𝐑𝐔𝐋𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐋𝐃 ✧ robin buckley

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If you asked Dustin Henderson who the coolest high school girl he knew was, up until 1984, he would have said Nancy Wheeler.

But when a teenage girl he had never met before ended up moving in next door, which led to their parents dating, his answer quickly changed.

Azalea Monroe was the coolest girl Dustin had ever met.

Azalea was kind and patient. She listened to his problems, helped him with homework, and was always willing to take Dustin to one of his friends houses or to the arcade.

She was also super fun. She would let Dustin have his friend over at her house for secret sleepovers or D&D campaigns. She bought them snacks, drove them to diners, and actually enjoyed being around them.

She was the closest thing he had ever had to a sister, and it didn't matter what any of his friends said — he had the coolest sibling.

And despite the fact the Azalea seemed a bit guarded and secretive, as far as Dustin knew, they told each other everything.

Like how Azalea thought it was only a matter of time before Nancy Wheeler and Jonathan Byers got together. The way they looked at each other was disgustingly adorable and impossible to ignore—though poor Steve Harrington was oblivious.

Or how Dustin was crushing hard on the new red-headed girl in town, Max Mayfield, and was failing miserably to impress her, meanwhile Lucas seemed to be having better luck.

He even told her about the upside-down. Will's disappearance, the magic girl named Eleven, the demogorgons. He told her it all—things he would never tell his mother.

Azalea was never completely sure she believed him. It all just sounded like one of his elaborate D&D campaigns. But his whole friend group excitedly would give her the same story, so she played along.

That fall, Azalea was the first person Dustin turned to when his inter-dimensional pet slug, Dart, grew larger than he bargained for and ate his cat.

And as she helped him trap the terrifying, fleshy monster in his storm cellar, she started to believe him.

November 1984 was the craziest time of her life.

Not just because of the demogorgons and demodogs. Or the girl with cool powers. Or the fact that these middle school kids she had babysat for months were suddenly badass geniuses who were able to take on this otherworldly force.

But because in the midst of it all, she became best friends with Hawkins High's very own Steve 'the hair' Harrington.

Azalea never really knew Steve. She was decent friends with Nancy, they would sometimes hang out while Dustin and Mike dragged them around. And sometimes she would hear Nancy talk about her boyfriend Steve.

She had a few classes with him too. She saw how the girls all gawked and fawned over him. She saw how the whole school treated him like a king, people worshiping the ground he walked on for his conventional attractiveness.

But then Billy Hargrove came to town, claiming the title of Hawkin's hottest, and Nancy Wheeler broke Steve's heart.

As she, Dustin, and Steve fought off demodogs, Azalea was able to see Steve for who he was. Not the King of Hawkins High, and not Nancy's boyfriend.

Steve Harrington.

And he was pretty cool.

As it turned out, they both needed a friend, and they enjoyed the others company.

They bonded over their protectiveness for these wacky middle schoolers, and their own crazy stories of getting roped into the upside-down madness.

Steve, being friendless after ditching his meat-head friends for Nancy, and then being dumped, and Azalea, being acquaintances with many, but never quite fitting into any group of people, found the other person to be the perfect change of pace.

Dustin would never understand why the two wouldn't just date.

They were best friends, and got along so well. It just seemed natural, and some even assumed they already were dating.

Steve even tried a couple times to pull some of his moves on her, but it never worked.

So they stayed the same. And they were both good with that.

They were better as friends anyway.