𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐎𝐧𝐞
𝙋𝙚𝙥 𝙍𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 . . .

It was the annoying blaring of an alarm that woke Willow up.

She groaned and turned over, looking at the time.

07:45.

The glowing digits stared back at Willow mockingly, and she raised her arm, looking at her wrist. Much like the alarm clock, the 3 digits on her wrist glared back at her, defiantly reminding her of her past. But it also reminded her of her perseverance, everything she's been through and here she was, living a normal life, waking up to go to the last day of the semester at Hawkins High.

Willow felt invigorated at the thought, and she quickly got up out of bed, shuffling over to the mirror to look at herself. Her hair had always had a messy charm to it, but in the morning it looked no different from a bird's nest, and no matter how much Willow combed her fingers through it, it wouldn't budge. She shrugged it off, deciding she liked the new mated look. She headed to her wardrobe and rummaged through, picking and choosing different articles of clothing she thought would go nice together, and after she got all dressed up, she was pleased at her work, the outfit practically screamed 'Willow'. She would describe her style as "grunge fairy", she liked it that way, looking mysteriously ethereal.

She checked herself in the mirror a last time before heading out into the hallway. Walking down it, she almost tripped over one of her adoptive mother's many cats, it looked up at Willow and mewed at her, though the blonde girl didn't want to be late, continuing down the hallway and heading into the kitchen.

"Good morning dear!"

Mrs Henderson called from her spot on the recliner in the living room as Willow shoved two pieces of bread into the toaster.

"Mornin' mom, where's Dusty?"

She called back while rummaging through the fridge to take out the bottle of orange juice. Her mother didn't answer however, barely even hearing the question as she cuddled up to one of her cats and watched the TV. Willow huffed slightly but continued setting out her breakfast, taking her toast when it was ready and sitting down to eat.

She stared at the simple breakfast and seemed to get lost in thought.

"Here, it's ok, it's just food alright? It's not gonna hurt ya."

The coffee shop owner's old hands shakily passed her a plate of toast with jam spread out on the top, and a glass full of orange juice. The young girl pushed her dirty blonde locks out of her face, looking up at the man with innocent blue eyes. His eyes softened at the sight of her slowly taking the toast, nibbling at a corner, before she began to down it hungrily, as if she hadn't eaten properly in months. As she ate, the old man pushed up his glasses and noted that she was wearing some sort of gown, it almost looked like a gown for a patient in the hospital, which worried him.

"Where'd you come from sweetie? Are you sick, hurt?"

Willow's thoughts were cut off as she felt something rub up against her leg, and she looked down, seeing brown and white fur and golden eyes staring back up at her, her own cat, Sunset. Thinking of her pets name would make different memories pop into her head, but she quickly shook them off as she finished up her breakfast and looked at the time. Shoot, they were late!

Willow picked up Sunset and walked down the hall, stopping at Dustin's room.

"That's a negative, Dusty Bun."

Willow could hear Suzie's voice from the other end of the radio, followed by Dustin cussing. She leaned against the doorway with Sunset comfortably lying in her arms, watching her little brother guide Suzie into hacking the school's network and changing his test results.

"Dustin..."

Willow said dangerously, and Dustin's eyes widened as he slowly turned to look at his sister in the doorway.

"W-Willow! What's up!?"

He tried to hide the radio, Suzie's voice becoming muffled, and Willow let Sunset jump out of her arms and saunter around the room.

"What have I told you about using your genius for evil?"

She teased with a smirk, crossing her arms.

"Don't go to the Dark Side of the Force..."

He reluctantly mumbled, quoting Star Wars as Willow grinned proudly, moving across the room to take off his cap and wear it, and shoving his arms away as he desperately tried to stop her from grabbing the radio, but alas she snatched it from his hands, watching him cuss her out as she spoke.

"Hi Suzie~"

_________________________

"I told you not to touch my radio..."

Dustin whined as Willow drove them up to the school. He would usually take his bike to Hawkins High with his friends, but today was the last day of the semester and Dustin was going to be staying at the school late for the final campaign in the DnD club, Hellfire. Willow herself had never played DnD before, but she was curious about it, she had asked Dustin all year to let her join, at least to watch, but he refused every time, saying that it wasn't the right kind of game for Willow, whatever that meant. Which was complete bullshit, because she had a very big imagination.

"Aw come on Dusty Bun, I just wanted to say hi to your Suzie Poo..!"

Willow teased with a grin as she pulled her black Cadillac DeVille into a parking spot, Dustin huffing and cussing her out in response as he exited the car. As much as she loved to tease him, she found their relationship absolutely adorable, and was even a little envious at times. Eleven was like her and she managed to find Mike on the first night she escaped the lab. Meanwhile Willow had been free for little over 6 years now, and not one boy, or girl, in sight.

The blonde girl grabbed her bag and got out of her car after her brother, locking it and following everyone as they made their way to the gym. She saw Max get off the bus and tried to wave at her, but was promptly ignored by the redhead who continued walking on. Willow felt bad for the girl, ever since Billy's death she could tell Max's mental health had taken a turn for the worst.

"W!"

"Shit, Steve!"

Harrington laughed after succeeding in scaring the living daylights out of the girl, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and leading her towards the gym. Some of the students looked at him confused, Steve had graduated last year but all year he's been sneaking in and out of the school to check up on everyone, he was such a mom.

"Y'know you really need to stop dreaming so much, gonna end up tripping and falling for me someday."

"Very clever Harrington, come up with that one all by yourself did ya?"

Steve and Willow were close friends. He had been there for her through thick and thin, even if he used to be a bit of a douche before, but when Dustin left for camp Knowhere, Willow hung out a lot in Scoops Ahoy to watch Steve try and fail to seduce the lady customers, much to his dismay and Willow's joy, she never let him live it down.

They sat up two rows behind the band in the bleachers to be close to Robin, and Steve started whispering in Willow's ear about how Robin had a thing for Vickie, and that Vickie obviously liked boobies. She couldn't help but snort at Steve's vulgarity, and she quickly retorted that he wasn't even supposed to be here, but it stopped short as the pep rally quickly began, the basketballers running through the banner and jogging across the stadium. Everyone clapped and cheered, and the resident popular douchebag Jason took the microphone and began speaking. He hyped up the crowd and started thanking them for supporting them through the season, but things started to turn dark as he spoke about the loses in our community. Willow's mood started to turn sour, she didn't think it was right to base their upcoming victory on bringing the community back together after the tragedies that happened. He wasn't there. He didn't do anything to help the people. He didn't save the world. And at the mention of Billy's name, Willow looked over at Max, seeing she was clearly uncomfortable. She felt bad for her.

_________________________

"All this to say that I don't know if I'm ready to get into a relationship if it's just gonna be a summer fling, y'know?"

Willow rolled her eyes as she listened to Steve drone on and on about his relationship problems with Heidi, walking down the hall to get to class. Steve had decided to accompany her to class before he left to go.. whatever it was he did with his life.

"Look Steve, do you like Heidi?"

She stopped outside her classroom door and turned to look at Steve, her classmates walking around the pair and filing into the room. As Steve opened his mouth to reply, the bell rang, and Willow sighed, giving her friend one last glance.

"Just do what feels right, okay?"

She concluded, before shooing her friend away and heading into the room. She had biology, first period, meaning there were large tables meant for two people to sit in pairs, but she made her way to the very back of the room, sitting by the window and setting her bag down on the chair beside her. No one ever sat beside her, she was used to either being ignored by her peers, or mocked by them, and she hoped today it would be the former.

As the second bell rung, the teacher came in and set her stuff down, talking to the class. Willow wasn't interested much in what she had to say, biology was a good subject but the teacher had a tendency to be snarky to the students, and Willow was hyped up for the summer break. Her eyes wandered across the room, scanning the other students, and her eyes landed on the boy sitting at the table next to hers. He was alone too, and Willow had seen him before once or twice, she recognised him as Eddie Munson, the leader of the little DnD club Dustin liked to play in.

Eddie seemed to be bored too, since she watched his eyes scan the room and land on her. They both sat there for a second, just staring at each other, and after a few moments Willow cheekily stuck her tongue out at him, just to get a reaction. He seemed taken aback at first, but he grinned slightly and moved his hands up to his head, pointing his fingers upward as if to create two little devil horns on his head, sticking his tongue out too. This caused Willow to let out a small giggle.

"Is something funny, Miss Henderson?"

Willow was caught off guard and she looked up at the teacher, her throat drying up in anxiety and shaking her head quickly in response, looking down. A few snickers echoed through the room, but she ignored them, taking out a pencil and beginning to sketch on the glass table top.