the princess and the frog, steve harrington & eddie munson

ii. billy and the princess

Chapter two

Hawkins, October 1984

She'd never really been to a real school before and assumed she was the only new student. However, in her second class the same boy from the Camaro was introduced to her. He sat right next to her with an unlit cigarette in his hand. In her country, it was disrespectful to smoke indoors or at all for that matter. But that's none of her business and she already almost blew her cover this morning.

"Hey, Africa." the blonde tapped on her shoulder.

"Excuse me?"

"Hi, I'm Billy. Billy Hargrove. I was wondering..."

"In my country, we don't smoke during conversation." Tiana said, "I'm curious about what you have to say but you're going to have to ask when you're not blowing smoke from your mouth."

"It's unlit."

"I know you're gonna smoke it after class."

"You don't know shit, Africa."

"Try me, American. I can insult you in 8 different languages. We're done here." she said as the bell rang. Nancy Wheeler was waiting for her outside of the classroom with Jonathan. They walked into the cafeteria and sat down with Steve. "Tiana."

"Steven."

"It's just Steve." he said bluntly. Nancy and Steve started talking to Jonathan about Barb.

"Barbara Holland?" Tiana asked, "the girl who went missing and hasn't been found?"

Nancy eyed her suspiciously. She nodded. "Can I ask how you know about what's been going on here?"

"Nance-"

"No. I want to know why a princess suddenly moved to America. And no one knew about it."

"Hopper." Tiana said, "Hopper is my emergency contact."

"Hopper knows?"

"I can't come to America without security and allies." Tiana said, "It's unsafe. And different." the african fiddled with the vibranium ring on her finger. Her eyes focussed on the bright purple gemstone holding the most powerful entity on the planet. To Steve, Nancy, and Jonathan it looked as if it was a chunk of Amethyst on a silver band.

In fact, Steve Harrington already thought this exotic princess was perfect just the way she was.

Steve cleared his throat as soon as he saw Billy Hargrove heading in their direction. The new boy's eyes were glued to Tiana's chest like a cat with a laser pointer. The princess was curious as to why the new addition who had been smoking all morning suddenly dropped his cigarette addiction.

"Africa." Billy said.

"What? No smoke?"

"I quit. Can we talk now, Africa? You and me."

"No."

"I'm sorry."

"She said no." Jonathan said, "and stop calling her Africa, alright. It's offensive."

"He is correct, American." Tiana agreed. "Princess Tiana Sinclair of Wakanda... although I would prefer it if none of you called me princess. For now, I am a normal American teenager. I wish to be treated as such."

Steve chuckled, "As your tour guide of being a normal American teenager, you should steer clear of Tommy and Carol."

"And why is that?" Tommy H. challenged.

Tiana smiled, "Probably because white people cannot always be trusted."

Tommy smirked, "You may be foreign but you people don't have a good track record in America, princess."

Tiana smiled to herself before telling Billy she'd changed her mind about talking to him right now. She grabbed his hand and walked with him to his car. "Tell me about America, American. Iz this... American Dream real or bullshit?"

"Have you ever seen a movie, Africa?"

"But I want to know what it's really like."

"Isn't Harrington your host or something?"

"Yeah but he didn't tell me anything about this place."

"I'm not even from here." Billy said, "Word of advice, this place gives me the creeps so I wouldn't wanna know anything else about it."

Tiana grabbed her bag, "we'll see if curiosity kills the cat then, Hargrove." she hopped out of the car and Billy lit a cigarette for the first time since the first period. She was different. Curious and excited about being in this shithole town. And yet there was something off-putting about her, suspicious even.