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THE DAY before Jackie started her new job at the mall, she had an identity crisis. She could feel Steve's gaze on her back as she pulled her hair out of the scrunchie yet again, braiding it and groaning when it didn't look right. Nothing was working, her hair was bland, the paint on her nails were chipping—she couldn't start her job like this. She was a goddamned wreck.
"Ugh. Stupid, stupid," she huffed.
"Babe, it looks fine-"
"No it doesn't," Jackie snapped, not at him, not really. "I look like a hermit."
"Well, then you're the damn cutest hermit in the world," Steve told her, and she turned to give him a glare. "Uh- what's a hermit, exactly?"
"I need a change."
He blinked. "D'you want me to turn around or-"
"What? No. Not that kind of change." She straightened. "Steve, take me to the store."
He inched off her bed, brows furrowed with curiosity. "Um.. okay. For what?"
Jackie stared at her hair, flat, boring, probably dead, and shrugged. "I'm going to dye this shit."
So that was how her summer started. Jackie would have liked if her days were spent by the pool, lounging in the sun and reading a magazine about Queen's upcoming album, but instead, she was stuck spending it at Starcourt.
Hawkins had a new attraction—a mall. It was the rave for the second half of her senior year, everyone couldn't wait for the place to finish being built. And when it was, God, it was great. Jackie knew her way around within a week, she knew the best spots for cheap clothes and good skateboard accessories. Max enabled her, told her to buy everything she liked. The only problem was income—and Jackie applied to work at a department store. It was one of the biggest in the mall, filled with people from high school and managers who were old enough to be her great-grandparents.
Still, it was summer. And the days she wasn't working, she was driving Max and Lucas to the arcade—or visiting Heather on her lunch break at her job—and with Steve in the evenings by his pool, lights dimmed and slow kissing.
Her face was scattered with new freckles from the sun, hair pulled into a ponytail without any other choice. California was hot, but at least they had the breeze from the beach. Indiana didn't have that, Hawkins least of all. It scorched, she'd bought so many pairs of shorts already that she needed a new dresser.
Color stained tongues from popsicles, the lingering smell of coconut sunscreen, and tanned skin became the regular, and Jackie basked in it. Summer felt like coming home, it made her miss California and her dad less, too busy and warm to even get the chance to think about any of it.
