At first, Shannon Bishop was just the babysitter. It was convenient, living in the same neighborhood as the Hendersons, but it wasn't too much of a stretch to move to the Wheelers' house or even out where the Byers family lived to watch all the boys...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
When Shannon agreed to hang out with Nancy and Barb sometime, she didn't imagine or expect Nancy to actually hold her to that after one day passed, and then another, without even a word. The silence that followed for days after their hallway conversation meant that Shannon felt sure that her isolation would resume, so when Nancy did call her a week later, begging her to come over that night, it was a bit of a shock.
"Just a girls' night," Nancy had said. "You, me, and Barb, just like we used to do before."
Shannon had wavered. "Nancy, I don't-"
"Look, it's possible that the boys will be coming here tonight to play D&D– honestly I can't ever keep up with Mike and his plans, all of the boys are so chaotic– so if they do, we'll just go to Barb's. Snacks, a movie, girl talk to catch up." Nancy's voice had dropped lower then. "I'll even tell you everything you want to know about you-know-what."
As simple and shallow as it was, that was the ticket that finally sold Shannon on the idea. It wasn't that she was desperate to know more about Steve Harrington– it was that she wanted to understand how Nancy had ended up with the likes of him. Just the day before she'd witnessed Steve, Tommy, and Carol mocking Jonathan Byers where they had him cornered in the parking lot, and although it was far from the first time, it hadn't bothered her any less. She'd wanted to intervene herself, but Jonathan had hurried off before she could.
"Okay, fine, I'll bite," Shannon agreed. Nancy squealed a little in excitement, which made Shannon pull the phone from her ear for a moment. "But just for a little while. And I'm not staying the night."
"Yes, okay, deal," Nancy promised. "Come over around seven, okay? We'll figure everything else out from there."
Shannon agreed, and the call with Nancy had ended there. Now, hours later, she was getting ready to leave her house just as her father was coming in.
Larry took one look at his daughter and blinked. "You're going out?"
She would have laughed at his surprise if it had been a joke, but for months she'd barely left the house except for school, and now here she was, going out twice in two weeks. There was nothing remotely funny about that, and she was just as surprised, too. "I am. Shocker, I know."
"Another babysitting gig?"
"No, actually," she told him. Draping her sweater over her arm, she gave him what only could be an awkward smile. "I'm going to see Nancy Wheeler and Barb Holland."
He did a subtle but still noticeable double take. "Since when do you spend time with the Wheeler and Holland girls now? You haven't for a long time."
"For ten months," she clarified, noting the way he paused in setting down his gun, badge, and jacket on the table. "Yeah, I know, it's weird, but Nancy asked me to come, so I just thought-"
"You don't have to explain yourself to me," her dad told her honestly. "You're allowed to have friends, you know. You can go out, have fun, do whatever as long as it's legal."
