Jailbird || Stranger Things

three ➵ ghosts of the past

The girl from the station was living rent free in Steve's mind. Not because he suddenly changed his mind about Nancy, but just because he couldn't place where he'd seen her before.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Nancy asked for perhaps the third time since Steve arrived.

"Yeah," he shot her a slightly forced smile, though once he noticed the stretch of her lips, he felt it smooth into a real one. He moved to sit beside her, his chin falling onto her shoulder. "Sorry, just— Did you know the chief had a daughter?" he asked.

"I think so," Nancy nodded, eyebrow furrowing as she tried to hold down the wrapping paper and tear off a bit of tape. Steve reached to help, getting a small nod from her. "I think Jonathan used to be friends with her."

"That makes sense," he mumbled, pulling his hand back as she taped the paper together, and turned the box to do the last side.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she laughed.

"Nothing," he chuckled, "It could just explain why I don't remember her," he spoke, then immediately reached around her again to help and hold down the paper as she struggled.

"Why is it bothering you anyway?" she asked, finishing the wrapping and then put it aside to move on to the next present. Once the book was placed on top of the outstretched paper, she looked up at him, and Steve moved to see her better.

"I don't know," Steve shrugged, resting his elbow on the coffee table, and held up his head. "I saw her arrive at the station, heard that she called Hop dad. The whole thing."

"Yeah, I think that's enough evidence," Nancy nodded, but had a blooming smile that he immediately rolled his eyes at.

"Shut up, Wheeler," he chuckled, and she turned back to the wrapping with a light laugh. "Was she in your year?"

"No, I think the year above," she replied. "They were only friends because Joyce helped Hopper with looking after her in the first few years."

"Why is she familiar?" he wondered, attracting Nancy's attention once more as she raised her head. The crease between his eyebrows was enough to tell her why he was annoyed about it.

"Maybe it's just one of those things. Like you ran into each other as kids," she shrugged. "Maybe you had a crush on her."

"Don't get jealous," he teased, but the smiles on both of their faces was playful. "There's just— Something."

"Elementary school?"

Running a hand through his hair, Steve looked away. Nancy turned back to her wrapping, while Steve drifted off into his thoughts.

It didn't take long, but when it finally dropped, Nancy felt herself wince at the loud exclamation of her boyfriend.

"She's the kid who took apart the radio!"

Nancy stared back at him in confusion, unaware of such an event that would have been so important.

"On the first day of school, first ever day, there was this quiet girl, wore this oversized hat. I remember because Tina asked about a freckle on her cheek, stupid kid stuff. But after lunch, we want back to our classroom, and the radio that sat on Ms Jones' shelf was taken apart. It was in complete pieces," Steve explained, hand flailing as he spoke, "She had this stupid grin like she enjoyed the chaos she made," he chuckled.

The image was so clear; that oversized, still kind of clean baseball cap on the girl's head backwards as she was holding nothing but the plastic of the radio and a plastic ruler and compass. The smile flashing almost all her teeth, her cheeks pushing up to her eyes as she giggled while the teacher fussed over a cut on one of her fingers. He could remember it clearly now.