𝐙𝐄𝐑𝐎 ★ steve harrington²

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄 : dig doug

𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐓 : 6.2k

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐊 𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐂 𝐁𝐄𝐃 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐄'𝐒 𝐎𝐅𝐅𝐈𝐂𝐄 made all kinds of squeaky, annoying sounds as Owen twisted and flopped around, trying to get comfortable. But that task was proving to be much more difficult than one would think.

What was the point of having beds in the nurse's office if there was no humanly possible way of falling asleep on them, anyway?

But even worse than the horrendous beds, the fluorescent lights overhead certainly weren't helping the ache behind Owen's eyelids. This place was a total hellscape for someone with a killer headache.

"So, do you have migraines like this often?"

Owen's eyes fluttered open, adjusting to the bright lighting just in time to see the school nurse meandering over to her with some Advil and a small cup of water. Ah, right. That was why she was enduring this nurse's office from Hell. Well, that and excusing herself from the final minutes of her statistics class. Finally giving up on getting comfortable, Owen sat up from her place on the tiny bed, throwing her legs over the side.

Typically, she would have appreciated the genuine concern in the older woman's syrupy sweet voice. But considering the fact that she was attempting to rid herself of a hangover and not a migraine, Owen felt a little guilty for having lied about the origin of her headache.

"Um, not so much anymore. I used to have them a lot last year, but they just kind of... went away," Owen replied, testing out her theory that revealing an unrelated truth would resolve the guilt behind her current lie. She allowed the nurse to safely deposit the two orangey pills into her palm, carefully taking the cup of water into her free hand.

"Do you think there's any reason you could be having them again?" The soft, worried tone was still wrapped around every syllable that left the nurse's mouth.

For just a moment, it was as if every memory from last November played on a film reel at the front of Owen's mind. Fighting monsters, an interdimensional gate, Barb's death, attacks from Hawkins Lab, finding a girl with superpowers, Will Byers dying and then coming back to life. It was no wonder she was having migraines all the time. But that was all over with – Hopper had made sure of it. Now, too much drinking at a Halloween party was the sole cause of Owen's headaches and she planned to keep it that way.

"No clue," Owen answered matter-of-factly, knocking back the Advil and chasing them with water. Thankfully, she was saved from further questions by the sound of the school bell ringing, dismissing masses of teenagers into the hallways of Hawkins High. The auburn-haired girl bent to grab her backpack from the floor beside the bed, throwing it over her shoulder once she stood. Owen crumpled the empty paper cup in her hand and tossed it in the trash can as she walked out of the office.

"Thanks for the Advil!" she made sure to call out to the nurse before joining the rest of her peers as they switched between classes. Her Converse-clad feet dragged down the hallway, being swiftly passed on either side by fellow students with far more energy. Dread consumed her as every step brought her closer to her English classroom; Owen hadn't read a single page of that day's assigned reading, which meant that she would be totally screwed if their teacher decided to call on her at some point.

But just as Owen had resigned to her fate of looking like a total idiot in front of her class, her luck seemed to take a turn. Some woman she had never seen before stood at the front of her English classroom, with a note written in chalk on the board behind her.