DESPITE HER LACK OF SLEEP, CARLA STILL WENT TO SCHOOL THE NEXT DAY.

It was the last day before spring break—six more hours and she'd be free to do whatever the hell she wanted for a week, free of homework and school bound assignments.

Carla didn't entirely hate school—she kept up with grades and assignments without any fights with teachers, she got to hang around with Robin in her free periods, she had an entire period dedicated to herself where she could work on college shit instead of wasting her personal free time doing so—but she can't lie and say the past week hasn't felt like a drag to her; and she's sure the rest of Hawkins High would agree with her.

She was exhausted and was easily ready to get a break.

The Wheeler girl was currently in the passenger seat of Steve's BMW, eyes trailing out the window as they drove to Robin Buckley's house—given the girl didn't have a license, she relied on Steve for rides, which Carla was more than okay with—watching as they passed by different fields of flowers.

After befriending the girl during the summer, senior year had given Carla more time to socialize and grow a bond with Robin. While they clearly had their opposites—for starters Robin had a giant mouth and never stopped ranting while the Wheeler was more on the quiet side; which is why Jonathan Byers had been her best friend—Robin had proven to be a pretty decent friend, and study partner.

Without Jonathan, Carla didn't really have a main friend to walk the halls with or study, but Robin was quick to fill that spot, finding the Wheeler on the first day of the school year and rambling on about something before Carla could even talk. 

Since then, Carla would classify her as one of her closest friends—minus Nancy and the kids, she was really the only person who the Wheeler talked to during the school day. 

Robin must have silently agreed, because back in January, she finally felt comfortable telling Carla Wheeler that she was a lesbian.

Carla hadn't cared—of course she hadn't. Not when she was sure she'd stared at girls more than once in her own life, too. She'd hugged Robin, she'd told her it was okay and reassured her that it wouldn't change anything about them. And, it hadn't. 

"Any assignments over break?" 

Carla turns away at the start of conversation, looking at Steve as she takes a second to process what the he'd said before shaking her head, "No. Thank God." 

Senior year had been.....stressful on Carla, to say the least. 

After a bit of contemplation, she'd finally determined that she wanted to major in medicine and pursue a career as some kind of doctor or physician. Helping people was her thing—it made sense that she did something that was helpful to others.

Besides, after helping out with many injuries, she was very well educated on the human body. Why not put her knowledge to good use.

But, with that, came lots of work and the need to study if Carla wanted a decent chance of passing her final exams and getting into a mediocre college,  as well as a medical school in her near future. 

If she doesn't, she's sure she'll just stay here in Hawkins. Like everyone else in this town who promised themselves they'd 'get out someday.', too. 

"It's that bad, huh?" Steve already knew the answer to that question. He'd been the one who had to force her to go to sleep, or come back to sleep, for that matter, finding her working on school work of all sorts till past midnight; who made sure she actually ate a meal instead of having a light snack to keep working. 

"Uh, yeah, but once I get that acceptance letter, it'll be worth it." Carla promises—or so she hopes. There's no guarantee that she'll even get into any of the colleges she'd looked at, and even if she does, she can only hope that it all works out for her. "....hopefully." 

As always, Steve moves a reassuring hand to her knee, lightly squeezing it. "You'll get into one of 'em, baby. You've dealt with injuries from supernatural monsters—that's something." 

Steve hopes he's right. He'll feel like shit if both he and Carla don't make it out of Hawkins—he'd failed at going to college, the last thing he wanted was for his girlfriend to do it too; she had a brighter future than he ever had. 

Carla sighs, "Well, they just don't know that, do they—" 

"—but they do know that you are a very smart, reliable, and hard working person, no?" Steve cuts her off, sending her a look. He knows that Carla Wheeler had a habit of ignoring and disregarding herself, but she was all of these things—he wishes she'd see herself the way he did.

"I guess." Carla replies as they come to a halt in front of the Buckley household.

 The couple only has to wait a few seconds before Robin comes tumbling out of the house, barely managing to hold on to her instrument case, book bag, makeup bag and duffel bag of her marching band uniform as she stumbled towards the vehicle. 

Carla unlocks the car doors from where she's sitting, slightly laughing at Robin's current situation. The Wheeler girl then unbuckles her seat belt, turning her figure and beginning to awkwardly climb from the passenger seat to the back so Robin could take the spot—as well as help her load everything she had into the car. 

Steve watches the scene with amusement, shifting to give his girlfriend more room to climb back as Robin whips the door open. Without a care, she throws everything but her makeup bag into the backseat, Carla piling everything more neatly as Robin finally enters the vehicle herself, sighing as she takes a seat.

Amused, Steve hums, "Graceful."

"Cut me some slack, please—Hi, Carla." Robin rolled her eyes at the comment, buckling herself in. 

Carla offers a smile, "Hey, Rob."

Steve starts the car again, and the trio continue their drive to Hawkins High. The Buckley sends him a side glance as he does so, "Keep steady for the love of God."

Steve takes note of her clear attitude, "Okay, okay." 

 The Buckley doesn't waste a moment before grabbing a tube of mascara from her makeup bag, pulling down the sun visor and flicking it open to reveal the small mirror inside. Quickly, she begins to apply the makeup, trying to provide something to her tired features. 

Carla takes notice of this and leans forward in her seat, pressing her chin against the back of Steve's as she states, "You seem in a rush—everything good?"

"No." Robin sharply exhales, and the Wheeler prepares herself for the small rant she was about to endure. The blonde throws her mascara down and begins to fluff her hair as she spews, "It is seven in the morning, we have to go to this stupid pep rally, and I woke up looking like a total corpse!"

A weary expression crosses Steve's face as she speaks, "You're—you're worried about a basketball pep rally? You expect me to believe that?" 

Robin shrugs, "Yeah? So?"

"So, we both know what this is about, okay?" the Harrington replies firmly, "I'm not buying that bullshit. This is about Vickie." 

Carla has to fight the urge to roll her eyes as the name is mentioned—here they went again.

After finding out that Robin was a lesbian, the Wheeler was also made aware of the girls ever growing crush on fellow student, Vickie—bright red hair, pretty blue eyes, a welcoming smile. Carla had spoken to her a few times before and she was always nice and certainly knew how to talk; in the same way Robin could rant for hours about the same topic.

Carla thought she was a good fit for the Buckley—the both had that charming awkwardness too them. She thought that if they actually talked, they could get along.

 However, the fear of coming out and revealing her crush to someone who could end up as straight and leave her as a town pariah took Robin Buckley over, and she was less than willing to take the risk of even talking; of letting anything slip. 

Steve had also been made aware of this crush. However, he didn't quite seemed to understand why Robin wouldn't make a move romantically or platonically. So, it somehow managed to get brought up within every car ride, to which some kind of argument proceeded.

Carla had grown used to the constant bickering of Steve and Robin a week in—it never ended.

"Absolutely not." Robin snaps to Steve's previous comment—this was not turning into another Vickie conversation. 

"Yes, it is." Steve's confident he's right, "And you know what else I think—"

"Uh, I really don't care what you think—"

The Harrington ignores the Buckley's attempt at shutting him up and proceeds to press, "I think you gotta stop pretending to be someone else when you're around her, okay? You just gotta....be yourself."

Robin sends him an incredulous expression, "You're literally quoting me to me. You do realize that?" 

Still leaned against the back of Steve's seat, Carla hums, "That's also the most basic advice you could have possibly given, babe."

"Okay, well, maybe it's true. And maybe you—" Steve sends a pointed expression towards his friend, "—need to listen to yourself. Ever think about that, smarty pants?" He gestures to himself with one hand, "I mean, I started acting less like an asshole and more like myself and, boom,  I got a girlfriend."

Carla's brows furrow, "Uh, that's not exactly it, but—" 

"Okay, sure, you somehow secured Carla with that, but, it's not the same thing." Robin reasons. She could be herself all she wanted, but it didn't change the fact that if she tried and failed, she could end up a target and a pariah.

Steve trails off, "Well..."

"No, hypothetically—" the blonde spares Carla a glance at the word, "—you ask out a girl and she says no. Big deal. Nothing happens—maybe your ego's a little bruised. But, I ask out the wrong girl, and bam!, I'm a town pariah."

Carla nods in agreement—listening to their bickering was always amusing, "She has a point."

Steve gives in ever so slightly, but his confidence that Vickie was certainly into girls comes through once more as he continues, "Okay, yeah, I'd buy that, except that Vickie is definitely not the wrong girl." 

"You're not giving up, are you?" the Wheeler hums.

"Nope." Steve shakes his head, "Not until she admits that I'm right."

Robin retorts, "We just don't know that, do we?" 

The Buckley sprays breath spray into her mouth, cringing as the liquid makes contact with the back of her throat. Carla—curious on why her boyfriend was so confident in the fact that Vickie was gay—leans forward more, "And why are you so confident in this, exactly?" 

Steve takes his eyes off the road for a split second to look back at his girlfriend, staring at her like the answer was obvious. "She returned Fast Times paused at fifty-three minutes, five seconds. D'you know who pauses Fast Time's at fifty-three minutes, five seconds?"

 The rhetorical question sits in the air for a few moments, Carla picturing the scene in her head for a brief moment—Phoebe Cates and her red bikini. However, the Wheeler decides to play in to her boyfriends theory with a, "Who, Steve?" 

"People who like boobies." 

Carla's mouth falls agape at the word boobies—she knew where the question was going but did he have to phrase it like...that? 

Robin doesn't seem too thrilled either, face quickly cringing in utter disgust, "Ew! Gross. Don't say boobies."

Steve casually continues, not seeming to care about how Robin felt about the word, "It's not a big deal, okay? I like boobies. You like boobies." His eyes glance at the rear view mirror, catching a look of Carla, before he shrugs, "I mean, I specifically like—" 

"Steve, no!" Carla's face is quick to flush at the phrase that almost left his lips.

"I'm just being truthful here, baby."

"I'm glad, but—"

Robin lets out a dramatic gag, "You guys make me want to physically hurl." 

"I got off topic but the point is Vickie likes boobies." Steve restates the main point he was trying to tell Robin with the information he had. "Definitely." 

Carla thinks for a moment before slightly disagreeing with his words, "Okay, but who hasn't paused at that scene at least once in their life, being completely honest?" She looks between the two before continuing, "I mean, I have but that doesn't mean I'm leaving you for Robin tomorrow."

"You should after this conversation." the Buckley sends a side glance towards Steve.

"You're probably right, Rob." At the look she receives from Steve at the comment, the Wheeler girl shrugs, mocking his choice of words with a sly smirk, "What? It's boobies."

Steve mimics his girlfriends tone, "It's boobies." 

"You know I'm just kidding." Carla sighs, leaning forward to press a fond kiss to his cheek in emphasis, "I happen to love you a little too much for that."

Steve glances back the girl for moment, "A little?"

"A lot." Carla changes her words with a fond smile—she did love Steve Harrington a lot too much. 

"Someone get me out of this car, please." Robin groans, causing the couple to roll their eyes yet stop with their affection for the sake of the Buckley's sanity.

 Luckily for her, the Harrington soon pulled into the Hawkins High parking lot, coming to a halt to allow both girls to get out. Hordes of teens and cliques filled the area, all heading towards the gymnasium, no doubt for the basketball pep assembly—the same one Robin had been ranting about earlier, which Carla had to agree, had no business being first thing in the morning.

"Hey, wait up!" Robin was quick to catch the eye of a fellow band mate and quickly got out of the car, not even sparing Steve a goodbye. Carla grabs all of the girls things, pushing them towards the door, which the Buckley quickly hauls into her arms with a quick, "Thanks, Carla—see ya!"

Carla smiles with a content hum before grabbing her own bag—as much as she didn't want too, she also had to get out. "Okay, I'm also gonna head out. Love you—" She leans over the center console to press a chaste kiss to his lips, quickly pulling away with a warm smile, "—and I'll see you later."

"Not so fast." Steve interjects, lightly grabbing a hold of her chin to pull her closer for a second kiss. 

Carla lightly smiles into the kiss, savoring it for a few seconds before pulling away. A teasing smile lurks on her face as she opens the car door, the bustling of teens entering the vehicle. "You are so clingy, you know that?"

"I love you too." the Harrington drags, purposefully ignoring her comment, "Have a good day."

Carla offers him a final smile of reassurance before exiting the car, shutting the door behind her. Bag tossed over one shoulder, the Wheeler slides through freshmen, sophomores, juniors and fellow seniors towards the gym. 

"To the gym, everyone! Pep rally!" Mrs. Kelly, the counselor at Hawkins High, stood in the parking lot, reminding all students of where they should be heading. 

After a few moments of pushing past bunches of students and following slowly behind others, Carla makes her way to the gymnasium, eardrums being hit with the massive amounts of noise—band kids warming up their instruments, students chattering. The excitement in the room was clear.

Different committees had spent the past week decorating the school for the basketball game, and the gym had not been left out. Signs showing support and luck for the team had been hung on the walls and an orange banner with 'HAWKINS TIGERS CAN'T BE BEAT' was standing in the center, green, white, and orange balloons surrounding it. The students showed spirit too, some holding up different signs for their friends or partners, or simply to support the team in general. 

Carla herself hadn't cared much about sports until this year, when Lucas Sinclair managed to find a spot on the basketball team. Since then, the Wheeler had done her best to show up to pep events and home games, as well as get informed by Steve the premise of the game, so she could show support to the boy.

As the Wheeler navigates her way into the bleachers, she's quick to spot her brother and Dustin Henderson standing a few feet away. Despite having been in the same school as them for almost any entire year now, it still felt weird. 

Seeing the kids—they weren't kids anymore, that was Carla's problem—in high school would never not send a small pang through her heart; they were truly growing up, pre-teen years wasted away by monsters. 

Deciding she didn't feel like standing by herself, Carla squeezes past others to make her way towards the two boys. It doesn't take terribly wrong to reach them, and she offers a small, "Hey, boys."

"Hey, Carla." Dustin smiles, sporting a hat that reads 'Thinking Cap' a top of his curly mullet. Carla finds it cute that he hadn't lost his nerdy and 'uncool' sense of style yet—he still wore graphic tees and cheesy hats.

Mike turns to her, not sparing any greeting as he starts to speak to her, "Do you think you can convince mom and dad to let me out a little late? I have Hellfire tonight, but they want me back by nine or it's 'no California'."

Carla crosses her arms, "Can't you just talk to Eddie about it? I'm sure he'd understand and let you go early."

Eddie Munson was the Dungeon Master of Mike's current D&D club, Hellfire. Carla had known the boy since she joined Hawkins High—she thinks he's in year three or four of repeating senior year by now—but she'd never talked to him personally. However, how bad could he be to where Mike couldn't just talk about leaving early or even rescheduling for that matter? 

"You don't get it." Mike dismisses with a shake of his head, turning back to Dustin.

Carla rolls her eyes—why even bother asking?— looking over to her side to watch as Max Mayfield joined the group with a blank expression.

While everyone had been slightly altered by what happened at Starcourt, it seemed like Max had changed the most. She'd replaced her brightly colored outfits for long sleeves and dim colors; replaced her sarcastic comments for low mutters; replaced her charismatic smile for an ever present frown; her bright eyes had fallen tired. She looked exhausted; sad. She'd stopped including herself in conversation, instead placing her headphones over her ears and hitting play on her Walkman to drown out everything around her. 

Carla saw it hard to watch the girl fall so low, but she couldn't blame her. Her step-brother had died, her mother and step father had gotten a divorce, she'd moved into a trailer park, her mother was working two full time jobs to barely support them. Everything was shit.

But, that didn't stop Carla from trying to find the Max she knew.

The Wheeler looks at the girl with a smile, "Hey."

"Hi." Max answers, holding little emotion to it. She glances past Carla to glance at Dustin and Mike—who'd started arguing over girlfriends— before wrapping her arms around herself and looking towards the cheerleaders; she looked like she was counting down the minutes until it was over.

After a few more minutes of waiting, the pep rally begun.

 The band started up, drumlins rolling as the cheerleaders came up, beginning to do flips and lifts. The Hawkins High mascot came forward and started to hype up the crowd; the crowd doing exactly so, cheering and screaming.

Carla's head started to slightly throb again from the amount of noise—she felt like she had a hangover, triggered by any slightly obnoxious light and overly loud sound. She promises herself that she'll take another Advil when the pep rally finishes. 

Luckily, cheerleaders soon finish their routine and the band cuts off with them. Carla politely claps as the rest of the crowd manages to cheer even louder. The pom-pom holding teens run to the front of the bleachers and kneel down, all the students turning their attention to the new banner present, reading 'HAWKINS TIGERS ALL THE WAY'.

"And let's hear it for your Tigers!"

The paper banner is ripped as the basketball team runs through it, entering the gymnasium. The bleachers are filled with even more cheers as Jason Carver—popular jock and captain of the team—leads the way, the rest of the team following suit.

Carla didn't really smile until she spotted Lucas filing out. The boy sports his basketball jersey, as well as a genuinely happy smile upon his face.

 While Dustin and Mike had been quick to judge when he joined the sports team—jocks and freaks didn't exactly get along, and certainly not at Hawkins High—the Wheeler girl had been supportive. If it made him happy, who cared? 

All Carla wanted to see was the kids being happy after everything they'd seen. And if Lucas found that in basketball.....it was all that really mattered. 

"Good morning, Hawkins High!" Jason Carver's voice echoes through the gymnasium. The boy takes the microphone and begins to walk forward to address his fellow students, the rest of the team standing back. "First off....hey." He pauses so everyone can quiet down, "First off, I'd like to thank each and every one of you. Without your support, we wouldn't be here. Give yourselves a big hand."

The bleachers whoop and cheer for themselves, Carla adding to the sound with a few light claps of her own.

"And of course, of course, I have to give a special shout-out to the best, and the prettiest fans of all time, the Tiger Cheer squad!" The crowd roars again as Jason gestures towards the girls kneeling on the floor. The blonde boys eyes soften as he stares at a certain cheerleader, "Chrissy...." He taps his chest, signaling to his heart, "Chrissy, I love you, babe."

Aw's now erupt from different teens, Carla managing a small smile at the show of affection—they were the average cheerleader and basketball captain couple; they knew how to gain the love of the entire school with a single 'I love you'.

Jason backed up, voice growing more serious as he strayed away from his girlfriend and back to the main speech he'd thought up, "You know...I think I can speak for all of us when I say it's been a tough year for Hawkins."

This wasn't the first 'It's been a tough year' speech Carla has received, but it never got easier to listen to them.

Tough year was an understatement. It had been the worst summer of Carla Wheeler's entire life—hell, despite having met El and Max, having gotten back together with Steve...these past three years have been the worst of her eighteen years.

This summer she'd been chased by monster after monster, knocked unconscious and been giving multiple concussions, been given bruises that took months to heal, been attacked and almost kidnapped, had died and had been resuscitated. All of which in the span mere days. 

Jason didn't know shit about a 'tough year'. 

And of course Carla couldn't even say anything. She'd signed an NDA, she'd promised to seal her lips over everything that went down this summer. And, of course, no one in the school but Robin, Mike, Dustin, Nancy, and Max knew what really happened. The only thing Jason knew happened was a mall fire—a tough year fit his story more than theirs.

"So much loss." Jason continued, atmosphere growing quiet as his words grew serious. Carla's lips grow thin as she prepares to hear his words, wondering where he would take the speech. "And sometimes I wonder, how much loss can one community take? In dark days like this, we need something to believe in. So, last night, when we were down by ten points at half to Christian Academy, I looked at my team, and I said, Think of Jack. Think of Melissa. Think of Heather."

Carla immediately pictures the Holloway girl that had been a reoccurring character in her nightmares. She see's the girl tied up, pleading for Billy to let her go. Of Billy telling her it'd be okay. Of the Mind Flayer coming forward to claim her.

"Think of Billy." 

At the mention of the Hargrove boy, all heads turned to look at Max, the redhead looking down towards the floor to avoid the eyes. Images of the boy's hands around her neck and his body hanging from the Mind Flayer's arms filled Carla's head.

"Think about our heroic police chief, Jim Hopper."

Carla almost scoffs. To the town, he'd been their measly police chief, but to the Party, to Joyce, to Nancy, Jonathan, and Carla, to El, he'd been so much more. A father figure; a protector; someone who always looked out for them. 

"Think about each and every one of our friends who perished in that fire." Jason continues, the Wheeler girl toying her tongue around the inside of her cheek at the mention of the fire.

She hated that everyone was under the impression that the disaster at Starcourt had been nothing but a terrible mall fire.

 The first week back to school had been hardest just because she was bombarded with questions about the fire and had to come up with some bullshit lie about every injury and story heard; push down every truth that threatened to slip from her lips and pretend everything was okay. 

 "What did they die for?" the Carver boy roars, "For us to lose to some...some crap school? No!" 

The crowd around Carla echoes in a 'no!' but the Wheeler girl stays completely silent.

 She feels slightly sick that Jason was turning deaths into a way to hype up the basketball team. She knows no one really knows the true extent to how they died, but Hopper hadn't died so a bunch of  high schoolers could win a sports championship. 

"For us to return home with our heads hung low in defeat?" Jason's voice grows louder and firmer, "No!"

"No!" the students echo.

"No. Let's win this game. Let's win this game, for them." Jason finishes his retelling of what happened the previous night before returning to his speech, "And that's exactly what we did!" The crowd starts cheering again, and Mike turns over to look at Carla, the same 'this is ridiculous' expression on the siblings faces. "We embarrassed those candy-asses in their own house, and now tonight, tonight, we're gonna bring home the championship trophy! Let's go!"

Pom-poms and signs are raised in the air once more and the bleachers are filled with another round of excitement. To be respectful, Carla claps but she doesn't really mean it, instead focusing in on her brother and the Henderson boy as their jaws dropped.

Mike whips to Dustin, "Tonight?"

"How is that possible?" Dustin exclaims.

"They call it a tournament." Max replies, speaking up for the first real time that morning as she explained sports to the two boys, "You win one game, you go on to play the next until there's only one team left."

Carla recalls the fact that Mike had Hellfire tonight from their conversation moments beforehand and sends him a look, "I get D&D is important but are you seriously thinking about missing his game? It's the championship."

"We want to go." Dustin lies—he'd rather be anywhere but a high school basketball game, even if his best friend was on the team. "But it's not like Eddie is going to move the game for Lucas. He hates basketball."

"The least you could do is ask. You know he'd really love seeing you there." Carla sighs. She wraps an arm around her bag strap, signaling that she was going to head to her locker. "I'm leaving, I'll see you guys later."

She heads out of the gymnasium and to her locker, a dull throbbing still taking place in the back of her head.

mara's misc!

random update but here is chapter two!!

this chapter was very fun to write! the boobies conversation actually had me dead the first time i watched it (who expected to EVER hear steve harrington say the word boobies???) and i had to rewatch it with my parents and try not to laugh, so i physically had to include it with carla.

with that obviously carla did have to know about robin. there wasn't really time to write a scene, nor did i want to mess up anything with a coming out scene (a few of my friends have come out to me, but i am straight myself and would find a way to fuck it up), but YES carla does know. and YES she was very supportive of robin. 

also yes!! carla is going into the medical field!!! i made this decision while writing gone.....i never knew what i wanted with how she helped eleven out with her wound, i decided it was somewhere i could see carla being.  i hope y'all agree.

while it hurt, i also loved writing carla not thinking she deserves to be out of hawkins while steve sees her getting out more than he did himself (she has the future he never had). like ugh s4 is gonna be rough.

ALSO THE NEW TTPD SETLIST?????

i knew she was gonna add ttpd (sadly) so i was on a livestream when i got home from school for like 3 hours.
im not a fan of the red/orange coloring but the costumes look good (i rlly love the 1989  fit). the ttpd fits and numbers were so fucking good tho.
while i am very jealous of the paris girlies, i am tbh glad to have gotten the og setlist, the entirety of folklore and evermore, the archer & cardigan, AND haunted as a surprise song.......

hope you enjoyed <3 see you back with chapter 3!!!