[ TWO ]
[ OF ALL THE GIN JOINTS ]
( IN ALL THE TOWNS, IN ALL THE WORLD, SHE WALKS INTO MINE )

— ❁ ❁ ❁ —

Brandi was determined that she'd never listen to Cyndi Lauper again. Anyone else was better than Cyndi Lauper. She'd rather listen to fucking ABBA than listen to Cyndi Lauper.

Thankfully enough, The Rolling Stones was on the radio when Brandi left their somewhat unpacked house in the morning. The music put her in a good mood because before she left Eric was taking a whole ten years to get ready. Brandi didn't want to be late her first day of school. Not that she cared about school at all for that matter, but she didn't want her first impression to be looking like a dumbass walking into class late. She never really had new kids in Earnest, but she saw movies and knew that teachers liked to put the new kids at the front of class and taunt them. It seemed like a scary thing, so Brandi didn't want that to happen to her at all.

Danny had made breakfast that morning before he left for his interview, (Not actually cooking, of course. Frozen chocolate chip Eggos was the extent to which he'd cook.), so Brandi and Eric weren't in as bad of a mood as they usually were in early mornings. Both of them were fat and happy, and argued for just the first five minutes since they got in the car together, which Brandi believed that could've earned an award. The Suttons got angry when they weren't fed and got happy when they were fed. It was science, really.

Brandi nodded to the beat of the music as she stuck her cigarette in between her lips, sucking in the nicotine. She was sure that this would be a good day. She got Eggos for breakfast, for God's fucking sakes, she never got breakfast in the morning, so it sure as hell better be a good day or Brandi would be fucking pissed.

Eric stared at her cigarette from the passenger's seat. "You know those kill ya, Bran? Ya know that, right?"

"Does it look like I fuckin' care about that?" Brandi asked. Eric frowned. "I'll be fine, bub. I'm not addicted or anythin'." She eyed him. "Why are ya questionin' me about my fuckin' cigs?"

"No reason," Eric said, looking out the window. His hair was blown back due to the wind that was blowing from the rolled window. He tried to cover up his concerned face, but Brandi knew better. He was still worried.

She gave him another look. "Eric."

"There's no goddamn reason!" He put his hands up in the air defensively.

"Stop sayin' that fuckin' word, or I'm tellin' Dad," Brandi warned.

"I'll tell Dad you smoke," Eric clapped back.

"Dad already knows I do that." She took a deep breath, then glanced at him momentarily. "But really, why do ya even care?"

Eric looked down at his hands, which were entwined together and fiddling around nonchalantly. "I just saw it on a commercial or somethin' the other day. I reminded me of you, and..." His voice started to get thick. "I just don't want somethin' happenin' to ya, Bran."

Brandi felt her heart surge at his words. She didn't deserve her brother at all. He cared for her so much, and she did nothing to earn it. "Nothin's gonna happen to me, bub, I can tell ya that." Her eyebrows raised at the thought of her little episode she had the day before outside of the restaurant. "Well, not 'cause of cigarettes, at least."

She swallowed a bit nervously, hoping that if something did happen to her, cigarettes would be the cause. It would be much better than something else. Because so far her experience at Hawkins was exceptionally creepy, and Brandi didn't like it one bit.

| | |

Hawkins High School was the biggest high school that Brandi had ever seen. Not that she'd been to a good amount of high schools (she hadn't), but she noticed that it was absolutely gigantic.

When she pulled into the parking lot, there were multiple rows of parking spaces that went down around the school. Crowds of people were walking toward the front doors, chatting amongst themselves. The school building itself was huge; Brandi couldn't recall a single building in Earnest that looked like that, if she didn't count the prison a couple of miles south of the town. The high school had multiple hallways that went all the way down like it was infinite. It was enormous.

Eric had no trouble saying a goodbye to Brandi, for he was off to the adjacent building, Hawkins Middle School, before she could tell him to have a good day. She smoked the last of her cigarette, causing a few stares from the vehicles around her, and got out of her truck. She headed inside quickly, praying that she'd get her class schedule in time to not be late.

As she walked into the front doors of the high school, Brandi kept her head down, but that didn't stop her from taking a look at her surroundings. There were lockers lined up on each side of the wall for kids filled with various stickers and club flyers sprawled on the face of them. Kids were bustling to class, making small talk with their friends while they were at it. She saw all types of people: jocks, cheerleaders, geeks, band kids, athletes, etc.

It was a very big contrast, she thought, to Brandi's old high school, which was populated with cowboys, more athletic cowboys, and the non-athletic cowboys. She was a cowgirl, through and through, and she'd always be that way—Hawkins or Earnest. According to her surroundings at that moment, though, no one was wearing anything like Brandi was; apparently high-waisted bootcut jeans with a pair of cowgirl boots underneath topped with a windbreaker jacket wasn't the style that Hawkins preferred. She caught some windbreakers, sure, but the boots weren't exactly popular with the Hawkins students like it was back in Earnest.

Even though Brandi felt like a needle in a haystack, she lifted her head up a bit more confidently and walked without hesitation. Almost immediately to her left was the front office with glass windows that framed it. Danny had told her that morning that she was supposed to go there first to get her schedule for her classes, so she started to walk towards it, only to get pushed from her side harshly.

"Watch where you're going, bitch!"

Brandi narrowed her eyes at the voice that was now past her, but there was too many people in the hallway to get a good glimpse at any physical features. Too far away to see who the boy was because of the huddled moving crowd, she gave out a huff and started towards the front office once again.

Sitting in a chair in front of one of the front office windows was a brunette girl twiddling her fingers, looking down at a white piece of paper sitting in her lap. The girl looked up when Brandi approached the door, and her face brightened when they made eye contact. "Hi! Are you..." She trailed off, pausing to glance at the piece of paper in her lap. "Brandi Sutton?"

"Um, yea," Brandi answered slowly. She was confused. She just wanted to get inside of that damn office. "Why? Who's askin'?"

The girl pursed her lips awkwardly. "I'm Nancy. I'm here to give you your schedule and stuff, show you around the school. It's for this leadership club thing."

Brandi nodded her head, still a little confused. "Uh, cool." She glanced around the hallway, noticing that there definitely wasn't as many people as there were when she first got there. "Will I be late or somethin' 'cause of this?"

Nancy gave a halfhearted smile. "A little." She pointed to the paper that she was holding, lifting it up so Brandi could see it. It read English on the first line of the page where her finger was pointing to. "You have the same first period as I do, so it'll be okay. You don't have to walk in late or anything."

Brandi gave a silent sigh of relief. Thank fucking God. Public embarrassment didn't sound like something she wanted to deal with on her first day of school. Her father did that enough as it is.

Nancy got up out of her chair and started to briskly walk in the center of the hallway. Brandi was left there, standing, but felt obligated to go catch up with her, so she did. The loud tardy bell rang throughout the empty hallway, so when it was over all that could be heard was the loud footsteps of Brandi due to her boots.

Nancy glanced over at her and filled the silence. "I noticed your accent. Are you from Texas or something?"

"Yup," Brandi replied shortly. Nancy kept walking, not seeming to care that Brandi didn't exactly want to be in a long conversation.

"My mom," Nancy started thoughtfully, "she used to be friends with a woman from Texas a couple of years ago. I think she died in this horrible car accident one time—"

Brandi almost choked in surprise. She was definitely talking about her mom. "What the fuck?"

The brunette's eyes widened. "Oh, my God, I'm so sorry. Your last name is Sutton and I didn't even realize—"

"Wait," she interrupted quietly, "wait just a damn minute. What's your last name?"

"Wheeler," Nancy answered, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

Brandi brought a hand up to her face. "Goddammit."

"Um, wow," Nancy murmured. "Small world, I guess?"

"Hawkins ain't as big as it seems, huh?" Brandi muttered, more to herself. "Yea, my mom used to talk 'bout your mom all the time. She adored her. They used to sit at the café and—"

"—get coffee together," Nancy finished with a small smile. "My mom still talks about her. She sounds like a great woman."

Brandi swallowed. "Yea, yea she was."

The air started to get thick from their silence. Brandi's boots still echoed off of the lockers, and they were still the only students in the hallway. Nancy suddenly stopped in her tracks and put a piece of hair behind her ear. "Hey, um. If you need anyone to hang out with, I'm always open for some more friends." Her voice broke a bit when she said 'friends,' but Brandi didn't question it.

"Yea, thanks," Brandi said, smiling lightly. She meant it. "That means a lot, really."

"I mean it, though," Nancy added, "and by the way, I'm sorry about Tommy back there earlier. He can be a dick sometimes."

"Tommy?" Brandi repeated.

"The one who bumped into you and called you a bitch," Nancy clarified. "I saw what he did. It wasn't cool. Like, at all."

"Is he your friend or somethin'?" Brandi asked.

"Not really my friend, no." Nancy sighed. "I don't know. He's my boyfriend's friend, so I hang around him more than I'd like to, I guess."

Brandi raised her eyebrows a bit. "Right." She looked down at her boots as she kept walking. "It's alright. Bein' able to fit in is somethin' that we all wanna get. I get that."

Nancy smiled again, this time more cheekily. She suddenly stopped in her tracks, and Brandi almost kept going down the hallway if she didn't notice her stop as quickly as she did. Nancy motioned her hand out awkwardly towards the door to their right, which was absolutely bare if you didn't count the small sketch of a dick on the top corner of it. "This is English. You can sit by me and Steve, if you want."

"Erm," Brandi said, "sure."

She was going to give her a grateful smile in return, but Nancy was already giving a light knock on the door. Murmuring could be heard behind the door for a good ten seconds; finally, a woman that looked in her forties opened the wooden door with a grimace as a greeting. She stared at Nancy and didn't notice Brandi. "You're late." Nancy widened her eyes worriedly. She obviously hated when teachers scolded her; Brandi could tell she never had that happen to her before.

"My fault, ma'am," Brandi spoke up. She gave a fake smile. "Sorry 'bout that. Nancy here was just showin' me 'round school, is all."

The teacher looked back and forth between them, nodding. "I see." Her eyes scanned Brandi, surprisingly not lingering on her boots for too long like most did. "I take it you're our new student?"

Brandi crossed her arms. "Yup."

The lady paused, then motioned her arm towards the classroom. "You both hurry, now. I was just getting started on the lecture."

Brandi rolled her eyes and murmured a, "Fun." Nancy stifled a laugh.

Brandi followed the teacher and Nancy, bracing herself for the worst part of her day to come. What she expected was all of the heads to turn towards her all at once, staring her down and laughing behind her back, but in reality, it was almost the exact opposite. After they walked in, pretty much no heads turned their way at all, due to the fact that ninety-five percent were sleeping. The other five percent was a boy in the back corner of the class, his face lighting up when he saw Nancy. Brandi guessed that this was Steve.

Nancy walked briskly over to the empty seat besides Steve's with a smile. After tapping an empty desk behind Steve, nodding at Brandi to sit in it, she sat down in her own and immediately got out her notebooks. Brandi swallowed, slowly sitting down and taking her backpack off.

"That's Steve," Nancy whispered to Brandi, motioning to the dark-haired boy in front of her.

Steve turned around and waved a hand nonchalantly at her.

Nancy pinched him. "Say hi to Brandi. She's new."

"Hi," Steve said forcefully, grimacing a smile when he turned around to say it.

Brandi gave a nod. "Howdy."

Steve sort of winced, turning back around to face the front, shaking his head. "What the hell."

Nancy giggled quietly, and Brandi's face quickly broke out into a smile as the teacher (who she had yet to learn the name of) drawled on about Shakespeare. Brandi couldn't help but not pay any attention to it. She was still smiling lightly, thinking about her day so far, which wasn't that bad at all. Maybe Hawkins wouldn't be as horrible as she predisposed it to be, and maybe it'll be even better than Earnest. But that was just a maybe.

| | |

Brandi's next couple of periods went okay. She got confused a couple of times finding her classes, but she ended up asking a random person which way was which. The devil himself, Jeff, happened to be in Biology class with her, so he helped her around and such. Even though he talked nonstop, he was actually pretty nice once Brandi started to make conversation with him.

"Yeah, fuck Mr. Smith. God, he's the fucking worst."

Jeff was leaning on the lab table with his elbows, potentially knocking over the glass beaker that was adjacent to him. Him and Brandi were lab partners because the teacher—Mr. Smith—gave them the right to choose which person they could work with.

(Brandi didn't choose; Jeff bounded over to her in a heartbeat, seemingly ignoring the multiple girls in the class huff in annoyance.)

Brandi liked Biology class. She enjoyed the study of animals and life itself, and it wasn't just because she owned a good lot of them. Life was short and sweet; it was gone quick, and sometimes in a blink of an eye. She thought it was beautiful, in a way, that one person could have cells pumping through their body in order to keep themselves alive, but then, in a millisecond, those cells simply couldn't work anymore. This way of thinking was what got her through the death of her mother.

Brandi gave a small courtesy laugh at Jeff, moving the beaker beside him as she did. "What's so bad about him? He ain't too bad to me." She paused. "Well, so far."

Jeff grabbed one of the tweezers off of the table. "He's just a fucking asshole, Brandi. You haven't been here long, but you'll realize that our school is fucked up. Not just the students—the teachers, too."

She pursed her lips. "Ya know I went to another high school before this one, right?"

"Well, yeah," Jeff replied, annoyed. "But this one is just more fucked up."

Brandi hummed. "I guess. All I care about is the agriculture classes, and y'all got those, so I ain't complainin'."

"I forgot that you're a fucking cowgirl," Jeff said thoughtfully. He suddenly jumped up excitedly, pounding his tweezer into the frog that they were supposed to be dissecting. "That's it! Oh, my God."

Mr. Smith appeared behind Jeff, narrowing his eyes disapprovingly at the sight of the tweezers stuck in the frog's intestines. "Mr. Mayfield, I believe you have the words 'move slightly' and 'puncture' very mixed up." There could be snickers heard from the nearer lab tables.

Jeff lowered back into his seat and waved his arms out. "Look, sir, I was just showing Brandi here how much strength these intestines have." He poked the frog's intestine with his gloved hands; the flimsy intestine caved at the touch and was obviously not strong at all. "See? Very strong. I'm sure this tweezer will have no damage."

"Cute demonstration, Mayfield," Mr. Smith drawled, "but detention tomorrow morning for ruining a frog that has been through this class for about twenty-five years now. Now the school has to pay for another one, thanks to you."

Brandi scrunched her nose. "That's disgustin'."

"We keep them well refrigerated," Mr. Smith assured quickly, then started to walk away. "I'll see you in detention, Mayfield." And then he was gone.

Jeff clenched his jaw. "I fucking hate him."

"Maybe ya shouldn't have stabbed that shit into the damn frog," Brandi said with a snort.

"I just got excited," Jeff explained, "I get spazzed out when I'm excited."

She raised an eyebrow curiously. "Why did ya get that way, anyways?"

Jeff shook his head. "Oh, it was nothing."

Brandi wanted to question him more. He kept twiddling his fingers like he was lying, but she didn't know if that was a sign he wasn't being truthful or it was just his hyperactive state that he was apparently in. She leaned forward, yanking the tweezer out of the frog. "Alright."

Brandi thought that Jeff was looking down her chest to get a look at her boobs, so she was ready to slap him until he said his next words. "I like your necklace. It's cool."

She leaned back into her seat. He was talking about her necklace that her mother gave her. It was just a simple silver chain with an Eiffel Tower charm that dangled between her clavicles. Brandi's mother always loved the old movie Casablanca, and her and Brandi would watch it together. At one point, they'd watch it every day, Brandi begging to watch one more time, and Eric and Danny would find excuses to leave the house because they were so tired of hearing it nonstop. The necklace was a present for her twelfth birthday, and Brandi never took it off since.

"Thanks."

Noticing that Jeff could see that she was disturbed, Brandi took a deep breath and gave the best grin she could muster.

"Let's dissect this motherfuckin' frog."

— ❁ ❁ ❁ —

author's note:
just a psa, this story starts before the start of season two of stranger things. soooo billy hasn't shown up yet or anything, and basically all of these first couple of chapters are going to be buildups of brandi's relationships with other characters and how her family's storyline is going to tie up with the plot. hope y'all like this, it's not edited at all and probably poorly written but haha whatever :)