˚ ༘ 𝕭𝐑𝐔𝐓𝐀𝐋 彡
꒰‧⁺ ⇢ ❝ 𝒞𝙷𝙰𝙿𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝒪𝙽𝙴 ¡! ❞ ˊˎ
- ̗̀ ๑❪( ◌⁺ ˖˚ ಿ  mysterious girl.

°ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚ ❪ 🎇 ❫ ˚◦○˚୧ .˚ₓ°

𝕿HE FIRST TIME STEVE HARRINGTON HELD A CONVERSATION WITH RUNE DONNELLY WAS IN THE BATHROOM OF HAWKINS HIGH SCHOOL. And no, it was far from romantic, quite the opposite. He had been waiting eagerly for Nancy Wheeler to turn up, slipping a note into her locker telling her to meet him in the school bathroom earlier that morning, as he listened out intently for any sign of her; positive he was alone.

Of course, Steve knew the possibility of someone walking in was there, but he thought he had timed it perfectly; just before class. He wasn't expecting anyone to show up.

And he certainly wasn't expecting the school freak, Eddie Munson, of all people to come storming in.

"Harrington." Eddie had addressed him casually when entering, not put off by the popular boy in the slightest as he strode right past him. His worn trainers squeaked on the cold, slippery surfaces along the way. He also had his head slightly bowed, as if looking for something, as he called out rather loudly. "Hey, Rooney! I know you're in here! Yoo-hoo! You got my stuff yet?"

Now, Steve knew Eddie was quite the odd fellow — practically everyone in Hawkins did, but this was a whole new level even for him. The bathroom was empty of any presence other than the two boys, every stall unlocked and empty. Steve had even gone the extra mile to double-check just to make sure, knowing Nancy wouldn't be keen on having an audience.

Despite the obvious lack of response, Eddie didn't halt his calls. Instead, his ringed hands started impatiently slamming on the hard surface of the unlocked stall doors, completely ignoring or not noticing the weird looks he was gaining from the Harrington boy behind him. "Rooneyyyyyyyy!"

Steve was just about to make a snarky comment on how no one was in here apart from them, and that he must've smoked one too many joints when movement was suddenly detected.

Just as the long-haired boy pushed on the surface of the last stall door to open it like the others, it abruptly slammed shut before it was ripped open seconds later by someone else to reveal a rather irritated-looking blonde girl. Her blue-eyed stare was intense, but Steve just guessed that was because the rest of her face was currently being covered by her hand, which was holding a bloodied tissue to her nose.

"Jesus, Eddie. You couldn't wait a second? What if I was on the toilet?" Her voice was unfamiliar to the Harrington boy who was yet to be noticed by the unexpected presence as she kept her eyes trained on Eddie.

"Then you would've locked the door." Was the Munson boy's smug reply as he held out his hand, wiggling his fingers in a gesture to be given something as he leaned against the side of the stall. "Now, did you get it or not?"

"Of course I got it." The young girl rolled her eyes like the question was a ridiculous one to ask in the first place as she reached into her leather satchel that looked like it had seen better days. She struggled for a moment, rummaging through her belongings before she produced three packs of cigarettes — ones that Steve knew weren't easy to get your hands on — and slapped them into the boy's open hand. "Don't go lighting them all at once. I'm not paying for your medical bills if your lungs black out."

"You got it." Eddie simply smiles at her words, like he had heard them before as he digs into his pockets. He soon attained a roll of cash, presenting it to her with an exquisite bow and formal tone. "For you, m'lady."

The blonde girl finds herself unable to bite back a smile of her own from the boy's actions as she takes the money from him gratefully. Her slim fingers examine the green notes shortly before nodding in satisfaction, looking up to give the Munson teen a sharp look. "I'm charging you double next time if you open those stall doors again. You hear me?"

Eddie grinned, holding his hands up in surrender. "Loud and clear, madam."

Her irises of blue shade playfully rolled as her pink lips broadcasted a feather-light scoff, gently nudging him. "Alright, scram. Get to class."

"Yeah, I'll pass on the last one. See ya!" Eddie snickered as he stepped away from the girl, cigarettes now clutched tightly in one hand as he saluted her with the other. Once again, he didn't even look at Steve as he stepped past him and out into the silent hallway. "Bye, Harrington."

An awkward silence filled the presence of the loud Munson teen as his footsteps subsided, leaving the two teens together in the bathroom. Their eyes briefly met, only for the blonde to pull away nervously as she shuffled her way over to the sink. She removes the tissue from her nose, revealing the now dried blood on her skin. She doesn't even seem phased by the crusty copper that had dribbled down to her lips like the feeling and taste were familiar to her.

Steve watched her with a clueless expression as she turned on the tap, leaning against the wall in puzzlement. He was so certain that no one else was in here when he first came in. No one apart from Eddie had come in after him, and no noise or movement indicated that anyone was here before him either.

So how did this girl manage to slip under his radar?

"Can, um, you pass me a paper towel?"

The question, more so the sound of her voice, caught him off guard. "Huh?"

The blonde girl signalled behind him blindly with one hand while the other scrubbed at the blood to get rid of it. "The paper towels. Behind you." She heard faint rustling to the side of her before a paper towel (that probably could pass as sandpaper from its texture) was handed over to her. "Thanks."

Steve nodded even though he knew she wasn't looking at him. He, however, couldn't stop. She looked like grey if it were a person; unattached, neutral, nor black nor white, a mystery. Not the type of mystery that has anyone diving into for answers though, no, but the kind that remains undiscovered; unknown with no one actively seeking it.

Always thinking he was rather decent at remembering faces, Steve asked her. "So, like, are you new here or something?"

It was now her turn to be taken off guard, tilting her head to stare at him with her hands planted on either side of the sink. She wore a faint smile, one that the Harrington boy would class as amused. It was a gentle amusement though, like feeling too much of it would have her bursting at the seams with colour. "What?"

"I don't think I've seen around before, and I think I would remember someone who sells three packs of cigarettes to someone like Eddie "the freak" Munson in a school bathroom," Steve tells her in a matter-of-fact tone, his nose scrunching up at her in a pinch of exaggerated disgust by the end. "Pretty unhygienic if you ask me. I'd say that's a definite health risk."

He was only half-joking.

"I don't think people buying cigarettes, alcohol and drugs off of a teenager are worried about their health now, are they?"  The girl bit back in response, stepping away from the dirty mirror once satisfied she had wiped all the blood off.

Steve almost wanted to laugh at her. Even when she tried to put some strength into her voice, it did nothing to shift the atmosphere of the conversation such as drawing a line of tension. Her words were like a gentle breeze, serene.

"Drugs and alcohol. Good to know." The Harrington's lips slid into a sly, satisfied grin at her slip. He found himself enjoying the way her eyes finally held onto an emotion as realisation dawned on her face. "Quite a business venture you got there, huh?"

"What? You gonna rat me out?" She quizzed him, a delicate inquiry. Her words had a nervous bounce to them now, like she was thrown off as she avoided looking at his face again. She didn't seem like she was used to having someone staring at her, let alone talking to her.

Enjoying the power balance — as would any popular teen — Steve shrugged. "Guess we'll just have to see."

His tone was cocky, something the girl wasn't appreciative of as she rolled her eyes quickly like doing the action would prompt him to say more (it was tempting) as she moved to walk away. Despite already being late for her class, she decided it was time to take her leave. The teachers barely noticed if she was there or not anyway. What's the harm in being a few minutes late?

She stepped past Steve, whose eyes trailed after her as she moved. Too busy thinking about the fact that she had a set of eyes on her, she didn't even see Nancy Wheeler entering the bathroom. The two girls briefly collided with one another, stumbling slightly from the force as a few books from Nancy's arms fell to the ground.

"Oh, sorry! I didn't see you there." The Wheeler girl apologised sincerely in a hushed tone, slightly embarrassed seeing as she wasn't expecting anyone other than Steve to be waiting there.

The mysterious blonde made a suppressed noise in the back of her throat like she found a sprinkle of humour in the apology. Picking up her books, she smiles politely at Nancy before walking out without another word; leaving the young couple to their own business.

The two students listened to her footsteps fade away from them, turning to face each other once they were in the clear as Nancy stepped closer. "Who was that?"

Steve gave an ignorant shrug as he pushed himself off the wall he had been leaning on. "No idea. Could be someone new. I don't really care." Nancy let out a noise of surprise as hands locked on her hips, bringing her up against the white walls as a pair of smirking lips met her smooth skin. "Right now, kissing you is the only thing I care about."

However, as he made out with Nancy Wheeler in Hawkins High's bathroom, the appearance of the blonde refused to leave his mind. His brain was feeding him the obvious facts. He had checked every stall. He knew he had . . . right?

Seeing her was probably the biggest mind fuck Steve Harrington had ever encountered, but it wasn't enough to raise any major suspicions. He didn't care about it that much, simply shrugging it off as a weird reaction.

No one could know just how weird the interaction was, however, as the school hallway became deserted, no pupil in sight as the sound of a door opening and closing on its own rang through the echoing halls.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Surprisingly, it only took a day for them to speak again. Steve had been plotting ever since he found out last night that his parents would be out of town, leaving him with a big house all to himself. In his eyes, a party was certainly in order as he informed his friends Tommy H. and Carol Perkins and even Nancy, hoping she would say yes more than anyone.

His parents leaving him all alone with the house to himself was a green light for "go" in his eyes; to take the next step.

Nancy wasn't like any other girl he had ever dated before. She didn't throw herself all over him either and would set boundaries that girls had never before set with him. Her personality was pretty much the same too, shy yet feisty, determined and way smarter than what she gives herself credit for. Seriously, just looking at her revision notes for classes made Steve's head hurt.

She wasn't the type of girl people expected to be popular boy, King Steve's, first love; especially Tommy and Carol.

"Are you sure inviting Wheeler is a good idea?" Tommy asked Steve by the lockers after one of their classes, Carol under his arm as people walked past them to go to lunch. "I mean, did you hear her? It's Tuesday." He upped his voice a pitch, mocking the girl in a squeaky voice.

Carol laughed by his side, nodding in agreement. "She'll have you in bed by curfew, Steve."

"Oh, she'll have me in bed, all right." The Harrington boy insisted, cocky attitude glistening as his eyes twinkled with confidence. "But sleeping is not on the agenda."

"Man, if I were you, I would've given up with Wheeler already. I still can't believe you haven't had sex with her yet, dude." Tommy told him honestly, his dislike for his friend's girlfriend coming into play.

"Well, tonight that very well may change." Was all the teen offered in response, shrugging as his mind drew pictures of the night laying out hopefully; just the way he wanted it to.

"So, have you got stuff for tonight? I'm in for a night of fun." Carol wondered before glancing towards Tommy suggestively at the end, her face doing most of the talking for her. They made eyes at one another before she playfully pouted at Steve. "Unless your goody-two-shoes girlfriend isn't letting you because it's a school night."

Shaking his head, Steve rolled his eyes. "Of course not. Nancy won't care."

His two friends shared a look of mutual disbelief before Tommy asked with raised, challenging brows. "So you've got drinks for tonight?"

"Well, I only found out that both my parents were going away last night." Steve reasoned, one hand propped up on the lockers to lean against them.

"So you haven't?"

"If you two want to drink and smoke so badly, you go get it!" The Harrington boy told them, shooting them a brief yet annoyed look.

"You're the host!"

"Fine! I'll have them by tonight, alright?" Knowing from experience that it was just better to agree than bicker at this point, Steve gave in. Admittedly, he was wanting to let loose for the night too — not that he would ever let his two friends have the satisfaction of knowing that. Besides, he was a bit lost on where he would be able to require such things at such short notice. After all, they were still underage. Who was going to risk getting found out by the police to sell teenagers drugs and alcohol?

The world seemed to slow down as his brain bestowed him with an answer, a lightbulb blinking to life in his head when he spotted a mop of blonde hair in the hallway. "In fact . . . I think I know just the person."

He left his friends without any explanation, leaving the two to stand there and watch in naïveté as their popular friend sauntered over to someone they were pretty sure they had never seen around before in their life; her nose buried in a book as Harrington approached.

"Carrie. Nice choice." The voice made the blonde jump, her eyes jerking up in automatic response as she met his gaze out of surprise that someone was even talking to her. "I haven't read it personally, but what's not to love? Misfit high-school girl with supernatural powers tormented by her peers until she breaks and screams bloody murder — quite literally — at prom? A classic."

The girl said nothing for a turn, staring at him blankly before looking behind him to see Tommy and Carol watching the exchange closely a few feet away. Something knotted in her chest, anxiety spiking from their judgemental gazes. It wasn't often that she had eyes on her, let alone two. Besides, she knew what type of people they were. Them watching her would never be for a good reason.

"If this is some type of dare or prank —"

"What? No. No pranks or dares here." Steve assures her before she could finish her sentence, hands up in defence. It didn't do much to reassure the girl below him, but it was enough for her to raise her eyebrows in a sign for more information as she drew her attention away from her book. Slapping on his boyish grin and charm, the teen proceeded. "I actually wanted to invite you to a party I'm having tonight."

Sceptical, the young girl analysed his features from his dark eyes to his stupidly famous hair. When his face gave nothing away, the uncertainty in her voice was clear as day as she said. ". . . Really?"

"Yeah, well, for a price of admission, of course." She could hear Tommy and Carol snickering to each other at his words, making her want to curl into a tighter ball than she already was in from the conversation. "I need someone to get me some supplies for tonight. You in?"

"Can't you get it yourself?" Was all the girl gave him, not exactly keen on the idea understandably.

"You seem to be pretty good at getting the right things undetected." Steve shrugged, indirectly referring to the fact that he knew the specific brand of cigarettes she had given Eddie earlier on wasn't easy for the standard person to get their hands on; let alone a high school student. He continued when he saw the scepticism dance faster in her eyes. "Plus, I'll pay you for it. All you gotta do is get what I need and stick around if we need more throughout the night."

"What am I? Your errand girl?" The girl joked, a hint of amusement in her voice.

"If you want to be." Steve grinned in answer, resulting in her giving him a rather unamused look now. "Come on. What do you say?"

Like most of this conversation, she didn't say anything straight away. Instead, she chose to think for a moment. She knew agreeing to this went against her grandparent's wishes and many of them for that matter.

She didn't want to disobey her grandparents, knowing they were right . . . the money she would be given in doing so, however . . . that she did want.

"I want half now."

"What? Munson didn't have to do that!" Steve complained, waving his hands around in imaginative gesture to the long-haired teen that was nowhere to be seen around the school halls.

"Eddie, I trust . . . you on the other hand," the blonde trailed off, shaking her head as she glanced him up and down while her nose scrunched up.

Exhaling loudly, the Harrington teen impatiently dug through his jean pockets until he produced a few dollars. The sight of green made the girl stand up, holding her hand out with a sickeningly sweet grin as he grumbled under his breath and smacked the money into her palm.

She counted the amount (like always) before tucking it safely into her jacket pocket and sticking her hand out. "Pleasure doing business with you, Harrington."

Steve indulged her and shook her hand limply before turning to walk away. "Yeah, yeah, just don't be late."

He was halfway across to his friends when he heard a call behind him. "That's going to be hard considering you haven't given me a time and address!"

Steve rolled his eyes shortly before turning on his heels to march his way back over to her. Without asking, he ripped the book she was reading from her hand as he took a pen out from his pocket which Nancy persuaded him to keep around for school.

Peeling open the first page of the book, the other side of the front cover, Steve was pleasantly surprised to see that something was already written on the page in neat writing.

PROPERTY OF RUNE DONNELLY

Steve stared at the handwriting with a widened grin, jotting down his address and a time in the corner of the page before passing it back down to the girl as he capped his pen. "See you tonight, Rune."

The girl gaped at him for a multitude of reasons; the first being that she was surprised to hear someone other than herself or her grandparents say her name, correctly at that. The second was that someone had just written carelessly in her book without even thinking twice about it, the shock of that still settling in. And third, the person who did all of those things was none other than the king of Hawkins High himself, Steve Harrington.

Rune Donnelly watched him and his friends make their way to the lunch hall, backs to her as she was soon left alone; as per usual. She then looked down at the home address that girls her age would do anything to be invited to, her black-painted nails digging into the page as the money in her pocket grew heavy and the flesh on her lip was bitten down on.

She wasn't an idiot. She knew a loner like herself getting involved with Steve Harrington and his two goons was a recipe for disaster. The anticipation for a bad night had already begun the second her book had the Harrington's address noted down on it as Tommy H. and Carol Perkins watched her, not even making an effort to hide the disgust and judgement engraved on their faces.

Rune knew the night wouldn't be ideal, but she really could not have anticipated that it would turn out the way it would as she unawarely walked past the missing poster of Will Byers that had been put up that morning; a warning sign in disguise.

: : ❛ 𝓐𝙐𝙏𝙃𝙊𝙍 𝓝𝙊𝙏𝙀 ❜ : :
╰───╮; little appearance from my boy, eddie munson because i immediately fell in love with him and think he deserves the world. they better not hurt him istg —

sorry if some of the characters here feel a bit out of place, i haven't really written much for stranger things so i'm still trying to navigate the characters. just ignore any inconsistencies and out of character behaviour please. i had to edit this bad boy a lot during the very few times i had some source of energy.

anyways, i hate this chapter. then again, i hate most of my first chapters so it's nothing new. first chapters, man, they get to ya. starting things is hard.

thank you for reading!
love you all!

∴ ✪ ❱ · TRGDYCOILS !! ━━━━
( 3.7k words )