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For some reason, colour war was still happening. They all gathered in the mess hall for an early dinner, and the energy in the cafeteria was static.
A majority of the kids had seemingly moved on from the afternoon's events, bustling around between the tables. The only table that seemed to even remember that Mary Lane had just been hauled away in handcuffs was the table of Shadyside counselors in the corner.
Danny was shaken up, understandably. Julia was sitting beside him, Gary on his other side. Cindy, Evie, Tommy and Joan were on the other side.
"She said one way or another, I was gonna die tonight." He was shaking, and Cindy was frowning so hard that she looked more frown than girl.
"Spooky," Gary put on a ghost voice and grabbed Danny's shoulders, trying to freak him out.
Joan was in the middle of rolling a joint, and she looked up. "The kiddos are right. That's, like, totally witchy behaviour."
Cindy bristled. "It's just, there must be some explanation. The witch isn't real."
Danny shook his head. "Like what?"
"Well, maybe..." she struggled to think of something, her eyes flitting down to Joan's joint. "Maybe she was on something."
Joan physically shushed Cindy. "Drugs are peaceful, not violent."
Cindy scoffed. "I'm not talking about marijuana."
Julia giggled, reaching over the table to grab Cindy's hand. "Just admit you're jealous," she cooed. "She's competition."
Danny wasn't having any of it. He pushed Gary off where he'd grabbed his shoulder. "Be serious, guys. Why would Nurse Mary wanna do something like that? Why would she want me dead?" His voice was low and Evie felt for him.
"Oh, no. She wouldn't." Gary reassured him. Danny took a breath and a grin burst out over Gary's face. Gary, Joan and Julia all chorused in unison. "But the witch might!"
Evie had a headache. Tommy shook his head and leaned over to Danny. "I'm really sorry, man. It's gonna be fine, we just gotta get through colour war. You okay?"
Danny tried to put on a brave face as Tommy stood up to go a few tables down. "Hey," Cindy encouraged. "They're just playing around. This was nothing, I promise."
"Did you see her eyes?" Danny pressed. "There was something in there, something wrong."
Evie leaned over and put her hand on Danny's arm. "She's not here, things are alright. It's not the witch or whatever, it's probably just grief. She lost her daughter."
Danny nodded at her and opened his mouth to say something. He was interrupted, though, with a loud thud from the front of the mess hall.
"Alright!" Kurt stood up, roaring violently. "Chicks, dicks, listen up!" He really wasn't helping Evie's headache. The pinnacle of toxic masculinity. He was standing on the table. "We had a scary situation earlier, but we cannot let that mess with the most important night of our summer." Leave it to Kurt to downplay Danny's literal attempted murder happening less than two hours earlier. "Tonight is Sunnyvale versus Shadyside. It is red versus blue. It is good versus evil!"
God, he was so dramatic.
"Tonight, we commencicate Colour War!" His arms were above his head as he screamed, the rest of the Sunnyvalers joining in.
Gary rolled his eyes. "It's 'commence.' My god."
Joan considered him, licking the paper to seal her joint. "He might be dumb," she mused, "but he's kind of shagadelic."
Kurt had his hands cupping his ears, ecouraging cheers as he basically humped the air, still on the table.
"He's disgusting." Julia shook her head. "You're disgusting. Why do you hate yourself so much?"
Joan continued to seal her joint, giving Kurt eyes as she poked her tongue out.
Kurt jumped dramatically down from the table, grabbing the lard red flag and waving it over his head. "Tonight's first event is Capture the Flag, baby!" There were raucous cheers from the red side of the cafeteria. "Yeah, yeah, yeah! Now, Sunnyvalers..." they all fell silent at seeing their head counselor so serious. He whispered loudly, covering the wrong side of his mouth if he was trying to hide from the Shadysiders. "We have never, ever..." He paused for a moment and then screamed loudly, "lost a colour war! So let's not let tonight be a stain on our legacy." They started a Sunnyvale chant and Evie buried her head in her hands.
After everything that had happened that afternoon, she did not want fucking war games going on, she'd be up past midnight dealing with a group of hyperactive middle schoolers.
Danny was sweating, and he put his hand on the back of Evie's head as she sat face-down at the table. His hand was stroking her hair comfortingly, same repetitive motions.
Evie felt a sharp tug on her hair and she shot up. "What the fuck, dude?"
Danny blinked the blear out of his eyes. "Shit, I'm sorry, Eve. My fingers must have gotten caught, I'm sorry."
She felt her annoyance dwindle upon seeing how remorseful Danny looked. He was clearly out of it. "No, it's okay. Are you alright? Do you want to go outside or anything?"
Danny shook his head. "No, I'll be fine once we get out of here. It's colour war tonight, I'll probably be too busy to be traumatised."
Danny was nowhere near Evie's best friend, but she definitely liked him, even though she was pretty sure he was dating Cindy secretly and she had some less than simple thoughts about that. Cindy was glaring at the table, clearly preoccupied with something.
Kurt still hadn't shut up. "Let's go out there like our ancestors before us and murder those Shadyside witches!"
Evie didn't know how Joan was supposed to follow that, but she would admit that she looked a lot prettier than he did. Her outfit of blue corduroys and her cop top definitely topped his gym shorts and stained neon orange shirt.
She got up there and gave it her best shot. "Hi!" She giggled. "Thank you, Kurt, for that neat-o speech," she smiled flirtily up at him before turning back to the sea of teenagers. "Now, Shadysiders, let's go out there and do our best! Because even if we lose, we're still winners in our hearts." Evie turned to the girl beside her to find that Cindy was completely gone.
All of the Sunnyvalers - and a few Shadysiders - started booing her. Danny looked back and saw Cindy's absence, him and Evie frowning at each other.
Colour war was never particularly fun for counselors, it was way more work than the $2.65 an hour that they made from doing it. Evie had always really enjoyed colour war when she was a kid, even if they did lose every year. But now with that, the lack of sleep she was about to get, and worrying about both Danny and Cindy, she was pretty sure that night was going to completely suck.
But hey, at least it would be over tomorrow.
────────── ⋆˚✿˖° author's note ok so act 2 might be a littttttle bit longer than i first anticipated since i am currently. 30 minutes in. we have about an hour of actual movie but i'm hoping that since it's 70% ziggy and nick (barf) that it'll kinda even itself out??
how are we all doing?? i think i'm back in my steve harrington era tbh like i'm not even a super big fan of stranger things (i'm actually a duffer brothers hater fun fact) but the chokehold that man has on me???? joe keery i am available i'm just saying
actually yk what that's a lie i've been so busy lately?? i had an essay and a test last week and this week i have a major folio submission for my writing studio class due this week and i have a 6 hour hospitality course that i need to take 🤡 in my own time
but even with all that i'm pretty sure i could still find some time to be steve harrington's trophy wife, i just know those 2 fuckers are gonna kill him in season 5. stan ross duffer's wife leigh janiak director of the trilogy, if she needs a trophy wife i am also available
