Rosalyn took a sip from her thermos flask that was filled with coffee. Running around in the woods all day with the boys and working a night shift left the teen exhausted. She was running on caffeine and will power. She squints her eyes when she saw someone on a ladder spraying something on the theatre sign.
She gasps when she saw that the sign now read All the Right Moves starring Nancy THE SLUT Wheeler. She parks the car and got out ready to throat punch someone. Anger and coffee didn't mix well together. "Hey, you came to admire the beautiful artwork." Tommy smiles smugly.
She pushes him aside to shake the ladder that Steve was standing on. "Woah… what the hell?" Steve shouts. He looks down to see Rosalyn who was now being held by Tommy staring up at him with fire in her eyes. He climbs down before she could escape his friend's grasp. "Are you crazy?" He glares for the first time at the brunette in his friend's arms.
"Yes, I am and you're an asshole. How can you do that to Nancy?" She grits her teeth as she wiggles around trying to get away from Tommy.
Carol glares at her boyfriend who seems to be enjoying holding the other girl more than he should. He had one arm around her waist while the other was over her chest. She recognizes the look of pleasure on his face when Lyn gave another fail attempt of escaping him. She was smashing her breasts against his arm and pushes her ass into his groins as she thrashes around.
He thrust his hips into her making both girls react. "Fuck you, Tommy." Carol slaps the side of his face at the same time Lyn elbows him in the ribs.
"Fuck!" He yells letting go of the girl. Carol went to cry in Steve's car. Her boyfriend went in after her.
"You and your friends are disgusting pigs." Lyn glare at Steve.
"Tommy is a pig for his body reacting to a girl rubbing upon him. I'm a pig for having a cheating girlfriend." Steve rolls his eyes.
"He's a pig for many different reasons and you're a pig for humiliating Nancy. She isn't a cheater." She defends the girl. She wasn't even sure why. Nancy and she were never close. Before Nancy went out with Steve they were civil and now they weren't even that. But, yet here she was defending the girl.
"I saw her with my own two eyes. They were sitting on her bed together, his arms around her." He hisses as he remembers what he saw in the window.
"Are you kidding me? They were sitting on the bed. Not kissing or fooling around but sitting." She let out a bitter laugh.
"I'm sorry for not sticking around for the show like that pervert would have." He snaps.
"No, Harrington. I'm sorry that you're an ass who goes around assuming things. Now, in total, I've only had eight hours of sleep in the past three days, so I'm going to go home now. You should too because I'll be calling the cops when I get there." Lyn got back in Darling. She looks in her review mirror as she drove off. She was glad to see Steve was getting into his BMW.
She let out a sigh of relief when she parks her car in the driveway. She got out and uses her keys to open the front door. She locks it before heading to the kitchen. She turns on the light and made her way to the phone that was hanging on the wall. She dials 911. "Hello, this is Sarah. I'm a 911 operator, what is your emergency?" The female voice asks.
"I'm calling to report that I saw some kids vandalizing the Hawks theatre when I was on my way home from work," Lyn told her.
"How many kids were there? What exactly did you see them doing? Where are you now?" Sarah asks.
"There were three of them: two boys and one girl. One was on a ladder, spray painting something on the sign. I'm at home now" She answers.
"Okay, we'll get someone down there right away." She promises.
"Thank you." Lyn hangs up and turns around to go to bed when she saw a post-it on the microwave.
"Dinner is in the fridge. PS don't drink any more coffee." Her mother wrote. She opens the fridge to see chicken culet, mash potatoes, and corn on the cob. Her mouth-watering made the decision for her to put sleep off for a little while longer. As she put the plate in the microwave, she couldn't help but think about her mother.
Her mother was a sweetheart who doted on her children. Lyn never doubted that her mother loved her. The woman's major flaw was that she couldn't hold a job. She depends on her ex-husband and daughter, showing no signs of shame about it. It made Lyn sick to know that she would be supporting the woman for the rest of her life. She scolds herself, remembering that family is supposed to take care of each other. She pays for things and her mom takes care of her.
The microwave dings, taking her out of her thoughts and she was reminded why she tried not to think of her situation with her mother. She always went in circles of resentment and guilt until she made herself dizzy.
"Go away," Lyn mutters. She pushes Dustin who was trying to shake her awake.
"No, get up. We have to get Mike to shake Lucas's hand. That way the party can be repaired." He continued to shake her.
"Dustin leaves her alone, she needs her sleep." Their mom pulls him away from her.
"No, it's fine. I'm up. I can give him a ride to Mike's." Lyn sat up. The yawn that came out of her mouth betrayed her.
"No, you need to sleep. Dustin can ride his bike to Mike's." Mrs. Henderson pushes her daughter back down and covers her with the knitted blanket.
"Seriously?" Dustin yells at his mother.
"Yes, I'm serious Dustin. Sleep is important. She could get sick. Besides she's most likely to crash the car with how tired she is. She likes this because she was driving you around all day yesterday before she works the night shift." She drags her son out of the room by the back of his shirt.
Lyn wanted to get up and argue that she was fine, but her body wasn't listening to her. She didn't have the energy stop her eyelids from closing.
Lyn groans as she rolls out of bed. She zombie walks her to the bathroom to splash water on her face. It was while she was brushing her teeth that Dustin trying to wake her up came back to her. She made her way around the house while continuing to brush her teeth. She couldn't find him anywhere.
Her mom was the recliner with Meows in her lap. Lyn went into the kitchen to spit the toothpaste into the sink. "Where's Dustin?" She went back into the living room to ask her mother.
"He went to Mikes." Her mother's eyes stay on the TV.
She rolls her eyes as she ran up to her room. She took off her cotton shorts and a tank top. She pulls on a pair of high wasted stonewash jeans. She buttons up a black short sleeve shirt that tied up at the bottom. She slides on her beat-up converse. She brushes her hair and uses a scrunchie to put half her hair up in a ponytail.
She walks out of her room and grabs her keys and wallet off the counter in the kitchen. "Bye Mom. I'm going to check on Dustin." She yells as went out the front door. She got into Darling and started driving around Hawkins looking for her ducklings. She pulls over when she saw Jonathan and Nancy loading a car.
She jumps out of the car to walk over to them. "Did you see Dustin, Mike, or Lucas around?" She asks while looking around herself.
"No, why? Is something wrong?" Nancy asks.
"No, nothing is wrong. They wanted to go see a rated R movie and I told them I would take them today." She shrugs, lying smooth. She looks down to see the box full of chains and a bear trap. There was a propane tank next to it. "What this for?" She cocks an eyebrow at them.
"We're going monster hunting." Jonathan scratches the back of his neck, saying the first thing that came to mind.
"Monster hunting…oh my god. Do you know?" She steps closer to whisper to them.
"Do you know?" Nancy whispers back with wide eyes.
"Obviously I know if I'm asking if you know. How did you find out?" Lyn couldn't believe that this whole time they could have had two more people helping out.
"We saw the monster. How did you know?" Jonathan pulls out a picture from his jacket to show her. Lyn grabs it to see a large tall shadowy figure standing in the forest. The picture was dark so there wasn't much detail but it was easy to see that thing wasn't human.
"We found someone else from the Upside Down." She gave the picture back to him.
"The Upside Down?" Jonathan tilts his head.
"It's where the monster lives in another dimension. The boys are looking for the gate or her right now. I'm not sure." She explains to them.
Before they could ask any questions, a car drove by honking their horn at them. "Hey, Nancy can't wait to see your movie!" Some boy from their school leans out the passenger window to yells at her.
"What the hell was that about?" Jonathan asks.
"I don't know." Nancy shook her head before running down the street.
"Nancy!" Jonathan runs after her.
"Fucking cops, they didn't get it clean up by now." She shook her head. She ran after them to find Jonathan staring up at the theatre's sign that still read All the Right Moves starring Nancy THE SLUT Wheeler. Nancy held back tears as she looks around seeing everyone's eyes on her. "I'm sorry Nance. I saw Harrington spraying it last night. I call the cops I thought they'd have it clean up by now." She put a hand on her shoulder.
"You don't have to be sorry. You didn't do it." She shook her head. With a calm rage, she walks into the alley right next to them. Jon and Lyn share a look before following her.
Lyn's jaw drops when she rounds the corner to see Nancy slap Steve in the face. "Yes, Nancy!" She cheers, walking over with Jon.
"Speak of the devil. Hi." Tommy smirks at Jonathan. He jumps down from the steps he was on.
"You came by last night?" Nancy figures out.
"Ding! Ding! Ding! Does she get a prize?" Carol snickers. Jon grabs the back of Lyn's shirt when she went to launch for her. Lyn didn't know what it was about the girl, but every time she spoke or did that smug smirk she wanted to kick the crap out of her.
"Look, I don't know what you think you saw, but it wasn't like that," Nancy told Steve.
"What, you just let him into your room to study?" Steve scoffs.
"Or for another pervy photo session?" Tommy laughs.
"We were just…" Nancy couldn't think of a lie on the spot. She couldn't tell him the truth that he was comforting her about seeing a monster that may be hunting down her best friend.
"You were just what? Finish that sentence. Finish the sentence." He glares down at Nancy. He scoffs when she couldn't answer. "Go to hell, Nancy."
"Come on, Nancy." Lyn grabs her arms. "You don't need to explain yourself to some douche bag that would humiliate you like that. Leave him with the mouth breathers he belongs with." She pulls Nancy along. Jonathan follows behind them.
Something in Steve snaps, seeing the only two girls that made him feel strong emotions walk off with the town loner push him over the edge. "You know what, Byers? I'm actually kind of impressed. I always took you for a queer, but I guess you're just a little screw-up like your father. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that house is full of screw-ups. You know, I guess I shouldn't really be surprised, a bunch of screw-ups in your family." He pushes Jon in the back repeatedly when he wouldn't turn around.
Lyn and Nancy look back when Jon froze at the mentions of his family. "Jonathan, leave it," Nancy told him sternly.
"A reaction would be giving him what he wants." Lyn glare at the popular teen behind her friend.
"I mean, your mom I'm not even surprised what happened to your brother." Steve gave him another push.
"Shut the fuck up, Harrington." Lyn snap when he spoke of Will, but Steve kept going.
"I'm sorry I have to be the one to tell you, but the Byers, your family, is a disgrace to the entire…" Jon turns around to punch Steve in the face stopping him mid-sentence. Steve fell into the wall but recover quickly to tackle Jon to the ground.
Carol and Nancy were screaming for them to stop while Tommy was cheering them on. Lyn watched silently. She couldn't help comparing the fight she was seeing now to the one she saw yesterday. In detail, they were the same, two boys grappling on the ground while trading punch. But, it was completely different. Mike and Lucas were just reaching purity and neither knew how to fight. The boys look like kittens compared to the wolves that were going at each throat right now. Steve stay in shape with basketball and Jon had to carry heavy boxes at his job. Their punches had a lot more impact.
"Get in there. He's going to hurt himself!" Carol pushes her boyfriend when Jon and Steve stood up to box.
Tommy went to stand in between them, but Steve pushes him out of the way. "Get out of here! Get out of here!" Tommy put his hands up and back away, more than glad to have the fight continue.
They trade a few more punches before Jon land a hard one to Steve's mouth. It knocks him down and busted his lip. "Jonathan, stop! Stop! You're going to hurt him!" Nancy yells at him. Jon ignores her to jump on top of Steve and rain down punches on him. The teens watching the fight turn their heads when they heard the police sirens.
"Jon stop already, you won." Lyn went over to try to yank him by the collar off. Jon was seeing red and couldn't register what anyone was saying. He ends up elbowing her in the eye when he pulls his fist back to punch Steve again. She let out a scream, putting her hands over her eye.
"Rosa!" Nancy ran over to pull her away from the fight. She pulls the girl's hands back to see that her eye was red and her eyebrow was bleeding.
"Hey, he's had enough, man! I said he's had enough!" Tommy tried to pull him off, but Jon wouldn't budge. "Go, Carol!" He told his girlfriend. She and Nicole ran off as the police got out of their car.
"You have to go find the boys." Nancy pushes Lyn.
"What no!" She shook her head.
"Go! They need you." Nancy pushes her again. Lyn gave her a hard look before running after Nicole and Carol.
"Oh! My nose!" She turns around when she heard a cop cry out. Jon elbows him while he was dragging him off of Steve. It gave Tommy enough time to grab his friend and make a run for it.
"Get back here! Get back here, you little punks!" The cop yells after them. She turns forward and focused on putting more distance between her and the officer.
After running the third block, she looks back to see that he wasn't chasing them anymore. She leans against the wall panting. "I'm surprised you can run like that with all that fat on you." Nicole snickers, reminding Lyn of the others around her.
"You got makeup running down your face. I fix that before everyone sees the ugly behind it." She glared at the girl. Nicole gasps and digs through her purse looking for a mirror. Lyn was happy that she left the house today without putting any on.
"You got blood running down yours. Are you alright?" Steve reaches out to grab her chin.
She smacks his hand away before he could touch her. "Worry about your face. It looks like one big bruise." She pushes herself off the wall and began her walk back to Darling.
People stare at her in shock as she walks past them. A few tried to stop the bleeding girl but she shrugs them off. She drops herself in the driver seat and grabs the first aid kit out of the glove department. She used alcohol wipes to clean her eyes up. She put a butterfly Band-Aid over her eyebrow.
She put a compass on her dashboard and started the car up. She glances at it as she drove around. The way it twitches when she drove along Mirkwood made her pull over. "I should have come here first," She mutters. She grabs the compass from the dash and the crowbar from the floor by the passenger seat. She got out and follows the compass that was leading her to walk along a fence.
Her eye went wide when she saw Lucas climb down from a tree. "Lu-." She calls for him. He turns around to put his finger to his lip to hush her. He pulls a notebook and a pencil out of his backpack. He wrote something down before showing it to her. It said to be quiet, we can't talk here.
She nods her head. They walk back to the car. Lucas put his bike in the trunk before getting into the passenger seat. She got into the driver seat and took off as fast as she could.
"The gate is in the lab. The bad guys are spying on us in those vans pretending to be repairmen. One was across the street from my house we have to get everyone else." He told her.
"Should I go to Mike's?" She asks.
"I don't know where they are, they're looking for El." He turns his walkie talkie on. He tries to connect either Mike or Dustin while Lyn drove to the Wheeler's house.