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First day of his senior, senior year. He sat awkwardly in the parking lot waiting, more like procrastinating going into the hell hole that was Hawkins High when a very familiar car pulled into the parking lot. Harrington graduated, what was he doing here? Steve pulled into the spot next to his, not looking at him at all, no attention given to the people around them. He put his window down and tried not to gawk at the scene in front of him, if he stayed unnoticed he could just listen. Steve Harrington got out of the car with several people, one of which was Robin the girl he remembered from the ice cream store.
“Steve, my hair won’t lay right!” The red headed girl he recognized from the ice cream store as well was panicking some.
“Hey, hey, let me look. You missed a piece, here let me fix it.” He was rapidly rebraiding a section of her hair.
“What if my shirt is lame?” A curly hair boy was asking.
“It isn’t.”
“What if it is?”
“I wouldn’t have gotten it for you if I thought it was.” Steve was reassuring the kid.
“Should I have worn makeup? Robin wore makeup.” The red head was worrying.
“You don’t need makeup.” Another boy was telling her.
“You’re dating me asshole, you have different opinions.”
“I don’t know why Robin is wearing makeup, she never does.” The curly hair boy said.
“Robin has a crush.” Steve taunted her, Robin looked annoyed.
“I do not. Maybe I wanted to dress to impress.”
“Since when do you do that?” The curly hair boy asked.
“Hey, dingus junior, shut it.”
“Okay, does everyone have everything? Bags? Notebooks?” Steve was asking as he fixed shirts.
“Yes mom, now we just wait for Nancy.” Robin stuck her tongue out at him.
“You guys are going to have a great freshman year.” Fresh meat, huh.
“There she is! Mike is with her!”
“No shit Lucas, he didn’t ride with us.”
“What if I don’t like my classes?” the curly hair boy asked, “what if I’m not good enough?”
“You will be. You always are. I promise you, it will be great.” Steve said with genuine sincerity. Damn, where was Eddie’s pep talk, this guy seemed to know these kids and encourage the hell out of them.
“Nancy!” Robin called out, waving frantically.
“Robin! Steve! Kids!”
“We aren’t kids Nancy.” The boy who rode with her said to him in a huff.
“First day of senior year guys!” Steve said to Robin and Nancy.
“New York University, here I come.” Nancy pushed her hair back some and the kids seemed to laugh.
“Okay, I have everyone’s lunch. They are labeled. You guys are going to have a great day.” Steve was passing out brown paper bags.
“Thanks” and “thank you”s were said from the group and he smiled widely.
“Wait! One last thing! Let’s get a picture!” Steve grabbed a Polaroid from his car and the group groaned. “Hey, stop bitching, at least I’m not filming the whole affair.” He got the group squeezed together and he snapped two photos. Eddie couldn’t help but smile.
“Okay, let’s go find our homerooms.” Nancy’s brother said.
“Have fun you guys! See you after school!” Eddie felt like he was watching his own kids go off to school, suddenly the curly hair boy stopped and turned around to run at Steve.
“Forgot.” The kid hugged Steve and Steve held him close, running his hand in his hair. He said something Eddie couldn’t hear before he pushed the kid to catch up with the others.
“You’ll all do great! Go show Hawkins what you’re made of!”