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“Okay, so this one is called a Lemonhead.” Dustin says as he hands Jane a little yellow ball wrapped in plastic.
“Lemonhead?’
“Yeah! It’s a little sour.”
The two unwrap the candies and eat them at the same time. It’s hard, so it just gets stuck in Jane’s teeth when she tries to bite down on it. The candy lives up to it’s name too, it has a very distinct lemon taste, but it’s less sour than the citrus. Jane doesn’t like it. She grabs a napkin and spits it out, before washing the taste out of her mouth with her glass chocolate milk. Jane loves chocolate milk. Hopper introduced it to her about a year ago, and she never turned back.
“I don’t like it,” she states, and Dustin smiles.
“That’s okay,” he says, spitting out his own so she doesn’t have to wait for him to finish. “I don’t care for them either, but Mike loves them.”
“He’s weird,” Jane giggles. “We have real taste.” She winks at him and watches as he flushes. Cute.
“What candy is next?” She asks, swinging her legs.
Dustin brightens. “My favorite.” He reaches into his bag, and pulls out two white bars with blue and red stripes, and orange lettering. “Three Musketeers! It’s a chocolate bar, so it’s not sour, don’t worry.”
Dustin opens Jane’s for her, and holds it up to her face. Jane leans forward and takes a big bite. It’s soft, and sweet, and chocolatey. Like, stick to the roof of your mouth chocolatey. The way Jane likes it. The filling is mouse-like. Jane likes this one more than Milky Way.
“Better than Milky Way,” she voices with a mouthful of chocolate, which she promptly washes down with a big gulp of chocolate milk.
“You’ve got a bigger sweet-tooth than me!”
“You keep showing me all these candies! You’re making it worse!”
“What if I like fueling the fire?”
Jane leans across the table and kisses Dustin. Quick and lighthearted. God, she loves this boy.
“Want any more chocolate?”
———
“Who even taught you how to do this? It’s so tedious!” Max complains, flopping backwards onto her bed.
“Will taught me,” Jane says through giggles.
Max rolls her eyes. “Of course Will knows how to embroider.”
“You’re doing really good!”
“Really?” Max holds up the shorts she was attempting to embroider stars on. They look wonky. “Look at my shorts compared to your skirt! This is so unfair!”
It’s true, Jane’s little butterfly she’s embroidering on her purple skirt is turning out way better than what Max is doing, but Jane’s known how to do this for months.
“You’re learning, Max.”
Max stands, and puts her shorts on her dresser. “I got two. I’m done with that for now,” she says. “Are you hungry?”
Jane shrugs. “Should we order pizza?”
Max laughs. “Are you suggesting that because Dustin works there right now, or because you actually want pizza?” “Little bit of both” she states cheekily.
“Okay, I guess. Pineapple?” Jane nods.
“Can I braid your hair after you order?”
“Of course!”
Max smiles. Jane smiles too.
Jane’s so glad she’s reunited with Max.
———
“You want pink or purple?”
“Purple! And can you add little white stars?”
Jane and Will are sitting in a blanket fort they made in the living room, cheesy pop music playing in the background as they paint each other’s nails. Or, Will’s painting Jane’s nails because he’s good at everything or something.
“This song is weird,” Jane says. She doesn’t usually listen to pop since she lives with Will and Jonathan Byers and is dating Dustin Henderson, but neither of the twins could be bothered to change the radio station right now.
“Mike loves this song.”
Jane bursts out laughing. Mike Wheeler and his awful music taste. Or, as Max puts it ‘Wheeler’s terrible, no good way of living.’
“He does!” Will laughs. “He came to pick me up for our date and was singing this song! It was so strange!”
Jane laughs even harder, trying to remain still so Will can apply the nail polish cleanly.
“Dustin showed me a song he learned on the guitar a few weeks ago, and he asked me if I thought he did the song justice,” Jane says, already beginning to laugh at herself. “I didn’t know the song, but I didn’t have the heart to tell him that. I just nodded.”
Will sets down the nail polish, waiting for the first coat to dry so he can add the next layer. “I’m going to tell him that.”
Jane shrugs. “He’ll just make me listen to it a million times. You’ve probably listened to Should I Stay or Should I Go more.”
“I haven’t listened to that song years!” Will laughs. “How did you remember how obsessed I was with it?”
“You hum it when you’re scared.”
“I didn’t even know I did that,” Will whispers, looking down, probably remembering the dark, cold of the Upside Down. The terror he felt when he was stuck there for an entire week. How that some terror had followed him throughout all his teen years, that’s still following him even after they destroyed the worm hole.
Jane grabs his hand. “It’s okay.”
Will takes a deep breath. “I know. I’m sorry.” He tries to shake the feeling off.
“No sorries.”
Will smiles. “Okay. I’m going to add the next coat now.”
“Do you think we could get Jonathan to come into the fort once he comes home from work? He told me I could paint his nails.”
“Sure,” Will says. “I think he’s getting some movies for us too. You’re finally going to watch Ghostbusters.”
———
It’s five AM. Why is Jane awake? She doesn’t really know. She couldn’t sleep. It just happens sometimes.
Creeping out of her room, she notices a light on in the kitchen. It’s probably Jonathan, his sleep schedule has been messed ever since California. Jane doesn’t smell any of those smelly plants, which Will later told her was weed.
When she gets to the end of the hallway, she sees that it’s not Jonathan who’s in the kitchen, but her dad, sitting at the table, staring at the wall.
“Hop?”
He looks to her. “Hey, why are you awake?”
“I don’t know. Why are you?”
“There was a sound outside and it woke me up, and I have to be awake in a couple hours so I didn’t going back to sleep in my future,” he responds
Contrary to popular belief, Hopper is quite the light sleeper. He used to be a heavy sleeper, but the years of demogorgon attacks, and not drinking as much changed that.
“Five AM is close enough to morning time. We can start the day instead of sitting in the dark.” The Hoppers-Byers family are all morning people (well, except maybe Jonathan, but that’s his fault), and waking super early isn’t unheard. In fact, it happens more often than other people would expect.
Hopper stands from his seat with a grunt. “Okay… then let’s make some Eggos, huh?”
Jane smiles, running into the kitchen, almost slipping on the slick tile with her socks on. “Eggo extravaganza! We haven’t made one in a long time.”
The two of them worked in silence for the most part. Hopper puts the waffles in the toaster- two for him and two for Jane- and somehow doesn’t wake anyone up when the toaster pops. Jane grabs the whip cream, M&M, chocolate chips, fudge, syrup, and the plates and silver ware.
Hopper says they’re going to get diabetes from eating all the sugar that they eat, but nobody has gotten it yet, so he’s probably just joking.
Jane puts a little bit of whip cream on one waffle, pours some fudge, and stacks the next waffle on top. She then pours all of the toppings on top. This is the best way to start the day, with pure happiness. If diabetes comes from too much sugary happiness, then bring it on.
They sit back down at the table with their creations, and dig in. It’s just as sweet and delicious as she remembers.
“I missed this,” Hopper states with a mouthful of whip cream and chocolate. Jane nods in agreement.
“Miami Vice?” she asks, nodding towards the TV.
Hopper smiles. “Absolutely.”
———
“So, you’re going to be a scientist for Halloween?”
Robin and Steve are taking Jane out shopping for Halloween costumes. Jane doesn’t exactly know what she wants to be, but Robin and Steve apparently have had their costumes planned for weeks.
“Yeah,” Robin says with a slight bounce to her shoulders. “Doc and Marty! Back to the Future!” She pats Steve on the back.
“We both decided it’s our favorite movie because we watched it high together after infiltrating a secret Russian base,” Steve states.
Okay, wow. That’s… something.
She walks past a large display of fake swords. It reminds Jane of Mike’s Halloween costume. He’s going as Mike the Brave with Will, who’s going as Will the Wise.
Jane feels she’s not very good at this costume thing. No one struggles this must to find a costume. This is her third costume store (first time with Hop, second with Jonathan, and now with Robin and Steve).
“What’s something you like?” Robin asks. “That will help us find you the perfect costume.”
“I like… waffles. And embroidery.”
Jane has a feeling she can’t be either of those things for Halloween. Robin stares at her blankly.
Turning the corner, Jane spots the bug- themed costumes. She sees the ladybug costume that Holly is wearing this year. There’s bees, moths, beetles, and butterflies too.
Jane likes butterflies. Dustin had told her all about them. How metamorphosis turns tiny little creatures into beautiful bugs.
It’s like they’re born again. They live one life as a caterpillar, and one as a butterfly. One life stuck on the ground, and one fluttering through the sky.
Jane has lived two lives. One as Eleven. The number. The experiment. The one in the lab with Papa. And one life as Jane. The loved girl with friends and family. The girl who, despite everything, still stands strong and proud.
Steve follows Jane’s gaze and smiles. He sees it too with those almost scary “mom senses” of his. Robin realizes shortly after.
“Oh!” she squeaks. “You should totally be a butterfly, Jane!” Robin jogs to the display and yanks one of the costumes off the hook. Steve pats her on the back and guides her towards the checkout counter, Robin following close behind, chatting aimlessly.
Sometimes it feels like Jane has three moms (Steve, Joyce, and Mama) and two dads (Hop and Robin). Found family is quite a strange thing, but it’s a good thing too.
When she returns home (courtesy to Steve’s amazing driving and Robin’s music taste), Will praises her costume choice, and Jonathan takes millions of pictures of her in it.
Halloween is great, Jane decides.
———
November is always hard to get through, but the sweet treat of December always follows. So it could be worse.
The holidays are so warm and friendly. Especially at the Hopper-Byers house. Jane can’t believe she missed Christmas for the first thirteen years of her life.
The Christmas tree is the cabin is mostly bland because all the ornaments are still in California (they’re never getting any of that stuff back), so Will, Jonathan, and Jane are crafting decorations. Jonathan and Jane are working together to make a paper chain, and Will is painting cheap piece of wood Holly gave him from an arts and crafts kit.
“This is what I’m talking about!” Joyce walks into the living room, carrying two hot chocolates (Will didn’t want one because he didn’t want to confuse it with paint water. He does that a lot).
Jane glances up at her. “What are you talking about?”
“Family bonding!” she cheers. “We haven’t made Christmas decorations together in years!” Joyce sets down the mugs for Jonathan and Jane to enjoy. Jane immediately takes a big gulp. The only drink better than chocolate milk is hot chocolate.
“Don’t spill on the paper chain,” Jonathan warns, glueing another link on.
“It wouldn’t be that big of a deal,” Jane snickers. “We’re already way ahead of Will.”
He promptly turns and sticks his tongue out at her. “Skill takes time!”
“Your skill in painting came from that painting for my ex-boyfriend!”
“Okay, maybe don’t put it like that,” Will laughs. She’s not wrong though, he had never tried painting until he made the painting for Mike. It’s annoying how good he is at art.
“You were so down bad that even Argyle clocked it,” Jonathan says. “And he was high.”
Will flushes and hides his face in his hands. Jane and Jonathan obnoxiously laugh.
“Yes!” Jane cheers, proud of herself for embarrassing her twin. “J-team for the win!!”
Jonathan and Jane decided they were the ‘J-team’ in California, and they later invited Joyce. J names only, obviously.
“Okay,” Will stands and comically cracks his knuckles. “You wanna go?”
They had to remake that entire paper chain.
———
“Dustin, no one wants to watch Star Wars again!” Lucas complains.
Jane loves when the whole party hangs out together. It’s so chaotic, yet calming.
Today, the party has gathered at Dustin’s house for movie night. Pillows and blankets are all over the floor, like they’ve made a giant makeshift nest on the ground. Will, Jane, and Max trade candies they brought while their boyfriends argue over the movie.
“Well no one wants to watch Ghostbusters again either,” dustin argues, looking pointedly at Mike. “Also, my house, I get to pick the movie!”
“Oh, what!?” Mike half-yells. “You picked the movie when we at my house!”
“Well you didn’t enforce the rule! You let me pick.”
“There’s no way I’m watching either of those movies again,” Lucas complains. “Just call Steve or something and ask for his opinion.”
“He’s just going to make us watch Back to the Future because it’ll be the first thing that comes to his mind!” Dustin whines.
“Hey!” Max calls, clearly tired of their yelling now that her, Will, and Jane are finished trading candy. “Back to the Future is an okay movie. It’s not like we’re going to pay full attention to it. Just put in on.”
Mike shrugs, and goes to dig through Dustin’s movie collection for back to the Future. It’s not often they agree, so Jane stores this moment in her long term memory.
“What happened to my house my movie?”
“I happened!” Max throws a pillows at him.
“Ow!” He cries dramatically. “I’m wounded!”
After that, things mostly calm down. Mrs. Henderson orders them pizza (remembering what kind each kid likes because she’s awesome), and they all crack jokes over the movie. They fall asleep one by one all cuddled together in blankets and pillows on the living room floor.
Jane used to wish she got to be Jane Ives. That she had a normal life. But if she had that, she never would’ve had this. This, Dustin holding onto her like a pillow. Max softly snoring in her ear, despite Lucas’ efforts of rolling her onto her side to get her to stop. Mike and Will still whispering to each other to the right of Dustin. Steve coming over in the morning with breakfast, and dropping them all off at their houses.
Maybe the path to here was a lot rockier (and a whole lot worse), but Jane doesn’t wish it to be any different. After all, butterflies don’t stay caterpillars, they grow wings.