mike and Nancy's younger sister, Holly, drowns in her seat after the sound of the table being hit scared her. "It's okay, Holly. It's just a loud noise." Karen comforts her youngest child while Nancy mutters a sarcastic 'nice' over at Dustin.

back in my stranger things phase so here we are lmao😁
bro i graduate high school in a few days here😭😭😭
scared frrrr
-mya </3333