THE OLIVE THEORY
November 4th, 1984
⏰ 4:30 pm, 📍Hawkins, Indiana
༺♥༻ Dustin and Lucas are crouched behind an old car most likely talking about Max.
Stephanie hides on the other side of the car and looks at the two through the broken window.
"You told her?" Dustin whispers.
Lucas shrugs. "So what?"
"So what?" Dustin repeats.
"You wanted to tell her, too."
"But I didn't, alright? We agreed not to tell her and to look for Dart."
Lucas rolls his eyes. "Who you conveniently found."
"Are you suggesting that I'm lying?"
"I'm saying you have a creepy little bond with him."
"Yeah, that was before he turned into a Demogorgan."
"And you haven't heard from Mike?"
"No."
"Or Will?"
"No."
"Hopper?"
"No! No one is around." Dustin lowers his voice. "Why do you think I'm with Steve Harrington?"
"Because of Stephanie?" Lucas asks, confused.
"Oh. Well, yes. But he's the very very last resort."
Rude! Well, I sort of agree.
Lucas starts. "Something's-"
"Wrong. I agree." Dustin finishes.
"Which is why we need as much help as we can get." Lucas says with his hands.
Dustin and Lucas begin to look through the broken window on the other side of the car.
Stephanie ducks down as fast as possible to avoid being seen.
Lucas sighs. "She didn't believe me anyway."
"You probably didn't tell it right."
"That must be it," Lucas scoffs.
Lucas offers his hand out to Dustin. "So, we good?"
Dustin goes to take Lucas's hand but is cut off by Steve banging a chair on the car. "Hey! Dickheads! How come the only one helping me out is this random girl?"
Her name's Max.
"We lose light in forty minutes. Let's go."
Lucas and Dustin don't move.
"Let's go, I said!"
"Alright, asshole! God!" Dustin yells.
Once everyone has gotten to the bus, Steve orders everyone to find metal scraps to cover the windows of the bus with.
After all the hard work of covering each and every hole, it was time to lure Dart in.
Steve pours gasoline on the meat, leading up to the door of the bus.
Everyone walks in the newly secured bus, Dustin looks around outside and closes the door.
————
5:00
༺♥༻ It's Stephanie's job to sit on top of the bus and look out for any Demogorgans.
Every so often, she'll use her binoculars to scan the ground.
But, Stephanie gets distracted by looking at the stars with the binoculars.
The stars look so pretty.
They remind me of her eyes.
While Stephanie is lost in the stars, she hears something from behind her.
Stephanie slightly jumps, in fear that it was Dart, but it was Max.
Oh, shit. Okay. What do I do? What do I say?
The girls sit in silence until Max says, "it's kinda awesome."
"Huh?" Stephanie looks at Max, confused.
Max looks out at the fog. "The fog, I mean. Looks like the ocean."
"You miss it?"
"What?"
"The ocean. The waves? California?"
Max looks away from Stephanie.
"Hawkins seems pretty lame compared to-" Stephanie starts
"No, no, no, it's not that. It's just..." Max hesitates to continue.
Stephanie put her binoculars down on the roof of the bus. "It's okay. You can say it."
"...My dad's still there. So..."
"Why?"
"It's this legal term called 'divorce'."
Stephanie smiles.
"See, when two married people don't love each other anymore-"
Stephanie was going to talk about how she doesn't see her dad (also her mom), but it didn't seem like the right time.
"My mom and my stepdad, they wanted a fresh start away from him. As if...As if he was the problem which is total bull." Max avoids looking at Stephanie. "And things...are just worse now. My stepbrother's always been a dick, but now he's just angry all the time and...Well, he can't take it out on my mom, so..."
Stephanie continues. "So he takes it out on you?"
"I don't even know why I'm telling you this. It's just...I know that I can be a jerk like him sometimes, and I do not want to be like him. Ever. I guess I'm angry, too, and..."
"You are not like him, okay? You are the nicest, prettiest, coolest, most badass person in the world."
Max smiles.
"And you're, like, totally tubular," Stephanie says, mimicking a surfer.
Max laughs. "Nobody actually says that, you know."
Stephanie shrugs. "Well, I do now."
"And it makes you seem really cool."
After a few moments of silence, Stephanie asks, "What's your favorite color?"
"Why?" Max looks at Stephanie, confused.
Stephanie shrugs. "Conversation starter."
"It's probably green."
"That's cool. Mines red."
"Okay my turn," Max says, "what your...favorite food?"
"That's a hard one. Steve usually doesn't make anything so we get take out or order pizza a lot. Probably to a point where it isn't healthy, but I guess I would have to say tacos."
"What do you put on it?"
"Everything. Lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, olives. Lots of olives." Stephanie counts from her hand.
Max grimaces. "Olives? Gross."
Stephanie sits up. "What did you just say? Olives are like, my favorite thing ever."
"How do you eat them? They're so disgusting," Max exclaims, shaking her head back and forth.
"How do you not eat them?" Stephanie grins, just happy to be with Max.
Max laughs, which makes Stephanie laugh. Soon, both girls are laughing uncontrollably.
After the laughter subsides, Stephanie says, "I like talking with you, Mad Max."
"And I like talking with you, Steph."
Both girls look right into each others eyes, almost talking without words.
Their sweet moment is cut off by a loud roar coming from the fog.
After a few seconds of panicked searching left, right, up, and down, Dustin calls out from inside the bus.
"Stephanie, what's going on?"
"Hold on!" Stephanie yells back.
Stephanie grabs her binoculars and starts scanning the ground. She looks around the fog, on the cars, but then she sees Dart slowly walking towards the pile of meat poisoned with gasoline.
"I've got eyes! Ten o'clock! Ten o'clock!"
Max forcefully takes the binoculars away from Stephanie and looks through them. "Wait. You're sure that's not a dog?"
Stephanie doesn't answer Max and instead climbs down the ladder, hoping Max will follow.
She sees Steve and Dustin looking through the boarded up window. "He's not taking the bait. Why is he not taking the bait?" Steve whispers.
"Maybe he's not hungry?" Dustin offers.
"Maybe he's sick of cow," Steve says as he steps back from the window.
Stephanie watches Steve as it looks like he's in deep thought.
Steve walks over to grab his bat.
Stephanie stomach drops. "Steve. What are you doing?"
Steve turns around and holds out the lighter. "Just get ready." And throws it at Dustin.
Stephanie grabs Steve by the arm. "Don't die on me."
Steve nods his head and opens the bus door as quietly as possible. Before fully exiting the bus, he cautiously looked around the fog. Steve starts to walk around the ground, Dustin closing the door behind Steve.
Stephanie hands the binoculars to Lucas. "Here. You can take my job." She looks out the boarded windows, biting her lip as hard as possible to distract herself from all the thoughts.
Steve whistles. "Come on, buddy."
Max climbs down the ladder. "What's he doing?"
"Come on, buddy," Steve says, slowing his steps.
Stephanie walks away from the window and looks at Max. Stephanie didn't say anything but her look was enough to depict what she felt.
Max takes Stephanie's hand. "He'll be okay, Steph. I promise."
Neither of the girls let go.
Dustin hasn't peeled his eyes away from Steve. "He's awesome."
Max looks through the window. "He's insane."
"He's gonna die," Stephanie says, tasting the blood from her lip. It's taking everything within Stephanie to not follow her brother out there.
Steve continues swinging the bat in front of him until the fog clears and reveals Dart.
Dart's growling and by the looks of it, ready to attack.
Steve freezes in his tracks.
Then Lucas yells out, "Steve, watch out!"
"A little busy here!"
"Three o'clock! Three o'clock!"
There's another monster crawling onto on of the cars.
Now there's two Demogorgans waiting to pounce at Steve.
Stephanie let's go of Max's hand and opens the bus door. "Steve! Come back!"
Dustin follows Stephanie. "Abort! Abort!"
Dart roars and runs full speed towards Steve.
Stephanie backs up away from the door and finds herself holding Max's hand again.
Steve gets ready to hit Dart with his bat, but another Demogorgan starts running at Steve.
He swings his bat, and rolls up onto the hood of a car. A Demogorgan jumps at Steve, but he hits it with his bat.
Now, all kids are at the door, screaming.
"Steve, run!"
"Steve, hurry!"
"Run!"
"Please, hurry, Steve!"
Steve runs back into the bus with the Demogorgan running close behind him. He dives into the open doors and kicks it closed.
But still, every Demogorgan is running into the closed door.
"Are they rabid or something?" Max yells.
Steve pushes against the door.
"They can't get in! They can't!" Lucas yells, probably reassuring himself more than anyone else.
Despite Steve's efforts, Dart was able to break through the door.
All the kids scatter far away from the door.
Dustin screams, "shit!"
Steve hits Dart over and over again while Stephanie and Max are hiding behind a broken seat in the back. Squeezing each others hands out of pure fear.
Dustin yells into his walkie. "Is anyone there? Mike? Will? God? Anyone!"
The banging get louder. And louder.
Dustin continues yelling. "We're are the old junkyard, and we are going to die!"
Steve keeps hitting Dart with his bat. Stephanie notices Max looking up at the roof.
There, she noticed footsteps denting the metal. Soon, the only noise are the footsteps, until one of the Demogorgans looks through the uncovered hole on the roof.
It's looking straight down at the girls. Both of them scream while Steve runs to them.
"Out of the way! Out of the way! You want some? Come get this!" Steve screams as he threatened it with his nailed bat.
The Demogorgan roars until it looks away and backs down off the roof. It growls towards a sound that seems like roars coming from many monsters. It jumps off the bus, shaking it.
As everyone regains their balance, Stephanie and Max notice that they haven't let go of each others hands.
The sounds of distant roars are audible. Steve slowly opens the bus door, braced for a fight.
There are no monsters. Nowhere to be seen.
"What happened?" Lucas asks, stepping out of the bus.
Max sighs. "I don't know."
"Steve scared them off?" Dustin offers."
"No. No way." Steve looks at the kids.
Stephanie shudders. "They're going somewhere."
"I think Steph's right." Steve motions towards his sister.
༺♥༻
THE OLIVE THEORY?!?!?!?
tbh i knew i was gonna add the olive theory before i knew what to name stephanie