CHAPTER THIRTEEN
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ HAVE COURAGE
SOMEHOW, Rosie had an immediate gut feeling that told her this was El. By the way, Mike was staring at her, like he hadn't seen her in a lifetime, the way the rest of the party was shocked, yet simultaneously overjoyed...not to mention the door had unlocked on its own. El didn't look the way she had imagined, but she supposed hair did grow over time. A billion questions made themselves known in her mind, where had she been all this time? Had she come back from the dead? Had she even died? The rest of the group seemed just as confused, so Rosie felt solidarity in her cluelessness.
This girl...El, Rosie was guessing, had perfectly slicked-back hair, a black jacket rolled up her forearms, and white converse paired with light blue rolled-up jeans. Her nose was bleeding, a sure sign of her power usage. Now, Rosie had never been a fashion expert, nor had she been too attached to the clothing she wore, but even she could see as clear as day that El looked...what would Chrissy say? Bitchin'?
Bitchin'. She looked bitchin'.
Rosie watched as Mike and El fell into each other's arms, sharing an embrace that warmed Rosie's heart. Dustin had told her that they were super close friends, and Rosie was overjoyed by the fact they could see each other again.
"Is that...?" Max trailed off, looking to the boys for answers. Lucas and Dustin just nodded, focusing completely on the newly returned girl.
"The hell is this?" Hopper approached Eleven, wrapping a protective arm around her, "Where you been?'
"Where have you been?"
"You've been hiding her," Mike's eyes widened as he made the realisation, "You've been hiding her this whole time!" He sounded angrier than ever before, as he shoved the police chief.
"Hey!" Hopper shouted, pulling the overwhelmed boy off of him, "Let's talk." With that, the two sunk off to another room, to most likely share a shouting session Rosie did not want to be a part of, nor witness.
Rosie leaned into Max, a wistful smile coating her face, "I love when people are reunited. It's so...happy."
Max turned to her, almost surprised that Rosie found joy in something that didn't concern her, until the redhead just smiled back, grasping Rosie's hand.
two new party members watched as the three old engaged in a group hug as if soaking up the fact they were all still alive.
"We missed you," She heard Lucas say.
"We pretty much talked about you every day," Dustin had added, and they pulled away, just smiling at each other. Until Eleven began to stare Dustin down as if she were examining a famous piece of work at an art museum. That was when she reached out to touch Dustin's mouth until he flinched away.
"Teeth."
"What?"
"You have teeth," Eleven commented, to which Dustin broke out into a grin.
"Oh. You like these pearls?" Dustin purred, showing off his aforementioned pearls. Lucas frowned, while El just seemed plain confused. The curly-haired boy turned to face Rosie, gesturing to introduce herself.
Rosie cleared her throat, attempting to appear as calm as possible as she approached Eleven, "Hi! I'm Rosie, and let me just say, Dustin told me all about you and you're like...super cool! Like wowww, it's crazy meeting you, but like, a good crazy."
Eleven seemed wary to respond to her, and for a split second, Rosie feared she had said too much (like she usually did when she met new people). That was until El gave her a small smile, dark eyes lightening with amusement, "You have a pretty name."
"Oh! Thank you. Your name is pretty, too," Rosie responded, brushing a stray curl out of her face.
Max returned to her side, holding out a hand to Eleven, whose eyes immediately turned icy as if a switch had been flipped, " Eleven? Hey. Um, I'm Max. I've heard a lot about you."
El glanced down at the redhead's hand briefly, before shoving past her in favour of Joyce.
The Gry girl blinked in surprise, confused as to why El had so roughly given Max the cold shoulder. It was even stranger considering she had been rather nice to Rosie.
"I'm sure she just missed Mrs Byers," Rosie tried to shrug off, not wanting the redhead to feel left out, though Max look pretty dejected.
"Yep. Right."
Mike and Hopper returned from the room, whatever issues they had with each other properly sorted, and Rosie sighed. This meant they were returning to the budget war council table, to try and concoct another plan. That this time hopefully didn't fail. Rosie leant her hands on the round table, ears tuning in to whatever Hopper had to say. They needed to 'Close Gate' as Will had put it, they just didn't know how to.
"It's not like it was before. It's grown," Hopper heaved a heavy sigh, "A lot. And, I mean, that's considering we can get in there. The place is crawling with those dogs."
"Demodogs," Dustin quickly corrected, and Rosie winced. Could this boy read a room?
Hopper sighed again, this sigh somehow sounding heavier than before, as if Dustin's unrelenting sci-fi language was weighing him down, "I'm sorry, what?"
Dustin swallowed, clearly realising his mistake, "I said, uh, Demodogs. Like Demogorgon and dogs. You put them together, it sounds pretty badass—!"
"Dustin," Rosie coughed, tapping him on the arm, "Let's let Mr Hopper talk."
Lucky for the mentally fatigued police chief, Dustin piped down.
"I can do it," Eleven stated steadily, obviously referring to the gate between the upside-down and this world.
"You're not hearing me."
"I'm hearing you. I can do it," El reiterated, shaking her head.
"Even if El can, there's still another problem," Mike reminded them, "If the brain dies, the body dies."
"I thought that was the whole point," Max voice, brow furrowing.
Rosie's eyes widened, putting the pieces together, "If El manages to close the gate and kills the mind flayer's army... isn't Will technically a part of that army?"
A grim silence settled over the group for what felt like the thousandth time that day, and Rosie bit the inside of her cheek worriedly.
•. ° . * .·. . ✧:. ·.
ROSIE HAD NEVER seen the movie, 'The Exorcist'. She hated horror movies with her whole soul, and would rather fight a demodog than sit through the oscar-winning film. Her sister had tried to make her watch it once, Chrissy was a bigger fan of the horror genre than Rosie, and the brunette had tapped out five minutes in. However, that was what she had envisioned was going on when Will, Nancy, Jonathan, Joyce and Chrissy whisked themselves away to Hopper's place to try and expunge the mind flayer from Will. As in, full Linda Blair throwing up, crawling upside-down down the stairs, etc, which was something Rosie was desperately trying to get out of her mind. El and Hopper had gone off to close the gate, while she and the rest of the party were stuck at Will's house, doing absolutely nothing.
The brunette was leaning back in her chair, staring at the wall, taking in every detail of the bits of wallpaper not covered by Will's scribbly drawings. She was so mind-numbingly bored, eventually, the thoughts of Linda Blair and her aggressive vomiting were welcomed.
"Hey," The familiar sound of Max's voice startled her, causing the redhead to smirk, "Y'know, when you said you were jumpy, you really meant it, huh?"
Rosie smiled, "Jeez, that feels like forever ago."
"It does," Max agreed, taking a seat next to her, "This might seem totally weird, but, what's your favourite colour?"
The Gry girl's lips parted as if to speak, but she closed her mouth again. Did she even have a favourite colour? Rosie had a love for every single colour, and picking one to favour over the others might've hurt the other colours feelings. That was the philosophy she had held since she was a kindergartener, and it was the one she had held ever since. Rosie supposed it must've been yellow, it was the colour she wore most often and it gave her an instant boost in serotonin whenever she looked at it.
"Yellow," Rosie answered cheerily, gesturing down at her sunshine yellow sweater.
"That's...fitting," Max laughed, and when Rosie looked down she saw the Mayfield girl's hands fidgeting.
"Why'd you ask?"
Max smiled awkwardly, "Oh, no reason."
Whatever the reason may be (there definitely was one, Max wasn't too good at lying to her), Rosie didn't want to pry. Maybe Max collected people's favourite colours, like how people collected stamps or coins from different countries?
With that topic quickly exhausted by Rosie, Max tucked a wave of fiery red hair behind her ear. She looked...nervous? It was unnatural seeing Max look nervous, which only made Rosie more concerned.
"So, you told me about that Snow Ball...thing," Max began, however, whatever she wanted to bring up was quickly interrupted by the yells of what seemed to be Lucas and Mike. The two girls shared a mutual eye roll, having enough of the boys fighting each other.
"You weren't in there, okay, Lucas?" Rosie heard the muffled cry of Mike, pulling out the whiny tone he always seemed to use whenever he was upset. It was funny how you notice stuff like that when you spend a lot of time with someone, "That lab is swarming with hundreds of those dogs."
"Demodogs!" Rosie heard Dustin correct from the kitchen, and with that, the two girls entered the living room, seeing Lucas with a broom, sweeping up the shards of glass.
"The chief will take care of her," Lucas tried to assure the raven-haired boy, and both Rosie and Max frowned.
"Yeah, because the girl with mind powers needs protecting," Rosie quipped sarcastically, surprising practically everyone in the room, including herself.
"Listen, dude, a coach calls a play in a game, bottom line, you execute it. All right?" Steve proposed, and Rosie nodded in agreement. Sports analogies were easier for her to understand, it was better than the complex scientific language Dustin constantly used.
"Okay, first of all, this isn't some stupid sports game," Mike rolled his eyes, scoffing, "And second, we're not even in the game. We're on the bench."
Steve blinked, clearly not expecting Mike to bite back, stammering out, " So my point is... Right, yeah, we're on the bench, so, uh, there's nothing we can do." He tossed an old rag over his shoulder.
Rosie rubbed her eyes tiredly. She knew she was supposed to be alert, enthusiastic about this situation, however, Rosie had gone without sleep for almost a day now, and she was exhausted. Despite her exhaustion, she spoke up, "I mean, we have to be able to do something."
"Rosie's right," Dustin butted in, for once not siding with Steve, "I mean, these demodogs, they have a hive mind. When they ran away from the bus, they were called away."
"If we get their attention, maybe we could drive them away from the lab!" Rosie continued, growing excited once more, tiredness forgotten.
"Clear a path to the gate," Mike concluded for them.
"Yeah, and then we all die!" Steve interrupted them, throwing his hands out to exaggerate his point.
"No need to be a Negative Nelly, Steve," Rosie chastised him, folding her arms. She was ever the optimist.
"That's one point of view— !"
"No, that's not a point of view or being a 'Negative Nelly', man. That's a fact," Steve cut through them, his voice growing sterner.
Mike's eyes widened, clearly realising something, "I got it!" He pushed past Steve and Dustin and jogged into another room, which probably meant that they were supposed to follow him. Rosie found him crouched near the wall, pointing at the scribbles Will had made, that created a map of the tunnels. "This is where the chief dug his hole," Mike gestured to a point on the wall, "This is our way into the tunnel. So...!" He ran over to a point in the hallway, a circle of red and blue drawings where all the paths led to, "Here, right here! This is like a hub. So you got all the tunnels feeding in here. Maybe if we set this on fire...!"
"Oh, yeah? That's a no!" Steve shut that down immediately, hardly believing what Mike what saying.
"The mind flayer would call away his army!" Dustin stated, staring down at the tunnel drawings.
"They'd all come to stop us!" Lucas added on, jovially putting the pieces together.
"Then we circle back to the exit," Rosie nodded, happy to contribute to the plan. Everyone was getting caught up in the thrilling notion of going on some kind of adventure, even Rosie was slowly forgetting her fears of those horrible demodogs.
"Guys—"
"By the time they realize we're gone—"
"El would be at the gate!"
"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Steve's voice toppled over the plan that was hurriedly coming together, clapping his hands to get the kid's attention. Rosie's snapped towards him, seeing on his face that he clearly meant business, "This is not happening."
"But—!"
"No, no, no, no, no," Steve hurriedly shook his head, hands on his hips, "No buts. I promised I'd keep you shitheads safe, and that's exactly what I plan on. We're staying here. On the bench. And we're waiting for the starting team to do their job. Does everybody understand?"
Rosie was about to say that she did in fact understand that, whether she liked it or not, however, Mike didn't relent, "This isn't a stupid sports game!"
Steve ignored him, snatching the rag from his shoulder, "I said does everybody understand that? I need a yes."
Before the party could answer, the house was filled with a loud, obnoxious revving of an engine. Rosie's ears perked up at the sound, instantly recognising it, however, she couldn't put her finger on where she had heard it before. Until she saw Max's face, who had recognised it as well. It belonged to a blue car, the blue car that had chased Rosie and Chrissy down the long road on the way to their house. Billy.
Rosie felt the hairs on the back of her neck prickle up as she held the memories clear in her mind. That was a day she had pushed firmly back into the deepest and darkest crevices of her brain because it was a painful reminder that people weren't always good. That humanity wasn't always good. That people could hate you for no reason other than the colour of your skin. It told her that life wasn't just sunshine, and she could do nothing about it.
Max sprinted towards the couch, hopping on it to get a good look out the window, and from the look on her face, she had no good news to deliver, " It's my brother. He can't know I'm here. He'll kill me. He'll kill us!"
The brunette hurried over to her side, the headlights practically blinding her as she stared out the window. There it was, that damn car that had chased her and Chrissy down, the very sight of it made her scowl, a scowl that looked perfectly unnatural on her usually smiling face, "Not on my watch." She grasped Max's hand, watching as the car screeched to a halt.
Steve looked to the kids, each one of them was painted with an uneasiness that thickened the tension in the room, "It'll be fine, let me deal with this."
With that, he opened the door and went outside, closing it behind him.
Rosie sat on the couch, hand still held firmly in Max's as she watched a conversation play out between Steve and Billy. Her stomach lurched unpleasantly when she saw his face, a cigarette dangling out of his mouth as he seemed to size Steve up. Everything about him made Rosie extremely uncomfortable, from the way he held himself, to his irritatingly large ego, as if he was too good for everyone. What made her heart skip a beat out of fear, though, was when he turned towards the window, making direct eye contact with her.
Immediately, everybody jumped down, attempting to hide, Dustin exclaiming, "Shit! Did he see us?"
They all scrambled up off of the couch, heading towards the door, hoping to see Steve sauntering in, but he didn't. Rosie felt her heart pounding in her chest as she saw the door slam open, the smell of smoke infiltrating the room. He had seen them.
There was Billy, in all of his mullet-man glory. He stunk of toxic masculinity and smoke, which burned at her nostrils. Rosie would've encouraged him to pick up his cigarette bud and put it in the trash if it wasn't for the fact she was terrified, and he had a murderous look in his eye.
"Well, well, well," Billy grinned brazenly, levelling in on Rosie, "Rosalind Gry. What a surprise. I thought I told you to stay away from her, Max." He approached the redhead, who looked him in the eye.
"Billy, go away."
"You disobeyed me," Billy scowled, dangerously close to Max now, "And you know what happens when you disobey me."
Rosie mustered up enough courage to shove Max behind her, sneering at Billy, though she was afraid that sneer wasn't the most effective since she didn't really know...how to sneer, "Don't you dare touch her."
Billy looked down at her, a sarcastic smile playing on his lips, "I break things."
The Gry girl didn't even get a chance to blink, because before she knew it, Billy had seized her by the neck and slammed her into the nearest shelf, holding her there as a myriad of plates began to fall on her head. Rosie attempted to fight him, pushing and kicking as hard as she could, but even an athletic thirteen-year-old that was pretty tall for her age couldn't beat a guy like Billy in this scenario. Rosie could've sworn she heard yelling from the others, but if she was honest everything was beginning to sound like white noise as Billy shoved her again. Tears began to form in her eyes from the shooting pain in her back, and now her head as more items from the shelf fell on her.
"Since Maxine won't listen to me, maybe you will," Billy's voice faded to a low, threatening whisper, "You stay away from her. Stay away from her! You hear me?"
Rosie made no response, she wanted to cry. She wanted her dad, she wanted her sister. She just wanted to go home. Rosie stared up at him, trying to find the bravery that helped her snap at him.
"Fuck you!" Rosie screamed as she kicked him as hard as she could in the groin, smacking him in the face for good measure.
Billy stumbled back, holding his face in shock... then in anger, "You are so dead, Gry! You and your bitch sister! You're dead!"
"No," Rosie flinched at the new voice entering the room. She looked up to see Steve Harrington pull Billy away, "You are." Steve then proceeded to punch him in the face, throwing Billy back a bit.
Rosie, seeing this as an opportunity to make an escape, ran towards her friends, who greeted her with open and worried arms, Max engulfing the brunette in a soft hug, muttering something along the lines of, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."
As she regained her composure, she watched as Billy began laughing maniacally, nose bleeding, "Looks like you got some fire in you after all, huh? I've been waiting to meet this King Steve everybody's been telling me so much about."
Steve looked at him, steely gaze burning into Billy, "Get out."
Billy was silent for a few moments, which made Rosie think he was actually going to obey Steve's request, however, she was proven wrong when he threw a strong punch, that only just missed Steve because he ducked.
Rosie had to look away as the two boys began to engage in a messy, aggressive fight. She never liked fighting, physical or emotional. It horrified her, and it was quite a day when she found out the WWE was a thing.
Suddenly, a foul crash made her look up, to see shattered bits of plate scattered across the floor, and Steve stumbling towards them, holding his head in his hands. Billy quickly threw another punch, one that did end up hitting the Harrington boy, who flew towards the living room. Billy stalked after him, seizing him by his jacket and saying, "No one tells me what to do!"
With a grunt, Billy hit him again, this time sending poor Steve to the ground. Rosie winced as Billy got on top of him, groaning as he continuously punched him until his face was bloody. Steve couldn't even fight back, he looked to be on the verge of passing out.
Real courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what. To Kill a Mockingbird. Rosie brushed back her hair, and ran towards Billy at full speed, jumping on his back and pulling him to the ground. Using her legs that she had firmly wrapped around him, she brought them up and slammed them back down on his stomach, knocking the wind out of the boy. She twisted to get out from under him, crawling on top of him and securing her knee on his chest. She couldn't even hear the yells of encouragement coming from the party, she was too hyped up on adrenaline that was pumping through her veins
"You're just like your sister," Billy murmured, smiling up at her, "Easy to squash." Before Rosie could adequately respond, he had flipped her over, slamming her head into the floor, "I told you you were dead."
Rosie squirmed under his grasp, but she felt as if her entire body was shutting down. Billy swung at her, time and time again. She had given up counting, she felt her consciousness slowly slip away as the pain in her entire body overwhelmed her. Rosie didn't even notice Billy had stopped, all she remembered next was Max looking over her, saying her name over and over.
"Rosie?" She felt Max brush her curls away from her face, "Please don't pass out, please don't pass out."
"Mayfield," Rosie whispered, looking up at the redhead. She looked like an angel, peering over her, even though she looked immensely worried.
"Gry," Max grinned, trying her hardest to keep the brunette awake, "When all this is over, I'm gonna get you the biggest bouquet of yellow flowers, and we can go to the arcade, and eat junk food, and have the best time ever, as long as you stay awake."
Rosie nodded wordlessly, Max's words suddenly making her feel much less tired, "That sounds perfect. Is...Steve okay?"
"He's doing just fine," Max told her, but Rosie knew it was a lie. Even when barely conscious, she could still tell when Max wasn't being truthful.
Well, now she knew why Max wanted to know her favourite colour.
•. ° . * .·. . ✧:. ·.
ೃ⁀➷ NINI SPEAKS !
HERE WE GO. rosie beats billy's ass, what an icon. so basically i hate billy idk if you can tell. and i have to say i saw a production of wicked last week and it was so good, first show i've seen since the pandemic. hope y'all enjoyed this massive chapter <33