Metalheads & Dancing Queens [E. Munson]

Chapter one

01- The unexpected hero

"No, no, no! Please, no!" The young girl exclaimed, distress clear in her voice as her vehicle slowly came to a stop. It was a Friday night and instead of going to the end-of-term party everyone at school had talked about for weeks, she was going home from work.

Heather, her friend and designated role model for the younger girl, had asked her to join. They worked at the same pool and she had talked all day about it.

She had been tempted but she had promised her father that she would be home in time for his arrival back from a hunting trip. The party was too far back in her head to remember when she made that promise and she had cursed all higher power when she had realised.

Steve Harrington was arranging it, at first as a graduation party, but for those not graduating high school, it was just an over-the-top end-of-term party. She would have liked to see his large, almost mansion-like, house. Especially when she later would realise that it would be the last thing he would be known for.

Harrington always seemed like the type who peaked in high school. He was cool for a while but he had nothing going for him except being the "keg king of Hawkins". And that title was quite easily taken from him when Billy Hargrove moved in from sunny California last year.

It's ironic in her head how Harrington was so bad in school, while school was all he had. She had seen his report card. He was not going to college, she knew that much. He was not good enough at basketball to get a scholarship either.

Now you might think that Diana here should mind her business, and you are probably right. But one thing you should know about Hawkins is that it's a small town and in small towns, everything is everyone's business. She was simply doing her part in fitting in. That's all she wanted at this point, to fit in.

But as she sat behind the wheel in her dark car in the middle of the woods, all she wanted was the bravery to step out into the dark night and walk to the nearest station and get some gas.

She turned the key in hopes that the engine would start but it only huffed a few times before dying down once more. Diana let out a sound of frustration before hesitantly banging her fists against the wheel, which hurt more than anticipated leading to a string of curses.

Her father once did the same when the very same thing happened to them on vacation when she was ten. They had hired a caravan and at one point her father had been too much of a confident man to realise that the car wouldn't make it from Boston to Pittsburgh. He had slammed his fists hard against the wheel when they had broken down in the middle of nowhere and had to step out before exclaiming his discomfort. Because, despite the circumstances, his children's perception of his character came first.

Her brother, who was fifteen at the time, had laughed so hard that he choked on his Pepsi. He had survived the ordeal, much to the father's disappointment.