9:00 PM ON A FRIDAY NIGHT in the Reid household usually meant that the family would gather in the living room and watch a movie together, complete with popcorn and corny dad jokes and moments all of them would treasure for the rest of their lives. It wasn't an occurrence that was set in stone, for there were instances when Scott had to work late or Kevin stayed the night with one of his friends from college. The night of the 2nd of November was an example of such.

        Scott had to work an extra shift to make up for the absence of one of his co-workers who had broken his leg the previous day, and Kevin was on the phone, finalizing the plans for the Queen concert he and his friends would be attending tomorrow. Amara, who had finished all of her homework other than the history project she and Jonathan were supposed to complete together, had little to do other than finally remove the white coloring from her converse. She didn't have any set plans for the weekend but was considering asking Robin if she wanted to hang out, or even Steve now that they were unofficially friends – that is, if he wasn't busy with Nancy. Even if she felt like she was making progress opening up to others, Amara was still grateful to have two days away from one of the prime breeding grounds of forced conforming.

        "You have enough money for one ticket, right?" Kevin was on the phone with the same friend from two days ago, whose name Amara still hadn't figured out. "Thank God your brother paid you back in time. Queen concerts are super expensive."

        Feeling slightly thirsty, Amara paused her work on her shoes and made her way downstairs for a drink of water. Eurydice had finished renovating the living room and had moved on to cleaning the oven, always itching to have something useful to do. If she had it her way she'd have a job of her own, but there were minimal career options she could embark upon without going back to college, and the wage gap between men and women indicated that Kevin would always make more money working at Melvald's than she ever would. Plus, her worry for Amara meant that she couldn't fathom leaving the house deserted in case her daughter needed her.

        "Great. See you tomorrow," Kevin said before hanging up the phone. He joined Amara by the doorway to the living room, where she was propped against the wall with a glass of water in her hands.

        "You're so lucky you get to see Queen live," Amara grumbled, draining her glass of water.

        "Who knows, maybe one day you and Robin could go to a concert," Kevin suggested nonchalantly. "I'll warn you though, raising money is exhausting."

        "Oh, I can imagine."

        The phone rang again and Kevin retrieved it, assuming that Elijah had forgotten to mention something of importance to him. "Kevin Reid speaking – "

        "It's Steve," came the reply from the other end. "Is Amara there? I need to talk to her about... homework."

        Kevin handed the phone to Amara, wiggling his eyebrows as he did so. "You never told me about a boy," he teased.

        "Oh shut up, he's probably just calling to tell me how things went with Nancy," Amara scowled, pressing the phone against her ear. "Hey Steve, how'd it go? Did it work with Nancy?"

        "I, umm, I never got the chance to speak with her," Steve relayed, and Amara furrowed her eyebrows in perplexity. "Something came up, something bad."

        "What do you mean?" Amara queried, but it wasn't Steve who answered her.

        "Amara, I'm really sorry but I kept a pet that my friends thought was dangerous and it escaped and I think it's a baby Demogorgon," Dustin Henderson rambled in one breath. Amara's face paled, something Kevin was quick to pick up on. "No one's responding and you were the only person Steve could think of who was available. Can you please help us out?"

        Casting a glance to the kitchen to ensure Eurydice was otherwise occupied, Amara retreated as far as she could into the living room without rupturing the phone. "Yeah, I can," she responded without hesitation. "Where should I meet you guys?"

        "By the railroad tracks, first thing tomorrow morning," Dustin informed her. "We'll lure it with raw meat and trap it in the old junkyard. Make sure you bring your crowbar."

        "Okay, got it," Amara answered. "See you there." The line fell silent and she positioned the phone back on the hook. She made to leave the room, but Kevin softly gripped her wrist before she could do so.

        "What are you doing?" he interrogated, the hazel eyes he shared with her widened in incredulity.

        "Going upstairs," Amara answered, though she knew that wasn't what her brother really meant.

        "You know what I mean, Amara," Kevin tightened his grip on her wrist as though she would disappear if he released her. "I heard the same thing you heard. Please think this through before you join them."

        "You heard Dustin, they couldn't reach anyone else!" Amara exclaimed, momentarily forgetting that Eurydice was only one room away from them. "They're on their own and they need my help. I can't let them do this alone."

        Kevin sighed in defeat as he was reminded yet again of how stubborn his sister was. "Fine," he conceded, letting go of her wrist and raising his hands in surrender. "But I'm coming with you."

        "What?!"

        "You heard me," Kevin reiterated, more firmly this time. "I'm coming with you."

        "Kevin, you're supposed to see Queen live tomorrow!" Amara reminded him. "You and your friends have been raising money to see them for months!"

        "The concert can wait until another time," Kevin insisted, his expression steadfast. The concert he and his friends had been tirelessly raising money for was the last thing on his mind, for Amara's safety far outweighed his love for Queen. "Or they can just go without me."

        "Are you seriously going to throw the concert aside just to kill a baby Demogorgon?"

        "Yes!" Kevin shouted back. "I thought I lost you last time! You have to be crazy if you think I'm going to that concert when there's a chance you could get killed."

        Kevin paused to catch his breath, and Amara took that moment to recall his worry when Eurydice couldn't contact her when she was helping locate Will and fight the Demogorgon. She remembered how fiercely he had embraced her upon returning home, as if he had expected her to be dead. Because for a brief moment, he had. But she refused to put him in a position where he could die because of her.

        "I understand," Amara murmured, lifting one hand to cup his face and hold eye contact with him. "But I can't put you in danger either."

        "Is everything okay?"

        Eurydice had chosen the worst possible moment to enter the room, her apron besmeared with oven grease and lips pursed in concern. Amara and Kevin abruptly pivoted to face her, and the former momentarily wished she and Kevin were twins so they could have twin telepathy or some shit and come up with a plan via their minds. But they weren't twins, so they had to do it the hard way.

        Kevin was the first to break the silence after what felt like a lifetime to him, when in reality it was only five seconds. "It's Elijah. He's sick with the flu and can't make it to the concert tomorrow."

        "Oh, that's a shame," Eurydice frowned. "Are the rest of you still planning on going?"

        Kevin opened his mouth to say no, but he realized that if he did, Eurydice would insist on them having a family movie night tomorrow, which would thwart Amara's plans to assist Steve and Dustin in killing the baby Demogorgon. "We're still trying to figure that out," he muttered in response. "We have enough money for four tickets, so we could either purchase three or invite someone else or hold off until another time. I don't know when Queen's next tour's going to be, though."

        An idea struck Amara. "I could go with you," she suggested, ignoring the glare Kevin shot her when their mother wasn't looking. "If that's okay with your friends, of course."

        "That's a wonderful idea!" Eurydice beamed. "Chicago's three hours away, though. Where would you stay overnight?"

        "Probably at Carter's," Kevin answered, having no choice but to go along with Amara's plan in front of Eurydice. "He lives just outside of Chicago, and his parents are out of town for the weekend."

        Eurydice narrowed her eyes. "You're okay spending the night with two other guys?" she asked Amara.

        Kevin replied before Amara could. "Do you really think they'd try anything while I'm around?"

        "No, of course not. Silly me," Eurydice shook her head. "I'm so glad you guys get to experience your first concert together! Sorry Elijah can't make it."

        "It's fine, he's not as much of a Queen fan as the rest of us," Kevin laughed nervously. "He originally suggested we see Bruce Springsteen."

        "I'm sure you'll get the chance," Eurydice assured Kevin. With that, she retreated to the kitchen to resume washing the oven. Kevin waited until she was out of earshot before rounding on Amara.

        "What the hell were you thinking?" he whisper-yelled, cautious not to raise his voice lest Eurydice overhear him.

        "I'm not actually going to the concert, idiot," Amara whispered back, though she was grinning triumphantly. "I needed an excuse for why I'll most likely not be home tomorrow night, and that was the best I could come up with. Now you can join me if you want, but I have a feeling Mom's going to want pictures. Like, a lot of pictures."

        Kevin exhaled as he acknowledged his loss. Growing up, it had always been him getting what he wanted through bribery, but Eurydice's involvement in the matter had enabled Amara to turn the tables on him this time. While Eurydice loved both her children, Amara's autism meant that Eurydice naturally paid her more attention than Kevin and depended on him to look out for her when neither she nor Scott was around, and she was counting on him doing just that tomorrow.

        "Okay, you win this time," Kevin told her what she wanted to hear, before continuing with what he wanted her to hear from him. "But if you don't stay in contact this time, I'm going to fucking lose it."

THE BLARING OF HER ALARM at 7:30 in the morning cut through Amara's subconscious. Eyelids flickering open to reveal optics of earthy hazel, she was instantly reminded of the reason she had set her alarm so early on a weekend; the supernatural world hadn't been vanquished, it had merely festered beneath a town too stubborn to consider the possibility that it wasn't normal. Its looming threat had appeared in the form of a fascinating creature-turned-baby Demogorgon, one Amara was intent on fighting again.

        She attired herself in jeans and a diamond-patterned sweater, honeyed tresses constricted in a ponytail with tendrils hanging loosely around her face. She supplied her backpack with a flashlight, water, a first aid kit, and her infamous crowbar before putting it on and heading downstairs, her jacket folded under her arm.

        Kevin was already at the kitchen table consuming his usual breakfast of a blueberry muffin, as well as coffee, given that Chicago was a three-hour drive away. He wordlessly greeted her as she joined him with her signature breakfast, a bowl of cereal. Scott had already departed to the dealership as his job required him to be there on weekends, and Eurydice was showering upstairs.

        Kevin took advantage of the fact that Eurydice couldn't hear them to whisper to Amara, "Are you sure about this?"

        "Yeah, I'm sure," Amara insisted. "I've fought this thing before. I can do it again."

        "I'm not saying you aren't capable of fighting it because I know you are," Kevin reached across the table to grasp her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. "I thought I lost you once. I can't lose you, Amara. I can't."

        "You won't lose me," Amara assured her brother. "How are you going to tell Mom I got trampled by a crowd of Freddie Mercury fans?"

        "You have a point there," Kevin chuckled, retracting his hand so he could take another swig of his coffee. "Just don't die, okay?"

        "I won't."

        Eurydice picked that moment to enter the room. She was bedecked in a mulberry bathrobe, a turban of the same color swathed around her cranium. She too seated herself at the table, her face glistening with honey lotion and excitement for her children, unaware of what their plans for the day really entailed.

        Oh, to be a parent oblivious to your children's shenanigans.

        "Well? Are you guys excited?" she inquired, a little too enthusiastic for the hour. But it was her children's first concert, so who could blame her?

        "Yeah, we are!" Amara answered at the same time Kevin said, "Totally!" Amara hoped their faux eagerness was passable enough that Eurydice wouldn't see through them. Luckily, she didn't.

        "I remember my first concert in 1955," she reminisced, smiling at nothing in particular. "It was Buddy Holly, God rest his soul. He was absolutely incredible."

        "Oh, I bet," Kevin responded through a mouthful of his blueberry muffin. Normally Eurydice would've chastised him for talking with his mouth full, but she understood the hurry they were in so she let it slide that one time.

        "You guys are growing up so fast," Eurydice enthused, clearly in one of her sentimental moods. "It feels like just yesterday your dad and I were teaching you how to do math, and here you are going to your first concert together."

        "I'm pretty sure I learned how to do math before I could string a sentence together," Amara commented wryly, causing Kevin and Eurydice to erupt in laughter.

        "You still made it this far," Eurydice reminded her. "Both of you. I couldn't be more proud."

        They finished their breakfast and said their goodbyes to their mother. Eurydice hugged them both, complaining about how Kevin was getting too tall for her to reach him anymore. Amara embraced Eurydice tightly, recognizing for the second time that it was potentially the last time she'd be able to do so.

        "I love you, Mom," Amara whispered into the crook of her mother's neck, hoping she didn't detect the quaver of her voice.

        "I love you too, honey," Eurydice stated, pulling back so she could chastely kiss the crown of Amara's head.

        Once Kevin and Amara left the house and shut the door behind them, they immediately sprung into action. Not needing her car since it would have appeared pointless for them to drive to Chicago in separate cars, Amara hopped into the passenger seat of Kevin's grey Toyota and he started in the direction of the train tracks.

        Neither of them spoke as Kevin drove, the road clear other than those who needed to work during the weekend. The silence that blanketed the Reid siblings was neither the uncomfortable quiet she had originally felt in Steve's car yesterday, nor was it the solace that followed after opening herself up to him. This stillness was anticipatory, as both of them knew of the danger that lay ahead. The evil forces that had upended Hawkins a year ago were back – no, they had never left to begin with. Kevin still didn't like the idea of going to a concert with his friends while his little sister was endangering her life, but it was the best plan they could come up with to ensure their parents weren't in jeopardy as well.

        Kevin braked to a stop when Steve's carmine BMW came into view. "Jesus, that car's probably worth more than both of ours," he remarked as he put the car in park. "Scratch that – it's probably worth more than ours and Mom and Dad's."

        Amara unbuckled her seatbelt, gathering her backpack as she prepared to leave the car. "Have fun at the concert," she told him. "Don't worry too much about me."

        "Don't give me a reason to worry too much about you," Kevin shot back, though he pulled Amara into a hug. "Stay safe, sis."

        "I will," she muttered into the juncture of his neck and shoulder. "I promise not to die."

        "Good," Kevin said. "I really don't want to explain to Mom how you died at a Queen concert."

        "You could always use my suggestion."

        "Fair point, but I don't want to," Kevin told her. "Don't do anything stupid, okay?"

        "I won't," Amara promised before breaking away from him and exiting the car. Dustin and Steve were waiting for her by the latter's car, where a bucket of raw meat and a pair of yellow gloves awaited her.

        "Good news," Dustin skipped the greeting. "Lucas finally picked up. He'll meet us at the junkyard."

        "That's good!" Amara replied as she put on the gloves before lifting her bucket of meat off the ground. "Damn, this thing is heavy."

        "That's kinda the idea," Steve pointed out as he too picked up his bucket of meat. "We're gonna need all the cow we can get if we're going to kill Dart."

        "Wait, that thing has a name?" Amara questioned.

        "Yeah, I named him Dart," Dustin explained sheepishly, to which Amara raised her eyebrows in confusion. "What? He liked nougat!"

THE SKY WAS A GORGEOUS CERULEAN SHADE, adrift with condensation in the form of clouds. The November air was cool and crisp, but Amara knew that the temperature would drop come nightfall. The soles of her shoes, which still had traces of white marker against the blue, padded in line with those of Steve and Dustin against the leaves littering the train tracks they were traversing, the only evidence of their presence the raw meat they left behind in their wake.

        "All right," Steve blurted out to Dustin in particular. "So let me get this straight. You kept something you knew was probably dangerous in order to impress a girl who... who you just met?"

        "All right, that's grossly oversimplifying things," Dustin shot back, evidently embarrassed.

        "I mean, why would a girl like some nasty slug anyway?" Steve questioned, tossing more meat onto the ground.

        "An interdimesnional slug? Because it's awesome," Dustin disputed, his nerdiness shining through.

        "Well, even if she thought it was cool, which she didn't, I... I just... I don't know," Steve responded, the trio adjusting their pace so they were more or less alongside one another. "I just feel like you're trying way too hard."

        "Well, not everyone can have your perfect hair, alright?" Dustin retorted. Amara giggled, prompting Steve to scowl at her.

        "It's not about the hair man," Steve tossed back. "The key with girls is just... just acting like you don't care."

        "Even if you do?"

        "Yeah, exactly," Steve reiterated with a shrug and an additional piece of meat on the railroad tracks. "It drives them nuts."

        Amara was speechless. The same Steve who had consoled her in his car only a day ago and showed her through his actions that he cared about her was now instructing Dustin to do the opposite in the case of pursuing a girl. While she didn't doubt that Steve wanted to look out for her wellbeing, it made her wonder if he would have done the same if he was interested in her romantically, if he wanted something to gain for himself.

        "And then what?" Dustin queried in anticipation.

        "Then you wait, until, uh... until you feel it," Steve coached with a nudge against Dustin's shoulder, assuming the latter would understand what he was implying. Amara was becoming increasingly uncomfortable, opting to empty her bucket in silence in the hope that it would prevent her from saying something she would regret.

        Dustin still hadn't picked up on what Steve was alluding to him. "Feel what?"

        "It's like before it's gonna storm, you know?" Steve elaborated, the wind tousling his dark hair. "You can't see it but you can feel it. Like this, uh... electricity, you know?"

        "Oh, like in the electromagnetic field when the clouds in the atmosphere – "

        "No, no, no, no, no. Like a... like a sexual electricity," Steve corrected, and Dustin "ohed" in understanding. It was clear that no one had ever given him romantic advice, and he was now receiving it from someone who had plenty of experience in the sexual realm and had recently split up with the only girl who had made his heart beat. Even with her almost nonexistent love life, Amara knew without a doubt that she wanted someone interested in her to do the opposite of pretending not to care. "You feel that and then you make your move."

        "So that's when you kiss her?" Dustin inquired.

        "No, whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down, Romeo," Steve's reaction was arguably the wisest thing he had said in the entire conversation, but he had to ruin it with arguably the most idiotic thing Amara had ever heard from his mouth. "Sure, okay, some girls, yeah, they want you to be aggressive. You know, strong, hot and heavy, like a... I don't know, like a lion. But others, you gotta be slow, you gotta be stealthy, like a... like a ninja."

        "What type is Nancy?" Dustin asked with a thoughtful expression. Steve's face fell as his ex-girlfriend rose to the forefront of his mind again, something he hoped Dustin wouldn't catch. But Amara did.

        "Nancy's different. She's different than the other girls," Steve responded. Even with Nancy out of his reach, he still spoke about her as though she was an is, not a was.

        "What type are you, Amara?" Dustin questioned, and the aforementioned girl lifted her gaze from the train tracks at the sound of her name.

        "I don't know, guys don't really look at me like that," Amara responded, using the hand that hadn't been in contact with raw meat to brush a flyaway strand of hair out of her face. "Although, if someone wanted to be with me, I would actually want them to show that they care. Would you be interested in some advice from the perspective of a girl?"

        "Sure, why not," Dustin replied, eager to hear from her viewpoint so he could determine which course of action to follow regarding Max. While Steve had more experience under his belt, Amara was a girl and what each of them had to say mattered to him.

        "Hang on Amara, you've never been in a relationship before," Steve argued. He was torn somewhere between not wanting his ego bruised if Dustin listened to her rather than him and not wanting Amara to offer advice to someone again when she still had unresolved trauma, not that he could say any of that out loud. "What do you know that I don't?"

        "Plenty," Amara shot back with a snark Steve had no idea she possessed. "You don't need to be in a relationship to know what you want in a partner. You're right – you have more experience than me, and pretending you don't care may have helped you win over some girls, but do you really want to continue acting like you don't care once you're in a relationship?"

        Steve was unable to articulate a coherent response as he processed Amara's words. She had an excellent point; his relationship with Nancy had initiated because he had pretended not to care and it had won her over, but it was also the reason it nearly ended when he didn't care enough about Barb's sudden disappearance, and it had mended once he decided to start caring. The only issue was that Nancy didn't love him, but Amara was right that pretending not to care didn't work in the case of a long-term relationship.

        "When you're thinking of going out with someone, you can't just think about how you're going to make your move," Amara continued as she dropped more meat onto the ground. Though Steve wished he could tune her out, he was listening to her just as intently as Dustin. "You also have to think about how you would maintain a healthy relationship once you start dating them. Relationships fail when two people can't communicate properly with one another, and to do so you have to show that you respect each other and care deeply about the other's feelings. Another thing you have to remember is that the first person you like isn't the be-all-and-end-all for you. They might not return your feelings, and you have no choice but to move on."

        Dustin took in her guidance as he realized the possibility that Amara was right, that Max might not reciprocate his feelings of attraction. He and Lucas had been competing for her since she arrived to Hawkins in all her skateboarding and video game prowess, and keeping Dart was the latest of his endeavors to win her over. Dustin momentarily removed the rose-colored glasses and acknowledged that Max had more chemistry with Lucas than she did with him, and he just might have to accept that he didn't have a chance with her.

        "Come on, that's not true," Steve butted in, embarrassed that Amara would end up usurping his status as the connoisseur of girl advice. Never before had a girl turned down his charm; in fact, Amara was the first girl in years he had willingly spent time with without making a move, the first girl in ages he had called a friend. "If you go about it the right way you can get her to like you."

        "Steve, you know better than anyone else how complicated feelings are," Amara reminded him in another blow to his ego. She turned to face Dustin, who was close to tears. "It's not the end of the world if this girl doesn't like you back. Maybe she isn't interested in interdimensional slugs – or let's say science. So you need to find a girl who is and go from there."

        "Has that ever happened to you?" Dustin pondered, only to wince when Steve smacked the back of his head. "Hey, I was just asking!"

        "It's fine, Steve," Amara assured him, grateful that he was looking out for her emotions – that he was showing her he cared. "When I was thirteen, I liked this guy named Ashton, and I thought he liked me too. He was my first kiss and I thought it meant something to him, but it was just a stupid dare. I had to accept that he didn't return my feelings."

        "Who is this dude?" Steve inquired curiously. "Need me to beat him up for you?"

        "Considering you couldn't beat Jonathan in a fight, I don't recommend it," Amara answered, though she was now smiling. "Besides, he's all the way in Cleveland. If he still lives there, that is."

        "Cleveland? What did you go to Cleveland for?"

        "I'm from Cleveland," Amara corrected, draining her bucket of more meat. "I only moved here two years ago."

        The three of them fell silent as they continued walking, each of them left to their own thoughts. Dustin was torn between pursuing Steve's advice, which he could argue was based on solid evidence given his track record, and Amara's, which he believed was helpful not just for getting with someone, but staying with them. Steve was both embarrassed that he knew less about the one thing he claimed to be an expert in than someone with little to no experience in the romantic department and in awe of how wise Amara was for her age. On the other hand, Amara wished Lucas had joined them earlier on so they could have skipped the conversation altogether.

        "Fabergé," Steve spoke, prompting both Dustin and Amara to face him.

        "What?" they asked simultaneously.

        "It's Fabergé Organics," Steve clarified, gesturing at his hair. "Use the shampoo and conditioner, and when your hair's damp... it's not wet, okay? When it's damp... You do four puffs of the Farrah Fawcett spray."

        "Farrah Fawcett spray?" Dustin repeated, close to laughter.

        "Yeah, Farrah Fawcett," Steve abruptly halted, and Amara and Dustin did so as well. "You tell anyone I just told you that and your ass is grass. You're dead, Henderson. Do you understand?"

        "I don't see you threatening Amara – "

        "Yeah, 'cause Amara's not a blabbermouth like you," Steve contended, towering above Dustin. "Do you understand?"

        Dustin nodded. "Yup."

        Steve laughed in relief and tossed another piece of meat onto the tracks, and the three of them resumed walking. The one good thing to come out of their discussion was the notion that Steve trusted Amara more than Dustin, even if it was a pretty low bar.

        "Farrah Fawcett, really?"

        "I mean, she's hot."

        The hours bled towards twilight as the trio ambled their way down the railroad tracks, the raw meat following behind them in a trail as they laughed about nothing in particular. The tension in the air had dissipated once they put the subject of girls behind them and Dustin brought up how much they resembled the main trio from Star Wars, to which Amara responded that she had dressed up as Princess Leia for Halloween. When Steve had questioned what they were talking about, Amara and Dustin coerced him into watching the entire Star Wars trilogy afterward, not that it took much persuasion. He was no longer King Steve, so what was the harm in watching a few nerdy films after they killed Dart?

        But it wasn't just Dart. It was the unknown commodity that had infected Will and the reason Nancy and Jonathan had skipped school and the decaying tree marked by a golden flag they had walked by without glimpsing. Because just like Will's disappearance a year ago, it was all holistic.

published to quotev: 8/20/22
published to wattpad: 7/28/24

AUTHOR'S NOTE

i still don't know to this day how i managed to publish this the day after i lost my grandfather in a car crash. either way, writing has always been very cathartic for me and a way for me to infuse my emotions into this story i love so dearly.

i've had this chapter in my mind for a while, particularly where amara offers an alternative to steve's girl advice. i have never been in a relationship before but i somehow give great relationship advice, so i thought it would be cool to have amara do the same especially while my baby is looking for any excuse to avoid her identity crisis.

until the next update,

lydia ;)