WE'RE TOO UNCOOL FOR
STEVE HARRINGTON
AND HIS GROUPIES !
☀︎
ALEX HENDERSON HAD PEDDLED FAST TO GET TO HAWKINS MIDDLE SCHOOL. All that had seemed to matter in that time was to find Will Byers and be certain of his safety. The moment she had pulled up to the middle school, the bike stand had held only three familiar bikes. Dropping hers down beside them, she figured to head inside anyways in case Will had decided on walking to school instead.
It wasn't long before the sound of three hectic, young boys had come floating down the hall. Knowing exactly where her brother's locker had been, she followed those voices to that same spot. However, before she could even give them a wave, her brother had greeted her in an entirely different way.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Dustin's voice called out to her. Rolling her eyes and giving him a sarcastic smile, she held her hands out before slapping them down to her sides. "Yeah, it's me here to purposely annoy you. Have you guys seen Will?"
"Will?" Mike questioned her. Alex nodded her head in response only to get two head shakes and an annoyed response from her brother, "Weren't you over at the Byers this morning? Maybe if you had your eyes open and your mind off Jonathan you'd get your answer."
"Ew, are you and Jonathan dating?" Mike asked in disgust, glancing over to the other two.
"Oh, I bet they are. They always say they're going out to take pictures together but we all
know they're just making out behind the arcade!" Lucas laughed, making kissing noises in Alex's direction.
"Shut up," Dustin said just as Mike pushed Lucas towards the locker to get him to stop. Even though they were just kids, Alex always loved being around them. They were a guaranteed way to make her laugh, even if they had always tried their hardest to get under her skin.
"Just tell me if you've seen Will, weirdos."
"Nope. Still haven't seen him yet," Dustin responded. However, he had been struggling to keep his hand clasped over Lucas's mouth, attempting to stop him from making a kissing face in Alex's direction to further tease her.
Reaching out, Alex pried her brother's hands off of Lucas as she addressed them all. "I'm gonna go call Jonathan and let him know then. Could you guys just keep an eye out for him? If he turns up, have him call his mom, please."
"What's the magic word?" Lucas shot back.
"She said please, dipshit!" Mike yelled, giving Lucas a hard shove on the shoulder. As Lucas had proceeded to shove him back, Mike had nodded towards Alex, "We'll look out for him!"
"Sheesh, suck up much?" Lucas mumbled. "Don't you know she's already all over Jonathan?" Once again, Lucas had begun to tease Alex as much as he could. That had been her obvious clue that it had been time for her to head out and get to the high school. Ruffling the top of Dustin's head, she gave them each a quick goodbye over Lucas's teasing.
After leaving the boys behind, Alex had been making quick work of finding the nearest payphone to call up the Byers for unfortunate news. However, the moment she had dug around in her pockets, she had realized that she was carrying no money on her whatsoever. Rather than going to find Dustin for any money, she decided on another option.
"Hey, kid. Give me some money so I can use this thing." Reaching out, she hit a kid gently on the arm to get him to focus on her. She had no idea who he was but she didn't care at this point, she needed money. "It's important. Come on!" the eagerness in her voice had the kid digging in his pockets until he held out some money for her.
"Thanks! I owe ya!" She patted his head with one hand while taking the money in the other. She dialed the Byers number as quickly as she could and instantly Jonathan picked up on the other end.
"Hey, I just checked out the middle school but there's no sign of him here. I told the boys to keep an eye out and call you if he shows up though."
A deep sigh escaped Jonathan's mouth only making Alex feel worse than she had before. All she wanted was to bring him some good news yet there seemed to be none coming their way shortly. "Thanks for checking anyways. You should probably get to school. My mom would kill us if she knew you missed class."
"I can skip," she said quickly. At this point, there was no convincing her that school was more important than Will missing.
"No, Alex. It's fine. I'll fill you in after school if anything changes. My moms going to go see Hopper I think."
"Hopper can be a bit of an ass but he'd help find him, you know." Glancing around her surroundings, Alex had hoped that at any moment Will would come out from the crowd of kids with a smile on his face and shyly make his way toward her. Yet, that wasn't going to happen and the voice of Jonathan had reminded her that their luck wasn't great so far.
"I'll come by the school if I need you," he said quietly. Alex nodded her head in response, "Yeah, that's fine with me. I'll see you later, okay?"
Jonathan was hesitant as he had given her a goodbye, almost regretting not telling her to skip school for him. He had played it off that this wasn't going to be a big deal and Will would turn up soon, but his hopeful attitude was quickly diminishing. At the same time, both had hung up the phone, letting out held in deep sighs.
『••☀︎••』
IT HADN'T BEEN A LONG RIDE FROM THE MIDDLE SCHOOL TO THE HIGH SCHOOL. Coming to her locker, she hadn't expected a visit from Steve as he usually did the year prior. Every day, he would stand by her locker, waiting until either she had shown up or the bell had rung before heading to his class.
This year was different. His friends had made it clear to Steve that Alex wasn't exactly up to their standards of cool to hang out with all the time. And now, Steve had found himself someone else that had earned notes in her lockers and meetups before class. Everything that he used to do for Alex.
At her locker, Alex had quickly gathered up her belongings for class before she had spotted her friends down the hall already in conversation. Shutting her locker, she raced her way over and tapped Nancy on the shoulder. "Hey, did you see Will leave your house last night?"
"I don't know, I think so?" Nancy seemed disinterested in the conversation at hand and held up the note that was folded in her hand. "I should get going, guys. I'll see you guys later, okay?"
Both Barb and Alex had turned to one another with frowns as Nancy had practically skipped her way to the bathroom. Raising her hands out, Alex soon let them fall to her side in annoyance. "Sheesh, what's that all about?"
Rolling her eyes, Barb shut Nancy's locker for her in clear annoyance. "Typical Nance wanting to make out with Steve in the bathroom."
"Gross," Alex whispered, masking her disappointment with pure disgust.
Barb cocked an eyebrow at Alex suspiciously, "Jealous? You said you didn't like Steve."
"I don't like Steve," Alex said quietly, "He's my best friend. It's just always talk about Nancy now. It's getting boring."
"He's so not your best friend anymore," Barb scoffed. Linking arms with Alex, she pulled her down the hall to head toward class. "You spend more time with Jonathan Byers now and Steve's just too cool for that. Face it, people like us, we're too uncool for Steve Harrington and his groupies."
"Are you calling Nancy a groupie now?" Alex questioned teasingly. "And honestly, who even cares if we're too uncool for them. Who in hell would willingly want to spend time with Tommy and Carol?"
"Apparently Nancy now," Barb groaned.
"I'm happy for Nance," Alex said quietly. "Despite what you think, Steve's a nice guy. Bonus, he's super funny too. Who wouldn't like him?"
Taking her question to heart, Barb pointed to herself. "Me. I don't like him. But apparently, you totally do. Nice and funny? No one has ever used those words to describe Steve Harrington." Barb looked down at Alex and saw that her smile had disappeared. Feeling terrible for what she had said, she pulled Alex closer to her. "Hey, I'm not gonna tell Nance."
"I don't like Steve," Alex reminded her hesitantly. Completely in denial of her feelings, she had shaken off the conversation entirely and shifted the conversation to entirely less entertaining talk— school.
『••☀︎••』
WHEN THE LAST BELL HAD RUNG, ALEX DIDN'T WASTE A SECOND AS SHE HAD RUSHED TO THROW HER BELONGINGS INTO HER BACKPACK. School was over and the faster she could get to the Byers, the faster she would be able to help them out. However; her plans were cut a little short as Steve Harrington had come up to her locker.
"What's the rush, Henderson?" Steve slammed her locker shut for her, blocking her from taking off.
From the sound of his voice, Alex didn't even bother looking up at him. It was obvious who it was and she was in a rush to zip up her bag. "I'm really sorry, Steve, but I have to cancel movie plans tonight."
"Right... we had movie plans..." Steve looked off down the hallway, hoping she wouldn't notice that he had forgotten.
Throwing her bag over her shoulder, she gave him a cold glare. "You forgot."
He was instantly offended and took a step back to show his surprise. "I did not forget!" In return, Alex rolled her eyes and began walking down the halls with him trailing close behind.
"Did you make plans with Nancy, Harrington?" she called behind her shoulder.
"No way! I just... I told my parents I would be home for dinner. They're having guests over and they want me there..." That had been the quickest lie he could come up with on the spot, fingers crossed that Alex would believe him. However, that didn't take away from the guilt he had for lying to her in the first place.
She pushed through the doors of the school, heading straight towards her bike, not actually caring what Steve had said. He could've said anything and none of it could compare to her need to get to the Byers' house.
"Okay, that's fine. Now we're both busy! We can hang out on a different night," she smiled at him before climbing her bike and racing off down the street. Watching as she peddled away, Steve saw as the eagerness took over her as she nearly hit someone then just barely crashing into a car along the way. Running a hand over his face, he began to wonder how he could lie to the one person that he knew he could trust with his whole heart.