𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐎𝐍 𝐌𝐄 || 𝘔𝘈𝘟 𝘔𝘈𝘠𝘍𝘐𝘌𝘓𝘋

33. how did i end up here

As the three approach the school, Stephanie quickly shoves her essay back into her backpack right at she hears Steve say, "I like boobies, you like boobies, Steph likes boobies."

"Oh, my God." Stephanie sighs under her breath, wishing she would disappear.

"Vickie likes boobies! Definitely!" He adds on, leaving the car in total silence.

Steve parks at the school and whispers to himself, "And...mic drop."

Stephanie opens the door. "It wasn't a mic drop it was just really awkward." She chuckles as she closes the door. "You're still cool, I guess." She adds, sticking an arm into the rolled down window. "Bye, Steve!" Stephanie yells as she makes her way towards the gym for the overly peppy pep rally.

On the way into school, she sees Max. "Hey, Max!" Stephanie yells with a wave.

Max didn't answer, only put her headphones back on and walked past Stephanie.

"I said hi." Stephanie scoffs as she follows in behind Max.

But Max didn't acknowledge her.

Maybe her music is really loud?

After last summers...events, Max totally distanced herself from the party. Of course Stephanie understood why, but she didn't understand why Max had to ignore her. Maybe she's mad that her and Lucas got closer. Maybe she's mad that she joined the cheer team. Maybe she's mad because she got a boyfriend.

To clear the whole 'boyfriend' thing up, Stephanie thought that her and Matt were only friends, until one day after practice he kissed her and called her his girlfriend behind the school.

Stephanie didn't want to correct him and say that they were just friends since Matt had a history of being violent, similar to his older brother, Jason.

Lucas decided that he was tired of being bullied, and that he wanted high school to be different. What he also decided was that he didn't want to do it alone and opted for Stephanie to be in partner in crime in the popular world.

No, seriously, one time the seniors forced the two to shoplift at the local grocery store to prove they could be 'in'...whatever that means.

Since Lucas and Stephanie distanced themselves from the original party, Dustin and Mike found their own clique. The Hellfire Club. She can't even begin to explain the Hellfire Club. A bunch of sweaty nerds sitting around at a table playing Dungeons and Dragons while bowing down to their leader, Eddie Munson.

Technically Stephanie was part of the club, but she refused to wear their handmade shirts and just sat in the back of the room listening to them pound on the table while trying to catch up on her homework.

She met her "boyfriend" Matthew during practice, since the cheer team practices at the same time as the varsity basketball team. Weird.
Since he's a sophomore and Stephanie's a freshman, everything was super weird at first. He would talk to her and pull her away from Lucas, say creepy things like,

"You know you like me."

"Don't talk to that kid."

"You're mine and I want everyone to know it."

So, yeah, creepy. He would hold her hand in the hallways even if Stephanie told him she didn't like it.

Once the pep rally starts, Stephanie starts off her well rehearsed cheer routine with a backflip, landing into two guys arms.

But never mind that, she didn't care for cheer anyway.

————

༺♥༻ "And let's hear it for your Tigers!"

Stephanie shakes her pompoms as the basketball team runs onto the court.

Lucas comes onto the court and waves at Stephanie, who blows a kiss in return.

Unluckily for her, Matt immediately assumed Stephanie was aiming her air kiss at him. Bad mistake.

He gives her his "signature" hot guy stare as Stephanie tries not to throw up in her mouth.

"Good morning, Hawkins High!" Jason yells to the crowd as he takes the mic.

The audience cheers in response as Stephanie tries to not roll her eyes at the whole corny speech she knows Jason is about to make.

"First off...First off, I'd like to thank each and every one of you." He starts, already treating his speech as a sermon. "Without your support, we wouldn't be here. Give yourselves a big hand!"

The audience cheers again as Stephanie shakes her pompoms.

"And of course, of course, I have to give a special shout-out to the best and prettiest fans of all time, the Tiger Cheer Squad!"

Stephanie does throw up in her mouth.

What is he, like, eighteen? That has to be some type of wrong.

Stephanie starts to zone out during Jason long drawn out speech about school spirit mumbo jumbo until he starts listing out names.

She starts feeling more nervous every name he would read out, knowing that he'll say Billy's name at any moment.

"Think of Billy."

Oh, shit.

Stephanie gives a glance to Max, only to realize that she wouldn't be able to find her in the sea of people in the crowd.

Once Jason tells the crowd to give one last cheer, everyone files out of the gymnasium and Matt catches up to Stephanie. "Hey, babe." He smirks as he puts his arm around her shoulders.

Stephanie gets to her locker and starts to unlock it. "Matt, how many times have I told you to not call me that?"

"Sorry, ba-" Stephanie slams her locker and gives Matt a glare. "Sorry, sorry. Can I drive you home today?" He asks, following behind her.

"No, my brothers picking me up, sorry." She sighs, eyeing Lucas and making her way towards him.

Matt looks taken aback. "Well, we can just...hang out, I guess."

Stephanie turns around and stops in the center of the hallway. "No, we can't. I'm busy."

"Bitch." Matt mutters, still loud enough for Stephanie to hear.

"Right back at you, dipshit." Stephanie answers for her own amusement as she finds Dustin and Mike arguing with Lucas.

༺♥༻
i feel like i should be apologizing rn

anyways i'm imagining matt as an older and more bitchy version of walker scobell but you can imagine him however u want

ps i wanted to make stephanie kinda a bitch this chapter but i don't think i can do that to my girl 😞

lmk if u wanna see that bc i will write her a few bitchy scenes

6/7/23