Maya Hawke in the music video for Sweet Tooth
đđđ: robin buckley + @jackforemanâ ! đđđđđ: outside of the foreman residence
initially, robin had been a little hesitant about going to see jack. the only thing that kept repeating in her mind was dustin talking about how the people from the tree commune had just snapped back at the carnival which resulted in hawkins being sent into total chaos. and it was no secret that jack was involved â was one of them.
but jack was also steveâs neighbour and his friend. robin had known him back in high school, and he had been different from the rest of his teammates. most of them had been jerks, they showed off and weâre just dicks in general. but jack, he was nice and he definitely wouldnât hurt a fly even then. so what had happened to flip that switch? nothing good, that was for sure. âsteve- heâs uh. heâs okay.â sheâd agreed to update him on their mutual friends condition. âa little wiped out but mostly okay.â
willthewizeâ:
WHO: will byers + open
WHERE: you decide
    His drawing skills have only improved since those childhood days scribbling with crayons and colored pencils, but it still requires practice, a constant honing of his abilities to stay sharp. And anatomy, realistic human portraiture, is one of the hardest things to get right, because when itâs just a little offâŚwell, it can get creepy fast. People have always been one of Willâs favorite subjects to draw, probably stemming from his interest in visualizing his and the partyâs childhood DnD characters. It would just be a lot easier ifâŚ
    âCould you try not to move so much? Sorry, it just helps if you stay still.â He didnât want to come across as impatient, but if his model was already fidgety, then sitting longer to finish the sketch wasnât going to help matters.
â˘
when will had so kindly requested to draw her, robin admittedly had been completely taken aback. someone wanting to sketch another person was a detail that you saw in the pictures all the damn time and she had always thought that it was unrealistic, not to mention completely ridiculous and super unlikely. yet here they were, in the most unusual situation â well, to her at least. will was talented though, like really talented. he was probably just as good with his artistic ability as she was with band. so robin had decided to at least give it a shot.
âokay but i warned you before we started that sitting still is entirely not my forte. in fact, i donât think iâve ever sat completely still in my entire life. one of my limbs always has to be moving. canât you just, i donât know, look past it or something?â the request for limited movement, only made them more frantic, including accompanying hand motions along with this minuscule speech followed by gentle fluffing of short hair. âmaybe we can take a break?â really, robin? theyâd barely even started.
backtowheelerâ:
â â â
There was almost no time to waste when Hawkins was in imminent danger. At least, thatâs what Nancy was suspecting. There was no way everything that happened was pure coincidence. Even if it wasnât Upside Down related, there was something afoot.Â
As they passed through her house, Nancy turned back to Robin, her hand resting on the stairwell. âI guess she doesnât have much else to do,â Nancy commented. It wasnât a jab to her mom, but it wasnât like she was running after any kids anymore other than Holly. Then again, even when she was younger Nancy couldnât picture a time that their house looked anything other than perfect, save for the few times she had stepped on Mikeâs Legos or Hollyâs Lite Brite glow pegs.Â
âOh!â Nancy jerked her hand off the stairwell, a small smile on her face. She lead the charge upstairs to her bedroom. Nancy pushed the door open, leaving the door open wide enough to let Robin in. Her room hadnât changed much since high school. Going off to college, Nancy made it abundantly clear that all things Hawkins would be left in Hawkins save for a handful of photo keepsakes. âYou can close the door, if you want,â she said, sitting down on the edge of her bed. âMy mom only cares if itâs a boy andâŚâ she peeked her head around the corner to see if Holly, her dad, or her mom were snooping around the corner. âItâs probably better if no one hears this.â
Nancy flipped herself upside down on her bed, looking under her bed. âThere it is!â She exclaimed, snatching a pink hat box. She resituated on the bed and popped open the box, filled with newspaper clippings from the last couple of Hawkins Post. They never reported anything truly newsworthy, in her journalistic opinion, but she did keep them on hand to jot down her own personal notes. âCan you tell me what happened to you? The weird shit that happened?â
â˘
standing in the doorway to the bedroom, the invitation to shut the door behind her made her throat slightly tighten. it didnât make sense â why was she so nervous about this? it wasnât as if nancy would think robin was insane, since theyâd both experienced way worse. âimagine if thatâs how your parents found out that living the dream in hawkins isnât all itâs cut out to be.â despite the anxious thoughts, she closed the door anyway. following the other over to the bed, robin took a seat but making sure to leave a good foot or so between them. watching nancy effortlessly flip upside down only to return a few seconds later with a box in tow, she uttered a quick âsmooth.â.
cassie had also been at the cemetery that evening so perhaps sheâd already told nancy everything, but she was here now. it was too late to just back out. âsome of us were down at the cemetery the same night as bennyâs.â the why was a little less important. âour fire went out, some people fell into literal open graves and steve was⌠there! but he keeps insisting that he was out of town that night.â
a pause, looking up from fidgeting hands to make eye contact with nancy, robin would be lying if she said she wasnât a little scared. âbut then the strangest thing happened â i think i blacked out and had some kind of⌠vision or something. it was weird and creepy â but it felt like i was there, really there. except i wasnât, i just woke up in the forest like nothing ever happened.âÂ
only now did it truly strike robin that the contents of such a vision would upset nancy just as much if not more than they had done herself. because it concerned barb, someone they had both once called their best friend. and if robin had to elaborate on it, should she⌠bend the truth? then again, she really didnât want to hurt nancyâs feelings. âiâm either losing my mind with a capital l, or-â the alternative was way too daunting to even speak.
đđđ: robin buckley + @dvstybunsââââ ! đđđđđ: the hospital đđđđ: somewhere between 2-3 am
robinâs eyes felt both heavy and extremely puffy, a result of crying on and off as well as a lack of sleep. herself, max and dustin all sat at steveâs bedside and by this point, the hospital staff had pretty much given up on trying to move all of them out. especially given that max had decided to use a few⌠choice words which made even robin cringe.Â
the three of them had forged some kind of unspoken agreement that they each had to sleep, but that they would take it in shifts. just in the instance that steve woke up while they were out cold. sheâd offered for her two companions to sleep first but max had excused herself in search of a vending machine for all their stomachs were rumbling, and robin only thought that dustin had actually took her up on her offer.Â
but now that she really looked at him, he was hunched over in his chair doing a very bad job at pretending to be asleep. robin supposed she couldnât really blame him, steve had always been an important person in dustinâs life and none of them really wanted to sleep right now. âi can see you breathing heavily, dingus.â she spoke softly, the nickname rolling off her tongue with ease. it almost felt right calling dustin that â a sort of passing down the torch from steve to dustin type deal.
stevehharringtcnsâ:
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robin seemed mad, to say the least. and this time around, steve didnât know why she was mad, but it seemed like he had done something. which was weird, because he hadnât seen robin in a week now, so there wasnât necessarily a reason for her to be angry at him. at least he thought so. âoâŚkay.â steve said slowly as he processed what robin said, staring at the outside for a few moments as she made her way inside of his house, before he finally shut the door and turned to look at robin. she also seemed nervous with what she was about to say. âwhat do you want to talk about?â he asked, as he crossed his arms over his chest and looked at his friend - he was a bit tired, but he figured out he could sleep once robin left.
and thatâs when robin started talking and steve was sure that he had never been more confused in his life. what was she talking about? steve had just come back from being out with his parents and now he was being blamed for something he was sure he hadnât done. shaking his head slowly, steve looked at robin with a confused look on his face, but he didnât interrupt her until she was done. ârobin, what the hell are you talking about? what do you mean last night? iâve been gone for a week, i havenât seen you all week.â he said, shaking his head in confusion. he had no idea what the other was talking about, he couldnât even come up with a theory - it was too early. âhow did i hurt your feelings?â he asked, tilting his head to the side.
steve couldnât help to notice that robin really seemed nervous about this. he knew her, he knew when she was nervous about something, so it wasnât hard to recognize it. âdo you need to go outside? iâll go with you.â he said, as he started moving towards the door that lead to his pool.
â˘
steve harrington. robin felt as if she knew him better than anyone. she knew his strengths and his weaknesses, what he liked and disliked and could almost predict how he would react to most things. though she did have a tendency to be incorrect, like right now for example. robin had assumed heâd just make excuses about last night. but instead steve appeared to be pretty clueless â with the key word being âappearedâ since she already knew that he was faking. but most importantly, they communicated stuff. like her telling him when she couldnât handle things, or steve confiding in her about his sexuality. and robin knew that he was going to be out of town, she recalled steve mentioning it but he had also said it would just be for a couple of days.
so him claiming to have been gone for a whole week⌠yeah, right. this excuse made robin visibly roll her eyes, did he think that she was stupid? that he could just pull the wool over her eyes? well never mind that, there had been plenty of other people there who had also witnessed steve being at the cemetery last night.
so she concluded that steve was pulling her leg â didnât want to confront his actions just yet so kept going along with the joke. this infuriated her even more. âwhat the hell are you talking about? seriously, this isnât the time for goofing around. i saw you last night and so did everyone else!â if this was the hill that he was willing to die on, then it was a pretty silly one. the thought didnât occur to robin that steve wasnât exactly a great actor.
âhello, earth to steve? you implied that i drugged everyone, remember? total asshole move, by the way.â then she felt a little guilty for calling him that, so muttered a quick apology. at the suggestion, robin stood from the bottom of the steps and followed him to the door. âfine, letâs go outside.â some fresh air would probably do her some good.
đđđ: robin buckley + @stevehharringtcnsââââ ! đđđđđ: the hospital đđđđ: a couple days after steve wakes
last night had been the first time that robin slept at home since steve had initially arrived at the hospital. she wanted to stay but he had insisted that she go home to get a proper nights sleep and that heâd be okay, just for the night. and maybe he would be and while robin had agreed, she really didnât want to be alone. sheâd managed to avoid thinking too much about the house of mirrors by worrying about steve instead. but if she were alone, she knew it would only come rushing back.
luckily once she arrived home sheâd been too exhausted for her mind to even bother replaying the events at the mirror maze for she fell asleep fairly quickly. and as soon as she woke that morning, robin changed probably faster than she ever had in her life so that she could hurry back. just to make sure he hadnât gone back on his word or whatever.
walking to the hospital would admittedly be a little too far so she dug out her momâs old bike (her own was way too busted!) from the garage and set off. but not before paying a visit to a grocery stores on the way to pick up some reeseâs pieces â steveâs favorite. arriving at the hospital she signed in at the desk, security checked her backpack and she headed up to steveâs room.
âsteve, can you believe i actually had to smuggle these in? itâs insane.â she entered the room with a quick glance at a sleeping cole, and pulled out the box of candy from the inside of her jacket, then gently placed it on steveâs lap. âhow are you holding up?â
elevcnhopsâ:
xx
Thinking back, the idea of favorites was still a wild concept. How could you choose just one? Especially when one had nothing to begin with? There were those instances of flipping through channels casually beside Hop ( as they sat on the same musty couch she would return home to shortly ). The titles werenât specified so she couldnât tell Robin even if she wanted to. Biting her lower lip, chewing softly while continuing to think. â Ralph Macchio? â
 Aha, there was something! â Max showed me a picture in a magazine. â trying to remember the name of his movie, maybe the other would know? â Heâs a good kisser? â reiterating the question Max once voiced. Concluding it must not be a big deal to mention, that was the only â fact â she knew about the actor besides the title to his movie. â Or yours? â expectancy upon her question, El could fight off monsters sure, but Robin still had more â real world â knowledge. Finding that priceless. Her eyes widening, â What is your favorite movie ever? â echoing back with genuine interest.
â˘
âoh! give me just one minute.â now ralph macchio she could work with. the comment about him being a good kisser raised an eyebrow, it didnât look anything special to her. not that she knew the slightest thing about what it was like to kiss a boy. but robin made a beeline straight for where she knew the video would be, for someone had just returned it a few days back. this she remembered specifically because they hadnât rewound the damn thing and sheâd had to do it herself.
returning back to el with it, robin handed it to her with a flourish. âi present to you, the karate kid.â then came the question and it was always a difficult one. there were a few niche ones that she doubted el would have heard of, so those were out of the question. robin did have a bit of a soft spot for back to the future owing to the summer of â85, then there was fast times at ridgemont high, but both of them felt too obvious. so instead she settled on, âescape from new york,â a pause, wondering if el had heard of it. âi actually do a great snake plissken impression.â
melissaiaâ:
WHO: Melissa Armstrong + open WHERE: Outside City Hall WHAT: Community car wash
    There had never been a time when Melissa was so lost in her life. Waking up after her own death to find that three years had passed, head filled with foggy memories of the time between that felt false but with no way to prove it, she was just leftâŚadrift. She had been accepted to university before she disappeared; now she was quite suddenly a twenty-one year old with no college credit, no career and no clue how to get back on track. Well, in all fairness it had only been a few days and she was bound to pull her shit back together soon enough, but in the meantime she clung to what was familiar, what came naturally. Community service. As long as she could be of use to her town, she wouldnât be entirely unmoored.
    âItâs five dollars for a small to full-size car, ten for a truck or van,â she automatically listed the prices for the fund-raiser car wash as somebody approached their hopeful operation, looking up from her clipboard with a bright smile and squinting in the direct sunlight. âAll proceeds go to rebuilding Bennyâs Burgers. Or if youâre here to volunteer your time, we could always use more hands and we have plenty of sponges to go around.â
â˘
robin hadnât initially intended to go to the community car wash down at city hall, but it just happened to be on the way home. donât get her wrong it was for a great cause, but she didnât have a car. though she had mentioned it to steve so he could take his down there, as compensation. that was, if he would even let anyone else touch his âprecious babyâ. and robin was just going to breeze on straight past, until the sound of a familiar voice drew robinâs attention, to which she walked directly through the commotion instead to locate the source. usually a familiar voice wouldnât seem too odd, except- ââŚmelissa?â
she would have said it was impossible, except there the other woman was. standing there, rallying the town together just like she had done back in high school. but she was supposed to be dead. âmelissa, hi. itâs robin, we used to study together, we-â kissed in the back of the library that one time right before you disappeared off the face of the earth, only to turn up dead not long after? oh, yeah. like she could say that. âwhat are you doing here?â voice barely above a whisper now, robin felt as if she could almost choke on thin air.
jackforemanâ:
Jack hadnât really spoken to Robin Buckley much at all in his life before being at the Wheelersâ family barbecue. It was there that he learned sheâd become friends with Steve, his coworker, even, and it was just another reminder of what heâd missed while he was now known to be dead, not just gone in a cult. He would have considered her presence on his front porch a threat, that she was here to chew him out about attacking their mutual friend at the carnival, even if it was something that Jack had no recollection of.Â
Instead, it seemed that she was here in peace. It was nice to know that Steveâs condition had remained stable since heâd gone to visit, when heâd gotten the strength to face his friend to apologize for what heâd done. âOh, thatâs ⌠great, actually. Thatâs good. I went by yesterday, just to say hi, and, well, I figured I owed him an apology.â He shifted, uncomfortable and embarrassed by what heâd done that he couldnât even remember. âDo you want to come in?â
â˘
âoh, i uh, didnât know youâd been by.â she felt a little sheepish now. suppose sheâd been too caught up in her own thoughts to pay any real attention to whether steve had told her about jack visiting or not. the previous evening sheâd paid a visit to vickieâs mom, to pay her respects and to apologise. the apology held way more weight than it should have done, but it felt necessary under the circumstances.
âanyway, they think he might be able to go come home soon.â and honestly, thank fucking god for that. while steve was definitely doing a whole lot better, it was still painful to see him in that hospital room. jack asking whether she wanted to come in admittedly caught her a little off guard, but she nodded her head anyway and followed him inside. âactually, there was something else i wanted to ask you. i donât know how well you know steveâs parents but⌠have you seen them much? recently, i mean.â steve had said theyâd been by the hospital once, maybe twice. robin thought that was insane, but knowing the harringtons, she wasnât really all too surprised.