Chapter 5

001

• 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐅𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 •

─────✧･ﾟ: *✧･

☄. *. ⋆ Estelle Harrington sat on her bed, wrapping her hand in a bandage. The thirteen-year-old winced as the material made contact with the gashes on her knuckles, scrunching up her nose when she continued to wrap the bandage around her wounds. It wasn’t bleeding much anymore, considering she was given a tissue to soak up most of the blood at school while she waited for Steve to pick her up. The girl just barely avoided punishment from the school, the charm of her being just a little girl, insisting it was “a fight or flight instinct,” and she was “so sorry,” and that she “didn’t know what came over her” getting her out of a two day suspension.

That and Hawkins Middle being too afraid to scare away their best performing student.

─────✧･ﾟ: *✧･

“Isn’t that right, Zombie Boy?”

Stella’s head perked up at the sound of the voice. Her eyebrows furrowed, and she followed the sound. When she came close enough to see the situation, she saw none other than Peter Hanson, a kid who she had threatened just days before for picking on Will.

She made her way over to the two boys, Will’s face afraid of the taller boy in front of him.

“Hey, guys… what’s up?” Stella asked, a trace of warning in her tone, cocking a brow in Peter’s direction.

“You know, I don’t think you’ll actually do anything. All you have is empty threats to try and defend this freak,” Peter said to Stella, poking Will’s chest at the last word.

Stella’s jaw clenched at those words, and she placed a hand on Will’s chest to push him back.

“See? You’re just walking away because neither of you can do shit. You’re both just two gay frea–”

Peter was cut off by a dull thud and sharp crack, both sounding on the impact of Stella’s fist landing against his nose. The sound was joined with a surge of pain radiating from the boy’s nose and spreading throughout his face. The boy fell to the ground in disorientation and started crying out in pain as he clutched his nose.

Stella simply watched, looking down at the boy with her face blank as she shook the blood off her hand in one quick motion and shoved it in her pocket.

────✧･ﾟ: *✧･

Now, Dustin’s voice came through the brunette’s walkie-talkie. “Stella?”

She sighed before getting up and walking over to her desk. She picked up her walkie, wincing at the pain in her hand when she bent her fingers. “What?” She spoke into the radio. “Lucas and I have six bucks total, what’s your haul?”

“What are you talking about?” Stella asked, eyebrows knitted.

“The arcade.”

The brunette girl raised her eyebrows in remembrance. “Shit, hold on.” Stella left her room and quickly went over to Steve’s. “Hey, Steve,” she said sweetly. “So, I’m gonna head out to the arcade with-“

“Uh, no you’re not,” Steve said matter of factly.

“What? Why?”

“Essie, I’ve told you before, throwing punches doesn’t help anything. You can’t just hit someone when you get upset,” Steve told her, the girl having come home with bloodied knuckles times before.

“I can, I did, and it did help! I guarantee you, he’s not gonna pull that ‘Zombie Boy’ shit anymore. Or that ‘queer’ shit,” Stella retorted, muttering the last part quiet enough for Steve not to hear.

Stella knew she liked girls. She knew she wasn’t normal, but she had never said it out loud. The only people who knew were the party and a few others.

All the girl did was give her friend, Hannah, a Valentine’s Day gift in seventh grade, since she was upset about not having a date.

The action was platonic, but Troy and James misinterpreted it and began to tell people that Stella Harrington was queer.

Which was true, but she couldn’t let people know that it was.

Stella got the rumors under control surprisingly quickly, but few people still called her names or accused her of liking girls. She was able to shut them up pretty quickly, though, or at least scare them into not spreading it.

“You’re not going, end of story.”

Stella rolled her eyes with a groan and made her way back to her room. She picked up her radio from its place on top of her dresser and pressed the button to speak. “Hey.”

“Finally. So what’s your haul?”

“I can’t go.”

“What? Why the hell not?”

“Steve won’t let me,” Stella informed her curly-haired friend.

“Why?”

Stella furrowed her brows and pulled her head back, shocked at the fact that Dustin didn’t already know the answer. “Hello? Broke Peter H.’s nose?”

“Steve grounded you?” The boy asked, shocked at the information. It was really unlike Steve to ground the girl.

Stella’s eyes landed on her window before she got an idea. “Uh… yeah. Actually, nevermind. I’ll be there,” she said before putting her walkie back on her desk. She ripped a piece of paper out of her notebook, scrawling a note.

‘Don’t freak, I’ll be back. Sorry, but I don’t listen! Later! -Stel.’

She left the note on her bed and then gathered nine quarters total from what was scattered around her room, and a few dollar bills from a drawer of miscellaneous items. After stuffing them in her pocket and throwing on her black Converse, the girl looked back in her room one last time. She sighed and opened up her window, the cool October air of the Tuesday night greeting her.

Stella stepped through her window onto part of her roof, part that was lower to the ground than the rest of her house. She shut her window behind her before carefully walking down her roof and landing on the grass beside her house. She ran around to the front porch, grabbing her black and white bike and riding off to the arcade.

–

☄. *. ⋆ As Stella biked, she caught sight of a car parked outside of a house that was vacant. Well, it normally was. Apparently, it wasn’t anymore.

She furrowed her eyebrows, intrigued. It was rare for Hawkins to have newcomers. Most people didn’t even know the small town existed.

The brunette turned her focus back to her bike riding when she almost lost control of it.

–

☄. *. ⋆ Stella pulled up to the arcade – thinking about the fact that she should probably be studying right now – as the cold made her breath visible and turned her cheeks red.

She walked inside at the absence of her friends, the atmosphere changing from cold to warm. Bored and somewhat hungry, Stella decided to head over to the counter with hopes of getting a snack, silently counting her money to ensure that she didn’t drop anything.

But while the girl eyed her coins, she was unaware of her surroundings, so she didn’t slow down in time to avoid the person in front of her as they turned around to retrieve their fallen quarter.

An unfamiliar head of red hair bumped into Stella’s shoulder, and the brunette darted her eyes away from her money, which dropped to the floor as well.

“Shit! Sorry!” Stella apologized as her gaze left her coins, immediately dropping to the ground to pick up the redhead’s now multiple fallen quarters.

“No, it’s okay,” the foreign voice of the girl said, kneeling down as well.

Knowing the voice belonged to the stranger in front of her, Stella replied, closing her eyes and shaking her head, internally scolding herself as she spoke. “No, I need to watch where I’m going. Also my reaction time sucks, so…” she trailed off, collecting the last few quarters in her hand as the unknown girl chuckled a bit. Stella reached her hand out to the girl, lending her money back to her. She didn’t even look at the person, her eyes scanning the floor to make sure she picked it all up.

When she felt the coins be taken from her hand, she stood up, brushing herself off as she sighed. The redhead did the same, Stella looking down at her. The two locked eyes, making Stella’s breath hitch as the other girl’s eyes traveled over Stella’s face.

The girl before her had electric blue eyes that she could easily get lost in, and they went perfectly with her other features. Her tanned skin with freckles scattered around it, pink lips, and what was probably the most noticeable: fiery red hair.

Stella quickly stopped herself from staring, her eyes wavering between the floor and the ginger as she spoke. “Uh- sorry again.”

“Yeah, no, it’s- it’s fine,” the girl chuckled. “Oh, um, here, sorry.” She held out a hand with a few quarters in it, and Stella only then realized she, too, dropped her money.

“Oh, shit. Thanks, I- didn’t even realize I dropped that,” Stella laughed a bit, making the stranger chuckle again.

“Uh, are you- are you new in town? I… don’t think I’ve seen you around yet,” Stella asked, trying to make conversation. She wanted to know this girl. Fortunately, the girl replied. “Yeah,” she nodded. “I just moved here last week.”

“Oh, cool!”

“Yeah…”

It was silent for a moment, Stella thinking of what to say next. The silence was interrupted by a loud honk of a horn from outside the arcade, making Stella and Max jump.

Max’s eyes shot to the window before she spoke. “That’s my brother. I’ll see you around?”

“Hopefully.”

The girl nodded in response, a small smile on her face, which was now tinted red, but Stella didn’t notice.

Hopefully!? You creep! And why didn’t you ask for her name? Idiot.

Forgetting about her intention to get a snack, Stella turned to the door after a moment, finding that her friends still weren’t here. She made her way over to Pac-Man and started up the game. The girl began playing, sporadically moving the joystick.

Up, then to the left, trying to lose the red ghost. Then down, barely dodging the pink one. She continued the game. Right, down, right, up, left.

She’d been playing for a good 5 minutes now, about to beat her high score even though she was already first on the leaderboard.

Up, right, down, right, dow– “Shit! I’m in uncharted territory here.” The sound of Dustin’s panicked voice caught her attention, making her whip her head back, looking away from the game and running into the orange ghost.

“Damnit!” She slammed her hand down on the machine as she yelled. With an eye-roll, she headed towards the sound, turning the corner of arcade machines to see her friends.

“You made me lose, asshole,” she said upon finding them, her hands in her pockets and her words directed at Dustin. The boy in question looked at her for a moment, but looked back at the screen almost immediately.

“Not now, Stella,” he told her quickly, focused on the game.

“Hey, Stella,” Will greeted the girl with a small smile, earning a smile from Stella. That’s when Mike and Lucas started yelling commands at Dustin, who was playing. “Down! Down! Down!” “Left!” “Right!” “Go! Go! Go!”

Stella rolled her eyes and watched the boy play. The princess came on screen and gave a flustered giggle before Dustin made one wrong move, causing his character to get burnt to a crisp.

“Oof,” Stella muttered.

“No, no, no! I hate this overpriced bullshit! Son of a bitch! Piece of shit!” Dustin cursed, kicking the machine.

“You’re just not nimble enough. You’ll get there one day. But until then, Princess Daphne is still mine!” Lucas teased.

Stella smiled at the boy’s words before looking at her watch. “I gotta go, guys,” she told the boys.

“Go? You just got here,” Mike pointed out, furrowing his brows at the girl.

“Uh, I snuck out,” She informed him, a sassy tone in her voice. “Plus, I’ve been here for a while, it’s eight thirty on a school night, I have a math test in the morning, and I’m not failing for this, so… sorry!” She shrugged before running out. “Later!” The young Harrington called, putting up a peace sign as she jogged through the door.

And at that, she hopped on her bike and rode off, happily welcoming the cold air.

–

☄. *. ⋆ When Stella arrived at her house, she brought her bike around back by her window, leaning it against the wall before jumping to grab onto the lowest part of the roof and pulling herself up. She peeked through her window into her room, making sure her brother wasn’t there.

When he wasn’t there, and the note she left remained exactly how she left it, she crumpled it up and threw it away before getting ready for bed.

Normally, Stella would study for her test. Grades were one of the most important things to her. But she also loved her sleep. She had already been studying the past few days, anyway.

─────✧･ﾟ: *✧･

first chapter complete!

so we all agree that this is like 10 times better than as hawkins falls already, right?

things i almost did with this story part 1: i was going to change stella’s full name to stellaluna

thanks for reading!