Strange Things Are Happening. (Jonathan Byers x OC) Wattys 2017

01.

The school was always chaotic in the morning, crowds of students pushing each other in the hallways to make sure they got to class on time. 

Samantha Wheeler was one of those people. Except instead of trying to get to class, she was trying to fight her way to her cousin Nancy and their friend, Barbara. 

"Hey," Samantha breathed, finally reaching them, breathing heavily as she leant against her locker, "What are we talking about?" 

"Steve Harrington," Barb teased, "Nancy was with him last night." 

"You were?" Samantha asked, looking at her cousin, "You said that you could help me finish my room because you were studying! You lied to me!" 

"Oh come on, Sammy!" Barb said, "This is big. No one ever thought that she, Nancy Wheeler, would catch the eyes of the coolest guy in school." 

Samantha said nothing as she opened her locker, using the small mirror she had placed in there to fix some of her blonde hair, "I suppose. And you've had a crush on him since forever." 

"Keep your voice down!" Nancy hissed, pushing her cousin into her locker, "Besides, you're one to talk." 

"What's that supposed to mean?" 

"Hmm," Barb smiled, placing her finger on her chin as if she was thinking, "Oh yeah! Two words. Jonathan Byers." 

Samantha slammed her locker shut and looked at the two of them who had large smiles on their faces, "I don't know what you're talking about." 

"Bullshit." 

"What's bullshit?" Steve Harrington appeared from nowhere, wrapping his arm around Nancy's shoulder, making the young girl blush. 

"Sammy denying her crush on Byers." Barb muttered, closing her locker after grabbing her books, making the blonde laugh. 

She really didn't like that boy and to be honest, she herself wasn't too keen on him. He made Nancy act like a completely different person.

"Ew," Carol said, appearing out of seemingly nowhere with her jerk of a boyfriend, Tommy H, hanging off of her, "He's a weirdo." 

Tommy laughed, looking over his shoulder, "Speaking of which..."

Everyone looked to where he was looking, seeing Jonathan walking alone in the hall, people moving out of his way as if they didn't want to get too close to him. 

Samantha felt her face heating up. She had liked him for months now. She remembered her first day here. Next to Nancy and Barb, who she had met in the summer, she didn't know anybody and the photography class that she took, Jonathan was in it too and she found herself sat next to the quiet boy. 

He had helped her when she for some reason, couldn't develop her photos properly and since then, she had been completely smitten by him. 

She smiled at him when he briefly made eye contact with him but he looked away when Steve wrapped his arm around her shoulder. 

"Word of advice, you don't wanna get involved with that." 

Grinding her teeth together, she shrugged him off of her and looked up at him, "Word of advice, don't touch me." She then looked at her cousin, "I'll see you later, Nance. C'mon, Barb." 

++

By the time her last class rolled around, photography, Samantha was more than ready to punch Steve Harrington in the mouth. All through lunch and her second last class, she had to sit and listen as he flirted with her cousin, sometimes saying things that made everyone uncomfortable. She didn't need to hear those things. 

The only thing she didn't like about the class, was that Carol was in said class and so she found herself walking with her. 

"So," the redhead began, "You're going to come to Steve's house on Tuesday night, right? Well, of course you will, you follow Nancy around like a little lost puppy." 

Samantha grinded her teeth together again, something she really needed to stop doing and looked at her, "Why would I be going to his house?" 

"Well his parents are away. Party!" 

"But it's a Tuesday." 

"You'll be coming. I know you will." she then spotted one of her other friends up ahead, "Well, see ya!" 

She watched as she bounced away and instead of following her to the classroom, she turned to go to the darkroom; today was her turn to develop. 

If there was anything about photography that she didn't like, it was the developing process. She couldn't, for the life of her, get it right and someone always had to help. 

She was so focused on pulling her camera out of her bag, she didn't notice that there was someone else in the room until she bumped into the stool they were sitting on. 

"Oh, I'm sorry..." she said quietly, looking up from the camera, only to see Jonathan Byers hunched over some photos, "Jonathan." 

"Hey," he said quietly, barely looking up from what he was doing and Samantha dropped her bag on the floor, under the table across from him and just started working on her own photos, looking up at him every couple of seconds and she couldn't help but smile. 

He always looked so concentrated on his work; eyebrows furrowed and she soon found that she was just outright staring at him but thankfully, he didn't notice.