Chapter Text
Jane didn’t ask Hopper about the gay issue until a couple days later. She figured, it was some risky business, so it was better to be cautious with it, especially if there was any chance her friends could possibly be in danger. It turned out, she didn’t really have much to worry about: Jim was ready to explain whatever she asked about.
“Gay”, as he explained, was a slang word for “homosexual”, which meant people who like people of the same gender. The whole concept used to be kinda hard to understand for her in the past, but as Jane started spending more time with other kids, she slowly wrapped her head around it. So, if a boy likes other boys, he is “homosexual” (Jim said the word “gay” was a bit rude although more commonly used), and girls of the same kind are called “lesbians”. She also learned that there are people who don’t like exclusively boys or girls, but no one really talks about that except social activists maybe. And also that homosexual people suffer for that. A lot.
They didn’t watch the news, but the man made an effort to find a newspaper from several months ago. An article on page 4, barely 3 paragraphs long, said that there were marches of protest in New York, held by “homosexuals, transsexuals and lesbians”. Reaction of police. Injuries. 0 people killed.
“That’s a lie,” Hopper said. “They kill people over this all the time. Not only on protest marches.”
Jane was baffled. She knew there were kids at school who made fun of and bullied other kids, who they thought might be “gay”. It was only natural that they must’ve learned that from their parents, but she never imagined the hate, the problem to be this… Big. Actual human people were seriously being killed on a daily basis by fellow human beings for something as pure and harmless as attraction to others? This wasn’t hard for her to process, she knew that many people hated others for being different (wasn’t it just the last year when Max’s older brother tried to fight Lucas, a 13 year old, because he has different skin?), but it didn’t help. She knew now, that her friend – or, possibly, friends – could be in mortal danger and felt like she had to protect them and she had to do it without anyone outside their friend group knowing, too. For now though Jane couldn’t do much, so the best option was to wait and try to support them with everything she had, like they did with her before.
Beside the fear for her friends, though, Jane Hopper couldn’t help but feel something else after discovering that there was more than one option. The implication that anyone, any girl could like other girls, and also boys, made something click in her mind. She knew, that she won’t be able to stop seeing girls as possible love objects now, the same way it happened before, when she found out she could like boys. And that was so thrilling, so exiting to her, that she couldn’t get it out of her head for days.
The preparations for Jane’s first real birthday party certainly took a lot of time and effort. No one had any idea what birthday celebrations were like in Hawkins lab but everyone supposed that they sucked, so her friends just decided to make this one the best birthday party they could afford without drawing too much attention to the Hoppers. The original plan only included the party organizing the whole thing and Jim distracting the girl while they do it. It’s been decided that they’re gonna need too much time for that to work perfectly though, and Steve didn’t even have to be asked for help, him and Nance already had a plan B in mind. Jonathan would have to drive the kids around anyway, so now there was an entire crew. Mission: Jane Hopper’s 14th birthday.
“Okay, let’s repeat the whole thing so everyone knows what to do.” Joyce said, leaning over the table hands down on the surface. “Steve, Nancy?”
“First, we make the cake the night before; get all the candles and enough paper plates and cups for everyone, plus a spare pack.” Nancy listed, and then nodded at Steve.
“I call the cinema and make sure there are tickets left to buy in advance,” he said, reading down the list again to make sure he’s right.
“I check the gas and get all the stuff out of the trunk to fit the presents.” Jonathan chimed in. Everyone nodded.
“What about you guys?” Will’s mom eyed the group of younger kids on the other side of the table.
“We pack our presents and gather at Mike’s before 10am,” Lucas said. “After that we get into Mrs. Byers’ car and Jonathan drives us to the Hopper’s.”
“We pick her up and go to the cinema, where Steve gets our tickets. How much money do we need for food and everything? By us I mean the younglings.” Dustin seemed to be the first to actually ask this question. Somewhere in the corner of the room chief Hopper chuckled.
“What’s so funny? I want to personally invest into this party too.”
“No, it’s a valid question, kid. Why don’t you guys buy the popcorn, soda and candy by the movies?”
Dustin looked at the other party members. Mike shrugged, everyone else nodded.
“Okay.”
Joyce nodded, glad that they have come to a compromise.
“Alright. And while you are on the cinema, me and Hopper,” she turned to look at Jonathan and Nancy pointedly, “and you guys, go to their place and get it ready. What do we have?”
“Christmas lights?” Jonathan suggested.
“Good, what else?”
“We have a blank banner in the attic,” Dustin raised his hand, “should I bring it?”
“Yes, please. Can you leave it in our car before Jonathan drops you off?”
“Totally. I’ll bring some paint too, so you could actually write on it.”
“Excellent. Any ideas from you, kids?”
Mike raised his hand, holding his pointer finger up. Joyce nodded at him.
“Do you have plain lights?” he asked. Will followed him with an explanation immediately:
“Jane gets kinda nervous around bright flashing colors.”
“No problem, we have plenty of that.”
“How much food do we order?” Nancy asked, frowning a bit. Hopper decided to join in again.
“Depends on how much cake we have.”
“It’ll be around 2-3 pieces for each of us.”
“I see.” The man scratched his chin. “Well, I don’t think we’ll be able to consume more then 5 pizzas in one night, so let’s settle on that.”
“Cool.”
Once again, Joyce eyed the little crowd for anyone willing to participate. Looked like everyone knew what they had to do and was ready to proceed, so they decided Lucas will tell Max what they’ll have to do. She couldn’t make it that day due to some family event. After that, everyone said their goodbyes and left.
On 10am, October 20th, the whole party in the Byers’ car, piloted by the tired-looking but cheerful Jonathan, arrived to the Hoppers’ hidden household to start the best party of the decade for their beloved friend. Jane has never been to the movies before, so the kids picked something they knew she will enjoy. They decided to get tickets for “Back to the Future”. It was going to be very loud though, and that wasn’t good for her, so everyone made sure to get places in the very back.
The second the starting credits appeared on the big screen, Jane gasped: watching TV was a normal experience for her, but this screen was so much larger and brighter than any she has ever seen. The film started, and she got sucked right in: the colors, the music, the action, the jokes – everything about it was great. When Marty started playing his guitar on the rehearsal, Jane swore it was like an entire new universe exploded in her head. She immediately thought “Will probably has this music at home. I hope he will let me borrow it.” It was her first big movie, and though it really was little loud, she didn’t even think about that. She loved every second of it. Sometimes though, Jane would turn her head to see her friends’ reaction, too – it was important for her that all of them enjoyed this party. She was happy to find that everyone’s eyes were glued to the screen, but the biggest delight, she thought, was to see Max’s reactions. The ginger watched every characters’ move with more attention than the rest of the group. Every time Marty did a trick on his board her face would literally light up; she leaned forward, clutching her soda cup a bit tighter. “She is memorizing tricks,” Jane thought, and every time Mayfield did that, it was harder for her to look away. Max being so happy and exited filled her with some fuzzy feeling and multiplied her own happiness by hundreds.
The movie was over sooner than the kids would want it to, leaving them hanging with that promising final scene. Jane was completely mesmerized, and after they walked out of the room she could literally start screaming, but thought that if she did, she would blow up the entire building. She felt so overwhelmingly good. Of course, she never had a birthday party before (she didn’t even know she could), but she doubted anyone’s party was better than this. Ever. The parties she has seen in the movies before were nothing compared to this, in her opinion.
All the way to Jonathan’s car and back to Hoppers’ house in the woods, the whole group was yelling over each other, discussing the movie. Lucas couldn’t shut up about the Chuck Berry easter egg in the school dance episode while Jane was asking Will about the rock-n-roll music; Max and Mike argued about the events that should happen in the sequel and how the future is going to look. Meanwhile, Dustin insisted that Will looked exactly like a smaller Michal J Fox, and if he lost his bowlcut he would look like the actor’s twin in a couple years. Mike mumbled something like “I like his bowlcut”, and Jane smiled at that. She was so incredibly happy and overwhelmed with love for her friends at that moment. And the party wasn’t even close to being over yet.