Other Friends

Prologue

Anyone in Hawkins, Indiana knows that finding Windy Henderson without Lizzy Hopper and Bella Rose, that it was a cold day in hell. The three are always seen together, even when Bella is babysitting four middle schoolers. It all started when Windy and Bella met and then it went downhill from there...

~~~

'Why did I let the boys talk me into painting their D & D characters, again?'

Windy Henderson began to muse as she began the trek to the Wheeler's house on her bike. It was a Saturday afternoon in the middle of summer vacation before sophomore year. Her baby brother got into D&D with his three friends a year ago and has since tried to get her into it since the start of summer. Instead of them nagging her, she compromised to paint portraits of each of their characters for them, and from her paintings Will wanted to draw a 'group' photo of all the characters. This led her to lugging 4 small painted canvases in her backpack, a couple weeks later dreading to see if the boys would like them.

Mrs. Wheeler is as welcoming as usual when Windy biked it up to the house. It was when she went downstairs to the lair, when Windy was met with an unknown person. Before she could comment on the new person, 4 multiple little voices spoke at once.

"Dude! You're late!!" Dustin shouts at her.

"Did you bring the goods?" Lucas yells to one up Dustin.

"Guys! Pay attention!" Mike yells at the two party members.

"Hi, Windy!!" Will smiles and waves.

Windy smiles at their antics, ruffling their hair as she passes by them, heading towards the couch where a teen sat. She smiles and waves to the new person in the group before looking back at the boys. "Okay, you little shits. I can just take these back to the house and not let you see them at all. After I worked so hard-" The boys immediately began to yell in protest at her words. Windy starts to take out the canvases from her bag and states, "Well then pause the game and come see the paintings!"

The boys scrambled towards the couch, Mike began to lean against the newbie; making her nudge him in the side to get him off of her with a roll of her eyes. Mike then after a good jab to the ribs, he brightens looking back to Windy- "Oh by the way! This is Bella!" Bella glances at him with a look of patience, as if waiting for him to finish the thought.

Will then chimes in, innocently; "Yeah, she's our babysitter!" The other three boys groan at the word.

"She's much cooler than a regular babysitter! I mean she's cooler than Nancy!" Dustin scoffs.

"She's cooler than Nancy, huh?" Windy grins at Dustin, winking towards Bella.

Bella rolls her eyes, holding her hand out in greeting, "Bella Rose."

Windy shook Bella's hand, "Windy Henderson."

Taking the boys to the arcade was much more entertaining with the addition of Bella. Keith was annoying as usual, however Bella added more sarcasm towards the boys when they couldn't get to their games in time.

As the boys get to their respective games, Windy looks around for a game herself when Bella gets her attention saying, "Do you have a regular game to play?"

Windy nods going towards the Defender game, Bella following after. They stop as soon as they see another teen at the game, not just any teen; but a girl! There aren't many girls that come to the arcade so Windy and Bella are shocked that they aren't the only girls in the arcade for once.

Windy being the more sociable of the two goes up to the girl, "Hi! How you do- Holy shit that's a really high score! How'd you do that?" Windy gapes at the new girl.

She shrugs back at Windy, "It's a cool game and there's not much to do in this town."

Bella looks at the score as well, eyes widening after seeing the score. "She wasn't kidding! That's pretty cool; the boys would have a field day after seeing this!"

The new girl's eyebrows rose into her hairline. "Boys?"

Windy starts to nod towards the group of boys at Dig Dug, shouting at one another. "They're my little brother and his friends."

The new girl slumps in disappointment, seeing that the boys were in fact middle- schoolers. "Are there no cute guys in this town, or am I just cursed?" She groans out.

Windy and Bella just look at each other and at the same time say, "Well, there's Eddie," Windy starts.

"There's Steve and..." Bella continues after, earning an eye roll from her friend.

"Then there's Jonathan. Depending on your type." Windy finishes as they go back and forth saying names.

The new girl grins in glee at the information, "I think you girls just made this place a lot more interesting. Lizzy Hopper." She says holding out her hand to the two.

And that's how the three became friends.