Wicked Town - Book 1 (Hopper x Daughter OC) (Stranger Things Season 1)

Holly Jolly

"How are you and your mom?"

"She's... Going crazy."

"Loss will do that. She's probably just stressed and scared and tired."

"I know," he sighed. "She keeps saying that Will is at the house, but it makes no sense and I keep trying to tell her that he's just lost and she's overtired, but..."

"Hey," she put a hand on his arm. "She'll get better. It'll all get better."

"Yeah." She gave him a small smile before they walked down the hallway.

***

"How long have you been into photography?" Dannie asked as Jonathan continued developing his photos.

"What?"

"I've known you for years, but you were already doing photography when I moved here. So, how long have you been doing it?"

"Uh, I don't know. Probably a year or two before you came," he said as he hung up the pictures.

"You know, these are kind of stalkerish," she said as she looked at them. "Is this Nancy?" she asked as she pointed to one of a girl stripping off her shirt.

"Uh..."

"Dude, you know I love you and all, but these are kind of creepy."

"I wasn't doing anything. I was just... looking for Will in the woods."

"And then took pictures of a house you came upon?"

"Yeah," he shrugged.

"Okay, tell me how that's not stalkerish."

"I- It's..."

"Just don't let anyone else see them," she shook her head with a smile. "Look, I'll never say anything about them again, but others probably won't take as kindly to them."

"Yeah," he agreed. "We're already outcasts."

"Exactly. But it can be a good thing because then you can get pictures like these without raising any suspicion."

"Hey," Nicole greeted as she walked inside.

"Oh, hey," Jonathan said as Dannie tried to get the drying pictures down as fast as possible, but Nicole caught sight of them. Jonathan quickly helped her get the rest before they left the room.

"So much for not letting anyone see," she sighed.

***

Jonathan and Dannie were walking back to his car when they saw Steve, Tommy, Carol, and Nicole sitting and leaning on the car.

"Hey, man," Steve jumped off.

"What's going on?"

"Nicole here was, uh, telling us about your work," he said as they walked closer.

"We've heard great things."

"Yes, sounds cool," Tommy said after his girlfriend.

"And we'd just love to take a look. You know, as... connoisseurs of art."

"I don't know what you're talking about," he tried to walk through them, but Tommy took his bag. "Please, give me my bag." Tommy tossed it to Steve. "No, just-"

"Look, man, he's, like, totally trembling. He must really have something to hide."

"Just give him his bag back, asshole," Dannie crossed her arms.

"Here we go," Steve continued, ruffling through the bag. "Ah," he pulled out the pictures. "Here we go. Oh, man."

"Let me see," Tommy reached for them as Steve looked through them. "Dude," he looked at Jonathan.

"Yeah, this isn't creepy at all," Carol scoffed as she took them from Tommy.

"I was looking for my brother."

"No. No, this is called stalking," Steve told him.

"What's going on?" Nancy asked as she walked up.

"Here's the starring lady," Timmy smirked.

"What?"

"This creep was spying on us last night. And I'm sure the creepette had something to do with it too," Carol looked at them. "They were probably gonna save this one for later," she handed the one of Nancy taking her shirt off to her.

"See, you can tell that he knows it was wrong, but..." Steve sighed. "Man, that's the thing about perverts. It's hard wired into him," he played with Jonathan's collar. "You know, they just can't help themselves."

"Get the hell off him," Dannie pushed his hand away.

"And some even have backup."

"Watch it," she warned him.

"What'cha gonna do?" he asked her and she went to swing, but Jonathan shook her head. "Yeah, that's what I thought," he said before ripping the photos up. "So, we'll just have to take away their toy."

"No, please, not the camera," Jonathan pleaded as he tried to get to them.

"No, no, wait, wait," Steve stopped Tommy as he pushed Jonathan back. "Tommy, Tommy, it's okay. Here you go, man," he held out the camera, but dropped it as he went to take it. "Come on, let's go. The game's about to start," Steve walked away.

"Boo," Tommy whispered in his face.

"Bye," Carol dropped some more of the ripped photos as they all walked away. Nancy leant down and started to clean up some of the pictures.

"Hey, Nance," Steve called. "Come on." She picked up some of the pictures before shoving them in her bag and walking to Steve who put his arm around her.

"Assholes!" Dannie called after them.

"They're not worth it," Jonathan whispered. She sighed, shaking her head as they finished cleaning up.

Personally, the friendship between Jonathan and Dannie might be my favorite thing I wrote for this book. Let me know what you think!