#and i think i wanna have different tags to differentiate between different runs or characters. for my own archive purposes

[kimmkitsuragi]

okay time to be a little embarrassing but the new kiss animation is saurrrr cute to me rn i just had to take a few screenshots

[colourful-void]

I tried looking for Pokemon Horizons fics on AO3 and found out the tags for Horizons were merged with the larger anipoke tag :( I sent a support ticket 'cause I'm wondering what the tag wranglers' explanation is for this.

Sure enough, they’ve been merged as i was afraid of. Thanks for sending in the support ticket! If they reply lemme know I wanna know also! Might send in a request of my own just to make it clear it’s not just one person feeling this.

I do however, think this is in error, according to Ao3's guidelines for tag wrangling! Or even if it's not in direct violation of a written guideline, it goes against the spirit of it.

And that's why I have written (not on purpose initally but I got really into it):

A Breakdown on Why "Pocket Monsters 2023 | Pokemon Horizons: The Series" Needs and Deserves It's Own Tag on Archive of Our Own

For anyone who reads or wants to read Horizons fic or just likes fic in general, and wants to know why this is a problem. It's a bit long but if you have the time, please read/skim it! thanks!

(Word Count: Aprox. 1.5k)

Here's Ao3's guidelines for differentiating between different versions of a series (example being sailor moon). Because the canons of Sailor Moon Live Action and Sailor Moon Anime/Manga are different, they get different tags!

What makes things difficult is the lack of a clear definition of what the Pokemon Anime Tag is meant to represent now.

And either way, we still need an adjustment, but what specifically is uncertain. Here's the thing!

Is Pokemon Horizons a separate Canon from Pokemon Anime?

It's hard to answer just "yes" or "no". It *is* a pokemon anime, and so it *is* canon to itself. But that also doesn't line up right. Poketoon, Hisuian Snow, and Twilight Wings are ALSO Pokemon anime, but they're not sorted into the whole pokemon anime tag. However, Horizons is part of the Mainline Pokemon Anime (i.e. what airs on tv tokyo weekly and is promoted by anipoke_pr twitter.).

What is Pokemon Anime?

Before Horizons, all of the Pokemon Anime had been grouped together into one story, and honestly that worked just fine! It was all one really long story of Ash's Journey over the course of several seasons. It even worked alright for tagging (except journeys) because you could use the corresponding game tag to denote what part of the anime you were talking about. For example, if I wrote a story about Dawn and Ash finding a Shaymin, that's Pokemon Anime tag AND Pokemon Diamond and Pearl Tag.

So the question is "is the AO3 tag "Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime)" supposed to denote the whole of the Pokemon Anime, or the Pokemon Anime Featuring Ash?"

Because before Horizons, there was a clear link of all the Pokemon Anime making it one show! It was all Ash's story, and it all flowed into itself. Some anime rating/watch sites (and i think parts of Wikipedia) list all of Ash's Journey as just "Pokemon the Anime" and all 1250+ episodes of it!

Horizons is Different. Horizons is a completely separate show!

Yes, it still has Pokemon in it, and it is still a Pokemon Anime running weekly on TV Tokyo and promoted by Anipoke_Pr. But all of us watching it and writing about it know it's a different show! The central characters and most importantly, the PLOT is different! You wouldn't put every season of star trek together into "Star Trek (TV Show)", right?

And I know some people will say "But Void! Can't you just do what you did before? Put Pokemon Anime tag and Pokemon Scarlet/Violet tag! It is Pokemon Anime: Scarlet and Violet, right?"

Well, no!

Horizons does not follow the exact plot of Scarlet and Violet games. They're similar (and the story isn't finished, so we don't know how similar), but there are differences! The Brave Asagi, The entire main cast of Volteccers, none of them exist in those games!

And saying that they have similar plots and thus are the same thing doesn't make sense either, according to prior sorting! Here's an example! This is the Pokemon (All Media) Subtag section! All of these tags are their OWN INDIVIDUAL THINGS that are ALSO recognized as being part of the wider pokemon!

See how the Pokemon Video Games, while being a Subtag, have their OWN subtags, for each version set that comes out. And BW has ITS OWN subtag, for BW2!

Sun and Moon also has a subtag for Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, even though they share similar plots for like. most of the first half, they're recognized as being separate things!

You can also see how the Pokemon Anime doesn't have ANY subtags at all. And again, from Original Series up to Sun and Moon, i can understand why it probably wasn't necessary.

But then Journeys happened, and I remember it being pretty difficult to find just... Gen fic for Journeys. If I wanted Ash/Goh fic, there was their ship tag! But if I just wanted *any* Journey characters, there was nothing to sort by.

Now, as had been done before, I saw people tagging their fics as "Pokemon Anime" AND "Pokemon Sword and Shield", even if the story had nothing to do with Galar or the SWSH games, because this was the "Sword and Shield anime". So as mentioned prior, I know why a lot of people would think, from an outsider pov or insider, "why not just tag it as "Pokemon Anime" AND "Pokemon Scarlet and Violet"

Because of fics like these!

(I haven't read any of these, so I can't speak for much about their content. I'm going off summaries. Authors of these stories I in no way intend to misrepresent you and if you dislike being used as an example in this post please let me know and i will remove the example)

All these fics are (from reading the summaries) stories about Ash going to Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, if the anime had continued to be about Ash and had gone onto the scarlet and violet games. Everyone here is using these tags Exactly right! This is exactly how it should be (so don't any of you dare go send hate to these people for literally using the tags exactly right.).

And see how NONE of these fics are about Pokemon Horizons? None of them are tagged as including Liko, Roy, Friede, any of the Horizons Central Cast. None of them (afaik) take place on the Brave Asagi! And that's good thats fine but what are Horizons fans supposed to do!

Horizons fans at the moment have No Way of finding stories about specifically Our Characters and Our Setting. We can't use the old method of Anime + relevant game, we don't have a separate tag, we're just sort of stuck.

So! What are we gonna do!

Firstly, I think there's like. a wider problem as mentioned earlier of "what is the pokemon anime tag supposed to be."

If it's a tag for the whole pokemon anime, then we need subtags! A subtag for Horizons, (and please Journeys). Though I'd love it if we retroactively got tags separating Pokemon Anime Sun and Moon from Pokemon Game Sun and Moon, there are over 9000 fics in the Pokemon Anime tag right now. Making the tag wranglers comb through all that sounds ridiculous. Ideally, I'd want to see at least Horizons get it's own subtag of Pokemon Anime.

If the tag is meant to be for the Pokemon Anime as it followed Ash's Journey, then that's still messy tag work I'm so sorry wranglers. But then we need some way to differentiate from allllllllll of Ash's story, and this NEW story.

And for the record? The company making Pokemon Anime (in japanese) is not making this easy for us. Naming two separate series the exact same thing back to back? (Pocket Monsters [from 2019, also known as journeys] and Pocket Monsters [from 2023, also known as Horizons], respectively) IDK if that's good for branding but it's certainly a nightmare for us. Enough of an issue I've seen some Japanese fans using the English titles to make it clear which series they're talking about. So I really don't blame the Ao3 wranglers for sorting things how they did. it's confusing and messy, and I really appreciate the hard work they do! I hope this long ramble doesn't come across to much like I'm shit talking the wranglers. It's because the system for tags and subtags works so well that I know that Horizons should (probably) be a subtag!

But because I like the way Ao3 filters and tags work, I want them to work right for this show I love so much. I want me and my friends to be able to share our works for Horizons and be able to find them! If my suggestions here don't work, that's fine! Just something that lets the Horizons fans find the Horizons stories.

In the meantime!

Because it will probably take a while to get things wrangled and also I don't know if Ao3 staff will agree with my post.

A) Keep on tagging your fics as Pokemon Horizons! WHen you post to ao3, you can tag anything you like, even if it all gets wrangled into a bigger tag. it also makes it easier for wranglers if we DO get a proper tag if you make it clear that your story about Molly and Orio baking cookies is a pokemon HORIZONS story, not just a pokemon Anime story. Even if it's not in the fandom tags, try and mention that your pokemon horizons works are HORIZONS works, because it means we can self sort!

While it's not ideal, there is still the wonderful "Search Within Results" function for when you're sorting by tag. Type in "Pokemon Horizons" (with the quotations around it) and anything that has that written in the tags, summary, or authors notes, will be filtered in, and anything that doesn't, is filtered out. So as long as the author has mentioned somewhere it's a Pokemon Horizons fic, the search will pull those fics. It's our best bet for now, if you want to browse Pokemon Horizons fic

and

B) Share fics here and everywhere else!

While we're trying to get our tag in motion, I still wanna say I love yall for reading my fics, and I love yall writing yours as we start off Pokemon Horizons. Even if we never get the tag thing solved, I want to see what you've made! So keep posting about your work, keep reblogging, make recommendations and spin off works and art (if the author is cool with it). If we don't have a tag, we do have each other. I know that sounds sappy but hey, it's pokemon. It's always a little cheesy.

Thank you for reading this absolute wall of text! I hope things work out and I'm hopeful they will! If anyone has any other thoughts on this tags situation or related, please leave them below! I'm nothing close to an expert on ao3 tag wrangling and i don't wanna misrepresent anything, so if any of the above is flat wrong, lemme know!

thank you!

[everythingsinred]

Let's Talk About NatsuMikan: The Anime (pt. 1)

I could go on and on about these two and I think I will, just because I don’t often see people talk about the analysis behind them. The meta I have seen about them has included a perspective that equaled the anime and the manga and I don’t think that’s an accurate way of viewing their relationship.

The anime is a different species than the manga, something that frequently happens during the adaptation from page to screen. Since they’re so different, I’ll analyze them separately.

There's going to be many parts to this so I'll keep a table of contents right here so people can more easily navigate (though you can also read through the "let's talk about natsumikan: the anime" tag on my blog):

Anime Analysis

Part 1: Exposition & Episode 7

Part 2: Episodes 8, 9, 10, & 11

Part 3: Episodes 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, & 17

Part 4: Episodes 18 & 19

Part 5: Episodes 20, 21, & 22

Part 6: Episodes 23, 24, 25, & 26 & Conclusion

The anime makes changes, as anime adaptations often do. The most outstanding changes are appearance related, as Natsume now has brown eyes instead of red, in addition to other characters who have hue-shifted eyes and hair. But there are also story changes, and I’ll be focusing on the changes that occur, specifically in regards to Natsume and Mikan and their relationship.

For one, their relationship starts evolving much earlier in the anime. I think it’s pretty undeniable that in the anime, Natsume started liking Mikan at the end of the dodgeball game. That scene never happened in the manga, but in the anime, it’s a crucial step in making sure nothing seems too sudden or forced.

The anime is 26 episodes long. If Natsume only starts liking Mikan after she saves him during the Reo Arc, then we’re already halfway through the show when positive feelings between the two appear. On the other hand, the feelings develop more slowly in the manga because there’s more time to properly develop the relationship in a more drawn out way.

My analysis will start with the anime, because it’s shorter and easier to discuss.

Exposition

It’s impossible to say that the anime was completely loyal to the manga. It very frequently couldn’t be, because it needed to fill in time in episodes or give closure early before the manga even addressed it (Natsume’s backstory in the anime, for instance, is vaguely referred to and implies deviation from the manga).

The most obvious difference between the manga and the anime from the get-go is visual. Not only do they have differing art styles (I don’t dislike the anime style but Higuchi Tachibana’s art style is so distinct and unmistakable while the anime’s isn’t so unique), but the setting is also different.

While the manga started in the depth of winter, the anime starts off in summer/fall. It always struck me as odd that while the first page of the manga has Mikan running after Hotaru in full winter-wear, the anime starts off warm and idyllic. You could almost think of that as a general warning for the difference between the anime and the manga. After all, while the anime has a reputation for being a cutesy and upbeat story about friendship and magical powers, the manga is much darker and discusses many morbid and depressing themes that can and WILL fuck you up. Warm vs. cold seems like an accurate difference, though I don’t think that was intentional.

We see way more of the village life in the anime, including Mikan’s efforts to keep the school from closing. This is a welcome change because Mikan’s passion to keep the school open is nothing compared to her friendship with Hotaru, and even after the school is saved, she runs away to see her friend, even if it means she goes to another school. The manga doesn’t imply that Mikan knew already about the school’s fate, and since she is always so preoccupied with Hotaru anyway, we don’t really get the impression that she cares very much. To Anime!Mikan, Hotaru is more important than saving the school, something she was so passionate about she rallied to get signatures. It’s an extra scene to prove just how much Hotaru matters to Mikan, and to show even more how selfless Hotaru was to go to Alice Academy, since she knew how much the school mattered to Mikan.

“Sign my petition to get a Gakuen Alice anime reboot!!!”

My boy Natsume is only introduced properly in the second episode, when we actually see his face and he speaks. His appearance is different from the manga’s too. I’m not sure if this was to appeal to a younger audience or what, but Natsume’s eyes are changed to brown instead of their iconic red, something that was always my biggest peeve about the anime adaptation. His hair is also somewhat purplish instead of entirely grey/black and, although this does bother me a lot less than the eyes, I wonder why they made this change when other characters have black hair. It might have been to differentiate him from Hotaru, another main character with black hair, though I’ve never had issue in the manga telling them apart.

His first interaction with Mikan is a lot more pleasant in the anime than in the manga, although that’s not really saying anything. Mikan’s skirt simply falls off and Natsume draws attention to it, rather than the unpleasant events that took place in the manga. This different event makes it a lot easier to support a relationship between the two of them right off the bat. They are still antagonistic but it’s not as terrible as it is in the manga. This makes it easier to establish romantic feelings earlier on, and might have been changed in order to achieve just that, or possibly also to appeal to a younger audience. Maybe both? Who knows.

“You can’t sit with us!”

With Natsume presented the way he is in the anime, it’s easier to make the claim that he’s simply a good guy who acts the way he does to protect people. And it’s true! He is! But he is also so much more. In the manga, he’s a more complicated character. Although he is a good person, he still requires character development, which is something he does go through, and something I’ll talk about more in his meta analysis later.

Most of the events at the beginning of the anime parallel the events of the manga. Mikan goes to Alice Academy at the same time of year, Natsume shows up with an explosion, Mikan has to go through the Northern Woods, she discovers her powers in her fight with Natsume, etc. Some of the continuation from episode to episode is different than the transitions between chapter to chapter, there’s extra scenes inserted to fill up time, and some of the exposition seems strangely presented (in the anime, Mikan finds out more about the school when she finds Narumi and Iinchou waiting for her at a tea party, which is…. Super weird…), but all in all the information and events are mainly the same. The big differences start with the dodgeball episode.

“Look how happy she is. Makes me wanna barf.”

Episode 7 vs. Chapter 9

I love the dodgeball episode. I feel like for the most part, the anime does deviation from the manga pretty well. With the last arc as an exception, I generally enjoy their changes and additions to the plot. The anime has to be different, has to progress at a different pace, has to introduce topics at different times. They have an episode to fill, and less time to build relationships. Natsume and Mikan are both different characters in the anime but it’s very subtle and has to happen due to the fact that the anime is shorter and seems more designed for younger audiences, in addition to wrapping up before the manga could explore more of the story.

Anyway, let’s talk about the dodgeball episode. AGAIN THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN IN THE MANGA THE SAME WAY so when discussing NatsuMikan as a concept, the anime events cannot be treated the same as the manga events. A lot of people maybe forget that the manga is very different than the anime when it comes to this episode. I see the two media conflated in plenty of fanfics, where seventeen year old NatsuMikan reflect on the dodgeball game from their youth that changed everything, and I get it because the anime version of the dodgeball game is cute! It's shippy! It's fun! But it doesn't happen in the manga the same way.

There's a similar trope with the sakura tree, which I can only remember from the anime, and yet it's such a fundamental aspect of NM fanfic it might as well have played a vital role in both anime and manga. Nothing wrong with any of this, of course. I'm just making it clear that my analysis will cover the two media as separate for the sake of a cohesive essay. Separating them in fanfic is far less important.

This look could probably kill someone. I’m surprised Mikan is still alive, TBH.

The chapter’s focus is Mikan starting to feel more at home in Class B, making friends with her once-hostile classmates, but the episode is more preoccupied with Natsume and Mikan’s perspectives on each other. While in the manga, the game ends with a tie and Mikan accidentally hits Hotaru in the face with the ball, the anime draws out the game to fill an episode and to introduce an evolution in the way Natsume sees Mikan. The first part of the anime episode is Mikan introducing her friends to her new senpai, Tsubasa. After she invites her friends, we see Natsume glowering at her and promptly ditching the next class, saying to Ruka that he can’t stand being in the same class as her. This addition to the plot already foreshadows that their relationship will change in some way by the end of the episode.

Tsubasa tells a frustrated Mikan that if she wants Natsume to be less unpleasant, he’d need to release some of his toxic energy. Thus, the sporty Mikan introduces the concept of dodgeball to the unwelcoming class. When they finally agree, Natsume gives one condition: that they play with the notorious Alice Ball, which is powered by the thrower’s alice (a detail absent from the manga). This Alice Ball is particularly terrifying with the threat of Natsume’s dangerous fire alice. Mikan also needs to get more people on her team, another aspect absent from the manga. While in the manga, Mikan only had her few friends on her team (including a wandering Ruka) and this ended up playing to her advantage, the anime has a humorous plot of Mikan tracking players down for her team, including a fake mustache she makes with her pigtails (she’s so cute, I love her), paying Hotaru to be on her team, and blackmailing Ruka to participate. This was mainly to fill time, but it makes the dodgeball game more important as well.

In the manga, we don’t see how the game ends, just that the teams tied and that everyone in class is having fun and bonding. In the anime, more emphasis is put on the “Mikan vs. Natsume” aspect, so a tie like the manga’s would be anticlimactic. Thus, the anime concludes the dodgeball game with Mikan and Natsume being the only kids left on the court, and Natsume not using his alice when he throws the Alice Ball. Even Hotaru leaving the game is something she does out of boredom instead of injury, further separating the other characters from the plot. It’s about Natsume and Mikan, and everyone else is mostly a side character. (Though Ruka also plays a vital role to this episode AND chapter, and it’s at this point that I think he started developing real feelings for Mikan as well. So when it comes to the anime, he and Natsume fall for Mikan around the same time, but in the manga, Ruka likes her first and the “he liked her first” argument for Natsume vanishes, though he never had that “advantage” to begin with.)

“Thank you!”

Natsume wins (something that shocked me at twelve years old) and is ready to walk away with his handy “tch” and all but Mikan thanks him for not using his alice and he goes off on her, demanding to know why she’s still smiling despite her loss. She says she’s happy that he had fun and was involved with the rest of class for once, and that in a way that means she wins. For Anime!Natsumikan, this is it. This is the turning point. “I just wanted you to be happy and have fun,” is what Mikan might as well be saying. “Really, this was all for you!” It’s sweet and it’s thoughtful and I don’t think Natsume ever imagined he’d be on the receiving end of her kindness, especially after all their beef. Manga!Mikan would probably not say these things to him, even if she meant them, for the sole reason that Mikan is stubborn and holds onto her pride, especially when it comes to her early relationship with Natsume, but Anime!Mikan is much more forgiving and much more willing to extend an olive branch, like in the dance episode. In any case, Natsume starts falling right then, and it’s obvious too, because he is pissed, and even more angry because he’s not even mad at her. He’s angry with himself for his change of opinion. This is the girl he was fully content to hate forever and yet here he was, starting to like her. Not ideal.

This scene, something so crucial to the development of Anime!Natsumikan, is completely absent from the manga. In the manga, Natsume still dislikes her by the end of the game although he does have fun.

He's not angry, just disappointed. In himself.

I’m not going to say one is better when it comes to starting up NatsuMikan because they’re very different creatures and I actually thoroughly enjoy both.

Anyway, the NatsuMikan after episode 7 is almost the same as in the manga, but the events carry a different weight since we know Natsume likes Mikan now (even if he would never admit it).

Summary

I hope this first part was interesting, and that it introduced the idea of Anime!NatsuMikan as being a little different from the manga's version. Yes, it is more or less the same story, but with so many thematic and plot changes, they take a different form as well, in a perhaps more subtle way, kind of like a slightly canon divergent fanfic. Fanfic where Natsume starts liking Mikan a bit earlier on in the story.

Next Part ->

[kingkeerys]

the art of chasing ♔ billy hargrove [four]

concept: steve has a female best friend and billy has taken it upon himself to flirt with her just to piss steve off. that’s it. that’s the plot. [vol. 4]

a/n: so this part ended up being longer than i expected so i’m splitting it in half. the second part should be out sometime tonight! enjoy xoxo

if you really wanna know what i want in a guy,

well i’m lookin’ for a dream on a mean machine

with hell in his eyes.

#5

Apparently Steve’s confrontation with Nancy didn’t go anywhere.

Annie got through all of her homework and even her chores before he called her. By that point it was too late to go to the movies anyway, but Annie hadn’t even been concerned about that. When Steve finally got around to calling her he sounded preoccupied and distracted. Not unlike him as of late, but it didn’t make much sense considering he hadn’t even talked with Nancy in the first place.

“How’d it go?” she had asked, clutching the landline between her ear and shoulder as she helped clear the table from dinner.

“What?” Steve had replied, like he’d been spacing out.

“With Nancy,” she’d clarified.

“Oh,” he’d laughed and even that had sounded off. “It didn’t, actually. She wasn’t home.”

“Oh,” Annie had frowned. So one of her theories had played out after all – Nancy wasn’t home, which probably meant she was spending time with someone else. Three guesses who. “Have you been home all day?”

“Uh…” there was some shuffling on the other line. “Yeah, just trying to catch up on… homework.”

Annie’s eyebrows had arched. “Steve Harrington doing homework? Is the world ending?”

“Ha ha,” she could picture him rolling his eyes at her. “Actually, I’m – I’m beat, Ann. I think I’m gonna turn in, make it an early night.”

“Are you alright?” Annie had paused near the sink, skin wrinkled between her brows. “You sound... weird. Did something else happen while you were out?”

“What? No,” he’d laughed that weird, emotionless laugh again. “No, everything’s fine, Ann. Don’t worry about it.”

“Why do you keep saying my name like that?”

“Like what, Ann?”

“Like that,” she’d gripped the phone in her hand. “You’re acting strange. What aren’t you telling me?”

“I’m just tired,” he’d sighed, seeming exasperated but trying not to come across that way. “I’ll talk to you later, alright?”

Annie was frowning deeply.

“Okay,” she’d said hesitantly. “Talk to you tomorrow.”

The line went dead before she even had the chance to pull the phone away.

So it’d been a really weird conversation.

And she wasn’t even the slightest bit convinced that something else hadn’t gone down. She just couldn’t understand why he wasn’t telling her. It was out of character for Steve to keep things from her, not that he wasn’t entitled to a private life. He’d never led her to believe that if it was something important he wouldn’t tell her, so she figured whatever it was, it was something he just wanted to handle on his own. Or something he would tell her about in his own time.

So for the time being she let it go. She went about her nightly routine as usual, read a little bit in her bed, and then went to sleep.

The following day she got up at around nine, showered, ate breakfast, and watched a little TV with her parents. She expected to get a call from Steve around noon, as was their usual routine, to plan something to do for the day. He’d probably apologize for the phone call last night, maybe tell her what was going on, and then they’d continue on with their day as normal. Except she never got a call. Annie was a natural worrier, an irritating habit she no doubt inherited from her mother, so almost immediately she was afraid that something was wrong.

She swallowed down her concerns, choosing to tag along with her mother to the grocery store to occupy herself and they ended up running a few errands in town which thankfully took her mind off it. But when she got home and asked her father if she had any missed calls, he told her no.

It was around three in the afternoon at this point and again, Steve was entitled to a private life, but ever since the falling out with Tommy and Carol they’d spent pretty much every waking moment together outside of school. A break in the routine was off-putting to say the least because it was so abrupt. She’d expect it if he’d gotten back together with Nancy because if he wasn’t spending time with Annie he was more often than not with his girlfriend. But he wasn’t with Nancy – at least, as far as she knew.

Maybe he went back to her house and they were able to talk this time, she reasoned. It would make sense.

So she didn’t worry. Until six rolled around and by that time the sun had already set considering the time of year, leaving the sky black and the weather cool. To give herself peace of mind, Annie dialed the Harrington’s house. No answer. She slammed the phone onto the receiver with a bit more force than necessary, worrying her bottom lip.

“There a problem?” her father asked in his recliner, peering at her over his newspaper with his steaming cup of evening coffee at his side.

“Steve hasn’t called today,” she announced. He raised an eyebrow.

“Was he supposed to?”

“Well no,” she huffed through her nose. “It’s kind of this unspoken rule that he calls every day and we do something. But I haven’t heard from him at all today.”

Her father shrugged. “Maybe he’s just busy. Richard probably had him trimming the hedges again or something.”

“All day?” she asked skeptically. He shrugged again.

“They got a lot of hedges.”

“His parents are out of town,” Annie stated, derailing that theory completely.

“Again?” at her nod her father frowned and shook his head disapprovingly. “Those people. Never around long enough to see their son’s hair grow.”

“Maybe I should go over there,” Annie suggested, mostly to herself. Her father still heard her.

“I wouldn’t worry,” he tried to reassure her. “I’m sure he’s fine. The two of you ain’t gotta be attached at the hip.”

“Thanks, Dad,” she replied sarcastically. He simply smiled at her before returning to his newspaper.

She made her way into the kitchen, grabbing a tan coat with fleece interior off the holder by the door as she went. She pulled it one as she stepped into the kitchen where her mother was scrubbing dishes at the sink, red apron still tied around her neck and waist. She always forgot to take it off.

“Hey Mom, can I borrow the car?”

“Not tonight,” her mother said, voice muffled by the running water. “It’s low on gas.”

“I’m not going far,” Annie pressed. Her mother glanced at her over her shoulder.

“Do you have gas money?”

Annie’s shoulders slumped.

“No,” her mother gave her a ‘then stop asking’ look and she sighed. “What about Dad’s car?”

“It’s at the shop.”

“What?” Annie ran a tired hand down her face. “Okay fine, I guess I’ll just walk there.”

She made for the front door but her mother stopped her short.

“Wait, wait, wait – where are you planning on going at this hour?”

Annie paused at the front door. “Steve’s house. I just want to check on him and see if he’s alright.” At her mother’s unconvinced look she added for good measure, “His parents are gone. He’s all alone in that gigantic house for the second time this month.”

Her mother sighed. “Alright, be back by nine.”

Annie smiled and nodded before throwing the door open, slipping her shoes on right before closing the door behind her. The cold air bit at her cheeks and she rubbed her hands together before trekking down their pathway to the sidewalk, turning left and heading in the direction of Steve’s house.

She glanced up at the night sky as she walked, admiring the sparkling stars that hid behind the canopy of the tall forest trees. She made her way down the side of the road, keeping off the pavement in case of incoming cars.

Steve didn’t live very far from her – it was only about a five-minute drive, and twenty minutes or so of walking, but it was enough to differentiate the quality of houses between them. Steve was raised in a much wealthier family than Annie was, which was noticeable by the clothes they wore.

It never made a difference to Annie if he wore name-brand clothing because at least he didn’t act like he was better than everyone else. Somehow through his Mom and Dad’s neglectful parenting, he came out pretty level-headed. Annie was grateful for that. Staying at his house, watching movies on their large TV and raiding their pantry that was the size of her kitchen? Well, that was just a bonus.

She stepped further into the grass when she heard the guttural roar of a car getting ready to pass her. She kept on walking even as the car slowed down, its headlights illuminating her from behind and casting a shadow of her figure in the grass. Hairs on the back of her neck stood on end and she tensed, her stride quicker now that she realized someone was actually pulling up to her. Was she going to be kidnapped? Was she going to be Will Byers all over again, disappearing into the forest for days with no trace?

“Hey!” someone shouted from inside the car. Annie halted immediately. She recognized that voice. She turned slowly, blinking through the blinding headlights as the car finally stopped next to her. She bent down to squint through the open passenger window. “The hell are you doing out here?”

Billy Hargrove was leaning forward on his console and she saw her reflection in his sunglasses.

Instead of answering his question she found herself asking one in return. “Why are you wearing sunglasses if it’s nighttime?”

She couldn’t be sure but the way his lips thinned suggested he rolled his eyes at her.

“Have you seen Max?” he then asked. Apparently they were playing a game of twenty questions.

“Who?”

“Max. Red hair, skateboard, annoying as hell. Ring a bell?”

She did sound familiar. If Annie was correct, Max was Billy’s younger sister – though they didn’t look anything alike, whatever that was about – that she saw riding with him to school a few times. He never got along with her which Annie couldn’t understand. From what she saw the girl seemed very sweet. Then again, this was Billy she was talking about, who didn’t seem to get along with anyone respectable.

“No I haven’t,” Annie said, wrapping her arms around her chest. “Is she missing?”

“Snuck out,” Billy said, his jaw clenching.

“I hope you find her,” Annie offered a careful smile to which Billy ignored. “Have you seen Steve?”

“No,” Billy replied, as if insulted with the prospect. “Why, you forget to put a leash on him?”

Annie sighed in irritation. “It’s not like that, okay? I just haven’t heard from him at all today. I was thinking about heading over to his house, or maybe Nancy’s to see if he’s there,” she added as a last minute afterthought.

“Oh,” a slow smirk curved up his lips. “Think he and Wheeler are getting frisky?”

Annie rolled her eyes. “I don’t care, I just want to make sure he’s alright.”

“You know, Max hangs around those little shits he babysits,” Billy noted and Annie chose not to comment on the derogatory remark. “One of ‘em is Wheeler’s brother, right?”

It took Annie a second to connect the dots. “You think maybe she’s at the Wheelers’ place?”

Billy didn’t directly respond to that. “You know where they live?”

Annie’s brows wrinkled before she pointed down the road. “Yeah, on the cut-off down there at the right. First street on your left, they’re the two-story house at the bottom of the hill.”

Billy grinned and gave her a mock salute. “Thanks, sweetheart.”

He revved the engine but before he could take off Annie quickly stepped forward and gripped the base of the passenger window.

“Wait!” at Billy’s slow glance in her direction she quickly asked, “Can I tag along with you?”

Billy’s face remained impassive. “Um, no.”

“What, why?” Annie balked before waving her arms. “I don’t have a car and it’s freezing out here!”

“Sounds like a personal problem.”

“It’s only a couple blocks away,” Annie pressed. When Billy made no indication of replying, she bit the inside of her cheek. “Please?”

“What’s in it for me?”

Annie’s mouth opened and closed. “The warm reminder that you’ve done a good deed for someone?”

“Pass,” he denied. Annie groaned and tilted her head back, the grating sound of the idling engine threatening to give her a headache.

“What do you want?”

Billy shrugged with a casual grin. “Make me an offer.”

Annie mutely shook her head. She couldn’t believe she was in this situation. How was it that Billy Hargrove had suddenly materialized into her world, becoming an almost constant in her day-to-day life? What had she done to deserve that? Was it some sort of karma? Had she pissed off some higher power?

She heard a few click-clacks and then the heater inside his car whirred to life, almost immediately fogging up the windshield.

“Mmm,” he hummed, licking his teeth as he smirked over at her. “Sure is warm in here.”

Annie pursed her lips and crossed her arms over her chest again, mostly to retain the warmth in her coat. She stared at him for a few seconds in contemplation, almost immediately regretting the thought that passed through her mind.

“I’ll go to the party with you,” she finally said. Billy arched an unconvinced dark eyebrow from beneath his sunglasses. “If you take me to the Wheelers’ I’ll go to the party with you. It’s tonight, right?”

He pulled his sunglasses down the bridge of his nose, his blue eyes flashing at her. “Seriously?”

She swallowed down the urge to laugh it off and pretend like she never said anything. She was too far in and she was beginning to lose feeling in her toes, even through her socks and shoes.

“Seriously.”

He grinned widely at her and pushed the sunglasses back up his nose before reaching across to unlock the passenger door.

“Get in.”