CHAPTER TWO
FOR SALE

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"AH, THIS MUST be our new student." Mr Clarke began politely as he gestured to the doorway, the principal guiding an unfamiliar red-headed girl into the classroom and effectively catching Mabel, Lucas, Dustin, Mike and Will's attention from their seats.

"Indeed it is," The principal affirmed before leaving the room. "All yours."

The girl tried to move to a seat, however she was steadfastly stopped by Mr Clarke's lighthearted voice before she could. "Alright, hold up, you don't get away that easy. Come on up, don't be shy. Dustin, drum roll."

At the command, Dustin closed his textbook and drummed his hands rhythmically on top of it, Mabel smiling in amusement from her seat while the new girl averted her discomforted gaze awkwardly.

"Class, please welcome, all the way from sunny California, the latest passenger to join us on our curiosity voyage, Maxine." Mr Clarke gestured to Maxine with eccentric jazz hands as he grinned at the class.

"It's Max." The girl—Max—corrected in a quiet stutter.

"Sorry?" Mr Clarke seemed to have misheard her.

"Nobody calls me Maxine. It's Max." Max rebutted more clearly.

"Hi, Max." Mabel spoke up from her seat, her tone incredibly friendly, casting the attention of the small portion of her peers that weren't sleeping or drawing on their desks towards her at the interruption.

Max just casted her gaze towards her at the sudden words, eyeing her in, what Mabel assumed, defensive suspicion, before sending her the smallest hint of an acknowledging nod in response.

"Mad Max." Lucas whispered quietly to Dustin, the boy referring to the name of the player who held the highest score on Dig Dug at the arcade.

"Well, that was nice, Mabel, and all aboard, Max." Mr Clarke cleared his throat as he swiftly moved on from the minor awkwardness that Max's correction formed.

As Max moved to sit down in an empty seat, all five pairs of the party's eyes followed after her curiously.

•

"Thanks, Tina." Athena sent Tina a small smile as she gladly took a poster from the girl's outstretched hand.

"Thanks," Nancy echoed Athena's statement as she took a poster too, her and Jonathan on either side of Athena, who was now surveying the contents of the paper. "Oh, could I get one more?"

"Yeah, sure." As soon as Tina handed Nancy another poster, the trio continued their journey, Nancy reaching past Athena in the middle of her and Jonathan to shove one of the pages onto his chest.

"You're coming to this." Nancy lightheartedly began with a simultaneous minor firmness to her tone, a humoured smile tugging at the corners of Athena's lips at the words as her eyes danced between the pair.

"Absolutely, I won't hear any arguments to the contrary, Byers." Athena amiably chimed in, and when Jonathan shot her a playfully exasperated look, the boy not being able to contain his own small smirk at the girls' collective insistence, she tauntingly shrugged, smile growing.

"Come and get sheet faced," Jonathan shook his head amusedly at Athena and shifted his attention to the page in his hand as he read from it. When he finished, he casted his eyes back to Nancy and Athena, resting them on Nancy for a beat longer as he continued. "No, I'm not."

Athena opened her mouth to protest, however before she could, Nancy cut in for her and essentially voiced her thoughts. "I can't let you sit all alone Halloween. That's just not acceptable."

"Well, you can relax. I'm not gonna be alone." Jonathan matter-of-factly corrected as the group continued to walk down the hallway, Ruth and Joshua joining them along the way.

"What are we talking about?" Ruth interestedly peered over Athena's shoulder as she squeezed in-between Athena and Nancy, the girl shoving Nancy's shoulder a little too roughly as she did so—unnoticeably to everyone but Nancy, who shot the girl a deep frown in response. "Ooo, Tina's party. Josh and I are going too, obviously."

"It'll be fun." Joshua added as he positioned himself between Ruth and Nancy, not casting a single look towards Jonathan, who he still held misconceptions of as a result of his friends' opinions—misconceptions that Athena was actively endeavouring to shift daily.

"We're convincing Jonathan to come." Athena smiled as she met Joshua's gaze, feeling her stomach flip fervently when he returned the look.

Joshua's expression shifted from its previously entertained one into one of disagreement, however before he could question why, Jonathan spoke up, ignoring Joshua and Ruth's evident displeasure with him—for a reason he didn't care to acknowledge. "I'm going trick-or-treating with Will."

"Boring." Ruth murmured in a singsong voice, audible enough for only Joshua to hear. The boy itched his cheek to prevent himself from making his smirk obvious to the group.

"All night?" Nancy unenthusiastically raised her eyebrows as she slightly leaned her head forward to meet his gaze.

"Really, Byers?" Athena unsatisfactorily added as she looked towards him too.

"Yeah." Jonathan replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, and at this point, him, Athena and Nancy were engaged in their own conversation, while Ruth and Josh, despite still being with them, were clearly preoccupied with their own hushed discussion.

"No, no way," Nancy sceptically disagreed. "You're gonna be home by eight, listening to the Talking Heads and...reading Vonnegut, or something."

Jonathan just shrugged. "Sounds like a nice night."

"Unbelievable." Athena lightly hit his arm with the poster in response, eliciting a small huff of a chuckle from the boy in response.

"Jonathan, just- just come. I mean, who knows, you might even, like, meet someone." Nancy finally allowed her annoyance to seep through her previously assured exterior, and the group stopped when they arrived at Nancy's locker.

Suddenly, Steve appeared from around the corner laughing, sweeping Nancy into a tight hug as he lifted her off the ground, whipped her around, and elicited a surprised shriek from his girlfriend in response.

Athena bit her tongue for Nancy's sake, rolled her eyes in utter exasperation at Steve's—in her mind—corniness, turned around, and began to walk away from the couple, Jonathan staring at the pair with a furrow of his eyebrows momentarily before following after her.

Joshua scoffed, his immense hatred for the popular boy incredibly evident as he just headed in the direction of his next class, not wanting to be seen with Jonathan any longer than he needed to. Ruth, however, was entirely disheartened as she just watched the couple kiss with incredible sadness.

She stood there for a moment, paralysed while they engaged in a flirty exchange before she clearly realised that everyone had disappeared, the girl huffing out a disgruntled breath as she hurried after Athena.

•

"Thanks for helping Steve with his essay at school today, Thena," Nancy started as she shuffled in her seat to send a grateful smile to Athena from her position sitting in the passengers' seat of Steve's car. "It really helped."

Turning to look at Steve, Nancy sent the boy a pointedly obvious glare, in which Steve, flickering his eyes between her face and the road ahead of him, just let out an elongated breath and reluctantly muttered out a concurring statement, refusing to look at the rear-view mirror as he directed the strained words to Athena. "Yeah. It did."

Athena, withholding the urge to roll her eyes at Steve's lacklustre form of a 'thank you', just focused on Nancy and plastered on a small, patient smile. "You're welcome, Nance."

Steve scoffed but chose to withhold his rebuttal as he parked his car outside the Holland family's home.

"Okay, both of you swear that you won't argue, roll your eyes, scoff or do anything of a similar nature when we're in there," Nancy steadfastly faced the two as her beseeching, direct irises flickered between them in a quick succession. "Please. They've already gone through so much, they don't need to deal with your pointless bickering too."

Athena's, once firm, expression softened at the words, and her voice came out incredibly earnest as she, too, knew the fact. Barbara's parents were in a horrible, unimaginably devastating situation, the last thing they needed was for their lives to be plagued with even more grief and unnecessary stress.

Even though she would never admit the fact verbally, Athena had come to realise over the most recent semester break, whether she liked to admit it or not, that Steve, somewhere deep down, had a heart. A small one, albeit, but it was there.

Even though it was primarily observed through Steve's affections for Nancy, Athena came to familiarise herself—after an arduous period of trying not to during her being a third wheel—with the fact that he wasn't a heartless monster, contrary to her own previous set-in-stone belief, so she knew that he would agree with her.

A concept that she had been ruminating on all day in order to finally acknowledge it. She still couldn't believe her own eyes when Steve's softer side came out around Nancy.

"Of course, Nance." Athena's words were laced with immense sympathy that even Steve could not counter.

"We won't argue." Steve concluded, nodding at Nancy, who visibly relaxed at their unanimous confirmation.

The three then departed from Steve's car without another word and approached the Hollands' front door, the 'for-sale' sign in the yard not missing either of them.

"Okay," Steve let out an anticipating breath as he faced Nancy. "Ready?"

"Yeah." Nancy affirmed, looking towards Athena for her confirmation, in which Athena nodded once at the look.

"Okay." Steve reached over to press the doorbell.

•

"I'm so sorry I didn't get to cook," Barbara's mother started apologetically as she faced the teens sitting in front of her and her husband, each of them separated by half-empty buckets of KFC. "I was gonna make that baked ziti you guys like so much, but I just forgot about the time, and then, before you know it, oh my god, it's five o'clock."

"That's okay, Mrs Holland, really." Athena sent the woman a pleasant, understanding smile from her seat beside Nancy as she placed down her fork on the side of her plate, who was separating her and Steve by sitting in the seat in the middle of the pair.

"It's fine. It's great." Nancy added with an enthusiastic nod.

"Right. I love KFC." Steve nodded quickly as he shovelled a forkful of chicken into his mouth.

"So, I noticed a 'for sale' sign out in your yard," Nancy began after a few seconds, coaxing the group's attention to her. "Is that the neighbours', or...?"

Mr and Mrs Holland shared fleetingly knowing looks.

"You wanna tell them?"

"Go ahead."

As her husband coaxed her to tell the teens, Mrs Holland faced them again, her eyes twinkling with hope. "We hired a man named Murray Bauman. Have either of you heard of him?"

Athena's eyes slid to the side in brief thought before she shook her head, Nancy and Steve replicating the gesture as they, too, weren't familiar with the name.

"No."

"No, I don't think so."

"He was an investigative journalist for the Chicago Sun-Times." Mrs Holland elaborated with an eager tone.

"He's pretty well-known." Mr Holland handed Steve the man's card, the boy glancing at it curiously before moving it to the side in order for Nancy to take and Athena to lean over to look at it too.

"Anyway, he's freelance now, and he agreed to take the case." Mrs Holland continued with a happy sigh as the teens faced her again at the words.

"What?" Athena couldn't prevent herself from instinctively blurting out the question in utter shock as the saddening reality and prospects of the entire situation only just began to settle through both her and Nancy's minds—this evident through Nancy's momentarily frozen figure.

Steve widened his eyes briefly at the unintentionally confronting tone of Athena's voice, and he cleared his throat as he spoke up quickly in order to save her from involuntarily offending the Hollands'—unintentionally, of course. "Oh, that's- that's great."

Mr and Mrs Holland let out elated chuckles as they connected their hands on the surface of the wooden table.

"No, that's really...that's great, right?" Steve tried to hide his evidently sympathetic thoughts as he turned to fleetingly glance between Athena and Nancy beside him in an effort to hint at his obvious attempt to comfort the parents.

Athena's face was filled with utter empathy as she stared sorrowfully at the Hollands', her brain racing with melancholy thoughts of Barbara's condition, whereas Nancy's features were overtaken by a perplexed frown.

Steve's attempts at swiftly changing topics seemed to have fallen short on both Nancy and Athena, as Nancy just faced the Hollands' again. "Um...what exactly does...that mean?"

The question coaxed Athena to finally realise that she was making her dismay evident, and the girl blinked, cleared her throat, and glanced down at her plate to rid herself of her commiserating expression before the parents could start asking questions.

Mr Holland's face suddenly hardened. "It means he's gonna do what that lazy son of a bitch, Jim Hopp-"

At the sound of Mrs Holland's expressive, hinting clearing of her throat, Mr Holland averted his gaze and interrupted himself before he could get carried away. "Sorry...what the Hawkins Police haven't been capable of doing. It means we have a real detective on the case."

Athena felt her chest pang with a mixture of guilt and despair as she glanced over at Nancy beside her, who tried to blink back tears—evidently to Athena, at least—, as she took a sip of the drink in her glass.

"It means..." Mrs Holland's eyes twinkled with the same manifestation of hope that they shone with before as she huffed out a smile at the teens, her voice wavering with the presence of preemptive tears. "We're going to find our Barb."

"If anyone can find her, it's this man," Mr Holland elaborated, his own voice softening slightly as Nancy casted her eyes firmly down to her plate, Steve avoiding eye contact with the parents, and Athena furrowing her eyebrows through her sip of water. "He already has leads. By God, he's worth every last penny."

"But- is that why you're selling the house?" Nancy cautiously questioned as she faced the parents again, the tone supporting her words evidently less assured and now more emotive.

"Oh, don't worry about us, sweetie. We're fine," Mrs Holland looked towards her husband, who nodded with a wide smile. "More than fine. For the first time in a long time, we're hopeful."

That seemed to be the last straw for Nancy holding in her tears as the girl couldn't face the Hollands' any longer. Athena noticed her bottom lip wavering, and before she could say anything, Nancy just abruptly stood up and stammered out a quiet excuse before heading straight for the bathroom. "I- excuse me, I'll be right back..."

Steve widened his eyes slightly as he watched Nancy leave, the boy trying to reach his arm out to get her to stay, however his efforts were to no avail as the girl just quickened her pace.

Athena glanced down at her plate again as she quickly moved her fingers up to wipe the corners of her watery eyes and rid herself of the stinging tears that now threatened to slip down them.

As Athena successfully managed to prevent herself from revealing her own sadness to Barbara's parents, she lifted her head to rejoin the rest of the room, the girl noticing Steve silently watching Nancy leave, his eyes focused directly on his girlfriend—likely a strained effort to get her to stay.

As he finally seemed to come to terms with the fact that Nancy had effectively left him to deal with the awkwardness that sitting two chairs away from Athena, as well as two people that he didn't know at all, produced, Steve shifted his eyes between the rest of the group sitting at the table before soon settling them on Athena.

This was most likely, in Athena's brain, Steve's attempt to salvage any last hope of relief from the immense discomfort he, so evidently, felt through his stiff exterior, and she could practically feel him drilling holes into the side of her face.

Athena chose not to pay attention to the attempt, as she didn't want to acknowledge the fact that Steve was essentially silently begging for her assistance, however after a prolonged, incredibly uncomfortable moment of Steve keeping his death-stare on the same spot on the side of her face, Athena just let out a barely audible sigh, withheld the intense urge to roll her eyes, and turned her head to eventually meet his firm gaze.

Steve's eyebrows lifted as he finally succeeded in his attempts to get her attention, the boy practically asking her to say something to alleviate the tension.

Athena, without making her thoughts too obvious to the Hollands', who were busy eating their food to notice the pair's wordless exchange, only narrowed her eyes at him in return, then flickered her irises down to his plate of food in a clear, pointed command.

Steve furrowed his eyebrows at her, likely trying to internally piece together her suggestion, leading Athena to shoot him a minor, exasperated look before darting her eyes back down to his plate, then his face, with a slight raise of her eyebrows.

Just act normal and eat your food, dumbass, echoed through Athena's brain as the girl didn't know how much more obvious she could make her directions.

Steve's face visibly conveyed his realisation of her suggestion after a few seconds of contemplation, and he faced the Holland's again, picked up a piece of chicken, and took a crunchy bite.

Eventually, he finished chewing, the boy's lips smacking as he murmured a string of lighthearted words. "It's finger-lickin' good."

Athena slowly shook her head, keeping her unamused eyes on him as she waited until he noticed her disapproval and frowned at her before she turned away and took a sip of her water.

•

AUTHOR'S NOTE
athena and steve are going to be so cute once they start actually liking each other, i promise 😭

© voidvaleska