★☆
CHAPTER ONE ; PRETENTIOUS ART STUDENTS ARE THE WORST
also known as;
( the disappearance of will byers )
★☆
HAWKINS HIGH WAS NOT STELLA COLLINS' FAVOURITE PLACE. This was a well known fact, as she was seen complaining at least twelve times a day to anyone who wanted to listen. She couldn't really help it, it wasn't her fault that the building constantly smelled like socks combined with rotting cafeteria food and spilled soda. The floors always happened to be sticky and there was a thick, lingering cloak of cheap cologne constantly hanging over everyone's head.
But the people, she felt, were what really sealed the deal for her. She had never been part of such a group who ridiculed and loathed with fake smiles and bad fashion to hide behind until she started high school. She, herself, believed in honesty. She had openly said on plenty of occasions that she would rather people gave her shit to her face instead of laughing when she couldn't see or hear them.
"Collins, off the roller-skates!" Stella barely heard the scolding voice of Mrs Murphy, the school principal as she raced through the corridors, her headphones pressed against her ears with rock music blaring far too loud. Students parted quickly when they saw her coming, many glaring at the tall brunette and her arms that were full of food, paints and a big art book. It was always a strange sight, but many of the students had grown used to the eccentric but strangely introverted girl. "Estella!"
With her thick eyebrows furrowed in concentration, Stella turned the corner and burst through the doors of the art room, startling her two best friends inside. As if on cue, the shrill bell rang over the top of her panting. She dropped her belongings on an empty table before ripping her headphones off her ears and hitting the 'stop' button on her walkman, freezing the drum solo. "Morning!"
"You scared me," the soft voice of Leilani Kahue sighed, though her lips were slightly upturned. Stella grinned back at her, picking up a packet of fruit gushers and tossing them carelessly in her direction. The tanned girl reached out to catch them, fumbling a little before grasping the plastic tightly. "Thanks, Stell."
"Why can't you just walk like a normal person?" Kevin Gold asked as Stella threw him a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos. He ripped them open easily and dug in, feeding his appetite eagerly. With his mouth full of food, he pointed down at her pastel pink and white skates. "Those are a safety hazard."
"I'm saving up for a car, Kev," Stella shot back, grabbing her book, paints and Capri Sun. She leaned forward on the brakes of her shoes and tiptoed to her usual seat at their shared table, dropping everything on the surface. "Besides, everyone here moves too slow."
"You shouldn't be in a rush when you have a free period," Kevin retorted quickly, a pencil in one hand and the other digging into the blue bag of chips. His eyes were concentrated on his work, though his mind appeared to be somewhere else. He was usually like that, though whenever he was asked about it he would insist everything was okay. "It's not healthy."
"But eating an entire bag of Doritos is?" Stella pointed out, causing Leilani to giggle softly. This only widened the strange girl's smile, triumphant she had made the wholesome girl laugh so early in the morning. "I don't even know why I got 'em for you, you still owe me from last week."
"That was cause I was running late, you know how my mum is on weekends," the filipino boy grumbled, referring to the time he offered to buy the other two cinema tickets but ended up having to borrow their money to pay for his own. "I didn't have time to grab cash."
"Get yourself a purse, we sell them at work," Stella suggested without hesitance as she aggressively poked her straw through her drink. "We got some real cute sequin fanny packs in yesterday."
"I'm not getting a fanny pack," said Kevin matter-of-factly, to which Stella scoffed.
"Why not?"
"Cause you have a fanny pack, and you're the farthest from cool I've ever seen," he finally looked up at her with a pointed expression. Stella beamed.
"Actually, Stella's been asked out on several occasions, she just scares them away," Leilani piped up, and Stella clicked her fingers in the girl's direction, agreeing.
"Precisely," she shrugged, taking a sip of her juice and opening her brightly coloured art book. "Apparently pretentious art students are the worst. It's a shame none of them got to meet my mother. Or you, Kev."
"I'm not pretentious," Kevin pulled a face, only to be met with silence. He glanced up again to see the two girls staring at him with disagreeing looks upon their faces. He frowned, lifting his hand up to flip them off. "Go blow yourselves."
"Mister Gold, when I allow you to use my room during your free period, I hoped it would be for work, not for telling your peers to 'go blow themselves'," the calm and slightly joking voice of James Thompson, their teacher startled the trio of students. All three heads in the room turned to the tall, grey haired man who stared back with his pointed eyebrows quirked and mouth curved upwards. He placed his briefcase on his old desk, his smile widening as Stella burst into a fit of giggles, her face flushing bright pink in amusement. "I still don't understand how one can be so full of energy in the mornings."
"Neither do we," Leilani and Kevin mused in sync, staring at their bubbly friend with dumbfounded expressions upon their faces.
"Well, since she's so lively this early, she can deliver some messages to students," Mr Thompson picked up a pile of permission slips, using his other hand to wave Stella over. The dark-haired girl swung her legs over the side of her seat and landed on her wheels, rolling over to her teacher and grabbing the paper. "The names and classes are in the top right-hand corner. Be careful on those skates, you hear me?"
"Haven't hurt anyone yet, sir," she flashed him a grin, before spinning around and darting out the room. Using her spare hand, she placed her headphones back over her ears and played her music, far too loud to be healthy.
Quiet halls during the school day were the best, especially when Stella had nothing else to do. She could spend hours zooming down the flat corridors, not having to keep an eye out for anyone just in case she went flying. It made everything a little easier, especially on days when she was Hawkins High's messenger girl.
Each classroom she dropped by, she was either stared at, thanked or told off by the teachers, none of them expecting the eccentric teen to appear in their doorways. It was remarkable how the judgements she received flew straight over her head, seeing as she received plenty.
Rolling up to the last class, she knocked on the door and didn't wait for an answer to open it. Poking her head through, she felt all eyes turn to her, so she allowed a smile to grace her pink lips as she looked down at the two slips in her hand. "Michael Smythe and Jonathan Byers?"
"Thank you, Miss Collins," Mrs Huntly muttered, eyeing her up and down through her thin-rimmed glasses. As her long, sharp fingers snatched the paper from Stella's hands, she sneered slightly. "You shouldn't be in roller-skates, how many times do I have to tell you? And that rock music will destroy your hearing."
Stella shrugged. "I could say the same thing about Mozart's symphony number forty, that's the one you're always listening to, right? And there's no rule against skates in the rule book, and I have enough experience to know not to cause harm to other kids. Have a great day, ma'am!"
Before Mrs Huntly could respond, Stella waved and back out of the doorway, spinning around and dashing down the linoleum floors. She hummed along to the beat of her song as she was about to pass the door of the boys toilets. Unfortunately, as she began to roll past, one of the popular kids was walking out, resulting in a catastrophic outcome.
Both teenagers ended up on the floor, Stella with an aching leg and arm and the boy with a pained behind. He looked over at her with narrowed eyes, scowling. "Watch it, weirdo."
"Maybe you should look both ways before you leave the bathroom," she muttered in response, reaching down to her feet, finally untying her shoes and wincing at her throbbing ankle.
"How the hell was I supposed to expect Mary Queen of Knocks to slam into me like I'm at the roller derby!" he whined, so Stella finally glanced over to see who she had hit. A sigh left her lips and she rolled her eyes once she realised that she had run into the king of the school, Steve Harrington. "You're such a dumbass."
"My apologies, god forbid I hurt the ruler of Hawkins High," she snapped, pushing herself up and using her one skate to roll back to her art class, limping on her other foot. "Have a good one, Mr Harrington."
"Hey!" Steve yelled after her, but it was clear she wanted nothing to do with him. "Hey, I'm talkin' to you!"
As she turned into her classroom, she glanced back only to raise her right hand and stick her middle finger up in his direction. She didn't care for him that much, people who bullied others and called themselves popular confused her, so she decided that if they ever gave her shit, she'd give it right back.
★☆
"Star!" the raspy voice of Mike Wheeler caught Stella's attention as she walked down her driveway, skates in hand. The brunette glanced to her right, seeing him staring over at her with two of his three best friends behind him, the amusing Dustin Henderson and the sarcastic Lucas Sinclair. "We're gonna look for Will tonight, wanna come?"
Stella had lived next door to the middle schooler's family for as long as she could remember, which meant she had known Mike all his life. She was another big sister to him, though she was the one who actually happened to care about what he got up to, unlike his actual sister, Nancy.
Funnily enough, Nancy and Stella used to be good friends, though it wasn't long into elementary school that they grew apart, the Wheeler's shy and awkward nature finding solace in another named Barbara Holland.
She still saw Nancy sometimes, usually when she hung out with her brother, which was a little weird to think about. The twelve year-old kid and his friends appeared to be far more relatable than the smart and boy-crazy teen, who was now rumoured to be dating the one and only king of Hawkins High.
At young Mike Wheeler's words, Stella turned around fully, her thick eyebrows knitted together. "What do you mean, look for Will?"
"He's missing!" Dustin called back, to which Stella nearly dropped her shoes. Her eyes shot wide open and she broke into a fast walk across the lawn so that she was standing in front of the three boys. "Last I saw he was biking home. He didn't come to school today, and we even got interrogated by Chief Hopper."
Stella didn't really know how to respond to the news. She adored Will Byers, he was the sweetest, most considerate kid she had ever met. He was always polite, always looking out for everyone else. He was shy, but since she had known him for so long he was confident and cracked jokes around her. "Are they getting a search party together?"
"Yeah, but we aren't allowed to go," grumbled Lucas. "It's bullshit."
Stella pursed her lips and scratched the back of her head. "Well, I'm working late tonight and I need my paycheck, but you guys can drop in anytime if you need more batteries or flashlights and stuff you can have them for free. If I get off early I'll join the search party, but I'm sure he hasn't gone far."
"But why would he go missing?!" Mike exclaimed, clearly exasperated with the idea that his best friend wasn't at his side like usual. "He'd never do that!"
"I don't know, kid," Stella shrugged, before checking the watch upon her wrist. "If you find him, radio me and I'll meet you anywhere you want. Sound good?"
"Thanks, Star," Dustin gave her a toothless grin, adjusting his cap as she sent them a wave and turned around, running back across the lawn and to her own home.
An unsettling feeling suddenly seeped into her bones as she reached into her pocket to grab her house key, a deep frown appearing on her face. She didn't know what to think, as nothing like this had happened in her little town before.
Nothing like this.
★☆
hope you all enjoyed the first chapter of glory days! once again, i originally intended for stella to be shy or a bitch but now she's both lmao oops
please tell me if you enjoyed it, i love hearing your feedback!
also, this is from the first episode of the show, but i'll try and zoom through the first season because i really wanna get to season 2 yEET