One

Chapter Three: The Pollywog

   Phina woke up the next morning before the sun had even started to light the sky. Her dreams had been plagued by nightmares that she could not remember, like they had been every night for a year.
   Some nights, she would remember them all, usually those were about the Demogorgan and the hell she went through last year. They would always make her anxious. She would search around her room for any signs of a portal to the upside down with her nail ridden bat that she hides in her closet.
   Other nights, like this one, she couldn't remember a thing, all she knew was that they were terrible. She would wake up covered in sweat, breathing like she had ran a marathon. Some nights, again like this one, she would wake in tears, a silent scream escaping her lips as she fell back into reality.
   She was glad she couldn't remember these ones, because if she could, she would probably be paralyzed forever by fear.
   Phina wanted to get her mind off the terrors of her nightmares, but unfortunately, it brought another topic she didn't want to think about, Steve. Phina had insisted on driving him home last night, mostly because she didn't trust him not to do something stupid do to his heartbreak.

"I'm driving you home and that's final," she told Steve sternly.
   "Phina, I'm ok," he argues, "I'll be fine."
   "No," she fires back, "I don't trust you."
   He chuckles, "of course you don't."
   She shakes her head, a small smile on her lips, "shut up Harrington and get in the car."
   Phina doesn't give him time to reply as she steps towards him, reaching her hand into his blazer pocket to grab his keys. Steve was frozen in place as she walked over to the driver side door.
   "You coming Harrington," she asks, opening the car door.
   He looks over at her. She is smiling warmly at him. She didn't hate him, not anymore. He could see that now, could see the kindness that she had never showed him before. He nods and walks to the passenger door.
   She gets in as he opens his door. He gets in as she starts the car. They are silent as she begins towards his house. The silence lets Steve's mind fall back to Nancy, and the grief hits him again. She didn't love him, she called their relationship bullshit. His head falls back against the headrest.
"Steve," Phina whispers.
"I'm ok Phina," he whispers back, tears beginning to form in his eyes, "I'm ok."
"No you're not," she says sternly, "you just had your heartbroken, you're allowed to be upset."
"I know," he sighs, "I know."
Phina sighs, "I'm sorry. I wish I could help."
"You are," he whispers, she didn't know just how much she was.
They fall into silence again. Steve watches her, her eyes were trained solely on the road ahead of her, attentive. His eyes scanned her, looking for something that couldn't be found. Phina was by far the hardest person to read, she locked herself away from the world, surrounding herself with fire and ice. Steve wanted to fight his way through her walls, find who she truly was beneath them, but, would she let him. Every time he thought he'd broken through a wall, she would put up another one, one that was harder to break.
   "Steve," she said, looking at him.
   "Yeah," he asks absently.
   "We're at your house," she says.
   He tears his gaze from her and looks out at his large, empty home, "oh."
   She turns off the car and steps out, Steve following her actions. They meet at the front of the car, both of them silent.
   "Thank you," he finally whispers.
   "You don't need to thank me," she whispers back, handing him his car keys.
   He looks at the car and then back at her, "how are you gonna get home?"
   She shrugs, "I'll walk."
   He shakes his head, "do you know how far your house is from here?"
   She smiles, "I am aware."
   "Not to mention." He looks down at her outfit, which definitely didn't provide any warmth. "It's freezing."
   "If I recall correctly, the last time I was at your house, I walked home, soaking wet," she chuckles, "it was cold then to."
   Steve rubs the back of his neck, "about that, I never said I'm sorry—"
   "You don't have to," Phina cuts him off, "it's in the past, all is forgiven."
   "That doesn't stop me from feeling like a dick," he laughs.
   "I was fine Steve," she smiles, "besides, I wasn't cold for long."
   She raises her left hand, her palm facing up. A small ball of golden fire dances across her hand. Warmth radiates from it, fighting away the frigid autumn air. Steve watches it in amazement.
   "I'll never be able to get over how cool that is," he chuckles.
   She looks down at her fire lovingly, "yeah, it is pretty cool isn't it?"
   He looks at her and sees her eyes, they glow, like actually glow, "beautiful."
   She looks up at him, their eyes meeting. The moment stretches on and on forever. Her eyes were the stars to him, bright, warm, beautiful. His eyes was the ground of which she grew in, safe, comforting. They both felt like they could stare for a million years and still not find every detail hidden within their eyes.
   And then Phina comes back to the present, her sister's name dancing across her mind. Steve can practically see her walls build back up, and he builds his own. He had already had his heartbroken once tonight, he didn't need it to happen again.
   She coughs awkwardly, the fire in her hand going out, "I need to get home."
   "Yeah." He shrugs off his blazer. "I know you don't need it, but at least let me feel like I actually helped somehow."
   He steps forward and wraps the blazer around her shoulders. She looks down but he can still see her smile.
   "Goodnight Steve," she whispers.
   "Goodnight Phina."
   And then she is walking down his driveway. He watches her walk away. She can feel his gaze on her the entire time, the weight only lifting when she is hidden behind the trees.

   Phina looked towards her desk chair, where Steve's blazer hung on the back of it. She didn't know how to get it back to him, she couldn't bring it to school, that rumor would spread like wildfire. She didn't want Nancy to see it either, because, even if she had broken Steve's heart, said she didn't love him, Phina was scared that her sister would believe the worst of her.
   All Phina wanted to do was lay in her bed and forget the world existed. She didn't want to go to school, because of the chance of seeing Steve, and having to confront her feelings, made her head ache and her heart clench.
   Phina groaned, putting her hands in front of her face, she'd much rather hunt another monster than deal with these stupid high school feelings and the stupid drama.

   Throughout the day, Phina isolated herself. She didn't even try to talk to Jonathan or Nancy. Some little part of her was actually angry at her sister, for what she did to Steve. Phina tried to reason with her emotions, but she couldn't help it.
   Steve loved her sister, everyone could tell that just by the way he looked at her. He changed who he was for her, became a better person for her. Seeing Steve so broken over her sister last night, broke Phina.
   But Phina couldn't stay mad, long. Phina knew why Nancy said she didn't love Steve, she knew the name of why. Jonathan. Her best friend had made a place in Nancy's heart, even if Nancy didn't know that. Phina did though, and that was why she understood her sister. She knew better than anyone that it was hard to fight what you felt.
At the end of the school day, Phina was ready to go home and hide in her room till the next day. She was almost to her bike to do just that when her backpack started to make sound. Her radio, one that she had gotten so the boys could get ahold of her whenever needed, usually only if their was an emergency.
She swung her bag off her shoulders and put it on the seat of her bike. She quickly dug through the bag, wrapping her fingers around the radio and pulling it out.
"Phina," Mike's voice yells through the speaker, "Phina come on! Over."
She raises the radio and presses the call button, "Mike? Mike, what's wrong, over."
"Emergency," Mike says, "get to the middle school now, over."
Phina doesn't even reply, she just throws the radio back in her bag, hardly even closing it as she throws it back over her shoulder. She gets on the bike and speeds out of her parking spot. A few people have to jump out of her way. Something was happening, her kids were in trouble, nothing was getting in her way.
Phina turns out of the parking lot, cutting off Billy Hargrove in the process. He honks his horn at her, more times than necessary, but Phina doesn't pay him any mind.
The drive from the high school to the middle school was usually only five minutes, she got there in one.

-1577 words-
Mostly OC stuff again, but the first few episodes are hard to place Phina in because there is so much character development happening, next chapter will get more into the story line I swear.
-Morgan