❁

all the kids holding out a hand to help her climb out of the ditch. she reached down a hand to pull steve up, finally turning to see the kids. she was completely dazed in disbelief, not comprehending the fact that her inevitable death hadn't arrived just then.

dustin tackled meadow, sending both of them falling to the ground. "i thought you were gonna die!" he exclaimed, hugging her tightly. meadow chuckled fondly, ruffling his hair through his cap. dustin finally got off of her, looking over at steve. "wait.. you two were just kissing!" he shouted, pointing a finger at steve accusingly.

steve held up his hands, prepared to defend himself from the accusation, when the lights of billy's car shined directly in their faces. everyone held their arms in front of their eyes to shield them from the blinding light, but, seconds later, the lights turned off. meadow looked to the kids, letting out a sigh. "i think we did it."

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

after nancy and jonathan released tapes calling them out for killing barb, the hawkins lab closed down for good. the small town of hawkins was now the talk of indiana, which was definitely a first.

meadow, meanwhile, had been having one of the best months of her life. now that all of the upside down's problems were resolved, at least for the moment, she could finally sit down and enjoy a normal life with her family, including steve.

steve had finally bucked up the courage to ask meadow out formally, and she, of course, said yes. the two had officially become 'boyfriend and girlfriend', which is something meadow never thought she would be able to say about steve harrington.

luckily, she supposed, for her, her mother adored steve. it wasn't too surprising, since claudia henderson didn't have a negative bone in her body and tended to love most everyone. steve, however, was seemingly her favorite person in the world. she found him to be the utmost gentleman, and tried to invite him over for dinner every night.

dustin, on the other hand, seemed to have lost a bit of his respect for steve. although he still looked up to him and saw him as a hero, he hated the idea of his role model dating his other role model. after steve had sat down with dustin to have a talk about how much of a great girl meadow was, and how they both should be able to love her, dustin calmed down about it.

his feelings toward the situation seemed to vary every day, which was something that they would have to talk about another day. overall, though, dustin was just happy to see meadow more herself than she'd ever been before. steve brought out a different side of his sister.

steve never did get his jacket back, seeing as meadow considered it her jacket now. she looked over at the jacket as it rested on the back of her desk chair, smiling at it. she had actually attempted to dress nice, for once.

instead of her usual jeans and t-shirt, she wore an emerald green dress with a short skirt that flared out. coincidentally, the night of dustin's snow ball was also the night of steve and meadow's first date. steve had promised to give dustin a ride, go on the date, and then both teens could pick him up from his dance.

"son of a bitch!" dustin yelled, running through the house. "son of a bitch!"

claudia henderson rocked their new cat, twos, in her arms. "where did you see it last? what's in there that's so important, anyway?" dustin found a bag in the kitchen, immediately heading off to his room. "that's your ride!" she said as a car pulled into the driveway. "dusty! meadow, sweetie, he's here!"

their mother stood up as the doorbell rang, opening the door for steve, who smiled, making conversation with her. meadow looked into the mirror again, finally finishing curling her hair.

her natural locks were curly; deep brown almost crimp-like waves that rolled across her shoulders. she'd been getting ready all day at this point, and had ironically straightened her hair in order to make it straight enough to curl.

something was missing, she thought as she finished touching her hair up into a half-up look. she moved to her jewelry box, putting on a simple gold necklace and an emerald ring-- the most expensive item of jewelry she owned. although she had barely put on any makeup, she thought she looked quite pretty.

while steve held a bouquet of red roses, speaking with her mother, meadow made her way down the hall. her movement caught steve's eye and he looked up, his jaw nearly dropping at the sight of her. his eyes softened, and meadow blushed under his gaze, looking up at him. he wasn't dressed too fancy, but he did have on a maroon sweater.

"wow," claudia said, "you are just gorgeous!" meadow smiled, approaching steve and taking the flowers from him. before steve could go on and on about how gorgeous she was, claudia grabbed her camera. "pictures! pictures!"

meadow and steve let her take as many pictures as she wanted, seeing that dustin was taking forever. after her mother had taken so many polaroids that she had run out of film, meadow moved to the hallway. "dustin! we gotta go!" he walked out of his room, hair styled up. his sister tried to hold in her fond laugh, looking over at him. "wow." she said, shaking her head. "you look amazing, let's go."

she handed her mother the flowers, helping her fit them into a vase. "have a good time, all of you!" claudia said with a smile, pressing a loving kiss to both of her children's cheeks. she began to go on about safety, reminding them what time to be home, and to look both ways before they crossed the street.

meadow laughed at her overprotectiveness, nudging the two boys to the door. "yeah, mom. yeah, we know. okay. okay. cool. thank you. yes. love you. bye."

dustin sat in the backseat as steve pulled into the hawkins middle school parking lot. they could hear the sounds of the party raging inside, and everything seemed to be decorated perfectly for the event. "alright, buddy," steve said, "here we are. so, remember, when you get in there.."

"pretend like i don't care." dustin finished, nodding from the backseat.

meadow turned around, annoyed. "absolutely not!"

dustin turned to steve. "well, how did you get meadow?"

steve flushed red. "i pretended i didn't care."

meadow slapped his arm. "that is a bold faced lie." she then turned to her brother, shaking her head. "he's absolutely wrong. if you don't care, she'll think you're an asshole and will want to never date you." she turned to steve. "almost like you last year."

steve held his hands up in defense as dustin furrowed a brow. "okay, so, why did you end up dating him?"

"simple." meadow turned back to dustin. "he started caring."

dustin reached over them, attempting to check himself in the mirror. "stop that, you look great." steve said. "you look great." meadow smiled up at him. "now you're gonna go in there."

"yeah."

"look like a million bucks."

"yeah!"

"and you're gonna slay 'em dead." steve finished, looking at dustin.

he nodded. "like a lion. grr." he purred, making meadow laugh fondly. he got out of the car, moving into the school.

steve looked over at meadow with a smile. "you ready to go?"

"you still haven't told me where we're going." she replied, reaching over to grab his hand. their fingers intertwined as steve put his other hand back on the wheel.

"just wait and see."