vegas | robin buckley

1. the deal

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Jackie Henderson is not into Steve Harrington.

The Hakwins gossip circle has got it wrong. Jackie is not some rebound after Steve fell out with Nancy, because the despite the two girls' shocking similarities, Jackie has never seen the appeal in relationships.

Sure, Nancy and Jackie both have the girl next door, goody two shoes vibe, both have big plans for their futures that involve getting out of Hawkins as soon as possible and become the kind of people that go down in history books, and both have super annoying younger brothers.

But still, where Nancy spent her third period French class making out with Steve in some bathroom, Jackie was ditching Home Ec to do her extra credit Physics work.

And then Nancy started hooking up with Jonathan Byers, and Jackie with Tammy Thompson.

Jackie doesn't really now how to describe her relationship with her sexuality. She's not out to anyone (besides Tammy, obviously), but Dustin's probably picked something up by now.

Their mom doesn't pay much attention to her anyway (Dustin is by far the favorite child), but either way she wouldn't really get it.

Jackies had boyfriends - well, one boyfriend and one guy who she hung out with everyday when her and Dustin visited their dad in South Carolina who she never even learned the last name of - but she's also had whatever it is she has with Tammy.

She used to think everyone was as into Phoebe Cates as she is, but when she discovered the cold, hard, gay truth, she knew something was up.

Her and Tammy sat next to each other in Mrs. Click's English class, and they did cheerleading together too, so it's easy to cover up what they did alone every other night with group projects and trying new stunts together.

Anyway, one person who's starting to get suspicious is the previously mentioned Nancy Wheeler.

The two girls used to hang out every second of every day even though they practically came from two different worlds, but every time also previously mentioned annoying little brothers would hang out, it caused them to form some kind of bond.

Jackie's keeping Nancy of her rainbow colored trail pretty well for now, easily accusing Nancy the one of being distant with her boyfriend and all whenever the oldest Wheeler child tries bringing up - what Jackie is trying to emphasize - her nonexistent love life.

However, when Jackie and Steve started bonding more and more through their connection that is Dustin, Nancy and Jackie started falling out because "it just got awkward" and "you're telling me you two haven't even thought of kissing each other?"

And the answer to the latter question is NO. Because Jackie Henderson is not into Steve Harrington.

And both members of the party are incredibly sick of people thinking that, and, so, they've devised a plan:

They've both dedicated the most part of this summer to finding significant others for each other.

Jackie'll be okay with Steve picking out a guy for her (it probably wouldn't last anyway) so she ended things with Tammy and isn't going to tell Steve the range of her taste - she doesn't need her only friend who's her age to hate her - and don't tell Steve, but Jackie is spreading her range of people who would suit Steve to guys and girls.

Whoever makes a better match gets to be man of honor/best woman at the other's wedding.

There's another prize too, still pending, but there's also no guarantee either of them will actually end up in a stable relationship despite their best efforts, so, it's all in the air at the moment.

All this to say, Jackie is currently spending the majority of her time at Starcourt Mall in Scoops Ahoy, making note of every attractive person who walks in and rating them on a scale of one to ten in terms of compatibility with Steve; a five or higher gets a lookup in the school yearbook and a seven or higher takes Jackie to the phone book as well.

Steve has a similar approach, but when he's not asking every guy who walks into the store if they have a girlfriend, he's fighting with his coworker, Robin Buckley.

Robin's Jackie's age, both going into their senior year at Hawkins High School next year, and the two girls have bonded over their love for annoying Steve.

They're taking the same history class next year, so they do their summer work together (Jackie doing most of the work, but she doesn't mind) while Robin gets the two of them free ice cream while they work.

They're definitely more acquaintances than friends, but Jackie doesn't mind getting closer with the girl if it means extra chocolate syrup on her sundaes.

Robin also has no idea of the bet/deal Steve and Jackie have going on, and neither plan on telling her of their secret - she might wanna be in on it, it'd make things complicated, you can't have two best women (if Steve wins), they don't even know her type that well - it'd be a hassle.

Besides, she's still an option for Steve's future wife, so Jackie doesn't want to watch that ship sink too fast, y'know?

a/n:
hiii welcome to my robin buckley story this chapter is just an intro and I do see how easily/common this type of storyline can turn into a Steve x oc story but I swear I have bigger plans just u wait 🤞🤞