𝐎𝐂𝐓𝐎𝐁𝐄𝐑 𝟐𝟖 𝟏𝟗𝟖𝟒
ᴍᴀᴅᴍᴀx
𝐉𝐔𝐋𝐈𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐄 𝐀𝐌𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐒𝐀𝐓 𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐏𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐓 𝐏𝐎𝐑𝐂𝐇 𝐓𝐎 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐇𝐎𝐌𝐄, tapping the tune of Piano Man playing from her Walkman onto her thigh. The young girl looked up when hearing the familiar car approaching.
"How long have you been waiting?"
The girl stood up, dusting the dirt of her dress before walking over to the car. "Not long. I wanted to make sure you weren't waiting." Juliette spoke with a smile, getting into the passenger car.
"And I said I don't mind if I wait. It's better then you getting sick and me having to bring over soup." He shook his head, pulling back onto the road. "It's fine, Stevie." The young girl chuckled under her breath, putting her Walkman into her backpack.
The Harrington boy sighed, a small smile on his face. "What song are you listening to now?" He glanced over to her then back to the road, his arm resting on the window seal.
"Billy Joel, Piano Man."
"Oh, the one I gave you. Have you listened to the others yet?" Steve had given a bunch of old cassettes and vinyl's to her a week ago. Without telling her, he had brought some new ones he knew she'd enjoy. "I've listened to the David Bowie ones so far but I love them. Thank you."
"No problem. You have money for the arcade?"
"Yep. Dory gave me some and I've saved up from babysitting Noah next door."
Steve and Juliette had met on accident. Well on accident after the whole El, Will, Upside Down, Demogorgon incident. Since then he had become a big brother to her. Steve would drive her places, drop her at school, and even after her bike broke Steve fixed it for her after dropping her off home.
Juliette didn't have parents. She had been in Foster care since she could remember. When she arrived at Hawkins a while back, she met the party. Juliette had saw them playing D&D and snuck up behind them, telling them that if they were to chose a certain move that they'd die. Mike, of course, didn't listen and then ended up dying in the game. Since then, Juliette Amour was known as Buttercup in D&D and Lu to the party.
She resided with her foster guardian, Doris Smith, also known as Dory. Dory's an older woman. After her husband past, she decided to foster a child since she never had any of her own. Juliette had been with her for the last two years.
It didn't take long until the teenager pulled into the parking lot of the arcade, coming to a stop. "I'll be back in two hours. You ask Keith for the phone to call me if you need to. Okay?" Steve turned to her once stationary. Juliette smiled and nodded to him. "Yes. And if he declines I say 'I know Steve Harrington and he'll come kick your ass'." Steve chuckled under his breath.
Steve Harrington grew up with two parents, unlike Juliette, but when Steve was old enough to take care of himself they left him to do as such. Steve began to resent his parents for that reason. He became an asshole with the title of King Steve in high school. Being the popular jock gave him the attention he never really had. But every King is replaced and his crown fell when he ran back into the Byers home of 1983.
The boy then met Juliette and the two immediately clicked. Steve and Juliette understood each other more then they did with the others. Steve might have had parents, but they where never really there. Steve wanted to be there for Lu. He wanted to make sure she could talk to him, ring him because she wanted to talk to someone or needed a ride. He wanted a little sibling when he was younger and Juliette always wanted an older brother. It just so happened to be each other.
"Exactly. Now. . ." Steve grabbed something from his jacket pocket, handing it to her. "Just encase. I know what the others are like. Get yourself something to eat if not we can grab burgers after."
"Thank you, Stevie." Juliette leant over to hug him. "I'll pay you back." She shot back, getting out the car.
"No, no, no. That's my treat. Dustin's gonna steal your change since you can't say no to those idiots." Juliette laughed back, waving at him as she walked towards the arcade.
"Bye, Stevie!"
"Bye!"
The young girl laughed while heading towards the building, seeing the three bikes outside the building. A small bundle of nerves gathered in the pit of her stomach. It wasn't the actual idea of being around her friends, it was the noise of where they were. See, Juliette wasn't just a member of the party, knowing of the upside down because her friend went missing and a telekinetic girl appeared in the woods. Juliette was different. She had. . . abilities of sorts.
Juliette started to have weird dreams. Small things ended up becoming real. One night she dreamt of her and her friends biking and Mike fell, grazing his arm. The next day, the same exact thing happened. It was weird. Her dreams came true. Until she realised that she was just seeing the future. She couldn't control them nor did she understand them.
Before the incident of November 1983, Juliette started to have other unfathomable things happen. She got bad headaches for a while and then a weird faint mumble sound echoed in the back of her mind. The migraines faded but the chatter got louder and she realised that she was hearing other people's thoughts.
She avoided trying to deal with those weird unknown abilities and tried to move on with her life, going to school, D&D campaigns. But it never went away. It got worse where it would tire her out and the boys began to notice. It was fun at first when she could use her. . . magic, to figure out Lucas' next move or what Mike was planning in those campaigns. When the boys realised, it made no sense but they tired to help as much as they could, figuring out that music could drown out voices when it got to loud.
Some time later, El appeared and soon her own abilities where revealed along with the number tattooed on her wrist and the warning of 'Bad men' after her. That week El tried to help Juliette with her mind abilities. She taught her the void and tried to explain with the few words she spoke.
That lead them to the night Will came home and El died. The bad men did arrive to take El 'home'. Doctor Brenner never got the chance as a Demogorgon climbed through the wall in the middle school and the piercing ringing in Juliette's ears erupted a scream that revealed the same telekinetic powers Eleven had. Only, Juliette didn't have a number or any indication as to how, where or why she got got them.
In that past year Juliette had to learn to control her abilities without the only other superpowered girl. It was hard to lose El that night. It was nice that Will did come home.
Juliette took a breath before stepping inside. Once her foot was in the door a hand had already grabbed hers, dragging her along.
"Come on, Lu."
"I'm coming." She chuckled at the boy, catching up with him as the duo joined the others by the machines, Dragon's Lair.
Juliette had given everyone she was close with a nickname. Lucas was Luc (Luke) Dustin was Dusty, Mike - Mikey and Will was Wily. The boys gave her the nickname of Lu. Party embers only. She didn't know why that exact name, all she does was a week after officially joining the party she got kicked out of the Wheeler's basement until being dragged back with her knew nickname. Lu.
"Oh, Jesus! I'm in uncharted territory here, guys."
"Down! Down! Down!" The four shouted to Dustin as he used the switch to move down. "I'm going! I'm going!" The four continued to shout directions at the Henderson boy, watching as the knight on the screen dodged the dragon.
"I'm going! I'm going!" He cheered, getting the knight to escape and towards the sword. "Okay. Shut up. Shut up. Shut up." Dustin screeched to his friends around him, clicking on the button repeatedly.
The excitement didn't last long as the knight got burnt, turning into a skeleton on the screen. "No, No. No! I hate this overpriced bullshit!" Dustin exclaimed. "Son of a bitch! Piece of shit!"
"Chill, Dusty." Juliette took his hand away from hitting the machine once again. She gets that he's angry, but she doesn't want to apologise to Keith for her friends annoyance and losing the game again.
"You're not nimble enough. But you'll get there one day." Lucas tried to reassure him. "But until then, Princess Daphne is still mine." The boy's smile faded when Juliette hit his arm. "Ow." He rubbed the spot she hit him.
"Whatever. I'm still tops on Centipede and Dig Dug."
"You sure about that?" The five turned to the voice near them. Keith, employee of the Arcade, stood, popping a chip into his mouth.
"Sure about what?"
Sharing a look, the five rushed over to the machines, Dustin in front as he pushed through the kids there age, nudging them aside. "You're kidding me. No, no, no." they all dogged the people around them, Juliette apologising on her friends behalf. "Move! Move! No, no, no, no, no. Hey, no! No! No!"
"751,300 points!" Will exclaimed as looked at the score chart on the screen.
"That's impossible."
"Whoa! Who beat you?" Juliette smiled, that was pretty impressive since Dustin spent hours on that machine to get top points and now a new name topped his score. "Who's Mad Max?" Dustin looked over to Keith.
"Better than you."
"Is it you?" Will asked while Juliette pulled Dustin's hand down as he was holding up his middle finger to the employee. "You know I despise Dig Dug."
"Then who is it?"
"Yeah, spill it, Keith."
"You want information, then I need something in return." Keith answered, eating another chip as the four turned to Mike. "No, no, no. No way. You're not getting a date with her."
"Mike, come on. Just get him the date."
"I'm not prostituting my sister!"
"Keith, Steve's dating her. I know for a fact that they aren't breaking up soon." Juliette shrugged. She knew how much they loved each other. On one of their dates Juliette had used the walkie talkie to call over to him. He picked her up, the young girl not realising that he and Nancy were going to the diner for a date. The teens let her come anyway, the three having dinner together. Juliette was oblivious to third wheeling said date.
"Yeah, don't get him the date." Dustin interrupted. "Know what? He's gonna spread his nasty-ass rash to your whole family."
"Acne isn't a rash and it isn't contagious, you prepubescent wastoid." The older boy shot back and the girl rolled her eyes as her friends began to bicker with him. "Oh, I'm a wastoid? She wouldn't even go on a date with you."
Juliette had realised that the Byers boy walked away from the group. A frown on her face as she tuned out the conversation and focused on Will. She thought maybe his mom or brother was outside already. Seeing the boy walk out the arcade, Juliette turned to Mike, tapping his shoulder.
"What's wrong?" He furrowed his eyebrows.
Juliette pointed over to Will and Mike immediately rushed to his friends side. The girl turned back to Dustin and pulled him back, defusing the petty argument. "Let it go, Dusty. Why don't we just have another go on Dig Dug." She smiled at him, Dustin nodded and let Juliette guide him back to the machine.