Royal Pain || Stranger Things

four || the new kid

     "Tate!" Nancy called over heads, as if claiming her for herself. Slinking her way through the unmoving students, she finally managed to meet the other brunette with a cheery smile. "There you are. I saw your bike in the parking lot. Did you get your schedule?"

     Wiggling the paper in response, she said, "I'm just looking for my locker. Not that I have anything to put in it. I just want to know where it is."

     "Oo, maybe it's by mine," Nancy replied, checking her own sheet of paper that she'd collected at an orientation two weeks prior that was best described as walking into the school only to be handed and paper and told to leave. Scanning their two numbers, her soft grin fell just slightly. "Dang, not super close. I got the tail end where the senior and junior lockers blend. You're by Steve's, though, I think. Here, I'll show you."

     Tatum followed Nancy, the teen not much taller than she, through more students interested in her presence, suddenly doing her best to block everyone out as she tried to remember the way that they had come.

     "Here is it!" Nancy exclaimed, already proving herself to be more of a morning person than Tatum. "Do you want to try your combo?"

     "Uh, no I'll be alright." Tatum scanned their surroundings, retracing her steps from the front door to what was claimed to be the senior wing of lockers. "I'll look like a wanker if I open it just to close it."

     Although Nancy's brows furrowed in soft confusion, she let it go. "Want me to show you to your first couple classes? Once we find Steve we can see what you two have together." Studying Tatum's schedule, she led the way through the halls without fear.

     "Doesn't Steve drive you to school?" Tatum asked, keeping close behind.

     "Yeah, but he spotted some friends on the way in and I wanted to find you," she replied.

     "That was sweet of you."

     Nancy shrugged lightly. "I just assumed that since you've never changed schools before that you might be a little overwhelmed. It's probably set up different, too. Aren't all the schools in England in castles or something?"

     "Ours was an old church," Tatum said. "It just meant it had ivy outside and was incredibly drafty."

     Before Nancy could reply, she made a soft noise of excitement. "Oh, I want you to meet someone! Jonathan!"

     A jittery kid just about their age was halted from opening their locker, a questionable look crossing his face as he searched for the voice before landing on Nancy. A timid smile emerged, followed by a face of curiosity. "Hey Nancy."

     Nancy gave Jonathan a hug that was clearly uncomfortable for the latter, albeit sucking it up. "Hey, so this is Tatum. She just moved back to town. Remember her dad, Jordan Rivers?"

     "He's like our only claim to fame around here," Jonathan said before offering out a hand to Tatum. "It's nice to meet you."

     Although shaking his hand politely and exchanging the same sentiment, she had notice a strange shift in the air between the three of them.

     Was this Jonathan Byers? she thought, questioning the identity of the brother of the boy that had seemingly raised from the dead the year prior. If not through her father, the news story wouldn't have traveled all the way to England, but the second that Jordan had found out about it, he'd given Tatum an entire run down of everything the media had released.

     It was suspicious, strange and seemingly glossed over as time passed. That was exactly what interested Jordan Rivers in the case.

     "How come you weren't at my party last weekend?"