Jessica Elwood is one of Hawkins High's elite social group, most notable for being the co-captain alongside best friend and head cheerleader Chrissy Cunningham. Her brother, Tony, is part of the infamous Hellfire Club and one of the drummers for Edd...
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•• ━━ "𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗲𝗲𝗹𝘀" ━━ •• ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅
Sherry Elwood was a very posh woman. Or rather, a woman who strived to be very posh. She grew up in a small town in Tennessee and married the man she fell in love with instead of the man everybody wanted her to wed—the wealthier of the two suitors. According to her, it was labeled the greatest mistake of her life.
Sure, she gave birth to beautiful twins in Hawkins, Indiana, and lived in a stable middle-class house with her husband. However, she wanted more. She always had. Money and wealth were her true children, Anthony and Jessica Elwood just happened to be additional family members who lived with her. Nothing was more important to her than riches and recognition from the upper-class community, something she never failed to make known.
Her constant need for approval just so happened to pass down to her daughter, though not by genetics.
It was from the trauma and exposure that Sherry subjected her to.
One of the reasons Chrissy and Jess became so close at the beginning of their friendship, was their shared experiences with mothers who were obsessed with turning their daughters into the versions of themselves they couldn't be when they were younger.
Skinny, pretty, and popular, were three words that both girls had engraved in their minds since their first day of elementary school.
Their mothers measured their waists more than they hugged them or showed any ounce of affection. They meddled with their lives so badly that they weren't even sure who they were underneath the countless criticisms and critiques.
For Chrissy, her mother's constant search for perfection led her down the dark path of eating disorders and hidden insecurities about her weight.
Jess, on the other hand, internalized most of it like her brother often did when it came to meeting their father's expectations—something he struggled with himself.
The mental anguish Jessica faced daily soon manifested into severe social anxiety and depression. She worried about what other people thought of her, feared the possible judgment that came with negative perceptions, and hated having attention focused on her for too long. She felt like she would never be perfect in the eyes of her peers popular or not, curly hair or straightened, cheerleader or natural-born artist, skinny or curvy, etc.
Some days the overwhelming pressure became too much to bear, and she wondered if it was worth it to continue living with it all. It's not like her mother would miss her poor excuse of a daughter. Her father didn't pay her much attention, to begin with, so he probably wouldn't even notice her absence.
Her brother, however, would.
Tony and Jess became each other's rock, both just trying to be the best versions of themselves they could be for their parents. It wasn't always bad, there were moments in their childhood where they felt like they had a chance at being a happy and loving family. Only it was all a facade. Everything in the Elwood family was. The skeletons in their closet continued piling up well into their high school years, and Tony finally had enough.
