𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐎𝐍 𝐌𝐄 | 𝘌𝘥𝘥𝘪𝘦 𝘔𝘶𝘯𝘴𝘰𝘯

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐮𝐞

***

VALERIE CARVER WAS USED TO BEING SECOND. Second born to her brother, Jason: King of Hawkins High and Star of the Hawkins Tigers. Second-in-command to her best friend, Chrissy: Queen to Jason's King and Head of the Hawkins Cheer Squad. And second choice to her boyfriend, Patrick, would have much preferred literally anyone else if they were available. 

She, Jason, Chrissy, and Patrick made the perfect group of four. So perfect, in fact, there were no minuscule cracks threatening to break them apart. Not at all. Big ones, however... yeah, there were a few. Namely: Val's anxiety, Chrissy's bulimia, Patrick's abusive home life and Jason... well, Jason had a hero complex the size of Mount Rushmore. Nevertheless, there was an unwritten rule amongst them that these 'big ones' were unmentionable. They all knew they were there; no one in Hawkins was really perfect, but that didn't mean they had to admit it. 

Hawkins used to fit the model of the perfect small town (quiet and uneventful)... until it didn't. The National Laboratory Crisis of '83 saw to that. As was reported in every newspaper across the country, a chemical spill had caused the unfortunate passing of Barbara Holland: a classmate of Val's at the time. Meanwhile, a young Will Byres was said to have drowned in Sattler Quarry, only for him to reappear, very much alive, three days later. 'Zombie Boy' made the headlines for weeks.

The chaos ceased after that. At least for the next year. It soon revived itself again with the construction of Starcourt Mall, which didn't even last the whole summer before it burned down. According to the press, the fire had been started by some ill-timed fireworks that randomly went off one night after closing. There were thirty reported casualties and even more left guilt-ridden and broken. Val considered herself lucky to be among the latter.

Billy Hargrove and Heather Holloway, who had been lifeguards at the Community Pool, where Val often found herself, had been the first to be pronounced dead. She wasn't friends with either of them but being in the same grade at school meant they were at least on a first-name basis. 

Police Chief Hopper had died too, risking his own life to save others. Those that perished greatly outnumbered those that didn't but a life saved was a life saved. Val knew Nancy Wheeler and Robin Buckley from her grade were among the escapees but didn't know them well enough to warrant asking about it. They say 'time heals all wounds' but, if it were her, she didn't know if those wounds would ever be anything less than gaping. 

The Starcourt Mall Fire had been something of a wake-up call for Valerie. It could just have easily been her trapped in that fire and she would have died taking every day for granted, longing for change but never actually doing anything about it. She would have died doing a sport she had no passion for, dating a boy she had no real feelings for, and being friends with people she honestly couldn't stand. That was a terrifying thought. Terrifying enough to make her stop being so damn yielding. 

Hence she declared 1986: Val's Big Year of Change. It started with handing in her resignation to the Cheer Squad. She had never been much good anyway and only joined because it made sense at the time. Jason was joining the Basketball Team and Chrissy was joining the Cheer Squad so she thought she might as well give it a shot. With a slot now opened for extra-curriculars, Val signed up for the Dolphins: the Hawkins High Swim Team. Her friends, all cheerleaders themselves, didn't approve at first but soon conceded after actually seeing her in the pool. 

The next step of her plan was to break up with Patrick, ditch her friends and find more pleasant company. Patrick was a nice boy, not to mention one of her brother's best friends, so breaking his heart was never on the table but, in some way, that was worse. It would be so much easier to blame the break-up entirely on him but Patrick deserved better than that. They would have to sit down for a proper conversation. With any luck, they could part on good terms. 

However, there was a force at work in Hawkins. A force to be reckoned with. A force that jeopardised Val's Big Year of Change with its intention to bring their perfect group of four down to a fractured group of three.