Hey everyone! Sorry this took so long, Uni started again ugh…

Thannkksss so much to my editor ilypopxtart333!

I changed the name ('Copper Corruption') and I hope you guys prefer the new one.

Anon: It's great to see how invested you are! I'm also exited to explore the dynamics between Jude and her family. And Jude and Nancy have future scenes together and they are mighty spicy. There's gonna be a lot of tea spilled. Thank you for this review! And for your other review of CW, which made my day!

Enjoy!

Jude I

September 1983

"Are you doing anything after school?" Barb asked.

"No." I said. I smoothed the tip of my thumb over the nail of my index finger and relished the feel of how smooth the nail polish was.

"Okay then." Barb said, voice chipper as she adjusted her hands on the wheel. "Meet me by the car when school finishes."

"Great." I said.

Barb stared over at me. I didn't look back at her, afraid that I'd see concern on her freckled face. I bit my lip as I carried on smoothing the skin of my thumb over my nail. I'd filed and painted them last night, just in case I ran into him. I knew that I shouldn't care what he thinks of me or how I looked, especially now that I knew Steve and Nancy were a thing, but a part of me wanted to look good. Refined and sexy. Womanly. I wanted to show him what he was missing. I was naïve enough to think that red nail polish was the key to his attention. I was lucky mom hadn't spotted the nail polish – if she did, she'd make me remove it. Harlots wore red, [;] the color of Hell and of the devil.

We pulled into the parking lot and Barb expertly parked. There was nothing Saint Barb was bad at – not even parking in reverse. I told myself that I wasn't bitter, I was just very observant.

"Are you okay?" Barb asked as I unbuckled.

I pulled my bag onto my lap. "Yeah, 'course."

"It's just that the other night you were totally acting shifty when I brought up Harrington." She said, unbuckling her seat belt.

I huffed and focused my eyes on the 'Go Tigers' sign by the entrance.

"Do you have a crush on him or something?" She asked.

I looked over to her, ice in my eyes. Her eyebrows shot.

"I knew it." She shook her head as she leant forward. "He was at that party you went to, right? The one I covered you for?"

My head nodded, and I avoided meeting her eyes.

"Nothing happened, did it?"

I didn't answer as I leant back into the cushy seat.

"Did it?" She asked, voice becoming stern.

I said nothing.

"Jude?"

"Don't call me 'Jude'." I said as I opened the door a crack. I felt Barb's hand come down onto my upper arm like a manacle preventing me from leaving the square prison of her car. "Get off."

She removed her hand as if burnt by the venom in my voice and guilt filled me like fuel [,] which caused my next words. "We made out." I said, hoping that my admission would smooth the stormy waters of Barb's temper.

"What?!" She said.

"Relax, Saint Barbara." I told her as my eyes rolled back into my head. "It was just a game, 'kay?" I stared intently on the grey ceiling of her car as I leant back against the seat and started to play with my nail again.

"No, it's totally not okay." She told me, one hand still resting on the wheel with the other one gesturing wildly as she spoke. "He's like, two years older than you. Mom and dad said we can't date until we're seventeen. You're like two years short of that. And- wait, wait… a game? What does that mean?" She asked, both hands fell to her lap

"Spin the bottle. Seven Minutes in Heaven. A game." I said.

"Oh… ew." She responded. I laughed at her expression. Her forehead crinkled, and her nose and upper lip furled in disgust. The look was made complete by the cute little double chin.

"Ew?" I repeated. I settled my eyes on hers and found the slightest hint of humour that'd bled through her anger and disgust. "Look, big sister, it was nothing serious, so it'd be real great if you don't rat me out to mom and dad."

She raised an incredulous eyebrow at me as if she had said 'fat chance'.

"Fine. Go ahead. I mean, I won't be the only one in trouble if you tell them." I smirked.

"What?" She said, head shaking. "How does that even make sense?"

"It makes sense because you covered for me. You lied to them. You, their darling saint of a daughter enabled their other more sinful one to go to a party and get up to all sorts of debauchery. You were the enabler in that equation."

She searched for words like a fish looking for water.

A knock on my window pulled both of us away from the conversation. I span my neck to find out what had made that noise and smiled once my eyes found Freddie on the other side of the glass and she gestured like a mime for me to get out.

I turned back to Barb and smiled a cheesy grin as my fingers curled around the door handle.

"See ya later, Enabler!" I said, chipper as I got out and left a stunned Barb behind.

…

"What an ass." Fred said about Steve as we rounded the corner to my locker.

She kept on talking about how Steve was a creep for stringing along two girls at once, and how he was a player, a man-whore, and she said that his hair wasn't even that nice. I tried to listen to her, not wanting to ignore my friend, but I couldn't hear her over the pounding of my chest. I was busy scanning the hallways for his brown hair and chocolate eyes. I didn't know how I felt when I failed to find him; relieved or disappointed.

We made it to my locker, Fred still rambling about 'men this' and 'men that'. I wondered what man had ever actually hurt her emotionally. There was her boyfriend, of course, but he was her first one and they seemed like they stick together for a while. It was Steve who had made me feel like shit, feel used and lied to, betrayed. Of course, I hadn't asked him if he were seeing anyone else – I just assumed he was single. So, it wasn't like Steve had lied to me exactly, he just neglected to tell me everything. I began to wonder about if I had asked about his availability sooner, would he have told me about Nancy or would he have lied? The girlish part of me hoped he would've told the truth, but people like him rarely did.

"Are you listening?" Fred asked, her hand waved in front of my face.

"Yeah," I said. She raised her brows at my response. "Okay, not fully. I was looking for him."

"What? Why?" She questioned. "I thought we agreed on the phone last night; no more Steve Douchebag Harrington."

"Yeah, I know." I held my hands up in surrender. "Which is why I was looking for him. I don't want to run into him."

"Oh." She paused. "Well, I know what I'd do if I saw him."

"What would you do?" I asked.

"I'd slap him." She said with a resolute arch to her eyebrows and a tilting upward of her chin.

"Oh, really?" I asked, incredulous, as I span the dial on my locker.

"Yep." Her voice had lowered like she was in one those old westerns me and Dad used to watch together.

"Like that time you were going to slap Gloria Rode?" I reminded her. Of course, she never slapped Gloria Rode, but she had wanted to and said that she was going to. But she never did. Fred told me herself that she 'pussied out'.

"Fuck off, Jude." She said, back arched into the lockers.

"Don't call me 'Jude'." I said, voice hushed as I pointed a finger at her. I was annoyed that the unwritten rule of my name being 'Judy' and not 'Jude' had been broken twice in the space of ten minutes.

"Okay, Jude." She said, in an exaggerated whisper. She knew it would annoy me. She knew me well.

I shook my head and turned the dial to the last digit of the combination. It clicked, Fred began talking again, talking about the people that passed us, telling me if what they were wearing was trashy or too preppy. I shook my head and laughed as she compared Linda Sommer's dress to a shower curtain.

As I swung the locker door open, a piece of paper fell out. My hands fumbled as I tried to catch it, but luckily, I intercepted it before it fell to the ground. I held it up between me and Freddie. It was half a page, ripped on one edge with ink that had seeped through to the other side. I flipped it over and saw red capital letters made with a thick tipped marker pen. It read: 'MEET ME. GIRLS BATHROOM. -S'.

Freddie wrenched the note away from my hands.

"That bastard!" She exclaimed while scrunching up the paper into a ball. "He thinks he can- You're not going."

"What?" I asked.

"You're not going." She repeated, shaking her head. "You are not going. No. Teach him a lesson. And it'll give us something to laugh about later."

"I wasn't going to go anyway." I said, fiddling with the edge of my nail.

A sheen of knowing settled in her grey eyes. "Yes, you were." She told me. I shook my head with an open mouth, meaning to interrupt but she beat me to it. "You want to see him. You want to find out why he strung you and Wheeler along. That's why you were searching for him in the hallway. It's only natural. I'd want to do the same, only difference is that once I found him, I'd slap him." She shrugged at the end of her speech.

I opened my mouth once more, intent on telling her that she was wrong, but the bell rang.

"Come on. We'll be late for Chem. Get your books." Fred said.

I grabbed my stuff, shut my locker and tried not to acknowledge the girls' bathroom when we passed it.

…

Fred and I walked from the lunch line with our trays of slop in our hands. The slop was pale and creamy and had bits of green in it. I frowned down at what this school called 'nutritious food'. I caught sight of my red nails and swore to myself that I would remove the color once I got home.

"Oh my god, look." Fred said.

I glanced up and followed her gaze. At the back of the cafeteria was a lone table where a girl with brown hair sat. She picked at her slop, uninterested.

"Isn't that Crazy Clare?" Fred asked. "Harrington's sister."

"Crazy Clare?" I said.

"Yeah, maybe we shouldn't call her that." Fred said.

It was common knowledge among the people of Hawkins that she'd been sent to the loony bin after her friend had committed suicide. I couldn't blame her though – if Freddie or Barb ever left me like that I doubt I'd be completely the same ever again.

"Must be her first day back or something." Fred asked. "Should we sit with her?"

I looked over to where 'Crazy Clare' sat. I'd hate to be as alone as her. But she was Steve's sister and at that moment I didn't want anything to do with him.

"No." I said. The guilt ate at my stomach but I passed it off as just hunger.

…

I rubbed my temples, trying to alleviate the headache that had set in during lunch. I was headed through the sparse hallway to my locker, and then to the parking lot where Barb and her little car waited for me. Once I had gotten there, I transferred books into my locker and shut the door with as quiet a slam I could muster. I didn't need anything to add the pounding in my head.

I began to walk away from the lockers when I stepped onto something. It was a lump under my foot. I looked down at the object and saw that it was the note from earlier. Fred must've tossed it on the floor rather than in a bin where it belonged. I picked it up and unfolded it to confirm my theory. I saw the familiar capitalised lettering. A spike ran through me then, one that felt like regret. Maybe I should have gone, I thought.

I shook my head, ashamed with myself for thinking that. Why should I have gone to him? He obviously was just playing games with both Nancy and I. My forehead creased. I crumpled the note into a ball and let it drop from my hand. There was hardly anyone around, so I doubt anyone would see me drop it. It would be gone by tomorrow, picked up and thrown away by a school cleaner in the evening.

I turned around, intent on leaving the note there. A figure stood behind me, blackened from the light hitting his back. I hadn't been alone after all.

"Hey, Judy." Steve said as he walked over to me. He took the balled up note off the ground and had come back up just as slowly, as if he were teasing me by being that close to my legs, my thighs, stomach, breasts. "So, you got my message, then." He said, as he held the note between his fingers. "When did you find it? Just now?"

I shook my head. His eyebrows went up but only slightly.

"You found it this morning or…" He trailed off, the note still between his index and middle finger as he brought his hand down to rest at his side.

I let silence answer.

"You stood me up then?" Steve's normally warm brown eyes had a sharp edge to them which threatened to slice into me.

"Did I?" I asked, trying to sound nonchalant as I tilted my head to the side.

"Uh, yeah. Why is that, exactly?" The corner of his mouth lifted, though I knew he wasn't happy.

I shrugged. His half-smile faded.

"Look, I was gonna invite you to a party." He said.

"What about Nancy?" I asked, though I already knew there was something going on between them.

Steve grimaces, face creased as if he were a mixture of disgusted and confused.

"What about her?" He asked, which made me think he was trying to play innocent.

"Is she going to the party too?" I asked.

"Why would she come?" He raised his hands in question.

I rolled my eyes and tried to walk around him, but he manoeuvred himself so that he blocked my path. I cursed inwardly at the skill that he no doubt gained during years of basketball practice.

"Okay, okay." He says, holding his hands up in surrender. "We made out like one time- but- but it's, you know, it's nothing special. We just fooled around. It was nothing serious."

'Nothing serious'? What did that mean? Could Steve and I become 'serious'? Did he want that for us? Did he want me?

"So," I drag the word out, buying time for my brain to catch up with reality. "You're not… dating or anything?"

"No." Steve said with a small shake of his head. "God, no." He sounded relieved, but was he relieved that I had believed him or relieved about not dating Nancy? At the time I was sure it had been the latter.

"Okay." I nodded slowly.

A triumphant smile started to spread inch by inch onto his face.

"'Okay', what?" He questioned as a hint of a smile tugged at his lips.

"Okay, I'll come to your stupid party." I said.

I watched the full-blown smile form on his face. He had a nice smile, all white and straight teeth and eyes which lit up and removed the edge they'd held a few moments ago. I couldn't stop the corners of my own mouth turning up to mirror his.

"Need a ride home?" He asked, anticipating a 'yes'.

"Um, thanks for the offer but..." I began. "Barb's waiting for me."

"Who?" Steve looked genuinely confused at who she was. I had to swallow down the sharp tug in my gut. I couldn't describe it; the feeling of when someone even remotely threatens to treat you family like crap. I knew how much of a hypocrite I was. Just this morning I had been a total bitch to Barb, but I was family. Steve – or anyone else for that matter – was not. Also, how could he be that dense? He and Barb were in the same year in school, and she was friends with Nancy, the girl he had 'made out a couple times' with – which made my stomach feel as though it were turning inside out. And I had told him about her the night of the party.

"My sister." I supplied, though I got the feeling that he didn't care.

"Oh," He took a step back, and held my gaze. "Another time then?"

I nodded. He walked away from me, his steps not quite loud enough to echo in the empty hallway. I thought of the other night when Barb had left me stranded outside the theatre. She had been talking with Nancy, the same girl that Steve had been interested in. The green monster snuck up on me then, twisted my insides and called for revenge. Revenge against who though? Barb for choosing Nancy over me – it felt as though Steve had done the same, though we weren't even dating – or Nancy for attracting Steve and steeling my sister's time away from me?

I supposed that it didn't really matter, I just knew that accepting Steve's offer would piss someone off.

"Steve!" I called out to him.

He stopped, then turned to face me. A soft smile spread onto his face.

"On second thought..." I asked. "Can I still get a ride from you?"

"Sure." He nodded, and I failed to notice his sweet smile turn killer in an instant. He'd gotten his way.

…

He'd driven me halfway back to mine before taking a turn down the intersection of Cornwallis and Kerley, taking us the wrong way. When I had told him of this, he'd simply shrugged and said he knew. I'd asked him 'what are you doing?' to which he replied, 'I'm kidnapping you', smirking all the while.

He'd driven us to the ravine, a popular place to park. I bit my lip as I looked over to him. He licked his lips and lent over the gears. I knew he wanted to kiss me. But I wanted revenge for not telling me about Nancy. I opened the door and slid from the seat, playful smirk fixed onto my face.

"Hey!" He said, resting his hands onto my seat. "Where ya going?"

I raised an eyebrow at him. "I'm getting some air. Wanna join me?"

He awkwardly climbed out of my side of the car, stumbling as he got to his feet then rested one hand casually against the top of the car, pretending as though I hadn't just seen him struggle to get out. I scoffed as I turned from him. I was greeted with the view of a lilac and yellow sky with birds' black silhouettes against the sunset.

"Think of this view during the summer." I said, chest filling with contentment.

He walked up to me and put his hand on my lower back.

"Think of the view now." He gestured with his free hand to the wide sky that stretched in front of us.

I pulled him along as I moved to the edge of the ravine, looking at the water below. My breath caught at the height, but I couldn't deny the beauty of it as the rippling surface reflected the lilac and golden sky that lay overhead, and gently rolled with the autumn breeze.

I leant over some more, not realizing how far over I had gotten until a rock slid out of place. The grating of the rock seemed to happen in a reality where the senses were slowed so I became hyperaware of everything. The taste of my strawberry lip balm as I bit my lip. The sound of the rustling branches. The feel of the rock sliding out from under me. The feel of falling. The feel of pure dread as gravity began to pull at my foot.

Then came the feel of Steve's hands clasping at my waist as they pulled me away from the edge.

"Fuck." He cursed. "Careful, Jude."

I looked at him with wide eyes as I grasped onto his shoulders as he pulled us away from the edge. He was firm under my hands, like when we'd kissed in the closet and then in his car.

"You walked to the edge." He said. "Are you crazy?"

"You called me Jude." I said.

He raised his eyebrows at me. I was too distracted by not being annoyed by him calling me 'Jude' to respond. He was the third person to do that today, but for some unexplainable reason, I felt like letting him get away with his transgression.

"Yeah." He shrugged. "That's your actual name, right?"

I gave a nod.

He licked his lips before turning his head back to where I had nearly fallen. I was transfixed by his wet lips. I felt my own mouth dry up, longing to be moistened by his kiss. He turned back to me as his hands rose from my waist to my neck. He smoothed his thumbs over the skin just under my jawline and I wondered if he could feel my pulse quicken.

"Are you good?" He looked at me, intense brown eyes swimming with worry as they searched my own.

"You totally just saved my life." I non-answered.

"Totally." He nodded. "Gonna thank me?"

A coy and playful smile tugged at his peach colored lips and my tongue darted out to wet my own. I looked between his pale cheek and his warm lips, deciding which part of his face I should thank. I went onto my tiptoes as my face leaned in, decision made. I held his chin so that he couldn't move it this time. I pressed my lips to the edge of his jawline. I felt the beginnings of stubble under the soft skin of my lips.

"That's all the thanks you're going to get from me this evening." I smiled up at him, coy as I rubbed my lips together and danced away from him to his car. I leant against the hood before pulling myself up onto it.

"Oh really?" He asked, shaking his head as his arms crossed. "Wanna bet?"

"Nope." I said as I walked over the car and sat on the hood.

"Why?" He followed me. "Afraid you'll lose?"

"Yeah." I nodded. I didn't trust myself around him. "But then we'd probably end up being here a while and I have to be back before my mom starts to worry. I don't want her to send a search party out for me."

"She'd really do that?" Steve asked, eyes wide as he sat next to me.

"Uh, not really. I was exaggerating." I said as I placed my hands behind me and leant on them, the tone of my voice making him realize what a dumb question that was. She wouldn't send a search party out for me, obviously. They would for Barb, their precious girl.

I realized if it hadn't been Steve who pulled up to me last night and if it had been a stranger or a kidnapper or a murderer… maybe there would be a search party out for me right now. Would there be police and volunteers combing the woods for me? Fred would be upset and despite all that I had said about my parents, I knew they would be wrought with loss. But Barb, my saintly sister, would feel the worst. I couldn't stop the images of her crying into her pillow in the room we shared. What a horrid thought that was.

"So, um…" Steve began with an almost sheepish expression. "When do you think you'll be free to see me next? Outside of school, I mean."

"I don't know." I said. "My parents are strict during semesters. I have to study and do chores and shit like that."

"Well, that's great!" Steve said, coming to stand before me.

"How is that great?" My eyebrows drew together.

"You said you have to study right?" He rose his eyebrows. "So, it's great because we can study together. Y'know, I'm a good study partner."

"Somehow I doubt that." I raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"C'mon. I love to study." Steve said as his mouth coyly tilted upward.

"There's not a chance in hell." I shook my head. "My parents won't let me if they know it's with a boy. Especially a boy who's two years older than me."

"Then lie." He shrugged coming to stand in front me. "Tell them you're meeting up with a girlfriend in the library. Then come to mine and we'll…" He placed a hand on my thigh. "… study."

"You say 'study' like we won't actually be studying." I pointed out, although I was aware of what he wanted to be doing instead. I moved my thighs open just a little.

"I promise we'll study." His hand travelled to the sensitive skin of my upper thigh. His thumb smoothed over the skin there. I felt a heat stir in my lower belly.

"Study what?" I asked as his hand slipped further up. His fingers rubbed patterns into the skin the found. I didn't know if wearing a skirt that day was a mistake or the best decision I'd ever made.

"Each other." He said.

My thighs clamped down on his hand as I chortled.

"'Each other'?" I giggled. "Study 'each other'? That's a ridiculously corny thing to say."

He removed his hand and placed them on the car either side of my hips as he scowled at me though a playfulness danced in his eyes.

"Corny or not, are you up for it?" I couldn't decide whether his expression was angry or not. If he was angry, was it because I'd laughed at him or because I'd stopped his hand from going further?

"I might be." I said before biting my lip.

"Ugh, Christ." He stepped back from me, head shaking. "You're such a tease."

…

I swallowed down the guilt when Barbara whined that I'd left her sat in her car in the parking lot for half an hour. The guilt had somehow lessened when I told her who'd given me a lift home, and it was replaced by a feeling of superiority. This was 'karma for leaving me to freeze on Friday night', something I had told her with a Tommy H-esque smirk laced onto my lips.

"I seriously can't believe you left me for Steve." She shook her head from where she at her desk, book in hand.

"I can't believe you left me for Nancy." I shot back, eyebrow raising.

"You're still mad about that?" She asked.

"No!" I crossed my arms.

"Then why bring it up?!" Her voice raised.

"Because I did!" I shouted, aware of how crappy my argument was. Mom and dad were in the living room and both hopefully couldn't hear us shouting at each other in mine and Barb's shared bedroom.

"Why are you so immature?!" She threw her hands up in the air. "You used to be cool back when you were in middle school! Now you're just- ugh!"

"I'm just what?" I stood from my bed. "Go on."

"Not yourself." She shrugged. "You're so different. So- so mean."

I observed the color in her cheeks and the wetness in her eyes. She couldn't be right. What I had done by leaving her wasn't any worse than what she had done to me last night.

"I'm not mean." I told her as I scowled.

"Are you sure about that?" She asked, cold eyes that were so much like

"Just piss off, Barb." I crossed my arms.

"I was here first. I was born first." She told me, looking back at her book. "Why don't you 'piss off'?"

I rolled my eyes before I settled on exiting the room.

I wasn't 'mean', not any meaner than I had been in middle school at least. I was still the same person I always was. Barb was wrong. Yet, a small part of my stomach reminded me that Barb was the sister who was always right, but I chose to ignore it.

…

Hope you guys enjoyed!

If you've read Crimson Wings, did you like the way I brought in Crazy Clare?

IMPORTANT: do you think Steve is being portrayed okay? I really wanna get this story right, so any constructive criticism about anything really, not just Steve, would be much appreciated.

Thank you so much for reading