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ATHENA BLEW OUT a bored breath as she watched Jonathan fiddle with the equipment he was all too familiar with in the school's darkroom.
She was currently stationed beside Nancy, who was standing right next to the eldest Byers son, her cheek comfortably resting on the palm of her hand and her elbow leaning on the table as her eyes followed Jonathan's careful movements.
"And you're..." Nancy allowed her voice to trail off in anticipation as she started the conversation.
"Brightening." Jonathan twisted one of the machine's knobs as he continued his task, confident eyes briefly meeting Nancy and Athena's curious ones as he shifted his attention between one of the photos he took and the girls. "Enlarging."
"Hmm." Nancy mused in acknowledgment.
A momentary silence followed the hum, and a moment later, the sound of a faint sipping coming from Athena's direction caused the other two teenagers to look at her with slightly furrowed brows.
Athena's eyebrows tugged upwards at the sudden attention, and she swallowed the takeout coffee she was currently drinking as her eyes quickly flickered between the pair in front of her. "Sorry. I didn't think drinking coffee was so controversial..."
A small, amused smirk tugged at the corners of Jonathan's lips as he shifted his attention back to the photograph, Nancy smiling at her best friend as she shook her head in entertainment at the brief event of lightheartedness that this trio, so desperately, needed.
Albeit, as soon as the fleeting happiness arose, it quickly faded, very rapidly being replaced by a saddening anxiety that was associated with the thought of what the otherworldly creature, that the trio banded together to confront in the first place, was.
Nancy adjusted her position so she was no longer comfortably leaning on her hand, her following soft words directed towards Jonathan. "Did your mom say anything else? Like, um, where it might have gone to, or...?"
Athena raised her eyebrows in interest, and she nodded along to the words, the girl also hoping to receive another possible clue.
Jonathan, focus still on his task of developing the photo he took, cluelessly shook his head. "No, just that it came out of the wall."
"Terrifying..." Athena muttered, a tone of sympathy directed towards Joyce underlying the word.
