Mike is having Will over to play, and mom left her in charge because dad's on a work trip and she had to go take Nana to the DMV, and because she's ten and a big girl now. It's pretty cool that she gets to be in charge, pretty grown up. Plus mom said she'll even pay her a couple of bucks for it. That's easy money, because the six year olds are really pretty easy, they just sit in the basement and play games and read comic books, and drawing and writing something together for the most part.
So besides making them a snack a while ago she's really mostly getting paid to read her Nancy Drew books and now to practice her ballet moves in front of the mirror in the hallway.
"Nancy! Uh… help!"
Mike's shout from the basement cuts her off right in the middle of an assemblé. She bounds down the stairs to see what the dingus is up to now. She finds Mike and Will standing by the coffee table, holding hands, looking up at her in distress. That's odd.
"What is it?"
"We superglued our hands together," Mike informs her.
"What?! Why did you do that?!"
"We didn't mean to! It was an accident! We were putting the airplane back together but then we had to have a thumb war to decide who'd be first pilot when we flew it later and now we're stuck!"
"Jesus Mike you're such a doofus! How can you even- where did you even get superglue?"
"From dad's fixing stuff box because we had to fix the plane!"
"You're not allowed in there! Why didn't you ask me?"
"I told you we should've," Will mumbles.
"I thought we could do it ourselves!" Mike protests.
"Well can't you just, I don't know, pull apart?"
"We've already tried that!"
"Well try now, I'll hold you steady. Will, you pull," she instructs and wraps her arms firmly around Mike.
"Ow! Ow! My finger's going to come off!" Mike yelps when Will pulls.
"No it won't," she insists but Will stops pulling.
"It's not working," Will laments.
"Yeah. Hm. Oh! I know!" She exclaims when the lightbulb goes off above her. She hurries up the stairs.
"No! Are you crazy?!" Mike calls out, petrified, when she returns from the kitchen with a knife. Will's eyes bulges out.
"Relax, I'm just going to wiggle the blade in between and pry you apart. Just hold still and I won't cut you."
"No way! Run Will!" Mike shouts and the boys dart around the coffee table to get away from her.
"Hey! I'm trying to help you knuckleheads! Now come here we gotta fix this before mom gets home or she'll throw a fit."
"You're not cutting us apart!"
"I won't cut you, I'll just pry-"
The doorbell interrupts her. She glances at the clock on the wall.
"Who's picking you up Will?"
"Jonathan."
"Oh, good," she breathes a sigh of relief that it's not Mrs. Byers because she'd definitely be upset about this and tell her mom. Jonathan might be able to help, and he won't tattle.
She bounds up the stairs again and swings the door open.
"H-hey Nancy, I'm supposed to pick up Will," Jonathan mumbles while looking more down at his own shoes than at her.
She's not quite sure why he does that. She knows the mean kids at school like Steve and Tommy make fun of him and he doesn't really play with the other boys, but she's always thought he was nice. He's not gross and loud like the other boys in her class, and he's always nice when he comes over to pick up Will.
"Hi Jonathan thank god! Come in quick."
Jonathan looks up at her surprised by her urgent greeting but quickly steps inside.
"W-what's going on? Why do you have that?" He gestures to the knife in her hand and furrows his brow.
"Oh! Well-"
"We accidentally got superglued together and Nancy was going to cut off our fingers! You have to help us Jonathan!" Mike suddenly cries out, having climbed up the stairs with Will.
"I wasn't going to cut off your fingers idiot!" She protests and turns to Jonathan who's eyebrows have shot up into his forehead now. "I wasn't! But do you have any idea how to get superglue off? They can't be like this when our mom gets home or she'll blow her lid and I won't get paid!"
"You're getting paid for this?!" Mike sounds astounded.
"Yes because no one would willingly stay home with you for free!" She throws back at him and sticks her tongue out.
"Nail polish remover," Jonathan cuts in.
"What?"
"Do you have nail polish remover? I think that's what mom used a few years ago when dad broke a bowl and put it back together all wrong so mom had to get glue off and do it over again. She let me help."
"Oh! Yes, I have that, come on!"
She runs upstairs to her room, gesturing for the boys to follow her. She can hear Jonathan questioning Mike and Will on how they managed to get themselves into this situation, sounding just as bewildered as she was.
Rifling through her vanity she finds the nail polish remover mom gave her with her first nail polish. Turning around she finds Mike and Will parked on her bed and Jonathan standing on the threshold shyly looking around her room. She realizes he's the first boy to ever be in her room, with the exception of Mike and Will but they don't count.
"You can come in," she tells him with a small smile.
"Right."
"Okay, you better hold their hands still while I do this, Mike is so twitchy," She explains while opening the remover.
"Right," Jonathan nods again and steps over to the bed.
"I'm not twitchy!" Mike protests.
"Yes you are, now shut your piehole."
While Jonathan holds Mike's and Will's hands steady she carefully applies the nail polish remover. It's not long before it takes effect.
"It's working! You're a genius!" She exclaims, looking at Jonathan. He blushes and looks down at her comforter.
"Thank God!" Mike and Will chorus.
"Mmmhm. Not a peep about this to mom or any adult really. And what do you say?" She prompts while putting away the nail polish remover.
"Thank you Nancy," Will immediately says and Mike mumbles the same a second later.
"And?"
"Thanks Jonathan," the boys continues.
"No problem. But uh, can you get your things Will? Mom wants us home before dinner."
They all head downstairs again. While Mike and Will go down to the basement to get Will's stuff she waits in the hallway with Jonathan.
"Thanks, you really saved my butt. You're smart," she tells him.
"I don't know, no problem," he shrugs.
Mike and Will comes up again so she wraps it up.
"Well, you are. I'll see you at school!"
"Y-yeah, see you."
Barb helps her look for him during first recess. She meant to find him after class but lost track of him.
"Over there," Barb says and points.
"Awesome."
With Barb in tow she makes a beeline straight across the schoolyard, past the rowdy boys throwing a ball around and tackling each other, past Carol and her friends blowing bubblegum and looking snooty at her, all the way over to the far corner where Jonathan is by himself. He's holding his ever-present camera, taking photos of the big leafy tree there.
"Hi Jonathan!" She greets.
He turns around, surprised.
"H-hey Nancy," she answers and nods to Barb who gives him a wave.
"You taking pictures?"
"Y-yeah. I like the tree."
"I like it too, I climbed up almost to the top last year!"
"Wow…"
"Hey, I have something for you. Do you like Twizzlers?"
"Y-yes, they're my favorite."
"Really? Mine too! My mom paid me three dollars for babysitting and I spent it all on Twizzlers! I thought since you're the reason I didn't get screwed we should share," she explains, pulling out the candy from her coat pocket.
"Y-you don't have to do that-"
"I want to," she insists and hands him one.
"Thank you," he tells her and gives her a small smile.
She smiles back and takes one herself.
"Don't you want some?" Jonathan asks Barb.
"No thanks, I don't like Twizzlers," Barb shakes her head.
"Weird, right?" She points her Twizzler at Barb and looks at Jonathan. Barb rolls her eyes at her and pushes her Twizzler hand away. But Jonathan definitely did give her a little nod and a smile in response.
"I'm going to go get Anne of Green Gables back from Ally," Barb then announces.
"Okay, see you in class," she tells her before turning back to Jonathan. "Hey, let's climb up and have the rest up there," she then suggests, pointing at the tree.
"Okay," Jonathan simply answers.
She climbs high up in the tree, to the really thick branch she discovered you can sit on and get a nice view. Jonathan follows her.
"Look, you can see the whole schoolyard and then some from here."
"Yeah…"
Jonathan instinctively reaches for the camera slung around his neck but then halts, catching himself. He doesn't want to let go of the branch with both hands, she realizes.
"Wait, I'll hold you steady, then you can take a picture!"
"Oh, o-okay."
She reaches out with her left hand and grabs a firm hold of Jonathan's shoulder and scuffed jacket. He raises the camera to his face, adjusts and then snaps a photograph of the schoolyard.
"Thanks," he tells her as he lowers the camera. When he's holding onto the branch again she lets go of him.
"You're welcome. I bet that picture will look cool. You'll have to show me."
"O-okay."
"Your camera is real nice."
"Thanks. My mom gave it to me for my birthday."
"That's cool. Taking pictures seems really fun."
"It is, I think."
"Is it your favorite thing in the world?"
"Yeah. W-what's your favorite thing in the world?"
"Ballet. And Twizzlers," she adds with a smile and offers him another. Jonathan smiles at her and takes it, then she takes one for herself.
She ends up spending the whole recess sitting in a tree with Jonathan Byers. Sharing Twizzlers and talking. Giggling about what stupidheads the other boys are and what doofuses their little brothers are.
A few days later when he comes by to pick up Will again he gives her the photo taken from the tree. It's really pretty, which she tells him. He blushes but gives her a little smile.
Seven years later she tells him that again when they one evening finds the photo again as, in between makeout sessions, he helps her go through her stuff on the hunt for items she can part with for the upcoming garage sale her mother's gotten very invested in. He reacts the exact same way.
