CHAPTER THREE
A HAWKINS HALLOWEEN

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"NO WAY," MABEL loudly snorted as she slapped her hand over her mouth in pure amusement at her four friends, who were all sporting detailed Ghostbusters-themed costumes. "You guys look so stupid."

"Wh- hey." Lucas furrowed his eyebrows at the girl in offence.

"What's wrong with our costumes?" Mike obliviously frowned as he glanced down at his carefully constructed attire before facing Mabel again.

"When you guys planned this out months ago, I thought you were kidding. No way you actually went through with it," Mabel couldn't prevent herself from releasing involuntary, humoured giggles as she surveyed each of the boys' outfits. "You all do know you're gonna get bullied for this, right?"

"Maybe with that attitude..." Dustin scoffed as the group's attention was steadfastly stolen by the sound of the school bus screeching to a halt right in front of them, Will's eyes darting between the group members as he just silently observed their repartee.

"Well, we'll just see about that, won't we?" Mabel tauntingly raised her eyebrows as she gestured to the school bus before placing her hands on her hips, eliciting the boys to follow the direction she pointed to.

"Why is no one else wearing costumes?" Dustin's slow words conveyed the group's collective dismay and embarrassment, and Mabel felt her lips quirk upwards with an entertained smirk as she smugly patted the boy's shoulder.

"Told you." Mabel quipped.

"Crap." Lucas blew out an elongated breath.

•

Athena lifted her head up from its previous position wholly invested in her textbook, observing Steve lightly guiding Nancy towards a secluded office in the library.

She would've looked away and not have given the action a second thought if Nancy's face wasn't stricken with a complex mixture of apprehension and remorse.

Athena knew her best friend way too well to simply brush off the unusual expression—something was eating at Nancy, and Athena's intuition was telling her it was related to Barbara's parents and the previous night's dinner.

After Nancy came out of the bathroom that same night, the whites surrounding her, usually sapphire-toned, irises were tinged with a rouge hue, her eyelids puffy, albeit, barely visibly but still somewhat swollen, and her cheeks were suddenly adorned with a pale maroon blush that could have only occurred as a result of a sudden burst of emotion.

Quickly standing up, Athena pushed her chair out, closed her textbook, and made movements to follow after the two.

At the sound of Athena gently opening and closing the door behind her and joining the pair, Steve and Nancy only casted fleeting glances her way, the two way too preoccupied with their current conversation to properly acknowledge her presence.

"I can't keep doing this." Nancy quietly stated, her hand resting on the desk beside her as Steve refocused on her face.

"Doing what?" Steve inquired cluelessly, Athena crossing her arms over her chest comfortably as her eyes flickered between the pair attentively.

"Pretending like everything's okay." Nancy lowly clarified, her tone flat.

"What are you talking about?" Steve's puzzlement seemed to only increase at the words.

Nancy raised her eyebrows as she tried to explain her stance more firmly, though her tone only grew more emotional and pronounced with every word. "Barbara. It's like everyone forgot, it's like nobody cares! Except her parents, and now they're selling their house-"

"Nance-" Steve tried to interject, Athena's curious expression fading into one of sympathy at Nancy's explanation, and she involuntarily uncrossed her arms from her position.

"And they're going to spend the rest of their lives looking for her!" Nancy's voice wavered as she emphasised the tragic reality of Barbara's parents' situation.

"I know, I know." Steve tried to calm her down again, however Nancy's saddened words continually cut through his fruitless attempts.

"It's destroying them." Nancy practically pleaded, her emotive words laced with desperation.

"I know, I know, okay?" Steve's eyes flickered between Nancy and Athena as he spoke up to try and ease his girlfriend's discomfort. "I get it. But...listen, there's nothing we can do about it."

Nancy seemed to be fully take aback by the statement, and her eyebrows raised in an obvious manner. "Yeah, we could tell them the truth."

Now it was both Steve and Athena's turns to be fully surprised. Steve moved his head back slightly, while Athena's eyebrows furrowed as the boy stuttered out a slow, clear reply. "Well, you know we can't do that."

Athena held her protesting frown on Nancy as she added in a firm statement. "As much as I desperately want to argue otherwise, Harrington's right, Nance. It's way too dangerous."

Steve evidently didn't expect her to agree with him so fast, let alone at all, and he blinked at her in a fleeting moment of pure skeptical astonishment before refocusing on Nancy again as she passionately counteracted their claims. "We don't have to tell them everything."

"This isn't some game, Nance," Steve's tone hardened. "If they found out that we told any-"

Cutting himself off as he seemed to realise that he was speaking a little too loudly, Steve stepped towards the window pane to the side and drew the blinds down before rejoining the pair and lowering his voice. "They could put us in jail, okay? Or worse, they could destroy our families. They can do anything they want. Okay? Just think about what you're saying."

Nancy just lowered her gaze as her eyes started to well-up with budding tears, her bottom lip quivering. Athena sighed as she crossed her arms again, and Steve's tone comfortingly softened at Nancy's shift in reaction. "Hey. Hey, hey..."

Athena's eyebrows slightly creased inwards as she watched Steve immediately switch into 'reassuring boyfriend-mode' at her change in emotion—a setting that Athena had only witnessed less than a handful of times before, usually only when Nancy was observably distressed—, and as he extended his hand out to tenderly clasp his hand around her arm and stroke it while sitting down on the table, Athena couldn't stifle the unexpected, incredulous expression from taking over her features.

"Hey, it's..." Steve let out a small sigh as he lowered his eyes momentarily while Nancy's refocused on his face. "It's hard, but let's...let's just go to Tina's stupid party, wear our stupid costumes that we've been working on for a stupid amount of time, and just pretend like we're stupid teenagers, okay? Can we just do that? Just for tonight?"

Despite the generally sweet sentiment that, deep down, underlined the words, Athena couldn't help but find them appropriately awkward and discomfit—for Steve, of course. While the intention was there, Athena just found the statement anticlimactic.

Perhaps it was because Steve Harrington was saying them, or perhaps it was the disconnect that was heavily present between Athena and the validity of the words, themselves.

Whatever it was, Athena was effectively taken-out of the moment, and she just rolled her eyes as she witnessed the pair subconsciously inch closer to one another.

Already expecting the two to make her cringe even more, Athena just headed towards the door and let them have their moment—the pair seemed to not even notice the action as Steve engulfed Nancy in a secure hug.

•

Mabel closed her locker door, the girl beginning to head towards her next class when she suddenly noticed the new girl—Max—skateboarding towards her assigned locker.

Taking the opportunity to make a new friend, Mabel plastered on a friendly smile and bounced over to the girl, ignoring the stunned, utterly magnetised looks that Dustin and Lucas were sending Max from their lockers. "Hi. Max, was it?"

The red-haired girl whipped around to face Mabel at the sudden words, and it was evident from the slight crease of her eyebrows that she did not expect the gesture at all.

"I'm Mabel," Mabel grinned. "I know you're new and all, but I can also tell that you probably don't care about this school enough to want to know who everyone is and which teachers give you better grades, so I'll skip out on the whole 'initiation ritual' thing and just fast-forward to the 'being friends' thing, instead."

Max was silent for a moment, likely taking in the string of words that tumbled out of Mabel's mouth in such a quick succession, however, from the slight, barely noticeable quirk of one of her eyebrows, Mabel could infer that Max was simultaneously interested in being her friend. Or entertaining the current conversation, at least. "You talk too much."

"I get that a lot," Mabel affirmed, her own eyebrows slightly lifting. "If you wanna hang out with my friends and I, we can show you around town, help you get settled in? Lucas and Dustin think you're cool, Will's just surprised you hold the highest score for some stupid arcade game or something, I'm still confused about that, and plus, Mike and I, we both have older sisters, and they know all the coolest places."

Max furrowed her eyebrows at the long-winded words, the girl observably bombarded with an overload of new information that she likely needed a bit of time to process. Well, from what Mabel could tell.

She didn't respond, and before Mabel could open her mouth once more, Dustin and Lucas stumbled beside her, their faces wonderstruck as they stared at Max.

Dustin stuttered out a nervous, friendly introduction after a few awkward seconds. "Hi, Max. I'm Dustin, and th- this is-"

"Lucas." Lucas grinned at Max.

"Yeah, I know," Max deadpanned as she tilted her head to the side. "The stalkers."

Raising her eyebrows as she flickered her eyes rapidly between the overexcited boys, who were now paralysed with momentary embarrassment at Max's words, Mabel just blew out a long breath and twisted on her heels. "Well, that's my cue..."

•

"Pierce," A familiar voice called from a fair distance behind Athena, who was walking towards her next class, the girl slightly furrowing her eyebrows as she just chose to keep walking. "Pierce, I know you can hear me."

When she realised it was Steve who was requesting her attention, Athena just widened her eyes and quickened her pace.

"I should've known you would do that," Steve audibly scoffed as his voice suddenly grew louder—and consequently closer. "Pierce, wait-"

As Athena felt a hand grab onto her shoulder, the girl whipped around quickly, shrugging his hand off as she stepped back. "What do you want, asshole?"

"Uncalled for, first of all." Steve's eyebrows creased inwards, the words tinged with sarcasm.

"Not really," Athena immediately countered, eyes narrowing at him as a consequence. "Just because we can be in the same room now, doesn't mean you're not still the bane of my existence."

Steve chose to ignore the words—the knowledge that he mustered a great amount of strength in order to do so only fuelled Athena's sense of accomplishment—before he reluctantly let out a sigh. "I can't believe you agreed with me back there."

Athena's cautious expression faded into one of vexation as she attempted to turn around again. "Okay, if you interrupted my peace for that, Harrington, I swear-"

"No, wait, I wasn't finished," Steve dismissively scoffed, his words causing Athena to turn around and face him again. He observed her unenthusiastic, expecting look for a moment, and just when Athena noticed a familiarly irritating glint flash past his eyes, she didn't even have enough time to mentally prepare a comeback for whatever insult he'd involuntarily throw at her. "See? You won't melt if you actually agree with me sometimes."

"I'm not a witch, Harrington, I can't melt." Athena plastered on a tight-lipped smile to prevent her exasperation from being obvious, despite her weak comeback. She didn't want him to win, after all.

"Could've fooled me," Steve's face lit up with a purposefully provoking smirk. "Looks like I already guessed your costume."

"Spoken like a true adult, and I'm actually going as Samantha Baker from 'Sixteen Candles'," Athena challengingly tilted her head. "Who are you going as, anyway? E.T?"

Steve's expression shifted into a firm glare at the insult. "Obviously not. Nance and I are going as Joel and Lana."

Athena dramatically groaned, tilting her head back for added effect as she drew out an irked remark. "Please don't ruin 'Risky Business' for me."

"Whatever, I didn't come to ask you to approve of my costume," Steve might as well have rolled his eyes at her. "Look, I just want Nance and I to have a good night tonight, okay? I know you want to too, especially with all of this shit going on. Can we, at least, agree to not piss each other off for one night?"

Athena suspiciously narrowed her eyes at him as she let the words settle for a brief period. "What's in it for you?"

"What?" Steve furrowed his eyebrows.

"You asking me not to argue with you, first of all, is uncharacteristic of you, and secondly, you know, very well, that you are the reason why I 'piss you off', anyway," Athena rolled her eyes. "If you don't want to argue with me, don't say stupid shit, and don't give me a reason to point out all of it."

"Okay, see, that's what I'm talking about," Steve offhandedly scoffed. "I don't care how many names you call me to your friends, but just hold off for one night, alright? Nancy doesn't need to deal with our bullshit just because we hate each other. You know that she's tried to convince both of us over the whole break to not argue every five minutes, the least we can do is give her one night off."

Athena's gaze averted as she defensively crossed her arms over her chest. Everything Steve said was entirely true, whether Athena wanted to admit it or not.

Clearing her throat after a few short seconds, Athena regained her previously assured composure. "I can't make any promises, you always find a way to annoy the hell out of me at any given moment, but...you do have a point."

Steve furrowed his eyebrows. "That agreeing thing is getting weird, Pierce."

Athena replicated his frown as she, too, viewed the situation the same way. "Yeah, it felt weird when I said it."

"Stop doing that." Steve's frown deepened as he just watched Athena roll her eyes, scoff, and wordlessly walk away from him.

•

AUTHOR'S NOTE
athena's costume...potential parallel to a later chapter? 👀

© voidvaleska