After being home for two days filled with awkwardness when going to Hopper's cabin and Starcourt Mall, Jenna was hoping she wouldn't get that at the next destination she planned to visit: the Hawkins Community Pool.

Despite the fact that Billy would be there, Jenna wanted to go there to see Janet, assuming she still worked there. She wanted to explain herself about running off the other night at the quarry, feeling bad that she bolted the way she did. It wasn't Janet's fault, nor was it Steve's. If Jenna hadn't been so nervous to stay and just talk with them when they had showed up, then maybe she wouldn't have been so worried about seeing Steve yesterday at the mall or Janet today at the pool. Knowing Janet, she'd understand, but with how different Dana was the other night, Jenna wondered how much Janet had changed while she was away.

After packing her pool bag, Jenna zipped it up tight while walking down the stairs. She was about to sprint out the door as soon as she opened it, but was met with a familiar face instead.

"El," she said with surprise.

"Hi, Jenna," the girl replied, glancing at her bag. "Is...this a bad time?"

Jenna opened her mouth to speak, adjusting the sunglasses on her head. "Um, kind of. I was about to head out, actually."

"Oh," she stated, looking down at her fidgeting hands.

Seeing the way her face fell, Jenna furrowed her eyebrows. "Did you want to talk to me about something?"

Lifting her head back up, she nodded. "Mike."

Jenna raised her eyebrows. "Oh. Well, I've got some time before I leave. Come on in."

Eleven stepped inside the house, looking around while heading towards the kitchen table. Jenna noticed the white pants and baggy purple and brown plaid shirt she was wearing, which had her confused as to why she was even wearing it with how hot it was. The two sat next to each other, where Jenna placed her bag in between them and let out a sigh.

"So, you and Mike, huh?" she asked, grinning.

Eleven nodded again, smiling a little. "Yes."

"How long has that been going on?"

"Since the Snow Ball."

"Oh." Jenna was thrown off by that answer, feeling like the Snow Ball was so long ago. "That was...that was before I left."

"I know," Eleven said, almost like she felt bad about not saying anything until now. "I...I wanted to tell you."

Jenna gave her a sad look. "Well, I was busy packing up my things that last week, so I get why you didn't tell me." Pausing, she looked at Eleven before speaking up again. "Anyway, about Mike--"

"Why didn't you call while you were away?"

Jenna took a moment at the change of topic before she reluctantly sighed and leaned back in her chair. "I meant to," she confessed, her expression turning guilty. "I was gonna come back for spring break, too." She paused again, lightly chuckling. "Obviously, neither of those things worked out." Her grin slowly faded as the guilt hit her once again. "But I'm sorry I didn't call while I was away. I should've called everyone, especially you."

Eleven's face turned sad as she let out a sigh. "It's okay," she assured Jenna. "I'm sorry for not calling, too."

The older girl couldn't help but chuckle a little. "Well, I think we had good reasons for not calling."

Eleven smiled back, nodding. "Yeah." She paused, her smile going away before she spoke up again. "Did you...make new friends?"

"Yeah, I did, and they were awesome," Jenna answered, nodding.

Eleven raised her eyebrows. "More awesome than...your friends here?"

The question threw Jenna off and she could tell that Eleven was worried what her answer would be. With both friend groups being very different, there was no way she could pick between the two, even if she knew her friends in Hawkins longer.

"No, not more awesome than my friends here," Jenna assured her. "My friends in Nashville were fun, but there was still so much about me that they didn't know about."

"Your powers?"

"Exactly. I couldn't tell them about that or all the crazy shit that happened in Hawkins. They wouldn't understand, you know?"

Eleven nodded. "Yeah." Her expression was a mix of acceptance and realization, almost like she had something come over her, which caused the girl to stand up all of a sudden. "I need to go."

Jenna furrowed her brows in confusion. "I thought you wanted to talk about--"

"Later." She headed for the front door, not even turning around when she said, "Bye, Jenna."

"Wait, El!" Jenna went after her, but when she made it out the door and on the porch, Eleven was nowhere to be found. "Eleven!" With no response, Jenna's face fell as she let out a sigh, frustrated and defeated for not helping Eleven like she hoped to do. She almost got mad at herself for not being more helpful, something that she used to be good at when it came to Eleven. Seeing the way she was around Jenna, it was obvious that Eleven was growing up a lot faster than she even realized.

She'll come around, Jenna thought. She won't be like this with me forever.

When Jenna accepted the fact that she couldn't go after Eleven, she grabbed her pool bag and keys and headed out of the house. She tried her best not to think about the short conversation with Eleven, even though it was the only thing on her mind, going over the many different ways it could've gone better. There wasn't much more time to think on which would've been the best outcome once she pulled into the parking lot of the community pool, having to park her car a bit farther than usual with how busy the place was. Of course, it was a hot day in July, so Jenna expected people to be here to cool off.

The sound of laughter and splashing echoed in the air as Jenna stepped through the entrance, with the sun beating down on the entire pool. She scanned her eyes around to find Janet, but the girl was nowhere in sight. Jenna was about to walk farther in when a whistle was blown, the loud noise startling her.

"Hey!" a girl at the lifeguard tower yelled through the megaphone in her hand. "No dunking, Curtis! No. Dunking."

Jenna recognized her as Heather Holloway, a former classmate that she only saw at school and parties. The two hardly spoke to each other, all thanks to Janet's annoyance towards Heather for whatever reason. It was a good enough reason for Jenna to stay away from her. She thought Janet was much cooler, anyway.

After the ringing in her ears stopped from the whistle and megaphone, Jenna was only able to take one step onto the hot cement before someone harshly bumped into her.

"Hey, watch it!" she called out, looking to see that it was Billy who ran into her. "Oh, it's just you."

He only briefly glared back in response, quickly turning around and heading away from the pool and disappeared into the storage room.

While Jenna was slightly confused and a bit disappointed at his reaction, wanting to show off her new swimsuit as a way to annoy him, she didn't worry about it too much when she spotted Janet strutting her way, sporting a red lifeguard bathing suit, with white shorts and a first aid fanny pack hanging from her waist, swinging her whistle around, a smirk coming across her lips.

"What's up, dudette?" she said, pulling her sunglasses up to the top of her head.

"Nice to see you, too, Janet," Jenna replied, smiling.

Janet let out a scoff in response. "Yeah, I thought you'd run away from me again like you did back at the quarry the other night."

Jenna nodded her head, smiling sheepishly. "Yeah, about that--"

"Hey, I get it. No need to explain yourself." Janet paused, putting her sunglasses back down over her eyes as she brushed past Jenna. "But Steve, however--"

"Ugh, don't remind me." Jenna followed Janet along the edge of the pool, weaving past kids and adults that were coming towards them, finding a couple of available chairs not too far from the lifeguard tower and taking them before anyone else could do so. Once Jenna was settled in, she grabbed her pool bag and began to rummage through it until she found sunscreen. "So, what happened after I left the quarry?" she asked curiously.

Janet raised her eyebrows, grinning. "Curious now, aren't you, dudette?"

"Can you blame me?"

She chuckled a little. "No, not really." Leaning back in her chair, she let out a sigh. "First, he cursed himself for scaring you off like that. Then, he just went on and on about you finally returning home after being away for so long." There was another pause as she eyed Jenna once again. "I heard about what happened yesterday at Scoops Ahoy, too. Sounded like it was pretty awkward."

Jenna scoffed. "More like painfully awkward. It was obvious that he wasn't expecting to see me so soon." Pausing, she kicked off her sandals and took off her shirt and shorts, revealing the bathing suit she got at Starcourt the day before, then squeezed some sunscreen onto her hand and started to rub her arms. "To be honest, I wasn't expecting to see him so soon, either."

"Well, at least you both got it out of the way," Janet pointed out. "It's hard to avoid anyone in this shitty town. At least I won't be here for much longer, though." She smirked towards Jenna. "Then you'll have to deal with Steve without me."

Jenna shot her a confused look. "Wait, what are you talking about? Where are you going?"

She raised her eyebrows. "College. I'm leaving for Hanover in the fall with Dana."

Surprised, Jenna nodded in excitement. "Wow. That's awesome, Janet." While she was happy for the two girls, she still wondered why Dana didn't mention it to her the other night at Hopper's cabin. Then again, it seemed like all they really talked about was anything about Jenna.

"Yeah, I guess," Janet stated, shrugging her shoulders. "Steve's happy for me, too, but I think he's also kind of bummed out about it. But he knows that I'll call him while I'm away." She paused, realizing what she just said, awkwardly looking at Jenna. "My bad, dudette. I didn't mean to--"

"No, it's fine," Jenna assured her, an ache forming at the bottom of her stomach as she began to apply sunscreen onto her legs. "Is he mad at me for not calling while I was gone?"

Janet shrugged. "Dunno. He stopped talking about it a few months ago."

"Oh," she answered, raising her eyebrows towards Janet. "Are you mad at me for not calling?"

She rolled her eyes, though it was playful. "I'll admit, I was annoyed for a while, especially when your ass didn't come back for spring break." Pausing, her face went soft. "But I figured you were having so much fun in Nashville that it took your mind off of everything, which is all that mattered after the shit you've gone through."

Jenna slowly stopped rubbing the sunscreen on her legs, the feeling in her stomach only getting worse as she moved up to putting some on her face. "Yeah, you're right," she stated, nodding.

"So you did have fun there," Janet pointed out, smirking. "Tell me, are your new friends more fun than your old ones?"

Jenna let out a chuckle. "I mean, they were fun." She put the sunscreen back in her bag and sighed. "But you know, I only spent six months with them, not my whole life like I did with everyone here."

Janet nodded her head in response. "Fair enough. I bet the boys in Nashville were cuter than the ones here, huh?"

She tried her best not to let her smile fade at the mention of other boys. "There were some cute guys, yeah."

"Oh, really? Any of them you wanna tell me about?"

Jenna almost froze, but managed to laugh it off. "Shouldn't you be getting back to work?"

Janet raised her eyebrows. "There's definitely someone, isn't there?"

"You didn't answer my question."

"Neither did you."

Jenna looked out at the pool, standing up. "I think I'm ready to go for a swim now."

Janet let out a snort, shaking her head. "Just so you know, I've got all day."

Jenna scoffed in response. "I'm sure you do," she retorted as she jumped into the pool, staging underwater for a moment before rising back up to the surface and taking a breath, spinning around to face Janet again.

"So, about that boy--"

"Janet!"

The two turned around to see it was Heather who called out her name, waving Janet over from across the pool.

Rolling her eyes, Janet got up from the chair, swinging her whistle again as she began to walk along the edge of the pool again. "This conversation isn't over, dudette. I'll be right back."

Once Janet was on the other side of the pool, Jenna continued to swim around, avoiding the splashing children. She finally got on her back and floated around, feeling refreshed as the hot sun hit her face and the water kept her cool. Before she could close her eyes, Jenna noticed Billy wobbling up the lifeguard tower, surprised to see him still wearing his dark gray tank top from before. She figured that he would want to show off his chest as a way to impress the ladies. But when Jenna saw the sick state he was in, she sat up and eyed him for a moment, catching the sweat already on his shirt and face, along with the tired and disoriented expression he had as he leaned against the chair. At first, she assumed he was just recovering from whatever happened on his date last night. But the more she stared at him, the more she realized that something more serious could be the result of the shitty state he was in.

What the hell is wrong with him? Jenna thought.

"Holy shit," the voice of Janet rang in Jenna's ears, startling her.

"What?" she spoke up.

Janet motioned towards Billy with her head as she made her way back towards their two empty chairs. "Heather was right. He does look bad today."

"What do you think it is?" Jenna asked, swimming to the edge of the pool.

"Beats me," she answered, shrugging her shoulders. "Maybe his date with Karen Wheeler last night was terrible."

Jenna widened her eyes in shock. "Wait, his date last night was with Karen Wheeler? Nancy's mom?"

Janet scoffed, sitting down. "Yeah, and it's been disgusting watching her and the other moms get all hot and bothered every time he walks by them." She paused, her expression turning sour. "And then hearing Hargrove tell Mrs. Wheeler that he could teach her the breaststroke--"

"I don't need a mental picture, Janet," Jenna cut her off, attempting to forget the last sentence before she got nauseated just thinking about it, pushing herself out of the pool and walking back to her chair, shivering a little. "That still doesn't explain his weird behavior."

"It's probably just a hangover. He'll be fine in a few hours."

Jenna wanted to believe her friend, but the way she saw Billy gasp and almost shoot out of his seat told her otherwise. And when he quickly got down from the tower, almost falling in the process, Jenna spotted the bright red burning mark on his elbow before he stumbled his way across the pool, bumping into people while doing so.

"Yeah, that doesn't look like a hangover to me," Jenna commented. "I think something's really wrong with him."

Janet furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "Since when do you care about Billy Hargrove's well-being?" she inquired.

Jenna rolled her eyes. "I don't, but whatever's going on with him..." She trailed off, watching him disappear to the showers, with Heather following him. "It just...you really don't think anything's wrong?"

String at her friend, Janet huffed a sigh and crossed her legs. "Jenna, the last thing you need to worry about is Billy-fucking-Hargrove. Just enjoy what's left of the summer."

"It's only the last day of June."

"Exactly, which means July will go by fast. And before we know it, the majority of us are gonna be leaving this shitty town for college."

Jenna knew that Janet had a point. With July literally just a day away, she knew that she had to make the most of this summer while she still could. She did miss being in Hawkins this time of the year where she had the most fun.

"So, what do you have in mind?" Jenna asked.

A smirk formed across Janet's lips in response. "Well, according to Heather, Reed Joyner is throwing a big party at his house tonight."

"Doesn't he live all the way out at Lover's Lake?"

"Yeah, away from town and the cops," she pointed out. "So it's gonna be a rad party."

Jenna sighed, draping the towel from her pool bag around her body. "I don't know, Janet..."

"Oh, come on, dudette. You used to be the life of the party around here."

"That was a long time ago."

"It's only been six months."

"It feels longer than that."

"I bet you went out and partied with your new friends in Nashville while you were there."

Her words hit Jenna harder than expected, with the guilt forming inside once again. Of course, she did party in Nashville with the friends she made there, and she really had the time of her life doing so. Maybe she could go out in Hawkins for the night and remember the fun times she had in Hawkins, even though it wouldn't be the same as it was before. Nevertheless, she was willing to try and enjoy herself, especially for Janet's sake.

Jenna weakly smiled at her friend, playfully rolling her eyes. "Okay, fine. I'll go to this party."

Janet smiled back. "There's the Jenna that I remember. I get off at nine, so I'll swing by your house and pick you up afterwards."

"Wait, you finally got your license? And a car?" This was surprising for Jenna to hear after Janet had been getting a ride from her and Steve for the last year and a half.

"Yeah, and it was about time that I did. I think everyone was tired of driving me around." She paused, chuckling a little. "And I was getting tired of asking."

Jenna laughed. "Well, it'll be a nice change from me driving you."

"Hey, don't get used to it," she retorted jokingly. "Anyway, be ready by 9:30. We're gonna have one hell of a time tonight."

There was another grin from Jenna as she nodded her head. "Yeah, totally." And suddenly, every thought of Billy Hargrove went away.

~~~~~~~

A/N: OOP, well, here we are with chapter 5! Today is Jenna's birthday (HBD you icon) and funnily enough the birthday chapter I posted last year in Unforgettable just so happened to take place at the pool.

What do we think?

Comment, vote, Stenna angst is in the next chapter! ;)

-A