"something happens and i'm head over heels"
lennon hart moves to the small town that is hawkins, indiana, during the summer of '83. immediately she is introduced to the ever so charming enigma that is steve harrington. immediately, she is head over...
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NANCY HAD BEEN RIGHT. Being the new girl at a school so small had earned Lennon lots of attention. It wasn't necessarily good or bad attention either - she was just new to a school full of kids who had known each other since kindergarten.
Despite the attention, she still stuck around her usual friends. She and Nancy shared a few classes together, even though the brunette was in the grade below Lennon. Because of her intelligence, most of her classes were meant for upperclassmen.
Lennon and Barb had math together, and because of their mutual friend, they'd started talking more and had gotten to be friendly with each other. It was an unusual pairing, though it somehow worked.
Unluckily for Lennon, she shared practically every class with the boy who'd become a mystery to her once again - Steve Harrington. Neither one of them had spoken to each other since the night she'd come over to his house. Lennon hadn't even allowed herself to look his way since that night, terrified by the embarrassment and anxiety that seeped into her bones when she simply caught eyes with him for mere milliseconds.
It was obvious that he didn't want her the way that she wanted him. She was sure of that because surely he would've tried to talk to her by now if that weren't the case. She'd let herself get carried away and now she was stuck with the guilt of ruining a perfectly good friendship with a perfectly good boy.
"I really think you're blowing this way out of proportion," Barb told her at lunch, her voice dripping with sincerity. "You guys almost kissed. That's huge! The only thing that ruined it was his mom. If he hasn't wanted it, he would've been the one to put a stop to it."
Nancy was quiet, pretending as though she was really enjoying her lunch, though all she had was a nasty salad with shriveled up tomatoes.
"And, honestly, you're being a little bit over dramatic. You have to talk to him, Len. You can't just assume you know what he's thinking," Barb continued. She had been urging Lennon to fix her problems with Steve ever since the two of them had grown closer. It was obvious that the entire situation was being blown way out of proportion.
"Am I?" Lennon huffed, dropping her hand into her hands.
"Yes, you are," said Barb. "All he does is stare at you with his sad little puppy dog eyes. He's doing it right now, look!"
"I'm not looking," the brunette groaned, her words muffled by her hands. As badly as she wanted to look, she didn't want him to know they were talking about him.
Fortunately for Lennon, the bell rang and everyone began picking up their trays and heading back to class. She decided that, for now, ignorance was bliss. If she simply did not look at Steve Harrington, he was not there.
Her next class was English, which she shared with Barb and Steve. Since school had started just days ago, she and Barb always sat together.
Taking her normal seat by the window, she pulled out the book they were reading as a class from her bag that was on the floor, listening as Barb took the seat next to her.
When she sat back up in her seat, she noticed that Barb had gotten noticeably taller, and way more brunette.
No, it wasn't Barb.
"Hey." The way he said it was heavy of several different emotions - hesitance, guilt, and especially, sincerity. It made Lennon soften immediately.
"Hey, Steve," she replied, a small smile spreading across her lips. She noticed the way this made Steve relax, and he let out the breath he'd been holding as he smiled, too.
"Look, I just wanted you to know that I don't know what I did, but whatever it was, I'm really sorry. Really."
Before Lennon had the chance to respond, Mr. Gomez began to instruct everyone to open their books to page 23 where a student chosen by a popsicle stick would begin to read.
As a girl named Emily started to read the chapter, Lennon turned to Steve once again.
"You don't need to apologize," she whispered. "You didn't do anything wrong. I'm the one who ran away. I was just upset because it felt like I'd messed everything up, you know?"
"Messed everything up?" Steve replied with confusion. Nervously, he ran a hand through his perfect hair. "You thought you messed things up? I thought I messed things up. I was scared to talk to you, Len. You wouldn't even look at me."
The two of them stared at each other, each registering what the other had just admitted.
"Steve, start us off on page 26, line 4 please," Mr. Gomez interrupted, pinching a popsicle stick with the boys name on it between his thumb and pointer.
Steve did not have the book, nor did he know where to start if he did. He'd spent the whole morning planning what to say, having talked to Barb after school the day prior so they could come up with a plan to fix the situation with Lennon.
Luckily, Lennon had the book out and turned to the correct page, and as Mr. Gomez looked down at his own copy, she slid hers in front of Steve, her finger pointing to the line he was supposed to read.
"You're a god damn life saver, Lennon," he whispered with a grin.
