#Because of course her stepmother won't do that- And she seems to not have anyone else

[triple-pupil]

"Come now! Pull yourself together, Missy...! Only You can bring some sunshine to cloudy today..."

[4fter-hours]

━━ ✦ ( @isleofmuses ) cont from here

There were times when she was around Annie where she felt as if she was being interrogated subtly. The way she would make marks fall into a false sense of security to gather up every bit of information that she could about them before robbing them blind. She felt like the girl knew more about her than she should, more than even Elizabeth knew. The smile on her face only made Elizabeth feel more out of the know of something that only the girl knew, like she had read every page of her fathers' journal, that every day was becoming more her own. She'd have questions of her own to Annie, some other time. It didn't unsettle her, just made her curious about how the girl knew things she did.

❝ No secrets. ❞ She agreed, holding out her pinky for a pinky promise. It took her a moment to realize what word Annie meant to say and once she did, she simply nodded. ❝ Yeah, they will tell me what they can find if anything. Like you said, DNA, prints, hair, something, anything. ❞ Would like to know it was you who kept it, her eyebrows furrowed for a moment, wouldn't he like it best if it was kept by his family? She wanted to ask but she wasn't going to argue with the girl. ❝ I'll keep it safe and then give it back to you to give to him, okay.❞

❝ Are they? ❞ The woman chuckled at that declaration about cookies. ❝ I sort of enjoy the crunch when biting into the crunchy ones, like Oreos. I don't have a favorite, honestly. I think it depends on my mood.❞ She couldn't understand why but she was always honest with the kids in a way she just wasn't with anyone else. ❝ When I miss Orion I usually make chocolate chip, when I'm sad I make something my dad made at Christmas no matter where we were called Marens Kornflexkökur, it's more like a meringue than a cookies. When my stepmother and I lived in Mexico for a while, she would make the most delicious cinnamon sugar cookies and polvorones, but people call them wedding cookies. Is that what your Mama Meli likes? They're sort of round and covered in powdered sugar, no peanut butter. We can start with your favorite and then see what other ones we can make. ❞

While Annie was washing up, she looked at the necklace in her hand for a moment. An ache opened up in her, part of her wanted to keep it safe in a drawer somewhere but before she could question herself, she put it on instead. It's safer somewhere near her she convinced herself. Then looked over the keychain, something about it echoed in her mind but it was so full of thoughts at the moment that she couldn't pinpoint exactly why it seemed oddly familiar. A memory that seemed to escape her. Hearing Annie coming back from the bathroom, she placed it aside on the coffee table before going to wash up in the kitchen sink. Then she grabbed her apron and the smaller one she had tucked away in a cabinet, Orion's when he would visit.

Biting the inside of her cheek as she thought over how to best answer Annie's question, she squatted down so that they were at eye level and held up the apron to place it on her. ❝ I think that no matter what we find, we still won't like it. Not because of what it is, but what it did. ❞ She wanted to say who, because that was the truth of this all wasn't it? There was someone who had harmed someone that they all cared about. No matter who it was, it was an unforgivable thing. At the second question, her eyebrows knitted, not in confusion but in softness because there was nothing that she would keep from her. ❝ Of course, I do, Annie. He's - ❞ friend didn't feel like the right word to say. Not with everything that he had started to mean to her. Just standing there with Annie had her thinking of the times he would be standing there with a mug of coffee discussing a case or talking about his family. It made her stomach flip. ❝ the best person I know. Now,❞ she smiled at the girl and stood up gathering bowls, eggs, flour and holding up her hand mixer. ❝ let's get making some cookies yeah? Have you ever used a mixer before? ❞

[granills]

Careless Whisper {B.H.}

Chapter 1 Chapter 2

3. Lemonades and Unwanted Past

A week went by fast, and Maristela was sitting at her usual spot behind the counter.

Joyce was busy at the storeroom since the inventory on some shelves was getting low. Mars tapped the pen against her blue notebook, the same colour as the hair tie around her wrist. A slight breeze from the desk fan was blowing her wavy hair on that hot day. The strands flew down her back, stopping in a line around her shoulders.

Normally she wouldn't have been so awkward around strangers since she'd communicated with them every day at work when they needed help around the store, but being around Billy caught her off guard, she would feel the soft panic, growing inside her. There was something in him that made her uneasy. She didn't know what to say for the reason that she couldn't know for sure how he would've reacted.

Mars sighed and continued writing down a list of products that were needed to be changed or restocked. Joyce had already finished the first part and Mars was helping her out to finish the list. She already wrote down a couple of products when Billy Hargrove walked inside the store all of a sudden. Mars nearly dropped the pen, she couldn't get used to his sudden appearances.

He reached her and stopped in front of the desk, leaning over it as he gave her a thoughtful look. "Why aren't you at the pool right now?" He asked, the question confusing her.

She went back to writing. The blue notebook was already filled till the last page, only a few lines were left blank. Rose had already asked Mars to go to the Hawkins Community Pool with her as it was one of those hot days outside. But Mars refused as she'd been stuck at work. "I am working."

He thought a bit and shook his head slightly. "No, that won't do. You're coming with me." He stated nonchalant.

"May I help you with something?" She asked, not wanting to continue the awkward discussion. Moreover, she had no intention of going anywhere with him. "Marlboro reds, maybe?"

"I appreciate you remembering my preference. But your friends are there, too." He smirked.

Right when she wanted to answer, Joyce appeared out of the storeroom, as if sensing the perfect time. Not for Mars though. Joyce was about to take another pack of products to the storage when Billy stopped her.

"Mrs. Byers, I wanted to ask if you'd allow Mars to leave her spot right now? It's not like the store has customers at this time." He asked her without hesitation, and she sent Mars a confused look, only meeting Mars's more puzzled look.

Not getting any signs from Mars, and knowing Billy already as he'd shown up earlier at their house looking for his little sister, she nodded. "Uh, okay." She said, sounding tired and not wanting to deal with it, and made her way back to the storage.

Mars closed her notebook and picked her bag. "I need to go home first." She said exiting the store.

"Hop in the car, miss." Billy said putting on his sunglasses. "And lead the way."

She opened the car door and went inside, a sharp smell of his cologne, a white-out of bergamot and pepper, filling her nostrils along with leather and smoke.

Putting her bag on her knees, she rested her hands on the bag.

Before starting the car Billy turned to her, smirking. "I advise you to buckle up."

"Why won't you?" She asked him but did as he'd told so.

In a mere 15 minutes Billy parked his car in her driveway. Driving somewhere with Billy seemed like a disaster to happen, with the radio turned up loud. A couple of neighbours were looking out of their windows to see the mysterious driver that had parked in front of the Crawfords' house.

Mars asked Billy to wait for her and went inside the house while Billy got out of the car and lit up his cigarette leaning against the car door and catching some judgy, some admiring looks of Mars's neighbours.

Mars went up to her room directly not noticing her mom in the kitchen. She didn't have many pairs of swimsuits like Rose, mostly because she attended the pool only two or three times every year. But she had two pairs of bikinis, red high-waisted and thin-stringed with flowers.

Without thinking twice, she grabbed the red checkered bikinis and put them on. She decided to wear a white t-shirt on top of it with black shorts. Red straps of the bikinis on her shoulders matched the white shirt perfectly. Putting on a peach lip balm, Mars decided she was ready and went downstairs.

"Mars? You're home early." She heard her mom's voice from the kitchen.

"Yeah. Joyce let me take a day off today. I'm going to the pool with Rose." Mars leaned over the counter.

"That young man doesn't look like Rose." Mary already noticed the blonde guy with a perfect hairdo.

"Rose is already there and Billy is just taking me there." You shrugged and looked out of the window.

"So, Billy?" Mary smiled at her daughter and as if sensing the moment Billy noticed Mars from the outside and smiled, to which Mars just turned away.

"Yes. A friend." She hurried to the door. "Gotta go. Love you."

She was back in the car in a mere seconds as soon as the driver's side door closed.

Billy flicked the cigarette over his shoulders seeing her. "Red bikinis? Matching my lifeguard outfit."

"What? You work there?" Mars was confused.

"Yep. My shift starts soon." He started the car, glancing at her.

As the car engine sung to the lone roads, Mars relished the roaring winds that twirled in her hair and whistled in her ears.

"Have you always lived here?" Billy asked, the question seeming out of place considering who had just asked it.

"Yes." She nodded, looking out of the window at the kids skateboarding, their figures disappearing among the woods, and turned around. He hummed looking away, and she found herself staring at his side profile. "Why did you move here?"

He seemed to tense up a bit at the question, which Mars couldn't not notice. "My dad and stepmother decided that."

Silence hung in the air, making Mars wonder if it was the right thing to ask.

"Anyway, what was the matter with that girl who went missing? Last year?" Billy asked changing the subject quickly.

"What?" She asked, turning to look at him, surprised by the sudden question. She was glad to change the topic, but only if it was any other question but that.

"The girl? Vanished mysteriously as the paper said." He told her.

She looked down, not knowing what to reply, biting her lower lip in a stressed motion. "Barbara."

She was the one to discover Barb, witnessing a slug-like creature slithering from her mouth and across her face. Having entered the Upside Down, Mars never told anyone what exactly she went through in there. Only Eleven read her mind, seeing her walking past the remains of the Demogorgon's victims, including Barb's corpse.

She regretted going there that night, of course she didn't believe that the other world had existed. Such thing wouldn't have come to her mind. Only it was real, destroying her happy, student life. And her friends were stuck in that, too.

"You okay?" He asked, his eyes burning into her skin. The car had stopped and they were at the entrance of the pool, people already gathering there with their rubber rings.

She nodded, no sound leaving her mouth.

The long anticipated swimming pool was filled with people. It was like half of Hawkins gathered there to take a bath in a large bathtub. Billy and Mars parted their ways when Billy turned to the dressing room and Mars turned right and entered the pool. Kids lay out on inflatable mattresses, dived, spun and played tag as the girl in a lifeguard outfit looked on.

Mars stood there for a while until noticing a girl sipping her lemonade in a watermelon swimsuit. Rose. A mix of voices and splashes greeted her ears as she walked confidently towards a sun lounger. A spare one was there next to her, and Mars hurried to take the place.

"Mars?" Rose took off her sunglasses, smiling widely. "Am I dreaming or are you skipping work?"

Getting the towel out of her bag, Mars laid the towel down on the sun lounger. "You were the one to get me here, now I'm here." She took off her clothes standing in her red bikinis and lied down next to Rose. Never forgetting the sunglasses.

"Good thing you're here, 'cause you've been missing some show." Rose smiled sipping the lemonade.

"What do you mean?"

"Look over there." Mars's eyes followed hers, looking at the lifeguard right across from them, who came down from her lifeguard chair.

Mars looked to the side and saw the guy in the outfit matching her bikinis. He'd got rid of hist shirt, his torso glowed in the sun, as he walked towards knowing for sure he looked good. With a well-toned and muscular body.

She slightly shook her head and turned to the side when she noticed her mother's friends, including Mrs. Wheeler. "Is that Karen?" But her question stayed unanswered as she witnessed the dreamy looks they all had when Billy had passed them, greeting them. And commented on Karen's swimsuit?

"They have been oggling the guy for a week now." Rose's face lit up.

"That is creepy. It's like Hopper hitting on us."

"Gross." They looked at each other and said in unison.

"I mean..."

"Rose!" Mars grimaced making Rose giggle.

Billy took the place of the previous lifeguard and had a whistle in his mouth, ready to yell at kids who dared to run on his watch.

She didn't know why she was so transfixed by the fact that he'd had all the attention of ladies at the pool. Surely, he was handsome and girls would whirl around him, but she'd never really thought of him in that way before. Until that moment, at least.

The warm wind messed up her hair as she relished the warmth of the sun and catching soft splashes of water. She opened her eyes, choosing to focus her attention on other people.

In that moment, she noticed how Mrs. Wheeler walked past Billy to dive into the pool. As soon as she was in the water, she went swimming backstroke, making it look even worse.

"Who even swims with a makeup on?" Mars mumbled to herself, furrowing her eyebrows. Mars remembered her father's words when he was teaching her how to swim, it all seemed to happen such a long time ago.

"Why did the blonde keep doing the backstroke? - She just had lunch and didn't want to swim on a full stomach." Dad jokes.

Not thinking longer, Mars put the lemonade that she'd ordered aside and took off her sunglasses. "Want to freshen up?" She asked Rose already anticipating the answer.

"No. I want to get a bit more of a tan."

The water was uncommonly clear and pale blue when Mars entered the pool. The water moved around her hips in swirls, she dived into the water. As a child she always imagined as if she was a mermaid, it was beautiful deep down under the water, like being in a different world.

She surfaced in the pool and went back underwater again, it was then when she noticed Billy's intense gaze on her, his sunglasses in his hands.

Mars dived into the water again and continued swimming under. She loved diving within the sea when she'd visited her aunt in California, and feeling the freedom it gave, transparent and blue, soft and powerful.

Billy couldn't keep his eyes off Mars, noting that she at last hadn't been a bad swimmer. He saw her going underwater and at some point lost her when Mrs. Wheeler had appeared out of nowhere. She asked about the swimming lessons where he had been teaching kids. Mars was still nowhere to be found. He waited. Ten seconds. Fifteen seconds.

"Your form is amazing." He heard her saying in the distance. Twenty five seconds.

"Thank you." He said walking away from her, speeding up.

He jumped into the water where supposedly Mars had entered the pool. He swam down and reached the bottom in one breath. Scared that she might've been drowning, he tried to focus.

The particular scenario has never happened to him before. He knew that drowning was quiet, their movements were subtle and among other people splashing it was hard to determine.

He swam back to the surface as his oxygen levels had run out, he immediately thought of how it would've been impossible for Mars to hold her breath that much underwater. He tried to breath and looked around when something particular caught his attention. He rubbed his eyes and furrowed his eyebrows. Mars just got out of the pool right across from him.

His brain stuttered for a moment, standing there motionless until a kid's ball hit his arm and he'd caught it before getting out of the water. He finally sighed in relief and approached Mars keeping his eyes on her.

"Your breath training is impressive." He spoke making her turn around at the voice.

"You didn't think I was a bad swimmer, right?" She said as if asking rhetorically and passed him making her way to the sun lounger.

"Didn't think so." He said a bit louder for her to hear, as if it wasn't him rushing to the water to rescue her a few moments ago.