Chapter Text
001. Becky Wheeler, The "Cooler" Sister.
FIVE HOURS AGO, Becky would've been on her bed, with her warm duvet covering her entire body, her Walkman playing by her head, headphones in, and she would've probably (surely) been asleep.
If it weren't for Mike, of course.
That little creature she unfortunately called her brother, she loved him more than anything else in the world even though he was annoying as hell, had forced her to go with him in the basement and play D&D with his other creature friends.
Why they begged for her to hang out with them? She still hadn't found out yet, but she would sooner or later. Those little gremlins couldn't continue dragging her down the stairs and force her to watch their cringe-filled, so-called acting they had going on while playing their favorite board game. There was no need for them to turn into dramatic theater kids when all they did was roll a dice and move figurines around, but whatever. She let the kids be kids.
And the game was kind of cool or whatever. She couldn't let Mike know that. Ever.
"Something is coming. Something hungry for blood. A shadow grows on the wall behind you, swallowing you in darkness." Mike leaned closer to his friends, hiding half of his face with one of his books he'd propped up on the table. "It is almost here."
"What is it?" Will's eyes widened.
"What if it's the Demogorgon?" Dustin held his head in despair. "Oh, Jesus, we're so screwed if it's the Demogorgon."
"It's not the Demogorgon!" Lucas protested wide eyed.
"An army of--"
"What's a Demogorgon again?" Becky cut her brother off with a raised voice.
Mike blinked, sending her an irritated look over his prop. Not only did she dare to interrupt his narrative of the story, but she also, quite literally, proved she never listened to them as they played even though she had been present countless times.
Yes, Becky was dragged down into the basement to play with them, but she didn't actually agree to play. Instead, she sat down on the far end of their old couch while trying to put together an old Lego set Mike had forgotten to make, or pretended to have forgotten. Sometimes he didn't care about some Lego sets if he didn't like them. In this case, it was an old one that their Dad bought him last year.
"Are you serious?" Mike deadpanned, while Will turned to her with a smile instead.
"The Demogorgon is the huge, two-headed monster, y'know?" he asked softly. "We've already told you."
Becky's eyes widened in recognition as she pointed at him. "Oh, yeah! It's that super tall, super strong thingy that rules this dimension full of monsters, right?"
"Yeah," the young boy smiled big before turning to the board game again, receiving an annoyed glance from Mike, which he ignored completely. Mike turned to his sister again.
"Any more questions before we continue?"
"Nope! You may proceed."
Mike shook his head and turned to the group. "As I was saying..." he paused dramatically before placing a figurine on the board. "An army of troglodytes charge into the chamber!"
"Troglodytes?" Dustin smiled.
"Told ya," Lucas chuckled at him.
"What's--"
"Don't you dare finish that question!" Mike slammed the table, his previous smile disappearing instantly. Will, Lucas and Dustin all jumped at the loud noise, then all turned toward the older girl in the room to see her reaction.
Becky, on the other hand, was amused at how quickly her brother could snap. She didn't want to lie and say it wasn't her mission in life to annoy the hell out of Mike whenever she wanted to. Because it was too easy to do so.
She put the Lego set away and lifted her hands in surrender. "Alright, no more questions."
Mike let out a long sigh and turned back to his friends. His expression changed, his face dropping in a second. "Wait a minute, did you hear that?" He turned, looking at the other side of the basement in fear. "That...that sound?" He faced them slowly. "Boom...boom...boom!"
He slammed both of his hands on the table, making the other boys (and Becky) jump in surprise.
"Jesus..." she mumbled.
"That didn't come from the troglodytes," Mike ignored her completely. "No, that...that came from something else."
The boys exchanged looks, waiting for Mike's grand revelation. Meanwhile, Becky leaned in closer. She knew Mike had a way of narrating a story, since he also had her waiting for the reveal. She mentally cursed herself.
Mike took another figure he'd been hiding behind his book and slammed it on the board.
"The Demogorgon!"
Everyone groaned in annoyance, leaning back on their chairs again.
"We're in deep shit."
"Will, your action!" Mike urged his friend.
Will shook his head frantically. "I don't know!"
"Fireball him!" Lucas suggested loudly.
"I'd have to roll a 13 or higher!"
"Too risky," Dustin told him. "Cast a protection spell."
"Don't be a pussy," Lucas cut him off immediately. "Fireball him!"
"Cast protection," Dustin said again.
Mike slammed the table again. "The Demogorgon is tired of your silly human bickering! It stomps towards you. Boom!"
Lucas turned to Will again, this time more frustrated. "Fireball him!"
"Another stomp, boom!"
"Cast protection," Dustin repeated.
"He roars in anger!" Mike continued.
Soon enough, the boys began to frantically yell over each other, one raising his voice more than the other. Becky's lips had curled into an amused smile, looking back and forth at the bickering. Lucas and Dustin were seconds away from jumping at each other, Mike continued his angry narration, while Will was scratching his head in despair.
He looked to the side at Becky who'd been watching him closely. It only took for her to mouth one single word for him to make a decision, or rather, for Becky to make the decision for him.
Will's eyes widened with hope, wanting to listen to the girl, and quickly took the dice and rolled it on the table. "Fireball!"
The dice rolled away, and the boys stood up to look for it.
"Where'd it go?" Lucas yelled. "Where is it?"
"I don't know!"
"Is it a 13?"
"I don't know!"
"Where is it?" Lucas asked again as he looked under the wooden stairs.
"Oh, my God!" Dustin held his head in his hands, making Becky chuckle at the drama. "Oh, my God! Oh, my God!"
The door to the basement slammed open, and Becky noticed her mother standing at the top of the stairs with a hand on her hip. "Mike!"
Mike looked up from the ground. "Mom, we're in the middle of a campaign!"
"You mean the end?" She raised her brows and pointed at her wrist. "Fifteen after." She turned to walk away before noticing another person present in the basement.
"Rebecca, don't tell me you've been there all this time!" she scolded her daughter, who only shrugged before pointing at Mike.
"He forced me to."
"Your little brother forced you to?" Karen repeated her daughter's words slowly, not believing them for a second. "I needed your help with Holly and you've been playing with the boys?"
"What about Nancy?" Becky finally got up from the couch and began mounting the stairs, following her Mom in the kitchen. "You never ask her for help."
"Matter of fact, I did," the woman explained. "She said she had homework to do. So I left her alone."
Becky rolled her eyes. "Oh, yeah. Of course. Homework."
"Yes, homework." Karen sent her a pointed look. "At least she does them, unlike someone. So go. Now! And don't you dare tell me you've done them, or that you don't have any, because I know you haven't done them, and I know you have a lot of them. So go do them."
Becky sent her a look of disbelief. She hated how that woman could read her like an open book without her muttering a word. Either way, she ended up doing as she was told, because her mom was right. She hadn't done her homework for the next day, and she definitely needed to do them.
Or maybe Nancy could.
"Mom, just 20 more minutes!" Mike yelled from behind Becky, but the girl was already going up the stairs and didn't get to hear the rest of his whining. Being upstairs meant being able to hear Nancy, though, who wasn't actually doing her homework but speaking on the phone to someone.
That someone being Steve Harrington, no doubt. Or maybe Barbara Holland. Nancy ever spoke to those two on the phone.
"Doing homework, huh?" Becky leaned inside her sister's room in annoyance.
Nancy Wheeler was sprawled on her bed with her phone to her ear, twirling the phone cable around her finger. She lowered the blue phone and glared. "Do you mind? I already did my homework."
Becky let out a long, dramatic sigh, before walking in her room completely, sitting down beside her. "Do mine?"
Nancy frowned. "No?"
"Yes?"
"No!"
"Yes!"
"No, I won't!"
"Yes, you will!"
Nancy got up from the bed, leaving the phone on her night table, and began pushing Becky out of her room with an irritated grunt. "Get out!"
Becky let herself be pushed out, too tired to fight against her sister, but that didn't stop her from grabbing the doorframe tightly. "Pleaseeeeeeee!"
"Get. Out!"
Becky stumbled backward into the hallway but caught herself on the wall. "Okay, okay, Jesus, you're so dramatic."
Nancy rolled her eyes and shut the door right in her face.
Becky stood there for a second, blinking at the wood. "Rude," she muttered to no one. She was about to push herself off the wall when she heard hurried footsteps pounding up the stairs.
Dustin appeared, out of breath, clutching a pizza box. His curls were bouncing everywhere, and his eyes lit up the second he spotted Nancy's door, only to freeze when he noticed the door was closed. Then he noticed Becky standing beside it like she'd been exiled.
"Oh," he said.
Becky stared back. "Oh."
They blinked at each other.
Dustin nodded solemnly, then raised the pizza box again. "Well, I was gonna offer this to Nancy." He hesitated. "But, uh... she sounds mad."
"Mm-hm."
"And I don't wanna die."
"Smart."
Dustin looked down at the box, then at Becky again, then sighed with the weight of a man making the hardest decision of his life.
"You want it?" he asked, defeated.
Becky didn't even pretend to be modest. "Absolutely." She took the box before he could change his mind.
Dustin nodded, saluted her dramatically, then sprinted back downstairs before Karen could yell at them again.
Becky smirked, turned toward her own room that was on the opposite side of Nancy's, and shut the door behind her.