MISS AMERICANA & THE HEARTBREAK PRINCE / STEVE HARRINGTON

CHAPTER TWO

1979

MAGGIE SPENT A lot of her childhood alone, teaching herself rather than going to real school. This lead her to be above average academically. Only by a grade or two, but above average nonetheless.

In sixth grade, Maggie was in an Advanced English class, a class only offered for seventh and eighth graders. Word spread around to her peers in the class that the chief's daughter would be joining it and the boys went wild. Maggie knew that she looked older than your average sixth grader but the boys in her class made it such a big deal.

The school's annual Snow Ball was coming up and Maggie had plenty of eligible suitors lined up to go with. But she declined all offers. Because she wanted to go with the brown haired seventh grader who sat in front of her in English. His name was Steve Harrington.

She knew really nothing about him. She knew that he was on the basketball team and that he was on the swim team. She knew his house was in Loch Nora, the fancy neighborhood in Hawkins. She only knew this because she would hear the seventh and eighth graders talk about how his parties were almost like high school ones. Maggie would give anything to be invited to one of Steve Harrington's almost like high school parties.

Steve would lean back in his chair a lot, his jacket usually falling onto her desk. Even if his jacket was covering half of her paper or the entire thing, she wouldn't dare to tell him. She sat there, only looking at it. Because Steve Harrington had psychically crossed paths with the young Hopper.

Maggie knew with the Snow Ball coming up, she couldn't miss out on having someone as perfect like Steve take her.

The office staff's lunch break was right after the student's lunch ended. Usually the office staff would go into their break room or have a smoke somewhere off campus. Which meant the office was completely empty. And just to Maggie's luck, she knew the lock on the main door was broken. Since the principal called her dad the other day to let him know. He hung up with a scoff after saying, "I'm not a locksmith," or something like that.

All Maggie had to do was wait for this class to be over, then she would go straight to lunch, wait out thirty minutes and then the office would be cleared. She had to go into the school's office to find Steve Harrington's file. No, she wasn't going to stalk him in a weird way, she was just going to find his locker number. It was all part of her plan to befriend the Harrington boy, and maybe, just maybe, he would ask her to the Snow Ball. But that part was all up to him...kind of.

LUNCH AT HAWKINS Middle School was wild, everyday. The smell of prepubescent teenagers lingered in the air of the cafeteria. There was always at least one food fight...every ten minutes. Chip bags would be popped constantly, people would scream from it startling them. The amount of fake fart noises or moans that would leave boy's mouths as girls would walk past.

It was common for this to happen to Maggie as she walked to the lunch table she sat at everyday. Boys that have never even been looked at by a girl, even in a platonic way, would be the culprits of the immature acts. But they would all stop when Maggie sat at her table, next to Christopher Zolowski.

Christopher, or if you were friends with him, Kip, was the coolest guy in the grade. And probably one of the only guys that girls aren't taller than. It wouldn't be surprising if Kip were to make the Hawkins High School Varsity Basketball Team his freshman year, to be fair, he was already 5'8 at twelve years old.