Holly, Jolly
The next morning, Catherine sat behind Nancy during first period, both girls noticing that their friend Barb was absent from her seat next to Nancy. Nancy turned around in her seat to see her friend slumped over her desk. With a frown on her face she asked, "hey, Cat. You seen Barb at all today?"
The girl shook her head, sitting up slightly in her seat. "No, not since I left the so-called party last night."
"Why did you leave so early anyway?" Nancy asked, curious as to why she had disappeared so early into the evening.
"Because I knew Barb wasn't going to stay and I wasn't about to become the fifth wheel while you hung out with your boyfriend and his friends."
Nancy nodded her head in understanding before tuning back around in her seat and tapping the shoulder of the girl who sat in front of her. "Hey, Ally." The girl, Ally, turned her head to Nancy. "Where's Barb?"
"Um, shouldn't you two know?" The girl answered as Nancy shared a look of concern with Catherine, the girl slowly falling asleep at her desk.
"You haven't seen her anywhere... at all?" Nancy asked, leaning forward in her seat slightly. Ally shook her head, turning back in her seat so she was facing the front of the classroom.
***
At lunch Cat followed Nancy to the table where Steve, Tommy and Carol were sat at. Seeing as Barb was nowhere to be found, and she didn't want to sit alone, this was her only option. Sit with her best friend's boyfriend and his bullies for friends.
The girls placed their lunch trays on the table, although Cat's held a lot less food than Nancy's, as both girls took a seat. Nancy sat next to Steve- as usual- while Catherine sat on the end of the table on her friend's other side. She sighed as she saw Carol's foot on the table, the girl showing the others the bite on her ankle. The sight was enough to put Cat off of the little food she had and she pushed her tray away from her, deciding that skipping one meal wouldn't hurt.
The two girls caught the tail-end of the conversation about Carol's ankle. "Well, if it's not frostbite, then what is it?"
"Ugh," Steve groaned. "I don't care what it is, it's disgusting! Get it off the table. We're eating here." Carol lifted her leg off of the table, kicking Cat's leg as she adjusted her legs beneath the table top. Cat flinched slightly, sending a glare towards the girl opposite her.
"Hey, Tommy." Nancy spoke to the boy opposite her boyfriend. "When you left, did you see Barb?"
"What?" the boy asked through a mouthful of food. Cat stared at him in disgust.
"She's talking about our friend Barbara." Cat explained. "You know, tall, red-head. Wears glasses." Nancy nodded at her friend, showing that that was who she was talking about.
"Yeah, she's not here today." Nancy elaborated.
"I seriously have no idea who the two of you are talking about." Tommy told them as Cat rolled her eyes and sighed in annoyance.
"Come on, don't be an ass, man." Steve said. "Did you... Did you see her leave last night or not?"
"No, she was gone when we left." Tommy told the three sitting opposite him and Carol.
"Probably couldn't stand listening to all that moaning." Carol interjected through a mouthful of food and Catherine looked at her in confusion as the girl started moaning. Cat sent Nancy a look, understanding exactly what Carol was going on about, despite not having been there.
"Listen... I'm sure she's fine." Steve attempted to reassure the girls, although Cat knew he was mainly talking to Nancy. "She's probably just... she's probably just, like, skipping or something." Both Nancy and Cat shared a look knowing that it wasn't like their friend to skip school. She always had 100% attendance, never missing a day of school in her life. Unlike Catherine who tended to skip a lot of her classes, especially recently.
"Yeah." Nancy said, unconvinced by Steve's words. "Yeah, probably." The girl looked over to the doorway, seeing Jonathan and making eye contact with the boy. She tapped Cat's shoulder, getting the girl's attention. Cat looked over at her friend, bidding farewell to Nancy knowing the others wouldn't notice her leaving.
She ran out of the lunch hall and down the corridor, calling out to her friend. "Jonathan! Hey, Byers!"
The boy turned around and waited for her to catch up to him. When she did, she bent over her knees trying to catch her breath. "Out of breath?" He asked her as the girl shook her head in denial.
"Ha, ha." Cat laughed sarcastically as the two friends started walking down the hall. "Wanna hang out for a bit? Not particularly fond of my next lesson."
Jonathan looked at his friend. "You're not skipping chemistry again, are you?" He looked at disapprovingly.
Cat smiled. "Oh yeah. The teacher is so boring and he's gonna make me take the test that I missed the other day! And I haven't studied at all." She pulled out her packet of cigarettes, picking one and placing it between her lips.
"You do realise that one of these days those things are gonna kill you." Jonathan told her, watching as she pulled the lighter out of her pocket, lighting the stick that was hanging from her lips.
Catherine held the lit cigarette between her fingers, letting the smoke blow from her lips. "That's the point." She stated with a serious look on her face, watching as her friend looked at her in concern.
***
A bit later after the last period, Cat stood at the phone box outside the school, leaning against it with another cigarette between her lips while she watched Nancy call Barb's house to find out if she really had just skipped school that day.
"Come on, come on, come on..." Nancy muttered as the line rang. A second later she spoke into the phone so Cat assumed that someone at the house had picked up. She moved closer to Nancy so she could try and hear whoever was on the other end. "Hi, uh, Ms. Holland, it's Nancy."
"Oh, Nancy, how are you?" Cat heard her friend's mother speak through the receiver, although her voice was faint. The girl blew out smoke from her lips, causing Nancy to let out a cough. She grabbed the cigarette from her friend and chucked it onto the pavement, making sure to step on it and put out the death stick. Catherine let out a sigh, placing another one between her lips, this time leaving it unlit.
"Good. I'm good." Nancy spoke into the phone. "Um, I was just wondering, uh, is Barb there?"
"Mmm... No, she hasn't come home yet." The older woman informed the teen.
"But she did come home, right? After the vigil?" Nancy asked and Cat sensed the worry in her voice.
"No, she said she was staying with you last night." Cat could hear how confused the lady was.
"Right, yes. She did, sorry." Nancy apologised. "I meant, did she come home this morning? I think she left some textbooks and she was gonna go pick them up."
"Oh, um, no, I haven't seen her." Ms. Holland told her and Catherine frowned in confusion. Where could Barb be?
"Do- Do you know what? I just remembered... she's at the library." Nancy told the woman.
"Nancy, will you please have her call me as soon as you find her?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I will. Sorry to bother you." She said as she hung up the phone. The two girls shared a look of worry for where their friend could be.
The two girls walked over to where Steve, Carol, Tommy and some girl named Nichole (someone Cat never spoke to) were ganging up on Jonathan. Cat propped her bike against her side as Nancy asked the group, "what's going on?"
"Here's the starring lady." Cat looked at Tommy in confusion, already hating his presence.
"What?" Nancy asked, just as confused as her friend.
"This creep was spying on us last night." Carol spat. "He was probably gonna save this one for later." She handed one of the photos to Nancy while she stared at Jonathan. Cat looked at the photo that was in Nancy's hands. She looked away, feeling like that wasn't a photo she had the right to look at; her friend being in just her bra, standing at the window of what Cat knew was Steve's room.
Steve clicked his tongue. "See, you can tell that he knows it was wrong, but..." He walked up to Jonathan who had a guilty look on his face. "Man, that's the thing about perverts... It's hardwired into 'em. You know, they just can't help themselves." He ripped up the photos that were in his hands as Carol and Tommy looked through the rest, laughing. "So..." Steve continued, ripping up more photos. "we'll just have to take away his toy."
"Steve..." Nancy called to him, her arms folded over her chest.
"No, please, not the camera." Jonathan pleaded, his voice quiet and scared. For a tall boy, he suddenly seemed to shrink under Steve's glare.
Steve got Jonathan's camera out of his bag and held it out to him. "Here you go, man." Just as Jonathan reached out to grab his camera from Steve, the boy turned his hand so his palm was facing the ground of the carpark and the camera fell, breaking into pieces as it hit the ground. Cat let out a gasp, her hands letting her bike clatter to the ground as they covered her mouth. She had forgotten about the unlit cigarette that was hanging between her lips and when she gasped she began choking on it. Nancy quickly uncrossed her arms and began patting the girl on her back as she forcefully pulled the cigarette from her mouth, throwing it to floor over her shoulder. She pushed herself away from Nancy as Tommy began laughing.
"Come on, let's go. The game's about to start." Steve called his friends away.
Jonathan quickly knelt to the ground, trying to gather up the pieces of his ripped up photos and broken camera. Cat knelt down next to him, trying to help while Nancy stood by the pair for a moment. Catherine felt bad for her friend, knowing that he had saved up for what felt forever to be able to afford the camera. But part of her knew that what her friend did was wrong.
"Hey, Nance!" Steve called as the girl knelt down looking at a photo of Barb sat on the diving board of the pool. Her head turned to look at Steve as he called for her. "Come on." She quickly picked up the pieces of the photo of her friend before standing up, avoiding eye contact with Jonathan. She quickly walked away and Cat watched as Steve put his arm around her friend.
Cat turned to Jonathan, pieces of ripped up photos in her hand. "You know, I may have a giant crush on him but I won't hesitate to punch him. You just say the word and I will punch Steve Harrington in his pretty face. Someone needs to knock some niceness into him."
Jonathan smiled at the girl before glancing at the time on her watch. "Don't you have to pick Dustin up from school?" He asked her.
Cat looked down at her watch. "Shit." She handed Jonathan the photos that she was holding. "Shit, shit." She stood up and grabbed her bike off of the ground. "I'm really sorry I couldn't stay and help." She sent the boy a small smile before climbing onto her bike. She looked over her shoulder at the boy. "I'll get you a new camera, though. Mom's gonna pay me for spending time with Dustin and I don't have anything I want to spend my money on so, why not get you a new camera?" She shrugged as she started cycling towards the middle school, calling out a goodbye to her friend from over her shoulder.
***
Edited: 4/4/2020
Edit 2: 7/6/2021