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There’s an unofficial contest in the group, once Chrissy joins them, to see who can make her the best mix tape.
Harrington is immediately disqualified by everyone.
“You’re so basic!” Max exclaims, Robin nodding over her shoulder. “You’re the physical embodiment of the Top 40 channel!”
The two girls work together, bringing in Blondie and Kate Bush and Fleetwood. Nothing too mainstream but not so weird that you can’t find pieces of yourself in it.
Dustin and Eddie produce the most powerful, thrashing collection of metal ballads and heavy rock they can get their hands on. And if most of the songs are about love, no they aren’t. They’re metal. Shut up, Henderson, I have a reputation.
Jonathan and Will take her on a journey through the real stuff, y’know? Bowie, Ramones, Queen, Joy Division. Their tape begins and ends with The Clash.
Nancy just rolls her eyes. “This is stupid,” she says. “Chrissy already knows what she likes!” Steve in the background gesturing in agreement earns her a disqualification, too.
Chrissy listens to every minute of every tape. During July, they give her one tape a week, and a one-week buffer to better compare all her options.
In August, they have a Party gathering at Reefer Rick’s. Eddie assures them that Rick would be honored that the house is being used for something as admirable as a day of merriment and revelry by the water. Max calls him a fucking nerd. He chucks her off the dock, but she is immediately avenged by El.
Between swimming and eating dinner, the kids hang out on the shore to practice skipping rocks while the Hawkins High graduates lounge on the deck and sip beers. Steve emerges from the house with a stereo and, while maintaining direct eye contact with Eddie, pops an unmarked tape into the deck and hits play.
“Jesus Christ!” Eddie slithers out of his seat and slumps onto the ground, clutching his ears. Chrissy laughs at him before bounding up, dancing over to Steve, her hair loose and drying in waves in the afternoon heat.
“Dirty play, Harrington.” Robin sounds disgusted and impressed as Steve starts singing at Chrissy. Nancy is wearing her best mom-on-Christmas-morning smile.
Chrissy’s had a few beers already, the alcohol making her brighter and bolder. Eddie picks himself off the ground, only to be immediately crowded by the delighted former cheerleader.
“Don’t you want me, baby?” she croons with the song, taking both his hands and waving his arms like he’s a puppet. “Don’t you want me? Ohhhh, oh oh oh!”
Eddie groans and rolls his eyes, but he can’t stop himself from mirroring her grin. He lets her lead him across the deck while she sings about being a cocktail waitress living life on her own.
When the chorus comes around again, everyone is on their feet, singing along as best they can at the top of their lungs. Eddie’s grin turns feral as he swoops Chrissy up in his arms, swinging them around to the music. The Human League fades away, leaving the teens on the deck gasping and laughing.
When the next song starts, Chrissy’s eyes grow impossibly wider, her smile unbelievably brighter, and she leaves Eddie behind to perform with Nancy and Steve, the only three of the group who could possibly know every word to Dancing Queen.
“I think we know who won,” Jonathan says to Eddie, nudging Robin as they watch the show.
“Sure.” Eddie can’t take his eyes off Chrissy, joy radiating off her like she’s the actual sun. He’s sure she will tell everyone that she can’t pick a favorite mix, that there’s songs she loves equally on every tape, but nothing they’ve curated could possibly make her as happy as she is now, buzzed and loved in the dead of summer, singing slightly off-key to ABBA, and without a care in the world.
His young, sweet, dancing queen.
When he’s crawling towards her in his bed that night, she hands him a present. “I really liked your tape,” she explains as he reads the track list. “I thought you deserved one just like it.” His own mixtape, with Bryan Adams and Billy Joel, Bonnie Tyler and Madonna. She even snuck in a KISS song, next to ABBA.
“Whenever I hear these songs, I think of you.”
For the rest of the summer, it’s the only tape he allows to be played in his van.