Ok, so this is my first attempt at writing a Stranger Things fanfic. It takes place in season 1 but in a bit of a different way welcoming new character Lacey Henderson – Dustin's older sister.

A Never Ending Story

Chapter 1

It was the last day of school and Lacey & Dustin Henderson were running late.

"Shit" Lacey heard her brother curse, this had woken herself up.

"Dustin, you ok?" She called but then she looked at the alarm clock on her bedside table and it was flashing 00:00. "Shit" she heard herself say.

"Its 8:30, we're going to be so late." Dustin cried and Lacey jumped out of bed. "Ok no time to shower, just throw on some clothes, brush teeth and we'll be there on time, no bike Dustin, I'll drive, it'll be quicker." Dustin groaned but headed into the bathroom anyway.

15 minutes later they were headed out the door. Their mom had also overslept and when she'd heard them rummaging around she woke up. "Here." She handed them 10 dollars each. "Love you." They both called out to her and rushed out the door.

"The power must've gone out last night." Dustin exclaimed and Lacey agreed. "Maybe we won't be the only ones who are late." She claimed and as they pulled up to the school she saw Will Byers getting out of his brother, Jonathan's car, pulling his bike with him.

"There's Will!" Dustin said and threw his bag over his shoulder. "Bye, I'll see you later, do you want a ride?" Lacey asked him and he shook his "I'll see you at home. Thanks." He ran over to Will and the two walked over to the bike rack to store Wills bike. Dustin should have probably bought his too but Lacey shrugged to herself and drove on over to Hawkins High School.

She parked her car and checked her watch, she was 6 minutes late. Jonathan parked his car right next to hers and once they had both organized themselves they walked towards the school together. "No alarm?" Jonathan asked and Lacey nodded. "Thank god it's the last day!" Lacey exclaimed, pushing the school door open and entering the quiet halls. "See you around." Jonathan said before disappearing down the hall.

Lacey walked over to her locker and grabbed her books for first and second period and headed to Math. She entered the class and everyone looked up at her. "Sorry, I'm late." She said to Mrs. Kingsley and continued towards her desk. "No problem Ms Henderson, take a seat." She knew she would get away with being late because it was the last day of school and she didn't make a habit out of it.

She sat down next to her best friend Nancy Wheeler who looked over at her and then leaned in to whisper, "You look like hell." "Gee, thanks Nance." Lacey responded and Nancy chuckled.

Nancy Wheeler and Lacey Henderson had been best friends forever. Nancy had then become friends with Barb and now they were all great friends.

"Wild night with Steve?" Nancy joked and she rolled her eyes.

Steve Harrington. Lacey's forever boyfriend. To be honest Lacey hadn't hung around Steve in a while because she was tired of his attitude when he was around Tommy and Carol and he was around them a lot. He had become a real douchebag and she kept making up excuses every time Steve invited her over, she knew it was time for them to have a talk but she couldn't really bring herself to it.

When Math was over Nancy and Lacey walked towards English. "Are you and Steve ok?" Nancy had asked the burning question. Lacey nodded but didn't say anything further. She didn't want to talk about it because once she spoke about it, it would mean that everything she was thinking was true.

When the first few lessons in the morning were done Lacey met Nancy and Barb outside the cafeteria. Once they'd organized their lunch they made their way to the lunch table they usually occupied with Steve, Carol and Tommy.

"Hey Lace." Carol said before anyone had sat down. "You look like shit." She added and Tommy laughed. Steve looked up at Lacey and gave her a

small smile. She sat down next to him and he leaned in for a kiss but Lacey gave him her cheek instead. "Where were you this morning?" He asked curiously. "Late." She responded harshly, annoyed at Carol's comment. "So is everyone excited for summer vacation?" Nancy asked, breaking the tension between everyone.

When the bell rang signalling the end of lunch Steve took Lacey's hand and walked her out of the cafeteria and into a quieter place where he turned back to look at her.

"Are we ok?" He asked, point blank.

Lacey stared at Steve blankly and sighed. "I can't talk now Steve, I'm going to be late." She said to him and pushed past, she heard him call out to her and say "There's always something…" She shook her head to herself and hoped he hadn't seen it.

The bell rang. It was the end of the day. Finally!

Nancy met Lacey outside the school and they walked towards the parking lot. Everyone was in high spirits and Lacey heard someone talking about a party that Tammy Thompson was having that night.

Barb was waiting for Nancy at her car and she asked them if they were going to the party.

"Do you guys want to go?" Nancy had asked the two girls who looked at each other and shrugged. At that moment Steve, Tommy and Carol joined the three. Barb rolled her eyes and opened her car door.

Steve just wanted to see Lacey and see if she was in a better mood than before. "So can I pick you up for Tammy's party?" He asked Lacey quietly, not letting Carol or Tommy hear. He took her hand in his and begged her with his brown puppy dog eyes. "We can have some fun?" He asked and Lacey looked at her friends. "We'll see you guys there." Nancy called out with a nod and climbed into the passenger seat of Barb's car. The two drove off, and left Lacey alone to deal with Steve.

"Steve come on, let's get out of here." Tommy moaned. The parking lot was almost empty now. "Hang on a minute." Steve said, sounding annoyed. Tommy and Carol got into Steve's car. Once alone, Lacey's attitude towards Steve changed. She gave him a hug and a quick peck and agreed to go the party with him, as long as Tommy and Carol found their own way there.

Steve had agreed, he kissed her this time, a bit longer than the kiss she'd given him and then proceeded to open her car door for her. Lacey got into her car and before Steve closed the door he'd said "I'll pick you up at 8." Lacey nodded and started her car. Steve walked back to his car but turned around to watch her drive off, maybe they were going to be ok after all.

When Lacey got home Dustin was sitting in the living room with their mom and Will Byers. Will had obviously lifted Dustin home. "Welcome to summer sis." Dustin greeted her as she walked in and smiled. "Hey Guys." She said to them all and ruffled Dustin's hair, he did not approve with the look he gave her when she was done. "What are your plans for tonight?" She asked them all and Will Byers spoke first. "We're going over to Mike's house to play Dungeons and Dragons." "I'm going to be dozing on this couch." Claudia Henderson nodded and Lacey laughed. "And you?" Claudia added. "Steve's fetching me for a date…" She half lied, She couldn't tell her mom she was going to an unsupervised teenage party, she would never let her go.

"Remember, curfews…" Claudia said looking at both of her children. "Mom, it's the first night of summer, could we possibly push curfew a little?" Dustin whined and Lacey nodded in agreement. Claudia sighed, "Ok, we'll push it to 11:30-12:00 for you Lace, Dustin yours will be 10:00." She ended and Dustin high fived Will.

Lacey had gotten dressed and was now waiting for Steve to arrive. Lacey's dark hair was in curls flowing down her back. Her outfit included dark jeans, a white lace top and a leather jacket with converse shoes. She sat on the couch next to her mom and looked at her watch, it was eight o clock, where was he? She half expected him to be early.

At half past eight she started to get annoyed. She got up and took the telephone off the wall and dialed Steve's house number and when no one answered she hung up and dialed the Wheelers. Karen Wheeler answered after the second ring.

"Karen, Hello?" She asked into the phone.

"Hey Mrs Wheeler, it's Lacey." She said into the receiver.

"Hey Lace, Nancy just left with Barbara, they said they were meeting you at the diner?" Karen said into the phone and Lacey nodded to herself. "Sure, thanks Mrs Wheeler." Lacey hung up the phone abruptly and realized that she'd been rude but she'd had enough. She looked at her watch and it was now 20:45 so she decided to drive herself to the party.

"What's going on?" Her mom asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm going to drive myself." She stated and grabbed her keys and bag. "I'll be home a lot earlier though." She added and stormed out the door.

When Lacey arrived at the party she saw Steve's car in the driveway. Asshole she thought to herself before slamming the door as she got out. She stormed into the house not knowing what to do with herself, half of the crowd was chanting Steve's name (he was obviously doing the keg stand) and the other half were standing around watching or mingling.

She found Nancy and Barb who saw her first and immediately asked what was wrong because they'd seen her look around for Steve. "Steve said to us that you decided not to come?" Nancy advised and that made her blood boil even more.

The basketball team had held Steve up while he was doing the keg stand and were now just letting him down. He laughed and received some high fives before stumbling over to the table nearest to Lacey, Nancy and Barb. He still hadn't noticed Lacey was there. "How drunk is he?" She asked the girls and they shrugged, "He's done two of those since we've been here and we found him here." Barb answered truthfully. Carol and Tommy huddled around Steve and Carol had some other girl there with them. She saw Steve put his arm around her and she cursed. "Fuck this shit." "Lacey?" Nancy called after her in panic as she saw her friend spiral out of control.

"Oh shit…" Carol said finally noticing Lacey storming up to them making a beeline for Steve.

"Hey Lacey!" Tommy exclaimed loudly after noticing Lacey too, Steve looked up and immediately took his arm off the girl next to him.

"Lacey…" Steve slurred a little but seemed happy to see her. "I thought you weren't coming?" He asked confused, "So that makes this ok?" She asked him, anger seeping through her words, gesturing to the girl that was still standing next to him who looked even more confused

"Who told you I wasn't coming? I've been waiting for you to come fetch me?" She continued and looked over at Carol and Tommy who were giggling about something. Steve looked over at them too and Lacey realized they were the ones who'd told him

Tears were now starting to form in her eyes, she could not cry in front of them.

"Come on Lacey, we're all just having fun." Tommy moaned, "Don't spoil it for us now." With that Lacey found her body facing Tommy, unable to control her hand, the sound that her hand made when hitting his cheek caused a few people to look over at the drama unfolding. Lacey was spiraling and she hadn't even had anything to drink. It was all the built up emotion over Steve that had her acting this way. Lacey noticed that Carol was about to lunge for her, Steve saw this too and threw himself in front of Carol who slapped Steve in the face instead. "Bitch!" Carol yelled after Lacey who was now running for the door. She needed to get out of there before anything else happened. Nancy and Barbara couldn't get nearer enough to Lacey to help her after the crowd had piled in. On her way out she saw a half a bottle of Vodka that she grabbed before running to her car. Her hands were shaking as she reached her car so she couldn't get her key in the door quick enough. "LACEY?" Steve yelled, running towards her. She climbed in her car before he reached her but couldn't start it and she didn't have enough time to lock it. He banged on her window before going over to the passenger side and getting in. He noticed the bottle of vodka in her hands. She burst into tears but didn't look at Steve who was sitting their quietly. "Get out of my car Steve." She said slowly but Steve refused. "We have to talk about what just happened." Lacey shook her head and took a sip of the vodka, she pulled a face as the alcohol burned her throat.

"Lacey please talk to me?" Steve pleaded. Lacey now looked over at Steve who gulped when he saw the look on her face, it was either pure hatred or pure disappointment or both but he didn't like it. "I'm done…" She paused and Steve kept quiet. "We're done." She continued and Steve looked like he was about to retort but Lacey put her finger up to show him she was still talking. "Get out of my car and leave me alone Steve." She ended. Steve didn't know what to say so he followed her orders and once he was out the car she turned on the ignition and drove off. Once she was at home (she'd hid the bottle of vodka in her handbag so she could drown her sorrows when she was alone in her room) she entered the house. Her mom was still sitting on the couch when Lacey arrived and looked up to see Lacey trying to sneak up to her room. "You're home early?" Her mom questioned and Lacey nodded but didn't say anything else. It was reaching half past ten so it wasn't that early. Lacey felt tears fill her eyes again but avoided looking at her mom. "I'm tired so I'll be in my room if you need anything." And with that Lacey walked up to her room putting that night behind her.

The phone rang early that morning and it woke Lacey up to a terrible headache. She got up and rubbed her temples. Dustin was already downstairs when she joined the both of them, he was standing next to their mom who was now talking to Joyce Byers. Apparently Will hadn't gone home that night and she'd called the rest of the parents asking if he was there and he wasn't which was bringing her to a panic. "Hold on Joyce, have you looked everywhere?" Claudia asked and Joyce had said something which made her nod. "Ok don't worry we'll help you look for him." Claudia ended the call and looked at her children. "Will didn't go home last night and Joyce fears the worst." Dustin looked worried sick and Lacey couldn't help but feel sorry for her only brother.