She likes watching people.

Not in a creepy way, of course! She just finds it entertaining. And sometimes interesting. She watches as they go about their day. Socializing with friends, goofing around in class, changing every day. Every week. Every year. They don't watch her, though. Nobody sees her and she's thankful for that. She's one of very few loners that don't get bothered by people on a daily basis. Some of the teens she can still recognize from her Elementary School days, but others she can't. They change a little too much, and then suddenly it's like there are too many new kids to keep track of. She stopped trying to remember all their names at some point, because it was too much to think about.

But there were a few people around town fascinating enough for her to remember them.

Take Nancy Wheeler, for example.

They had basically grown up together, but also didn't. Nancy had the advantage of being born in Hawkins, whereas she moved to Hawkins in the fifth grade. They were the same age, usually placed in the same class every year, and they'd spoken on a few different occasions. Nancy had always been a quiet, shy girl for most of her life, until she changed. The first real change. Without ignoring her best friend, Nancy slowly started focusing on Steve Harrington. The sight had been slightly disappointing. Steve was a bully, not as bad as his friends, but still a bully. But he was also the King. That must have been what snagged Nancy's attention in the first place.

When Steve Harrington happened, Nancy starting acting differently. She was happier, sure, but also... strange; like she was trying too hard. Trying to be someone else. Someone better, in her own opinion. She was wrong though. It wasn't better, just different.

Nancy changed again the week Will Byers and Barbara Holland went missing. She seemed to think she was the only one who noticed or even cared that Barb was gone. The idea that she was alone in her grief made her hard, cold, impatient. She rarely smiled and didn't stick to Steve as much as before. But Nancy was wrong. She noticed too, and sketched Barbara's face from memory, hoping they would quickly find Barb and Will alive.

And she changed again after Will was found. Barb was still gone, and most people seemed to just forget about her altogether. They were too busy with their own stupid drama and the rumors about where Will had been. Nancy would stare at Barb's locker for a few minutes every time she had to pass by it. And through it all, she kept up the act of a relatively happy teenage girl. She was glued to Steve whenever they had a chance to see each other, Jonathan would join them at lunch most of the time, and she smiled more. The smile never really reached her eyes, though.

The biggest change came a year later. Nobody knew exactly what had happened, but rumor was that she cheated on Steve, though he received absolutely no sympathy. But rumors are stupid and she wouldn't believe anything those assholes said about the nicest girl in their school. Nancy skipped a few days of school a little while after Halloween, mysteriously disappearing at the same time, and for just as many days, as Jonathan Byers. It caused gossip that spread like a wild fire during a drought; too quickly to be believable. People said horrible things about both of them, things that made her so angry for the two of them. She stayed quiet even though she wanted to loudly defend two of her favourite subjects, because nothing she could say would make those assholes stop.

When Nancy came back to school, the papers were saying something about how Barb had died -radiation from a lab near town- and Nancy seemed lighter; like something heavy had been taken off her shoulders and she could finally breathe. And she was now glued to Jonathan. More gossip and rumors and bullshit spread when they walked into school holding hands, but the couple held their heads high and ignored it all. She was proud of them, silently congratulated them, even gave them a nod and a smile that each of them returned.

That day in the cafeteria, she sketched a quick portrait of Nancy sitting next to her boyfriend, smiling in a whole new way. It's kept in a special folder at home to remind herself that even when people call you horrible things and treat you like crap, you can still smile like that; full of affection and happiness.

The next example would be Jonathan Byers.

He's a tough person to read and everyone calls him a 'creep' or a 'perv', but she could tell he was good the second she saw him back in fifth grade. He might have been a quiet kid, but she was too, so she felt like she understood him better than others. Yet she never spoke to him. She just watched him. He's always been interesting in a sort of ordinary way.

He still wasn't much of a talker when they got to High School. You could probably chalk some of that up to the many years of bullying, as well as his natural shyness. It was just how he was. It made him him. It also helped him watch people the same way she did, but where he used a camera to capture his favourite moments, she drew them with rough lines and dark shading.

They had spoken a few times in their first year of High School. She liked to draw in the red glow of the Photography room, where he developed his 'moments'. The conversations they held were never huge. Not like full-on, deep, philosophical discussions, nor friendly, joking, 'I know you well' back-and-forth's. They wouldn't even exchange full sentences. They would greet each other and ask simple questions like 'how are you?' or 'how has your day been?' in as few words as possible, then answer in the same fashion. Short and sweet. One or two word answers were all they needed. That was the extent of their friendship, what they found comfortable.

From what she can see, Jonathan doesn't change much. Not like the rest of the teenagers in their town. He stays quiet and withdrawn, content to hide in plain sight, until his little brother went missing.

He changed a lot when Will vanished. He went from staying out of everyone's way, hiding in plain sight and the shadows, to being in the spot light. He was panicked and rushing around most times she saw him in that week. Really only coming in to hang a poster on the bulletin board.

To be honest, she was happy he wasn't around much that week. What he would have heard being whispered behind his back made her own skin crawl. She felt sick whenever one of those dicks said something vile about the Byers brothers. It ranged from 'the Creep probably killed his little bro' to homophobic remarks about the twelve year old boy running off with some creepy older guy, or he was kidnapped. She nearly punched someone in the face for the incest joke he made, but her Goddamned self control got in the way of justice. Instead she left in the middle of that class and earned herself some detention after school.

He changed again when Will was found. He was happier, smiling more, but skipped a lot of school to watch over his little brother. When he did come to class it ended up being no big deal that he skipped so often. He was prepared, with homework and grades that not even his horrible attendance could battle, so he never really got in trouble. He also became pretty good friends with Nancy and Steve which was a surprise. The three of them became their own group, Steve dropping his toxic friends to team up the 'Creep' and the 'Slut'; labels neither of them deserved, but still earned somehow.

People still talked about him in some of the worst ways, and treated him like trash, but his brother was back and okay and nothing they said could really effect him anymore.

His next change came a year later, much like Nancy's. She doesn't know why he left for those three or four days, or if he had actually run off with Nancy during that time, but it happened all the same. And when he came back he seemed lighter as well. They came in holding hands, touching shoulders, smiling at each other occasionally as they walked down the hall. He seemed almost like the polar opposite of his previous self which, honestly, made her feel just a little lonely. She had enjoyed not being the only quiet, artistic loner in the school.

He also seemed guilty. Whenever he looked at Steve, or the two boys passed each other in the hall, he would give the former school idol this look; a look that was almost like a string of silent 'I'm sorry's. She knew why. She's sure Nancy could see it too. Maybe even Steve. The trio became a duo with Steve joining in every once in a while, probably only when his heart could handle it. That wasn't very often.

There's a day, when all three of them are together in a group for an experiment in Chemistry class. She draws Jonathan's smiling face as he watches Nancy mix the wrong chemicals together, resulting in a fountain of brightly coloured foam. She's frantic. Stands up so fast that she knocks her seat over. Steve is trying not to laugh and Jonathan is giving her that small smile he saves just for Nancy. That sketch goes in the special folder, as a reminder that even someone like herself can be happy, whether it's soon or in the future.

Outside of school, another favourite would be Jim Hopper.

He's the Chief of Police in Hawkins, and he was obviously not the best choice at first. Not the worst, but still not the best. Sometimes she would see him going into the station two hours late sometimes, looking hungover and tired as all Hell. He never smiled. Just gave people an annoyed and sarcastic little twitch of his mouth. An expression that probably meant 'go away, leave me alone'.

But he changed when Will Byers vanished, like a lot of other people did. He comes in early, puts more effort into his job, seems a lot more like a responsible adult than the hungover asshole she'd come to 'know'. He's the one who organizes the search party. He's the one who searches the hardest -next to Will's mom of course- in the usual way, but also in things that probably have nothing to do with the kid. He's the only officer who refused to give up.

She can see him driving up to the Department of Energy with his deputies one day. That place had always given her the creeps. She wouldn't put it past them to have even a tiny part in Will's disappearance. She knew -still knows- what those places are capable of. The sign may say one thing but they do something very different inside the building.

They find Will and Hopper goes back to his old ways, minus the constant hangover. That doesn't last long, though. She was sure he kept away from the booze, but he was a little - or a lot- more uptight. So wound up that he would snap at people for stupid things, then quickly apologize and walk off in a hurry. He seemed to be keeping a secret. On so bad that it made him snippy and put him on edge most days. Maybe it was just a thing for Police Chiefs, maybe it wasn't. Not a lot goes on in Hawkins. Certainly not enough for him to be that stressed out.

Then he disappears for about two days, causing the rest of their meager police force to scramble about like a flock of chickens with their heads cut off. It was sad, in a sort of pathetic way, but also pretty funny. When he comes back he still seems stressed, but lighter somehow. Almost like he did something, something to fix the problems nobody else could see, and he felt better for doing it. He was still wound up, but in the usual Hopper way; the better way.

She caught him taking a short nap in his office once. Leaning back in his chair with his hat covering the top half of his face. She'd gone in to file a complaint for her 'Mother' -who couldn't be bothered to get off her ass apparently- and ended up just sitting in the chair meant for visitors, sketching out a quick little thing of the Cheif's sleeping form. She leaves twenty minutes later with less of a heavy feeling in her chest. That scene, that little bit of quiet time, made her feel not-so-shitty and gave her some time to do what she loved.

She will always thank Hopper for those twenty minutes, just not out loud.

She keeps that drawing in the folder as well, because the sight of him napping had made her laugh, and when she looks at it she laughs again. Every time. She can still remember his light snores from across his desk.

There are also a few people she watches just because she knows they are terrible. These are the people she commits to memory because she wants to avoid them. Their names and faces and actions are all lined in red, like a warning sign on something dangerous.

Her 'Mother' is first on that list.

A woman she met when she was a small child who picked her up and took her in and made her part of a side show. That part of her life is mostly blurry, but she remembers being her new guardian's only meal ticket. Doing tricks for crowds of strangers, getting hit for not doing something right on the first try, getting hit harder for screwing up something she was usually decent at. Minimal amounts of food back then and nowadays. Doing all the chores. Making all the money, most of it going towards 'Mother's booze and cigarettes. They still live in the trailer, the one she towed around on the back of her rusty pick-up for years before settling down in the small town of Hawkins, Indiana. It's cramped and musty, covered in trash every time she gets home, clouds of cigarette smoke causing coughing fits -she couldn't even breathe in her won 'home'!- and the lazy bitch sitting on the couch all day. Her eyes glued to the television as some stupid soap opera plays. Going home makes her sick, but being homeless is even less appealing so she stays.

Next is Billy Hargrove.

He bullies everyone, including his younger sister, a redhead that hangs out with Nancy and Jonathan's little brothers. She watches him yell at her, sees him take a tight hold of her wrist in his car one day after school, and nearly steps in every time. But there was nothing she could do, really. She was small and weak and the things she could do weren't things she should do. Then one day, out of the blue, he just stops being a dick. He still drives her around, mostly to and from school, but otherwise they don't really talk or interact at all. And he stops with all the grabbing. He must have been set straight by someone and that person must have been brave. Billy obviously had a short fuse and he seemed like a pretty strong guy.

She has an idea of who did it, but then again, it's probably just a coincidence.

There's also one kid from the Middle School. She thinks his name is Troy,because that's who the Middle School kids complain about when they discuss bullies. He's the main tormentor of the preteens of Hawkins. He beats on other kids, pushes them around, calls them names, all the stereotypical stuff. And she has absolutely no clue how or why he was given permission to own a switchblade, but he takes it everywhere. Pulls it out for no reason sometimes. When he walks past her in the joined school parking lot with one arm in a cast she smiles a little. Someone must have finally stood up to him. Or he was being stupid and broke it himself, but she has a good feeling that it was someone else's handiwork.

Kudos to that kid, whoever they may be.

Then it was Tommy H. and Carol. Two kids seemingly joined at the hip. The pair of miserable teenagers used to be Steve Harrington's best friends. They've always been shitty people, most of the bullying from Steve being their fault. They would pressure him into being just as cruel as they were. And for some stupid reason, he would go along with it. They were horrible, right to the core, and she despised them. They would never change, never get out of the habit that is being-an-ass-for-fun and treating-people-like-garbage.

At least she knows they won't get very far in life with personalities like those.

But back to her other list of people...

Watching Steve Harrington was different, in many ways.

She started off hating him. He was a jerk, a bully, and sort of a pig. He was 'King Steve', the ruler of Hawkins High, and nobody dared to stand against him. He wasn't the physical kind of bully. He just said things to people once in a while, but let his pals do most of the tormenting. In her opinion watching and doing nothing when your friends are being dicks is just as bad as being one of those dicks.

The worst thing he'd done in front of her happened when Will was missing. Steve and his buddies gathered around Jonathan Byers in the parking lot. They stole his bag, rifled through it until they found a bunch of pictures and his precious camera. She didn't think he could be so cruel, dropping something like that as if it were a ball that would bounce back up. The lens shattered and some pieces of the camera went flying. Jonathan fell to his knees. Carol and Steve tore up the pictures. It was horrible.

Now, Jonathan hadn't been completely innocent in the fight. It started because he took pictures of Nancy without her knowledge or permission. But he knew and even admitted it was wrong. What he did definitely didn't warrant his prized -and probably very expensive- possession destroyed.

She was disgusted with just how much of a jerk he could be. And at first he stayed a jerk, but then he changed -only a little- when Nancy was distraught over Barb's disappearance. He comforted her when she was around, and tried to find her when she wasn't.

Then something happened and he went full-on-dick mode. He willingly watched as his buddy Tommy spray-painted vile things about the sweet girl, and he painted them in places everyone could see. The fact that Steve didn't step in to stop his friends made her blood boil. She would have done something... but there was no way she could take on four people at once. She watched as Nancy -followed by Jonathan- found the sign, found Steve and his gang, and she lost it. He got a simple slap from her, and after a few choice words that were honestly so uncalled for, Jonathan stepped in to beat the shit out of him. The cops were called. Steve got away. Jonathan was arrested. It was bad.

He moped around after that day until Nancy came back to him. Why that girl forgave him she would never understand, but she did and they both seemed pretty happy. A full year of smiles on both sides, accompanied by their favourite third wheel with a camera. No more toxic friends, no more picking on people, no more shitty attitude. And he was no longer the 'King'. It suited him better, being one of the many 'Peasants' of his former 'Royal Court'; he was a better person in his new position.

Then those days where Nancy and Jonathan skipped school came and suddenly he was back to being miserable, but in a whole new way. Rumors spread about Nancy cheating on Steve with Jonathan, and the two of them running off together to get away from him. They were gross and probably wrong, and they made her sick again. Lies and rumors that came from shitty people always do, especially when they're about people she likes; and she liked the people they were gossiping about right now.

Steve looked depressed. His head hung, he wouldn't look at or talk to anyone, even his hair -his signature perfectly-styled hair- seemed to lose some of it's volume and shine. He was very obviously not in a good place with his only friends gone, and everyone spreading those dumb rumors probably weren't helping. Not to mention Billy riding Steve's ass everyday, harassing him because he was the 'New King'. But if Billy was actually the 'King' of Hawkins, she would gladly kill herself. He was more of a dictator than anything, and it was bullshit.

When the pair came back Steve actively avoided them, and he did so with a face full of wounds. Bruises so dark they were almost black, one eye purple and swollen shut, a split lip that would bleed when he opened his mouth to talk, little cuts along his cheekbones and one by his eyebrow. She'd gasped quietly the first time she saw how busted-up his face was. Wondered how exactly he ended up like that, hoping it was for a good reason and that he wasn't just being stupid again. She had a good feeling she was right and it wasn't like she was going to ask him. He wobbled as he walked, though, obviously dizzy. His eyes never focused on one thing for too long. It seemed like he was having trouble staying awake. He really shouldn't have been in school with what was probably a concussion.

But he didn't die, so, yay?

She found something interesting in his face -through all the bruising and swelling- during the month he was healing. He seemed happier despite being heartbroken -yes, heartbroken, she could tell- and smiled more, even when he wasn't actually happy. He wasn't the kind of happy he'd been with Nancy, or the type of happy he'd been with his 'friends', but he was happy. She thinks so anyways. But he keeps avoiding the Byers/Wheeler couple though, and she doesn't blame him. She would too, if she were him.

He even seemed sort of... accomplished. Not even when he was 'King' did he seem at all proud of himself. She liked this new Steve a lot better than the one from last year, and every year before that.

So once a week, every week until his face heals, she draws him. Different angles and different stages of healing, less bruises, less swelling, until he was finally back to his uninjured self; still looking a little proud of himself.

She's drawn countless faces over the years, every expression you could imagine, from almost every angle, yet Steve's beaten-to-a-pulp look is way more intriguing; more 'real'. She likes real. Instead of tearing them from her book like she usually does, she leaves them there, so she can go back and look at them wherever and whenever she wants.

The sketch that goes in the folder is one she does when she sees him hanging out with a group of Middle Schoolers. She notices Nancy and Jonathan's little borthers, along with Billy's little sister, and two boys she doesn't recognise. They crowd around him excitedly, one by one getting into his car, and he smiles at them. That smiles is small and sweet, the way a mother should look at her children, the way Jonathan looks at Will sometimes.

That smile is etched on paper to remind her that even when your life gets turned upside down, and someone breaks your heart, you can always stand back up and be happy with simple things; simple things like a pack of kids piling into the back of your car because you've appointed yourself their babysitter/big brother/temp-mom.

She found it cute.

She still does.

She slips one of her drawings into Steve's locker on her way out after school. It's of his face when he had only healed for about two weeks. The swelling of his eye gone, his bruises still dark but not so close to purple, and the split in his lip noticeable but not in danger of opening when he talked. The one that made him look how he seemed to feel the day she drew it.

She wrote a note on the back, smiling to herself just a little bit as she thought hard about which words to use, then folded it up and pushed it through the vent at the top of his locker.

Hopefully he doesn't find it creepy.