╭ ╮
━━━━ " 📂 "
𝙋 𝘼 𝙍 𝘼 𝘿 𝙄 𝙎 𝙀
╰ ╯
"SADIE LOUISE HENDERSON, you have never been late to school a day in your life, but it's today that you decided onto laze around?" It was rare for Claudia Henderson to take this tone, but when Sadie's eyes fluttered open and she felt hands pulling various now comfortable weights from across her covered body, it would be the first thing she heard that week - and that was when she knew the following few days were going to be nightmarish.
For starters it was getting colder - and as much as the blonde was a homebody she most definitely preferred l the swell of Hawkins summer heat, days spent babysitting Holly and taking her to the pool, finding that by the end of the day mothers of nuclear families found their solace in her abilities with their children. She liked to read books wearing a swimsuit and shorts after her and Dustin had dragged out the two pool loungers from out of storage, liked the refreshing feeling of stepping inside the cool house after a day out, liked when Bradley's Big Buy was forced to hand out half their stock of ice cream and fruit-flavoured popsicles because the refrigerators couldn't handle the overstocking and often wouldn't stay on overnight.
Sadie liked the warmth, spurred on through the first half of the year by the thoughts of watching fireworks on the fairground on the fourth of July. But now, at the end of October, Halloween only a day away, it was getting cold again.
She had to retire her wardrobe of lightweight materials and pretty white t-shirts with colourful prints across the front and instead opt for jacquard jumpers and turtlenecks, any skirt she had needed a pair of tights so she didn't freeze half to death and most of them she ended up wearing her favourite jeans or the dusky-coloured, often patterned flares and bell bottoms that her mom had worn prior and around the time she was born.
It was those that she decided on wearing a pair of denim flares that instead of the usual blue were a sort of muted pumpkin tone combined with a dark brown - which was rather appropriate given the next day - and picked out a cream turtleneck to wear beneath yet another patterned jumper in darker brown.
Sadie was yet to check the time, but it was very clear that it was much later than her usual rising time, and in a hasty speed had packed her bag, brushed her hair and tied a floral-print stretch of material to make sure she didn't look as though she had been completely electrocuted, applying as little makeup as she could manage and pulled on two odd socks (one was rainbow patterned and came up to her knee whilst the other was plain and reached only the middle of her calf) and laced her shoes.
"Is Dustin already gone?" She asked as she bustled through into the kitchen, finding her coat hung amongst many others and digging through the pockets until she found her keys and turned towards the kitchen counter, downing the glass of orange juice her mom had poured and hurrying to eat the slices of toast.
"He left a couple minutes ago." Claudia nodded. "You need to get a hand on when exactly you fall asleep, you might as well as has the entire contents of your room piled on you when I came in this morning."
"I can't get to sleep by just laying there in darkness." Sadie scoffed, as though that was completely normal and her incredulity at the thought of relaxing until she passed through into a dream-like state was how everyone else thought as well. "I need to keep my mind busy until it gets tired and then I shut off. It's a practised method."
"And who is it practised by?" Claudia raised an eyebrow.
"Me."
Mrs Henderson didn't look too impressed.
"You always say I'm the smartest person you know and you don't trust me on this?"
"Fine. Don't forget to help Dustin out with the last little bits for his costume tomorrow." Claudia watched as she finished the toast. "Here, your lunch, and we need to take off that nail varnish tonight.. at least what remains." Sadie paused for a moment, in the midst of stuffing the brown bag into her satchel and stared at her chipped nails. She agreed entirely. "Is your costume ready for tomorrow?"
"I have something prepared.. but I don't think I'll be going anywhere." Sadie shrugged. "I'm using that pink dress I got that I then cut a little short and I brought a load of fake blood."
"Does the dress have to be too small?" Mrs Henderson asked.
"It's either that or I cut it up and then add a pair of bunny ears and Hugh Hefner would love me." Claudia looked even more disapproving then, watching as Sadie shrugged. "Mom, it's just what everyone does. I'd hate to think what Carol would say if I turn up somewhere dressed like someone straight out of Carnival of Souls. It's not that bad, really."
"Whatever you say." Claudia waved her away, sipping on her coffee before looking somewhat more cheerful. "Will Nancy be there?" Sadie nodded. "Good, and Jonathan?"
"Jonathan is a like a more extreme version of me.. except his vice is photography. Not the type of party people who go wild just because it's All Hallows' Eve." Sadie said. "It didn't even used to be an event like this - it used to be believed that it was the first day of winter in Scotland and Ireland and they would spend the day brining cattle back from pasture. They thought that the dead's' souls would make their way to the underworld on this day, and people would light fires to ward away the spirits and wear masks to disguise themselves from them. Did you know the early American colonists banned the celebration of Halloween and-"
"Sadie." Claudia spoke firmly, her hand on the counter. "You need to go to school."
"Alright, fine." The younger girl sighed as she tugged the bag over her shoulder, reaching for her keys again as she slid from the counter stool. "You're just lucky I wasn't talking about the fifth of November celebrations in Britain either - they're celebrating how Guy Fawkes managed to get into their parliament but ultimately failed to kill James I woth the Gunpowder Plot in 1605. You see, Guy Fawkes was a Catholic and-"
"Sadie!"
"I'm going, I'm going." Sadie reached and retrieved her walkman that had been stashed in the small ceramic bowl overnight before heading towards the door, keys in hand.
She disappeared through it with a couple words of goodbye to her mom, and seconds later Claudia sipped on her coffee as she heard the car door open. She only had an afternoon shift that day, and wasn't particularly worried about it.
However, when she heard the rather loud exclamation of 'shit!', the car door slamming and Sadie running through the house again, her brows furrowed up until the point that her daughter reappeared, looking rather bashful.
"Sorry." She muttered, applying chapstick. "I forgot to brush my teeth."
✧
As it turned out, Sadie had timed everything perfectly and there was absolutely no need for Claudia to worry about her waking up late - or apparently deciding the laze around. That being said, one thing did come out of it and she began to consider whether she woke up too early on a normal day, and it was that thought which played on her mind as she pulled her car around into the parking lot in front of Hawkins High.
People were already wandering across the road up to the middle school, bags on shoulders and books clutched to chests, clearly in no hurry either, and Sadie shook her head. She had been right on time, no need to panic at all. But her mom tended to worry a lot, she always did after Bobby Henderson's accident - Claudia was so cautious about letting Sadie drive that it took the girl several months to convince her that everything would be fine - the Henderson girl already knew a lot about vehicles and knew she would be able to fix it herself if it broke, and she had more than enough knowledge in her mind that a little more wouldn't hurt.
Of course, that had ended up well seeing as Sadie now had a car, but it didn't stop Mrs Henderson from worrying about absolutely everything else - including her being late for school even if she could definitely make it in time.
Pushing the door to her left open, Sadie pulled herself out of the car, returning the smile that Tina Murphy sent her way - even though besides her Carol Perkin was glaring at the sight of the girl. Looking awkward, Vicki Carmichael rose her hand in a small wave. That was something that had changed in the year before. Her newfound friendship with Steve - although he was nowhere near on the level he had once been on in terms of popularity - had seen both herself and Nancy becoming friends with the most unlikely of people. And much to her surprise, Tina and Vicki were rather nice, and often chose to ignore the level of distaste that swam around Carol whenever she saw Sadie.
"Sadie - hey, Sadie." Her name was called from elsewhere in the parking lot, and as she swivelled on her heel she found Steve practically hanging out of the window of his own parked car. He beckoned her over, and a few short seconds later she had reached the BMW.
"Good morning." The Henderson smiled as she leant down, forearms to elbows resting on the surface left behind by the lowered window. "You working on your essay again?"
"I'm looking through it." Nancy held up the sheets of paper. "But yeah, we're working on it." Steve turned to look at her and she shook her head softly. "As in perfecting it." The Wheeler added tactfully.
"Early admission deadline is tomorrow, right? You'll be fine, and besides, loads of people get in on regular admission." Sadie patted Steve consolingly on the shoulder, an action that could almost be considered sarcastic but thankfully wasn't interpreted in such way. "So, what's up?"
"You wouldn't be able to go to dinner tonight, would you?" He asked, forgetting about his essay troubles in an instance.
"As in with Mr and Mrs Holland?" Sadie blinked.
"Yeah."
"I mean.. I kinda went four times in a row for you guys."
"I know, but-"
"I'm supposed to be helping my brother finish his costume for tomorrow tonight." Sadie said, watching as Nancy and Steve grew even more confused. "You know they're all going as the guys from Ghostbusters, right?"
"I heard something about that, yeah." Nancy nodded.
"Well you know how they have the whole machine on their back - a Proton Pack?" Sadie watched as they tried to decipher the references from when they watched the movie. "Dustin has a ghost trap and we're working on rigging it properly so it can open and close. It came closed with his outfit.. so it's a bit of work. And then I'm supposed to be stopping by Radioshack to buy something I can dismantle for parts and asking Bob if there was a possibility of me getting a job there for a short while."
"So you're booked and busy." Steve swore under his breath. "I mean my essay is good enough, right?" He looked up at Sadie, who had paused, eyes fixated on the radio fitted in the centre console. "You don't like the music?"
"No - listen." She said, and as the three fell silent they could hear the oncoming aggressive rumble of a car - something that was somewhat familiar to both Sadie and Steve's ears. It only grew louder and as the rumble reached a deafening row, Steve and Nancy climbed out the car, watching as the dark blue Camaro swung into the parking lot.
"Isn't that..." Steve glanced towards Sadie as she nodded.
Nancy looked over. "Who?"
"Some asshole I met in Family Video last night." Sadie replied, clutching her books to her chest as they watched the car come to a stop, a song recently released by The Scorpions blaring out before abruptly coming to a stop.
First, a girl with ginger hair emerged from the doors, putting down a skateboard and heading towards the middle school without so much as a glance at the gawking high schoolers.
Then, moments later, Sadie watched as the customer from the previous night stepped out of the car. Black boots, blue denim jeans and jacket, a white tank top marred by the same silver chain that Sadie had observed the previous day. The sun haloed around his curled mullet, although she doubted severely that it was nothing more than a mere coincidence.
Carol looked as though her and Tommy H had never been going out for the past few years, lips smacking as she chewed her gum obnoxiously. Tina, who had Mike Lewinsky constantly hanging on to her side like a lost puppy twirled her hair around her finger making some comment that the group by the BMW couldn't hear. Vicki was smirking, eyelashes fluttering in a somewhat pretty yet inately stupid way.
But Sadie was surprised to find that it was neither of the three clearly interested girls, instead turning to look over at Sadie, meeting her eyes only briefly before turning and making his way towards the school, and the three hawk-eyes of Tina, Vicki and Carol turned towards Sadie.
"What did I say." The blonde shrugged, unable to fight the embarassed flush from the newly hostile attention. "Some asshole I met in Family Video."
✧
He was called Billy - well, William, but he had given the teacher such a glare when introducing him as such before promptly correcting him - Hargrove and he was from California, which seemed to explain a lot. The tan, the car, the attitude that differed so far from the personalities of any of the countryside town of Hawkins. They were in the middle of nowhere closer to the border of Canada than the east coast, he was from the city on the west near to Mexico - it was sunny and warm and desirable in comparison to Indiana.
She had found this out within twenty minutes after entering the school, seeing as when the door pushed open into her English class and interrupted Mr Boushebel during his reading of the final few chapters of Frankenstein, which had been the main focus of their lessons and required reading for a while now.
He had taken Barb's old seat. Or.. well the empty seat where she had once sat that had remained empty for a while now, even though the new year brought in a new seating plan for the class. Nancy still sat behind Ally there, but Sadie had been moved across closer to the front, which seemed to be why she constantly felt as though she was being watched; every time she turned ever so slightly there was a tightening of denim jacket against skin, the adjustment of legs, the slightest wink of an eye.
She left the lesson to find Tina handing out flyers to her Halloween party, the dark haired girl ensuring that Sadie got one personally, pulling her out of the lines of people and saying something about hoping that she could come.
It didn't seem to get better even after the first few bells to signal the end and start of lesson throughout the morning came and went; lunch was spent with Sadie helping tutor some of the freshman in new Biology topics they didn't understand whilst Nancy took off with Steve for a little while.
After lunch was Chemistry, and Kaminsky's sharp eye had caught the new student immediately as he slinked into the classroom, deciding it would be best to seat him besides Sadie. It was such a strange contrast when the Henderson thought about it. Mr Clarke and Mr Kaminsky, both science teachers, but one far nicer than the other.
"Sadie." A voice muttered, and the girl was broken out of her fiddling with the small machine that Mike had found and wondered if she could identify. Surprisingly enough it was Billy, and even more shocking was his lack of attempts to speak to her, despite the amount of flirting he was pushing her way.
"Hm?" Sadie looked towards him, not noticing how he shifted his position once again, the new boy taking note of the item on her hands and the lack of words on the notepad below it.
Billy didn't say anything, too amused by the situation to do so, instead nudging her towards where the teacher was stood.
"Nice of you to join us, Henderson. Would you be able to tell us the various types of bonding between molecules?" Kaminsky was staring at her expectantly. He always did this - he was the type of teacher who appeared to hate his students, giving them the hardest tests, setting inane amounts of homework and expecting extremely high things of them. He didn't like it when someone met his high standards, and it was far to say Sadie surpassed them.
"...Yeah, I can." The blonde replied. "How many types are you looking for? Covalent, ionic, metallic.. Covalent bonds are when an electron is shared between non-metals, ionic is when the atoms are both non-metal and metal and create ionic compounds, and as the name suggests, metallic bonding is when atoms are positively charged metals surrounded by conduction electrons in what is called an electron cloud of delocalised electrons. There are different meaning for delocalised electrons in organic, quantum and solid-state chemistry however it just generally means they're not associated with a single atom or covalent bond."
"As expected, thank you Miss Henderson." Kaminsky didn't look all as impressed as he sounded, turning away back to the class and Sadie back to fiddling with the machine. It was incredibly clear that she knew what she was talking about and hardly any point her actually being there in class.
What she didn't realise were the eyes focused on the side of her head, wide and somewhat curious about what he was seeing.