"Shannon! Come on, time to get up! I'm gonna make some toast and eggs. I know you want butter, butwhich jam?" I hear Steve ask from outside my room.
"Ugh!" I groan as I sit up, rubbing my eyes tiredly. "Peach!"
"Peach? Shan, come back down to earth! We only have strawberry and blueberry!" He calls to me.
"Why the fuck don't we have peach jam!?" I whine.
"Because you told mom you hated peaches when we were kids, so she probably doesn't think you'dwant it! Hurry up and pick so I can get our food ready!" He huffs.
"Fine! Strawberry!" I exclaim before getting out of bed.
"Thank you!" Steve laughs, which I then hear him running down the stairs. I grab a pair of jeans, one of Steve's old basketball jerseys that I stole when I was still in middle school, and a white long sleeved shirt before heading into my bathroom to take a shower. Once I finish getting ready, I head out to my room and put on a pair of sneakers. I grab my backpack and sling it over my shoulder before heading out of my room.
"Steve, I need help with learning to do athree point turn and parallel park for my driver's test. Mom and Dad won't be home until really late tonight, so I was hoping you'd teach me." I say as I go downstairs.
"Yeah! Yeah, whatever you want. I get out of class a little after you do, so just wait at the front for me." My brother replies as he pushes my plate of food across the table to me. I thank him and we both eat as quickly as we can without choking before heading out the door to his car.
"We're not listening to Metallica." Steve tells me as he starts the engine. I roll my eyes and put my feet up on the dashboard.
"Fine...whatever." I mutter.
"Feet off the dash, Shan." He says as he pulls out of the driveway.
"Either you let me sit like this, or we listen to Metallica." I tell him as I put my sunglasses on. He huffs and shakes his head, dropping the whole argument. I sing along to any song that comes on the radio, annoying Steve the entire way to school.
"Okay, remember...don't do anything I wouldn't do." Steve says as he goes to park the car near the front of Hawkins High. I roll my eyes, having heard this many times before.
"Right, no drugs...but I can make out with a preppy in the bathroom and skip certain classes." I reply, causing him to stutter.
"How did you know I made out with Nancy in the bathroom?" He asks. I scoff and open the door on my side of the car.
"I wanted to use the bathroom last Tuesday, but you two were in there. Pick a different bathroom or, even better, a closet that no one uses." I huff before getting out. Of course I would have known he had a thing for Nancy either way...he never shuts up about her at home. But I would never tell Wren about it since she's had a crush on Steve since middle school. Nor would I tell our friend Madison about it since she really likes Nancy.I don't want either of them to get hurt when they've never liked anyone else.
"Shan!" Robin calls from where she's standing with Madison and Wren, which the two girls in my grade are chaining up their bikes. I hurry over to them, giving each of the girls a hug...even though we literally just saw each other yesterday to see Flashdance at the movie theater. Once a month the four of us go to see a movie without Eddie, needing some girl time. And it was Robin's turn to pick this month.
"A spot opened up for trombone if you want to apply." Robin tells me, which I roll my eyes at her with a huge grin on my face.
"Robin, I love you, but there's no way I'm going to join the school band. I haven't even played trombone since fifth grade because I sucked at it." I remind her as the four of us make our way into the school. She smiles and nods, most likely having already known that I would turn the offer down.
"I stayed over with Wenny and Eddie last night and we had to explain themovie to him without spoiling anything. We suggested that he should go see it, but he doesn't want to go by himself. And since we don't really want to watch it again so soon, we thought that you could go with him." Madison tells me. I scoff and shake my head at her.
"You guys only said no to going because you didn't like the movie as much as Private School from last month's movie night. If you three want to go see that again this weekend, then I'll take Eddie to see Flashdance. It's not that big of a deal." I reply as we get to mine and Wren's lockers. Madison and Robin's lockers are farther down the hallway.
"Are you sure? We can wait to see Private School again when you're able to go." Wren offers, which I shake my head at her as I get out my book for history class.
"No, it's fine. Eddie wants to see Flashdance, so I'lltake him. I mean, Ican watch Private School again when it can berentedfrom the VHS place." I tell her as I put my sunglasses in my locker before closing it. "We were going to hang out this weekend anyway. I might as well take him to see it."
"Take me to see what?" Eddie asks as he pops up behind Robin, causing her to jump a bit.
"Flashdance. The girls were just telling me that you want to see it, so I was thinking we could do a movie marathon sort of day this Saturday. My dad gave me my weekly allowance yesterday, so we can catch as many movies as we want." I tell him as he moves to stand next to me.
"Hey! You said he didn't give it to you so we couldn't pig out on candy and popcorn last night!" Wren complains. Eddie sticks his tongue out at his younger sister playfully.
"She saved it cause I'm her favorite." He brags, causing Wren to roll her eyes at him.
"No shit, Eddie. Kinda not fair since I'm your sister, though." She replies.
"Well, we're stuck with each other forever, you already have the sister title. Besides, I will never let you cut my hair again after you gave me a buzzcut in middle school. I at least know that Shanny won't do that since she's been the one cutting my hair since then." Eddie points out. Wren looks at her brother's hair and cringes a bit.
"Oh, shoot. We have to go get our books. We'll catch up with you guys later." Madison tells us before turning to walk down the hallway with Robin.
"See you in class, MJ." I reply, which she waves at me over her shoulder in response. I turn to look at Wren again, only to see her frowning at my brother as he follows Nancy down the hallway inthe opposite direction that Madison and Robin went.
"Hey...you okay?" I ask, causing her to snap out of her trance.
"Yeah, I'm fine." She mutters before walking away, leaving me at our lockers with her very confused brother.
"What was that about?" Eddie asks, watching with a frown as his little sister disappears into a different hallway. I sigh and cross my arms, trying to keep myself from blowing up about how dumb my brother is.
"I'll tell you about it later. There are too many ears here." I tell him, which he nods and walks beside me as we head towards my first class of the day. I always go to history and math, but I usually skip my other classes in order to spend time with Eddie.
"I have a campaign tonight with Hellfire. Do you want to come along just to watch? I put together this really awesome storyline that I think you'd really enjoy. The guys weren't too happy that I put it together with the intention of entertaining you, but that's their problem." My best friend says as he smiles brightly at me. I want to say no, having never understood the whole idea of Dungeons and Dragons, but he looks so excited about this specific so-called campaign that he made. I've said no hundreds of times, but I just can't bring myself to do it this time since he really wants me to go.
"Okay, I'll tag along to watch. But only because you made the campaign with me in mind. You know I can't turn that down, sorta like how I always show up for your band's shows and such." I reply.
"You know, we could still use a singer." Eddie tells me, giving me his best puppy eyes.
"No way! I'm willing to watch your game tonight, but I am not singing in front of a bunch of people. You and Wennyare enough to get the anxiety flowing through my veins. I'm good with being your band's "mascot", or whatever you guys called me." I huff as we turn down another hallway towards my history class. He laughs and slings an arm across my shoulders.
"Mascots are for lame sport events. You're our band beauty! See, girls show up to our shows because they secretly like us, even thoughthey call us dorks and morons at school. But most of our teenage population shows up to see us play because you're there and it makes them feel like it's cool to do." Eddie tells me.
"If they have to have me there first for them to feel like it's cool, then they're all stupid." I reply as we reach the door to my history class. Eddie shrugs and grins at me before turning serious all of the sudden.
"Does my hair really look okay? This is the third time in the past week that W made that face at me when we were talking about my hair." He says, causing me to frown a bit.
"It looks fine! Sure, I'm not a professional, but it's as close to OzzyOsbourne's hair as I could get with my limited experience. Do you not like it? We can change it tonight if you don't-" I begin, but he cuts me off.
"No, no! I love it! You always do a great job!" He exclaims, which I sigh in relief. "I just wanted to make sure I wasn't just imagining that my hair looked glorious and that could have explained W's weird looks. Maybe she's just jealous that she can't fit in with Ozzyand the crew."
"Why don't you ask her later and find out? I'd be happy to have another client." I laugh before opening the door. Eddie grimaces as my teacher looks at him, remembering when she had my best friend in her class when he was in my grade.
"You should probably go. Mrs. Thompson might strangle you." I say, causing Eddie to laugh.
"Okay, I'll see you later, Shanny." He replies before waving at Mrs. Thompson. I watch as he goes back the way we came, drumming his hands on his thighs for a bit before doing some air guitar. I let out a small laugh before going into the classroom and closing the door behind me.
"Shan!" Madison calls from a desk in the back of the room. I furrow my eyebrows when I see her...but Wren isn't at her usual desk with some kid who's in band with Robin.
"Hey, MJ, where's Wenny?" I ask as I sit beside her.
"I don't know...I thought she was still with you and Eddie." She replies. "Did something happen that could have made her skip?"
"Shit..." I trail off, causing Madison to raise an eyebrow at me. "Steve...Wenny saw Steve and Nancy walking together and she left me and Eddie by our lockers. She came this way, but she could have just done that to psych me out."
"Well, we need to find her." She points out before raising a hand to get Mrs. Thompson's attention.
"Yes, Ms. Riggs?" Our teacher asks.
"I'm having a feminine emergency, and Shannon has some things in her locker for me to use. Can we be excused?" Madison asks. Mrs. Thompson nods and gestures to the door.
"Of course. Just make your way back as soon as you can. First stop is Ms. Harrington's locker and then the bathroom. You two come right back when you're done, understood?" She asks.
"Yes, ma'am. Thank you." I reply before standing up and leading Madison out of the classroom.
"Okay! Okay, where do we go first? I don't know any of Wenny's class skipping destinations." Madison says as she follows me down the hallway.
"There are three main targets. The vending machines in the hallway outside of math and biology, underneath the bleachers in the gym where the smoke detectors can't rat her out, or the back closet of the cafeteria so she can drink all of the chocolate milk." I tell her.
"That's why there's been no fucking chocolate milk?" Madison complains. "Damnit, Wenny."
"Chocolate milk isn't the problem here." I remind her.
"Yeah, I'm upset about Steve and Nancy too, obviously. But, you know what would make me feel better? A carton of chocolate milk." Madison huffs. I roll my eyes as we get about halfway towards the hallway with the vending machines.
"I swear, I'm going to drown you both in chocolate milk if you guys don't stop making me hunt you down twice a week because of my asshole brother and Nancy. You know what? I will personally shove a stick up his ass if that will make you guys hap-" I begin, but stop as we turn into the next hallway to see Wren sitting on the floor eating a snickers bar.
"Wenny!" Madison and I exclaim before running towards her.
"What the hell are you two doing?" She cries as we nearly crush the candy bar into her chest as we hug her. Madison and I pull back from her to see the annoyed look on Wren's face.
"Why weren't you in class? We were worried about you." Madison says with a frown.
"I wanted a chocolate bar. Is that illegal now or something?" Wren huffs. I roll my eyes at her playfully.
"You can't just ditch me and Eddie like that after getting upset about seeing Steve and Nancy. I thought you went to class, that's why we came looking for you. Seriously, have we not watched enough of the true crime hour on the news channel with you? There are crazy, sick people in this world." I scold her.
"Like Ted Bundy." Madison says, doing her best to back me up.
"Yeah! Like Ted Bundy." I agree, pausing for a moment before looking at Madison again. "Okay, but you have to admit he was attractive. I mean, that's what lore in all of those women."
"Oh, shut up! You only think he's attractive cause he looks like Eddie if he were a typical man from the seventies." Madison tells me. My jaw drops and I go to argue with her, but Wren beats me to it.
"Okay, one, ew! That's my fucking brother! And, two, Shan has a weird taste in men, so you shouldn't be surprised." She says before finishing her snickers bar.
"Seriously, I hate both of you."
"No you don't! You love us!"
"You are a terrible liar, Shan. Absolutely terrible."