DECEMBER 1988
"Woah," they all agreed in unison.
They had known that Will was a talented artist, but somehow they had never anticipated just how talented. In recent years he had kept most of his work to himself, but when the art director of their high school invited him to display some of his work at a city gala for aspiring young artists, the party should have known to expect more than they did. It was kind of a huge deal with major scholarship opportunities on the line.
"Do you like them?" Will asked as he anxiously fiddled with the cuffs of his slightly oversized suit.
On the wall in front of them, a series of five charcoal portraits hung in horizontal row. Close up shots depicted five familiar faces portraying five different moods in incredible detail: Mike Wheeler (head tilted, lips parted, dark eyes comforting), Max Mayfield (eyebrow cocked, mouth pulled into a snarky smirk, looking like she had a secret), Lucas Sinclair (chin high and confident, eyes amused, ready to take on the world), El Hopper (doe eyes innocent, brows peaked curiously, but able to attack at any moment), and Dustin Henderson (grinning, clear eyes sinking behind full cheeks, a perfect set of teeth as bright white as the paper). In that order.
Just below the portraits hung a small plaque that read: William S. Byers, Crazy Together
The party was so incredibly taken aback by the beauty and talent and sentiment that, for what may be the first time ever, every last one of them was rendered speechless.
El was the first to break the silence, but even then she struggled a moment to find the words she was looking for. She settled on the first thing that came to mind: "Pretty."
"Jonathan," Joyce started from behind the party. "Get a picture of them all in front of it."
"Mom -" Jonathan chuckled. He was about to argue that they would block the art by standing in front of it, but was interrupted by a tap on the shoulder.
Jonathan spun around to see a boy his own age and a girl a few years younger. The boys greeted each other excitedly and Joyce wrapped the girl in a hug.
"Who is he?" Max asked to no one in particular. Jonathan Byers was never one for keeping many friends.
"Good question, but who is she?" Dustin mumbled next to her.
Max studied the girl as she pulled away from Joyce's embrace. She was dressed to the nines in a black, halter style gown, complete with a knee length, a-line skirt. Because of this, it was easy to assume she was one of the art students, who were all required dress up for the occasion.
Her face was conventionally pretty, with a strong girl-next-door look in her wide eyes. Her hair was a sandy blonde, her skin was tanned - even in the winter - and her frame was long and slender.
The boy - Jonathan's friend - was obviously her brother. If the facial structure had not given it away, then it was evident in his messy hair, which was the same shade of blond, and his smooth skin, which was the same shade of tan. And like her, he was tall. Maybe even taller than Mike. Though where the girl and Mike were both slim, the brother had an average build. One he attempted to hide by carrying himself with a slouch to his shoulders.
The siblings were an attractive pair. With just one glance, Max could tell that the girl was way out of Dustin's league, but his new prospect was exciting to her.
Max looked to Dustin with her eyebrows raised.
"What?" he asked.
"Go talk to her," she told him as if the answer was blatantly obvious. She glanced back just in time to discover Will walking over to greet the siblings with the same level of enthusiasm as Joyce and Jonathan. "Look! You already have a wingman."
"Will? No," insisted Dustin. "Love the kid, but no."
"Suit yourself," Max mumbled.
And so he did.
But before they knew it, Will and the girl were approaching the party, and Max noticed Dustin tense up nervously beside her.
"Just play it cool," Max whispered. Dustin nodded.
The blonde girl smiled kindly at Will's friends before turning her attention to their portraits. Her face dropped when she saw them, mouth gaping open slightly as she took in the artwork. "Holy shit, Will," she breathed, through Max would have never pegged her as the swearing type.
Will chuckled shortly next to her. "Thanks."
She turned and smiled at Will's friends again, examining each of the muses before comparing them to their charcoal renditions once more.
"Get Lucas to wingman me," Dustin whispered in Max's ear. "He won't do it if I ask."
She held back an eye roll before looking to Lucas, who creased his brows briefly in confusion. She glanced subtly in the direction of the girl in the black dress and understanding washed over Lucas' face. Max then pointed to him, and then he pointed to himself with raised eyebrows. She nodded and he shook his head. "Just do it," she whispered. He huffed and with a smirk, giving in.
Dustin did this kind of thing often enough. Seldom was it successful.
Max returned her attention to Will just in time for him to begin addressing his group of friends, "Hey, I don't know if you guys remember June. She used to come to my birthday parties and stuff when we were little."
"Oh yeah," murmured Mike as the recognition dawned on him. "Your mom was, like, best friends with Joyce, right?"
"Yes," the girl nodded.
"So this is Mike, Lucas, and Dustin, who you might remember. And then this is El and Max," Will introduced. "Everyone this is June."
"Oh, yeah!" It was Dustin's turn to come to his own epiphany. "You were the little blonde girl who was convinced we all had cooties."
She looked to Dustin with narrowed eyes, a smirk tugging at the corners of her mouth. "Yeah, and weren't you the kid with no teeth who pushed me in the pool?"
Dustin's eyebrows shot up his forehead. He opened his mouth to speak, but for the second time that night he was speechless.
Max, biting back a giggle, glanced to Lucas for help, but the girl - June - began talking again before he had the chance. "But you could do something really cool with your arms, right?"
Dustin's face spread into a wide grin - mirroring the one in his portrait - as he passed Max his coat. "Dustin, don't," she tried to whisper to him. Admittedly, the arm trick was cool, but it was no way to win over a girl.
She tried to warn him, but it was too late. He was already holding his arms out in front of him and folding his shoulders into his chest.
At this point, the trick had lost it's effect on the party members. They were all more interested in seeing June's reaction, which was much more unusual than any of them could have expected. Most people groaned in disgust when they saw what Dustin could do, but June's big eyes gleamed with an air of impression. "Mental."
Dustin put his shoulders back in place and took his jacket from Max, unable to smother the pride that radiated from his face.
"His teeth grew in, too," Lucas lamely attempted.
"Don't," Max whispered to Dustin. Again.
But once again, it was too late. Almost instinctively at this point, Dustin made that weird purring sound. Everyone waited for June's reaction, and though her face did not give away much, Max, once more, assumed that Dustin had just ruined everything for himself.
That was until June told him, "That almost sounded like Chewbacca."
She knew Star Wars and did not think Dustin was being a complete weirdo. And she was hot? Max was floored, to say the least. She looked around and everyone in their small crowd was equally as shocked, including Dustin himself. Who was this girl?
Max could tell Dustin was about to become flustered again, but before he could make any further attempt to embarrass himself, June's brother was cutting in. "Junie!" he called over to her. "Joyce and Jonathan wanna see your painting."
"Oh, me too!" said Will.
June offered a small smile to the boy next to her. "It's not as good as yours," she admitted humbully, taking one last glance at Will's portraits. "It's this way."
The gala consisted of four rooms that separated artists by grade. Will's piece was in the first, because he was a senior, and everyone followed June, a sophomore, into the third. Dustin, Lucas, and Max trailed behind.
"Who is this girl?" asked Dustin, heart-eyed and lovestruck.
"If you don't ask her out, I will for you," threatened Max.
"Come on, Max. She'd never say yes to me. Especially when I have a terrible wingman who doesn't do anything." He shot said wingman a look. "You're fired, by the way."
Lucas held his hands up in defeat. "I don't know why you're convinced that I'm good at this."
"I dunno, maybe because you and Max have been together since middle school." Relatively recent events were quick to be glossed over and ignored, much to Lucas and Max's contentment.
"That's exactly my point, man. I've only ever tried to flirt with Max, and even then I wasn't good at it."
"But you still got her, didn't you?"
"Stop," Max cut in. "Lucas, I love you but you're a terrible wingman. All four of you guys are." Which was true. Though improvements had been made over the years, the boys were all still pretty clueless when it came to talking to girls that were not Max or El, no matter the situation. "Dustin, I'll take over. Are you ready?"
Taking a deep breath, he rolled his shoulders back and puffed out his chest before nodding.
She began dragging Dustin over to the canvas that the rest of the group now stood in front of. "Just be yourself. Somehow it might to be working so far."
"Thanks, I think."
They stopped in their tracks when they caught sight of the art being awed at. It was a simple, yet large-scale sketch of a full bodied deer in black ink. Washes of earth toned watercolors not only subtly shaded his body and antlers, but burst and splattered and dripped outside of the lines and across the rest of the canvas in gorgeous melts of greens and tans and yellows. Pink flowers of a similar style adored the antlers, which had grown large and wide.
The plaque was mounted to the left: June E. Fletcher, Untitled No. 9
"Holy shit, that's massive," was Dustin's first impression.
"Thank you," they heard June giggle from not too far away. Sure enough when they turned their heads to look, she and her brother were well within earshot. "That was the goal."
"He's life sized," her brother boasted for her as the two inched closer to Dustin and Max.
Dustin's eyes bounced back and forth between June and her painting a few times, clearly impressed by not just it's realistic proportion, but the artistry behind it. "How? How did you do that?"
At that, her brows pulled together skeptically. "You really wanna know?" He nodded, and she studied his face for another moment before looking to her piece. "Um, well it's hard to find canvases this big, so the first thing I had to do was make my own..."
"Oh, of course." Dustin agreed, sarcastically feigning extensive knowledge on the topic. "As one does."
"Of course," she played along, lacing her voice with equal amounts of humor. She giggled and even Max had to admit that it was endearing.
Clearly Dustin realized this, too. He chuckled along with her and looked down to his feet as they shuffled in place like a little kid. God, he already had it bad.
Max could not help but notice June's feet, too. Even in the fancy dress, she wore a beat up pair of black Chuck Taylors, which was a choice the redhead could wholeheartedly appreciate.
June continued on, animatedly describing her creative process; miming through the motions with her hands and frequently glancing back and forth between her piece, for reference, and Dustin, to gauge his reaction. They paused often to laugh at each others jokes, no matter how bad.
Max was right. He was being himself and it was somehow working just fine. She walked away, rejoining Lucas who had migrated over to Will, and Dustin never even noticed she was gone.
"Did he fire you, too?" Lucas asked, slipping an arm around Max's waist.
"No," she told him with a smile in her voice. "He's doing really well on his own, actually."
"Wait," interjected Will. "He really is hitting on Junie?"
Max nodded her confirmation. "Is she from Hawkins?"
"Originally, yeah. Her and her brother moved to Ameswood a few years ago when their mom passed. Which isn't far at all, but for some reason we haven't seen them since."
Max nodded and they all turned to watch Dustin talk so effortlessly to a girl who was probably way too hot for him about a subject he did not entirely care about.
"Do you think he has a shot?" Lucas asked.
Will shrugged, then thought about it for a moment. "Huh... You know what? He actually might..."
Later on that night, they discovered that he definitely did.
Max's earlier threat was serious. Now that the night was coming to an end and Dustin had yet to make any real moves, Max was on a mission. She and Lucas tried to be causal in cornering June at the very last minute. "Hey," they greeted as nonchalantly as they could.
"Hi," she said with a soft smile. If she suspected they were up to something, she did not show any sign of it.
"So, uh… Dustin…" Lucas started uncomfortably, causing a crease to from between June's brows.
"Dustin might die if you don't give him your phone number," Max cut to the chase.
"It doesn't even have to be a real number," added Lucas awkwardly. "Just... spare him."
"Did he send you over to be his wingman or something?" she asked Lucas, voice thick with laughter. "Because that was kinda awful."
Max rolled her eyes in agreement. "That was a whole 'nother conversation. Dustin fired him earlier."
"Sounds entertaining. Sorry I missed it," she told them with a smirk, shrugging into her coat. "Do you have a pen?"
Lucas, always prepared, pulled a pen out of one of the pockets of his jacket. June took it with a thank you before she floated off to find Dustin, who hadn't gone too far.
Lucas and Max could not make out what she was saying as she wrote on the back of his hand, though they could see that she was talking to him. After she was done, she capped the pen and handed it to Dustin before pointing in the direction of his two friends.
When he looked over to them, Lucas waved and Max gave a thumbs up, but the two were met with Dustin's death glare in return.
In fact, he was so busy throwing them a dirty look that he did not even see it coming when June kissed his cheek. She was just about his height, which made it easy. He looked to her when she pulled away, his expression equal parts stunned, confused, and mesmerized. Like he though he might be dreaming. She smiled at him, almost bashfully, before disappearing from the gala with her brother.
As soon as she was gone, Dustin laced his fingers together over the top of his head. He turned to his friends with wide eyes that read, 'Did you see that?!'
"God, he's already got it bad," Lucas mumbled to Max, echoing her earlier thoughts.
The two considered it a job well done, especially since they had barely done anything this time around, which was their first sign of many that Dustin and June were right for each other.
Dustin and the party would come to find that, much like Max and El, June was not typically the skirts and heels type. They would see her in a dress again, but it would not be for another few years.
A/N: Hi, lovelies! For those of you who have read my other stories, you may recognize June Fletcher as a supporting original character from '1985: Resurgence'. It was a pretty unanimous in the review section of that story that June deserved better. So here she is! Her character will be even more minor in this story, but she will be making an appearance from time to time.
To those of you who have read '1985: Resurgence', I wanted to avoid confusion before it starts by quickly mentioning that her background is going to be slightly different. In this story, (INSERT SMALL SPOILER WARNING FOR '1985' AND IT'S SEQUEL) June's character has absolutely nothing to do with Nine, Dr. Owens, or Hawkins Lab. She is not sick. She has never been to, let alone heard of, the Upside Down. That being said, her family life is the same (no parents and scraping by with her brother) as well as her age gap with the party (two years younger). Hopefully this makes sense, but let me know if you have any questions.
ANYWAYS, now that that's out of the way, thank you so, so much to everyone who has followed, favorited, or reviewed. You're support is unbelievably amazing and inspiring. This story would not be what it is without you, and I hope you all continue to enjoy.
carrymehome: Thank you! It was really important to me that I captured that dynamic, so I am so glad you liked it.
iAmCC: Lol! The only difference is that Benny and Bob and Barb are pure souls who did no wrong, were Billy's a deserving asshat.
R13Love: You are so sweet! Thank you so much, I am so happy you're loving it.
Longest. A/N. Ever. (Possibly). 'Kay love you, bye! xx
