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...
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Jonathan was really trying to teach them how to shoot a gun.
Even though he hadn't shot one since he was ten, he was the only one of the three of them who had ever really held a gun before, so he was their best shot– pun intended.
Shannon twitched like a nervous animal when she held the gun in her hand– just because her dad was a cop didn't mean she was well-trained in using his familiar weapon. He'd shown her how to hold a gun before, how to load and unload it, where safety was in case she ever needed to actually use one, but she'd never practiced actually firing a gun. Her mom had been against that part, and then she'd been too upset after her mom's death to learn then. Even now, just holding the weapon in her hands made her feel guilty, almost like she was going to disappoint her mother somehow. It was a stupid feeling, especially since she was sure her mom would rather she be safer with a gun in hand when going after this monster than more vulnerable without one, but she still felt guilty nonetheless.
Of the two shots she fired, only one went a bit wide. The other came close to the can she'd been aiming for, although she'd still missed it. After those two shots, however, Nancy and Jonathan started talking more about their parents, and considering her mom was still a soft spot for her, Shannon couldn't handle listening to that. She'd passed the gun off to Nancy before mumbling something about defensive positions, and then she wandered away in the clearing.
Now she stood, knife in hand, practicing different defensive moves and positions that her father had taught her in self-defense. Her movements were choppy, given she'd never tried to perfect them smoothly, but going into a deliberate attack on something clearly supernatural meant she needed every skill at her disposal to use as an advantage. That thing, whatever it was, could take her down in a heartbeat if it wanted to, but maybe she would be able to put up a decent fight first.
When they finally did set off into the woods, Shannon brought up the rear of their huddle unlike the night she'd pulled the boys behind her in the rain. With her knife in hand, she scrutinized the brush around them intensely, looking for any hint of movement or sign of something unnatural that didn't feel right. Eventually she fell a bit behind them, which she was grateful for once Nancy and Jonathan began to argue.
"He's actually a good guy," Nancy called out as Jonathan walked ahead of her, and Shannon knew she was talking about Steve.
"Okay, whatever," Jonathan shot back, unimpressed.
Nancy carried on, determined to say her piece. "Yesterday? With the camera? That wasn't like him. He's not like that at all. He was just being protective."
"Yeah," Jonathan scoffed. "That's one way of putting it."
Nancy didn't like that. "So then I guess what you did is okay?"
"No, I never said that," he stammered, still stalking ahead of her.
Shannon rushed to catch up to them as Nancy fired back, "He had every right to be pissed off!"
