BRITV A

In short: the new students at Hawkins High School are English twins who turn out to be the most ordinary nerds. Steve doesn't really care about them, but one fact causes huge problems.

Warnings: School bullying, vague narrator, non-English speaking writer, slowburn, teens, fighting, musings, 2500+ words

Chapter 1,introductory chapter

Not to say that Steve Harington hated the Barrett twins, he didn't hate much at all, he was that kind of person. Family feasts in a large circle and "conversations" with my father don't count.

Steve, mixing milk and coffee in his mug in the morning a couple of years later, thinks that Barrets always appear before trouble. There is no other explanation for why these British appeared on the doorstep of Hawkins High School in September 1983.

Gavin Barrett is a soft-bodied, broad-shouldered nerd who had a scattering of acne and post-acne above his jaw, as well as a scattering of bright freckles. He used the razor badly-there was irritation above his plump lip.The skin color is similar to check paper - semi-transparent and crystal white. Carol called his strict sweaters a cashmere horror and complained that they stank of dust, the smell of which caused her to have an allergy attack in English. "English sucker" in one word.

Georgia Barrett is round, short and insanely similar to her brother. Only behind her soft body lines was there a sharp tongue. She was just as pale as Gavin, only she always talked about it loudly with her dark lipstick. She had small, deep pimples on her forehead, which she hid with powder. Voluminous shirts under the vests, accompanied by a plaid skirt, made her look like a school librarian, Miss Grace. "Molly the Scarecrow" is named after comedy actress Molly Ringlode because of the red sheen in her curly hair.

The Barretts looked like ordinary nerds who carried a million notebooks and textbooks in their hands, because there was no room left in the leather briefcase on the shoulder strap. They ate not in the dining room, but in the hallway, placing containers of homemade food on the windowsills. How they didn't burst because of a two-liter thermos of tea will forever remain a mystery, how and where these two managed to find cigarettes as minors.

Steve didn't touch them, and he wouldn't even have worried about their existence if it hadn't been for Carol and Tommy, who got bored of pestering Jonathan Byers. Nancy often talked about Gia (short for Georgia) and how well she was versed in biology. And poor Gavin was often paired up with Steve in physical education. Anyway, Steve didn't want to know them, but it was God's own doing. In November, when the number of Gavin's footsteps exceeded fifteen, the number of offensive shouts exceeded twenty, jokes in class exceeded fifty, and Georgia was already on the Miss Single Girl Forever list, Will Byers disappeared. Jokes that his brother had killed him and the British had eaten the poor boy's leftovers were at the height of popularity. Gia pointedly printed out statistics about cannibals in the United States and Britain and posted it on a bulletin board. Gavin was one of those who volunteered to look for Will, even though he walked next to his mother. The tedium and the righteous correctness that made me sick. Tommy even once wanted to steal a pack of cigarettes from Gavin in order to hand them over to the director and discredit his "knightly" honor, but in the end he got hit in the forehead by Gavin's heavy hand. The Barretts didn't care about anything, they seemed like pitiful, but persistent cold stones. Steve then thought about the meaning of the word "prudery" - the soulless gray eyes of the twins came to mind.

It was surprising how much the Barretts were moved by Will's disappearance. They were constantly hanging around Jonathan, taking turns going into the woods to look for him, and at school meetings they sat with such mournful faces that it could be mistaken for ridicule. But Steve doubted it-it didn't fit their image. It also wasn't a completely stable statement.

Gavin was understandable, but Georgia remained a mystery. She had an incomprehensible ghostly image, and Steve, although he did not pose as Sherlock Holmes, often asked himself many questions. She published her articles in the school newspaper (when she first joined it), on bulletin boards and in lessons. She was silent in the corridors and beyond. She always looked ahead, except when she wasn't squinting at her brother, and those dark gray eyes made shiver. Gia showed her true character when Byers Sr. was caught filming a semi-naked Nancy. Tommy was dancing around Jonathan with photos, and Barrett appeared out of nowhere when she hit him on the head with her bag. Nancy was in a stupor, as were Steve and Jonathan, and Carol decided to drag her by the hair around the parking lot. Carol slammed Gia's face against the hood, shouting furiously how Barrett had fucked everyone up. Steve tried to pull his friend's girlfriend away from the Englishgirl, but Gia was not going to remain silent and responded to the offender with a kick in the stomach. The girls pulled away from each other with difficulty. Barrett's forehead was bloodshot, and a huge bruise was spreading across her pale skin. Steve was even embarrassed. The sound of the camera crashing on the asphalt pierced through, and an alarm siren began to whistle in his head.

The other events of that November did not affect the Barretts, except for the discovery of their father's slashed body at the unfortunate base where, as it turned out, he worked. Mrs. Barrett was left alone with two children in a foreign country. The corporation offered them to go back to England, Steve found them in one of the offices when he came to sign non-disclosure documents, but they refused. At that moment, Harington did not understand why, why they should stay here. The answer came much later.

The twins became completely invisible. In early December, Meryl took her children to homeschool. Steve had a strange urge to talk to them, to show them sympathy. But the thought that it would be hypocritical prevented any active actions, as well as ignorance of where they live. After the holidays, when the two returned, the desire became quite insignificant. And Harington existed in his pleasant world, reveling in his love for Nancy, doing stupid, funny things and playing with his youth.

In the summer, the Barretts left the city, returning towards the end of July. Steve found out about this when he saw Gavin and Georgia arranging goods at a local store. They looked even lower in the silly big vest. Quiet negotiations, tired confident movements.

"Some fool put a torn package of salt on a shelf with cleaning chemicals," a rounded accent with a fast tempo. Gia was standing on a stepladder, putting soda bottles on a shelf. Gavin was squatting nearby, thoughtfully arranging bottles of water.

"We don't know, maybe he wanted to poison someone."

Steve stood rooted to the spot, feeling strangely anxious. Walk over, grab a soda, and leave- the plan is simple. But Harington didn't want to just walk up to them and then leave. He walked, bouncing slightly as he walked.

"Hey!"-Steve stopped a few meters away from Gavin, not too close so as not to put pressure on the guy from above.

"Hello.." Gavin squinted up at him. Gia leaned her elbow on the railing of the stairs, looking at Harington.

"You work here, right?"

Steve wanted to hit himself.

"I don't even know... I just didn't like the way the bottles were arranged," Gia's voice dripped with sarcasm.

Steve smiled tightly, shaking his head like a dummy. Gia chuckled under her breath and turned back to the shelf. The hum of the refrigerator nearby and the annoying music in the hall were the only sounds that filled the space. The Barretts returned to their work. Steve, his eyes wide (in his mind he was banging his forehead on the nearest shelf), finally took the damned soda. He tucked the two-liter bottle under his arm and put his hand in his pocket. The bills crunched under his fingers. In a sudden, completely stupid impulse, he hands over a few bills to Gia (he felt awkward giving them to Gavin, who was sitting on the floor). From the outside, it looked like this: the king of the school, Steve Harrington, froze with his hand outstretched, in which lay brand new banknotes, practically hanging over the "English sucker" and looking with wild eyes at Gia, who had not noticed his impulse. If this were a stupid TV show, there would have been silence and then a laugh track. In reality, Gia was calmly doing her task, then turned to Steve and raised an eyebrow.

Steve didn't know what he was expecting, but not this.

"And what is that?" Gia gripped the ladder railing. The skin of her fingers was white, though her face was impenetrable.

"Well, I thought..." Steve shrugged his shoulders. "You probably need help."

The front doorbell rang, and Gavin slammed the bottle back on the shelf.

"Thank you, but you don't know how to think."

Gia climbed down from the ladder. She tugged on her vest nervously and nervously. Gavin got up after her. Steve involuntarily stepped back. Barrett's frowning, silent gaze made him feel completely uncomfortable, and the bills in his palm seemed like a boulder.

He did not offer money a second time.

Since September, everything has returned to normal. School days, parties, memorizing flashcards, and other mundane things. Steve was glad-his life had returned to a detached norm. Their relationship with Nancy flowed like a pleasant warm river. He, Steve, was so happy that he was often blind to many things. In his euphoria, he missed how Nancy was eating herself, how his little world was cracking and collapsing. The Barrettes, which looked like white torn sheets, were completely invisible under his rays of happiness. And Tommy and Carol were safely carried out "beyond the fields."

And then the end of October, which proved to be shitty, happened. Steve will start to be genuinely afraid of this time.

Nancy began to slip through her fingers. She looked like a thin, faded smoke, a cloud in the sky in late autumn that cried if it was warm. Steve didn't know what to do. He felt a fear he had never known before. Thoughts came into my head at night: "And if she leaves?". And all possible scenarios made him tense every muscle in his body, constricting with a tight pain in his chest. Wanted to run, to find a foothold. He fell asleep, woke up, and with every smile he gave Nancy, he tried to be himself again.

And Billy Hargrove ran into him with a locomotive. He shook up existence with his masculinity, his smirks and banter. Why all the new guys are trying to get into Harington's head to spoil his blood is a question that flowed down the drain with foam after playing basketball.

His whole life turned into a kaleidoscope of broken lenses of his glasses of "happiness". The glass bit into the eyelids, the eyeball, made its way like an ice floe from the fairy tale "The Snow Queen". And Steve didn't like it, but he could barely do anything sensible. And it was annoying, annoying. With Nancy, everything went down a terrible path-to hell-on Halloween night. And like a gutted fish, he filled himself with crappy booze until the victory trilled in his head. He ended up at home in a way unknown to him, and the note in his pocket did not portend rainbows and unicorns at the end of the journey at all.

Lying in bed, barely able to distinguish between the door to the closet and the door to the room, he dialed the number from a piece of paper. The phone beep was as measured and annoying as usual.

"The Barrett family, I'm listening."

Steve woke up right away from this. He sat up in bed, holding the phone tightly to his ear.

"Hello?" - an unfamiliar female voice sounded muffled from the speaker.

"Oh, yes, hello.. Uh, Mrs. Barrett, right? Can get on the phone, please..." - Steve cleared his throat. His hoarse voice barely inspired confidence. - "Please get Gavin."

" A second."

There was a rustle on the phone, Mrs. Barrett's screams, and a radio silence that sounded like the hum of a refrigerator. Steve combed his hair back three times during this time, fidgeting in place. There was nothing among the junk in his room that could hint to him what the hell was going on.

"Gavin Barrett, I'm listening."

Steve grunted to himself, poking the skin under his lip with his tongue.

"Hey, Gavin.. This is Steve. Could you..." - Steve was interrupted.

"Wait a second,"- Steve heard the rustling again. Gavin must have covered the speaker with his palm. - "GIA!"

Steve was surprised by such an emotional outburst from Gavin. For the first time in a year and a half of studying together, Harington heard Gavin Barrett speak louder than normal.

"Hello," - Gia's voice was expected, but Steve tensed up anyway. A rounded "o" and some kind of nasal in the "l".

"Uh, yeah, hi,"- Steve combed his hair back again. -"Do you need something?"

"What do you know about the national laboratory and what happened there?" - from how easily this question left Georgia's lips and flew into Steve's ear through the phone speaker, he choked on saliva.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"The National Laboratory. The events of last year. What do you know?"

"Wait, wait, wait,"- Steve got out of bed. He pulled on the wire to look out the window. The situation was becoming more and more urgent. - "I am.. I do not know what you are talking about. And you'd better stay out of it, both of you. Really, don't."

Steve tapped his fingers nervously on the window frame. The glass fogged up from his nervous breathing. There was a rustle and an unintelligible whisper in the speaker.

"Where would it be convenient for you to meet?" - Steve even took the receiver away from his ear to look at the light yellow phone with doubt. Georgia Barrett asks where they will meet. Were you sure he was just drinking yesterday?

"What?"

"Did you drop it yesterday?" - Gia was clearly not addressing Steve. - "The address. Where can we meet."

Barrett's voice was as sweet as if Harington was five years old. He grimaced, pursing his lips.

"When I said, don't get into this, did I make a grammatical mistake?"

"Counter question: what is the address?"

Steve pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers, pursing the corners of his lips upward. The Barretts were not known for their stupidity, but as usual, this is a controversial statement. In order not to regret his decision, Steve squatted down in tension.

"2530 Maple Street, do you know where it is?"

"We'll figure it out. We'll meet in one hundred and thirty minutes," beeps sounded on the phone, which marked the end of the phone conversation. It took Steve a couple of seconds to realize that one hundred and thirty seconds was an hour and a half.

Steve slapped his forehead with his pipe, thinking he was making a mistake.