PRETTY SICK!
— color me grey, the sky ☆

There was something people noticed about Gen besides her overly perceptive nature — her persistence.

If there was something she needed done, it was going to get done even if it was through blood, sweat, and (although, not her own) tears. Genevieve was always a raging wildfire, and sometimes wildfires need to spread to come under control. Unlucky for the man in question though, Steve Harrington happened to be at the top of her 'to kill' list once the sun came up over Hawkins High School on Thursday morning.

His stupid brown BMW idled as he sat in his car and waited for the first warning bell to ring. Steve was so... he made Gen's blood boil by just looking at his stupid expression as he read a stupid piece of crumpled paper. At the very least, he expected nothing before she aggressively welcomed herself into his car. "You ugly fucker."

"Hey!" Steve cried out, "Get out of my car!"

"In what world would you tell Jonathan to take her home instead of me? In what fucking world, Harrington!" she chastised as he attempted to push her out of the door, which Gen promptly shut behind her and locked with her mind. She even went as far to smack him upside the back of the head — for good measure.

Steve squirmed away from her, as far as he could in the cramped space, anyway, while he placed the sheet he was reading on the dashboard. "Don't hit me! What —? He asked me at a bad time and I didn't think Nancy wanted to ride with your greasy band freaks while she's drunk and upset."

"Greasy band freaks? Only I get to call them that! What is your problem, you dipshit!"

And she was sure Steve anticipated the next hit, because he began to flail his arms meekly in an attempt to deter the light slaps to his head — probably to save his "carefully crafted" hair, which she aimed for. "Stop! Hey, watch the hair!" he yelled and grabbed her wrists as they jerked to break free, "I was upset, okay! Jonathan was right there, hounding me after I stepped out."

"I tried to follow you into the bathroom!" Gen argued back as she easily pulled her wrists from his grasp.

"And then you stormed off!"

She stared at him in frustration as she calmed the kettle whistling in her ears, then hit his dashboard in an act of rage (better it than him?). "Fuck! You owe me, Harrington... something good."

"Owe you? What? Why?" If Gen could punch his stupid face repeatedly, she would have, but Hopper swore he'd ground her if she missed any classes that day — and a happy Jim kept the peace at home, so she just groaned and tossed her head back in response. "You're so obnoxious."

"Shut the fuck up," she snapped as she rolled his window down and lit a cigarette. "Why were you so upset, anyway? Did Nance say something mean about your hair?" Gen asked in a feigned pouty tone, chuckling as she took a long drag from it.

Steve scoffed and made an expression similar to an angry toddler as he sat up straight, "No, it's none of your business, Volkova. Go beat a freshman or do whatever you do for fun, or something."

"It's my business now, just tell me, or I'll hear it from Nancy's perspective — which will be biased, and I will attack you if it sounds like you did something wrong," she informed him, completely truthfully, to his dismay.

"Just..." he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration, "I think she broke up with me, or wants to break up with me, or something. She said everything was bullshit. Happy?"

"Mildly." Gen's brows furrowed in thought, and she had noticed Nancy had acted weird around Steve for a long time, like something got caught in her throat whenever she spoke to him. Especially when Gen was forced to sit and third wheel while they did stupid coupley shit. Though, she felt her stomach twist when she realized Nancy hadn't told her about her feelings like she usually did. "So, what? You aren't dating anymore?"

"I don't know. I'll talk to her about it whenever Jonathan drives her in ... why do you care so much?" he asked and leaned back in his seat to rub his face, maybe because Gen upset him, or because he still had sleep left in his eyes. She hoped it was the former.

"Because she's my friend." Lie. "And I don't like seeing her upset."

"Okay, get out of my car."

"No."

"I told Angie I'd meet her before first period, out."

"You're such a bad liar," Gen jeered as she watched his stupid mouth twitch and his eyes look to the left, like they did whenever he told a lie. She squinted at him and furrowed her brows, "You're talking to Angie again? Why?"

"Do I need a reason to?" he sighed and rolled down his window to let out excess smoke from the inside of his car. Steve smoked, she didn't know why he made it seem like such a chore when Gen did it around him.

She rolled her eyes and fiddled with the butt of the cigarette as it hung loosely from her index and middle fingers, "I just find it weird, one minute you avoid her like the plague, another you're connected at the hip. You aren't planning on telling her anything, right?"

"What? No," Steve replied quickly, shooting a sharp glance at Gen for asking so nonchalantly. "I'm not — I wouldn't put her in danger like that, she doesn't need that."

"Good, she's already in over her head," she said, slowly, as she gauged his reaction (which was his head whipping around to stare at Gen wide-eyed, mouth agape. Like a fish.). "I'll know if you do, anyways."

The Harrington boy blinked at her and shook his head, "No, no, no — don't just brush over that first part. In over her head? How?"

Gen just shrugged in response.

"Genevieve."

Her eyes snapped over to him in a glare as she shoved him gently in the chest for thinking that using her full name would intimidate her. "You've been in her room, haven't you? Use your fat head and think, Harrington," she scoffed because he should have known what she was talking about. Gen wished that the people she hung around were more like Nancy: smart, poised, and humorous.

"Duh, but that board — it's nothing, she won't do anything." Lie.

"Why are you lying?" she questioned, her eyes narrowed into his, which were averted away from hers. "Did she figure something out? Why didn't you say anything?" Steve pressed his lips into a flat line and met Gen's eyes again, he seemed determined to keep eye contact as he shook his head sternly.

"She doesn't know anything, okay? Wait — wait, how do you even know this?" he asked, deflecting most of the rapid-fire questions she asked. "Are you getting in her head?"

"No," she lied incredulously, and side eyed him as she realized that Steve thought that Gen would lie to him. Don't get her wrong — she was, but he didn't need to think that she would lie in the first place.

"You are!"

"I'm not —"

"That's like, seriously invasive, Gen. Do you get into my head when I'm not paying attention?"

"Hell no!" She cringed at the thought of projecting herself into Steve's room and reading his mind (like he had anything going on up there.), the boy almost shot back another condescending statement, but Gen cut him off with a defeated sigh. "Pete asked me to keep her safe."

His mouth fell into an idiotic looking 'O' shape, and Gen dropped her finished cigarette out of the window as she let him process what she said, then that left a thick tension in the air and Steve stayed silent — for the first time in his life. The girl crossed her arms and huffed in frustration, "I just check in from time to time to make sure she's not getting herself killed or something. She heard me last time, so I'm not doing it again for a while."

"Dipshit." He dropped the subject.

"You try working these things, you'd blow your own head off, I'm sure," she scoffed and opened the door, swinging her long legs outside into the November air. Gen liked November, she liked the darker skies and the heavy clothes that she could wear without cooking like a rotisserie chicken.

"I'd choke you out with it."

"I think about doing that everyday," she shot back with a glare and got out of the car. "Your car is stupid and ugly, and you look like a frog today, and your hair is stupid and I wish you went bald."

"What the hell!" Steve exclaimed and leapt to go after her because really, what the hell? But Gen shut the door and chortled to herself as she jogged away from the vehicle, fast enough that the boy didn't bother to catch up with her quickly paced steps.

Again, Steve was just so — just so absolutely punchable. She didn't know what Nancy saw in him, and from the sounds of it, she didn't know either, as apparently the Wheeler girl had made a bold declaration while she was extremely drunk. At a party Steve wanted her to attend.

It wasn't like Gen could blame Nancy. She could never blame Nancy for something as trivial as boy trouble — men were irrational and immature creatures. It was always something that they had coming to them.

Gen surprised herself sometimes, being able to put up with so many of them, but then she remembered that the ones she hung around were so stupid — in fact, that it cancelled itself out. They were too stupid to be harmful, and so, she found herself surrounded by a hoard of them constantly. Gareth, Jeff, Eddie, Brian. They ogled at the fact that a girl could bear to be seen within three feet of them, even if she threatened to beat them senseless whenever they'd so much as to give her a sly glance.

It was better than the carbon cut Ken and Barbie dolls that lived along the cul de sacs, a personal hell.

However.

If midwestern cul de sacs were hell on Earth, then middle of nowhere high schools could strike fear into the hearts of even the meanest demons. Their spiked lambs and sacrificed virgins would never compare to the foul catastrophes Carol Perkins could ensue onto any unsuspecting victim, in a cloud of hairspray and string of malicious gossip, she could destroy the social life of anyone below her. They would be doomed to forever participate in theater or band until they graduated and hopefully escaped the sleepy streets of Hawkins.

The actual school part was mediocre. Gen bore a C average, the only thing that brought her grade up from a D was her A in PE. She hated class, especially when they had to sit in silence and work or were expected to study when they could be doing something much cooler. There was no point in Gen learning Algebra when she could learn something more useful, like learning to cook or dealing with taxes or whatever adults do that get them into debt — but — she refused to skip class without good reason, unlike her friend Gareth, who skipped whenever he just didn't feel like going. (In all honesty, any reason felt like a good reason, sometimes.)

But the people were something else.

The popular girls had big puffy hair that framed their pretty faces; they were all cheerleaders and the most popular ones would soar through the air and stand at the top of the pyramid. Not that Gen ever attended a pep rally or school sports game that wasn't her own, but she saw them during track practices. She didn't like how their skirts fluttered perfectly and their smiles were so white, too bright. If she stared for too long they would burn into her pupils and she'd be blinded for the rest of the day.

Gen couldn't be blinded by perfect smiles and puffy hair.

She avoided the cheerleaders who would gladly ruin her life with a single rumor and their jock boyfriends who had ground beef for brains, the most popular ones acted like every stereotypical American jock Gen had ever seen, maybe there was a reason that was the stereotype. If she had to sit in a crowded cafeteria with them for longer than it took her friends to buy their shitty food, then she would spontaneously combust into a million pieces — so Gen spent her lunches outside by a picnic table or inside of empty classrooms when it got too cold to bear.

As most people tucked their coats tighter around their torsos, Gen merely wore a dark green windbreaker to cover her lanky frame. Wind gusted throughout the air and pushed her raven strands out of her face — not like it needed to, she kept her hair short — and her gaze rested on Gareth as he chewed his food and spoke about some epiphany he'd come up with.

It was a load of bullshit, Gen could tell even through her barely attentive nods, like usual. Something about aliens beaming cows into their UFOs, and haywire tractors that sucked up teenage girls, Jeff and Brian listened with their full attention on him, but Eddie looked like he was thinking. Hard. Maybe for the campaign before winter break, or maybe for the band — or sometimes, it was something mildly interesting. He stood up abruptly, and the boys snapped their heads to look at him.

A bunch of dogs waiting for command, she thought as she rolled her eyes and glanced up at Eddie, who placed his foot on the bench to the left of her. "This year... this year I need to do something big — something bold," he started, and Gen figured out within seconds that he was about to go on one of his monologuing tangents as he flailed his hands aimlessly, "No one should see it coming..."

"I have an idea: graduating," she teased with a soft chuckle, and Eddie grabbed her by the collar of her jacket like a scruffed cat. Gen didn't flinch, but she shot him an unamused glare as he slid his arm around her shoulder.

"Obviously — I'm walking that stage this year and I'm gonna pry that diploma from principal Higgins; out of his cold, dead hands if I have to — and once May hits, I'm gonna run like hell out of here!" Eddie exclaimed, and his puffy ash brown hair swung around his face as he demonstrated for the group. Each of which whooped and cheered, some unenthusiastic (Gen.). "But no... that's not it. See, Hawkins has a new problem — an insect problem that's taken the form of William Hargrove."

The very mention of the name "William Hargrove" made Corroded Coffin recoil in a primal disgust that could only be uncovered by someone so obnoxious. Their eyes seemed to gravitate to where he stood out on the yard, leaned against a tree lazily while he spoke to Angelica Bell. Gen's jaw clenched at his effortlessly portrayed character — sultry, yet closed off as he hid the look in his eyes: one reminiscent of a lion prepared to strike his prey. Billy, however, remained clueless to the group of freaks that stared at him.

"As you see, he's reached his spray-tanned paw into the pot of honey that is Hawkins — and frankly, it seems like we have a poser on our hands," Eddie continued and he sprung up onto the top of the table, and the group gasped, even Gen looked slightly perturbed as she glanced back at the mullet-having boy. "And as we know it; William has douche-ified the metal scene of Hawkins!"

A wave of protests and shouts came over the table, some more violent than the others, until Eddie shushed them and spoke in a hushed tone, "Which is why, we need to show him metal. Real metal. And show him we will, a grand finale to my time at Hawkins High... the star of the show 'William... Hargrove...!'" Gen tried to take him seriously as he exclaimed in his Dungeons and Dragons voice, but failed as she looked at the sorry group of scrawny losers who didn't know how to fight if they tried.

Gen knew what kind of guy Billy was, but she also knew Eddie. Eddie Munson couldn't hurt a fly, at least unprovoked.

Hushed proclamations of all out war were shared over the wooden table top, and Gen remained silent, because if they did pull anything, it wouldn't be until the end of the school year neared. That seemed so far away. She zoned out on a speck on the wood as she imagined the things that could happen in a mere few months — most of which revolved around Nancy and the time she'd spend with her over winter and spring break, especially with Steve out of the picture.

She didn't realize the shadow which loomed over Hawkins, the one that outstretched his hand to clap her on the shoulder whilst stunning Corroded Coffin with the air that followed him — scented with something Dior, it made Gen's nose sting as she inhaled sharply from the sudden contact. "Shenyechka! Are these your friends?"

—————
—–— AUTHOR'S NOTE
cliffhanger?!?!? 🙇‍♀️🧐 yes.
i kind of didnt like this chapter
but whatever

sorry not sorry if you think
there's too much gen. but i
like writing her and the latwr
acts are less her focused and
more angie focused, so, its
whatever

its been so hot here, i can barely
focus and write 😅 so sorry if
the chapters are slow and not super
great (even after editing). my brain
is like, melting, even edits are too
much to focus on right now

but i do hope you liked this one!!
vote and comment, i love to see it!

PRETTY SICK!
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