❁

after all the happenings with the upside down, finding will's body, and fighting the demogorgon, she had only wanted a normal school year, a merry christmas, and a happy new year.

however, things in hawkins, indiana, would never be the same after what had happened. despite the public being unaware of the demogorgon, the upside down, the lab, or eleven, meadow was left with the countless horrors that remained in her mind.

if anything good had come from 1983, it was that meadow had made some new friends. she and nancy wheeler, who was a year younger than her, hadn't ever really hung out. after barb holland died, however, nancy had needed all the help she could get, leading to her contacting the other girl. this also united meadow with jonathan byers, who she'd never gotten to really have a conversation with beforehand.

of course, meadow had always known of the two. after all, her little brother, dustin, was friends with both of their younger siblings. yet despite always being in close proximity, the three had never had anything that they had in common. now that they had nearly died together, they had a common ground that united them.

that isn't to say that she was.. particularly close to either of them. jonathan was a bit of a lone wolf, she thought, and didn't often want to talk to her or to anyone. nancy, while she was very kind, seemed to only be close to her when it came to hanging out or going somewhere. not that meadow didn't appreciate the invitations to parties, but she would always roll her eyes and deny the invitation.

nancy wasn't necessarily her closest friend, but then, who was? meadow had been friends with everyone in middle school, it seemed, and then when high school came around, she claimed that she had grown accustomed to the bullshit and was tired of it. she supposed that was why she didn't tolerate the trauma bonding nancy wanted, and why she didn't make much of an effort to be closer to her or to jonathan.

and there was also steve harrington. steve was the other person she had become close to in 1983, not that she necessarily wanted to. "king steve" was all of the rage at school; so of course meadow had known of him. he was in the same grade as her, and she herself had fallen victim to the lusciousness of his brown hair, and the charm of his smile. in middle school, she'd even heard rumors of him having a crush on her, not that anything had ever come from it.

she remembered when he sat in the same classrooms as her, smiling as girls would go on and on about his shoes or his shirt, trying to compliment their way into gaining his favor. meadow would always roll her eyes at this, focusing on a random conversation that she could distract herself with.

well, almost always. there was a time (seventh grade, was it?) that the rumor of steve having feelings for her finally made its way to her own ears. she didn't believe it, of course, because whoever thought it was funny to come up with that was, certainly, super funny. but that was before she noticed him talking to her more than he talked to anyone else in the class, and at that point she thought she might like him back.

then his friends (which, by the way, fuck tommy h, and fuck his whole group of friends) had begun to joke about meadow, and she lost whatever feelings she thought she'd had for steve harrington. she dismissed the entire thing as confusion, 'i thought he liked me, so i thought i liked him', and moved on.

that was, until 1983, when she was forced to talk to him again.

the first time meadow had conversed with steve, and not in a school setting, was when his friends had spray painted the sign at the movie theater. now, a sign saying that nancy wheeler was a slut probably wasn't the best way to start off a conversation. meadow liked nancy: she was kind, pretty, and only wanted to find her missing best friend. so, naturally, meadow punched steve harrington directly in the jaw.

steve was, honestly, impressed by the force of her punch. he'd never seen her as anything more than the kind and smart girl that everyone wanted to be friends with.. but, man, could she punch. and man was it hot. her punching steve escalated to him punching jonathan, starting a full on fight between the two boys.

after he punched jonathan, meadow swore she'd never talk to steve again. to her frustration, that promise came to an end when she, nancy, and jonathan hunkered down at the latter teen's house. the group was attempting to kill the demogorgon once and for all, to lure it into the home and burn it.

and of course steve had to ruin it. he had shown up to apologize to nancy, but was shocked when meadow opened the door. she had interrogated him on why he was there, assuring him that nancy didn't want to see him. he'd persisted to ask to be let in, and was even more concerned when he noticed the bandage on her hand.

the boy had practically barged into the house, extremely confused and concerned by the flickering lights and the bait that they'd set for the demogorgon. within no time, the monster showed up, and steve, in an attempt to stop it from attacking the cornered meadow, grasped a nail bat, flinging it at the creature. even meadow had to admit that it was pretty badass.

now, although she and steve were by no means friends, they could now nod at each other with tight-lipped smiles when they saw each other in the halls. nancy had gone back to dating steve, an act that meadow had told her not to partake in. she'd told her friend that she felt like a third wheel half the time she was with nancy and jonathan, but the girl didn't see what she meant.

now that the new year had given her the time to calm down and enjoy her life, meadow's brother, dustin, was her main focus. he had so many great opportunities ahead of him, and she wanted to do everything she could to make sure he had a great year. and, as it would seem, having a great year, for dustin, was simply going to the arcade.

"i need quarters!" the boy yelled as he threw yet another pillow behind him, scavenging the house. the act scared their mother, claudia henderson, who was watching tv as usual. "meadow, do you have any quarters?"

meadow looked up from putting cat food away in the cupboard, giving her brother a look. "you asked me that yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that, and the day before-"

dustin rolled his eyes, getting her point. "okay, but do you have any?"

"any quarters i had, you've already used." his sister told him, heading towards her room. "besides, won't will, lucas, and mike also have quarters?"

dustin sent her an incredulous look, baffled by her lack of understanding. "you don't understand the severity of the situation!" the boy insisted. "dragon's lair is so hard, you can't win with just one try!"

meadow nodded, unimpressed, taking out her wallet and giving him the two quarters she had left. "you need to get an allowance if you're going to continue going to the arcade every day." she told him. the boy squealed with delight, taking the quarters from her and adding them to an already full jar. "hey, you already had quarters!" meadow yelled, but dustin was already running out the door and to his bike.

the girl rolled her eyes, plopping on her bed to finish her homework. although she didn't always understand her brother and his friends, there was no doubt how much they respected her. she was smart, and often was roped into being their leader. unlike nancy and jonathan, she hadn't ever grown too old to just be their friend.

she would dress up to play dungeons and dragons with them, if they bribed her, and she would always give them a ride to school or offer to take the joy stick on dig dug. she was kind of their full-time babysitter, and she definitely didn't mind.

meadow had just finished her schoolwork when dustin threw open her door, sitting on her bed with a pout on his face. his sister looked up with a raised brow, noticing how he would briefly look at her out of the corner of his eye, making sure she could see how clearly upset he was. "are you gonna tell me what happened?" meadow finally asked with a raised brow, setting down her pencil.

"somebody named 'madmax' beat my high score on dig dug!" he explained, looking to her with wide eyes. "over 100,000 more points than me. 100,000!"

meadow chuckled, "well, you're the dig dug master, can't you just keep playing until you get a score 100,000 times higher than this 'madmax'?" she suggested, sitting up from her previous position on her stomach.

dustin stopped to think about it, nodding his head as he considered it. "that could work. i wish i knew who it was." he admitted. "keith offered to tell us, but the catch was that you had to go on a date with him." meadow gagged dramatically; keith was certainly not the man of her dreams. "honestly, i was considering it."

"what?" meadow turned to him, appalled. dustin was quick to run out of her room, yelling a 'goodnight!!' behind him.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

meadow's last year at hawkins high school was supposed to be fun; the best one yet. senior year of high school is always so glorified, as if it's the time of your life. meadow, however, just wanted to get out of hawkins. her hope was to graduate and to get a job where she would be able to raise enough money to move her family somewhere closer to indianapolis; somewhere with a nicer history.

after spending a good ten minutes looking for a parking spot, meadow parked her car and prepared to head into school, her backpack swung over one shoulder.

"who might you be?" a voice said from behind her, and meadow turned around. she was met with a boy her age with a mullet and a slight mustache. he was most definitely not her type, she thought.

she crossed her arms, leaning against her car. "i might be meadow henderson. are you new here? i've not seen you around before."

the boy smiled, taking a step closer. "i'm billy hargrove, and today is my first day."

meadow nodded, looking down at her wrist, as if she was looking at a non-existent watch. "well, i'm gonna be late to class, billy hargrove, so, i'll see you around?"

she didn't actually want to see him around, if she was being honest. he put her on edge, and she couldn't help but wonder if he was some sort of creep. despite the fact that meadow already had sour thoughts about him, she reminded herself that it didn't mean he wasn't a nice guy. besides, they were going to be seeing a lot of each other if they were in the same (small) school.

"see you around." billy replied, nodding to himself. meadow smiled kindly, getting up from her leaning position on the rusted-down car, adjusting the strap of her bag as she walked away.

a voice from behind made meadow stop in her tracks, and she couldn't stop herself from rolling her eyes at his stupidity. "why are you talking to her?" steve harrington asked, and meadow didn't think she could ever hate him any more.