Work Text:
The first time she ever listened to David Bowie was on a cold December day in 1984 when she and Jonathan had homework to do and they got too distracted making out. To his surprise, she ended up liking it and promised to make her more tapes with his favorite songs.
When the Byers were in the process of packing things to start a new life in California, Jonathan noticed how she kept staring at his Bowie poster hanging on the wall, without any hesitation, he pulled it out and let her keep it. Once she arrived at her bedroom, she carefully placed it on her wall as if it was something sacred.
When Nancy was pregnant, most of her female coworkers advised her to play Mozart or Beethoven, but Nancy was having none of it. She did try to play it for the baby but instead, she ended up falling asleep. She remembers one weekend when she was alone and bored so she took her walkman, put one of the Bowie tapes Jonatan made for her & gently placed the headphones on her belly. She’ll never forget how the baby instantly started kicking, almost like it was enjoying it.
It’s no surprise that little Scarlett starts dancing whenever her parents play it for her, the little toddler goes up and down as soon as she hears his voice on the radio.
For Scarlett’s 7th birthday, Nancy and Jonathan arranged the biggest surprise a girl could ever ask for. They used their mandatory Hawkins visit as an excuse to go to the Wheeler’s attic. Nancy is grateful that her mother is an organized woman and had all the posters she once had in her room, perfectly stored and in perfect condition. Once she found it, she and Jonathan shared a smile, he never intended to pass it down as an heirloom, but he imagines his daughter’s reaction as the same her mother had when he gave it to her mother back in 1985, just pure joy and happiness. He isn’t wrong, because as soon as Scarlett saw it, the girl screamed and cried happy tears and thanked them for ages.
It was on that same year, on a warm October afternoon when they go to pick up Scarlett from school (on the rare occasion where they can go together) and the girl comes out with a flyer in her hands, announcing the school’s annual Halloween costumes competition. Scarlett talks about it with such enthusiasm, they’ve only seen her that way when she’s excited about something so they ask her about her costume. She announces that she wants to dress up as Ziggy Stardust, to which they agree.
Once they’re home and Scarlett is peacefully sleeping, they get hit by the sudden realization that they don’t even know where to start.
“How are we even gonna do this?” she asks
“I don’t know Nance, to be honest, I think we just got distracted by her enthusiasm and we blindly said yes”
“I mean I thought she was gonna pick a much simpler costume like a princess or a witch or even the little red riding hood… but Ziggy Stardust…”
“Should we even be surprised? she has been listening to Bowie since she was in your belly”
“Can’t say that I am… you know what? we may not know where to start, but we will get that costume for her”
“Now you started sounding more like yourself” he jokes
“What do you mean?”
“You not having a plan kinda worried me”
“But you’re up for it?”
“Oh absolutely!! she’ll be the best Ziggy Stardust in town”
“Now you started to sound like yourself too” she jokes as she kisses him.
They spend the next two weeks going to almost every thrift shop they can find to get the clothes, Nancy manages to get El on board too and she gets a cheap orange wig they style to make it look like Bowie’s hair. Jonathan on the other hand goes to a fabric shop to get some materials for the accessories.
The day of the competition arrives and before they go to school with her, she pulls a little show singing “Starman”, Scarlett’s favorite song, Jonathan spent two entire rolls of film that night just photographing his daughter dressed up as his favorite singer. She ends up winning the competition and as a celebratory price, they get pizza.
January 2016:
Scarlett is no longer a kid, she’s a promising young woman getting her film degree at college. She had a long study session with her friends so she barely checked her phone, once she got home, she noticed her parents didn’t pay attention to her arrival which was weird considering they always greet her, instead, she found them on the couch, practically glued to the TV.
“Mom? Dad? Hello? I’m home”
“Hi sweetie,” they say in unison but still glued to the TV
“What’s going on? Did someone…” and there she sees it:
“Singer David Bowie dead at 69 years old”
She slowly sits in between her parents and feels the tears rolling down her cheeks, she also feels Nancy & Jonathan hugging her, they quietly sniffle too. The three of them are lost in words, they look at the screen, not reacting, just quietly sniffing. It’s not until Jonathan gets up to make them a cup of tea to calm each other down.
He notices right away that Scarlett is not taking this well since she immediately left to go to her room, Nancy looks at him and once the tea was ready, he arranged the mugs and they followed their daughter to her room.
They found Scarlett on her bed, facing the old poster that she got from his parents years ago, that once belonged to her father.
“Please don’t say anything, I know I look pathetic,” the girl said
“When have we ever thought of that?” Nancy asked
“Here, I made it just the way you like” he hands her a cup of tea
“Thanks…” she takes one sip
“When we saw the news, we couldn’t bear even to text you” she explains
“I wouldn’t have noticed anyway since I was at the library with Cassie and Chris and I had my phone on do not disturb”
“And to be honest… we thought that tweedle thing…”
“Twitter… dad” she chuckles
“That thing… was going to tell you”
“As I said, I barely checked my phone… I feel like… a part of my childhood died with him even though he never knew who I was… the happy dances in the living room, when we watched Labyrinth… that Halloween I asked you to dress up as Ziggy Stardust… all of that is gone” -
“Honey, it’s normal to feel that way, I mean we raised you with him!! and we made sure you’ll always get those happy memories with him….” Nancy explains
“But as long as you remember it, they’ll never be gone… besides, his legacy will live forever, think of it as if he just went to space,” he says and his daughter chuckles
“I like the way you put it like that”
“It’s the truth”
“Well, then I guess there’s nothing we can do right now…”
“There’s a tribute happening tomorrow, my boss already told me to go take pictures for the website, you wanna tag along?- he asks
“Yeah… that sounds nice” -
“Ok peanut, I’ll pick you up tomorrow… what about you Nance?”-
“My boss told me to write a story about him so I guess I’ll use my day off to finish it… I’ll let you know -
“Alright then… we’ll keep in touch…-
“Mom… Dad? -
“Yes, sweetie?…” they say at the same time
"Thank you"
"You don't have to thank us peanut, we knew how much it meant to you," he says
"I mean not only for today..." the girl says and they know exactly what she means.
The young girl hugs her parents, without too many words and they leave her alone to give her space, leaving the door slightly ajar. A few hours go by and Nancy notices that Scarlett is sleeping with her headphones on, she simply smiles and goes to the living room, where her husband is waiting for her with two glasses of wine. Together they reflect on the events of the day and how painful it must've been for their daughter, but they also reflect on what their daughter just did for them, and they come to the conclusion that they did a great job.
October 2016:
With the election just a few days away and the current political state of the country, Nancy desperately needs to get out of her office. It helps that a few seconds later, she receives a text message from her daughter:
i'm waiting for u in the lobby. coffee's on me, see u soon <3
Without any hesitation, Nancy turned off her laptop, took her things, and left. She was not ready to see what her daughter had done to her hair, the young girl had cut it into layers and dyed it from her natural light brown to a bright, almost neon orange. She remembers that Scarlett mentioned having a Halloween party later that day and she was gonna go with her friends and some boy she was seeing, they were coming over at night to go to the party.
"Who are you and what did you do to my daughter?" Nancy asks while laughing
"Do you like it? I'm channeling my inner Ziggy Stardust for today's party!!"
"I should've seen that one coming... you look absolutely stunning, I will miss your natural hair though"
"I knew you were gonna say that"
Together they go to the nearest Starbucks and Nancy let Scarlett order her favorite drink that she always forgets the name of but loves it.
"Does your dad know?"
"I texted him and he replied in all caps WOW, followed by 5 lighting emojis and 5 hearts, I take that as he liked it" they both laugh
"I'm guessing you will go as Ziggy Stardust again"
"Yup, this time we didn't have to go to every thrift shop in the city to get it done though"
"Who helped you with the costume?"
"Cassie's girlfriend... she's a fashion major and she got a ton of clothes she doesn't wear anymore. She was gonna put that on sale when I noticed it and I was willing to pay for the clothes, she just gave them to me for free"
"And I'm guessing you went to a salon... or did Cassie dye your hair on her sink?"
"I went to the salon with her, she's going as Lydia Deetz from..."
"Beetlejuice!! I know, I went to see that movie with your dad"
"Oh my god right, how could I forget you survived the 80's!!"
They finish up their drinks and head home. Once they arrive, they find Cassie and Chris helping Jonathan to set up some snacks and drinks (they had no problem with that), they were already in their costumes so Scarlett couldn't help but laugh. Cassandra and Christopher Harrington were the eldest in the Harrington family, the twins were born a month before Scarlett so they had pretty much been inseparable ever since they were toddlers. The trio did everything together, from going to the same school to the same college ad sneaking into each other houses.
Scarlett quickly gets dressed and asks Nancy if she could help her with the makeup, to which she agrees. She gets taken back to a different time and yet the same context, the major difference is that her daughter is no longer a 7-year-old, she's 22 and yet has the same innocent & authentic personality she always had.
While they were waiting on Scarlett to finish getting ready, the doorbell rang and Jonathan picks up the door. He sees this young man dressed up as Karate Kid, he looks slightly nervous but introduces himself as Harry. Jonathan lets him in and starts talking with him, he could never be the type of dad that death glares at every boy that has an intention to date his daughter, but he does make sure that no one breaks her heart. Harry seems to be a good guy, he tells him that he's in photography just like Jonathan and the n¿bond over certain techniques and artists, Harry gets approval.
As soon as Scarlett announces that she's ready, Jonathan grabs his phone to play Scarlett's favorite David Bowie song on Spotify, and the group sins along to Starman.