"So we're good for movie night Sunday, yeah?"

"Of course, I might be a little late because I have to lock up." Heather admitted a little guilty, but sent a smile Joan's way anyways. "But I'll totally drive over as soon as I'm done, okay?"

"Yeah, as soon as your done with Billaaay, huh?" Joan raised her eyebrows up and down suggestively, and giggled at the lighthearted whacks sent her way. "Okay, okay! I'll see you when you're done. If the lights are off, just tap on my window or something so you don't, like, wake my mom and brother up if it's too late."

"I can do that." Heather hugged Joan one more time and went over to her car in the parking lot. Both girls grabbed their cars driver seat's handle before Heather paused and looked back over to Joan with a point. "And don't forget!"

"Forget what?" Joan asked in fake confusion, her head tilted to the side.

"The brownies, you ditz!"

Of all the foods in the world Agatha-Joan had to be good at making it had to be brownies which was ironic because Destiny-Joan did not like brownies at all. She had glimpses of an early memory party where someone had brought brownies and her dad politely hid them away because he knew how much she did not like brownies.

Joan made brownies too many times to count over the past month and sadly Heather was not a weird brownie hater like herself. The two made the perfect team where Joan was a baking whiz, Heather was a right chef and could make anything taste like it was gold plated.

"Oh right!" Joan smacked her head playfully with a huge grin on her face. "How could I forget those?"

"Love you, home girl!"

"Love you, Heath!"

It had been halfway through June when Joan had her first freak out. She had just came home from an awesome night out with the cheerleaders and had come home to an empty home when she figured it out. The constant buzzing that seemed to surround her life was gone and it was all too quiet.

The lack of electronics killed her and frustrated her every single day, but this had been the first time that she had been truly alone to her thoughts. No Dustin, no mom, no Heather, nobody but Joan and her fucked up mind left to race through what had happened to her. Kaleigh, Hellfire, the campaign... Was this some sort of sick hell after death or purgatory?

Maybe it was her overactive imagination in a coma and the sweet release of death would soon be upon her with its gentle embrace, leading her to an eternity of nothing.

Usually when the fucked up thoughts came Joan would drown them out with her AirPods, listening to the beautiful voice of Lzzy Hale screaming into her ears while immersing herself into fiction works either through reading or writing, but today she had nothing.

The first day started with humming the songs she remembered to herself and then twisted into writing down all the lyrics she could remember and then it eventually became Joan singing the songs to herself to keep her brain satisfied through the silence.

"Are you singing again, Joan?"

"Uh, yes ma'am?"

"Come here and play something for your mom. It's been ages!"

Apparently that was one of the few things Agatha-Joan and Destiny-Joan had in common - music. While Agatha's Walkman had been filled Elvis and Dolly Parton, Destiny's Spotify has been an array of mostly 90's and 2000's rock music. When she was younger, her mom had insisted that intelligence has been linked to kids who could play an instrument, so her dad took her to a music shop.

"Alright, stinky Jo. Which instrument do you want to play? And please don't pick the tuba unless you want your mom to never trust us alone together again."

There were so many things to choose from and for a few seconds, Joan had stood with wide eyes at all the amazing shiny things before her eyes landed on it. It was sleek and shiny with the most gorgeous wood grain that she had ever seen and Joan fell in love with her.

A piano.

Music was a happy place for her and it was why her campaigns always had a playlist, her bedroom was always loud, and her fingers always danced around on an invisible keyboard. But when Agatha's mother first asked Joan to play she was confused.

The Henderson family home had a beautiful 1960 Wurlitzer Spinet in the TV room that was dusty, out of tune, and used to hold all of grandma Henderson's collectible porcelain cats. When Joan was younger and wanted to show off her music skills, her grandmother went off at the first chord, and Joan quickly learned that her grandma hated the piano.

Playing the piano for her grandma no matter how old or young was unsettling.

Hesitantly, Joan opened the music book in front of her and played a simple piece that she didn't remember the name, instead focusing on the beautiful sounds that filled the silence around her. It became a habit to come in and play something for her grandmother to listen to in the background of cooking or cleaning or just sitting with the cats.

Joan spent a lot of free time frantically trying to remember music from her time period, writing down anything and everything she could, but it was so hard. She wasn't a musical genius and writing music was not her gift, so many sessions ended with tears of frustration.

"Ugh, Jo, what's this?"

"It's a band."

"Yea, no shit sherlock. I meant, like, why are you listening to this?"

Motorhead had became the closest she could get to modern music that she liked. While reciting songs the voice of Izzy singing Sabbath, Zeppelin, and Lemmy sent her straight to the store to purchase the music from the three and hiding them after showing them to Heather because apparently that was one way to get on Hawkins hit list.

And Agatha-Joan fit in, so Destiny-Joan did all she could to play the part.

"Are you playing the piano again?"

"No, I'm playing the tuba." Joan snarked to her brother standing next to her. She didn't pause her movements, instead looking over at the twerp with an eyebrow up in question. "What's up with you?"

"Well, I was hanging out with Steve today." Dustin decided to sit on the piano bench with Joan, effectively cutting off her right arm movement and shoving her down with a hey! and ignoring the indignation. "Don't worry, I told him you were still totally into him and without a doubt be willing to make it work again."

Joan quit playing altogether and looked down at Dustin in horror. "You did what?!"

Dustin held up his hands and shook his head as if he was a great saint for what he did. "No need to thank me, but he did seem into the idea of it." He took a deep breathe and scratched the back of his head, looking away. "But..."

"But...?" Joan couldn't help but want to know how big of a ditch the nerd had built for her before she started to dig out of it. When Dustin didn't answer she nudged nearly off the bench. "But what you dork?!"

"Jesus, has anyone ever told you that you are exceptionally violent for no good reason?" Dustin grumbled, pushing back to sit on the bench. "There's a girl that works with Steve and I think he likes her."

"Okay?" Joan trailed off slowly with a frown. "That's good for him?"

"Good for h- are you hearing yourself?!" Dustin snapped out and stood from his spot angrily. Joan snickered at how angry he looked and turned around to watch him put his hands on his hips and glare at her. "How am I supposed to have Steve as a brother if you just keep leading the poor guy on?"

"Leading him on? What are you-"

"You give him mixed signals! One moment you're winking at him and looking like you want to take him behind a corner, and then the next your cackling with your weird bitch cheer friends about how dumb he looks in his uniform." Dustin paused his rant for a moment and held up a finger. "Which to be fair is really dumb, but you don't have to break the man's heart over it!"

Joan held up her hand to interrupt her little brother's speech and shook her head. "Hold up, Dustin. Did Steve tell you all of this?" God, she hoped Steve didn't have a crush on her, she couldn't handle it.

"...Well, no, but Robin talked about you coming in like all of the time so I drew conclusion from a likely hypothesis."

"No, you just made up a story, idiot." Joan rolled her eyes and cracked her neck with a sigh. "What were you even doing bothering Steve at work today? Doesn't he actually do any real work ever?"

Dustin never was one to just shut up and leave things lone, so when his eyebrows shot up with the pitch of his voice, Joan was immediately suspicious. "A-absolutely nothing! Can't a guy get some ice cream and hang out with his best adult buddy while their at work without anything going on other than just to chaps having a good time?"

"Chaps, good time? Adult buddy?" Joan rubbed her forehead, already feeling a headache coming on as she tried to fathom why Dustin was with Steve and Robin, the band geek, today. "Were you there trying to get him to ask me out again?"

"Uh-" Joan took that as a yes and rolled her eyes.

"God, Dustin. Just leave the guy alone. Steve broke up with me and I'm over it. I don't need a Steve Harrington to make my life complete, alright?"

"Yes, yes." Dustin pointed with two finger guns and an aggressive nod. "Y-you're ight, exactly right. As usual and always, except for when it matters-"

"Dustin!"

"A-and I should probably apologize to him tomorrow, right? Right. Could you drive me to the mall tomorrow so I can do that?"

"I guess so." Joan said slowly with a growing frown. Her leg bounced up and down feeling like something wasn't right, and glanced at the clock on the wall. "Heather's coming over tonight after her shift at the pool and possibly a date, so we were going to head there anyways."

"Perfect!" Dustin exclaimed, wincing at the loudness and clearing his throat. Hopefully their mom didn't wake up to that, she always did go to sleep early and wake up early. "You can drop me off with Steve and then you and the hottie can go do whatever you want."

Joan decided to drop the hottie comment and focus on the 9:32 that showed on the clock in concern. "Yeah, sure, whatever."

There was a quiet between the two and Joan couldn't help but wish cell phones existed, because Heather really should have been at the house by now. Maybe she was waiting at her bedroom window and forgot the whole lights off do this suggestion.

"I'm going to bed, if you wake me up before 9 am I will kill you and everything you hold dear." Joan said seriously, already heading down the hall and leaving Dustin on his own in the living room. When he tried to complain her eyes widened and she made a slit across her throat with her thumb. "Dead." She hissed.

"Shit, alright, fine!" Dustin rolled his eyes and held his hands up in surrender, grumbling under his breath. "Such a bitch."

"Do you want a ride or not?!"

"Uh, uh, you weren't supposed to hear that!"