THE KIDS AREN'T ALRIGHT ｡ STRANGER THINGS

16 - ALL THE RIGHT MOVES

***

A few hours later, Daisy had managed to scrub her uniform clean from blood, but images from the fight still tainted her mind. Once her lunch break was finished, she wandered towards the theatre entrance to spy the sign above. All The Right Moves starring the slut Nancy Wheeler. Kennedy was holding the ladder still for their manager to try and clean off the mess. When he spotted Daisy, he gave her a frown. "Not very creative, huh?"

Daisy shrugged. "Those bunch of kids really aren't."

Speaking of the Devil himself, Steve Harrington was suddenly standing on the corner. Dried blood covered half his face still, his eye a little bruised and swollen. Kennedy was already shooting Daisy a glance, but she didn't look away from Steve. "I just...wanna' help." he mumbled out softly, almost shrugging his shoulders.

Their manager was stepping away from the ladder while pegging the cloth in Steve's direction, who glanced at the dirty thing in his hands for a moment too long. "You use it to wipe things down," Daisy commented slyly. "It's not hard."

Steve was shrugging off his jacket, but didn't feel the urge to comment back right now, a little too defeated about what had happened today and how he had truly messed everything up. While the other movie theatre workers headed back inside, Daisy stayed on the street. Her arms were crossed over her chest, but she was quite amused watching him clean. Steve didn't say much at first, but after a while, he glanced down at her. "I'm sorry for all this mess."

"It's not me that needs an apology." Daisy huffed.

He nodded slowly. "I know, I know."

Daisy could see the hurt and guilt in his eyes and for the first time in a really long time, she almost pitied him. Clearly, after the fight something had shifted within him. He hadn't mentioned his friends and hadn't mentioned Nancy, but right now, Daisy got the feeling that he had lost both of them in a matter of hours. "Look, you did a shitty thing, Steve. You lashed out because you were hurting and I don't need the details about why the fight happened, but maybe next time, don't let your friends write that your girlfriend's a slut for the entire town to witness."

"I'm seriously such a crappy person," Steve sighed loudly, stepping down for the ladder and admiring his handiwork, almost all of the spray paint gone. A pink smudge of colour still lingered, but at least the insults were cleaned away.

Daisy twisted her lips into a quick smirk. "No disagreement here." Steve was already hanging his head with her comment, the words hitting a little harder in the afternoon sunlight. Suddenly, Daisy was remembering that she needed his help. "It's really bad timing, but I actually need a favour from you."

Steve paused. "Okay?"

She waited for a second, wondering if she could trust him enough with this. "You promised you would help try and find Marigold. Well, now I need you to speak with Chief Hopper and tell him you lied last year. I've reached a dead end in the clues and Dottie thinks it's a decent idea to see if he would be willing to help again, since it's his job and all that." Daisy watched his face and when he didn't argue, she went on. "I'm so close to figuring all this out, but there's a huge piece of the puzzle that I'm missing...and with you confessing about Marigold not just leaving town, maybe Hopper will believe me."

The older boy didn't even hesitate. He was already pulling his keys from his pocket and giving her a very familiar smile, one that he reserved just for her. "When do you get off work, Goldilocks?"

Daisy didn't even roll her eyes with the old nickname. "This isn't a sweet rekindling of some screwed up friendship. I just need one favour, then we're back to hating each other." she noted dryly, telling herself that whatever was going with them again, it was not like last time. "You're still an asshole, Steve Harrington."

"Yeah, that's fine." He showed her toward his car with another smile, his foul mood almost completely gone. "I'm growing on you again though."

***

When the duo finally made it to the police station, they were met with Chief Hopper striding towards the carpark followed by Joyce Byers, Jonathan and Nancy. The oddly matched foursome had determination set in their eyes. Daisy was quickly breaking away from Steve who hung back near his car, not wanting any part in whatever showdown was about to happen. "Chief Hopper!" Daisy called out.

The tall man was whirling on the spot to spy her, mentally groaning at the very sight of her blonde hair. He had been through enough these past few days and already had a list of a million things to do right now, including finding Mike Wheeler and his friends before anybody else did. He didn't even slow down for her to catch up. "Look kid, today's not a great day for another theory about your sister—"

"I'm telling the complete truth," Daisy started, eyeing the three people standing by Joyce Byers's car, everybody waiting for him. She could tell whatever was going on was important, but right now, the only thing that circled in her mind was finding answers to a riddle that had lasted a year so far. "Steve Harrington lied to you about Marigold. He'll tell you everything you need to hear, but you just have to listen to me."

Hopper was scrunching up his features, wondering what it would take today for Daisy Lonsdale to drop the case, because he had much more important things to worry about right now. "I don't know what's really going on, my aunt thinks Marigold was taken, or maybe went into hiding when she tried to find Duncan Downings, my cousin. She's a little crazy because she was in some experimental trials back in the day, but I don't think she's lying. Marigold didn't run away, sir. She's out there still and maybe in trouble."

"Wait, did you just say experimental trials?" Hopper asked with a thick frown. The words would have been meaningless, but lately, with his own research into Project MKUltra, maybe the kid really was telling the truth about her sister.

Joyce Byers was suddenly calling out his name though, breaking his pattern of thoughts. "Jim, we have to go. Now."

Daisy's attention was flying towards the three people waiting for him. She should have questioned why Nancy Wheeler was hanging around them or why they were all about to pile into a car, but she didn't. Hopper heaved out a long sigh. "Daisy, we'll talk about this later. Right now, there's somewhere I need to be, but we'll figure it out, okay? We'll find Marigold."

A twinkling of hope was set on fire in her chest. "Wait, you believe me?"

Hopper didn't have the chance to even respond before he was hiking across the police station carpark and dropping into the driver's seat while the car purred to life. Daisy was left in the dust, watching them speed away. Steve Harrington stepped inline with her, his heart a little too heavy with seeing Nancy and Jonathan together again. "What now?"

Daisy had no clue what happened next, already lost in the darkness of uncertainly once again. Although some questions were answered, it seemed there was still too much unsolved and she had a funny feeling that everything was connected somehow. Right now, pushing away the questions, she realised there was just one person she needed to see right now and that was her best friend. Too bad, Dottie Fields had somehow found herself in her own world of trouble with a bunch of twelve year olds.