HAVEN - stranger things.

x. 1972.

x. winnie and her prince!

steve harrington could vividly recall the day that he met wendy carmichael—it was the year of 1972 and their classes had been playing on the school playground together. six year old steve harrington had been chasing after his friends when he saw her for the first time. wendy carmichael had been hanging upside down from the jungle gym, her long pigtails hanging next to her face.

"winifred! do not hang upside down for that long, it's dangerous!" steve heard her teacher call out.

"sorry miss williams!" wendy sat up, untangling herself from the jungle gym and climbing down.

steve got a good look at her face and it felt like all of the sound around him subsided as he stared at five year old wendy carmichael. she was wearing a purple and pink striped shirt under her denim overalls—when she smiled, steve saw that she was missing a front tooth. he looked over towards their teachers that were immersed in a conversation. he still had time to greet winifred.

he started walking over to the girl, he slowly started to recognize her. her family had just moved in to the house next to theirs.

"harrington!" his friends called out. steve spun around to face his friend group of three, excluding him at the moment.
"hold on!" steve called back.

winifred carmichael sat on the sidewalk, she was drawing a huge flower with the chalk in her hand, or at least she was attempting to. steve had declared that she was no artist.

he continued walking but heard the sound of whistles, causing him to tense up. recess was over and he hadn't even talked to her. the girl stood up, swiping her chalk dusted hand against her overalls. suddenly, a swarm of young children ran towards the door—a little boy had ran into wendy, knocking her over. steve's eyes widened as he rushed over to her, as if his tiny body was moving involuntarily.

"are you okay?" steve crouched down in front of the girl.

five year old winifred looked up, she saw a boy with a shiny brunette bowl cut. he had eyes that were dark hazel, but they could pass as brown. she felt a sting coming from her leg and looked down, seeing that her knee had been scratched after she scraped the ground.

"i'm okay." steve helped her up.

wendy looked over his outfit, he had been wearing blue pants that flared at the bottom.
"my name is steve harrington." he said matter-of-factly.

wendy beamed a smile at him, she thought that his last name was funny and sounded like the name of a prince from a movie. her mom had just taken her to the hawkins movie theatre to see a special screening of cinderella. wendy had been acting out over the attention that her baby sister had been receiving.

"my mommy and daddy call me wendy. my teacher calls me winifred." wendy then started to wonder why her baby sister didn't call her anything. she wondered why her baby sister couldn't even talk yet.

steve had thought that she had said her name was winnie—he would proceed to call her that for the next six months, wendy never had the courage to correct him.

the two teachers stood by the door, waiting for the last two children to come in.
"this little girl is gonna give me hell," miss williams sighed before calling out to the little girl. "winifred! it's time to go inside!" she yelled out.