#dragonflyrambles

Hey guys… so… I know I haven’t been really active lately but I’m here mostly just to… say stuff I don’t even know.

This past month and a half has not been the best, my life has kinda blown up medically (nothing too serious… yet? Hopefully? Idk?), personally, emotionally, almost academically (still recovering from that scare), and it’s just… been a lot.

I’m working on it, I’m back in therapy and I’ve gone back to some hobbies to help with my mental state and I think I’m like- staring to relax a tiny little bit-

All of this to say, I don’t know when I’ll be updating any of my works aside from my Jonathan fic since that one is already finished.

To be entirely honest, I’m still writing a lot, since I’m honestly always writing and I always love writing, but I’ve been writing whatever I feel like, so I’ve got 10 more chapters written of the Arcane fic that I’ve worked on these past 2 months, I just don’t want to update until I finish all of it, I’ve been working on and off on fics that are yet to be published, I’ve been working on my original stuff, so- I love writing and I am very much still in the habit of writing anywhere between 1k to 5k everyday, it is a part of me, but I haven’t really been working on a lot of my unfinished stuff

I just want to say, I will be going back to those fics, be it if I feel the inspo or once I’m a bit more stable and I can sit down and structure them the way I want to, it’s just been hard.

So um- yeah, I’m prioritizing writing only what I want to and what I feel like day to day, lately that has mostly been the Arcane fic and some other unpublished projects and my original work, I just wanted to give that update

I might be a bit more active on my side blog, just posting random stuff and thoughts since I feel like that might help in some kind of way but I don’t think I’ll be too active here, maybe getting into my inbox ocasionally but I honestly don’t know

Might not be able to relax til my graduation in June tbh, my college is being a bitch and making it as difficult as possible to just let me finish and everything else is… not any better and most of it is unfortunately just out of my control so I’m just trying to stay above water. I’m getting there.

Honestly I think it was great, I feel like maybe they could’ve prolonged the final part a bit more but I think this entire season is meant to be left off with an uneasy/unfinished feeling so I can accept that.

Very few things that didn’t quite hit for me,

First off, I will say I’m a bit disappointed that we didn’t get to see more of Percy’s ocean powers like- this was the SEA of monsters but I’m pretty sure we only got to see him use his powers like once or twice but I’m hoping they’re saving that for s3 to especially contrast with Thalia’s lightning

BUT him getting beaten up by Luke- like yeah, I feel they’ll be dropping a bit of what makes us feel empathy for Luke in s3 and I can’t wait to see the conflict between him and Thalia

Tell my why I was at the verge of tears with Tyson?! I love him so much, they freaking nailed him oh my god-

With Chris, anyone who’s read the books knows they changed his plotline since originally, he went with Luke in book 1, got lost in the sea of monsters and went crazy, being brought back to sanity by Mr. D and then switching sides and falling for Clarisse, honestly even if this time around he only reveals his true alliance at the end, I wish they’d shown him to be a bit more conflicted in his confrontation with Clarisse, especially since I feel like she should’ve felt a bit more betrayed since we did see she had a crush on him

^ But I love the end of Clarisse’s character, getting to finish her quest and being put in charge of training their strike team, love her.

Still a bit on the fence about the change to Thalia’s fate. I think I love it on one hand cause it does show how callous the gods can be and how you can see Luke’s POV even if you disagree with how he goes about it, he is right that sometimes the gods just don’t care about their children and it will obvs give a lot more conflict to s3 not just between Thalia and Percy but also Thalia and Luke if he finds out

And my heart melted when Annabeth and Thalia hugged, I am so excited to see their dynamic, especially Thalia realizing that Annabeth isn’t a little kid anymore- ufffff

Anyway, thought it was great all in all, prob an 8/10 and I am SO THRILLED we won’t have to wait long for s3 and to see Percy massively crashing out over his great friend Annabeth

my pronouns are him/she/they😊 and If you notice my art looks similar to somebody else’s, it’s because I use ALOT of references, but I Do not trace. (Mostly the references I find on Google)

*Disclaimer*

I am very Impulsive do not take anything that comes out of my big mouth seriously. and on the contrary if you leave a message or reply and I don't respond I did see your message and I appreciate it I SWEAR I just don't know how to respond without sounding like a robot and I overthink it dramatically before eventually throwing my phone against the wall and giving up.

This post is for the other 5 henderhop shippers

I must say, I was just barely properly indoctrinated into this ship like 2 months ago and I freaking LOVE IT, not even in a ‘oh they’re what’s leftover if you ship Byler and Lumax’ nah, I ship them more than I ever shipped Byler and lowkey they’re on the same level as Lumax for me

Still like the concept of Mileven, was never a fan of the execution post s3

but now, especially after the finale and just… fucking hating El’s ending I found myself thinking about properly done tragedies and had the most random fic idea I’ve ever had that I’m low-key rolling around in my head since right now I’m just writing whatever I feel like

Okay so- fic idea, post s3 in a universe where the Mind Flayer/Upside Down shit ended there, Hopper lives, the Byers don’t move away and Mileven breaks up amicably but El is still struggling and she finally gets to go to school

So- this is an idea where, whilst figuring out what she likes, El finds she loves musicals and old stories because they make her think of what makes humanity, humanity and she learns about the story of… drum roll please… Orpheus and Eurydice

Through shenanigans and other random shit, this is a universe where Hawkins High either puts on a Hadestown production or El decides she’s gonna write a fucking musical just because (it helps with her vocabulary and grammar and she loves learning about music and shit like that) and dedicates pretty much all her time to it and once everyone sees how passionate she is about it, they all help and wind up suggesting she show it to the theatre club who help her figure everything out

she spends over a year preparing this so in this world, they’re a bit closer in age to the older teens (she and the party are 15 and in their second year of HS, Eddie is still on his 3rd try, met Dustin on his 2nd try, Nancy and the others are on their final year, 18)

Dustin is Orpheus cause he is canonically a good singer and he just fits and of course he’s gonna help El with her passion project. El made puppy eyes for a split second and he was like ‘Ugh fine if you insist’ (he loves it) and El absolutely does NOT take inspiration from him to write Orpheus

El is Eurydice and she is absolutely NOT projecting like crazy (‘I was alone so long I didn’t even know that I was lonely?!’ ‘Eurydice was a hungry young girl, but she’d seen how the world was?!’ ‘I don’t wanna go back to the lonely life?!’ ‘And for a moment I forget just how dark and cold it gets?!’)

Dustin is still in Hellfire and meets Eddie, whose also in theatre cause he’s a dramatic son of a bitch and of course he plays Hades, especially when, after one of his rants, El shyly approaches him and says she would like to include themes to criticize capitalism since she has learned the best musicals include heavy themes and if he can help with some lyrics since he’s already in a band and clearly knows what he’s talking about, Eddie decides in that moment he’d die for the kid and that he has to help Dustin with his increasingly obvious crush on her (he breaks up with Suzie not long after the end of s3 due to the long distance)

just imagine Eddie Munson having the ‘I conduct the electric city!’ line? Chills. Also he lowkey blackmails corroded coffin into helping out with the instrumental even if its a completely different genre

Chrissy Cunningham who is trying something new by being in theatre after either being forced to drop cheerleading or just wanting something new/it being suggested by Miss Kelley, she lands Persephone and at first plays her sweet and kind since she’s the goddess of spring but eventually realizes this is her chance to NOT be meager and controlled; after a pep talk from Eddie and El explaining her vision, she fully embraces the chance to be chaotic and crazy

Jason and her mom lowkey think she’s been possessed on opening night because she is COMMITTED to the bit of chaotic alcoholic, dancing around and giving it her all especially in Way Down Hadestown and Our Lady of the Underground, girl is (forgive my pun) livin’ it up and Eddie is losing his mind because what do you mean he gets to play his life-long crush’s HUSBAND?!

^ they’re a mess and they fall in love and they ship Dustin and Jane to the ends of the earth and Chrissy is low-key a big sister figure to Jane

and El/Jane is giving it her everything, figuring this out because she’s also trying to figure out who she is without her powers and without Mike and she just wants to make something.

Max helps with the costumes and Will paints backdrops, Lucas helps with props and choreo, Nancy is PROMOTING like crazy, you can’t turn a single street corner in Hawkins without seeing flyers advertising the play, Jonathan helps with the promo via photos and documents the progress and is the one who introduced El to musicals in the first place. Robin is in the band but as the trombone because holy fuck the trombone in Hadestown goes crazy, Steve does maybe hair and makeup idk

Mike is so proud because El is now the storyteller and, whilst they’re on good terms it can hurt to see him so he mostly tries to let her do her thing but eventually helps a bit with lyrics, just a tiny bit and helps with giving her pep talks when she’d doubting herself

and either Steve or Mike are Hermes, Steve is outta high school so it’d be hard but maybe Dustin talks him into it because he’d be perfect or Mike because he’s already a master storyteller and knows how to draw people in (he’d need so many vocal lessons though) and that’s how he and El fully become low-key besties again because El can’t see anyone else being the one to narrate the story.

or maybe Robin could be Hermes, she’d be great at it, though she’d sob the entire way through Road to Hell reprise

And Dustin gets to spend so much time with Jane, helping her figure out what she likes along with Max, helping her study and tutoring her along with Mr. Clark and seeing the way she seems to take on a whole different level of life as she figures out the story she wants to tell and reading on how musicals are structured and just pouring her heart into it and he always had a tiny crush but now he’s falling in love and OH GOD NO

And El being so grateful because Dustin was the first to take her musical seriously and didn’t hesitate to join in and he never tells her what she should do but just lets her bounce ideas off of him and he never doubts her and while she finds herself being able to teach him about music, he teaches her about the world and anything else she’s curious about but never makes her feel dumb for not knowing things and he highlights words he thinks she might like in a dictionary and is just always there

Both of them, but mostly Dustin, freaking out when they realize that the kiss scene Jane wrote is like… for them and they have to kiss and dance together and play a beautiful couple doomed by the narrative together.

Opening night, everyone is freaking out and Hopper, who is so glad Jane found something to be passionate about but is understandably hesitant about this whole thing is sobbing so badly by the end he nearly has to be taken out via stretcher.

Everyone is devastated, Melvald’s runs out of tissues by night 2, Max low-key has a crash out because everyone who isn’t in the play only ever heard snippets and Jane told NO ONE other than the theatre club that she wasn’t changing the ending and after tearing everyone’s hearts out and stomping on them along with Dustin, they just go out got for final bows with the biggest gummiest smiles.

Dustin’s mom is kinda crying for three days straight and insists on getting pictures of Jane as well

and Jane is so proud to have something that is hers and that she created and she gets to come into her own over the course of planning and practicing and everything and UGH-

I am consumed by the idea of this fic

Henderhop, Hellcheer, Hadestown, all the great Hs with a good helping of platonic Elmax, platonic Mileven, Dustin freaking out over what mike will think, Steve and Eddie giving Dustin horrible advice. Nancy giving him good advice, Chrissy and Jonathan being Jane’s big siblings, Will being her twin and absolutely NOT sobbing everytime he gets to hear a new snippet (he mgiht be the only one who gets to listen to whole songs before the play comes out)

yeah… might do it… who knows

if conformitygate isn’t real I’ll do it (so that’s an 85% chance that I will)

I was also jumping around my room during the whole Guinea pig scene THEY FUCKING NAILED IT, the guinea pig was giving Percy so much?!!?!?! The ‘take a seat lad’ subtitles for the pirate guinea pig?!? ‘Percy-pig’ I cackled, the little gasp before the scene cut?! Percy-pig was ACTING, I could hear the internal ‘ANNABETH!!!!’ While it was clawing at the cage

Freaking Percy-pig keeping his powers?! Hilarious

also Blackbeard telling Percy to ‘take his share’ and giving him a fucking celery stick was the Cherry on top. I was very excited to see how they were gonna do that whole thing, 10/10, no notes

unironically one of the best moments in the show so far

also really liked this interpretation of Circe and I died during the siren scene, I was one of those people who has complete faith in Annabeth and I was like ‘oh she managed to kill the sirens? Fucking ey, kinda weird Percy hasn’t made it to her yet though’ jumped outta my skin at the fake out.

So a fun fact about s4 that i remembered today cause I was re-reading a part of it (it’s a long ass rewrite, I don’t always remember everything about it) and I found myself reminiscing on one of my OG ideas for s4

In the first plot grid for s4 I had a plan to use the Nebula + Aisha revenge fairy arc in the rewrite, just in a diferent way

I was never going to kill Nabu, but one possibility was to have him in a coma for a while before waking up with the curse he has in s5

in that version ^ there was going to be a revenge plot and a plan to hunt down the Wizards but, instead of it just being Aisha, it was going to tear the Winx clean in half, with Musa, Flora, Riven, Brandon and Sky joining Aisha’s quest for revenge.

Musa cause she’s done seeing friends be hurt and ‘I already took one life, this one I actually want to take.’

Riven and Brandon both out of loyalty and a sense of protectiveness and embracing their roles of protectors in a dark way

and THEN, it was either gonna be Stella and Helia OR Sky and Flora to join

Flora low-key the culmination of her wilting powers + Sky culmination of him being done with everything; this would’ve been another moment of them healing their relationship

OR

Stella again, out of being done with seeing people she loves get hurt and feeling responsible for it, similar reasons for Helia + letting his anger take over

Would’ve been a lot of angst for the couples minus Tecna and Timmy who are firmly in the ‘let’s not go off the deep end’ side and Rivusa who are firmly in the ‘let’s dive off the deep end and kill these bitches’ side also for the besties and just everyone

in the end I decided against it both because I spent so much time on the Arc fairies and on the individual villains for each of the girls and also because, since the entirety of s4 was meant to be for healing, I felt like that’d just be undoing a lot of that.

This is just to kinda experiment and see what yall think

This would be an El-centric fic with a very heavy dose of Henderhop because I love them, also platonic Elmax, Wondertwins and Lucas-El and Elmike and just the entire party cause I adore those pairings as well

In this fic, Jane discovers herself through the power of musicals and decides this time she wants to create smth of her own, and wounds up writing a musical (Hadestown) based on her fave myth.

Post s3, upside down stuff ended there, Hopper survived, Byers don’t move away

Jane is Eurydice, Dustin is Orpheus, Eddie is Hades, Chrissy is Persephone and so on

Let me know what you think!!!

A few snippets from the first 4 chapters of Musicals, Eggos and Glitter Gel Pens; The Trifecta to Self-Discovery

El sat in bed, leaning against the wall, eyes drilling into the teddy bear in front of her.

She starred and starred and starred.

She willed it to move, to float, to jerk.

Anything.

But yet again… where once she’d felt the tug of her powers there was nothing.

Not even a spark.

She groaned in frustration, snatching up the teddy and throwing it against the door right as it opened, getting Mike in the chest.

“Oh- hey-”

“Sorry.” El apologized, sighing as she went to cover her face.

“…still nothing?” He asked gently, going to close the door behind him, leaving it slightly ajar, “They’ll come back, don’t worry.” He tried to reassure her, going to sit across from her.

She watched him.

She watched him for a long minute, inspecting him.

He’d changed since she’d first met him.

They both had.

He’d lost most of his baby fat and had shot up in height and his hair seemed on the verge of becoming curlier. His arms and legs were slightly awkwardly long, like his body was still growing into itself and he seemed to hesitate more.

Especially with her.

“Mike?”

“Yeah?”

She watched him.

And then she considered him.

She looked down at her hands, thinking… reflecting.

She liked that word. Reflecting.

She liked it when it talked about mirrors but she preferred it when it talked about sitting with one’s thoughts.

To dig around her own mind and try to figure something out.

She thought about the day and sleepover she’d spent with Max.

A certain phrase kept bouncing around in her mind.

‘You just try things on until you find something that feels like you. Not Hopper, not Mike… you.’

She thought about what he’d seen in Billy’s mind, a whole world of memories and evolution, moments and life experiences piled ceiling high that’d made him the person that he was today… the person at the hospital who’d just barely made it through surgery.

‘There’s more to life than stupid boys.’

She thought about Nancy. About how she seemed to know exactly what she wanted. How she held herself with a confidence El couldn’t quite understand. Couldn’t quite fathom.

She remembered something she’d overheard when she’d been at Joyce’s in Will’s room and Nancy had been walking out of Jonathan’s room.

It’d been right after she and Jonathan had gotten their jobs. Nancy had been gushing about all the ideas she had for articles and how she might help out with editing and how she wanted to use this chance to figure out if becoming a journalist was something she truly wanted.

She remembered Jonathan laughing and saying it never got old to see her so passionate.

Passionate.

She’d had to look up the word in the dictionary Will kept in his room for her.

That was another word she liked, in any context.

She-

“El?” Mike tilted his head gently, “You okay?”

El.

She thought about that too.

She found herself looking down at the 011 tattoo on the inside of her wrist.

Why was she still using that name?

At first, even if she hadn’t known the word for it at the time, maybe it’d felt like she was reclaiming something.

Like she could separate El from Eleven and make it hers. El was who her friends saw, not Eleven.

Eleven was the experiment. Papa’s.

But wasn’t El still an extension of that name- that number?

Jonathan had asked her once early on after her return if she’d preferred if he called her Jane.

She’d been taken aback.

Jane wasn’t hers.

Was it?

It was the name she would’ve had in another life. The name on the paper that named Hopper her guardian and father.

Another thing that’d been taken from her.

Why had she never asked for it to be used? Was she scared? Intimidated? Did she simply not see a Jane in the mirror?

“El?”

She looked at him, “Why do you still call me that?”

Mike blinked in surprise, “Call you what?”

“El.”

“Oh well… because… it’s your name?”

“It’s not a name though… it’s a number.”

Mike opened and closed his mouth, “Would you prefer me to call you something else?”

“…I don’t know.”

“Hey-”

“I don’t know… anything.”

“Hey don’t say that.” He reached for her hand, gentle as ever.

She took it, running her thumb over his knuckles.

“Max asked me… what I like… what I like to do and talk about and what I want and I realized that… I don’t know.” She forced herself to make eye contact with him, the words starting to spill out, “I don’t know what I like Mike. I don’t know what I want, or what I want to do or- or- I just- I don’t think I know who I am.”

Mike squeezed her hand, “El-”

“I don’t think I can be with you.” She said it at once, shutting her eyes but still holding on to his hand, “Not when- not when I don’t know anything about myself… not really. And I don’t… I don’t think I can find out while I’m with you.”

Her voice was becoming hoarse somehow, a knot forming in her throat.

“…El… I- I’m sorry-”

She shook her head, “No you… you’ve helped me so much Mike. You… you gave me the first safe space I ever knew… and you’ve been an amazing friend but… I-”

“I haven’t been the best boyfriend.” Mike finished in a whisper, pressing his lips together, “I’m sorry El, I just- I don’t know I guess… maybe I… maybe I just really wanted you to need me…”

El sighed heavily, “I did need you. But now… Mike I don’t think my powers are coming back… and now I… I think I have to figure out who I am without my powers… and I can’t do that with you.”

Mike nodded along, sniffing and wiping at his eyes, El could feel her own eyes filling up, “Can we… can we still be friends?”

El was crying now, “I don’t… not for now… I don’t think I could… but eventually… I think I’d really like that.”

“I’d really like that too.”

They watched each other for a moment before going to hug, El hiding her face against his neck, both crying.

They stayed like that for a while, Mike eventually pulling back first, wiping at his eyes and nose, unable to look at her as he spoke, “I… I really hope you find what you’re looking for.”

“…goodbye Mike.”

He gave her the wobbliest of smiles, squeezing her hand, “No one ever says goodbye unless they want to see you again.”

She somehow managed to half return the smile before he was standing and going to leave.

El instantly fell back on her bed, sobs wracking through her as she went to hug one of her pillows.

It only took a few seconds before Hopper was opening the door, “Whoa hey hey- what happened?” He approached hesitantly going to place a hand on her shoulder, “Did that brat say something to you?! I swear to-”

“No- no it wasn’t- like that,” she said in between sobs, “I- I- I broke up with him.”

Hopper froze, doing his mightiest effort to hide his relief, especially given said relief was mixed up with heartbreak at seeing his kid sobbing, “Oh. What… why-”

“Because-” she shrugged his hand off, going to sit up, “Because I don’t know what I like! I don’t know anything about myself! Everything I’ve done since getting out of that lab is follow your rules and be Mike’s friend and girlfriend- and I don’t- I don’t- I don’t know who I am! I don’t know anything about myself!”

Oh… oh.

Oh.

Hopper had fucked up.

Hopper had royally fucked up.

He pulled El against him, holding her as best as he could as she sobbed.

He’d been so wrapped up in keeping her safe that he hadn’t let her live even enough to figure herself out.

Twelve years in a lab being treated more as an experiment than a girl. Two years hidden away from the world, isolated with only minimal chances to get outside, to see her friends.

He sighed heavily, “I’m sorry kid. I-”

“I just- I just want to belong.” She half pleaded, voice breaking, “And I don’t- I don’t even have my powers anymore- but I’m still different.”

“Different isn’t all that bad.” He tried to offer, El just crying more.

Eventually, the kid fell asleep and Hopper paced the cabin, thinking.

On one hand, he could get her books, could try and figure out what she liked and what she might excel at from the safety of their cabin…

But it wasn’t what she wanted… and it certainly wasn’t what she needed.

When El emerged from her room for dinner, red-eyed and tired, she barely noticed Hopper’s nerves as she uncovered her dinner and started hesitantly taking tiny bites of her mashed potatoes.

“Kid, listen.” Hopper licked his lips, worry and concern and anguish mixing in his stomach but no, he had to do right by his kid, and… after nearly dying and leaving her… he especially knew, he wanted to see her get to flourish… and she wouldn’t do that if he kept her under lock and key, “How would you feel… about going to High School?”

El’s head shot up, eyes wide, “What?”

Hopper sighed, “Well… it’s been nearly a year since the whole Lab shut down, all the Russians are gone and… and I don’t think you can really figure yourself out stuck in here.”

El took a shaky tentative breath, “…really?”

“There will still be rules.” Hopper curtly said, “You are to have a comm, you will memorize the station’s number and if anything happens or you make plans, I need to know where you are. You either tell me before hand or if you can’t reach me on the comm, you call the station and tell Flo. I really do need to know where you are. Understood?”

“Yes! Yes.” El quickly agreed, straightening up, “But- you- you think I could… be on the same grade as the Party? The same classes?”

“You’ve been keeping up with your studies… you might struggle but, we can always get you a tutor. And I can have a chat with the Principal to get you in classes with the others. I start laying the groundwork for our cover story tomorrow. You lived with your mom up until last year, I didn’t know about you, after your mom passed away you moved in here, but since you’d been homeschooled your whole life I wanted to give you some time to grieve and get used to the idea of school before letting you fully get out there, you know a few kids but that’s all. I’m overprotective… and you’re going to public school for the first time ever. Logically I’m going to ask the Principal to put you in classes with the few kids you do know. You got all that?”

She nodded quickly. They’d discussed the cover story before.

“…you can go out two weeks from now once things start dying down… I can leave you in town when I go to the station but, until you actually start school just- be careful. Stay with someone from the Party or that we know at all times. Got it?”

“Yes. Got it.”

El could barely contain her smile as she went back to eating, already trying to imagine how it might go.

Hopper reached out to gently ruffle up her curls.

And…

She hesitated for a split second, “Hopper?”

“Yeah?”

“…can you start calling me Jane?”

If he was surprised by that, he didn’t show it, instead just nodding, “Sure thing.”

***

Jane carefully placed the cassette from ‘Phantom of the Opera’ into her tape deck before hitting play.

…and instantly jumped in surprise at the sound of… a conversation.

Someone selling… something.

She was instantly scrambling for her dictionary. ‘Persian’ ‘Cymbals’ ‘Vaults’.

‘Francs’ she could only assume to be some kind of money.

She was at a lost as to what ‘Vicomte de Chagny’ could possibly mean but it sounded like a… title? Name? It had to be since a voice followed, singing.

Then, talk of an accident and a chandelier that sounded important, like an introduction and-

Music seemed to implode from the tape deck, dramatic and deep and demanding attention, Jane starring for two minutes before singing returned for a moment before breaking off, voices- characters scared of… the Phantom. Then-

‘Christine Daaé could sing it sir!’

Jane mouthed the name to herself, latching on to it as she tried to understand what was going on.

And… singing… beautiful high singing unlike anything she’d ever heard.

She laid in bed, listening to the songs go by, some so perfectly woven together she could barely tell when one ended and the other began, enchanted by it all as she tried to piece together The Angel of Music and the Phantom and Christine and Raoul and the other few characters that seemed to keep popping up.

Filled to the brim with words in a way songs usually weren’t, having to roll a few around in her head before they fully made sense and she could see the story in her head. One or two complete chaos, verses and dialogue overlapping in a way that she knew she’d have to listen several times to understand what each of the characters was saying.

It was unlike anything she could’ve ever expected.

…she loved it.

***

Jane was nervous as she tired to keep the bike upright, mumbling under her breath to help herself stay calm.

‘And you’ll live as you’ve never lived before.

Softly, deftly, music shall surround you. Feel it, hear it, closing in around you.

Open your mind, let your fantasies unwind. In this darkness which you know you cannot fight.

The darkness of the music of the-’

“Tilt, tilt, tilt! Lean right! Lean right!” Lucas’s advice was no good and Jane nearly barreled on to the street, only stopped by Lucas reaching her on his own bike, grabbing the back of her seat and jumping off his bike to fully stop her, Jane nearly toppling over to the side, struggling to fully swing her leg off and ending up sprawled on the pavement.

Lucas winced and sucked in a breath as he went to stand over her, “You okay?”

“…I’m fine.” Jane groaned as she accepted his help and pulled herself back up, “This is not fair, you guys always made it look easy.”

“Yeah well, in your defense, we’ve had years of practice. Besides, you’re getting pretty good at keeping your balance now you just have to learn to…”

“Learn how to turn?”

“…yeah.”

Jane groaned as she let her head fall back, running her hands through her hair.

“Come on.” Lucas picked both bikes back up, offering her the handles, “You got this.”

Jane accepted, climbing back on and starting slow, Lucas at her side.

“What were you singing?” He asked.

“Oh uh-” she felt herself blush, “‘The Music of the Night’ from the Phantom of the Opera… it’s a musical. Jonathan lent me the cassette… I really love it.”

“That’s good. I’ll be honest, I’ve never been a big fan of musicals myself but… I guess I can kind of see the appeal.”

Jane felt a bit sad about that, but Max had already told her that friends didn’t always understand what the others liked. Like how Max didn’t fully understand D&D and how the boys didn’t get why Lucas was starting to like basketball a lot or how none of them drew like Will.

Shared interests were nice to have, but they didn’t always happen.

“I think I like singing.”

“Yeah?”

“Hm.” Jane carefully managed to make a shaky turn, Lucas staying close, ready to reach out, “I never really tried it before. But I love the songs from the ‘Phantom’, the only bad thing is that most of them are like… really hard to sing… but I try.”

“Well you have a really nice tone.”

“Really?”

“Really.” He assured her before smirking, “Though… not as nice as Dustin.” He told her before cackling.

Jane’s eyebrows shot up, “Dustin sings?”

“Does he sing?! Oh- I forgot you weren’t there- while we were running from the Mind Flayer, we heard him thorough the comms singing with Suzie the Neverending Story song- you should tell Max to watch it with you by the way- it was hilarious but- he’s actually a pretty good singer.”

Jane smiled to herself, “Do you think he’d sing something for me?”

Lucas shrugged, “He’s been shy about it- well, more like we’ve been teasing him a lot and now he’s pissy about who hears him sing. But it can’t hurt to ask. Careful, this is a slope, use the breaks just a tiny bit, keep your balance.”

Jane tensed up, forcing herself to not shut her eyes when her stomach dropped as they dipped down and-

She wobbled a bit, but she managed to stay upright, laughing.

“See?! I told you you’d get it!” Lucas cheered her on.

So of course, in her excitement she lost her balance and nearly toppled over, just barely managing to get her foot on the ground and hop until she wasn’t at risk of being crushed by her bike, still laughing.

“YES!”

“YES!” Lucas matched her enthusiasm, hopping off his own bike and high-fiving her with both hands, shaking her.

Once they’d finished celebrating, they headed back towards his house, Jane unable to not look up at Mike’s house as they passed it, wobbling slightly.

Lucas noticed, “You know… he’s alright.” He gave her an awkward smile, “I mean- he obviously misses you but…he’s alright.”

She gave him a soft smile, “I’m glad.”

“The only uh… the only thing that worries him is- he was wondering the other day if you’d be uncomfortable with all of us sitting together at lunch. If you are us two can find someplace else-”

“No! No of course not! I’m… I’m actually looking forward to having lunch with you all…”

Lucas smiled and nodded along, “Alright then, I’ll be sure to tell him.”

Jane took in the fresh air before coming to a stop.

And promptly toppling over.

***

Back at the library, Jane winced as she let the books go into the ‘drop-off’, Dustin assuring her it was fine to just let them go.

“I just feel like they might get damaged.” She told him as they ventured further in.

“It’s fine. Really Jane, I promise, everyone does it that way.”

She sighed but decided to believe him.

Her mood quickly lifted and she forgot her worries as Dustin all but dragged her excitedly to a ‘Classical Literature’ section.

“I called ahead of time to see if they had it and… here! Look.” He gestured to one of the bookshelves, Jane following his hand to find-

She gasped, carefully approaching, pulling down the book like it might disappear if she moved too quickly.

‘The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux’

“…it has a book?”

“It was a book first.” Dustin explained with a proud smile, drinking in the soft awe on Jane’s face as she inspected the cover and the summary at the back, “The musical was inspired in the book.”

Jane looked up quickly at that, “That… happens?”

“What do you mean?”

“Can you… turn a book into a musical?”

“Oh yeah, of course. A lot of times books are turned into movies or shows or musicals. They’re called ‘adaptations’ partially because it can’t even be done like… a full perfect adaptation since books are so different from a musical or a movie, some are very faithful other just use them as very loose inspiration and kinda do their own thing but yeah, it happens.”

Jane held the book to her chest with a smile before she all but skipped straight towards the ‘Mythology’ section of the library, eyes hungry and searching, she found a tiny book, almost missing it entirely about The History of a Classical Tragedy: Orpheus and his Operas, at the ‘Arts and Entertainment’ section, she found a book on the history of musicals, dragging both of them down and sitting across from Dustin on one of the tables.

She decided she’d read ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ at home. So she opened the one on history of musicals first, while Dustin opened some book about planets and telescopes.

She smiled, “There’s a difference between operas and musicals.” She said almost to herself quietly.

“Really? I didn’t know that.”

Jane straightened up, delighted at the thought of knowing something Dustin didn’t. But even beyond that, at the thought that she could teach him something.

“In operas, the singing never stops, that’s the focus. Musicals have music numbers, but they also have spoken dialogue and involve a focus on dancing and acting, not just singing. And Operas value vocal quality and music over clarity but musicals value words themselves and emphasize diction and rhyming to help the audience comprehend better.”

Dustin hummed as he nodded along, taking a pause from taking notes to give her his full attention, “That sounds interesting.”

“It is… but it makes the other thing weird though…”

“What other thing?”

She shook her head, signaling she needed to organize her thoughts as she opened the other book about Orpheus and operas.

As it turned out, the myth had been inspiring ‘adaptations’ for hundreds of years.

Since the 1600s if the book was to be believed. Ballets and operas, some focusing on Orpheus and his descent, others shifting to Eurydice and her time in the underworld, struggling to remember her lover.

Several operas over two hundred years, the latest ballet made in 1948.

There was more modern music as well, some album from 1956, a song titles Orpheus from 1970.

Stage plays based on some of the operas or poems based on the original myth, even movies, a French one in which Orpheus was a poet and Death itself a princess and-

“You look like you’re having an epiphany.” Dustin gently told her.

Jane had no idea what an ‘epiphany’ was -she’d have to check her dictionary later-, but she was absolutely sure she had indeed just had one.

She flipped the book so he could see the list, “These are all ‘adaptations’ of the myth I told you about.”

His eyebrows shot up, “Oh wow- that’s a lot.”

“Yeah… but it doesn’t make sense.”

“What doesn’t make sense?”

“…there are… I think there are mostly operas and plays mentioned… someone should make a musical about Orpheus and Eurydice. I think it’d be… a good story for a musical.”

Dustin smiled slightly at her small furrow and quiet displeasure at the fact no one had taken up the challenge.

He nudged her foot with his own under the table, “Maybe you could do it.”

Jane’s eyes widened, half jerking back in surprise, “What?”

Dustin shrugged with a smile, “Maybe you could do it.”

Jane sucked in a shaky breath, briefly enchanted by the idea before she seemed to come back into reality and look down, shrinking slightly into herself, “…I don’t know how to write a musical.”

He hated the way she sounded so small all of a sudden, so sad and unsure, quickly grasping for what to way, “Well no one does- not at first. That’s something you learn… maybe you could learn.”

“…I wouldn’t be good at it.”

“You don’t know that. And even if you weren’t- maybe you could do it for fun. A uh- a passion project!”

“Passion project?”

“Something you just do for fun, because you want to. You don’t necessarily have to be good at it and you don’t have to show it to anyone if you don’t want to it’s… it’s just something you do for yourself.”

“Something… for myself.” Jane repeated in a whisper.

She liked the idea.

The idea of creating something that belonged to her and only to her even if it wasn’t good. Even if she had no way of creating music that didn’t mean she couldn’t try to write.

She felt herself blush, going back to reading.

Dustin was a bit disappointed but didn’t push her.

His disappointed faded almost an hour later when, before leaving, Jane hurried back to the ‘Arts and Entertainment’ section, returning having left behind the history of musicals and holding a book on the structure of musicals, one on lyricism within musicals and another on the art of creating a musical.

Dustin pressed his lips together to try and hide a smile, seeing in her hunched shoulders and her quiet refusal to meet his eyes that she probably didn’t want to talk about it.

And she didn’t have to. Because if she was doing this it was to be hers. Hers and only hers.

If she eventually wanted to share Dustin would be delighted to listen, but if she didn’t, he wouldn’t ask.

They headed to the diner, this time Jane asking for some eggos, hash browns and her vanilla milkshake because she found herself needing some comfort.

She wasn’t quite sure why.

Dustin didn’t say anything, just asking for pancakes and a chocolate milkshake, Miss Collin’s gently teasing them over ordering breakfast for dinner.

Dustin ranted about stars and planets and the reflections that were at play in telescopes as they ate, making most of the conversation since Jane wasn’t talking a lot.

He was almost sure she was just thoughtful, not upset.

Jane nodded along, listening intently to his explanations and enjoying how passionate -how she loved that word- he got.

She asked a few questions eventually, about planet names and why he was reading up on telescopes and if he had any stars he liked the most.

They left and she climbed on the back of his bike as they started making their way to the police station and-

“Hey,” Dustin got a sudden idea, “is it cool if we pass by Crane’s really quick? I need more pens.”

“Crane’s is…”

“The office supply store.”

“Yeah.”

Dustin left his bike next to the entrance, going in with Jane, heading straight towards the back, purposefully passing by the journals, pretending not to notice the way she slowed down.

She suspected he’d done it on purpose. But she didn’t mind it.

Because he wasn’t pushing.

She approached the shelf filled with hardcover notebooks and slightly softer journals, looking at the choices before her.

She half pulled out a few, looking at them before pushing them back in.

Eventually, she found one, a beautiful royal purple with swirls of deep blues and pinks and splatters of silver.

She pulled it down, running hand over the cover.

They paid for her notebook and his pens and she climbed happily back on to the bike, holding on to Dustin and watching the town go by, the light of Dustin’s bike on since the sun was starting to go down.

She let her head drop back, feeling the air of the evening and the weight of some vague thing falling away.

They made it to the station, she could see Hopper already outside, smoking with Powell and Callahan.

Jane hopped down, “Thanks for the ride.”

“Sure thing. And uh- here.”

He nervously handed her something.

He must’ve paid for it when she wasn’t looking.

It was a pack of pens, a variety of colors with glitter inside. ‘Gel pens’ the packaging said.

She lit up, “Oh they’re pretty!”

“Yeah I uh- hope you like them. And um… I just wanted to say I think you could make a great writer.”

Jane slowly met his gaze, finding nothing but honesty and something that could’ve resembled awe in his eyes.

She felt herself blush, smiling slowly, “Thank you Dustin.”

He grinned, going to leave, “Good night.”

“Night.”

She allowed herself a moment to watch him pedal away before hurrying to Hopper’s side.

“You have a nice day?”

“Yes! We went to the library and then to the diner and- we made a quick stop at Crane’s because Dustin needed more pens and- and look!” She proudly showed him the gel pens.

He nodded along approvingly, “Those look cool. Come on kid, let’s go home.”

Jane waved goodbye to Powel and Callahan, all but skipped as she headed for the truck, climbing inside.

She rolled down the window and leaned her head against the frame of the car door, letting the wind hit her as they drove.

She shut her eyes and allowed her mind to run wild.

***

Jane wound up wandering the hall filled with tables promoting the different clubs and electives side by side with Will.

Truthfully, this was what she’d been most nervous about.

Any other language was a hard no. She was barely getting the hang of English, she didn’t need to confuse herself further.

Theater felt like too much even if she might like to join in later on. Sports simply didn’t interest her, not really. A/V club didn’t either and she didn’t feel like taking anything computer related.

She let Will drag her towards the ‘Arts’ section, where he was already chatting with one of the girls promoting a Visual Arts Elective and-

Her breath caught in her throat. Quietly approaching the table next to that one where-

“Hi.” She said quietly.

Robin jerked her head up from where she’d been checking something on a clipboard, eyes brightening up, giving her a big smile, “Hey Eleeeeeeee- Jane! How you doing?”

Jane smiled weakly, “I’m okay.”

“You interested in Music Class?”

Jane pressed her lips together for a moment, stepping a bit closer, “Kinda… but… I don’t know how to play anything.”

“You don’t have to. That’s what we’re here for, you can learn from scratch.”

“‘From scratch?’”

“Uh- from the ground up? You don’t have to know anything, we can teach you. Is there any instrument that you’d like to play?”

Jane felt herself blush as she looked down, “Maybe the violin? But really- the piano. I’d love to play the piano… do you think I could?”

“Totally!” Robin encouraged her easily, “Music class is an elective so you’d have it three times a week, but you can use the room any day after class for a little while if you’d like, the teacher tends to hang around an hour there after class all the time. Feel like signing up?” She finished as she offered her the clipboard.

Jane very slowly accepted the clipboard, reading the title at the top about inscription into the class.

It wasn’t a very long list of people.

She took a steadying breath before picking up the pen Robin was offering and writing down her name.

When she turned to her right, Will was watching her with a barely contained smile.

“What?”

“Nothing, it just… I’m really happy for you.”

Jane bumped her head against his shoulder, Will throwing an arm over her shoulders as they went to walk around despite having already chosen their electives.

“You could still go for theater if you wanted to.” He told her gently, “It’s an after-school club not an elective.”

Jane shook her head, “I don’t think I’m ready for that just yet.”

Will dipped his head in understanding.

They walked around the rest of the hour since they’d been given the entire period to figure out what elective they wanted.

Once they’d rejoined the others, they heard Lucas gush about the fact that he would be going to the try-outs for the basketball team and that Max had impulsively decided to join the debate team, Mike had gotten into Creative Writing and Dustin had talked his way into AP Science, had selected a Robotics elective and joined the AV club.

The last two periods went by quickly enough and, before she knew it, she and Will were meeting up with Jonathan in the parking lot since he’d offered to give her a ride to the police station.

She got off with a smile and thanking Jonathan before all but skipping her way inside.

Flo instantly gave her a warm smile, “You have a good first day sweetheart?”

“Yes. I did.”

She went deeper into the station, where Callahan, Powell and Hopper were standing around the same desk, arguing about something.

***

It only took Jane three days to realize what the Party was doing.

Every class someone different sat at her side. It didn’t take long for her to realize that they made sure whoever had the best grasp on the class was the one sitting at her right.

It made her love them just a tiny bit more than she already did.

Wednesday she was nervous as she made her way to her final class of the day.

Her first music class.

She found herself slowing down as she reached the entrance of the classroom. Nerves rolling around in her stomach and-

“Mousey?”

She turned, finding Eddie standing there, tilting his head, watching her intently, “You good?”

“Um- yeah. I just-” she cast a quick glance at the door.

“…you in music class?”

“Hm.”

“It’s a good pick. Mrs. Mathews is pretty cool, she really pushes everyone to do better, she’s a good teacher. And she always hangs out in the music room for like an hour or two after classes end, you can hangout and practice if you want.”

Jane nodded along, tense and still not approaching the door.

Eddie sighed, going to lean against the wall in front of her, “Mousey?”

“…yeah?”

“…come on.” He jerked his head towards the classroom.

Jane sighed but followed him, seeing the teacher was already inside, telling everyone to gather chairs in a circle, Jane sitting next to Eddie, catching sight of Robin behind the desk, helping the teacher with something but taking a moment to shoot her a wink.

Mrs. Mathews seemed to have a more… individual focus, sitting with each of them to ask if they knew how to play an instrument and what their goals were.

Jane left the classroom with some basic hand exercises to help with her ‘dex-te-ri-ty’ and the posture she’d need for the piano, and a recommendation to get books on music theory and to listen closely to songs she liked, since the teacher said she liked her students to develop musicality.

As she stepped out of the classroom, she was glad to find Dustin already waiting, leaning against a few lockers, “Hey, how’d it go?”

“Well. How was Robotics?”

“Good. Come on.”

They left the school, Jane hopping on the back of Dustin’s bike -she was at the verge of mastering biking around but Hopper still wasn’t entirely sure he loved the idea of it- and they made a quick stop at the library before heading for the cabin.

As she quietly read through the homework they’d just been left, Dustin ready to explain anything she asked him to, he reviewed a sheet of paper.

“What are you doing?”

“Oh I’m- I’m going over my character sheet for Hellfire.”

Jane gently offered a hand, Dustin handing it over, she read over it slowly.

There were quite a few terms from D&D she’d picked up over the past two years, she knew about ‘checks’ and ‘clerics’ and ‘paladins’ but-

“‘Bard?’”

“It’s my character’s class, a bard is a performer whose song and word have magical efficacy. The bard’s power comes from song and poetry, a bard’s magic, much like their music, comes from the heart.” Dustin explained, only half quoting.

“…the bard’s music is magic?” Jane questioned slowly.

“Pretty much. And depending on the subclass and spell selection, stuff like that, they can heal or strengthen allies or even make plants grow!”

Jane froze at that, slowly going to look at him, “…really?”

Dustin blinked once, not quite understanding the reason behind her wide eyes and why she looked like she was holding her breath, waiting for his answer, “Uhh… yeah.”

“…oh… that’s interesting. Are you… nervous about Hellfire?”

Dustin hesitated for a moment, “A bit… I just…” he looked down, going to fidget with his sleeves, “I guess I just… I want to impress the Hellfire members you know?”

Jane tilted her head, “Hm. Why wouldn’t you impress them?”

Dustin snorted self-deprecatory, “Because… I’m not exactly a very impressive person?”

“That’s not true. I think you’re very impressive.”

He looked down, blushing slightly, going to scratch the back of his neck, “Thanks Jane… but I’m afraid you’ve in the vast minority.”

He remembered the Snowball, the way his stomach had dropped and his ribcage had squeezed at his lungs at the realization that maybe it didn’t matter how hard he tried… maybe he just wasn’t meant to be someone people naturally gravitated to. That people liked for no real reason.

He tried to also remember Nancy’s encouragement but… well when one had been shunned and ridiculed their entire lives- well that kind of thing was hard to believe.

“…well then the vast majority are idiots.” Jane dead-panned.

Dustin burst out laughing, Jane joining in after a moment.

“…thank you Jane… you’re pretty impressive too you know?”

She shrugged, “Maybe before. Not really anymore… not without my powers.”

“Bullshit.” Dustin rejected passionately, “Your powers were never what made you impressive, they were a nice bonus don’t get me wrong but… they weren’t what made you amazing. I mean- look at you, you can still put the dumb Walsh brothers to shame without even trying!” She blushed, looking down bashfully and pressing her lips together, “You’re the most impressive girl I know Jane. Promise.”

“…thank you Dustin.”

An hour later, she barely had finished waving as Dustin took off into the woods before she was crashing into the door in her hurry to get to her room, snatching her journal and one of her pens from her desk before all but throwing herself on her bed, nearly bouncing off.

‘Orpheus is like a bard? Can make plants grow? His music has power?’ She wrote down, thinking.

…maybe that could be one of the reasons Eurydice fell in love with him?

And maybe… maybe he had a way of seeing Eurydice… truly seeing her.

Maybe… maybe.

Jane smiled to herself as she went to write down possible ideas.

***

Jane let Max drag her into the FamilyVideo store and-

“Whoa- what are you doing here?” Max questioned a she walked up to the counter.

“Well we couldn’t just stay jobless forever.” Steve answered dryly, “You need help?”

“Nah, we should be good.” Max turned to Jane, “Two movies each and the third we debate over?”

Jane nodded, already heading for the romance and drama section, pretending not to notice Max’s played up dismay.

She took her time inspecting the various covers and synopsis, eventually finding her three choices.

She and Max found each other a few feet in front of the counter. It was starting to become routine.

“Alright.” Max started, squaring her shoulders, “My two definitive movies are; Nightmare on Elm Street, which you can totally watch and is awesome, and Tightrope, a mystery suspense movie.”

Jane nodded, “My two definitive movies are… Sixteen Candles-”

“Again?”

She ignored that, it’d been three weeks since she’d last watched it!

“And Yentl, a musical about a woman who pretends to be a man so that she can study… religious stuff.” She didn’t fully get the synopsis but it was a musical and it seemed interesting.

Max nodded seriously, having already resigned herself to Jane’s love of musicals, “Alright… one.”

“Two.”

“Three!”

They both presented their suggestions at the same time, showing each other the covers.

“Gremlins! Chaos, comedy, fun.” Max proposed.

“The Black Cauldron! Animated, fantasy, magic.”

They entered their usual standoff.

“Gremlins combined with Elm Street will be the perfect showcase of the spectrum of horror, from serious and terrifying to dumb and hilarious.” Max offered.

“But if we watch the Black Cauldron, we will have a better um-” what was the word?, “More variety! Horror, suspense, musical, romance… and fantasy.” Jane counter-offered.

Max joked that these stand-offs were both practice for her debate team and for Jane coming up with things ‘on the fly’ and standing up for what she wanted.

“Gremlins has been recommended by… miss Erica Sinclair herself.”

Oh that was a hard one to counter… but-

“And Nancy Wheeler told me The Black Cauldron was great.”

“Damn you.” Max grinned, “Rock, paper scissors?”

Jane complied, the two girls going two out of three, Jane coming out victorious, throwing her arms up in glee.

Max groaned but smiled as they went for the counter, where Steve and Robin had just been watching amusedly.

“You two having a marathon?” Robin asked as she started checking them out.

“Yes.” Jane said proudly, “We’ve decided to have them once a month.”

It wasn’t too long before they were riding through town towards Max’s place. Jane on her bike and Max on her skateboard.

Her stepdad had gone on some trip for work and her mom didn’t mind them taking over the tv for the day since she wouldn’t be home until dark and-

“Seriously? Again?” Billy questioned from the kitchen as they arrived, already going to place the tapes on the coffee table.

Max stuck her tongue out.

“You can watch with us if you want to.” Jane offered gently.

Billy rolled his eyes, “Yeah I think I’ll pass.” He clenched his jaw to hide his wince as he reached up to get the popcorn bowl for them, leaning heavily against his cane as he went to look through their tapes, “I might pop in for a bit of Elm Street but…” he snorted, “You’re on your own for the rest, especially Sixteen Candles and… whatever Yentel is- musical?” He guessed, also aware of Jane’s taste in movies.

“Yep.”

He snorted, reaching out to gently mess with Max’s hair, “Yeah good luck with that.”

Jane let herself hear the methodic thumps of Billy’s cane as he made his way down the short hall and to his bedroom.

She sighed as she followed Max to the kitchen, “…he looks better.” She said hesitatingly.

“…yeah… he is. He’s actually walking a bit more around the house. And he wants to get back out there soon. Doing… something.”

Jane gently reached out to squeeze her hand, Max squeezing back.

Billy did come out of his room a few hours later when Max shouted that Elm Street was their next movie, settling down on the couch next to Max, offering occasional commentary and bothering Max by covering her eyes for the more ‘kinda racy’ scenes.

He didn’t poke fun at Jane when she jumped half a foot in the air after one of the scares and even stayed for the first twenty minutes of The Black Cauldorn before just shaking his head and going to head to bed.

Jane sighed as the final movie came to an end.

“Welp.” Max yawned as she stretched, “That was a pretty good run.”

“Hm.”

“You tired?”

“Hm.”

Max chuckled, and they went to her room, going to lay down after chatting some more and going through Max’s newest magazine.

***

Jane froze in the middle of English lit, head snapping to because-

“Does anyone here have an interest in mythology?” Mrs. O’Donnell asked.

She cast a quick glance to Will, who gave her an encouraging nod and she dared to let her hand shoot up.

That wasn’t something she did often.

Mrs. O’Donnell seemed pleasantly surprised, gesturing to her, “Jane? Any myth in particular you enjoy?”

“Umm… the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice?”

“Ah, yes.” O’Donnell nodded approvingly and Jane felt like beaming out of sheer happiness, “Orpheus loses his beloved wife Eurydice and descends into the Underworld with the hope he can beg Hades and Persephone to let him take her back above ground. He is given the condition of not turning around to make sure she’s coming along… he comes very close to succeeding… but his doubt wins and he turns around, dooming Eurydice to return to the Underworld for all eternity.” Mrs. O’Donnell shrugged as she went to pace by the front like she often did, “A caution tale on not being able to accept death and beyond that, a tragedy that shows that sometimes love, just isn’t enough.”

“What? No!” She sounded so insulted nearly everyone threw glances her way, Will and Max’s eyebrows shooting up, she half shrunk into her desk.

Mrs. O’Donnell’s eyes widened, taken aback by her outburst, “No? What do you mean no Miss Hopper?”

“I just- I-” she felt her cheeks burning, “I don’t think… that’s the point of the story.”

“So you have a different interpretation?”

“…yes.”

“Well do share.” She said, not unkindly, more genuinely curious.

Jane swallowed her nerves down, “Well… I don’t think…” she took a breath, “It’s just that- it isn’t about love not being enough. I don’t think that’s the point because- because… yes, it’s true that the love Orpheus and Eurydice shared couldn’t save either of them but- but it still changed things. The love Orpheus had for Eurydice pushed him to do the impossible, to go down to the Underworld and try to get her back, he sang a song out of love that was so beautiful it brought the very King of the Underworld to tears and could calm even the most monstrous of creatures to let him through. That is what their love did.”

She knew that she was ranting and far too passionate and insistent but she couldn’t help it, words spilling out of her chest before she could stop them or filter them or anything.

“And- and- Orpheus didn’t fail because love wasn’t enough, he failed because of his love, he loved Eurydice so much that he couldn’t bear the thought of it being a trick and- and- Eurydice was just the same, she loved Orpheus so much that she was able to remember him even in the Underworld where all souls loose their memories. Their myth- it’s not a tragedy because their love wasn’t enough, it’s a tragedy because- because- their love might not have saved them but it still mattered. It still changed the Underworld, it still pushed them to do the impossible and nearly succeed, it still changed things. Love matters even when it isn’t enough, even when it can’t change one’s fate it still matters that it was there!”

She broke off, looking down, her entire face burning as she registered the odd looks some of her classmates were throwing her way.

Behind her she could head the blonde- Angela snickering.

Mrs. O’Donnell just tilted her head, “I like your interpretation Miss Hopper.”

Jane tried not to shrink further into her seat, “…thank you.”

She kept her eyes firmly on her notebook for the rest of the class, barely reacting anymore at the bell screaming that it was time to head on to lunch.

She still didn’t look up as she shoved her book and notebook into her backpack, standing up at the same time as Lucas, who was watching her but before they could rush out-

“Miss Hopper. A moment?”

Jane winced, but nodded along to let the other know she’d be fine… hopefully.

Then she turned and slowly approached the teacher’s desk, biting the inside of her cheek, “…yes, Mrs. O’Donnell?”

“You seem quite passionate about that particular myth.”

“Umm… yeah, I- it’s my favorite.”

“I could tell.” She didn’t seem upset, more… amused. She dug into one of her drawers, pulling out-

Jane winced, her essays and first exam.

She wasn’t doing well in English.

“I’ve been meaning to talk to you Miss Hopper… I am aware you’ve had some… issues? With your studies?”

Jane sucked in a breath, “I uh… I fell behind on my studies when… when my mom got sick,” Mrs. O’Donnell hummed sympathetically, “And my dad did his best with homeschooling since I couldn’t… I wasn’t ready to return to school just yet but… I’m still trying to… catch up.”

Mrs. O’Donnell considered her, looking down at the big red Fs from her papers, “Have you been reading?”

“Yes. I’ve been going to the library a lot.”

“I can tell, your grammar and vocabulary have been improving a bit… but I’ll be honest…” she dug out her latest essay, the big F making Jane’s heart sink since she’d truly tried, “You need to work on your phrasing and how you make your points… however, I feel you’ve just demonstrated to me that you have the ability to dissect and understand a story, not just in whichever way it was meant to be taken but also to have your own interpretation… so I’ll tell you what.”

She picked up the dreaded red marker and-

She changed Jane’s grade, from an F to a C-, “I will put some faith in you and, if you wish to turn in an essay about your interpretation of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and why you love it and… you said your favorite book was Anne of Green Gables?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“If you turn in essays on those two and- are you reading anything right now?”

“I’m… making my way through The Phantom of the Opera?”

“The Phantom of the Opera?” Her eyebrows shot up in surprise, “That’s… quite the choice.”

“I really like the musical… so I thought I’d read the book. It’s… going a bit slow, but I like it so far.”

Mrs. O’Donnell nodded approvingly, “Well, you can chose any of those or all three to make essays on and I’ll consider it extra credit depending on how long and how well done they are, bump up your grade a bit if I like them. Yes?”

Jane nodded quickly, accepting her newly graded essay, “Yes. Thank you!”

Mrs. O’Donnell gave her a gentle smile, “I expect you to keep improving quickly Miss Hopper.”

She nodded, thanking her one more time before going to leave, barely able to contain her smile as she held her C- against her chest.

Her first grade in English that wasn’t a resounding failure.

The Party were waiting outside, instantly straightening up when she stepped out of the classroom, “Hey,” Dustin was the first to step closer, voice soft the way it was when he wanted to make sure she was comfortable, “Everything okay?”

Jane let her smile break out, “She gave me a C- on my essay instead of an F, she really liked my rant.”

Dustin smiled and sighed in relief while the others quietly cheered and whooped for her, going to make their way to the cafeteria.

Lucas threw an arm around her shoulders, “You should give rants more often Jane, I thought you were gonna catch fire!”

“Oh leave her alone,” Max half of chastised him as he wrapped his other arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer to him and tucking her under his arm, “What are the odds her favorite story was gonna get brought up in class?”

Jane barely heard them, looking down at her C-, Lucas’s arm falling away as she went to stuff it into her backpack.

“She said she might give me extra credit if I turn an essay in on why I love the myth and my interpretation of it.”

“That’s cool of her.” Dustin said, going to hold her backpack so she could more comfortable get the essay in without it crinkling up.

A snippet of the ‘Jane discovers herself and writes Hadestown whilst growing into herself. Dustin is Orpheus, Jane is Eurydice, Eddie is Hades, etc’ tentative fic.

This would be part of the first chapter and- yes, I know that Phantom of the Opera didn’t come out til 1987 but sssshhhhhhh it’s the only musical I know well from the 80s but I’ve also read the book so I trust myself with that one to be the musical that makes Jane fall in love with musicals.

Anyways, I’m considering titling the fic… Musicals, Eggos and Glitter Gel Pens; The Trifecta to Self-Discovery

Let me know what you think!

—————

Jane carefully placed the cassette from ‘Phantom of the Opera’ into her tape deck before hitting play.

…and instantly jumped in surprise at the sound of… a conversation.

Someone selling… something.

She was instantly scrambling for her dictionary. ‘Persian’ ‘Cymbals’ ‘Vaults’.

‘Francs’ she could only assume to be some kind of money.

She was at a lost as to what ‘Vicomte de Chagny’ could possibly mean but it sounded like a… title? Name? It had to be since a voice followed, singing.

Then, talk of an accident and a chandelier that sounded important, like an introduction and-

Music seemed to implode from the tape deck, dramatic and deep and demanding attention, Jane starring for two minutes before singing returned for a moment before breaking off, voices- characters scared of… the Phantom. Then-

‘Christine Daaé could sing it sir!’

Jane mouthed the name to herself, latching on to it as she tried to understand what was going on.

And… singing… beautiful high singing unlike anything she’d ever heard.

She laid in bed, listening to the songs go by, some so perfectly woven together she could barely tell when one ended and the other began, enchanted by it all as she tried to piece together The Angel of Music and the Phantom and Christine and Raoul and the other few characters that seemed to keep popping up.

Filled to the brim with words in a way songs usually weren’t, having to roll a few around in her head before they fully made sense and she could see the story in her head. One or two complete chaos, verses and dialogue overlapping in a way that she knew she’d have to listen several times to understand what each of the characters was saying.

It was unlike anything she could’ve ever expected.

…she loved it.

***

Jane followed after Dustin as he confidently guided her up the steps of the library and pushed the doors open, “Welcome to one of my favorite places in all of Hawkins.”

Jane felt herself smile as she looked around in wonder at the seemingly endless rows of bookshelves and tables and chairs and most of all…

The silence.

Not necessarily the bad kind either. Because it wasn’t void, there were pages turning and hushed whispers and chairs moving and steps.

She felt herself instantly starting to fall in love.

Dustin could see that in the wonder in her face, he guided her to the front desk, clearing his throat lightly.

“Good morning Miss Marissa, you look lovely this morning-”

“What do you want?”

Dustin winced, it was clear she still wasn’t over the ‘paddles’ incident. He couldn’t believe she was still punishing him for that when it’d been nearly a full year.

He gestured for Jane to get closer, “My friend here would like to have a library card.”

Marissa raised an eyebrow, inspecting Jane, who met her gaze, almost with steel since she didn’t like the way she’d spoken to Dustin, “Are you new in town?”

“I’ve been here a few months but… I’m just barely starting to see everything properly… I would really like to have a library card.”

The librarian’s eyes softened ever so slightly, she opened a drawer and pulled out a form, sliding it over the desk along with a pen, “Here, fill this.”

Jane took the form, trying to keep her nerves in check, filling out her name, birthday, age and residence (the direction of Hopper’s apartment which he still technically owned because that was their cover and the cabin was still very much meant to be a secret). She was a bit nervous, she’d practiced her writing a lot over the past year and she felt she could pass as someone who’d had a somewhat normal education.

When she slid the form back, the librarian didn’t seem to notice anything amiss with her handwriting, instead-

“Jane Hopper?” She questioned, raising an eyebrow.

“She’s the Chief’s daughter.” Dustin spoke up, “Used to live with her mom.”

The librarian looked from Dustin to Jane and back before raising a finger to gesture for them to wait a moment and going to make a call.

They stood awkwardly as they heard the one-sided phone call that was surely with Flo, verifying that the Chief really did have a daughter before shrugging and hitting a few keys on the computer, before telling them to wait one more time and heading for the back.

When she returned, she handed Jane a new library card with her information, Jane running a finger over her printed name ‘Jane Hopper’ she smiled before looking at the librarian, “Thank you.” She couldn’t keep the genuine gratitude from her voice.

The librarian smiled back, “You’re welcome sweetheart. It’s good to see kids so passionate about books… just don’t be like this one.” She jerked her chin towards Dustin, before he could complain or even be offended, she continued, “You can take out five at a time. Time to bring it back is usually two weeks. Do stick to the return times please Miss Hopper. Perhaps you can set a good example for your friend.”

Before Dustin could run his mouth, Jane started dragging him away by his wrist, “Thanks!” Then she lowered her voice and turned to him, “What did you do?”

“I didn’t- I-” he chuckled as he shook his head, “Make sure you return your books on time because that woman can hold a grudge.”

“Grudge?”

“Like umm… resenting something or someone for a long time, longer than usually logical. Like umm- like when Lucas didn’t talk to Mike for a week for killing him off during our winter campaign? That’s a kind of grudge. They can be petty.”

Jane hummed and nodded along, but quickly became distracted by the sheer variety.

They wandered the different aisles, Dustin letting her take it all in, only speaking when he suspected she might be getting overwhelmed.

“So… anything you have found you like so far?” He asked in a whisper.

Jane didn’t even have to consider it, “Musicals.”

“Musicals?”

“Hm. Jonathan lent me the ‘cast recording’ of ‘The Phantom of the Opera’. I loved it. And and- Hopper got Callahan to lend him his vinyl of ‘Big River’ another musical and- they’re really different but… I really love musicals.”

“You know, my mom has a copy of ‘The Sound of Music’ she swears it’s like the best musical of all times, though that one is a movie, not a cast recording. She watches it like every two weeks. I can lend it to you if you wanna see a musical movie.”

“She wouldn’t mind?”

“Jane, my mom has been dying to have anyone to talk to about that movie for ages, it’s still popular but- it came out twenty years ago, she’d love it if you watched it.”

She smiled softly, “Okay. Thank you.”

They spent a good while wandering around, eventually, Jane felt drawn to a section of ‘Mythology’ Joyce had explained what mythology was to her once, and Hopper had a single small book with a few myths.

She found in that moment that she wanted to know more, picking two books and continuing her search, Dustin gently told her he’d called Mr. Clark and had a vague idea of what they’d be studying in their freshman year so she took a history and a science book he pointed out and finally, a book of short sci-fi stories that Dustin said he liked.

Dustin himself picked up books on rare bird species, sci-fi stories and engineering.

Jane used her library card for the very first time, tried not to seem too fascinated by the process of checking out books and practically skipped out, holding her books to her chest.

Maybe next time they could stay and just read a while in the library. But Dustin had promised her the milkshakes the boys were always raving about and that she hadn’t gotten to try so far.

So Dustin put away Jane’s books in his backpack, placed his own books into the basket at the front of his bike, placing his backpack on top and Jane got on behind him, holding on to his shoulders.

“Have you considered asking Hopper for a bike?” He asked as they rode.

“Umm… about that… well I kinda-” Jane felt herself blush, “Lucas promised me he’d teach me how to ride a bike since Erica agreed to lend me hers, I’ll ask him after that.”

“Wait- I thought Mike taught you how to ride a bike.”

She felt her blush deepened, “I might’ve used my powers to keep myself from falling.”

Dustin barked out a laugh, shaking his head, “Who knew you were so corrupt?”

“Leave me alone! It was scary!” She hid her face against his shoulder for a moment. “And- and I didn’t want to disappoint Mike.”

“…well I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it in no time. Especially with Lucas helping you out. He’s always been the fastest.”

“…I really hope you’re right.”

Jane let her head lean against his shoulder as she let herself watch the town go by.

She’d watched from the passenger seat of Hopper’s truck but this was different. She liked the wind on her face and the fact that it was slow enough for her to make out more details.

She loved it.

Eventually, they made it to the diner with scrapped light blue paint Will had described a few times.

She swung down and tilted her head in inspection while Dustin left his bike, hurrying to hold the door open for her, they entered and Jane took in the scenery, there were only a few cushions- booths, she found the word from one of her romance shows- were taken, Dustin following her and letting her choose where to sit, leaving his backpack to the side.

In an instant, an old waitress with a warm smile approached, handing them each a menu, Jane’s eyes widening as she took it.

“Well good evening Dustin, how are you doing sweetheart? We missed you around here while you were at camp.”

“I’m doing well Miss Collins, thank you very much. Ready to enjoy the last month of summer.”

“I know you have your gadgets but spend as much time outside as you can, does wonders for the youth. And who might this lovely young lady be? I don’t believe I recognize you darling.”

Jane straightened up, “I’m uh- I’m Jane Hopper. I recently came to town to live with my dad.”

“Oh- I didn’t know the Chief had another daughter. Well… I do see the resemblance.” She turned to Dustin, winking before turning to Jane again, “This one’s a catch, best not let him go.”

“Oh no- we-” he felt himself blush, “we’re friends.”

“Yeah, Dustin and the boys have told me a lot about the milkshakes here.” Jane felt she was missing something, not quite understanding why Dustin seemed flustered.

What did it mean to be called ‘a catch’? She filed it away in her mind to ask Hopper later since Dustin suddenly seemed nervous.

“Oh, well I hope we won’t disappoint. I’ll leave you for a moment to make up your mind.”

They both thanked her and Jane watched as she walked away.

“She seems nice.”

“Yeah, she’s in my mom’s knitting club, I’ve known her pretty much my whole life.”

Jane slowly inspected the menu, mouthing a few words to herself as she read a surprisingly vast variety of options.

She bit the inside of her cheek, overwhelmed yet again.

Dustin flipped to the back of his own menu, sliding it over to Jane, “Here, these are the milkshake options; vanilla, chocolate or strawberry?”

“Uh… vanilla?” She asked, not quite confident.

“…you okay?”

Jane pressed her lips together, “It’s a lot… I know I like burgers but… I don’t know.”

Dustin considered her, “Okay um… do you want to try something new? Or you can stick to a cheeseburger and still try something new with the milkshake.”

“…I kinda wanted to try something but… I don’t know. What if I don’t like it?”

Dustin shrugged, “We can ask for a baggie to take it home and you can give it to Hopper. And you order something else.”

She shifted, clearly unsure.

“Okay, tell you what. How about, I order the cheeseburger, you order anything you feel like trying and if you don’t like it, we trade.” He offered.

She frowned, “But what if you don’t like what I ask for?”

He snorted, “That’s pretty much impossible Jane, I’ve tried pretty much everything this place has to offer. Seriously, try whatever you want.”

She considered him for a moment, waging how honest he was being before lowering her gaze again, “…how about the… turkey… club… wrap? I like the name. And we tried turkey last year and I liked it.”

“Sounds delicious.”

“…you sure?”

“Yeah. Whatever you want. And a milkshake.” He added with a raised eyebrow and a pout.

“And a milkshake.” She agreed with a smile.

She ordered hesitantly a vanilla milkshake and the wrap, Dustin requesting a strawberry milkshake and a cheeseburger.

They chatted while they waited for their food, Dustin telling her a bit more about camp and his gadgets while Jane told him about her movie marathon with Max the previous day and how the following day Lucas would be trying to teach her how to ride a bike.

How she was determined to be good at it by the time school started.

The milkshakes arrived first, Jane going to try it and-

“Oh, it’s cold! And… thick.”

“Yeah, it’s kind of like drinking ice cream. You like it?”

Jane took a few more sips, considering, “I love it.”

Dustin felt like throwing a fist in the air in victory.

Once the food arrived, Jane found the wrap to be alright, perfectly acceptable, finishing almost half of it before Dustin offered to trade, claiming he had a sudden craving for turkey, Jane agreeing and getting the final half of the burger.

Part of her easy agreement was that Dustin was asking questions about why she liked the musicals, Jane finding herself ranting about the details she’d found within the music so far in her three listens to Phantom and the two times she’d listened to Big River, forgetting herself in the explanations of her phone calls with Jonathan to learn whatever parts of the story weren’t included in the songs.

She found she loved milkshakes and considered wraps to be ‘alright’ and, after being talked into dipping one of Dustin’s fries into the milkshake, she found she liked that as well surprisingly enough and after trading milkshakes for a taste, she found she very much preferred vanilla over strawberry milkshakes.

She’d learned she loved the library and wanted to stay for longer next time and that she liked this dinner and Miss Collins who checked in twice to make sure they liked their food.

The previous day she’d found she might like mystery movies and that she didn’t love braids after Max had attempted to give her a small one.

It’d been three days and she felt she’d already gathered so many details about herself and what she liked.

But now Jane was hungry and filled to the brim with curiosity to find what else she liked and loved and she even wanted to discover what she disliked.

She told Dustin as much, who saluted her and instantly promised to accompany her to the library and for milkshakes anytime she wanted to go, that maybe they could work their way through the menu and he could keep ordering cheeseburgers so she had the freedom of getting to try new things.

By the time they’d paid the check and were heading out, Jane felt… free.

A word she’d taken a bit too long to learn and even longer to feel.