Chapter Text
It comes only a week and a half after they've moved in.
"Jonathan, mail for you!"
"What?"
"From Steve Harrington," Mom says, dropping the envelope on his lap as if it's normal.
It's a plain white envelope. The business-y kind, not fancy stationary or anything. There's some dude in old-timey football gear on the stamp, presumably named Jim Thorpe since that's what it says by his head. It says 20¢ by his feet. Steve Harrington paid twenty cents to send him a letter.
"Thanks," he says, even though Mom has already moved on into the kitchen. Jonathan does his best not to tear the paper as he peels the envelope open.
There's a single sheet of notebook paper folded neatly in thirds. Steve wrote in pencil, and there are smudges in a couple of spots where he must have erased something.
Jonathan,
Checking to see if I got the right address for you guys. Just in case, you know?
And I thought you'd want to know that even though the kids miss Will and El a lot they're getting by OK so far. Everybody is a little quieter but Mike isn't showing any signs of deppression which I know was like a legitimate concern. But you probably already hear about him from Nancy so I'm sure you already knew.
Anyways you don't have to write back if you just put a big check mark over this paper and do the "return to sender" thing or whatever that works and I'll know you got it.
Thanks,
Steve
It takes him two days to send a letter back in its own envelope, since he has to drive down to the post office and buy some stamps. Mom has her own stash, but looking at it stresses Jonathan out because there are certain ones she's saving and certain ones that are fine to use and he never knows which is which, so it's probably for the best that he just buys his own. He'll need them soon for mailing applications anyway. The old lady at the post office asks him which kind he wants, and then he has a minor crisis trying to figure out which kind is the most innocuous and appropriate for sending to your girlfriend's ex-boyfriend, because everything they have is floral or seasonal or some weird niche thing Jonathan doesn't know anything about, or they're patriotic which kind of rubs Jonathan the wrong way now that he has an adopted little sister who had her childhood intentionally stolen from her by the government.
He thinks about it for entirely too long.
"Just, uh, whatever… uh, the… It doesn't matter."
She gives him a sheet of vintage-looking portraits of people Jonathan doesn't recognize. He hopes they aren't politicians.
Steve,
I'm glad to hear Mike is doing okay. I honestly think you might see more of him than Nancy these days- she always says that she doesn't really know what's up with him and she's just kind of hoping that he's fine. As far as I know, whenever he's home, he's either holed up in the basement or in his room and he doesn't talk to Nancy much. He spends a lot of time on the phone with Will and El, so it's good to know he's still going out with the others and seeing you sometimes.
The address is correct, obviously. You left out an "L" in "Hillcrest," but it made it here fine, so who cares? All the numbers are right. Thanks for double checking. Even if nothing bad happens, I'm sure one day the kids will come knocking down your door with a road-trip in mind, and then you'll already be prepared.
Will wants you to give this drawing to the Party. I guess he doesn't want to pick favorites by sending it to one of them directly so he's making us do the work. It's actually really faithful to what the house looks like, I took a picture and if you look at them side-by-side, all of the proportions and even the framing are almost identical. El is also having me put a bracelet in here for Max. She met a group of girls at school who showed her how to make them and she's really proud, and she wants you to tell Max that she made herself one too so they match. Don't tell any of the kids, but she and Will were both extremely moody until they started at the high school, and now they're both too busy to be upset. Will's riding high on his growth spurt and the shine of being the new kid, so he's got enough pull to make sure people are nice to El even when she's being… well, El. Just tell them all that Will and El are making friends but they haven't found anyone as cool as the Party.
I'm actually starting to think that maybe everyone in Hawkins just watches too many movies or something, because people are kind of alright here. Maybe it's just because we haven't had time to earn bad reputations or find anyone's dark side, but everyone is pretty friendly. All the kids at the high school are just sort of friends with everyone else. People have their groups and all, but it doesn't really feel like there's much of a hierarchy. Some of the people I'm in AP classes with are annoying and convinced they're the next Einstein, but on the whole everybody is cool. El's had a few run-ins with bullies, but whatever story Mom told her teachers has made them really protective of her, and she's definitely not afraid to stand up for herself, so between that and Will introducing her to all the kids in his Art class that pride themselves on being unique and accepting, she's transitioning a lot more smoothly than I thought. She definitely had to cheat off of Will on her first-ever quiz. I figure she's earned that right, and she's so motivated that I'm sure she'll manage to learn it all pretty soon anyway.
Sorry to make you read all of that. Like I said, the address is good- Two L's in Hillcrest- the bracelet is for Max, and you can just toss Will's picture in the air and let the boys fight over it or whatever. Maybe give it straight to Mike if he seems really down.
Thanks,
Jonathan
It's entirely too long. Steve didn't ask for any of it. Jonathan folds it up and stuffs it in regardless, sealing the envelope with a piece of tape to make sure El's bracelet won't fall out, and puts it in the mailbox before he can think about it any more.