Hold Me Now || Closed

The snow had fallen pretty heavily upon Hawkins right before school started back up after Christmas break. Steve had rung in the New Year, not with his girlfriend, or even a girl, but with a bunch of middle school aged boys who played D&D well into the wee hours of the morning. He could have gone to a party with kids his age, but he kind of wanted to lay low for a little bit. Besides, Dustin had really wanted him to show up and he couldn’t deny it—he actually enjoyed hanging out with the kid. Was it the coolest way to celebrate the New Year? Definitely not, but after everything that had happened at Hawkins, he wasn’t really concerned with being “King Steve” anymore.

As Steve carefully maneuvered his car through the high school parking lot, he picked a parking spot near the back. It looked like they’d done a decent job of plowing the parking lot, but he didn’t trust some of the younger drivers at all. There still could be some icy spots they could skid across. While Indiana got a fair amount of snow in a year, this snow was decently heavier than what they were used to. Slowly, Steve climbed out of his car and took a good look at his high school. Last time you’ll get a Christmas break, he reminded himself.

There was still this sense of unease that Steve had. Sure, they’d closed off the gate and gotten rid of the demidogs and the Mindflayer, but he frequently had nightmares about the things he’d witnessed. Steve couldn’t help but to think that the fact his future hung so delicately in the balance that his fear took it and twisted it into the monsters he’d fought off with a rag-tag group of kids to haunt him. Pushing the anxiety to the side, he tucked his thumb into the strap of his book bag, tucking himself further into his jacket, and started toward the school.

---

Jude wasn’t going to head in to school today. Her dad had come down with some sort of flu and he needed her to run the shop in his stead, lest they lose out on money. Judith Briggs wasn’t the star of Hawkins High, nor was she grouped in the with nerds or geeks. She ran about in the middle of the pack. People didn’t bother her and she didn’t bother them. The few that had tried to comment on her “lack of style” or lack of nice things, got a tongue-lashing. Jude was a bit rough around the edges, but that was just the way that life had made her.

She didn’t try very hard at school, to be honest. College was out of the question for her. No, it seemed that the mechanics shop her father owned and ran would be hers at some point. Hawkins was her future. Would flying colors at high school change that for her? No. Did it make her mad? Hell yeah, it did. Regardless, she enjoyed working on the vehicles she could. A few of the more misogynistic men of Hawkins refused to let her near their vehicles, even if her dad was probably the best mechanic in Indiana. It was hard work, but it was work she enjoyed.

Sighing heavily, Jude flicked on the lights to the garage, eyeing a few of the vehicles they’d had in some of the bays either waiting for parts or troubleshooting. The garage was frigidly cold this particular morning, but once she got a few engines running to test them, it should heat back up. Pulling the garage door open of one of the empty bays, Jude shuddered at the brisk breeze that met her as it drew a sharp gasp from her. “God damnit,” she hissed, ducking down a bit into the oil-stained, denim jumpsuit she wore over her normal clothes to keep them clean.

Moving sucked. Moving a few months shy of graduation sucked even more. Carrie Mills was no stranger to moving vans, storage units, boxes piled up in her room, and the typical “new kid” stares as she walked down the halls of a new school, but things were different this time around. She wasn’t exactly new to Hawkins, Indiana. In fact, she had called Hawkins home for almost the entirety of the first decade of her life. Since then, she’d lived in four different states, perks of having a father who worked in sales. First was New York, then Massachusetts, then Georgia, and most recently Florida. She’d seen some of the greatest cities in the United States: Manhattan, Boston, Savannah, Miami, but her family never remained in one of them long enough for her to settle in completely. Carrie hadn’t minded it so much when she was younger, but once she got to high school, it kind of really started to suck. It put a damper on relationships or even blossoming relationships when they found out she was moving several hours away.

Her mom tried convincing her that things were different this time. She wasn’t exactly the new kid. Her classmates wouldn’t be complete strangers. Her mom failed to realize that she hadn’t been in Hawkins for almost a decade at this point, she’d still get gawked at as she walked through the halls, and she’d likely still have to introduce herself to her classmates like so many teachers seemed to enjoy having new kids do. The icing on the cake was the white stuff falling from the sky. She hadn’t seen snow since she’d lived in Boston, and her body had grown accustomed to warmer temperatures. Not that she looked it. She was pale as ever, the only real indication that she’d lived somewhere warm being the smattering of freckles that covered the apples of her cheeks and bridge of her nose. Regardless, she still made a face as she got out of her car in the high school parking lot, in part because of the cold air hitting her face and in part because of the building looming before her. I guess it’s now or never, she thought, letting out an audible sigh as she started across the parking lot.

---

Billy hated Hawkins long before he set foot in the small town in Indiana. He had yet to find a reason to change his outlook on the town. It was ten times colder than California ever got, there was hardly ever anything to do sans the occasional house party, the girls were all pretty much the same, and it was his responsibility cart around his step-sister Maxine whenever his dad and step-mother were out of town or at work. Things hadn’t improved much since the beginning of the school year. In fact, they hadn’t improved at all. It had gotten colder. His dad was still a raging asshole. There were fewer house parties than there had been earlier in the year, and he was still responsible for keeping an eye on his step-sister much to his dismay. Thankfully, she spent most of her time with her nerd of a boyfriend, Lucas Sinclair, and his friends, so she wasn’t home as frequently as she had been at the start of the school year.

The cold weather was his reason for skipping out on school that day though. His precious Camaro had been acting up since the weather started to get progressively colder. He chalked it up to the colder weather at least anyway. It hadn’t been anything crazy, he figured it was the battery getting the shit shocked out of it given it had never withstood such cold temperatures like this before, but he wasn’t going to sit back and wait for it to turn into a bigger problem, so he found himself down at the local mechanic. He’d been there a couple of times since arriving in Hawkins, mainly for routine visits: oil changes, and inspection renewal, but he’d gotten to know the owner of the shop pretty well. Was on a first name basis with him and everything. Needless to say, he wasn’t expecting to hear a female voice cursing as he approached the garage. “Weather’s a bitch, isn’t it?” He spoke, a slightly amused expression on his face as he took in the figure of the person behind the voice.

The wind bit at Steve’s skin as he walked with a little more haste toward the front doors of the school. He was purposefully avoiding some patches of snow left over on the asphalt that may have hidden ice beneath it. The last thing he needed was to wipe out on the first day back from school and let someone like Tommy H. or Carol and not let him live it down for the rest of the day. As if he needed something else to make him appear less cool. Not that it really mattered. Once they all left high school, no one would care if he was “King Steve” or the senior guy who hung out with middle school nerds. It still wouldn’t make getting through these last few months of high school any easier. Steve managed to clear the parking lot without any mishaps, but it looked like someone had done a slapdash job of shoveling off the sidewalks. Either that or the freshly fallen stuff had gotten kicked around by the students. Hopefully it’d slow down soon. If any more fell while they were at school, chances were it’d be a bitch to get out of the parking lot.

As Steve reached the double doors to the school, he spared a glance around the parking lot at the kids that were slowly making their way either to the middle school next door or the high school. As his dark brown eyes swooped slowly over the area, they lingered on someone with blonde hair. Through the snow, it was a bit hard to see their face. His brow furrowed slightly as he watched the girl for a few moments. Surely that couldn’t have been…

Nah, there was no way. Carrie had moved from Hawkins before they’d gotten out of elementary school. Why anyone would want to come back to Hawkins was beyond him? Surely, some girl had just gotten experimental with hair dye over the break. There’d be no reason for Carrie’s family to come back to Hawkins. Giving her a few last looks, he turned and finally made his way inside the building, thankful for the rush of warm air that met him as he entered. He couldn’t shake the feeling he got like he knew the blonde-haired girl that was walking through the parking lot.

---

Jude didn’t expect it to be a very busy day. No, she’d probably spend the day with her feet kicked up on her father’s desk, watching some shitty soaps on the TV to pass the time before she could make her way back home. Though, at the rate the snow was falling, she wouldn’t put it past her having to hold out until the roads could get cleared or just wait it out in the garage all night. She’d rather stay put and deal with wearing day old clothes than risk driving on slick roads and ending up wrapped around a tree. The Trans Am her father and her shared wouldn’t fair too well on ice and it was the only vehicle they had. The last thing she needed to do was damage it in any way and put them without a means of getting around. Beyond that, it was a nice, fast car and both her and her dad took remarkably good care of it. After all, their vehicle was pretty much free advertisement for the garage.

She turned to Billy with wide eyes after jumping and gasping a bit. Jude hadn’t heard a car pull up or heard anyone walking around, so the last thing she’d been expecting was someone talking to her. The startle wore off quickly as she noticed the once over Billy Hargrove was giving her. Her expression smoothed out as she crossed her arms over her chest, tilting her head to the side as she looked up at him. Her dad had told her about him a few times, about how Billy Hargrove had been nothing but charming around him. Jude saw a different side of the asshole at school. No matter how attractive he was, there was no excuse for being a jerk. “Yeah, you could say that,” she replied with a nod of her head. “How can I help you, Billy?” She asked after a beat or two of silence. The sooner she saw to whatever he wanted, the sooner she could be left alone.

Carrie was glad that her mom had taken her shopping for a winter coat before they’d started the drive to Hawkins a couple of days ago. Why department stores were selling winter coats in Miami was beyond her, cold snaps there were nothing compared to the cold snaps in other parts of the country, but she was glad that they had quite the stock of them. She would have been a human icicle if she had donned her precious leather jacket. Despite the warmth her new jacket granted her, the petite blonde still found herself shivering a bit as she reached the sidewalk leading up to the school. She had not expected the weather to welcome her back to Hawkins this way in the slightest, and couldn’t help thinking that if this were Georgia or Florida, schools would have been closed already.

As she approached the school building, she felt someone staring at her. It was starting already. The school day hadn’t even officially started yet and there was already someone gawking at the new girl. She doubted that Hawkins saw many new faces, it hadn’t when she was in elementary school and she would be extremely surprised if that was something that had changed in her family’s absence. She spotted the person in question near the double doors that led into the school. She couldn’t see him all that clearly due to the white flakes still falling rather heavily from the sky, but there was something that still struck her as familiar. Was that…? She pushed the thought from her head almost as quickly as it had formed. No way, Hawkins was small, but the odds that he would be one of the first people she ran into at school were slim.

Before she could dwell too much on the thought, the figure turned and walked into school. Steve Harrington had been her best friend from kindergarten all the way up until her family moved away the summer before fifth grade. She knew that she would likely have a run-in with him at some point, but doubted anything would come of it. Just because she remembered him, didn’t mean that he would necessarily remember her. That’s what she kept reminding herself anyway. That and the odds of them being close like they had once been were rather slim. That didn’t matter though. She wasn’t expecting to get close to anyone with graduation just a few short months away. She’d be sending in applications to colleges soon enough, and be out of Hawkins come August anyway. She had no reason to get close to anyone. Not even old friends.

---

The snow was really starting to come down. He honestly hoped that it would let up soon enough, but at the steady rate it was coming down, it didn’t seem all that likely. Billy was hoping to get whatever was wrong with his Camaro sorted out soon enough for him to get it home before the roads got bad. His dad and step-mom were both at work, and he’d dropped Max off at school already, so he’d have it to himself. He didn’t have snow tires on it or anything like that, and he really didn’t want to risk an accident of any kind because of some shitty weather. The last thing that he needed was to put his wheels out of commission. If he didn’t have them, he’d have no real way of getting out of the house, and there was no way in hell he was hanging around there when his dad was home. While he didn’t necessarily enjoy school, it was a welcome excuse to not be home. That’s why he’d gone as far as getting involved with the basketball team at the beginning of the year. If it meant he’d be home a little bit less, he’d take it.

Billy could tell that he had startled her, lips quirked up in a slight smirk. He didn’t think he’d ever seen her at the shop before. He wasn’t there all too frequently since arriving at Hawkins a couple of months back, but he had still been there a good handful or so of times so the new face still surprised him a bit. When she turned around, he got a better look at her. He recognized her from school, there was no one else with hair as red or as curly as hers, though he didn’t think he’d ever had an actual conversation with her. He did know that she wasn’t like the other girls at school. She seemed to travel under the radar for the most part, though he had witnessed her giving loudmouths like Tommy H. and Carol hell on a couple of different occasions. He was pretty sure that her name started with a J. Jamie...Jenny...Jodie...Judy...it was something like that anyway.

“My car’s engine sounds like it’s hesitating a bit. I think the battery might be crapping out because of the shit weather.” He said, pulling his carton of cigarettes out of the back pocket of his jeans, leaving it unlip between his lips. “Can’t say I was expecting to see you here though, Red.” He knew that he acted like a bit of an ass at times, but he wasn’t about to let on that he didn’t quite remember her name. He knew better than to piss off the person who was going to check out his car for him, especially someone who seemed to have a bit of a short fuse given what he’d witnessed at school. He didn’t think there was anything wrong with that though. If anything, it set her even farther apart from the other girls at school. He’d just never been intrigued enough to approach her.

As Steve made his way to his locker, he couldn’t help but feel like he’d seen the girl who used to be his best friend. Keyword, used to be. He’d not heard from her since an admittedly tearful goodbye when she left Hawkins. That was before the time when girls had cooties or before having a boyfriend or girlfriend or lots of friends meant everything. Times had been far simpler then and part of him missed those times. Back when college wasn’t so important or he didn’t feel like he needed to impress his parents and everyone around him. So many summers he’d spent with Carrie, climbing trees and riding their bikes around Hawkins. If he’d been honest with himself, he probably had a crush on her, but back then his interest wasn’t in making out with them or other things.

If it hadn’t been so cold outside, he might’ve waited outside the school to get a better look at them. Then again, if the snow hadn’t been coming down so hard and they hadn’t been shrouded in a big winter jacket, he wouldn’t have needed to wait. Thankfully for him, his locker wasn’t too far from the double doors—he had a straight line of sight of them—maybe he’d be able to spot the person walking through the hallway without seeming too conspicuous. As long as they didn’t enter through any different doors, which could be very possible. Of course, if it was someone he should know, he could always play it off like he was just eyeing their new hair color on their new coat. That would be completely believable, right? Sighing heavily, he was surprised he could even recall his locker combination, but he somehow managed.

Pulling his locker open, Steve was relieved to find that no one had left anything nasty for him to find in the locker. He stowed his book bag into his locket and grabbed his book for the next class. He had English first thing, which wasn’t necessarily terrible to have as a first class coming off of break, but it meant he’d have to use whatever logical part of his brain was left over from Billy knocking him silly earlier in the year. Steve couldn’t put his mind fully into it if he was too preoccupied with thinking of whoever that blonde girl was in the parking lot. Slowly, he peeked over the top of his locker door, trying to feign like he was rearranging things in his locker.

---

Jude shook some of the shorter curly strands of hair from her eyes as she watched Billy, shoving her hands into the pockets of her jumpsuit in an attempt to keep her fingers warm. Standing in the open bay of the garage was not preferable, especially with the wind and snow making its way insides. Her shoulders shrugged up a bit closer to her ears and she was sure her nose was so cold that it matched the color of her hair. As much as she wanted to, she wanted to tell him to drag his ass elsewhere and that she didn’t want to deal with him today. But her father put her in charge of the shop for a reason. He’d be pissed if he ever found out that she’d turned away someone who’d brought their vehicle to the garage more than once. Her dad had even mentioned how nice of a car it was and that, again, was free advertisement.

She tried to keep her distaste for this situation from her face, but she wasn’t sure how great of a job she was doing. Setting her jaw, her brows lifted slightly at he described the problem he was having. Putting aside her opinion of the jerk, Jude considered what could be the cause of his engine performing poorly. It could have very well been the battery…or old spark plugs. Her lips pursed slightly at the sight of the cigarette he perched between his lips. It wasn’t so much the fact he was smoking, but that he was doing it so close to flammable materials. “C’mon and pull it into the garage so we can close the door and stop letting what little heat is in here out,” she told him.

“‘Red’, huh? How original,” she deadpanned, looking quite unimpressed with the name he’d called her. “Well, if dad gets sick, I’m the only one he trusts to keep the place running.” She turned to walk toward a wall near the back of replacement parts before a thought struck her and she turned to face him once more. “So, unless you want to deal with having to walk back home or deal with a car that may not start up next time you go to crank it over, I’ll be the one taking a look at your car,” she told him. Perhaps this was a chance for her to feel him out. If he fussed about the fact that she was a woman, she tell him he could shove it or find another garage—there weren’t but two others that she knew of in Hawkins. Her bright gaze lingered on him a few more moments before she turned and pulled out a few boxes of spark plugs, placing them aside on a on a workbench for ease of access

Steve crossed Carrie’s mind sporadically over the course of the last nine years. She would go months, sometimes even years, without thinking of him once and then something would remind her of him. A cool, Autumn breeze reminded her of the time they’d gotten all of the best candy trick or treating one Halloween. Sometimes snow would remind her of the numerous snow days when school had been cancelled. The snowball fights they’d had, and the warm hot chocolate her mom always seemed to have waiting for them when she finally convinced them both to come inside. Time spent at the park with her little sister reminded her of all of the carefree summers they had spent together.

Things were different back then. Simpler. There was no stressing over meeting college application deadlines. No worrying about SAT scores and whether or not the requirements for a particular school of interest had been met. Adults weren’t constantly asking about the future, and what she planned on doing with the rest of her life, as if she should have at least the next twenty years planned out already. None of those pressures were there, but simpler times were nothing but distant memories at this point. It almost felt like a different lifetime and, in this lifetime, the last thing she ever expected was that she would be returning to Hawkins.

As she entered the school building, the excited chatter of friends who hadn’t seen each other all of Christmas break mingled with slamming lockers and wet shoes squeaking on the tile floor. She pulled a folded piece of paper with her schedule and locker information out from the back pocket of her jeans, and scanned it briefly for her locker number. Her mom had gotten her schedule and everything else all sorted out just before Christmas break, so she wouldn’t have to worry about heading to the main office first and being late to her first class. As she scanned the locker-lined walls, she couldn’t help thinking that she might be late anyway given the fact that she had no idea where her locker was, nor did she know how to get to her first class. Maybe she should have gotten there a bit earlier…

---

Billy had learned rather quickly that it didn’t take much for him to get attention from most of the girls at Hawkins High School. Most of them were already intrigued because he was new, and the fact that he was good looking, Billy knew that he was, meant that he usually only needed to send a smile or a wink their way before they were practically putty in his hands. This girl, Red as he’d dubbed her for the time being, seemed to be a bit tougher to crack. Maybe that was why he was so intrigued by her, or maybe it was the fact that he’d seen her stick up for herself at school while most girls would simply attempt to avoid confrontation of any kind completely. He hadn’t had reason to strike up a conversation with her in the past, but this was a welcomed opportunity to find out more about her, see what it took to get her to crack.

She didn’t seem all that thrilled to see him, that much was obvious. That honestly only made this situation all the more entertaining for Billy. It got real old real fast when he had girls a giggling, blushing mess with little to no effort on his part at all. The girl standing in front of him didn’t seem the type at all. In fact, she didn’t seem to like him at all, so he had a challenge presented to him. This was going to be fun. He nodded wordlessly in response to her initial words, lighting his cigarette as he exited the garage and walked over to his car.

Once he pulled the Camaro inside, he got out, taking a drag from the cancer stick between his fingers. “Alright, you don’t like Red. What should I call you instead then?” He asked with a slight chuckle, still not letting on that he couldn’t remember her name, and still rather amused that she seemed irked by his presence. He was certain that they had at least one class together, and he was one-hundred percent sure that her name started with a J at this point. “Your old man owns the shop?” His eyebrows rose slightly in surprise. He supposed that made sense, although he still wondered why he had never seen her around the shop before. “ ‘m surprised I’ve never seen you around here before then.” Her later comment earned another chuckle. She definitely had a fire about her. He wasn’t bothered by the thought of having her look at his car, though he was sure there were plenty of men in Hawkins who would be bothered by it. The way he saw it, if her dad owned the shop, she probably knew quite a bit about cars. “I don’t have a problem with you looking her over at all, sweetheart. Don’t you worry.”

To be honest, as the years had gone by, Steve thought of Carrie less and less. It wasn’t that he’d made a conscious decision to not think of her. It was just that, as time passed, he knew the less likely of a chance she’d ever come back to Hawkins. It wasn’t like the town had anything going for it. Unless the fact that they had opened and closed, hopefully, at gate to a different dimension in Hawkins counted for something. But that was behind them all now. El had closed the gate, they’d gotten rid of the demidogs, and there was no other threats for them to worry about…he hoped. The last thing he needed to close out his senior year of high school was having to bring back out his nail-spiked bat for another meeting with the demidogs or demogorgon.

Steve diverted his gaze to the contents of his locker for a moment, shooting a glance to one of his classmates as they walked by. He peered out from the side of the locker, now blatantly staring at the front doors of the school. Once the blonde-haired girl he’d set eyes on the parking lot finally entered the school, there was no doubt in his mind that it was Cassie. But he couldn’t exactly freak out and make a big scene. He’d have to play it cool, act cool. And he doubted the last thing she’d want for him to do would be to bring more attention to her on her first day back to school in Hawkins.

Shutting the door to his locker, he kept his gaze on Cassie as he made his way toward her. He’d have to think quick, think of something smooth to break the ice with. He was Steve Harrington after all, and while he may not be the most popular guy in school, he’d like to think he’d had a particular way around chicks and could be quite charming. He waited until she was looking down at the piece of paper in her hand, which was presumably a schedule, when he finally spoke. “You always did have a rotten sense of direction,” he started, watching her with a teasing, yet warm smile, “even when you had a set of instructions to go by.” His heart was thumping hard in his chest. Cassie had grown up to be a beautiful young woman. There was a part of him that worried she wouldn't remember him or that she'd changed in the years they'd spent apart, but hed never really know unless he spoke to her.

---

Jude knew it’d be all to easy to fall to Billy Hargrove’s charm and good looks. While he may have been a jerk, she knew he could flip it on a switch and sweet talk to get what he wanted. Jude had watched from the sidelines as countless girls from Hawkins high fell victim to him. She would be damned if she’d be like another one of those bobblehead girls who’d do anything he asked just because “he has the bluest eyes”. She had a bit more self respect than that. She did not want to just become Billy Hargrove’s sloppy seconds. The sooner she saw to whatever problem he had and got him out of the garage and on his way, the better. The red-head rolled her eyes at the sound of his cigarette lighting up, listening to the sound of his shoes crunch across the snow toward the parking lot. She started pulling out what tools she thought she’d need to get to the spark plugs and loosen the connections on the battery.

The sound of his car grew nearer as he rolled it into the garage and Jude was quick to march over to the garage door and pull it shut. It wasn’t like they’d be running the engine, so she didn’t have to worry too much about the fumes getting to them. She shot him a look as he spoke again, lifting a brow in response. “You can call me by my name,” she told him bluntly. She swept by him to pull open the driver side door to pop open the trunk, trying to not focus on the admittedly decent smelling cologne he wore. “And try and stay clear of any gas or oil with that cigarette. I may be cold right now, but I’d really not like to find out what it feels like to be barbecued,” she added as she rounded to prop the hood up and to finally get a look at the engine.

She swept by him to pull open the driver side door to pop open the trunk and closed it behind her. “And try and stay clear of any gas or oil with that cigarette. I’d really not like to find out what it feels like to be barbecued,” she added as she rounded to prop the hood up and to finally get a look at the engine. She could feel warmth coming from it, which was definitely welcomed with how much the temperature inside the garage had dropped. “Yep, inherited it from his dad, so I’m sure that means it’ll be mine someday,” she replied as she studied what she could see of the engine before she got to work. Her gaze flicked up to his as he spoke and she took the time to grab a hair tie from her wrist and pull her hair up into a high ponytail. “Maybe you just didn’t look hard enough,” she shot back at him, the tiniest bit of a smirk on her lips. “Do you remember the last time you replaced the batteries or the spark plugs?”

Being back in Hawkins was strange. Carrie honestly never thought that she’d come back. Her maternal grandparents lived closer to Indianapolis, and her paternal grandparents were in Rhode Island. Both of her parents were only children, so she didn’t have any other family in the area, and it wasn’t like she’d kept in touch with any of her old friends from Hawkins either. Until her dad dropped the bomb on them just after Halloween a few months ago, she never imagined that she would ever come back. There was a small part of her that was curious as to who would remember her, though, truthfully, the only person who really mattered, whether she cared to admit it or not, was Steve. She’d had other friends growing up, but Steve had been her absolute best friend. Even though she kept telling herself that she didn’t care if he remembered her or not, she knew that she did.

Right now she needed to worry about finding her locker and where her first class was though. Truthfully, if the weather hadn’t been so crappy, she probably could have gotten there a little earlier and saved herself from wandering aimlessly down the hall. She was pretty sure she was heading in the right direction because the locker numbers seemed to be going up...wait...they were too high now. She let out an audible sigh, realizing she must have passed her locker. She really wasn’t expecting it to be this difficult, Hawkins was a small town which meant the high school was on the smaller side too, but she had always been a bit directionally challenged. She glanced down at her schedule once more to make sure that she read the locker number right, completely unaware of the person approaching her.

Blue eyes widened slightly in surprise, though it wasn’t so much that he’d startled her as it was that she knew without even looking who was teasing her about her sense of direction. She only received further confirmation when she looked up from the paper in her hands, all concern over finding her locker and where her first class was located forgotten for the time being. The person she’d spotted standing by the school’s entrance earlier was him. It was Steve, and as much as she’d told herself that she had no reason to get close to anyone with only a few short months until graduation, she found a smile spreading across her features as she looked up at him. “Steve…” She didn’t say anything else at first, not really caring at that moment if she drew attention from others walking in the hall, as she pulled her old best friend into a tight embrace.

---

Billy knew that he had a decent number of girls at Hawkins High School wrapped around his finger with a very minimal amount of effort, but there was no real fun in that. All he had to do was send them one of his charming smiles or a wink and he managed to have them all weak at the knees. He knew that the girl standing before him wasn’t like that at all. She wasn’t one of the gaggles of girls who seemed to giggle and whisper with their friends about him as he walked through the halls. Maybe that was part of why she had him so intrigued. Something told him that there was more than just that one thing that set her apart from the other girls their age though, and he wanted to figure out what else there was that made her so different from the others.

A slight smirk tugged at his lips at the blunt nature of her comment. He’d have to admit that he didn’t know her name now. He’d only been in Hawkins for a couple months now though, so he kind of figured he had a justifiable excuse. It wasn’t like he’d taken the time to strike up a conversation with her before now, nor had she approached him herself the way that girls like Tammy Thompson had. “You might have to refresh my memory there, Red. I know I’ve seen you around school before, but I’ve never really had the pleasure of talking to you until now.” He said before taking a long drag from his cigarette.

He watched as she walked past him and started to take a look at the car. She seemed at home in the garage, and right there was already another thing that set her apart from the other girls at Hawkins High. Most of the girls were prisses like Nancy Wheeler, afraid to get their hands dirty, but that didn’t seem to be the case at all with this girl. The fact that she seemed to know a thing or two about cars was another thing. Most girls their age were worried about hair, makeup and the latest issue of Cosmo. Something told him that she wasn’t like that at all. “I’ve met your dad a couple of times, seems like a good guy.” He said. He never realized that the man had a daughter though, let alone one that he went to school with. His eyebrows rose at her later words, a chuckle escaping his lips. Yep, this girl definitely had spunk. Normally comments like that would have pissed him off, but they didn’t when they came from her for some reason. “I dunno, probably before I left California, so at least a few months ago?”

It was easy for Steve to remember why he’d had an innocent, childhood crush on Carrie the closer he’d gotten to her. She’d only gotten prettier over the years. Maybe it was because, unlike the rest of the girls at Hawkins high, he’d hadn’t gotten the opportunity to see her age. Whatever they’d put in the water from where ever Carrie had been served her well. After Steve had spoke, this uncharacteristic sort of anxiety grew within the pit of his stomach. This could potentially end in catastrophe and he could end up humiliated in front of the school if she didn’t remember who he was. That would really set up the rest of his year for success: being chewed out by the new girl. There was something about watching the surprise flash across Carrie’s features that broke through the last bit of remaining cold from the outside and a warmth settled in his chest instead.

He merely stood there, smiling back at her as his warm brown eyes took in her features up close. His heart gave another jolt when he realized that she was smiling back at him and that she remembered his name. Before he knew it, she was wrapping her arms around him and crushing her frame against his. Without even thinking of his reaction, he snaked his arms around her, pulling her tightly to him and beaming from ear-to-ear. “I’m surprised you remembered me,” he said, resting his cheek atop her head. He could practically feel people leering at the two of them, curious as to who Steve Harrington was hugging in the school hallway.

Steve didn’t care what they thought. It’d been far too long since he’d seen his best friend and he’d hug her for however long he wanted too. Eventually, he pulled away and looked down at her, keeping a hand on her shoulder. “First off, why the hell are you back in a place like Hawkins?” He questioned brusquely, grinning crookedly down at her. “And second, it looks like you’re in desperate need of someone to help you find your way around here before the bell rings.” For a brief moment, Steve noted Nancy Wheeler eyeing the two of them curiously over Carrie’s shoulder. He outright ignored her, keeping his gaze on Carrie instead.

---

Jude’s stomach gave a traitorous twinge at the smirk he shot her after her comment about her name. In fact, it made her even angrier at him. She was better than this, finding the asshole in the garage objectively attractive like this. Crossing her arms over her chest again, she found her brows raising slightly as he admitted he didn’t really know her name. Jude was only slightly peeved that he’d called her ‘Red’, but the fact he didn’t know her name didn’t really bother her too much. Why would he? Why would he go out of his way to know a girl who didn’t have any real friends or openly threw herself at him? Her gaze darted to the end of his cigarette as it glowed a brighter red for a moment. For a moment, she contemplated not telling him her name, but if it got back to her dad that she was rude to a customer, she’d be in for it. “It’s Jude,” she told him.

She drew in a deep breath of air through her nose as she eyed the engine bay over for a moment or two longer. This was already to be proving to be more talking while she was working than she was used to, but she was determined to not let it distract her in any way from exceptional work. She lifted her bright eyes to him for a moment as he commented on her dad. “He’s the best,” she said with a small shrug of her shoulders. Jude looked back down at the battery, leaning forward to check the connections for a moment. They seemed like they were on there tight enough, so that wasn’t the issue. “Probably the most honest mechanic on this side of Indiana too,” she added.

A certain sort of sense of victory shot through her at the chuckle that left Billy. He wasn’t the kind of person who seemed to laugh freely or easily. Maybe she’d surprised him. Her brow furrowed slightly at what he said. A few months ago meant the battery should still be good. Her bet was on the spark plugs not having the proper spacing or not being tightened down correctly. “You do the work yourself or have someone else do it for you?” She asked before turning and striding toward the work bench to grab a few tools that she’d need. Sliding them into the deep pockets of her jumpsuits. Chances were, regardless of who did the work, they probably didn’t know that spark plugs needed to be adjusted in high-performance engines. All it took was the cold for a problem to really start to show. “How long’ve you had this car?”

Carrie hadn’t expected the first person she interacted with at Hawkins High would be her old best friend. She was glad that it was though. She might have swore up and down that she didn’t plan on getting close to anyone while she was here, but that all seemed to go out the window the second she saw Steve. She didn’t know how long she stood there, face pressed into his chest, and she didn’t care. She was just really happy to see him. Maybe her mom was right, maybe this would be a little bit easier than all of the other she’d had to start over at a new school. Maybe being back in Hawkins wouldn’t be so bad after all.

“You’re pretty memorable, Harrington. Don’t think I could have forgotten you even if I tried.” She teased lightly, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. She was blissfully unaware of the attention they were drawing to themselves, standing in the middle of the hallway the way that they were, though she probably wouldn’t have cared much if she had. As much as she’d wanted to live under the radar today, she was bound to get people gawking at her anyway. She was new, even if she wasn’t totally new, and she doubted that Hawkins had very many new kids. They didn't last time she was here, and it didn’t seem like something that would ever change.

She took some time to really take in how much he’d changed since she last saw him once they had both pulled away. He was way taller than her now, though most people were taller than she was, so that wasn’t saying a whole lot. He’d grown out his hair, and it was styled perfectly. He had the same kind, dark eyes and contagious smile though. She’d noticed that almost instantly. Whether she cared to admit it or not, seeing him smile at her like that not only caused the smile on her face to grow, but it also caused her heart to race. She’d never told him, but he was the first boy she ever had a crush on. Seeing him now, all grown up and as handsome as ever, caused those feelings to return for a moment. She pushed them away rather quickly though, she hadn’t acted on them then and she certainly wasn’t going to act on them now. She wouldn’t be in Hawkins much longer, not with college fast-approaching anyway.

“Dad got transferred back here, we moved in just before New Years.” She explained before the smile on her face became a bit sheepish at his later words. “You caught me...I think I must’ve passed my locker, and I have no idea where any of these classrooms are.” A quiet laugh escaped her lips as she handed him her schedule. She couldn’t help but hope that they had a few classes together, it would definitely be nice knowing at least one person in each of her classes.

---

Billy didn’t really feel bad for not knowing her name. Yeah, Hawkins was a small town, and his graduating class seemed relatively small too, but they hadn’t once interacted in the few months since he moved. Her face was definitely familiar, and he had been pretty impressed when she stood up to assholes like Carol and Tommy H, but he hadn’t been impressed enough to talk to her. She hadn’t seemed like she wanted to talk to him either though, and he was sure that the only reason why she knew his name was because he made damn sure that most people at Hawkins High knew who he was. He was new, his car stood out, and he was pretty sure he’d stolen the title of ‘King’ from Steve Harrington after the keg stand he’d done at Tina’s Halloween Party. He was pretty sure that everyone at Hawkins High knew who he was at this point, so the fact that she knew his name wasn’t all that surprising to him.

“Jude.” He repeated her name, sending another one of those charming half-smile half-smirks her way. “That short for somethin’?” He asked before taking a long drag from his cigarette. He figured he might as well get to know the girl who was checking his car over for him. That, and he was still pretty damn intrigued by her given the fact that most girls he interacted with would have already thrown themselves at him at this point. She was proving more and more to him that she wasn’t like the other girls at their high school, and she certainly wasn’t like the other women he came in contact with in Hawkins in general either. Truthfully, Billy could probably have just about any woman in Hawkins that he wanted. Younger. Older. It didn’t matter. He had women of all ages throwing themselves at him, but this girl wasn’t one of them. Not at all.

“Yeah, he seems pretty trust-worthy. Really knows what he’s talking about too.” Billy had gotten to talking to her dad just about every single time he came into the shop. He really knew his cars, and had a definite appreciation for Billy’s Camaro. “Tried to convince me to sell my car to him once though.” He added with a slight chuckle. That was never going to happen. He’d get rid of his car when Hell froze over, and even then he might still hold on to it. “I’ve always done most of the work myself. She was my uncle’s, inherited her from him a few years back. Only really ever bring it to the shop for routine shit, or when she starts giving me trouble.” He saw no reason to bring his car in otherwise. Not when he could do most of the work himself. “I reckon she’s been shocked by the cold weather. We sure as hell don’t see this shit back in California.” He was counting down the days till graduation at this point. He planned on getting a job, and saving up so that he could high-tail it out of Hawkins the second he had enough money to do so.

Steve was reluctant to pull his hand from her shoulder, but he felt more eyes on them than ever and didn’t want to make her feel more uncomfortable with all the attention. Once he pulled his hand away, he realized that he didn’t really know what to do with his hand, so he stuck it into the pocket of his jeans instead. The more he got a harder look at her, the more he realized that nothing had really changed about her features, but that everything had changed as well. Her features were, obviously, more mature than the last time he’d seen her, but she was still distinctly Carrie.

A crooked, yet charming grin curled his lips at her words, looking down at her with warmth in his gaze. He took a moment to really think of his reply to that. Should he spill his guts to her or should he play it off cool? He couldn’t have her thinking that there were certain times where he missed the simpler times they used to have together, missed her, and that they were times where she was so far out of his mind. How lame would it sound that certain things would trigger memories that hit him so hard and so fast that he couldn’t help but to smile for no reason? “You’re pretty unforgettable yourself, Mills,” he responded. There. That was safe enough.

There was a bit of satisfaction in knowing that she had said he was memorable. Something about hearing that boosted his spirits a bit. To be honest, there had been times since Nancy had broken up with him that he felt pretty low. Sure, he had the “nerds” to keep him company. If he was being honest with himself, he enjoyed their company sometimes more than people his own age, but he still felt pretty lame hanging out with middle schoolers sometimes. He would never tell them that though. As she spoke, Steve pulled a bit of a wince. “Ouch, moving halfway through your senior year, yikes,” he sympathized. “At least it’s to a familiar place, so I’m sure that—hey, if you’ve been here since New Year’s, why haven’t you stopped by to let me know you were back?”

He gave her a playful scowl as he took her schedule in hand, shaking his head. “You’re lucky we don’t have much time before classes start, or I’d let you hear it.” He shot her a sly grin before looking down at the paper she’d handed to him and studying it for a moment. They had quiet a few classes together and Steve was thankful for the small senior class size at Hawkins. “Looks like you’re going to be stuck being my study partner for the rest of the year, Mills,” he commented, eyes lifting to meet hers for a moment. “Let’s find your locker and then get you to your first class,” he said, starting off down the hallway, motioning for her to follow with a tilt of his head.

---

Jude knew that Billy had probably seen her around school, but that he couldn’t give two shits about what her name was. Why would he? She doubted he remembered any of the girls who threw themselves at him so desperately. And she showed everything but interest in the dirty blonde jerk who stood in her garage. There was something about the way he said her name that had the hair standing on the back of her neck a bit—or maybe it was the way his mouth curled upwards after he said it. “I’m sure if you think hard enough, you’d probably figure out what ‘Jude’ is short for,” she murmured, tucking a tendril of fiery red hair behind her ear. Jude hated her first name. It conjured up images of short, wrinkly old women in her mind. Old women who’d balk at her affinity for cars or for the way she carried herself.

She grabbed a ratchet from the tool bench, along with a few different sizes of sockets, and stepped over to the side of the car. Leaning over the engine bay, she began to loosen a few of the screws that secured covers on the tops of the engine. Thankfully for her, it seemed like he cleaned the inside of the engine bay decently enough, so she didn’t really have to deal with too much road grime. Her hands moved with practiced precision, removing the cover of the engine quickly and setting it off to the side. A slight smirk curled her lips at the mention of thinking her dad was the trustworthy sort. Her dad was very trustworthy, but hearing a complement come from Billy Hargrove’s mouth seemed a bit odd.

“Really?” She asked, perking up a bit as she righted her self to look up at Billy with raised brows. “Did he give you a price he’d be willing to pay?” She was a bit curious, to say the least, on what number her dad would have given Billy, if any. She paused for a moment, looking over the car. “I’ve gotta say, she’s mint. She sounds pretty too. He’d be stupid to not try and buy it.” Jude gave a small shrug of her shoulders, leaning back over the engine to locate the engine head and the spark plug within. Grabbing an extension piece for the ratchet, she reached into one of the pistols with is, loosening the spark plug quickly. “Could be the cold weather, more than likely the battery’s given out. Spark plugs are known to give issues in cold weather too, especially if they’ve got a lot of mileage.”

She paused for a moment, pulling out the extension piece with a slightly dirty spark plug at the end of it. Her brow furrowed slightly as she looked at the spacing of the little metal bit at the end, tongue snaking childishly out of the corner of her mouth as she lapsed into thought. A short hum left her as her bright gaze swung from the spark plug to Billy. “Do you let her warm up before you drive her when its really cold out?” She asked, gaze narrowing slightly with thought.

Carrie could feel eyes on them too. She wasn’t surprised, they were kind of standing in the middle of the hallway after all, but today was already proving to be a lot less lowkey than she had hoped it to be. Generally, she tried to go as unnoticed as possible on her first day at a new school, though she should have known things would be different at Hawkins High given the fact that she wasn’t entirely new. She was glad that Steve had noticed her though, surviving her first day would be a lot easier given the fact that she knew someone who could show her around and such. It was more than that though. She was glad that Steve had noticed her, that he remembered her, because, despite how long it had been, she really had missed him. Whether he said it or not, it seemed like he had missed her too.

“Right answer, Harrington.” There was a teasing lilt to her words as she looked up at him, ocean eyes just as soft as the smile that tugged at the corners of her lips. The more they stood there in the hallway, the more she not only realized how much she had actually missed him, but just how real her crush on him had been when they were kids. Well, as real as a crush could be for a nine year old anyway. He’d been a cute kid, but he always knew how to get her to laugh, and that was probably what she’d liked most about him. Something told her that was something that hadn’t changed at all. Yes, they were both obviously older now, and they had a lot of catching up to do, but already the dynamic between them seemed so familiar. Almost like nothing had changed, but everything had changed at the same time.

“Yeah, I wasn’t exactly happy about it when my dad told us a couple of months ago.” She never liked when they moved because of her dad’s job, but she didn’t expect them to move halfway through her senior year. She should have known better given the fact that they’d been in Miami for over two years, and they hardly ever stayed in one place for longer than that, but she’d just figured that they’d stay there until after she graduated and was off to college. “I was busy being an angsty teenager, wanted my dad to know I was still pissed that he’d uprooted me a few months before graduation. Everything’s not about you all the time, you know.” She punctuated her words with a light jab to his side.

She really had considered letting him know that she was back in Hawkins, but all of these disaster scenarios played through her head whenever she thought about stopping by his house. There was one where he didn’t live there anymore, and another where he answered the door and he didn’t remember her at all. Needless to say, she’d kind of psyched herself out of stopping by. “I’m not surprised in the slightest.” She rolled her eyes playfully, though a smile formed on her lips shortly after when he told her that they’d be study partners for the rest of the year. That meant that they at least had a few classes together. Today was already shaping up to be better than she’d anticipated. “I’m guessing I don’t have a say in this matter at all?” She asked as she followed him once he started down the hall.

---

Billy only really bothered with the girls who caught his attention at school, and those were usually the ones who made their presence known to him themselves. Girls like Tina and Tammy who had introduced themselves his first day at Hawkins High. Or ones who associated with Tommy H and Carol. As annoying as those two were, he wasn’t stupid. He knew that they were some of the more popular kids at school. Associating with them was really just a matter of keeping up appearances, and ensuring that he remained at the top of the social ladder despite being the new kid. Jude clearly wasn’t someone who cared about all of that popularity crap. That much was obvious from the number of times she’d spoken out against Tommy and Carol. Maybe that intrigued him a little bit too. He was sure that there were plenty of others at Hawkins High who didn’t care about popularity contests, but there were very few who stood up for themselves, or others, to the “popular kids.” Whatever it was that intrigued him about her though didn’t really matter all that much to him. All that really mattered was that she was different from the other girls he’d met so far, and appeared to be a bit of a challenge to win over.

He smirked when she told him that he could probably figure out what Jude was short for himself, taking another drag from his cigarette before he spoke. “You’re a real spitfire, you know that?” He chuckled slightly. Most girls were either fawning over him and a giggling, blushing mess, or they were afraid to approach him at all, let alone speak to him. Jude was neither of those things, and he liked that. A lot. “Don’t go getting too excited, I turned down his offer, like I said. I’m keepin’ this car till the day I die.” It was one of the few things that he had left of his life back in California. Even if it wasn’t a reminder of simpler times, before his mom had left, he wouldn’t have sold it to someone if they offered him half a million dollars. It was the one thing that he had that was truly and completely his.

“Don’t remember the exact number he gave me, it was a few months ago.” He added as an afterthought. It didn’t matter though. Like he’d told her dad, he wasn’t selling the Camaro. Ever. When she mentioned the weather being a likely cause of the issues he was having with the car, he nodded wordlessly in agreement. He’d figured that to be a likely factor. The weather in Hawkins definitely wasn’t California weather in the slightest. Not this time of year anyway. “That’s what I figured. She’s not used to cold weather at all.” He still really wasn’t either. He’d seen more snow in the last month or so than he’d seen his entire life. It was all the more reason for him to save up to go back to California. He and cold weather didn’t mesh well at all.

“I can’t say that I ever have.” He’d never had to wait for his car to warm up before, California winters weren’t really even winters in comparison to what he’d seen of winters in Hawkins so far, so the thought of doing so had never really crossed his mind. Now that she’d mentioned it though, it probably would have been a good idea for him to do so. “How often do you help out around here?” He asked curiously, still wondering why he’d never seen her at the shop the couple of times he’d been by the last couple of months.