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❛ sᴏᴍᴇᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴡɪᴄᴋᴇᴅ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴀɴ's ᴘᴀʀᴛʏ ꒱


❝ DON'T BE AFRAID OF
WHAT YOU CAN'T SEE ❞

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Hawkins was very much an all or nothing town: either a murderous, interdimensional beast was out for blood or it was the most boring place in the world. Right now, it was the latter and Jessie was one of the few (if not the only one) who preferred it the first way. She let out a disinterested sigh as Mr. Clarke droned on about the day's Science lecture. Her mind drifted— as it usually did now— to Max.

Her eyes fell on the fire-y strands of hair in front of her and glazed over as she watched them swish slowly back and forth whenever the girl shifted. After her confession, Jessie had done her best to keep her distance from Max. Whatever the girl said, the brunette was convinced that it was some sort of complicated joke or prank and she refused to be the brunt of other people's entertainment. Her paranoia, of course, led to Max spending more time with the boys, most notably Dustin and Lucas.

While Jessie knew that this was something that she'd brought on herself, she couldn't help but feel her stomach burn with acid whenever she saw Max and Lucas or Max and Dustin together. It often put her in the mood to blow something up. So, when she was finished with her chores for the day, loud bangs could usually be heard from behind the house as she used her emotions for target practice.

Still, that couldn't keep her attention forever and she cleaned up her pistol before she slid it back into one of her coat's many pockets. After checking to make sure that the doors of the house were locked, she turned away from the street and headed into the forest. Very few of Hawkins' residents paid much attention to the wooded area except for when Will had gone missing last year. Other than that, only avid hikers could be found among the trails.

Jessie liked the woods.

Unlike the school, they were relatively quiet and had no reason to judge her. Animals skittered through the leaves or above in the branches. Her sneakers trod on the barely-visible path that wound through the trunks of autumn-colored trees and the fresh air cleared her mind better than her pyromaniac tendencies ever could. Besides, things liked to hide in the woods; if she were to do the 'ranger' job the party had decreed for her, she would find anomalies here.

Some time later, she paused as a. . . different smell drifted on the breeze. Immediately, her nose wrinkled at how disgusting the scent was. She was reminded of rotten eggs and decaying carcasses. Definitely an anomaly. 

Senses alerted, her pace picked up until she was jogging lightly through the woods. She let her nose guide her towards she smell and tried not to think about the way her heart was speeding up to an uncomfortable, irregular rate. By the time she got to the edge of the woods, her breath was rasping painfully in her throat and she felt exhausted despite the short distance.

The brunette closed her eyes to steady herself and focused on exhaling in and out to even her breathing. This was the bad thing about the woods: the soft ground didn't allow her to use her roller skates and forced her to run instead. She'd never been particularly good at running and even the shortest distances sent her heart pounding sporadically, something which would be a concern if she focused on it. Instead, she chose to ignore the potential problem and avoided running at all costs. 

Once ten minutes had passed (as that was usually how long it took to recover from her 'attacks') Jessie turned her attention back to her discovery. As she peered through the forest edge, her eyes widened at the sight of the decaying crops. So that explained the smell, she realized.

Men in white hazmat suits milled around the site and used scientific-looking testing gear to take samples from the dead plants. Farther away, she recognized Hopper standing with an unfamiliar man who was dressed in a suit. She watched the scene for awhile longer and let the sound of the buzzing flies fade into a dull murmur as her eyes narrowed in thought. If anything screamed 'I'm an interdimensional beast' this was it: something was going to happen in Hawkins very soon.

After making her discovery, Jessie rifled through her pockets to find a map of the town and a pen. She spread the paper out on the ground and marked an x at the spot where the field was. The surrounding area on the map was green, which indicated more farms just like this one. She wondered if the others had been hit as well.

.・。.・゜✫・.・✫・゜・。.

"Oh, good, you're here," Jessie said as she walked up the path after exiting the bus.

Dustin was standing by his bike, clearly looking around for the others when her words caught his attention. "Of course I'm here. Where else would I be?" He hurried on without waiting for a response: "do you know where the others are?"

"No. I just got here, you idiot," she replied equally briskly, "but I made a discovery that I think you guys should know about."

"Let's find them," the curly-haired boy agreed.

Somehow, their search resulted in them located the rest of the party (minus Will) behind the school next to the dumpsters. Having spent most of her night around decaying vegetables, Jessie shrugged off the smell.

"What the hell's going on?" Dustin asked.

"What do you think?" Mike responded shortly. "We're looking for Dart."

A bag of trash flew from the dumpster, causing the pair to jump away to avoid being hit. "Jesus!"

Max jerked away as well. "Oh!"

"Ugh!"

Lucas appeared from within the depths of the bin and jumped out to join them on the pavement. "Well, well, well. Look who finally decided to show up after I drew the short straw. Real convenient."

"You stink!" Max exclaimed before she walked over to Dustin and Jessie's side.

The brunette rolled her eyes. "Quit your complaining, would you? We have more important things to worry about. Look, last night while I was ranging—" A scoff interrupted her words and her eyes narrowed. "Yes, Lucas?"

"Nothing," he mumbled bitterly, still sore that his place in the party had been rearranged.

"Anyway, where's Will?" she asked. "Everyone should be here for this."

"He'll be here," Mike said firmly. "Speaking of Will, where the hell were you yesterday?"

The brunette gave him an frosty look for his tone. "I had to catch the bus home. Why?"

"Are you just gonna stand there?" Lucas cut off the boy's answer and handed Dustin a long wooden pole as he added, "or do you wanna help?"

Jessie glowered at him, annoyed that he was letting their. . . argumentative relationship get in the way of what could possibly be a world-ending catastrophe.

.・。.・゜✫・.・✫・゜・。.

"We need to talk!" Mike exclaimed as he rushed up to them during their lunch break. "AV room, now!" They scrambled to follow him to their meeting place only for the dark-haired boy to turn and glare at Max. "Party members only!"

"Come on, Mike," Dustin protested.

"No, this is non-negotiable!"

Jessie hesitated and looked back at the red-haired girl. There was an annoyed, slightly confused expression on her face as the boys made their way inside the school. Mike's head poked outside again. "Salvador, now!"

"I'm not a dog," she snapped in response, "and why shouldn't Max come with us?"

"Because I said so!"

The brunette crossed her arms. "If she can't come then I won't either."

He groaned exasperatedly. "Either in or you're out. You can't be both. Wasn't there something that you wanted to tell us?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Don't start acting like you suddenly care about what I can contribute to the group. If you're giving me an ultimatum then I'm out."

Mike glowered at her in response. "Fine!"

"Fine!" she shouted back.

"Fine!"

"I'm gonna say fine last, okay?" she told him. "Fine."

"Whatever," he replied before he followed the rest of the party into the school.

.・。.・゜✫・.・✫・゜・。.

After school, Jessie made her way to the bus stop now that she no longer had an obligation to help look for Dart. Instead, she planned on visiting the fields again to see if she could gather more information on what was going on. The sound of wheels on pavement drew her from her plans as she recognized Max's now-familiar approach.

She twisted around curiously to see if the redhead was going to pass her and was only mildly surprised when she didn't. The irritated look on her face was back and Jessie wondered if she was about to get an earful. She waited for the other girl to initiate the conversation.

"I just. . . wanted to say thanks, I guess," Max began noncommittally. "You didn't have to do that."

The brunette shrugged. "Mike's been acting like a bitch ever since El disa—" she broke off abruptly and a sheepish expression appeared on her face. "Perhaps I've said too much."

"I know about El," the red-haired girl said in an attempt to reassure her.

Instead, it almost did the exact opposite and Jessie's tone soured slightly. "Did Lucas tell you?"

"Mike did, actually," the redhead replied, wondering why she seemed to care so much.

"Oh," Jessie's voice evened out. "That's a surprise. Um, when?"

Max gave her a curious look as she was unused to the brunette being so invested in a conversation. "Yesterday before Will had his. . . episode? Is that what you guys call it?"

"Yeah," she answered quietly. "So that's why Mike was being a jerk about it this morning. I hope he's okay. Will, I mean."

"He didn't seem like it," Max told her apologetically. "His mom took him home when he came around."

Jessie frowned and suddenly wished that she had been there after school yesterday. Out of all of them, she was used to Will's 'episodes' as they were similar to her father's flashbacks when his nightmares got bad. The only research she'd ever done willingly had been to figure out the best way to take care of her father during this time and so she knew the most about bringing someone back to themselves. (This had come in handy ever since Will had returned from the Upside Down.)

Noticing her suddenly worried expression, the red-haired girl tried to change the subject. "So. . . since you're not hanging out with your friends anymore, do you want to do something this afternoon instead?"

"They're not my friends," Jessie corrected her. "Acquaintances at best. What do you mean do you want to do something?"

"Together," Max explained. "Do you want to do something cool together?"

"I don't know what qualifies as cool," the brunette responded with a shrug. Her eyes darted over to where students were boarding the bus which was sure to be leaving soon. "I probably have to get home anyway."

"We could go to the arcade," the redhead suggested. "I might be able to get my stepbrother to drive us home." She couldn't hide the note of doubt in her voice at the thought that he most likely wouldn't.

She looked at the bus again which had noticeably less passengers boarding it. She thought about what her afternoon had originally held and the responsibilities that she always had. Then, she looked back at the flame-haired girl and (for once) answered how she wanted to: "yeah, alright."

[edited jul. 2022]