Okay, 50 E 23st Street. This is the place. Took her a while to find even with her map and Barb's directions earlier. Be brave, she mumbles to herself and reminds herself of Barb's words as she left her apartment earlier: You look super cool, you're awesome, just go in there and knock their socks off, you will nail this. Barb has much more faith in her than she has herself but she tries to hold on to that. She fixes her leather jacket, takes a deep breath and rings the buzzer. She runs through about a thousand different variations of "Hey I'm here for the audition" before she realizes no one answered the buzzer. Oh. Looking through the glass door she sees the lights are on inside but the reception seems empty. She tries the door and finds it unlocked and walks inside.

The reception area is indeed empty, and seems kind of deserted, it's small and just consists of some worn down old chairs and old posters on the walls. There's music coming from down the hall though. She follows the noise. She knocks on the door to the room the music is coming from but there's no answer. Another deep breath and she opens it.

"Hey, I'm here for the audition…"

The bassist with the big hair and the short guitarist had their backs turned to the door. They turn to look at her and freeze. She freezes too. That's two familiar faces she absolutely did not expect to see here.

"Nancy Wheeler?!"

It's the drummer who first says something though, and she looks over to him and finds another familiar face. Jonathan Byers. She hasn't seen him in forever. She did not expect to see him here, with his little brother and Steve Harrington, who she also hasn't seen in a long time, not since she left Hawkins. She hasn't seen Jonathan since graduation. She's thought of him since though. In high school she kind of liked him. He was quiet and nice, she thought. Others found him weird, she found him weirdly cute. He kept to himself and had this, she thought, cool punk rock air about him. They weren't really friends, but they kind of knew each other. Their little brothers were best friends so she'd see him at her house sometimes, picking up Will. And sometimes they'd cross paths in the music hall, he was always playing the drums there while she was singing in another room. He'd play drums during school concerts too.

Finding Jonathan in a studio with Steve Harrington, his polar opposite in high school, does not make sense to her. While Jonathan had been the quiet loner labeled a weird creep by many, Steve had been loud and brash and the King, the most popular boy in school. And for her personally they'd been kind of opposites in another way too, Jonathan had been her… sort of weird small crush she never really admitted to herself and didn't do anything about. While Steve and her had had a brief… something. Not even a relationship really, but Steve had noticed her in sophomore year and she was taken in by the fact that he, King Steve, noticed her. They had made out under the bleachers by the football field and once in her room when he snuck in through her window, then she'd had to tell him no and push him off for him to get that she wasn't ready for more. He invited her to a party, she dragged Barb along to it even though Barb hated Steve and told her he was just using her and just wanted another notch on his bedpost. Barb had turned out to be right, Steve had tried to push her towards sex again during the party, that and his asshole friends rudeness towards Barb turned her off. She and Barb left halfway through the night and that was that, her brief flirtation with the in crowd was over and she was back to being Nerdy Nancy.

"Hey…"

"Hey…" the three guys chorus back to her. They're all still staring at her. She finds herself looking between them but her gaze especially flickering to Jonathan who seemingly can't take his eyes off her. She realizes she does look different from the last time he saw her, in a cap and gown with curly brown hair, the straightened blonde hair with bangs and a leather jacket to go with her skirt is a far cry from her high school style. She just felt like trying something new. Jonathan looks kind of the same, his hair looks nice, side-parted now though, and he looks like he's grown a bit more, the black t-shirt seems almost a tight fit over his lean but fit torso.

"Nancy Wheeler, you look… different," Steve says. Steve looks the same. Hair even bigger than before maybe.

"You look good," Jonathan quickly interjects. She looks over at him again. He quickly looks down.

"Thanks."

"Cool hair," Will says.

"Thanks Will," she smiles.

"Oh yeah I didn't mean different like bad different, I meant different like different but still hot… um…" Steve hurries to say. Will facepalms.

"… thanks," she decides upon. "Um so… what… is going on here? I didn't know you guys… I never thought you three would have a band…?"

"Yeah it's… new," Jonathan says.

"Long story short, my dad buys this building, hires me to look after it, I find this space, I decide to start the greatest rock band in history, three drummers quit but it don't matter because then Byers walks in and he's better than them all, then our bassist quits, I switch to bass, Mini Byers is a guitar virtuoso so he's in, and by popular vote it's decided we apparently need a different singer than me," Steve quickly lays out.

"Okay…"

"Stop calling me Mini Byers!" Will protests.

"Anyway, so that's us, so uh you're here to… try out? I didn't know you sang?" Steve asks.

"Dude she sang in the choir every year. She had solos," Jonathan interjects. Oh. He remembers. "But I thought you moved to New York for college?" He continues, looking at her curiously.

He knows that. Through Will probably. Or did she mention it to him in high school?

"Uh, yeah I did um… but it uh, wasn't for me. I dropped out and I came here to crash on Barb's couch, she goes to Northwestern."

"Oh, cool," Jonathan simply says.

"Okay, so you wanna be in the band? You still have to try out, you won't be getting a free pass just because we were together once," Steve says.

"You really call that being together? We made out under the bleachers once and you tried to get me drunk at your party and then your friends were mean to Barb so we left," she points out.

"Alright whatever, just, sing this and we'll see if you're any good."

Steve hands her a crumpled piece of paper. She can barely make it through the first few lines without giggling.

"What is this, is this a joke?"

"No, those are lyrics!" Steve sounds offended.

"This sounds like a love song about your BMW?"

"It's not!"

"You literally rhyme 'I love you' with BMW?"

"Well you find something else that rhymes with BMW then!"

"I thought we agreed to burn those lyrics and never speak of them again?" Jonathan sounds exasperated.

"Yeah don't make her sing those, it's embarrassing," Will adds.

"Well I don't see you writing any songs? What else is she gonna try out with?"

"What do you want to sing?" Jonathan asks her.

"Do you know Follow Me? By Blondie," she asks after thinking about it for a moment. She wants to nail this, she wants to show them, show herself, that she can do this, and she's confident in that song.

"Yes," Jonathan and Will says.

"No," Steve interjects, a bit surly.

"Well it's easy enough, I'll show you," Will says and starts to quickly show Steve the bass parts on his guitar. While he does there's some awkward moments as she and Jonathan exchange shy glances. He really looks good. And he's nice. She wonders why she didn't pay more attention to him in high school. He meets her glances and it seems like he both can't take his eyes off her but also shyly averts his gaze when she catches him.

"Alright, I got it. Let's do this then," Steve says after a minute, pulling them out of it.

Holy shit, she sounds amazing. He remembers thinking her singing was beautiful back in high school — though he'd be too shy to tell her that then. But her voice sounds even better now. He's so focused on her hauntingly beautiful vocals he almost screws up the drumming but manages to stay on beat. He looks to Will and Steve who seems equally taken aback by Nancy's singing. Glancing back to her he sees she's closed her eyes now, fully engrossed in the song, so he dares to look at her slightly longer. She doesn't just sound amazing, she looks incredible too. He always thought she looked pretty. He used to have a bit of a crush on her in high school. Never did anything about it though since he knew there's no way he'd have a shot with a girl like Nancy. She somehow looks even more beautiful now. The blonde hair with bangs and the leather jacket makes her look cool as hell. And her piercingly blue eyes takes his breath away, he discovers, when she suddenly opens her eyes again as she's sung the final lines and the song ebbs out. Embarrassed he quickly averts his gaze and prays she didn't catch him staring.

"Wow," Will is the first one to speak after the song is over. "That was amazing."

"Yeah," he agrees. "You sing uh… really great," he adds, hesitating as he tries to find the right level of praise. He's pretty sure he'd come off a bit strong and weird her out if he spoke his mind and told her he'd never heard anyone sing so beautifully before. Though 'really great' is a huge undersell. She smiles at him though.

"Yeah wow, that was pretty kickass," Steve nods.

"Thanks. You guys sound good too, by the way," Nancy says.

"Well, so that was great, you're certainly in the running for the position, we will conta-" Steve starts but Will cuts him off.

"Oh come on dude, there's no way we'll ever find anyone better than Nancy, she has to be in."

"Yeah, clearly. She's miles above the other three who's come in," he agrees.

"Alright alright. I dig her voice too, but if my lyrics aren't good enough for her what are we gonna do-"

"I can write lyrics," Nancy quickly says. "I already do."

"There you go," he says.

"Well how do we know if they're any good?" Steve asks.

"Well they can't be worse than yours," Will counters.

"Hey! Uncalled for," Steve protests.

"Kind of called for. Let's just vote, all in favor of Nancy being in the band?" He asks. Will instantly raises his hand. After a few seconds Steve does too. "Alright, that settles it. So, Nancy, do you want to be in the band?"

"Yes," she answers immediately. "If I can write my own lyrics. You guys can write the music."

"Deal," he and Will answers instantly, and Steve chimes in after a second.

"Cool," Nancy answers.

"Alright then, welcome to Steve and the Byers Bros Band," Steve says. "We might have to change the name," he adds after a second.

"Yes because that was never our name!" He hurriedly adds, embarrassed. Nancy chuckles. "If you have any ideas for a band name please share it," he tells her.

"I'll think about it," she smiles.

Barb was right, it felt so good to sing again. And now she's in a band. That went fast. She's not sure what to make of this, maybe nothing will come off it in the end maybe she just made the best decision of her life. But at least it felt good to sing with them, and that's enough for now. They sound good together. Jonathan is a really good drummer, she knew that from high school. She had no idea Will was that good a guitarist, and definitely no clue Steve could play an instrument let alone that well. After Follow Me they do some other songs they know and she sings the parts she knows of them. Then she just sits and listens to them jam, playing some of their own stuff. They're really good. Sort of punk, post punk. She's more new wave but she can get into that as well.

After they're done and has made plans for the next session she finds herself sitting next to Jonathan while the others pack up their things.

"So you live here now?" She asks.

"Yeah, I moved here in the fall."

"Do you go to Northwestern too? Barb hasn't mentioned seeing you."

"Oh, no. College didn't happen um… wanted to go to NYU but couldn't afford it."

"Oh, sorry."

"Eh, it is what it is. So I moved here to yeah, try and make something more with music. And I work in a bar."

"Oh, cool. That's good. And hey, New York is overrated. At least I think so… or I just couldn't handle it."

"I'm sure you could. It must be overrated. And hey Chicago is nice and… well it's good you're here now. So we have a singer," he smiles.

"Hah, yeah. I like it here. I missed Barb. And it's nice to see you again. Thanks for having me in the band, it's really cool."

"Thanks for wanting to be in the band. Maybe now it will finally start to feel like a real band."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean with your singing, it feels more real. Now we're complete, we got drum and bass and guitar and now vocals. Now we just need some songs and then maybe we can try and get some gigs. Make something of this."

"Sounds good," she nods. She likes that Jonathan takes this seriously, that he takes music seriously, it's clear he wants to do something with it, like she does.

"So-" Jonathan starts then but is interrupted by Will.

"I'm ready," the 15 year old exclaims, standing ready with his guitar case.

"Oh, right," Jonathan mumbles and gets up. She does too.

"Alright dudes, get out so I can lock up, I gotta go," Steve hurries them.

"We're going," Will mutters.

"Oh," Jonathan stops and turns to look at her. "Nancy, do you need a ride? I have to drive Will home anyway."

"Oh, yeah that'd be great. Thanks."

"So Nancy, why did you drop out?"

He shoots his little brother a look over the blunt question he asks in the car but Nancy doesn't seem offended by it.

"Oh I don't know it's hard to explain… it just wasn't for me. I didn't like my classes, I didn't like living in the dorm, I didn't like feeling alone and um… I don't know, suddenly I realized I didn't know why I was there… or what I really wanted to with my life… like I just went to college and took econ to please my parents then I remembered I never want to be like them."

"I like your mom, she's nice. Your dad's pretty boring though," Will says.

"Yeah, I agree with you there," Nancy giggles. Her laugh is really really cute. "But so yeah, I was just miserable. Couldn't take it so I dropped out and came here to crash on Barb's couch because I didn't have anywhere else to go, couldn't go home. Haven't told them about it yet. It's weird, I always thought it was my goal to go to college and make something out of myself, then when I got there I realized I didn't know why that was my goal, why I wanted to do that."

"What do you want to do?" He asks.

"Make music. Barb pointed it out to me that I've always been at my happiest when I'm singing… but I never considered it like… I don't know, I mean being on stage singing great songs in a cool band is my dream but I've always seen it as that, a dream, not something you do… but just as long as I can sing and make music I'm happy so right now I'm just focusing on that… that's why the band's really cool, I'm really happy you wanted me in it."

"It's cool you're in it, you sing really awesome!" Will tells her and he nods in agreement.

"Thanks," Nancy blushes. "You guys play really awesome. I remember you drumming in high school," she looks at him. "You were really good then, but you're even better now."

"Thanks," he blushes. "Same with you… I mean your singing, I remember…"

"Thanks," she quietly answers. He glances at her in the rearview mirror, she holds his gaze for a second.

"And um, on music and knowing what to do and all that," he starts, diverting his gaze back to the road. "It's the same with us. I mean, I've always dreamt of being in a great band and make music and nothing else. But at least for now it's just good to be in a band and play. You never know, maybe we'll hit it big or maybe nothing will come off it, but for now I just like to play," he says. Will nods.

"Right, exactly. I like that. Today was a hundred times better than all my days in New York. Thanks for that," Nancy says. "And here we are," she adds, looking out the window at the building on their right. "Thanks for the ride, really sweet of you," she tells him and puts her hand on his shoulder.

"It was nothing," he mumbles.

"See you soon. Bye Will!"

"Bye Nancy!"

"Bye."

Before he's even reached the end of the street Will hits him with a question that almost make him swerve the car.

"So are you gonna ask her out?"

"W-what?"

"Well you like her, seems like she likes you, so are you gonna ask her out?"

"What… where did you get that idea?"

"What idea?"

"That I like her, that she likes me?"

"I mean, you couldn't stop looking at her."

"Come on-"

"You've driven me around for years now. Never seen you be this attentive to checking the rearview mirror before…"

"That's…"

"And she looked at you too. And she sat and talked with you, I think she likes you."

"Just becomes someone talks to you doesn't mean they like you."

"No I know but come on, the vibe…"

"What vibe?"

"Whatever, I think she likes you. You should ask her out."

"Can we just… let's just talk about something else. Like did you hear the new Bad Brains album?"

"Yeah I'm kind of digging it."

"The reggae beats are throwing me off. I miss their real punk stuff."

"I think it's interesting to mix. Not like we're playing straight up punk."

"True I guess."

"I wonder what Nancy's songs will be like. She might take us in a whole new direction."

"It maybe just what we need…"

"How did it go?" Barb looks up from her textbook and asks when she's come back into the small studio apartment.

"You'll never guess who's in the band – I got it, by the way – but you'll never guess who!"

"You got it? That's great!"

"Yes it's amazing! But guess who's in the band!"

"You said I'd never guess it?"

"Oh come on just… never mind, you remember Jonathan Byers from high school?"

"The weird silent guy?"

"He's not weird! He's- never mind, he's the drummer! And he's a really amazing drummer, like super talented. And his little brother Will, you know Mike's friend, he's the guitarist and he's just incredible, he's 15 but is like super talented, too."

"Wow, must run in the family. I didn't know they moved here."

"Oh it's just Jonathan, he was gonna drive Will back to Hawkins now, they gave me a ride. But oh, that's not the weirdest part, it's the bassist. It's Steve!"

"Steve Harrington?"

"Yeah!"

"King Steve?"

"Whatever, yeah!"

"Wow, I'd never thought he and Jonathan were friends. Or that he had any talent, musical or otherwise."

"I didn't know either! Apparently Steve's dad owns the building the studio is in and he works there so he decided to start a band, and Jonathan got in when he put an ad up for a drummer. He's actually not that bad, as a bassist."

"And as a person?"

"He's really not that bad. As bad as he was in high school. At least seems like it. And I don't think Jonathan would put up with him if he was… he seems to have grown up a lot."

"Alright… wow, what a Hawkins reunion. But hey, that's great! You're in a band!"

"I know!"

"There's my boys! How was practice?" Their mom greets when he follows Will inside. He always stays for dinner when he drives Will back home. It's nice since he doesn't see her enough since he moved. One of the best things about having Will in the band is that it means he can see his brother more, he's really missed hanging out with him as much as they used to when he still lived at home.

"It went great, we got a new singer and it's Nancy Wheeler and Jonathan is totally in love with her!"

Well, it would be nice if his brother could not sell him down the river though…

"I am not!" He's quick to protest.

"Nancy Wheeler?" Mom sounds confused.

"Yeah you know, Mike's sister," Will explains.

"Of course I know, I just thought she was at college? Karen said something about Columbia."

"Yes she went there but she dropped out, said it wasn't for her. Her friend Barb goes to Northwestern so she's crashing on her couch and saw a flyer Steve put up for the band. She's an amazing singer."

"Yeah really amazing! Like scarily good almost! You should've seen Jonathan's face when she started. Or when she walked in really."

"Hey that is so not- she's really good okay."

"I'm sure she is. But dropping out of college to join a band, wow."

"She didn't drop out just to join a band she dropped out because it wasn't for her-"

"Yeah, she told Jonathan all about it. They talked for a LONG time. Probably because she likes him too."

"We didn't-… it's not-… whatever, just… it's her decision and she's smart so it's probably the right one. But mom, please don't tell anyone, like definitely don't mention it to Mrs. Wheeler because Nancy said her parents doesn't know yet."

"She hasn't told them?!"

"Not yet so please keep it to yourself, please?"

"I will, because it's not my place to tell. But she really should, the sooner the better."

"Thank you."

"Anyway, dinner's ready so sit down, sit down!"

They sit down and their mom starts plating the food.

"So Jonathan," she starts as she's handing him his plate. "You liked Nancy back in high school too right?"

He groans. This will be a long dinner, he can already tell.