ashtray x oc ( enemies to lovers ) "I'm a lover, not a fighter" In which twelve year old Crystalline Newby has spent her entire life in Hawkins, a quiet suburban town that looks normal on the surface and never quite feels normal underneath It is early November 2018, and winter is starting to settle in, bringing colder nights and quieter streets. Crystalline spends most of her days trying to balance school, friendships, and a life that feels carefully built around secrets she does not fully understand. Raised by her father Bob Newby after being taken from Hawkins Lab as a child, Crystal has always known she was different, even if no one ever told her why. Things move when she is angry, fires spark when her emotions run too high, and water never seems to behave the way it should when she is overwhelmed. She has learned to ignore it, or at least pretend she can. She tells herself she has everything under control. Hawkins, however, has never been a town that leaves things alone. And when Crystalline is forced to cross paths with Ashtray, a boy who trusts no one and expects the worst from everyone, she begins to realize that some people are not meant to understand each other at all, yet somehow always end up in each other's orbit.