Kate Hopper's life hadn't been exactly easy.
Ever since her little sister had fallen ill, it seemed her life turned into a game of dominoes, and as each one fell, it felt as if things got harder and harder.
When her life got uprooted from New York C...
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WHENEVER STEVE TOOK Kate to work, she always had to stay after school with him.
Kate had never truly minded waiting for him to get through his practices, especially not when it was basketball instead of swim practice—the latter for her was absolutely dreadful. It had always given her an opportunity to read whatever book she had with her and to listen to music extremely loudly through her headphones. Even if it was something she didn't mind waiting on, she had always felt out of place sitting in the stands on the side of the gym.
Most girls that sat in the stands, at least during practice, had boyfriends on the team. Maybe, on occasion, there had been someone's younger sibling waiting for their older brother to take them home, but Kate had been unique in the fact that she was the only person waiting on a friend with no strings attached.
She had always assumed that was where the rumors had come from—they'd always done things like that for each other. Since Kate had moved to Hawkins, people had always talked about her and Steve, how there was something between them. Kate hadn't ever really understood it: while Steve acted differently around her and did things for her from time to time, he'd also been obsessed with practically any girl he could get his hands on (and that was literally), and once she had been obtained, he would get another notch on his belt and move on.
That was why she could never understand why people thought there was something between him and her. Steve had never tried to make any type of advance on her—if asked, Steve had always told people how they had always been the best of friends, how he was like a sister to her, and she'd always said the same. Besides, even if he did try to get with her (which Kate knew he never would), how could she ever be with someone like him? While she enjoyed being around him, thought he was funny sometimes, Steve wasn't the type of guy to invest in romantically. He and Kate would always be friends, and that would be the end of that.
