𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗧𝗧𝗬, that was all young brown-eyed selene cromwell had ever known. yet to be tangled in the chaos of dimensions was certainly, indisputably,
not pretty at all.
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"SELENE!"
moving swiftly through the hallways of hawkins middle school, selene nearly flies towards her tall, blonde friend, emma, the cheer captain and one of her closest companions. "ems!" the brunette squeals, wrapping her arms around emma in a warm embrace. selene has always cherished hugs; even if they've just seen each other ten minutes ago, there's a good chance she'll give her famous welcome hug again.
chuckling softly at her exuberant friend, emma playfully returns the hug. "hey, s. how was the team?" she asks, having just returned from a spontaneous week-long vacation in bali, during which selene took on the role of team captain.
pulling away from each other, they start heading toward selene's locker, located almost on the opposite side of the school from emma's. "it was good, fun, but i wouldn't want to be cheer captain forever. i don't know how you do it," selene comments, already feeling a headache creeping in at the mere thought. don't misunderstand; she loves her teammates, but, well, many of them are just as stubborn as mules. they rarely listen, especially when she's the shortest among them, which is also why she's the flyer.
as they approach the french classrooms in the same hallway as selene's locker, emma giggles. "yeah, they're a job, but you could've just said that! gotta go to french!" she exclaims, not giving selene a chance to reply.
finally reaching her locker, selene quickly gathers her books before heading to mr. clark's classroom. she's undoubtedly late, but since he likes her, she supposes it's fine. as she enters, all eyes turn toward her—definitely more tardy than she thought. "mrs. cramwell, nice of you to join us. go sit," mr. clark mentions, as she mumbles a small apology on her way to her seat next to will byers. she'd consider him a friend, primarily due to her childhood bond with lucas.
speaking of lucas, he sends her a teasing glance when mr. clark announces that they must stay after class, prompting her to roll her eyes playfully in response before smiling and asking him to hang out after school, communicating in their own sign language—gestures they created when they were nine. it includes simple phrases like "hang out today," "tomorrow," and "this is boring," which they use in nearly every class they share.
lucas replies, "we'll talk later" before mr. clark interrupts again. "lucas, selene, pay attention now," drawing simultaneous apologies from them, both suppressing the urge to shout "jinx." they've had an ongoing jinx war since they were seven, discovering they often spoke in tandem. dustin assumed they were scheming to agree on words just to further their playful rivalry, but when they simultaneously chimed in, "that's stupid, we wouldn't do that," they all exchanged bemused looks and contemplated testing their DNA.
