Halley's comet | Steve Harrington

ii.i a strange surprise

"𝑺𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒚, 𝑰 𝒄𝒂𝒏'𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓,"

⇜☾✩☽⇝

Down to a single paycheck a month, Halley's life was going just great.

She spent most of her weekends surrounded by pre-teen boys and Keith, just barely making minimum wage, at $3.50 an hour. The rest of her 'free' time was wasted away filing useless papers and enduring humiliation from Calhoun when Hopper wasn't around.

The internship that had been talked up so much, had turned out to be a bust. It wasn't as if she'd expected to be out busting robberies, or underage drinking—probably for the best, because she was one of the top contributors for the latter—but she'd thought there would be more than reports about raccoon break ins at the corner shop.

Either way, she had decided that the arcade was a far better fit. Especially because she was actually paid to be there. She would have about twenty dollars after her shift, and that was twenty dollars more than any day at the police station.

As usual, the place was pretty packed. It was a Sunday night, late enough after dinner, but not too late that kids needed to be home. So it was no surprise when Mike, Will, Dustin, and Lucas showed up.

The four crowded around one of their latest obsessions, Dragon's Lair. Halley watched as she wiped Cola off Miss Pacman. Dustin was abusing the buttons trying desperately to slay the dragon, but for what was maybe the fifth time that day, he was fried to a crisp before he could get a hit in with his sword.

"No! No! No!" he cried, slamming his hand down on the game. "I hate this overpriced bullshit!" The screen flashed its 'game over' sequence, and Dustin looked about ready to take that personally.

Lucas stepped in, casually leaning on the side of the machine and smiling to himself, "you're not nimble enough," he said, "but you'll get there one day." He paused, pointing at Dustin, "but until then," he gestured back to the game, "Princess Daphne is still mine."

Halley tucked the spray bottle she was using back into her utility belt. It wasn't the dress code, but she had found it was much better to have it, just in case. She let out a harsh chuckle, alerting the boys to her. "Princess Daphne is a bunch of underdressed pixels."

Lucas scoffed, but Dustin waved him off, "whatever, at least I'm still top on DigDug and Centipede."

"You sure about that?" Keith stood holding a bag of cheese puffs. One of his many nonchalant looks taking hold on his face. He was supposed to be cleaning the bathrooms. No doubt he would push that job on to Halley later.

Dustin sombered, his attention no longer anywhere near Dragon's Lair. "Sure about what?" Keith popped a cheese puff in his mouth. But that was enough of an answer for him. "You're kidding." He pushed the others aside as he rushed to the other game, "no, no, no."