nancynextdoor-blog

[nancynextdoor-blog]

jcnathanxbycrs‌:

A memory popped into Jonathan’s head as he stared at the Wheeler girl, one that makes him cringe as he thinks about it. There had been one time the call he was always too afraid to make had gone through; he remembered standing in the doorway, back against the wall next to the phone as the dial tone rung through his ear. He waited and waited for someone to pick up, thinking that it was sheer dumb luck that he finally had the courage to call the Wheeler household and no one picked up. Then, just as he was about to put the phone back onto the receiver, he heard a voice.

“Hello?”

It wasn’t Nancy– it was Mike, but he was still close. His heart beat against his rib cage painfully at being so close to talking to her, but he couldn’t find his voice now that someone had answered. He heard Mike’s voice again, “Hello? El, is that you?” It was so nauseating to hear someone sound so hopeful for someone else that he just hung up the phone abrupty instead of asking for Nancy, something that should have been easy.

It made him sick to his stomach now, looking right at Nancy and knowing that he was too much of a coward to even talk to the girl he loved. Now that he was right here in front of her, running his mouth, he had no idea what to do or say without making anything worse.

“Yeah, too late– y’know,” He mumbled quietly, shoving his hands down into his coat pockets. “Before you… heard that I was in town. Unless you already knew.”

Jonathan looks back at her, almost expecting Steve or some other handsome guy to come around the corner and sweep her off of her feet. “I”m sorry, Nancy. I-I shouldn’t have bothered you– I should’ve just left you alone.”

The fact that they didn’t even know what to say to each other now stung more than thinking he had just forgotten her. At least then she could think of him as a careless, hurtful asshole - or try to tell herself that. It was actually far from what she thought of him, because she knew him, and because all of her overthinking always brought her to the same truth.

In fact, there was a lot she wanted to say to him. A lot of things she wanted to confront him about, to ask him. She wanted him to explain what happened, when she’d watched it happen, watched them fall apart and hadn’t done anything to stop it herself. She’d never thought he’d return to Hawkins, or that she would ever hear from him again after she’d dug herself deep into heartbreak. And despite her mother pointing out cute guys on the street, and a couple of men hitting on her at college, her thoughts had trickled back to Jonathans gentle embrace around her frame and she knew she’d never get over him.

Nancy watched as he buried his hands in his pockets, the way he always did when he was uneasy and her fingers itched to intertwine with his before they were out of sight. “I- I heard.” Her gaze hit the floor again. “I just didn’t think you...” ... wanted to see me. What, did he think Will wouldn’t immediately come to her house meet up with Mike? More than once, Nancy had sat in her car with her fingers curling around the wheel and her heel hovering above the pedal to drive to his house since the Byers were back, but she’d never had the guts to turn the key.

The lump in her throat threatened to drive tears into her eyes as he spoke, and she was about to turn on her heels, but then she swallowed, hard, and whispered. “Jonathan.” Nancy pressed her lips together until they were white, and her eyes met his. Finally, she shook her head, slowly, in response to what he’d said.

“You- you wanna go for a walk?”

[nancynextdoor-blog]

ahoy-stevie‌:

Steve had been running through his usual routine of boxing VHS tapes, stacking them on the shelves, and sorting through the returns that night. It wasn’t the most exciting thing that life had to offer, but it beat scooping out ice cream for sticky kids and annoying preteens. And he could find a little happiness in the fact that he would never have to wear that stupid sailor uniform ever again.

It was a normal night by any measure, so when he ran into Nancy Wheeler on his way from the back room, he was needless to say, surprised. He hadn’t seen or heard from Nancy since he’d slammed “The Todd-Father” into Billy’s car in ‘85 to save her from the Mind Flayer. Normally, an experience like that would have bonded two people for a lifetime. But for the two Hawkins residents, it was just another blip on the radar for weird things to happen in their hometown. Combined with their awkward history of misspoken outbursts and hurt feelings, they had drifted apart when Nancy went away from school.

But standing there in the middle of Family Video, Steve couldn’t help but awkwardly smile. He hoped the expression would cover up his deer-in-the-headlights look. He fumbled with the stack of VHS tapes in his hands and offered up a pathetic greeting of:

“Hey… Nancy…”

Nancy had had the desire to stay in Hawkins as much as she could during the past two years simply because she was afraid something might happen. At college, she felt out of place, but here, it seemed to all catch up with her. She’d pushed everything away from her while they’d dealt with the mind flayer and all that - there just seemed to be much more important things going on than dealing with her emotions. 

Well, now there wasn’t. It was needless to say that she felt lonely. She’d had a lot of time to think about the people she’d hurt, the mistakes she’d made, the things that happened before it all and what it had made her. Nancy the slut Wheeler. Sure, he’d made mistakes, too, but looking at him now, she knew they’d outgrown all that. She remembered him with the kids, and his determined, crazy expression when he’d saved them back at the mall was engraved into her mind.

“St-Steve!” She muttered, her eyes wide. Her gaze fell from his face to the Family Video shirt he was wearing. “Hey, I didn’t... I didn’t expect to see you here.” A timid smile spread on her lips. “How have you been?”

[nancynextdoor-blog]

jcnathanxbycrs‌:

Jonathan couldn’t help but stare at the woman in front of him, thoughts racing through his heads so fast that he couldn’t get ahold of himself. Swallowing the lump in his throat, he stepped forward towards her before finding the courage to look her fully in the face, his hands trembling beside him. She opened her mouth to say something but promptly closed it, leading Jonathan to believe that she was going to tell him how much of a selfish, pathetic coward he was. He had been in town long enough to seek her out, call her, anything, but he hadn’t. He had been too afraid to see or hear from her again after their long distance relationship sputtered out. 

God knows how many times he had picked up the phone to dial her number before putting it back down, head hanging in shame. Nancy very easily could have moved on without him there to weigh her down– in fact, he would be surprised if she hadn’t. He knew that Steve Harrington was still in town, and Jonathan would be lying if he said that he still wasn’t the least bit jealous of Steve’s existence. 

“Nancy, I… It’s really good to see you,” he managed to stutter out, feeling his cheeks heat up at his weak attempt at talking to her.  He paused again, trying to catch his breath. “I was hoping to, uh, see you, y’know. Before it was too late.”

Jonathan could feel the atmosphere turn more awkward than it already was at his words, cursing himself for even talking to her when he should have just left her alone when she didn’t say anything the first time.

Nancy was still robbed of words. Yes, it was good to see him, it was so good that it hurt not being able to close the distance between them. Her gaze met the ground as she felt his burning on her frame and she wished she didn’t hold this stack of books so she could bury her hands deep in her pockets.

“Too late?” She finally stammered quietly. Too late for what? To rekindle his love for her - because hers certainly didn’t have to be revived the way it banged against her ribcage, so much so that she had to fight the urge to look down at her necklace to see if it was bouncing around on her dress. 

Was it too late for anything? Was their relationship over because either of them got too wrapped up in their own shit to make a little call? She couldn’t believe Jonathan had spent the past year by the phone too scared to dial her number like she had, her hand always hovering above the tab to end the call. Anxiety turned into embarrassment, embarrassment turned into anger.

They were both cowards, the way they stood in front of each other right now. She’d blamed him for not calling, for moving out of town, for moving on, for leaving her behind, and now all that was tumbling around in the back of her mind while the desire to just fall into his arms was overwhelming her.

[nancynextdoor-blog]

jcnathanxbycrs‌:

Jonathan couldn’t help the nervous bubble of laughter that came from his throat, a hand combing through his unruly hair as he felt something. He didn’t know what, but he felt the need to make himself look better, more presentable. It was funny, it was like he knew who was going to step out of the building at any second. If he were less of a man, he would have rather faced being wrong about seeing his ex-girlfriend (were they exes if they never technically broke up?) and ran off to save himself the embarrassment of seeing Nancy in person again– but his mother raised him better than that. So there he stood, running his hand through his mop of hair one more time before wringing his hands together, counting down the seconds until he saw Nancy’s figure step through the front doors.

He cleared his throat to get her attention before she could walk away, not sure if she had seen him standing there or not. Even if she had, he couldn’t blame her if she decided that he no longer existed. Not after the way they had ended things– or not ended things.

“Nance,” he called out softly, losing his voice as she turned toward him. “Hey, Nancy… You’re–” 

He cleared his throat again, his heart threatening to burst out of his chest. She was still as beautiful as ever, not that he needed to see her again to know that.

@nancynextdoor​

Nancy was miserable. She would never admit it, but she sure as heck was. She was lonely, she was heartbroken, she was unhappy. Everything in this stupid town reminded her of so many things, but most of all, they reminded her of Jonathan. Even the freaking ceiling in her room she would stare at at night was screaming with memories of him.

He’d forgotten her, she was sure of that, and she needed to at least keep her pride in not running after him. She’d heard the rumors that the Byers had moved back into town, but she’d tried to push it out of her mind, imagining the moment they would meet again over and over again in her head. It had to happen some time. If he still cared for her in any way, wouldn’t he have at least called?

She was walking fast because of no particular reason other than instinct. Then she suddenly froze, a shiver of warmth running down her spine as a familiar voice hit her. A lump immediately formed in her throat – it felt so instinctively good to hear him say her name so softly, gently as if it might break if spoken too carelessly and she was so overwhelmed with emotions that every single way she’d imagined this to go was wiped from her mind.

Nancy turned around and her gaze mer Jonathan’s. Her mouth opened  – then closed again as she was looking for words where there was only a void.

[nancynextdoor-blog]

Nancy was such a freaking cliché. Here she was, in her girl-next-door dress with her stack of books and absolutely no desire to hang out at the library again. These days she had literally no idea where her life was going, and she felt an overwhelming sense of absolutely wasting her life away without doing anything to benefit anyone.

She’d walked by the Hawkins Post so many times, who were back to writing about stolen garden gnomes and deer accidents. And Nancy was still paranoid. Oh, so paranoid. And lonely.

The counter had been empty as she walked into the family video, mostly just to waste time. She browsed the aisles, running her fingers along the tapes, which had collected a little dust.

Finally, she went around a corner and froze.

@ahoy-stevie

[nancynextdoor-blog]

Hey hey there! My name is Dana, the RP meemaw, resident catlady and drag queen enthusiast. If you want to chat about one of these things, literally anything else, or plot with me, I’m most often available on discord.

But now onto Nancy! 

- When time came for her to go to college, Nancy wanted to go for journalism, of course, yet her family only wanted to pay for real education. Staying in the realm of investigation, she now studies law at Indiana State.

- She is home often, though. She worries a lot about her family, the gang and everyone else, really, so she wants to stay close, just in case.

- The above includes snooping around everywhere.

- After Jonathan moved away, the two have been in a long distance relationship for a while, but calls got fewer and letters eventually stopped, so they broke it off. Like with everyone she’s close to though, she still deeply cares for him and never got over him.

- Nancy is stuck somewhere between what will people think and girl gone wild. She can still be hesitant and the good daughter next door, but everything that happened shaped her aswell, and she’s struggling to find out what direction is hers to go in.

- She knows she’s hurt a lot of people in the past, and she still blames herself for Barb’s death. Really, she is the sweetest sweetheart though.

- to be continued!

[nancynextdoor-blog]

ahoy-stevie‌:

When the initial shock had died down, Steve was overcome with the overwhelming urge to drop dead.

How embarrassing could this get? This was the first time he had seen Nancy in ages and here he was, serving ice cream to kids at the mall in a bright blue sailor suit that screamed ‘I peaked in high school’. 

He’d almost forgotten the mop he was holding, He dropped it back in the bucket and kicked it behind the counter. Trying to regain his composure, he nodded and laughed awkardly.

“Yeah, I guess so… It’s good that you’re back though. I’m sure your parents really missed you. And, uh, Mike too.”

Nancy couldn’t help but laugh, not to make fun of him, but at the irony of it all. She knew that look on his face, and she was sure they both felt the exact same way. She felt the overwhelming urge to fun a hand through her hair and smooth some wrinkles in her clothing that weren’t there.

She joined in with his awkward laughter. It was crazy seeing him like this, not because he was in a sailor’s costume, but because he was working, and he wasn’t working for his dad, he was doing his own thing, like he’d wanted to. she was ... she was proud of him.

“It feels like ages. I’d ... love to catch up?” She offered, almost knowing he would make up something or say ‘yeah, sure’ and then it would never happen. 

[nancynextdoor-blog]

@ahoy-stevie

Nancy’s face froze for a moment as she watched a familiar frame scramble through the swing door with a mop in hand. Steve. Her stomach dropped as she caught his gaze. He was last person she’d ever imagined meeting in this ice cream parlor, in a sailor’s outfit, especially after not seeing him for what felt like an eternity.

When she was finally able to control her features again her eyes followed his to a puddle on the floor, then found their way back to his face.

“Steve!” A reserved smile spread on her lips and her eyes dropped to the bell she’d just rung a moment ago. A sudden rush of guilt and a million questions struck her all at once. “I, um… I —” She laughed to herself, her smile wider, looking at him now. She felt like an idiot, so totally out of place. “Back for the summer. I just don’t want to escape this town, I guess.”

[nancynextdoor-blog]

nancynextdoor‌:

@ahoy-stevie​

Steve had been scrambling in the back room for a mop and bucket. The lunch rush had finally died down but there were still a few patrons in the parlor. One of the kids had dumped his sundae on the floor before leaving, and he was just about to go clean it up before something else caught his attention.

Pushing open the swinging door, he saw Nancy waiting at the counter. He hadn’t been expecting that. He stood in place, dumbstruck for moment before glancing at the sticky mess on the floor. It could wait a few minutes.

“Uh, Nancy. Hey. Haven’t seen you in a while... I thought you were away at school?” 

___________________________________________

Nancy’s face froze for a moment as she watched a familiar frame scramble through the swing door with a mob in hand. Steve. Her stomach dropped as she caught his gaze. He was last person she’d ever imagined meeting in this ice cream parlor, in a sailor’s outfit, especially after not seeing him for what felt like an eternity.

When she was finally able to control her features again her eyes followed his to a puddle on the floor, then found their way back to his face.

“Steve!” A reserved smile spread on her lips and her eyes dropped to the bell she’d just rung a moment ago. A sudden rush of guilt and a million questions struck her all at once. “I, um... I —” She laughed to herself, her smile wider, looking at him now. She felt like an idiot, so totally out of place. “Back for the summer. I just don’t want to escape this town, I guess.”

[nancynextdoor-blog]

[nancynextdoor-blog]

@ahoy-stevie

The new mall seemed out of place in a town like Hawkins. Sure, it offered a lot of opportunities for everyone, fancy new stores and a fancy new cinema that had basically destroyed the one they had gone to as teenagers and the biggest foodcourt any suburban kid has ever been to. But it was still out of place.

The mall was nice and cool, a welcome change to the summer heat. On a whim, Nancy decided to get a scoop of ice cream at this funny looking place she passed while looking around. The parlor was packed with kids and their parent’s trying to control the intensity in which they smeared ice cream all over the tables, but the counter was empty.

The brunette approached it and waited a few moments, then reached out her hand to lightly touch the bell.

[nancynextdoor-blog]

Secrets — Nancy & Julia

Once she had started, she couldn’t stop. And she had definitely started something.

Her law books had been tossed aside unlovingly and her eyes scanned the screen that displayed a scan of a newspaper clippings from years ago. Nancy was in deep. At first she had just tried to find out who this missing college student was, and now she had read everything ever even mentioning a name smiliar to that kid’s family’s name. 

The whole thing made her shiver. It seemed so scarily familiar. Somehow she ended up on articles about the closed down lab, the chemical leakage inside it and akk the bullshit excuses for what happened there.

The brunette ran a hand through her ruffled curls and sighed. Her gaze scanned the folders she’d placed beside her. One was across the table - she was about to reach for it when she realized that it wasn’t one she’d brought here. Peeking around her own machine, she tried to make out the girl sitting in front of the one across from her.

“I’m ... so sorry.” She cleared her throat. “Are you done with this one?” She tried for her friendliest smile. Just because this girl looked at newspaper clippings from the same time frame she did, didn’t mean they were looking for the same thing. Never ever.

@julia-reese-09

[nancynextdoor-blog]

newbienewby‌:

F2F: Newby Theories Location: Hawkins Library Opposite: @nancynextdoor

Saturday afternoon maybe wasn’t the time most people would be cooped up in a library. Most kids were out enjoying the hot summer weather while school was out, or families were relaxing by the Hawkins public swimming pool. Cooper however had taken the quiet opportunity to hide away in the library. Hailing from New York and the northern regions of the country, he didn’t cope too well with the heat. So, an air conditioned library sounded somewhat ideal.

Now Cooper had plenty of reasons to come to Hawkins. Family were here, it seemed like a good town if you discredit the recent news stories about it. Though the main reason had been the circumstances around his Uncle’s death; he just couldn’t wrap his head around it.

The Newby family had been told Bob died of a heart attack. Something Cooper believed until another cause of death was delivered to him, followed by another. It seemed like this whole town knew a secret though they’d failed at all learning the facts to the same lie.

He refused to let himself get lost in it. He refused to go insane like the movies depict a person obsessive for the truth. So a little light research wouldn’t hurt right? He could just be researching the town, the past events, the history. It wouldn’t matter if just by chance he checked the dates around his Uncle’s death? Cooper couldn’t but feel suspicious about it. He’s heard rumours about Will Byers, the boy who came back from the dead. He was the son of Joyce Byers, the woman who’d dated his Uncle. It set off alarm bells that he couldn’t ignore. There was something that truly unsettled him about Joyce Byers. He just couldn’t work it out.

It had taken a moment to locate, though with the helpful description from a stranger-turned-friend he made it in once piece. Dropping his stuff off at a table, he wandered the isles for a moment, trying to figure where to start his journey into this giant mess.

Grabbing some newspaper clippings, he opened the book and flicked through the year to November 1983. Clippings about the missing boy, Byers, were placed throughout the month. News of them finding his body in the lake, then suddenly he came back from the dead. 

It just didn’t make sense. 

His head snapped quickly to the left to see the person hovering in his personal space. “Hey- sorry, uh just let me” he quickly apologised and moved the large A3 book from hogging all the table top. Even though most people were out in the sun, he’d still struggled to find a table that was quiet. The only free ones seemed to be the ones near the man muttering to himself while he read. He understood some people liked to read aloud but boy it could be irritating.

Grabbing his pen, he took out his notepad from the brown satchel hanging off the back of his chair and began jotting down a few notes while they were fresh in his mind.

Over the years, Nancy had made a home of the library. She felt like she’d been here more than she’d been home, first to study, often to meet Barb and study together, then to research, to study for finals - and now it was studying more crap that didn’t interest her at all. Going to college to study law surely hasn’t been her idea.

More and more often, she thought back to Jonathan talking about NYU, about the possibilities of studying there, the photography and journalism opportunities in the big city. But there was no way. Her path had always been laid out for her. From her parents planning their lovely little family in the cul-de-sac, her mother being the pretty little housewife and passing that ideal on to her daughters. The perfection that was expected of her. The straight As and the college education just to settle down with a man to bear his children.

Over the years, she’d felt the need to rebel. She’d felt the need to break out of it, and in some ways, she had. For one thing, she had learned not to do what people expected of her. As bad as everything had been in 83 and 84, those times had shaped her. And yet she was here, staring at made up reports about criminals when she’d been there to look real evil straight in the face.

Her eyes darted up and her gaze grazed the shelves and cabinets in the corner of the room. Is was just by chance that she had chosen a seat near the newspaper archives. It was over. It was.

But it couldn’t hurt if she knew a little more. If she was sure of some things.

Nancy couldn’t forget that the people who were responsible for all that death and trauma were still out there. She couldn’t forget that Barb’s murderers were without punishment. Without justice.

The brunette took a deep breath and ran a hand through her curly hair. Just a quick look.

She strolled over to the cabinets, slowly opened one and ran her gaze along the headlines. Suddenly, it was like she was struck. She grabbed the newspaper that had caught all of her attention and clasping it, she stumbled over to one of the desks, plopping down on one of the chairs that seemed unoccupied, not paying attention to anything else. She didn’t even notice she’d totally invaded a guy’s personal space.

College kid goes missing in Hawkins - Is it starting all over again?

[nancynextdoor-blog]

what is your full name; if you have any nicknames, how did you get them? Nancy Wheeler, no middle name, hardly any nicknames. Some people call me Nance. Some people call me sweetheart, I learned how to shut that down, though.

when were you born? have you always lived in hawkins? what place would you call home? I was born and raised here. My mom is from the city, but when she met my dad and decided he would make a passable provider, she settled for Hawkins. Of course it’s my home. Although a million times I wished this town would free me of the title of neighborhood princess that it had slapped onto me, especially after everything that happened, I love this sad little down, and that is for the people in it.

describe yourself; hair colour, eye colour? My hair is mousey brown. I used to want to dye it all the time but now I like it. My eyes are blue. do you have any distinguishing facial features?

who are your friends and family? Who are the people you’re closest to? or wish you were closest to? I’m the oldest of three siblings. There’s Mike, my little brother, and Holly, our baby sister. Mom and dad of course. I’m closest to Mike, closer than I ever thought I would become again. We used to be pretty good friends when we were younger, and then something drove us apart... just the troubles of growing up, I guess. I’m glad we’re closer now, I just wish it would have gone differently.

I don’t really have a clique I stick to or anything. Incidentally, all of my brother’s friends seem to be mine, too, now, in a weird way. There are a few girls I hang out with at school.

There seems to be something unspoken between Steve and I, still. And honestly, I wish I was closer to my mother.

where do you go when you’re angry I guess I’m an angsty teen at heart. I’d go to my room and blast music.

biggest fear? have you told this to anyone? I’m sure I’m not the only one, but I’m terrified of something happening to people closest to me. I don’t think this is a secret, maybe only the extent of it. It’s the reason I didn’t consider moving away for college.

do you have any secrets? Well, yes.

have you ever been in love? or had a broken heart? My heart has been broken a bunch of times. There were so many nights I cried myself to sleep. But have I ever been in love? I don’t know. If I have to think about it this long the answer is probably obvious, right?

it’s a Sunday afternoon, what are you doing? Studying. Just because I don’t like law doesn’t mean I have to be bad at it.

do you have a strong childhood memory? I remember my dad promised me, and I quote, the biggest ice cream cone I’d ever seen in my life if I got the best grade at school. And what can I say? The cone was bigger than my head at the time. I don’t remember what flavor I picked, though.

whats your ideal night out? where are you going? with who? Getting in the car and just driving. With no destination. Stopping at a gas station for drinks and snacks. Stopping on random hills to get out and look around or marvel at the view. Sitting on the hood listening to music and talking about everything and anything. With who... hmm.

what do you consider your greatest achievement? Not giving up on Barb.

what is your idea of perfect happiness? Being loved and at the same time, supported, rather than told what to do, or pressured to fulfill expectations. Loved and still permitted to explore the bad sides of life on my own.

most treasured possession? Memories.

what/who is it that you most dislike? Everybody who put people down or ruin their day to make up for their own misery. People who don’t see that - I don’t know. There is no explanation for that.

which words or phrases do you most overuse? “It’s not like that” and “Listen”. It’s hard to be heard in this town, especially when you’re young and a suburban girl.

if you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? My perfectionism.

[nancynextdoor-blog]