HAWKINS, INDIANA — 1983.

THERESA WAS NOT EXACTLY leaving Steve's house yet.

She still had some investigating to do.

The image of what she had seen two nights ago still burned strong in her mind, and she needed to figure out what it is.

Tess considered herself to be a levelheaded girl. Even if many others did not. But she still did not think she was so crazy to the point of seeing demonic figures pushing through the ceiling of people's houses.

"Tess?"

The girl blinked, realizing she was still standing at Steve's doorway.

"Are you okay?" he asked, frowning a bit.

Theresa opened her mouth, hesitated, then inhaled sharply and said, "The night I came here. To study. You– you didn't see anything weird?"

Steve slowly shook his head, recalling at once Theresa's scream from that night. He had not even had time to question it. What had she seen?

"...No," he replied slowly, "did you?"

She contemplated. "I guess I might have been seeing things. Who knew, I'm scared of the dark."

Tess smiled briefly and turned, abruptly exiting the room.

"Tess, wait!" Steve followed right behind her, reaching out and gently grabbing her shoulder.

She closed her eyes momentarily, turning to face him.

"Yeah, Steve?" Her tone came off annoyed.

He looked into her eyes, as much as she would let him anyway.

"You know you can tell me the truth, right? I'm not gonna not believe you."

Tess squinted for a moment, drawing her lips in as she looked up at Steve. There was something different about Steve than most other guys she had fooled around with. Theresa had never exactly been in this situation, but Steve seemed strangely... caring.

"Like I said, I think I was just imagining things. I'll see you tomorrow at school."

Theresa had almost said it, almost told him exactly what she had seen that night. But then the normal Tess slapped her in the face and told her to shut up.

She made it out to her car and started up the engine, looking over at Steve's house one last time.

What was it about him that made her start to feel vulnerable?

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     MRS. SINCLAIR WAS NOT HAPPY.

Theresa had the joy of finding that out when she entered the garage door of her home to find her mother awaiting, arms crossed.

Tess swore in her mind.

"Theresa Katherine Sinclair."

She started to roll her eyes. "The full name isn't necessary–"

"Do you know what time it is? Do you?" Mrs. Sinclair cut off.

Theresa clenched her jaw, crossing her arms back as she faced off with her mother.

"No. Enlighten me."

Mrs. Sinclair was not having Tess' attitude. Not right now. She held out her wrist and pulled off her watch, putting it in front of Theresa's face.

"It is nine thirty. You are an hour and a half past the curfew."

Theresa threw her head back, huffing. "I had to drop Sid and Priya off at home. Sid lives over twenty minutes away from us."

Mrs. Sinclair narrowed her eyes. She was not buying any of it, she never had when it came to Tess.

"Don't ask to go anywhere else for the next couple of weeks. There is a curfew for a reason, you hear me?"

Theresa's mouth fell open, eyebrows furrowing. "Excuse me? I don't know if you know, but I'm not ten anymore. I'm not gonna get kidnapped, and besides, that kid is probably a runaway!"

Mrs. Sinclair glared. "That 'kid' is your brother's friend. And you need to show some respect for that. Now go upstairs and go to bed."

She had no problem doing that. Theresa pushed past her mother, then stopped at once and turned back around.

"It'd be nice to know that you actually trust me," she said in a low, vindictive voice. "But clearly you don't."

And there was the thing Theresa did best: guilt-tripping her mother.

She went around the corner and up the stairs, knowing that her mom was going to feel bad about this in the morning. Honestly, Tess hoped she never had a kid like herself.

Once showering and changing into her pajamas, Theresa climbed into bed and lay there, thinking.

Somehow, everything she thought about made its way back to Steve Harrington. She tried to push him away, imagine something else. Theresa shut her eyes, but all of the thoughts kept circling back to Steve. She also started to imagine the things she might let Steve do to her, but finally snapped out of it.

Theresa opened her eyes, putting her hands up to her face and huffing.

She could not– absolutely could not– be falling for Steve Harrington.

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     STEVE WAS WAITING FOR THERESA to show up at school.

He had barely slept last night, his mind had been so busy go around and around about her.

When she did show up, he began to smile. But he watched her walk past him and Tommy H. and Carol without so much as glancing in their direction.

Tommy and Carol quickly took note.

"Did you blow it with Sinclair?" Tommy asked, elbowing Steve.

Steve elbowed him back with annoyance. "No, we didn't even do anything."

"No surprise," Carol remarked, "she probably already moved on from you."

He fought the urge to roll his eyes, tapping his foot for a moment. Steve pushed off of the locker, starting down the hall toward Tess.

Theresa, meanwhile, put away her books as she talked to Sidney.

"Where's Priya?" Tess questioned, shutting her locker.

Sidney shrugged. "I don't know, actually... I called her this morning but she never picked up."

Theresa pursed her lips, then shrugged and dismissed it. Sidney suddenly tensed, clearing her throat discreetly. Tess frowned a little, turning around. Steve was standing there, a small smile on his face.

"Hey," he said casually, pretending to not be as intimidated as he felt with Theresa looking at him the way she was.

She inhaled slowly. "Hi."

Sidney almost laughed from behind Tess, smirking as she walked away. Theresa was already cursing her in her mind.

"So," Steve continued, placing his hands in pockets. "I need another tutoring session."

Theresa could have done one of two things: agree, or don't. She could have turned him down, told Steve to stop talking to her and moved on to some other white boy jock.

But she couldn't bring herself to do so.

"Let me guess; that solid C plus in Chemistry isn't quite cutting it for Mr. and Mrs. Harrington," Theresa replied with a sly smile.

Steve's smile grew, laughing softly. "And the one in Algebra, and World History..."

Theresa could not help but to laugh a little, a rare sight to see. Especially when it wasn't her making fun of someone.

"That's a lot of tutoring," Tess responded, looking up at him at once. "I hope you plan on paying up."

"Now hang on a second, I still owe you Chanel clothes. What else do you want from me?"

Theresa shrugged. "Whatever I can get."

"Okay," Steve leaned against the lockers, "then how about a date?"

Her heart could have stopped. He had said it so suddenly, and so confidently. There was visible panic across Theresa's face for a split second.

"A date."

Steve nodded, trying to stay as calm as possible. There was no telling what Theresa might say.

Theresa was actually quite at a loss of words for once. But she shrugged it off, tilting her head as she looked to Steve once more.

"Where to?"

A wave of relief came over Steve, happy he had not been rejected like the many other guys in this school had been by Tess Sinclair.

"I was thinking, if it's okay with you, we could go bowling. Bowling and... ice cream?"

Theresa started to smile, adjusting her books in her arms. Honestly, deep down, she felt giddy like a little girl.

"Bowling and ice cream," she repeated, holding back from beaming. "That sounds hard to turn down."

The bell rang just then. Steve was smiling like an idiot as Tess began to step backwards.

"We'll finish this conversation in third period."

Steve quickly nodded, watching her walk away until she was gone.

"Yes ma'am," he muttered.

Holy shit, he thought. I'm going on a date with Theresa Sinclair.

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    "I'M WORRIED ABOUT PRIYA."

Theresa looked up from where she sat at the lunch table to see Sidney had arrived, a perturbed look on her face.

Tess raised an eyebrow, setting down her fork.

"Why?" she replied in a snappy tone.

Sidney sat down beside Tess, folding her hands over the table.

"I called her house again just now. Her mom said she never came home last night."

Theresa shook her head, confused. "I thought she left with you and your sister."

"She did," Sidney nodded vigorously. "But I don't know if she ever made it inside."

Theresa's face grew more and more concerned, now. She shook her head again, thinking. "Well– how drunk was she?"

Sid placed a hand over her face. "She was– pretty drunk, I don't know. I just– I'm worried now. I mean, first the kid, and now..."

"Okay, relax," Tess cut her off sternly. "You're jumping to conclusions. For all we know she could've... gotten lost and blacked out somewhere. We can go to her house after school and see, alright? Or maybe she's just playing hooky."

Sidney gave Tess a look. "We both know Priya. She doesn't play hooky."

Theresa rolled her eyes, standing up with her lunch tray in her hands.

"You're overreacting. As always. She's fine."

Tess was definitely wrong about that.

"Tess," Steve hurried over to her as she was about to leave the cafeteria. "Hey, what time were you coming over today?"

She blinked a few times, having almost forgotten that she was supposed to go to Steve's today.

"Uh... I'll be there at four. Probably."

Steve frowned, noticing her usual demeanor was not there.

"Is everything okay?" he asked quietly, leaning forward a little.

Theresa clenched her jaw. "You don't always have to ask me that."

He opened his mouth, then simply nodded.

"Sorry."

Tess almost felt bad, but then turned around and walked away with Sidney without another word.

When the final school bell let out, Sidney got in Tess' car with her and they went to pick up the younger Sinclairs.

"Tell mom I'm tutoring someone today," Theresa said as she dropped off Lucas and Erica at home.

"Who are you 'tutoring'? Steve?" Lucas goaded, to which Theresa mocked him.

After that, Tess and Sid headed to Priya's house.

"I have a really bad feeling about this whole situation," Sidney kept saying, holding her stomach like it was hurting.

Theresa was beginning to get annoyed. "Will you just shut up? Priya probably got too hammered, stumbled too far down the street, and passed out in the woods somewhere–"

Tess suddenly slammed on breaks and Sidney shrieked, startled and breathing heavily.

Putting her car in park, Theresa unbuckled her seatbelt and got out of the car, her heels clicking on the pavement of the road. She squinted at what was in front of her, an object she had thought was animal from further up the road. But she could see it was something else now. Slowly, Tess crouched to a squat and picked up the brown shoe, examining it.

Sidney got out of the car at once, meeting Tess. "Is that...?"

"Priya's shoe," Tess confirmed, swallowing a lump in her throat.

"Jesus Christ, Tess, I told you!" Sidney wailed, putting one hand on her head and the other on her hip.

Theresa stood up, turning on Sidney and glaring sharply.

"You need to calm the fuck down," she snapped, grabbing Sidney's full attention.

"Your panicking is not going to help matters," Theresa continued, drawing in a breath. "Now. We need to take this to Priya's house, and let them decide what to do. But whatever we do, we cannot tell anyone that we were at that party last night. Got it?"

Sidney stared in disbelief. "Are you serious? You're worried about covering your own ass right now when Priya's missing?"

"I am covering both of our asses, first of all," Theresa was quick to reply, stepping toward Sidney. "Second of all, this is out of our hands. We can't do anything other than tell Priya's parents and let them contact the police."

"I think I'm gonna be sick," Sidney muttered, holding her stomach again.

Tess only rolled her eyes. "Get in the car."

The two girls drove a bit further to Priya's house, which drew some more concern considering how far her shoe was from the place.

Theresa felt a knot beginning to form in her stomach, twisting around with anxiety. She masked it well, but she was truthfully very distressed.

Priya's father answered the door. Theresa vaguely recalled giving him the shoe, Sidney explaining that they had dropped Priya off at home last night... and then leaving.

Tess hated having a guilty conscience, what little she did have. Something kept telling her that this was her fault.

Upon dropping Sidney off at home, Tess checked her watch and headed over to Steve's.

Per usual, she grabbed all of her books and headed to the front door, ringing the doorbell.

But she was taken aback when an older woman opened the door and not Steve. The woman smiled briefly, looking Theresa up and down.

"May I help you?"

Tess nodded at once. "You must be Mrs. Harrington. I'm Theresa. I'm Steve's–"

"Friend," Steve appeared beside his mother at the doorway in a rush, smiling abruptly. "Theresa is my friend who's here to help me study."

Mrs. Harrington's forehead creased, showing her wrinkles peeking through her Botox.

"I thought you had good grades," she said to Steve, shaking her head.

He nodded. "Yeah– yeah, I do. I, uh– I'm actually helping Theresa with her classes."

Tess could have kicked him in the shin. She instead fought the urge, smiling at Mrs. Harrington once more.

"Oh," Mrs. Harrington said at once. "Well, come on in, make yourself at home."

Theresa continued to smile until Mrs. Harrington was behind her, her expression turning to a scowl that only Steve could see.

He silently apologized, leading her upstairs to his room and shutting the door with a small click.

"Let me explain–"

"Can't wait," Tess replied, throwing her books on his bed and sitting down. She crossed her legs, awaiting an 'explanation.'

Steve licked his lips, wringing his hands. "Well, see, here's the thing. My parents think I'm smart. Like– straight A's smart. So... yeah."

Tess held his gaze briefly, then snorted with laughter.

"How have they been buying that?" she continued to cackle, shaking her head.

Steve rolled his eyes, sitting on his bed across from her.

"You think you're so funny, don't you?"

Theresa shrugged, turning to face him and opening a History textbook.

"I do, actually."

NOTES! ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
sOrry this took so long, but tess and steve have been heavy on my mind lately

best fictional couple in stranger things me thinks ✋ naw but also rip priya lmao sorry girly had to do what had to be done

anyway i'm so excited to write their date it's gonna be CUTE