Crossfire - S.H. - Book 2

Prologue: A few quarters

Shelley groaned, crumpling up the paper in front of her and throwing it across her room to pile up with the other used papers when she realized whatever she had written was not nearly good enough for an application letter - especially not one for UC Davis.

Laying back against her pillows, Shelley pressed her hands over her face, willing her frustrated tears not to fall as she wondered if she should even bother trying out for Davis at all. Sure, that was literally all she had wanted to do after school even if she still wasn't sure what for exactly, but now, after about 50 failed attempts of a simple fucking application letter, she was starting to wonder if any of this was even worth her while anyway, if she was even good enough for it in the first place. And, besides, when she had chosen Davis, her life and her family had been normal - not entirely functioning, maybe, but normal and not wrapped up in some supernatural bullshit they couldn't even actually talk about at all. So, sure... She wanted to go to Davis still, but even if she did manage it - which wasn't looking all that good for her to begin with - would she ever be able to get over the guilt she had been constantly feeling whenever she left Will out of her sight for longer than a few hours? Would she even survive moving all the way across the country to California and leave her family behind? Years ago when she decided she wanted to go there, she was sure she would. But now... Now she wasn't all that sure of anything anymore.

"Fucking bullshit..." She mumbled to herself, pulling her hands off her face as she took another glimpse at the papers scattered across her room. "Just fucking bullshit..."

Sitting back up on her bed, Shelley was just about to pick up her pen and attempt another application letter, but, before she could, there was a soft knock on her door and, suddenly, all of her bad thoughts disappeared as soon as she noticed Will standing by her door.

"Oh, hey, buddy." She smiled, waving the young boy over as she pushed her pen and notebook aside to give her little brother some space to sit on her bed. "What's going on?"

Will didn't answer her question as he walked inside her sister's room and frowned at the papers piled up on the corner furthest from them while he sat on her bed, turning around on it so he was facing her properly.

"What's all this?" He asked, as Shelley shrugged quietly and grabbed her pen to roll it in between her fingers in a clearly nervous manner.

"Application letters." She admitted, as Will raised an eyebrow at her and looked back at the papers. "Or... Attempts at it, at least."

"All of them?" He frowned.

"Yep." Shelley nodded. "Nothing I write comes out good enough and I literally need it done by tomorrow night or I'll miss the deadlines."

"But why are you struggling?" Will asked, sounding genuinely confused. "You're like... The smartest person I know."

At his earnest compliment, Shelley laughed, rolling her eyes gently as she shook her head. In truth, she wasn't even sure if all of this was about the letters, actually, or that was just some excuse so she would miss the deadlines and have a reason to stick around Hawkins for a while longer - stick around Will -, but, one way or the other, she didn't like what she was writing and if she didn't come up with something remotely decent to send over to Davis, she would be really forced to say goodbye to her dream school.

"Just write whatever feels right." Will said, as Shelley just sent him a small smile and nodded again at his encouragement. At least her little brother still believed in her capabilities. "Davis would be lucky to have you there, Shelley. I mean, you're pretty awesome."

"Thanks, little brother." Shelley chuckled slightly, reaching a hand forward to mess with Will's hair as he grumbled at her and pulled his head away from her touch. "I'll try again later. But I'm sure you didn't come here just to check on me and tell me how awesome I am, did you? So come on... Out with it. What do you need?"

Will offered Shelley a sheepish smile then and turning around from her for a second, his eyes fell on her money box over her dresser.

"I wanted to ask you to lend me some quarters." He said, turning back to his sister with a shrug of his shoulders. "Just a few."

"What do you need that money for?" She asked.

"For the arcade." Will said, a smile already forming on his lips at the mere idea of spending a few hours with his best friends doing his second favorite activity of all time - playing those silly, loud arcade games. "The boys and I are going and I need a few more quarters if I want a chance of beating Lucas' score in Dragon's Lair."

At his words, Shelley laughed, nodding her head as she stood up from her bed and walked over to her money box, picking out all of her quarters from there and walking back toward Will to pass them over to him.

"Here." She said, smiling even wider when Will's eyes shined with uncontainable excitement. "Is that enough?"

"Yeah, that's great, Shell!" Will cheered, jumping from her sister's bed to wrap his arms around her waist in a hug. "Thanks! You're awesome!"

"You said that already." She teased as Will just rested his head against her stomach in response.

"But you are."

"Yeah, okay, thanks." She said, unwrapping Will from her as she walked around him and set back down on her bed. "But you're paying me back, right?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I am." Will nodded quickly, even though they both knew he wasn't and would end up instead taking his sister's turns of doing the dishes for the next couple of weeks for compensation. "Promise."

"Okay." She smirked, nodding her head as well as she pointed to her door with her pen. "Now, go on and have fun while I go back to those letters, okay? And if you need anything, just call home, yeah? Mom and I are gonna be here all night so if you need us to pick you up, you just let us know."

"Yeah, okay." Will nodded again, already used to the same call us if something happens speech that his mom, Shelley and Jonathan always gave him whenever they dropped him off somewhere. "I will. Good luck with your letter, Shell."

"Thanks, buddy!" Shelley called out while Will already slipped out of her bedroom. "Make good use of those quarters and kick Lucas' ass for me, okay?"

"Okay!"

And, at his excitement, Shelley laughed again, rolling her eyes as she looked back at the new blank paper in front of her, already dreading trying to start a new application letter and wondering if awesome sister would be a good enough skill to add to her resume or not.