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

04.

For it being a Monday morning, Samantha was surprisingly upbeat when she climbed into the back of Barb's car.

"Morning!" she sang, causing the other two girls to turn around and look at her with confused expression.

"Did you put something in your cereal?" Barb asked, causing Samantha to roll her eyes, "Why are you so happy?"

"What's not to be happy about, Barbara? The sun's shining, the birds are singing an-"

"You have photography first, don't you?" Nancy asked, looking over her shoulder at her.

"No," her cousin replied a little bit too quickly but then nodded, "Yeah, okay."

"I knew it!" she laughed, "Are you actually going to talk to him today?"

"Haha, no." the blonde said loudly, "No, I can't do that."

"Why not?" Barb asked.

"Because. He's cute, I'm shy. You've seen how I get around cute guys. I'm a stuttering mess."

"That is true," Nancy said, "I saw it once. It is not pretty."

"Gee, thanks Nance," Samantha, muttered, to which Nancy held up her hands in surrender.

"You said it. I was just agreeing with you."

"It is entirely possible that he likes you too," Barb said quietly, "I've seen the way he looks at you sometimes."

"No," Samantha said immediately, "Don't say that. Please. Because it'll just get my hopes up."

"She might be right," Nancy said, "Which would be so cute. Talk to him, Sam. You never know what might happen."

++

Jonathan didn't acknowledge her when she sat down next to him in class.

Normally, he'd give her a small smile or at least made eye contact with her but today, nothing.

She looked around the room, noticing that other than the teacher and Kenneth Davis who sat down the front, they were the only two there and she thought about what Nancy said; speak to him.

So, taking a deep breath, she did just that.

"A-are you okay?"

Jonathan barely registered that she had spoken to him, snapping his head to look at her when she put her hand on his arm.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled, "What did you say?"

Okay, he's talking to you. Please, do not screw this up.

"I asked if you were okay."

"Oh..." he mumbled, "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" she asked again, flushing when his eyebrows furrowed, "I mean, I'm sorry. I-I didn't mean to pry."

He quickly shook his head, "No, no. It's just...Will."

"Your brother?"

"Yeah," he whispered, "I don't think he came home last night."

She frowned, "What makes you say that?"

"He wasn't in his room this morning. But my mom, she said that he might just have gone to school early but...I just feel like something is wrong." Jonathan said quietly, unsure of why he was telling her all of this but now that he had started talking to her, he couldn't stop.

"Well, I saw him leaving Mike's house last night." Samantha mumbled.

"When?"

She looked to the front of the class, watching as more and more students trickled into the room, "It was just after eight."

"That means that something's happened to him." Jonathan whispered.

"No," she said, shaking her head, "You don't know that. Maybe he stayed at Dustin's? He didn't call?"

His tongue darted out over his lips and Samantha had to restrain herself from following it with her eyes, "I was working last night."

"Then he could have called." she said softly, placing her hand on top of his, "Try not to get too worried too soon. Hey, I bet he'll be there when you get home."

"Hopefully." he gave her a small smile.

She stared at him when he leant down to grab his camera from his bag and smiled to herself. She did it.

She was brought out of her staring by their teacher, Mr Verrall, who started talking about a project.

"Now, I've decided that for the next few weeks, we will be working with the people next to us. You can do the project of whatever you want but it has to contain at least one picture of you and your partner. It'll be due in three weeks."

Samantha inwardly groaned. She was the photographer. Not the subject.

Then she realised what he had just said. They'd be working with the people next to them.

She'd be working with Jonathan.

She tried not to let herself look too happy, given what he had just told her about his brother but she smiled softly at him when he looked at her again, "Looks like we're partners."

"Looks like it. So..."

"Um...how about you come over to my house tonight and we'll try and come up with some ideas?" she sensed his hesitation and quickly continued, "Or I could come by yours?"

"No," he said quickly, cheeks flushing red, "No. Your house is fine."

She nodded and looked down at her desk, "Cool."

++

Lunch came and Samantha couldn't wait to tell Barb and Nancy what was going on. She practically ran to the canteen, where she found them sat in their usual seats but she groaned when she spotted Steve, Carol and Tommy hanging around too.

She quietly took a seat next to Barb so she was as far away from the others as possible and the redhead looked down at her, eyes lightening up, "How'd it go?"

Nancy, noticing that she had joined them, quickly moved seats so she was sitting by her too, "Tell us!"

"I spoke to him," Samantha whispered and they both cheered quietly, "And we got partnered up for a project."

"I knew it!" Nancy said loudly, drawing some attention to them, which made the blonde's face heat up, "I told you something amazing would happen!"

"It's hardly amazing," she said, "It's just a project."

She didn't tell them when he had told them about Will. He was hesitant in telling her, so she thought it best not to let slip to anyone else.

"You and Byers can get cosy in the darkroom." Steve snickered, having obviously heard the conversation and Samantha rolled her eyes and leant over to shove him off the table.