Every Rose Has Its Thorns (Harrington x OC)

~Chapter 3: Holly, Jolly~

Word count: 1120

As soon as Rose gets to school, her walkie goes off. Dustin tells her that they have a plan to look for Will after school and to meet them at Mirkwood.

"Right after school, 3:15" he says.

"Okay, got it." she says. "Get to school kid."

She turns off the walkie talkie and heads inside to her locker where Nancy is waiting for her.

"Hey Nance." she says, opening her locker.

"Hey Ro." she says shyly.

"Hey, are you okay?" Rose asks, putting a hand on her shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"It just feels like everyone's watching me, like they know that I..." she says, trailing off.

"I get what you're saying." Rose says. "Don't worry, nobody knows, nobody at that party would tell."

She nods and looks down nervously.

"Hey, do you know where Barb is?" she asks. "I didn't see her this morning."

"Sorry, I haven't." the blonde says. "I was actually gonna ask you that too."

The bell rings and the two of them split paths, heading to class.

TIME SKIP

Rose starts heading towards the parking lot to her bike when Tommy calls her over.

"Jon, what's going on?" she asks.

Steve's holding his backpack while Nancy is holding some pictures.

"Your brother here was taking some sneaky pictures of us at the party." Tommy says, taking the photos from Nancy and handing them to her.

"Jonathan, what is this?" she mutters while flipping through them.

Steve takes the pictures back and walks up to Jonathan.

"You can see that he knows it's wrong, but here's the thing about perverts, it's hardwired into their heads." he says, tearing up the pictures. "So, we'll have to take away his toy."

He walks back over to his bag and pulls out Jonathan's camera.

"Steve..." Nancy says at the same time Rose says, "Harrington..."

Tommy goes to push Jonathan away from getting his camera, but Steve stops him.

"Hey, it's okay." he says, holding out the camera. "Here you go man."

Jonathan goes to take it, but Steve tips it out of his hand, letting it fall to the ground. It shatters as soon as it hits the ground. Tommy and Carol laugh, but Steve keeps a serious look.

"Come on, let's go." Steve says, walking away. "The game's about to start."

Rose rolls her eyes and kneels down to help her brother, Nancy doing the same.

"I'll get you a new one soon Jon." Rose says.

"It's fine Ro, don't waste your money again if your asshole friend is just going to break it." he says before getting up.

"He's not my friend anymore." she huffs before getting on her bike and going to meet up with the boys and El. 

When she gets there, the four are already there.

"Sorry, got caught up in high school drama." she says, getting off her bike and walking with it beside Lucas and Dustin.

Both of them nod and continue to follow Eleven.

"So why were so calm about the weirdo having powers Ro?" Lucas asks as the three walked in front of Mike and El.

"I don't know." she lies. "I guess the rumors about Hawkins Lab helped a bit."

He nods but not completely convinced. She keeps walking as Lucas pulls Dustin back to talk for a bit.

"Are there others like you?" Rose hears Mike ask El, turning to look at them as the other boys do the same.

El slightly looks at Rose, not noticeably, before nodding.

"How many of you were there?" Lucas asks, everyone starting to walk again, joining up in a big group in the front.

"Thir-thirteen." the girl answers, still slightly looking at Rose.

"There's thirteen?!" Dustin asks.

"Was." she answers.

Dustin, Lucas, and Mike give each other a look.

TIME SKIP

They had been walking for hours following Eleven. The boys fully believed that she could find Will, Rose on the other hand had her doubts. If her suspicions were correct, the boys were about to be very disappointed. When they finally made it out of the woods, they were faced with the Byers residence.

"Here." El says.

"Yeah, this is where Will lives." Mike says, confused.

"Hiding." she says.

"No, no, this is where he lives." Mike explains like he's talking to a child which pissed Rose off. "He's missing from here, understand?'

"What are we doing here?" Lucas asks, dropping his bike.

"She said he's hiding here." Mike says.

"I swear, if we walked all the way out here for nothing-" Dustin complains.

"That's exactly what we did!" Lucas yells, interrupting him. "I told you she didn't know what the hell she was talking about!"

They all keep arguing while Rose walks away, towards the tree she came out of two years ago on her fifteenth birthday. Her eyes start glowing a brighter green as she kneels down beside it, putting her hand on the trunk. The rift that she came out of slowly starts appearing as the wood splits in half.

"Guys!" Dustin yells, making everyone shut up and all of Rose's work go away.

"Will..." she hears Mike whisper over the sound of police sirens.

Please don't be, she thinks as they follow the cars to the base to the quarry.

They all jump off their bikes and walk over to one of the cars. They're getting something out of the water. It's a body. She could see Hopper helping out with it.

"It's not Will, it can't be." Mike says quietly.

Rose looks back at El as Lucas and Dustin hug into her side.

"It's Will." Lucas says quietly through tears. "It's really Will."

"Mike..." Eleven tries to say.

"Mike what?!" he snaps. "You were supposed to help us find him alive. You said that he was alive! Why did you lie to us?"

"Mike stop." Rose says, stepping forward.

"What is wrong with you?" he yells at Eleven again before getting on his bike.

"Mike, come on." Lucas says. "Don't do this."

"Mike, where are you going?" Dustin yells after him.

Rose looks back for a moment, making direct eye contact with Hopper before turning back around.

"Come on kids, let's get you home." she says, climbing on her bike. "El, come here honey. I'll take you to the Wheeler's before heading home."

She climbs on the back of Rose's bike and puts her head in her hair.

"Listen El." she says quietly. "I believed you but honestly, this is better than him with Papa, yeah?"

She makes sure all three are home safely making her way home, which was surrounded by police officers. She walks inside and immediately falls into Hopper's arms, no longer needing to hide her emotions.

~End of Chapter 3~