Jeopardy- Stranger Things

Chapter Sixteen

November 8th, 1983

Nick stuck to her cover story and turned up at school a little earlier. She sat on the hood of her car and rhythmically tapped her foot against the tyer. Soon enough people started milling in through the gates. Nick fixed her eyes on the school gates, ready to ambush George.

Soon enough, she spotted George traipsing into school with his friends. He slumped over as he trudged along. He looked awful, his clothes looked shabbier than usual, decked with water spots and splatters of mud up his trouser legs. His other friends looked more or less the same. Lucas hunched over looking particularly tired as he struggled to even push his bike along a flat path and Dustin kept rubbing at his eyes. Mike was- where was Mike?

Nick sighed and slid off the hood of her car, planting her feet on the floor and storming across the parking lot to the main entrance. This had gone far enough, it was bad enough that Will had gone missing, it was terrible it really was, but now George was spending the night god knows where and Nick could only guess where Mike had disappeared off to. It stops now.

Nick stopped barely an inch in front of the boys, forcing them to stop too. She folded her arms menacingly and scowled down at them. With a tilt of her head she motioned for Lucas and Dustin to keep walking. They did, glancing over their shoulders and giving George sympathetic looks as the headed to class.

"Where have you been?" Nick asked coldly. Her voice was void of all emotion which only made it more terrifying. George took a cautionary step backwards. Nick had always managed to keep a level head in difficult situations but this was taking it to the extreme.

"I...just, erm, left early for school so you probably didn't see me leave."

"Don't lie to me, George." Nick hissed, "Where were you last night?"

For a while, no one said anything. George looked down at his feet, apparently finding them intensely interesting all of a sudden. He took a few shaky breaths; Nick had never been mad at him before, she was always the one to make him feel better after Naomi was mad at him. He'd never been on the receiving end of Nick's fury. And he was terrified everything was going to change. But he couldn't lie to his sister, who had given up so much for him. Despite all Nick had done for him to try and make his childhood normal, George had had to grow up far too quickly, just like she had. His home life had always been complicated and he'd been walking on eggshells around Naomi all his life. He'd only had Nick and he couldn't lie to her now.

"I went to the search party last night. I just wanted to help find Will." George admitted. He glanced up from the floor to meet Nick's eyes. She frowned and for a second her stern demeanor dropped.

"Right." Was all she said for a while. George shuffled his feet nervously in the tense silence that came between them, "And that's the truth?"

"Yes." George gulped. Nick sighed deeply through her nose and let her arms drop to her sides.

"Here," Nick said, diving into her school bag and pulling out the tupperware box of George's toast. "Stick with your friends so you don't get lost and next time, get back before mum wakes up." Nick stressed. George's face was priceless.

"Mum was home?" He gaped. Nick nodded slowly, "I'm sorry Nick, I-"

"Don't be. That was a really brave thing you did and...it was the right thing to do." Nick faltered but smiled at George. "I'm proud you snuck out. That's what normal kids do."

*

The trek to her homeroom was always difficult for Nick. No one wanted to make friends with her, of course they didn't want to be friends with the girl who is too busy working to even talk to anyone her own age. Needless to say, school hadn't been easy for Nick. But she didn't care, all she had to do was get through it and get a full time job.

Nick staggered backwards as someone walked past, brutally colliding with her shoulder and sending her bashing into a row of lockers down one side of the hallway. But she picked herself up and dusted herself off as she always did.

"Watch it, Harper." A familiar, venomous voice spat. She should have known it would have been Tommy H and crew. Nick rolled her eyes and tried her best to ignore their comments. Tommy strode confidently down the hall, throwing his arms wide to flaunt his power, taking up the entire corridor and making everyone else back up against the lockers. He spun around and glared at Nick, Carol and Steve followed his lead. When Nick had first arrived at Hawkins High she'd quickly learnt who was on top here. No one questioned that Steve was 'king' of this place but from what Nick had seen since she'd joined said otherwise. She'd heard snippets of gossip and rumours that Steve had gone soft since dating Nancy Wheeler, who Nick recognised as Mike's older sister. Nick didn't know if she believed the rumours. She still got hell from that group and both Tommy and Carol looked to Steve.

Tommy had folded his arms across his chest in a standoffish stance that told anyone he looked at to back off. And he was looking at Nick. Steve shoved his hands in his pockets and glanced from Tommy to Nick and back again at least five times. Carol pursed her lips together, trying to keep herself from laughing prematurely. The only thing all four of them agreed on was that something humiliating was going to happen.

"I saw your mom last night." Tommy jeered, smirking as he glanced to Carol and Steve for their approval. Carol giggled, covering her mouth with her hand and jeering at Nick with only her eyes. Tommy frowned as Steve just shifted his feet and tried not to look at Nick. "She's a real woman. I should know." Tommy continued, taunting Nick and once again looked to the others for approval. This time, Carol scowled at him. Then Tommy turned to Nick, waiting to bask in her humiliation. But Nick just stared back at them.

"Yep." Nick said at last. Tommy frowned. "She probably was with you last night, she never had very high standards."

Nick turned her back on them, ready to walk off to class and leave this behind her. But Tommy had other ideas.

"Take after your mum then?" He taunted and Nick heard Carol's annoyingly high pitched giggle.

Nick froze. She could hear Tommy and Carol smirking as if they'd thought they'd beaten her. Slowly, Nick turned around. She took a few painfully slow steps forward until she was only meters away from them and spoke patronisingly softly.

"You would be so lucky"

The look on Tommy's face was that of pure rage. His brow furrowed and a vein on the side of his head bulged. His eyes narrowed at her as his chest puffed in and out rapidly. Tommy glared straight at her, his eyes unblinking. He turned his head to the side to, once again, look to the leader of the crew for approval. But Steve wasn't looking. He was staring over Tommy's shoulder, looking further down the hall. Nick flicked her eyes in the direction he was looking in and rolled her eyes. Of course, he was looking at Nancy.

Tommy clocked this too and, momentarily, his anger faded and his face fell. Nick couldn't help but feel a shred of pity for him, his life was so dull.

"Hey, Nance!" Steve shouted and ran off down the hall, practically diving past Tommy, knocking him off balance slightly. He whirled around to watch as his idol ran off leaving him. And Nick took her opportunity to slink off unnoticed. No one really cared enough about her to realise she had gone.