LITTLE DARK AGE ━━ stranger things

[ 001 ] bad reputation

Steph had been a fortunate soul.

When she arrived at Hawkins ( eight years after moving away for 'good' ) she mixed in with the appropriate crowds. This included Nancy Wheeler and her journalist buddies, of whom were extremely mature for High Schoolers and discussed matters that did not just involve the painful immaturity of men, and the corrupt nature of gossip that came from the women. They spoke about things that mattered, and people left them alone.

Being an outcast could rule sometimes.

Steph walked down the narrow hallway between an endless row of lockers, readjusting the slackening grip she had around her History file. Either side of her, students barrelled out of empty classrooms, desperate to quench their thirst for something significantly more enjoyable than academic subjects.

Seemingly out of nowhere, a small crowd of rowdy jocks meandered into Steph's path on their way out of Mr Kaminski's classroom. The chortling leader at the forefront of the group bumped against her side, and the force of impact was enough to knock the thick file from her hands.

"Hey, asshole!" Steph yelled shrilly, having noticed the culprit strutting away without so much as apologising.

His arrogant clan of friends snickered in amusement, but the obnoxious boy responsible for spilling her work everywhere merely scowled in her direction and continued on his way, mumbling something extremely reminiscent to 'watch where you're going, freak.' Apparently, this was the most hilarious thing his friends had ever heard in their entire life, as they began laughing loud enough to draw the attention of passerby's.

Once the jock's back was turned, Steph flipped him the bird.

"Real mature."

She didn't even have to turn around to know who it was that said that. The answer was evident in the drawling tone of voice ── with an added teasing lilt as usual. Steve Harrington.

Steph quirked her brows, scooping up loose pieces of paper from the floor, "That's rich, coming from you."

"Ouch, right in the heart." Steve quipped dryly with one hand clutching his chest.

"Hopefully it stops beating."

The Harrington rolled his eyes deeply but did not take any offence to the statement. Their back and forth bickering was a frequent enough occurrence that it was deemed a normalcy between the pair now.

Steph was often the one to take it that step too far ── some of which mentioning her desires for Steve to drop-dead at any minute ── but it never seemed to bother either of them. Honestly, the bickering was slightly entertaining.

Steph stuffed everything haphazardly into her folder and glanced up at Steve, who was still weirdly hovering around. He looked out of place. People passing by gave them a once over with furrowed brows; an unlikely duo.

"Can I help you?" Steph inquired.

Steve did not use words to answer that question. He dug into his coat-pocket and pulled out a crumpled piece of vivid orange paper ── so bright it burned Steph's hooded hazel-eyes.

She snatched the ball of paper from him and unfolded it.

"Come and get sheet-faced?" Steph read aloud incredulously. She held up the crinkled invite, staring at Steve as if he had just committed mass-murder before her very eyes, "Are you out of your mind? A Halloween party?"

"Yeah, yeah," Steve waved her off, growing impatient. "Nancy told me to give it to you, despite my obvious reluctance."

"Ha. Ha."

"She wants you to come."

A preposterous laugh tumbled away from the bleach-blonde's lips, and her nose screwed up tight like it always did when she was somewhat amused, "Okay."

"I'm being serious." said Steve sternly. He leaned against the lockers, crossing his arms over his chest.

Stephanie's shoulders rose in a nonchalant shrug, "You want me to be serious? Fine. You can tell Nancy I'm not interested."

"Why?"

"Because."

"Because why?"

Steph groaned in annoyance, throwing her head back against the lockers with a thundering crash, "You sound like a child."

A demeaning scoff rose from Steve's throat like bile, "You are a child."

"Whatever."

With a sickening grin, she crushed the orange invitation between her hands. Steve flinched, as if the gesture pained him ── chances were, it probably did, seeing as his esteemed hierarchy within the school community was not yet in complete shambles, and being invited to parties still felt like teen-royalty to him. And she just crushed it between her bare hands as if it were nothing!

Luckily enough, Steph didn't care for lavish parties or a great popularity status.

She was happy simply getting by.

Before he left, Steve jabbed a finger in her direction, "Think about it." he said.

Steph pointed a finger right back at him, winking in an over-dramatic way ── lowering her voice into an accent that sounded similar to the Irish folk, "No, thank you, sir."

Steve rolled his eyes before disappearing around the hallway corner, no doubt on-route to the location of Nancy Wheeler.

Teen-love. How vile.

Steph grumpily shrugged her backpack further onto her shoulder. On her way into the bursting cafeteria, she dumped the invitation into the nearest rubbish bin.

She hadn't been planning on attending Tina's stupid shindig tomorrow night, but the world seemingly enjoyed throwing her curveballs whenever the chance arose.

Her bad reputation was to blame, surely.