1st Day of School

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/53482429.

Rating: General Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: Gen
Fandom: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Relationship: Robin Buckley & Steve Harrington
Characters: Steve Harrington, Robin Buckley
Additional Tags: Pre-Canon, Platonic Soulmates Robin Buckley & Steve Harrington,
Robin Buckley & Steve Harrington Are Best Friends, References to
Canon, Stranger Things Book: Rebel Robin, Canon Compliant, Robin
Buckley has a crush on Tammy Thompson, No beta we die like Barb,
One Shot
Language: English
Series: Part 2 of Platonic Stobin Childhood Friends AU
Stats: Published: 2024-02-02 Words: 1,178 Chapters: 1/1
 1st Day of School
by Kurtzworld

Summary

The first day of school in 1983. Steve is a junior, Robin is a sophomore.

Notes

If you saw that I uploaded this previously, no you didn't.

See the end of the work for more notes

 August 15, 1983

Why did I let my mom talk me into a perm? Is the first thing Robin thinks when she looks at
herself in the bathroom mirror. Her next thought is that she knows exactly why she let her
mom talk her into a perm.

Tammy Thompson. Tammy freakin’ Thompson.

She first met Tammy at one of Steve’s basketball games during her freshman year. And by
‘met’ she means that they ended up sitting next to each other. They didn’t really talk past
learning each other’s names. Well, she learned Tammy’s name. Robin still wasn’t sure if
Tammy had heard her respond.

There’s just something about Tammy that captivates her. She’s pretty. She’s smart. She’s
cool.

And she has a killer voice.

But anyways, back to the hair. In her own foolish attempt at being cooler, she let her mom
take her to a salon, and she ended up with…a mistake.

She should have heeded Steve’s warning.

Robin tries to fix her hair one last time before giving up. She walks out of her bathroom and
starts gathering her school supplies. She's shoving her notebooks into her backpack when she
hears Steve's car outside. Robin takes a peek out the window, and sure enough, Steve's
maroon BMW is parked next to her front yard. She can see him jamming out to something on
the radio. Robin smiles.

Starlight, star bright

Steve is in his car, drumming his fingers along to the song on the radio, when Robin finally
exits the house. He lets out a sigh of relief and lowers the window of the passenger seat.
“We're gonna be late!” He calls out to her.

“Cool your jets, Stevie.” She says as she gets into the car and closes the door behind her. “We
still have plenty of time.”

Now, Steve loves Robin. Really. He does. But she doesn't have the best concept of time. She
has the tendency to focus on one thing for what many would consider too much time. Steve is
the opposite. He has trouble putting focus on anything, for any amount of time. Luckily they
kind of balance each other out.

Robin is looking through the glove compartment for the cassette tape that they usually listen
to when she pauses. She listens to the song on the radio with interest.

You must be my lucky star

“Who is this by?” She asks.

“No idea.” Steve states. “She's a good singer though.”

Their drive to school is filled with their usual banter, discussions about the clubs they're
joining, the classmates they're hoping to avoid, etc. They drive into the school’s parking lot,
which is almost completely full. Steve drives around until he finds an empty spot. Any relief
he feels is cut short once he realizes why the spot is empty. He reluctantly parks his car, and
Robin rushes to get out before he even turns off the engine. Steve follows after her,
complaining all the way.

“Well this is just great.” He says sarcastically. “We got stuck next to Munson.”

Who cares? Let’s go.” Robin says.

“If he scratches my car-”

Robin interrupts him. “Let’s go!”

Because Steve is one year above her, he and Robin don’t have many classes together. The
only exceptions are history with Mrs. Click (or as Robin later knows her, Mrs. Clickity-
Clack.) which is their first period, and lunch. Though that’s not even a class.

Steve and Robin run into Mrs. Click’s class just as the bell rings. To their disappointment,
there are no seats directly next to each other for them to sit in. They walk past Mrs. Click,
who gives them a critical look. Robin ends up with the seat behind Steve’s. And Steve ends
up sitting next to…

Tammy Thompson.

Robin sees Tammy look towards Steve. There’s something in the way she looks at him that
makes Robin uncomfortable. Thankfully, Steve doesn’t seem to notice Tammy’s stare (or if
he does he just doesn’t care). Robin smiles at that, though not enough for anyone to notice.

First period goes by rather quickly, since there’s really nothing to do but take stuff home for
parents to sign. Once they leave the classroom, Steve and Robin head to their lockers. From
there they don’t see each other until lunch time.

The cafeteria is a frenzy by the time Steve and Robin get there. They're in the lunch line,
waiting behind Sheena Rollins, who has continued her theme from last year by wearing an all
white outfit with the exception of a pair of pink bauble earrings. They’re also just ahead of a
group of teens that Robin had met earlier in band.

Robin and Steve find an empty table nearby and take a seat. Steve takes a bite out of his
cornbread before speaking. “So, how’s band?”

Robin scrunches her nose in disgust. “God, you are such a boy. Close your mouth, dingus.”
Despite being grossed out, She still answers him, because why wouldn’t she? Band isn’t
really what she expected, but it’s not bad (not all of it anyways). The band teacher, Miss
Genovese, is a strict woman with a bit of a short temper. She’s halfway through a rant about a
new classmate of hers, Dash Montague, when she sees Tammy Thompson sitting at a table
across the cafeteria. She’s sitting with the other cheerleaders, right next to Chrissy
Cunningham. Robin stares as Tammy throws her head back and laughs at something that a
cheerleader in front of her says.

Robin is brought back to reality when Steve snaps his fingers in front of her face. “Robs, you
alright?”

“Yeah, why?” She asks.

“You spaced out mid sentence.”

“Oh.” Robin says after a moment. “No, yeah. I’m fine. I guess I just lost my train of thought.
What was I talking about again?”

Steve chuckles. “You were talking about Dash Montague and how much of a douche he is.”

“Right.”

The rest of the school day goes by pretty quickly. Once the final bell rings, Steve packs
everything up and leaves the classroom. He makes his way through the crowd until he gets to
the school's main entrance.

He's leaning against his car when he spots Robin exiting the school. Once they're both in the
vehicle, Steve puts the key in the slot and starts the engine. Getting out of the parking spot is
easier than it had been getting in since Munson's van is now long gone.

It's on the way home that Robin brings up their plans for France.

“So I've been thinking-”

“A dangerous hobby.” Steve jokes, interrupting her.

“Anyways,” Robin says “I've been thinking that we should probably find some maps so we
could plan where we want to go.”

“And how would we do that?”

Robin shrugs. “I'm not sure, there's probably a book I can check out. But before we start
planning, we've got to pass our classes first.”

“I'm aware.”

“We can't afford to slack off this year Stevie, Paris is on the line.”

“Don’t worry, Robs.” Steve says with a smile. “We’ve got this.”
End Notes

- 'Lucky Star' came out at the beginning of Madonna's career, so I don't think Steve and
Robin would know who she is yet.
- Robin is not currently aware of her crush on Tammy Thompson.
- Sheena Rollins, Miss Genovese, and Dash Montague are all characters from Rebel Robin
- I headcanon Tammy Thompson as a cheerleader

I wanted to write this as a first chapter to a full fic but I figured I would have this and my
other chapter ideas as separate one-shots, and then do the canon as one full fic.

Please drop by the Archive and comment to let the creator know if you enjoyed their work!