wow it's been a minute since I updated this story. or anything for that matter. I'm trying really hard to write stuff guys I swear. Anyway, enjoy this update!

"I think I'm still hungover."

"The party was three days ago."

Just like every Tuesday the four boys headed to the AV club room. Back in September Mike had convinced the schools secretary to give him a copy of the key for the room so he wouldn't have to borrow it every week. It was, by far, the most satisfying addition to his key chain so far.

The days following the party were interesting to say the least. Mike has spent all day Sunday locked in his room with a killer headache and an uneasy stomach. By Monday he felt better physically but was surprisingly overcome with nerves when he made it to the front entrance of the school. Between classes he was constantly looking around him, wondering if he would see Jane. But, just as she had for years, she remained under the radar.

While Mike had not let one detail slip about being in the closet with Jane Dustin seemed incapable of talking about anything other than Margret. By the time they reached he club room Lucas was threatening to slash Dustin's bike tires if he didn't shut up. Dustin mumbled something about him being jealous but he let the topic go.

Once inside the room they all took their seats around their newest addition to the room. The latest model of Heathkit radios. It was larger than the one they already had and had way more switches and buttons. But it was still fascinating.

The radio had been donated by someone in town because it no longer worked as it had when they bought it. Some of the switches were stiff and not every channel worked. The boys had been reading up on how to fix something so complicated, hence why Lucas picked up a copy of Repairing Technology 101.

"Do you think we'll get this thing fixed by Christmas?" Will asked curiously.

Lucas looked up from the book and glanced at the calendar on the wall. It was mid-October, which left them a fair amount of time. Mike was sure they would get it done, but Lucas shook his head. "I don't know. We need parts. We might need to order them. They may not come for a while."

They all deflated a bit. They'd been working on the radio for weeks trying to figure out what exactly needed to be fixed and how to do it. Needless to say they were anxious for the final result.

The three of them fiddled with the radio for about half an hour while Lucas read as fast as he could. A soft knock on the door made them all drop what they were doing and look in the doorway. No one ever stopped in to check on them. Mike felt his heart stop for a second when he spotted Jane standing in the doorway with Max standing behind her.

"Am I interrupting something?" she asked

Mike was vaguely aware of his friends looking back and forth between Jane and him. He felt a bit caught off guard that she'd showed up out of nowhere after he's spent the past two days trying to spot her. "Uh, no." he finally managed to answer. "No, nothing."

Jane took two steps into the door before Max grabbed the sleeve of her shirt. "Billy's probably waiting for me." She said once jane turned back to her. "I can't be late again, I have to go."

"Yeah, okay." Jane said. "I'll see you tomorrow?" Max nodded before disappearing down the hall. When Jane turned back to them she grabbed the one spare chair in the room, which happened to be next to Mike. "Billy is her brother. He has a bit of a temper." She set her backpack down on the floor and looked over at the radio on the table. "What's this?"

"Only the finest piece of machinery in the whole school." Dustin answered dramatically.

Mike rolled his eyes and turned in his chair to face her. "It's a radio. All these switches are different channels in different parts of the world. There's one in Australia." He picked up the headphones and handed them to her. "Want to try it?"

A small smile spread on her face as she took them from him. "Sure."

He slid the microphone over to her and turned on one of the channels. He caught Will's eye and tried to ignore the slightly smug smile on his face. Jane slid the headphones over her ears and Mike guessed someone was already using the channel by the way her eyes went wide and her mouth went open.

She put her hand over the microphone and whispered "It's an Italian airline."

Mike raised an eyebrow at her. "How do you know it's Italian."

"I've been taking the class since eighth grade." She told him. Part of him desperately wanted for her to say something in Italian but after a few minutes of listening she took the headphones off. "That's so cool."

"Too bad it's busted." Lucas said before marking his page and tossing the book it on the table. "We need a dozen things to fix it, which means we have to order parts. They could take forever to get here. Plus we need money?"

A small frown settled on Jane's face. "What's wrong with it?"

"Some of the channels don't work." Mike explained. He switched on a channel that they'd heard nothing but static from. "At first we thought it was a bad connection, but a bunch of them are like this."

Jane put the headphones back on. After a few moments her frown only deepened. "Are all the broken ones like this?"

"No." Will told her. "Some of them don't make any noise at all."

She took off the headphones again and slid her chair closer to the radio. Which also meant she was closer to Mike. "Well, with that one it's probably just a loose wire." Her eyes scanned the desk before landing on a small collection of tools they'd accumulated. "Hand me that screwdriver."

Dustin gave it to her. "How can you be so sure?" he asked skeptically.

"I'm not sure." She said as she began to unscrew the control panel cover. "But my dad has a police radio. They probably work the same. If it's staticy and it's not a connection problem it's usually a wire problem."

Mike and his friends exchanged a glance as she took off the cover and started poking through wires. He was the only one who was able to see what she could. But all he could make out was one big knot of colors. How was she supposed to make any sense of it?

Apparently it wasn't a problem for her. She picked out a green wire that had been split into two pieces. Her other hand reached for a piece of tape which she wrapped around both ends of the wire to keep them together. "Try it now." She told Mike.

He picked up the headphones and slid them over his head. Sure enough instead of hearing static he heard a male voice on the other end of the channel. Mike quickly took them off and stared at her. "We've been trying to figure out how to fix this thing for months and you got it in two seconds." He said. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Dustin and Lucas glance at one other.

Jane simply shrugged. She clearly wasn't impressed with herself as they all were. "There's probably still a few problems, and the wire thing is pretty much the only thing I know. You'll probably still need that book."

They spent the remaining twenty minutes flipping through the channels to keep track of which ones had been fixed and which ones still needed repair. Though only a handful had started working it was still more than they'd had before Jane started to stop by. It was almost 4:30 when they decided to pack it up for the day.

Jane walked with them out to the parking lot. She had more in common with them than they had all thought. While she wasn't quite as geeky as they all were she was a fan of horror movies and more than occasionally opted for sci-fi. Her and Will liked the same music and when Dustin told them about the box of Nilla wafers waiting for him at home Jane seemed genuinely jealous.

Will got into Lucas' car to get a ride home while Dustin hopped on his bike and followed them out of the parking lot, but Mike hung back for a second. Jane was zipping up her jacket when he turned to her. "Do you have a ride home?" he asked.

"My dad usually picks me up. But he's working late tonight." She told him. "I was going to walk home."

"Where do you live?" the second the words left his lips Mike regretted them. He hadn't intended to sound so… stalker like. Like he always did when he got embarrassed he started to ramble. "I mean, generally. Not, like, your address. I didn't mean it like that. I was just wondering if you live far from-"

He stopped talking when she started laughing. Her eyes squeezed shut and all her teeth were on display. Mike did his best to not notice how cute she was. "It's okay. I know what you meant." She said, still giggling. "I live on Maple."

Mike let out a short breath of relief. "Oh, okay." Her smile was contagious and he felt his lips moving upwards on their own accord. "I live pretty close to there. I can walk with you?"

"Sure."

He held onto the handle bars of his bike and pulled it along with him as they walked. Jane was wearing combat boots that gave her an inch or two of extra height from the last time they'd stood next to one another. Mike kept his eyes fixed forward as they started away from the school. If he looked at her too long he thought about kissing her in the closet in Jennifer Hayes' basement.

"Hey," she said to break the silence. Her hands were gripped tightly around the straps of her backpack and her eyes were cast down to the paved road. "So, about the party… if I made you uncomfortable or anything, I'm sorry."

Mike hardly bothered to hide the confusion on his face as he looked down at her. "I wasn't. At all. It's okay." The shyness she had when they first got into the closet had returned. Yet another thing that made him try to ignore how cute she was.

"I was a little more drunk than I thought I was." Jane admitted. "Plus Max had been teasing me about my lack of experience with boys lately. I got a little carried away."

Mike chuckled, "Well I'm sorry that you got stuck with me as your first kiss."

Jane punched his arm and he pretended like it didn't hurt as much as it did. "Shut up." She said with a short laugh. "You're a good kisser. Not to mention a nice guy. Girls in school are missing out." The farther they walked the closer together they ended up. He didn't try and move away from her and she didn't seem to notice.

"I think they would disagree." He argued.

She shrugged, making one of the straps of her backpack slip off her shoulder slightly. "Well, then, their loss." Jane kicked a small rock that was in her path. "I still can't believe I got invited at all."

"You and me both." Mike agreed.

He heard her snort quietly. "No one wants to invite the Chiefs daughter to a wild party. They think I'll snitch on them. Plus there's the rumors." She looked up at him. "You hear the one where I pulled the fire alarm and got banned from homecoming?"

Mike let out a laugh. "No, not that one." He said. "Why is there so much talk about you, anyway?" though he never paid much attention to rumors he remembered hearing a few things about her. Plus his friends had told them all of what they'd heard about her after the party.

Jane sighed. "Well, it's a small town." She said. "People talk. They know I'm adopted, but they don't know why. So they make up stories." She looked down at the ground again. "Small town people have small town minds. Back in Chicago the school was so big that no one knew who I was."

Small town people have small minds. It was the most accurate description of Hawkins he'd ever heard. "Do you miss Chicago?" he'd never been himself, but he imagined it was a hell of a lot more exciting there.

"A little bit." She told him, but he could tell her voice it was more than a little. "But I didn't have many friends there. Not that I'm super popular here. But I have Max. And my dad."

His gaze lingered on her for a second before he looked away. "Well, if it helps," he said, "I think you're really cool. For the Chiefs daughter."

Jane laughed again. It was a sound he could certainly get used to. "Yeah. You're pretty cool too. For the President of the AV club." She bumped her shoulder against his.

They only walked for a couple more minutes before Jane stopped. When he spotted the sign for her street his heart had sunk slightly. When would be the next time he got to talk to her? Especially in private.

"This is my place." She said, gesturing to the house behind her. It was a ranch house with a small garden in front. He figured Jane was the one with the green thumb in the family since gardening didn't seem to be Chief Hopper's thing. "I'd invite you inside but it's really messy."

"That's fine." Mike told her. "I don't know if I'd want the Chief to catch me home alone with his daughter."

Her smile grew, once again showing her teeth. "We should, uh, do something sometime." She suggested. "Maybe see a movie? That new Star Wars movie is coming out soon, I bet you guys are dying to see it."

They were.

Inside his chest Mike's heart was beating like a snare drum; quick and sharp. She wasn't asking him on a date. No way in hell she was. But she was the first girl who'd shown any interest in spending time with him, or with any of his friends. Plus Jane was funny and easy to be around. Not to mention cute. Curls framed her face like an expensive frame and her lips were the most enticing shade of pink he'd ever seen. Without the party atmosphere and alcohol in his system Mike was fully capable of controlling himself around her. But that didn't mean he wasn't tempted.

"Yeah, that sounds good." He said, trying not to sound as excited as he was. "We could go the weekend it comes out? A couple days after so it's not so busy."

Jane nodded. "I can try and convince Max to come. But sci-fi isn't exactly her thing." She took a few steps towards her house. "I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah." He said. "See you."

Mike waited until she unlocked the front door and disappeared inside her house before getting on his bike and turning around. They'd passed his street a few blocks back but he hadn't been ready to say goodbye to Jane yet. It was hard to tell if he was having left over feelings from the party or if they simply got a long better than he expected.

Talking with Jane felt like talking with someone he'd been friends with for years. She made him laugh, and he liked making her laugh. Mike wasn't used to having a friend that was a girl. The whole concept was foreign to him. While he wasn't sure if he could label Jane as a 'friend' quite yet he was pretty sure they were getting there.

When he walked through the front door of his house he spotted his mom on the phone in the living room. Since his dad's car was absent from the driveway he figured the only other person home was Nancy who had a few days off from classes at college and had come down to visit. Mostly to visit Johnathan.

Mike made it up the stairs and halfway down the hallway before his sisters door opened and she poked her head out. She stepped into the hall and put her hands on her hips. "I just got back from Johnathan's house." She told him.

He recognized the accusatory tone in her voice but didn't know what to say. "Okay." He replied simply.

"Imagine my surprise when I drove past my little brother walking next to a girl. A cute one at that." She raised an eyebrow at him as a fresh coat of blush rose to his cheeks. "Let's talk." She said before heading back into her room.

Nancy always wanted to talk. He figured it was her way of making up for their parents' lack of interest. As annoying as it sometimes was he appreciated it. Mike followed her into her room and dropped his backpack onto the floor. She cleared off the papers and books spread out on her bed to make room for him. They sat cross legged across from each other.

"Who is she?" Nancy asked.

He sighed and leaned against the footboard of her bed. "Her name is Jane." He told her. "She's the Chiefs daughter."

Nancy's eyes widened slightly. "You're messing around with the Chiefs daughter?"

Mike grabbed a pillow and threw it at her. "We're not messing around." He said defensively. "We met at a party over the weekend. We were just walking together."

"'Met at a party'?" she asked. "Oh I know what that means."

He rolled his eyes while his face only got hotter. "It was a game of spin the bottle. But we didn't do anything, we just talked. Neither of us wanted to play the game in the first place." Mike Nancy wouldn't catch his lie.

Unfortunately for him Nancy had to learn to be observant as an aspiring journalist. "Oh, come on. You didn't do anything?" she challenged. "You're at a party, you're probably both a little tipsy. Alone in a closet together. You're telling me nothing happened?" her raised eyebrows and cheeky grin were a dare to keep lying to her.

Mike rolled his eyes. "Okay, okay, fine." He said. "She kissed me. It was quick. That was it." He tried to ignore the satisfied expression that she wore. "But it's not like that. It was a one-time thing. We're just friends now."

"And you're okay with that?" she asked, clearly skeptical.

"Yes." He answered honestly. "I am. It was a one time thing and it's perfectly fine."

Nancy stared at him for a moment before leaning back against the pillows behind her. "Alright, alright." She said. "But if you ask me I think you should make a move."

"Which is exactly why I didn't ask."

She grinned at him and picked up a pillow before hitting his arm with it. "Don't you have homework to do or something?"

Mike rolled his eyes at her and got to his feet, grabbing his backpack off the floor on his way out. He grabbed his algebra homework and pulled out the chair of his desk. His eyes landed on the invitation to Jennifer's party that he'd yet to throw out. Throughout the night he'd had a few drinks which made his memories slightly fuzzy. But the seven minutes in the closet with Jane were crystal clear. The way she smiled at him, when their hands brushed when she offered him gum, how his heart hammered in his chest when she came closer to him.

It had been a really good kiss. And he found himself surprisingly content with the fact that it would probably be their only one.