Here's chapter five, hope you enjoy! I do not own Stranger Things

Petal

The date had ended with a sweet kiss in the front of his van before he dropped her off. She hadn't wanted to leave but she also wanted to check on Faramir. She'd felt like she was floating as she entered the house, holding her roses in her backpack gingerly. When she got to her bedroom she put them in a glass of water on her bedside table and greeted the slightly irritated kitten in her bedroom. As she settled down for the night she found herself playing with the petals from her place on the bed, their very soft pink color so unlike Eddie...she imagined him in the grocery store buying them and getting odd looks from the cashier...tall intimidating metalhead...buying delicate pink roses. The thought made her giggle to herself. Later that night her aunt had come in the room and commented on them "Oh, I got them from a boy I'm tutoring. His mother grows them" She said trying not to think of her new beau as she did. Her aunt had accepted her answer but had commented that it was a strange form of payment.

"His family can't really afford much, so I said I would accept little things like that." She shrugs. Her aunt pinches her cheek like you would a small child "Such a good girl" Petal grimaced at the memory. She soon laid down, Faramir once more curled at her feet and fell asleep to dreams of a metalhead with a heart melting smile.

Sunday morning came and woke her rudely with the sun in her eyes. She covered her head with the covers, rings from her dreams still swimming beneath her eyelids. "Petal! Wake up!" Came the shrill voice of her aunt and she groaned. She hated Sunday mornings here. Sunday mornings back home had been sleepy and lazy, the hazy smell of pancakes wafting down the hallway to her room. She sat up and stretched, earning a glare from the kitten she'd jolted with her movement. "Sorry" She mumbled, running her fingers gingerly through his fur before getting up and finding her church clothes her Aunt had insisted upon. She pulled on the dark blue dress and white cardigan, braiding her hair quickly as she could hear her Uncle cajoling Jason out of bed next door. Church was a family affair, or so they said. It was more for Jason to show off his letterman jacket, her aunt to show off her lovely new pearls or purse, her uncle to show off the fancy company car, and to show off their "fixed" niece. She tiredly brushed her teeth, knowing that soon her aunt would be back at the door to make sure she was up. Once she had on shoes she grabbed her purse and picked up Faramir off the bed, him whining softly at being moved. As she descended the stairs she could hear arguing in the kitchen "Don't Bonnie, it's not like we can stop him. All he's got is time."

She stopped dead on the stairs and listened harder "I'm tired of getting dirty looks from the mailman Eugene! Getting letters from a prison! It's awful."

"I'm sure he'll stop soon, he's not gotten any letters since she got here." Her uncle sounded tired as he spoke, Petal couldn't hear what was said next as Jason creaked down the stairs behind her. "Move."

"Sorry." She mumbled, finishing her path down the stairs and walking into the kitchen.

"Good morning!" Her aunt grinned, almost a cheshire grin in fact.

"Have I gotten anything from Dad?" She asks quietly, not wanting to call out what she'd overheard. She could feel all eyes on her, Faramir tensing in her arms as though he could sense it too.

"I'm sorry lamb, no" Her aunt Bonnie gives her the most plainly imitated look of sympathy and pulled her in for a hug. "But it's no matter dear, you have your family here with you." She grimaced into the overly floral scented dress her aunt wore but said nothing else. She held back tears as she fed Faramir, the rest of the household getting into her Uncle's car. She sniffed and went to throw away the now empty can of tuna, only to find that there was an envelope sticking out of the trash. She bites her lip and pulls it out and looks at the senders name Charles Carver her breath hitches, she throws the can away and gingerly pulls the letter out of the envelope before shoving it back in the trash. She slips the letter inside her purse just as the front door opens. "Move it Petal!" Jason's voice hollers through the house. She zips her purse closed and goes to get into the car. The letter hung over her head for the entirety of the service, not paying a bit of attention to the pastor. When church ended she wanted to sprint for the car but knew her Aunt and Uncle would be staying after for a while to socialize. She found herself sitting at a table, tapping her leg nervously and waiting for them to finish talking to the other stuck up parents of the town. She soon began to focus on her shoes, zoning out as the minutes ticked by like hours.

Finally the conversations seemed to end, the families began to gravitate to their cars with the promise of lunch when she heard it. A very soft laugh that sounded as though it was just over her shoulder. She whirled around, scanning the room and she heard it again. She started walking down the hall of the church towards the back entrance. "Hey gorgeous" the voice was low and sultry. She turned to look behind her and only caught his eyes. Bright blue. Then he was gone. She whirled around again, looking for someone, anyone but the area was abandoned.

"What the hell are you doing?" She turns and finds Jason staring at her. "Did you hear that?" She asks still bewildered

"Hear what?" He asks, his tone dripping with annoyance

"I...someone said hey...I thought" She bites her lip "I must have imagined it"

"Yeah now let's go. I'm fucking starving" He mutters, leading her back to his parents' car where they were sat in the front waiting on them. The whole ride home she was chewing her lip, wondering if she'd really just imagined it...

That Afternoon

Petal had gratefully changed out of her stuffy church clothes and grabbed a turkey sandwich for lunch, locking her bedroom door behind her to enjoy her sandwich and finally read through the letter from her father. She pulled it from her purse quietly, as though afraid her aunt was hiding in the closet to catch her in the act. She flipped the paper open and began to read the smooth handwriting she'd known so well.

Petal,

I don't know if you're getting my letters anymore kiddo. I'll still write just in case you are though, things have been going better. The food is still crap and the jailhouse ink is still pissing me off to no end but they've got a decent book collection. It's all that's kept me sane I think; that and writing to you. I hope that your Aunt and Uncle aren't being too bad about your ink still. I hope that your last year of school is going ok. Beat those assholes off with a stick if you need to honey, I worry about you. But if I can trust anyone to kick some ass it's my little girl. I miss you Petal. I'm proud of you. And I hope you got this.

Love,

Dad

She could feel the tears falling down her face, it sounded defeated. Like he'd written her a hundred letters just like this, never knowing how she was. How she was being treated. She sniffled and folded the letter back up, sliding it into her backpack and inside one of the textbooks. She sighs and buries her face into her pillow, missing her father more than ever. She felt lonely in this moment, not feeling the eyes of Faramir on her as she fell into an uneasy nap.

Monday

Petal was struggling to get to class this morning, she'd woken up late and had only made it to school just as the bell had rung. Her head was a jumbled mess of all her worries and all she had to do for the day. She was finally approaching her class when she heard it again. The soft but sultry laugh that echoed through her head. She whipped her head around, seeing no one. "I'm going fucking nuts" She whispers as she enters the room. It seemed that they would be working in pairs in her english class this morning as everyone seemed to be paired up. "It's nice of you to join us Ms. Carter, you can work with Robin for this project" She said pointing to the girl she'd seen at Family Video. Petal quickly took her seat and gave a grimace of apology to her new partner as the teacher continued her introduction to the project. They'd be reading Frankenstein and analyzing a character of their choosing. Robin had been kind and caught her up on the directions she'd missed.

"Sorry I was late, I've had a rough morning" She says quietly. "I don't know why, I slept like a rock..."

"Don't worry about it." Robin smiles, handing her a copy of the book "Have you read this before?"

"No, but I've seen the 1931 movie like 6 times" She laughs. "If it's ok, I think I need a couple days to get through it before we start writing our paper about it."

"Same here, I don't feel like reading it all in one go." They make plans to meet at the library on Thursday to start analyzing a character and part ways with a simple wave. Petal meandered through her day, feeling like she'd gotten caught in a net of brain fog. The end of the day comes slowly but when it finally arrives she rushes to her locker to gather her things. She starts to put in her combination when a voice startles her.

"Hey beautiful" Came a whisper in her ear as a leather covered arm slithered around her waist. "Have a good day?" Eddie asks in her ear as she relaxes her tensed muscles. "It's been ok, not great. I was late this morning...I guess it just put me into a funk." She shrugs and looks over at him "How about yours?"

"Not too bad...Mrs. Cunningham is riding my ass over missing homework" He chuckles slightly "I also didn't get to see my pretty date from Saturday at lunch."

"Really? What's her name?" She giggles as she continues opening up her locker. She feels his lips meet her neck gently and a shiver goes through her. The brain fog began to melt away the closer he was to her. "Not nice Petal, seriously though, why'd you miss lunch?"

"I had to catch up on some work in the library and I just lost track of time" She shrugs again, pulling her backpack and a few textbooks out of her locker "You free to hang out tonight?" He asks, resting his chin on the top of her head. She smirks "Sure, but don't you have homework?"

"Yeah but-"

"If I come over you're doing your homework Eddie, I won't have a bad grade blamed on me being distracting." She turns in his arms and presses a hand gently to his chest "It's important to me" She bats her eyelashes for good measure andhe chuckles "Ever the little princess, fine. I'll do my homework." He leans down and joins their lips softly for a moment, the rest of the world falling away until he pulled back. "I'm giving the boys a ride home, you don't mind do you?"

"Of course not, I like the boys, they're sweet" She grins

"Won't they just love that description. Eddie rolls his eyes playfully and throws an arm around her waist, steering her out of the school and to the van where Dustin, Mike, and Lucas were all waiting.

A new normal soon set in for Petal; Mondays were always for Eddie and some homework, she knew it irritated him to have to do his homework before she would even think of doing anything fun but she'd slowly begun to see his progress improving. She saw some papers that used to have large red D's quickly turning to C's and even one or two B's. Every thursday she spent in the library with Robin, usually working on their english homework.

"It's kind of boring if we do Frankenstein himself don't you think?" Robin had yawned at their first session.

"The monster then?"

"No one else really worth going in depth with..."

"Well it's obvious that he's still dangerous...dead things should stay dead." Petal shrugged pushing the book into the middle of the table. Robin was slowly writing down her words "But he's not like the real monster here...he didn't ask to be sewn together...he didn't...he was just alone. Victor Frankenstein didn't stop to think about if he should...only if he could do it." They sat and worked off that thought for a while; soon changing the subject to her job.

"He's just such an awful flirt! He could have girls falling all over him if he just thought before he spoke!" Robin cackled at the expense of her coworker. "When we first started working together I used to keep score on a whiteboard of how much he got shot down!"

"Are you serious? It was that bad?" Petal giggled, thinking back to the clerk at the video store. "Oh god yeah, but maybe it was partly the sailor suit that got him turned down." She chuckles, relenting ever so slightly on her friend. "He is great though, once he finds a girl with an actual brain to go out with I think he'll settle down." Sh sighs and spies a look at the clock on the wall "Shit I gotta go...do you want to do this again some time?" She asks suddenly but mere seconds later she looks unsure of her own question.

"Yeah, I'd love to. We could rent a bad movie or go shopping or something" Robin quickly agrees and sets off with a smile on her face.

The two girls had gotten pretty close as the weeks had dragged on. It wasn't long before hanging out with Robin became hanging out with Robin and Steve who she discovered could make her laugh harder than anyone she'd ever met. Although not everyone loved their new friendship triad, Eddie had been less than enthused when she told him she couldn't come over Saturday night because Steve had invited her and Robin over.

"Wait Harrington?" Eddie had asked, doing a double take at her when she'd answered; eyes still focused on her book. She put it down and looked at him, not able to ignore the stares from the rest of the Hellfire club. "Yeah, Steve and Robin got their hands on a copy of Night of the Living Dead. So we're going to have a movie night at Robin's." She looks at his confused expression with a little concern but turns back to her lunch.

"Harrington's going to be there? Since when?"

"I've been hanging out with Robin and Steve for a while Eddie. Why does Steve matter?" her voice now has the slightest edge to it. She feels Dustin stiffen a little beside her and Gareth is grimacing, his eyes focused on his lunch. Eddie chuckles but there's no humor in the sound. "He's not exactly a pillar of chivalry princess."

She feels her cheeks go a little red "What are you trying to say?" Mike gets up, mumbling something about forgetting something in his locker. Eddie looks her up and down "I'm not the only one who thinks you're hot baby"

"Steve isn't trying to sleep with me if that's what you're getting at Eddie." He shakes his head slightly, rolling his eyes. "Sure sweetheart."

She goes a little more red "Well I'm not going to and that's all that should matter." She picks up her book defiantly and starts to try and read again although she took in none of the words that she read as her head was now swimming in anger. Eddie seemed to drop the argument but he seemed cold to her for the rest of the day.

She'd continued to spend time with Robin and Steve much to the chagrin of her boyfriend, but no real tiffs had happened until they had almost reached her second favorite holiday; Halloween.