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Steve Harrington knocked on the Hendersons' door at 7 am the morning of Dustin's first day of high school. He had been waiting for this moment for days now and had even brought his camera to take a picture of this important moment. It was new beginnings for his best friend and Steve was excited for him. It would be the most important start of a new chapter that could lead to Dustin's life out of here and Steve needed to make sure he emphasized that. He couldn't let that little shit mess up the high school like he had- caring only about looks and getting girls rather than his grades and extracurriculars. Even if Dustin didn't want to go to college, Steve had to make sure Dustin kept his options open.
Dustin opened the door with a groan. Steve had rang the doorbell three times and just gone on to knocking incessantly.
"Steve?" Dustin asked, opening the door but shielding his eyes from the sun. He had just been jolted awake again, even though he had set the alarm for 6:45 am, he had somehow managed to make it onto his couch and fall asleep again.
"What are you doing man?" Steve asked the wide grin he had falling off his face at Dustin's disgruntled state.
"Getting ready," Dustin shrugged, but he was obviously lying.
"You fell asleep on the couch didn't you?" Steve asked skeptically, and Dustin groaned wiping his eyes.
"What are you doing here?"
Steve spread his arms, the grin returning and Dustin noticed a camera in his hands.
"It's your first day of high school!"
Dustin knitted his eyebrows. "Yeah, I know, that still doesn't explain what you're doing here."
Steve rolled his eyes but Dustin moved inside, which Steve took as an invitation to come in and follow the kid to his kitchen.
"Come on, if you think I'm missing your first day of high school-"
Before Steve could finish the sentence, Dustin's mother comes out of nowhere.
"Steve, is that you?" she calls out before opening her eyes completely.
Steve flashed her a smile. "It's Dustin's first day of high school!"
Claudia Henderson smiled too and claps her hands together. "I know, isn't it exciting?"
Dustin groaned much more audibly this time. "Can you guys not make this a big deal? I'm going to another school but it's still the same classes, and studying."
"It's not," Steve said and Claudia nodded in agreement. "It's much more important than anything you've ever done before dipshit. High school is where you need to work hard so that you can have options. Whether that's college or not is up to you, but still, doing well in high school opens up more avenues." He looked at Claudia to see if she had anything to add but she didn't say anything.
Dustin looked visibly annoyed as he grabbed his backpack.
"I can drop him off Mrs.Henderson," Steve told her as the three of them made it to the door. Claudia nodded. She was still wearing her nightgown and didn't seem to be in a driving state anyway.
She gave Dustin a big hug before noticing the camera in Steve's hands. "Oh, picture!" she exclaimed gesturing for Steve to hand over the camera.
He looked at it awkwardly in his hands, trying to tell her he only meant to take a picture of Dustin so that he could remember this moment.
"I'll take the picture," Steve said, "Dustin, go stand on the doorstep.
"No, Steve!" Dustin started groaning again, embarrassed by what his best friend was doing but Claudia grabbed the camera from his hands and starts steering Steve to the doorstep too.
"Nonsense," she said waving a hand. "You're like an older brother to him, both of you must be in the picture together!"
Steve turned bright red but Dustin didn't seem to care or feel uncomfortable that his mother had said that to Steve.
"If I have to, you have to," Dustin said, firmly holding Steve in place next to him on the doorstep as Mrs.Henderson eagerly took the picture and handed the camera back to Steve.
"Ooh, my son -off to high school, and his best friend driving him!" She fanned her face as if drying tears, and this time, Dustin turned red too.
"Come on," Dustin muttered, "before she starts crying for real."
Steve gave her one glance back before allowing himself to be led to his own car, still holding the camera.
"Can I see the picture?" Dustin asked, holding his hand out for the camera that Steve is still holding. The picture had printed out, but Steve hadn't even pulled it out yet.
"Um, yeah," Steve said, trying to regain his footing and turning on the car. The 'brother' comment had thrown him off for a minute.
Dustin held up the photo, "You look like this could be your first day of high school too."
Steve grabbed the photo from Dustin, "Ok, enough cheek from you asshole," Steve muttered. "We still have to pick up Max and Robin."
Despite what Steve had said about not wanting to be in the photo, his face being only red enough for him to notice, and the way Dustin had draped his arm around Steve's shoulder despite being shorter and flashing a big thumbs up made him happy that he would be able to keep this memory forever.
By the time Steve made it to Max's house, she had already started waking. Steve pulled up next to her, taking his foot off the gas.
"Need a ride?" he asked.
"No," Max said, crossing her arms.
"You're going to walk all the way to school then?" Steve asked and Max rolled her eyes.
"That's what it looks like, doesn't it?"
"You can do that if you want to, or you can be on time and get in the car," Steve told her, and Max paused for a second.
"Why?"
"What do you mean, 'why?'" Steve asked her as Dustin leaned his neck to wave at Max who didn't return the wave.
"Yeah, why are you here? Picking me up?"
Steve shrugged. "It's your first day of high school."
Max started walking again. "Thank you for your offer, but no thanks," she muttered. "This is going to be how I get to and from school for the rest of the year anyway, might as well get used to it!" She flashed him a sarcastic thumbs up and Steve's stomach dropped. Of course- with Billy gone, she didn't have anyone to drive her around anymore.
"Will you just get in the car dipshit?" Steve asked, not speeding away. "Look, I work most evenings, but I promise you won't have to walk to school."
He hesitated when Max stopped walking wondering what else he could say to get her in the car, but before he can say anything else, she throws the door open and swings her backpack in.
"Where's your skateboard?" Dustin asked turning around.
"I broke it, and we can't afford another one right now." Max's voice was quiet and she stared out the window for the short drive between her and Robin's house.
"Jesus, she's late on the first day!" Steve exclaimed. "I told her I'd be picking her up at 7:15 days ago!"
"Are you getting paid for your services?" Max asked from the back, "seeing as how you want to be a taxi service to the whole town?"
Steve resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He was about to get out of the car and ring Robin's doorbell, which he really didn't want to do because he had never met her parents before and he didn't think having two teenagers in his car the first time he did that would be a great first impression. Luckily, Robin opened the door, her backpack slung over one arm and waved to him before closing her door.
"Not the whole town," Steve shrugged, pretending to be unfazed by her comment. "Only the people important to me, I would have offered to pick up Lucas and Mike too but Nancy's driving them.
Neither Max nor Dustin answered as Steve pushed Dustin out of the front seat so Robin could have shotgun.
"Not fair!" Dustin grumbled but he got out of the car all the same. "Rules of shotgun state that the first person who calls it in view of the car gets it!"
"Shotgun," Robin called before Dustin got in the back.
"Ok, well that's just not fair, I was already getting out."
"You dinguses ready for your first day of high school?" Robin asked turning back as Steve pulled out of the driveway.
Max shrugged but didn't answer.
"I don't know why everyone's making such a big deal out of it," Dustin said. "It's just school."
Robin and Steve both shook their heads. "It is important," Robin insisted.
"Yeah, I could give you some advice," Steve said casually. Honestly, he had been wanting to bring up his 'advice' since the moment he had gotten Dustin in the car. He was excited to watch Dustin start high school. In a way, it was like watching himself start high school all over again- and he didn't want Dustin to repeat the same mistakes he had.
"Yeah?" Dustin asked, "and what advice could that possibly be?"
"Hey, I know you may not be able to tell looking at me now, but during my first two years, two and a half even, I was really popular." Steve hesitated. "Which means I can tell you exactly what not to do to not be a douche."
Robin gave him a sad pat on his shoulders, but Dustin slid up a little. "So you're going to tell us how to be douchy?"
Steve's face contorted as he tried to figure out what he had said, but before he could do anything but knit his eyebrows, Dustin was already continuing. "My goal isn't to be popular."
"No shit?" It was the first words Max had spoken in a while, she had been staring out the window sadly, and Steve wanted to reassure her, but he didn't know how.
Dustin ignored her. "You're not a douche, Steve," he said firmly.
"No, not anymore."
"Not ever according to Nancy," Dustin shrugged. "I mean, I got the impression she didn't like Tommy or what's her face much, but she never complained about you. Plus, you think someone like her would get with someone she deemed to be a douche?"
Steve sat up a little straighter but it wasn't really because of what Nancy had said, it was that Dustin was reassuring him. He had always wanted to look so cool in front of the kids, always- and Robin had seen right through that and made fun of him for it. He didn't care though, because he'd always wanted to be an older brother, and now that he had that chance, he didn't want to mess that up by letting these kids see any uncool sides of him.
Steve smiled to himself and pulled into the school parking lot where droves of students were being dropped off by their parents, hugged and kissed on the forehead goodbye. Steve looked longingly at them because he had never once gotten that. Even in first grade, he was pretty sure his parents had dropped him off with a handshake and a stiff "Do well, Steve," and no look back to see if he was ok.
"Alright, everyone out of the car," he ordered pulling his camera out of the glove box.
"No, no Steve!" Max's eyes widened when she saw it but Steve shook his head. "Mike!" He called out when he saw Mike, Lucas, and Nancy emerge from Nancy's car. "Lucas! Both of you, here, now!"
Mike and Lucas looked at each other because they didn't know what was going on, but they walked over anyway, just a sign of respect that they had for Steve who had protected and fought for them.
"He has the first day of high school jitters," Max told them crossing her arms and rolling her eyes.
"The four of you against the car," Steve ordered, fluttering his hands around to line them up against the car.
"No, Steve this is embarrassing!" Dustin whined and Mike turned bright red. Lucas was the only one who got up against the car with no complaints.
"I don't want to hear it!" Steve exclaimed and Nancy and Robin giggled.
"Yeah, listen to him," Nancy demanded, moving Mike into the frame.
Max rolled her eyes and didn't smile, but she didn't protest either. She just stood up against the car on the right in resigned acceptance. Lucas to her side, then Dustin, then Mike.
"Smile!" Steve said, smiling himself.
"No," Max and Mike said in unison but Dustin and Lucas did, even though it was very half-hearted. Steve took the picture and handed the polaroid to Robin. "Ok, now, two of you backs against each other and do finger-guns."
"Yeah, that's not happening," Max said going to pick up her backpack but Steve waved his arms.
"Woah, ok, ok, that was a stretch, just one more ok? And smile this time, really."
Max dropped her backpack again and sighed but leaned back up against the car, putting on a very forced smile. Nancy gave Mike a glare and he smiled too. Steve took another picture.
"Thank you guys," he said, waiting for the picture to develop. "This means a lot to me."
He looked at each of them individually, emotions welling up in him. Just yesterday, it felt like this was him going off to high school, his whole life ahead of him, and now his best friends were 14-year-olds who respected him just enough to never actually tell him to fuck off.
Nancy waved to him and Robin gave him a pat on the arm, handing him the first polaroid. "See you at work?"
Steve nodded.
Once the six of them had entered the building, Steve sighed and got in his car holding out the three polaroids of the photos he had taken and placing them carefully on the mantle of the car. When he got home, he would frame the one of him and Dustin.
He looked at the photos fondly. First day of high school- exciting and terrifying- and even though Steve couldn't do much for them, he could at least always be there for him, just like he promised.
And yeah, Max looked surprised when Steve showed up to pick her up the next day, and the next, and then the day after that- but Steve would always be there. He would be dependable, not like his parents. He would give those kids what he always wanted.