August 24th 1985
Last day of summer before senior year at
📍Hawkins Indiana
Joanne Henderson
I hear silence for a peaceful second before all the nerves in my body have fully woken up. It's late—I slept in but it's still summer so who cares, I nestled back into my comforter when I remembered—after today it's not summer—summers over. When I finally did open my eyes I immediately wanted to shut them again. Sweat was dripping down my back—poor people with bad AC in the summer.
Dustin was already up, I could hear him trough the walls having a heart to heart with Susie—barf. I just wanted to fall back asleep and never have to go back to school. Tomorrow I would be back with all the bitchy popular people in grade who are all as fake as plastic, but at least I'll have Nancy. During freshman year, when I started to hate my friends she was always the first person to see if I was okay. Nancy and I where best friends In middle school, freshman year I got in with the party crowd and Nancy...Nancy met Barb. We ended up becoming friends again sophomore year after her and Steve almost broke up.
"Come on Jo wake up- I have places to be and people to see, before my 9 month prison sentence!" Dustin yelled while banging on my door.
"I'm up, I'm up just take a breather Dustin" I croaked peeking through the cracked door
He sighed and said "okay just get dressed with speed" he said shutting the door giving me his stupid all knowing look.
I like Dustin's friends, and I like Nancy's friends—but for some reason when Dustin wants me to join him on one of his adventures, I get nervous. Even though I was just as involved in the fight as everyone else, I helped fight the mind flayer with Nancy and Jonathan and helped keep track of billy with El and Max over the summer- I still felt left out, like they only saw me as Dustin's sister.
I put on a t-shirt and my cut off shorts as well as my pink converse before saying good morning to my mother and walking out the front door. By the time I got to the the car Dustin had a disappointed face on and was pointing to his wrist pretending it was a watch.
"I'm sorry Dustin I'm sorry, it takes a girl some time to get ready" a laughed at him
he scolded me with "This isn't funny Jo, this is the last day of freedom I get to have with the fellow soldiers I fought with in battle-"
"Okay okay I'm sorry for undermining the importance of this meeting" I apologized earnestly.
"It's fine, I just wish I had more time to spend with them" he explained to me.
"I get it Dustin, you had a crazy summer, but I promise your friends are always gonna stick by you" I reasoned to him.
"Thanks Jo"
"No problem asshole"
I drove in whatever directions Dustin have gave me—which lead to Steve's house. When we got there he ran out of the car and straight to the front door. For a second I considered not going in, but eventually I got up and followed behind him. Trailing through Steve's house to his backyard, everyone was there. Well every teen in Hawkins who Steve personally considered one of his children. Standing over by the fire pit is Nancy, Mike, and Will. Steve was standing in front of me while a quiet Robin stood behind him.
"Heyyy glad you could make it" Steve said while stumbling into an awkward side hug with me
Backing up I said "yeah Steve me too"
He smiled at me and I smiled back—just because I don't want to be here doesn't mean that I have to take it out on Steve, or anyone here for that matter
"Robin come say hi" Steve says towards Robin, gesturing for her to come here.
Robin starts walking in Dustin's direction when she says "Hey Strange curly haired boy" she says patting Dustin on the head.
He smiled. I catch myself smiling too.
"Hi Robin" he says jumping into a hug with her
She turns towards me while she hugs him, but she can barley maintain eye contact—she has pretty eyes, greenish blue, from what I can see. She starts to walk in my direction and I give her a friendly smile. She looks nervous. She starts to put out her hand out in my direction and I look at her confused before I realize what the gesture is.
"Hey Jo I'm glad you could come" she says shaking my hand.
Oh god she had freckles.
"Hey Robin" I say shaking her hand back.
Her fingers are still covered in rings.
"I think we have French together this year" she says while pulling her hand back
She has pink lipgloss on.
"I hope so, I hate being lonely in that class" I say pulling both of my hands behind my back.
For the rest of the night I stick by Nancy's side. Dustin shares inside jokes with me every once and I while to try to make me feel included. He is a sweetheart, but no one has asked me a question or included me in the conversation for the past 47 minutes until—
"What do you think Jo" Robin says, pulling me out of my thoughts.
"A-about what?"
"Reading for fun"
"I liked to read. I read all the time" I say
"Yeah she is kind of nerdy like that" Dustin adds in
"Shut up, maybe reading is a little nerdy but, at least I don't code" I defend.
"I don't think reading is nerdy at all" Robin chimes in.
I smile at her before looking down at the floor and, letting her go back to arguing with Steve and Dustin. I don't know why I've never talked to her before—she's nice.
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Ahhhh they are so cute ❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥 I am very excited to see where this story goes!!! But I'm not sure how ppl feel about my writing style, so please please feel free to comment and leave feedback on the story and my writing!
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Bad habit, Robin Buckley
Science Fiction"Can I bite your tongue, like my bad habit" In which 17 year old Joanne (Jo) Henderson loves books, pink converse, and lip gloss while 18 year old Robin Buckley loves her Walkman, dark blue nail polish, and old movies, but they do have one thing in...
