63. Chapter 63

Chapter Sixty-Three

Steve and Jessica made it back home around mid-day on Monday. They learned that it had snowed there a little more as well, and school was going to start two hours late the next day.

As predicted, Dustin was excited about the space mission coming up, and there was even something about a Japanese space probe being launched soon after that Dustin talked about. Jessica was more interested in things that were happening on Earth and not in space, but she listened anyway, because she knew Dustin did care.

Jessica was glad they had a two-hour delay because at least it was a little warmer than it would have been had they gone to school at the regular time. The roads were clean, at least, so she didn't have to worry about ice or snow.

Steve was already in the parking lot when she got there – it was kind of an unspoken high school rule now that she parked beside him, so the spot was open for her to slip her car in – and he was still in his car, waiting for her to get there.

She moved into his side as soon as they were out of their cars and close enough to each other, and he wrapped an arm around her waist to pull her more tightly against him. She was always using him to get warm, but he never seemed to mind.

As was the usual case, Steve walked her to her locker before walking her to first period. She kissed him at the door before going in to take her seat. Billy was already inside in his usual seat beside hers, looking less than happy to be there.

He was wearing the brown coat she had given him – well, that her mom had made her give him. His arms were crossed over his chest and he only acknowledged her presence by arching an eyebrow when she sat down.

"What's wrong with you?"

"It's friggin' freezing outside. I was stuck inside all weekend because of the stupid snow."

"I'm sorry," she said, though her tone of voice probably gave away the amusement she felt at the small complaint he had. If her tone didn't, her trying to keep from grinning probably did.

"At least in California the sky didn't spit ice at you," he continued to grumble.

Jessica did feel a little bit of sympathy at that. Billy really wasn't used to the weather they were having.

"It is stupidly cold," she admitted.

"Yeah."

"Did you enjoy the break, at least?"

He shrugged. "It was okay. No big deal."

"Nothing ever is with you," she said quietly before turning her attention to the teacher, who had just called class to order.

Billy complaining about the weather became an almost daily routine. Jessica found it more amusing the more he did it, which she thought he picked up on because he sometimes overplayed it to the point of him being dramatic. It became her favorite part of English class.

One of the teachers reminded the students that they could sign up to take the SATs in the library, so Jessica and Steve went one day in early January to check the dates available. The earliest one was in March, but there was also one available in May.

"So?" she asked as they walked out. They would have to come back with money so they could sign up. "Which one?"

"Uh . . . May? It just seems we could prepare more for that one."

She smiled gently. "Okay. But Steve, you know we can only prepare so much, right? We can study the math and all, but we have to do comprehension on whatever they have for us to read there. And we won't know what topic we're writing about until we get the test."

"I know. Still . . ."

She didn't want to worry him at all, but she wanted to make sure he wasn't putting it off just to put it off.

"Did you want to do the one in March?" he asked.

"It doesn't matter to me. We've probably missed the deadline for fall classes anyway, so if we take the later test, we can apply over the summer. We would have graduated by then and we could focus only on college applications and not other school work. It might be less overwhelming."

"Less overwhelming sounds good," Steve said, and the relief in his voice made her heart clench.

"Hey." She grabbed his hand. "It's gonna be okay. If we get a score we don't like, we can retake it."

Steve nodded, and squeezed her hand before releasing it to pull her into a hug.

"Anyway, we don't have to worry about it right now," she said, reaching up to kiss his cheek. "I promised the kids a movie night at some point, and you said we could use your house."

"I did."

"So we have a three-day weekend coming up for Martin Luther King's birthday, so I was thinking maybe we could have the movie night that Saturday, because I'll have to work that Friday."

"That would be cool."

"I'll call Hopper and ask to make sure it's okay for El to come. She's never had a movie night before. Or a sleepover. Hiding her in Mike's basement doesn't count."

"Definitely not."

They began walking towards their cars.

"I'll also call Max's mom to ask. Or Billy's dad. He seems like the type that would want an actual invitation and not just us asking Max and then her asking them. He's super strict from what I've seen of him and from what Max has said."

"I mean . . . with Billy, he probably has to be."

"Hm. Maybe."

Later that day, Jessica did what she said she was going to and called Hopper and the Hargrove residence. She'd had to wait until she knew Hopper would be home, so it was around seven when she got in touch with him.

He seemed hesitant at first, but she explained that they would be at Steve's place. They wouldn't have El out in public. They were just going to stay in and watch movies and have pizza and snacks.

"She'll be safe with us, Hop."

"Yeah, I know she will, kid. I'm just being cautious."

Jessica completely understood that, but he couldn't hold onto El like that forever.

Hopper did agree to let El go, eventually, and Jessica heard El say 'thank you' in the background before they hung up.

Then came the much harder phone call to the Hargrove household. The gruff voice of Billy was the one that answered.

"Yeah?"

"Is that any way to answer the phone?" she heard another male voice say. Mr. Hargrove, probably.

"Billy?"

"Jess?" He was obviously surprised that it was her on the phone. "Uh . . . what's up?"

"Nothing. Uh, is it okay if I talk to your dad?"

"What d'you wanna do that for?"

She huffed out a brief laugh. "I want to invite Max to a movie night this Saturday night. I figured your dad would want to know about it from me and not her."

"Oh. Yeah. You sure you wanna invite the squirt over?"

"Billy, she's hardly a squirt. She's thirteen. And yes, I'm sure."

"Fine. I'll hand you over to my dad."

"Thanks."

It only took a few seconds for the older Hargrove's voice to come over the line.

"Miss Henderson?"

"Yes. Hi. Sorry for calling so late, but I wasn't sure when you got off of work."

"What's this about?"

"I'm having a movie night this Saturday for my brother and his friends and I was wondering if Max would like to come over. I thought it best to ask you directly."

"Well, who all will be there?"

"Me, my boyfriend, my brother, a few of his guy friends, and another girl. There will be adult supervision."

Technically she wasn't lying. She and Steve were adults.

"Will she be staying the night?"

"If that's okay, yeah. I can come pick her up, if it's easier that way. We were going to have pizza, so we'll be providing dinner."

"That'll be fine. Billy can pick her up on Sunday."

"Great. Thanks."

The next day the first thing Jessica heard when she sat down in English class was Billy saying, "So how come I didn't get an invite to your little movie night?"

She could tell from his tone that he wasn't being serious, but she still answered with, "I don't know, Billy. Why do you think you didn't get an invite?"

"Maybe because I'm too cool for the Nerd Herd?"

"The Nerd Herd?" She grinned at the nickname, not taking offense at all. "Anyway, that's not why, and you know it."

"Yeah, yeah. Not that I'd want to spend all night with a bunch of thirteen-year-olds anyway."

"Right. About that . . . I'm picking her up on Saturday."

"I know."

"But we're going to be going to Steve's. I didn't tell your dad that part because I didn't think he'd let Max go if he knew we would be staying at a guy's house."

"He wouldn't have. Why're you telling me?"

"Because you're picking her up on Sunday. You kind of needed to know where she'd be."

Billy nodded to show he agreed and then asked, "Why're you using his house?"

"Because it's bigger, mostly. Nancy and Jonathan might come too, and if they stay the night, we'll definitely need the room."

Nothing else was said about the movie night and class started not long after that.

The rest of the week was spent making sure the kids were good with the movie night happening that Saturday, which they were. They hadn't had a movie night in a long while, and Max and El had never been to one with them. It would be good to get together.

Nancy and Jonathan were planning on coming but not staying – much like the last movie night they'd had – and Jessica had told everyone to bring movies so they wouldn't have to rent them from the video store. Between all the people coming, they would have a good selection to choose from.

She was bringing "The Neverending Story" mostly because she knew it was a movie that the kids liked, but it was something she liked as well. She would also bring "Gremlins" as it was considered a horror movie even though it wasn't that scary.

Jonathan was bringing "Children of The Corn," which actually was a horror movie. Jessica had seen bits of it while working at the theater and she'd always thought the kids in the movie were freaky – evil kids in movies were always freaky, though.

Someone was bound to bring "Ghostbusters" as it was a favorite among the boys, and Steve had a selection of movies of his own. "Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom" had recently come out, and the kids had liked that as well, so that was always an option.

Jessica had no clue what El and Max liked, movie-wise, aside from knowing that El had started watching romance movies and soap operas because she'd had to spend so much time alone while living with Hopper. Movies like "Sixteen Candles" would probably be something El would like.

Nancy was planning on bringing "Footloose" which the boys might not like, but Jessica knew she would.

They probably wouldn't get to watch all of the movies, but they would definitely keep them occupied for most of the night.

That Friday Jessica went in to work at 5 like she normally did. She worked the ticket booth for the first two hours and then she was switched to concessions. The newest movie being played was "Beverly Hills Cop" and the theater had had a rush of teenagers coming in to see it around seven, so that was why her position had been switched even though she would have preferred to stay at the ticket booth.

It wasn't too bad, though. It was mostly just getting drinks from the machine and putting popcorn in a bucket. Some of the customers wanted candy added to their order, but that wasn't hard to do as the candy was sold in individual boxes.

Around 7:15 Billy strolled up to the counter, a girl named Vicki beside him. Jessica knew her, but they definitely didn't run in the same circles. She would have been part of Steve's old group of friends if they had been in the same grade. She was a grade below them, but she was still known for going to all the parties and leaving with a different guy each time.

"Hey, Jess," Billy said.

"Hey. What can I get you?"

"Medium popcorn, extra butter." He looked at Vicki. "You wanna share a Coke or you want your own?"

"We can share," she answered.

"Okay, a large Coke then."

"Comin' right up." She began to fill up a cup with Coke. "So, no Tommy this time?"

The only other time she had seen Billy at the movies was with Tommy and his group of friends.

"I dropped him about a month ago."

"Oh. Uh, probably a good decision on your part."

She placed the drink on the counter and turned to go fill up a medium-sized popcorn container, stopping halfway to drizzle some butter on it before filling the rest and putting butter on top as well.

Billy paid for the food and drink and then led Vicki away from the concession counter towards the theater room.

Jessica couldn't say she was surprised by Billy's choice in girls, but she was surprised that he had brought her to a movie on an actual date. He flirted with almost every girl he came by, and she had heard about him hooking up with them but hadn't heard anything about any actual dates.

Maybe now that he'd been in Hawkins for a few months he was finally settling down.