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Lucas Sinclair had made the winning shot for the championship game, but none of his friends had been there. He’d won with no one watching. At least, that was what he thought until Steve Harrington tackled him in a hug from behind, and with a quick exchange with Jason Carver, Steve had dragged him outside to meet Robin Buckley, Nancy Wheeler, and Max Mayfield.
“You came,” Lucas breathed in awe at the sight of his once girlfriend stood before him. “You actually came.”
“Yeah, well, Steve can be persistent when he wants to be,” Max rolled her eyes, though a familiar smile was tugging at her lips, one Lucas hadn’t seen in months. “You did good today, Stalker.”
Lucas’ face split into a grin at the old nickname.
“I’m really, really glad you came, Max,” Lucas told her, meaning it with every fiber of his being. “Thank you for letting Steve drag you out here.”
“Yeah, well, he wouldn’t stop pestering me,” Max huffed, dropping her gaze to hide her smile.
Steve was grinning at them, Robin and Nancy too. Lucas definitely owed Steve big for this. He truly thought he would be celebrating with just the basketball team, but having them here, especially Max, was a gift he hadn’t been expecting. He accepted a proud hug from Nancy and Robin, and he let Steve shake him a bit in excitement, and Max didn’t drift away from him.
It was amazing. Beautiful, even. Lucas couldn’t see this day getting any better. Well, he could, but he was pretending not to think about the biting disappointment. Mike and Dustin were walking over, and they were clearly excited too, probably for the campaign, but they seemed to realize that they had missed something big, especially when Steve gave them the look of disappointment.
That particular look cut deep.
“So we both won, yeah?” Lucas asked, trying to ease the tension.
“You guys won?” Dustin’s eyes blew wide, a grin splitting his face. “Heck yeah!”
“Lucas made the winning shot,” Max said, drawing disbelieving looks from Mike and Dustin. “He got pulled onto the court last minute, and he scored the shot!”
Mike and Dustin were happy for him. Guilty. He could see it through their smiles, and could hear it in their apologies, but they were happy for them, and that was better than Lucas could have hoped for.
“So, are you joining the team party tonight, or can we kidnap you?” Steve inquired, and Lucas had to pause in thought.
“I have to be home at nine,” Mike was insisting to Steve.
“Lucas could celebrate with the team tonight and we could have a party when he gets back,” Dustin offered. “Which we should have done tonight. I really am sorry, Lucas.”
“I know, Dustin,” Lucas nodded to Dustin. “I should have known Eddie wouldn’t push it back.”
“We should have ditched, too,” Mike was saying. “Really. This was important to you. We should have been there.”
“We’ll be there next year,” Dustin promised.
Lucas couldn’t help but smile, knowing they would keep that promise, and feeling far lighter now than he had when he won them the game. With a bit more apologizing, quickly making plans for when Mike came back, and a bit of joking around, the group led Lucas back to the where the basketball team should have been gathered.
To their shock however, Jason Carver and Eddie Munson were in each other’s faces, and Eddie didn’t have any back up while there were three guys backing up Jason. And Chrissy Cunningham was just… standing there.
“Ah geez,” Steve rolled his eyes. “Today of all days. Wait here.”
Steve made to step forward, probably to break up the fight, but Mike suddenly grabbed Steve’s arm. Steve turned to say something, but he took one look at Mike’s face and froze.
“What’s wrong with Chrissy?” Mike questioned, his voice loud enough to carry through the echoey halls.
That did stop Jason and Eddie, both whipping to look at Chrissy who was doing a bit more than just standing there. Her eyes were… glassy. Pale, and her eye lids were jerking.
“Chrissy?” Jason questioned, moving forward to grab her by the arms. “Chrissy! Chrissy! Snap out of it!”
Chrissy did not snap out of it.
“What did you give her!?”
“I didn’t give her anything!”
They were panicking. They were all panicking. But for the odd group standing behind Steve Harrington, they were panicking a bit differently.
“She looks like Will did,” Max breathed in horror.
“Do you think she’s possessed?” Dustin squeaked.
“How do we get her out of it?” Robin questioned frantically.
Mike and Nancy looked to each other.
“Music.”
Lucas rushed forward, grabbing Jason by the shoulders. The Captain tried to lash out, but Lucas dodged, and grabbed at Jason again.
“What’s her favorite song?”
“What?”
“I don’t have time to explain!” Lucas barked out, causing everyone to startle. “What’s her favorite song!?”
“I don’t-”
“She likes Sweet Dreams !” a cheerleader called out. “Chrissy likes Sweet Dreams ! But what’s wrong with her?”
“Do you have it on tape?” Mike demanded.
“I… yeah, i have it in my bag,” the cheerleader, Deb, if Lucas recommended correctly. “Should I-?”
“YES!”
Dropping the bag to the ground, Deb began to rummage through it as Mike moved to join Lucas in instructing Jason.
“Talk to her!”
“What?!”
“Talk to her,” Mike insisted. “About anything good! Anything that made her happy! NOW!”
Deb had already pulled out the tape, was holding it out to Nancy who took it quickly.
“We don’t have a radio,” Nancy breathed in horror.
“Yes we do,” Max said, snatching the tape from Nancy, sticking it in her walkman, and rushing over to put the headphones on Chrissy. “Why aren’t you talking to her!?”
Jason looked like he was having a crisis. As if every good memory had left him and like he was so scared to think of what was going on with his girlfriend.
“Uh, hey, Chrissy!” and that was Eddie Munson who was speaking, causing everyone to look at him. “I don’t know if you still remember, but this is like, the third time we hung out.”
Nothing. Chrissy didn’t react, but Mike, Lucas, and Max were urging him to keep going.
“We hung out during that talent show, remember, in middle school, you were doing that cheer thing and you had a fight with one of the other girls,” Eddie continued.
“Tracey,” Deb spoke up. “Tracey kept calling you such stupid names. I remember that.”
“Right,” Eddie nodded. “So you stomped off and just to spite Tracey you sat down next to me as I was tuning my guitar. And I have no idea what you were thinking, but you talked to me the whole time until you had to go up on stage. Honestly, Chrissy, it was one of the best days of my life.”
“Keep talking,” Mike instructed.
“That’s all I got, man,” Eddie said, his voice cracking.
“You’re my best friend, Chrissy,” Deb was speaking. “I wouldn’t even be on the cheer squad if not for you. I was never thin enough or pretty enough, but you told me I was, and sometimes I look at you and I think about how unpretty you think you are, and I want you to know that’s not true. You’re the prettiest girl in the world, Chrissy, and I’ll remind you every day if you’d please just wake up!”
Chrissy still wasn’t waking. In fact, if anything, the situation had only gotten worse. Chrissy had started to float upwards, and people were coming down the hall, frozen in fear at the sight of a possessed Chrissy Cunningham floating in the hallway. The lights started to flicker. Everyone was panicking, they couldn’t talk to Chrissy this way.
“EVERYONE START SAYING THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT CHRISSY!”
The below came from Dustin, who was facing the gathering, horrified crowd.
“NOW!”
And Deb spoke up again, calling out her favorite memories with Chrissy. A few of the other cheerleaders were talking now, too. And there were students who had kind interaction in the hallway with Chrissy that were speaking. The basketball team was joining. Even Nancy, Steve, and Robin had a couple things to add here and there.
Chrissy’s body suddenly jerked upwards, hitting the roof.
“KEEP! GOING!”
Despite the gasps and screams of horror, there were still those who kept talking. The lights flickering was getting worse.
Her left arm snapped.
“YOU’RE NOT SCARY CHRISSY! YOU’RE AMAZING! NOW PLEASE JUST WAKE UP AND COME BACK!”
Something shifted. No one would be able to tell you what, but Eddie found himself suddenly diving forward as Chrissy let out a large, startled breath and fell to the ground. He barely managed to save her from face planting into the hard tile school floor, coiling around her to protect her from further harm. Chrissy was wailing and crying, from the pain or the trauma, none of them knew, but the Party would bet it was both.
Together, the Party all moved to surround Chrissy, trying to calm her down, get her to breathe, knowing that she’d need some serious help later, and that they would need to ask her questions about what she saw. Steve and Max were quick to set her arm, and Nany was ripping up parts of her shirt to use as a sling.
“What. Was that ?”
The Party froze in their actions, all turning to look at the crowd that had gathered. A very large crowd of students, parents, teachers, and just generally far too many people.
“Oh…” Dustin breathed dumbly. “Uh, she’s… okay now.”
“The government is going to have a field day,” Max whispered to Steve.
“You can say that again,” Steve agreed.
This was going to be quite the mess, and the Party figured the problems had only just begun.