oddity [nancy wheeler]

TWO

OCTOBER, 1984

"Okay but... if you had to-"

"I still wouldn't date Jabba the Hutt, end of discussion" Violet said, Brandon laughed so loud the entire household could hear him. He rolled to the next end of Violet's bed and stood up, he walked through the room and started inspecting it. He stopped on a picture frame that was facing down. He picked it up and saw Nancy and Violet together in what seemed to be a winter day. He smiled.

"Still no words from her?" Brandon asked.

"No... she's busy with Steve"

"Why do you resent him so much?"

"Why do you kiss his ass so much?" Violet snapped back.

"He's my cousin. We've been through this." Brandon groaned. It surprised Violet how every time she'd try to get away from Steve, she'd end up getting closer to him instead.

When Brandon invited Violet to a family dinner it almost ended in a World War III when she found out Steve Harrington was related to her now 'best friend'. For Brandon, it was a mission to know Violet and for Violet being with Brandon meant getting back into the social status of Hawkin's teenagers.

"Okay, but... if you really like her, shouldn't you like fight for her?" Brandon asked sitting once again in the bed, facing Violet "It's clear you're still not over her"

"You can't be over someone you never dated" Violet said taking the picture frame off his hands and hiding it in one of the drawers from her night table.

"But you girls were like best friends!" Brandon exclaimed

"Now you sound like my dad" Violet said smiling "Let's focus instead on our Halloween costumes"

At dinner, breakfast or lunch, everything was just so loud in the Johnson's house. If it was not Theo chewing loudly, it was Douglas yelling at him for doing so, or the cat stumbling through the kitchen. It took Brandon quite a lot to get used to that level of noise, specially because his family is stiff and as oldschool as they can be. It also took Douglas a lot to get used to the presence of the boy, mainly because he was a boy.

"Ah! My walkman is fried" Douglas said entering the kitchen with a device in his hands.

"Why don't you take it to Radioshack?" Theo suggested, earning killing gaze from Violet.

"Uh-uh, not going there" he said picking a soda from the fridge.

"Why?" Brandon asked, taking a bite from his toast bread.

"Because of Joyce" Violet raised her brow.

"No, because it smells weird. I don't like it" Douglas said sitting down. The three teenagers looked at each other tired of having to hear him complain about Joyce and her boyfriend.

"You should talk to her-" Violet said

"Enough. Eat your breakfast and chop-chop! You all have classes" Douglas interrupted her.

For some reason unknown to Theo and Violet, Douglas had some sort of discussion with Joyce during the summer and because the two adults behave like children they haven't sort out their differences, which pains Theo since he sees Jonathan pretty much everyday of his life.

On their way to school, Violet turned on the radio and groaned when Kids in America by Kim Wilde started to play. She hated that song, but lowkey enjoyed it so much. Brandon, turned the volume up and yelled the lyrics of the song just to annoy Violet.

"I will crash this car if you continue!" Violet spoke loud enough to be heard. Thankfully for Violet they got to school before the song ended, she turned off the car and relaxed in the silence of the car.

As soon as they stepped to school a girl handing out some orange pamphlets interrupted them to brag about the most "AWESPECTACULAR HALLOWEEN PARTY" in her own words. Violet laughed and crushed the paper into her school bag, of course Brandon would go, he loves parties, it's in his nature, but Violet felt unsure. Halloween is her favourite holiday and she loves parties as well, but mixing them together is something she doesn't like- she feels like having a Halloween Party is an excuse to not celebrate the way Halloween is supposed to be celebrated - dressing up and trick-or-treating.

She walked through the halls, earning weird looks as usual, until she felt a cold sharp air running through her. She stopped to rub her arms, noticing neither Theo nor Brandon felt cold. She turned to look at the lockers, one of those radiated that cold energy. She walked slowly towards it, feeling the coldness everytime more. She touched number 618, at the distance she could hear screaming and distorted noises.

She pulled back, scared and accidentally pushed someone who was walking by. Her eyes met Nancy's ocean blue eyes. She gasped in shock and let a relief breath once she felt safe.

"Hey, are you okay?" Nancy asked, holding her arms and pulling her away from the crowd. Jonathan, who walked next to her, opened a door to an open classroom. The three of them got inside, Violet still unable to focus on anything sat down with the help of Nancy.

"Vee, you alright?"

Violet turned to look at Nancy. It had been a while since someone called her that. She blinked a couple of times and regained her consciousness.

"Yeah... sorry I- was not looking" Violet said. Nancy looked back at Jonathan and tilted her head a little, letting him know she needed an alone time with her. As soon as Jonathan left, Violet wiped her eyes with her hands.

"You are obviously not okay, Violet Johnson, what happened?" Nancy asked,

"Nothing. You don't have to worry about me" Violet pushed her aside and stood up.

She walked outside the classroom, ignoring Jonathan who tried talking to her, and walked furiously through the halls. Unbelievable, she thought, she's been ignoring me for months and now she cares about me?. She wanted to scream and cry, or do both at the same time. She was furious, outraged. But once she took a seat in her designated classroom, she remembered the locker.

618 it was.

She sank into her seat and pretended to pay attention to class.

Violet started to feel a constant pain in her stomach, it was more as if someone was poking her with a metallic stick. She felt sick. Violet ran to the bathroom, dramatically exiting the classroom, and as soon as she got to a toilet she started to cough.

Nothing really happens. She's unable to throw up. She walks out of it and pulls her hair up in a mild ponytail. Violet looked at herself in the mirror and started to lose sight, she felt lightheaded.

She falls into the cold hard ground. But once she opens her eyes she's not in the school bathroom.

She is not in Hawkins.

She's in the upside down, once again. She stands up and walks through the bathroom, she starts to hear wind- something unusual from the upside down. She notices there's a window in a high spot and jumps trying to reach it. She concentrates and starts to levitate up from the ground. Violet found this new ability to be quite extraordinary, and perhaps it could only be manifested in the upside down since all she could manage to do in the ordinary world was moving water bottles.

She looked through the window and noticed what seemed to be some weird black dust from afar. It seems like multiple tornados mashed into one big shadow.

A noise. The bathroom door was opened. Violet fell down and crashed into the floor, she rolled around it, moaning in pain, and opened her eyes to see a couple of girls staring at her

Violet waits for Theo, in her car. Still confused as to what happened earlier, Violet started to draw the figure she saw in the upside down, a figure she would later name 'mashed potato monster' because it rhymes with mashed tornados. She began to feel heat, a lot of it. She decided to turn on the AC, before she could actually touch it the air was already on. The single thought of her wanting to do so made the entire car freeze immediately.

She didn't have time to process what had just happened because Theo entered the car right away.