.𖥔 ݁ ˖꩜ 𝐒𝐈𝐗 ꩜ ˖𖥔 .

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ᴺᴼᵂ ᴾᴸᴬᵞᴵᴺᴳ : 【 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬 7 】

𝐍𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐘 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐉𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍 𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐄 nowhere to be found the next day. Molly could already hear the people whispering as she and Steve walked into school. She definitely began worrying about Steve. With everything going on, she desperately didn't want him to do anything stupid but he wasn't saying a word to her so how could she know what to prevent?

When math came around again, Molly felt the familiar singe of Billy's eyes on her. She rolled her eyes and passed her copy sheet behind her without a second thought to him.

She thought of what they could be planning at Hawkins lab and if they planned on doing anything with Jonathan, Nancy, or even Will. And all this activity ran the risk of alerting the Soviets again. The last thing she needed was them back on her tail, still using the same identity they gave her. As much as she doubted it, she prayed the American school system was secure. As much as the people around her seemed to ignore it, Molly never forgot that there was still a Cold War going on between her two countries.

Suddenly hearing something coming up behind her, Molly ducked. However, instead of a grenade as her on-edge thoughts led her to believe, it was just a scrunched up ball of paper. She held it below her desk as she read it.

"See you in gym for our rematch"

Ugh, Billy. She rolled her eyes and scrunched it back up. The last thing she needed right now was more distractions from the local peacock. She couldn't take her mind off Hawkins lab for a moment. It could literally be life or death for her and, despite previous declarations, Molly actually wanted to continue living, at least until the end of the school year. Once she graduated, they could destroy her life all they wanted. Once school ended for her, she wouldn't have to keep up appearances. She could go out on her own, maybe hitchhike to Chicago and take the Soviets far away from the little town where she had made friends. They would have a final glorious battle in Chicago, and if she survived, she would fake her death, return to Hawkins, come up with some normal story to tell her friends and blackmail whoever she could find into giving her an American citizenship. If she died, she'd drag those Soviet monsters down with her. Even if she was a monster, isn't the creator of such more of a monster themselves? Frankenstein theory and whatnot.

Throwing her out of her thoughts again, the bell rang and the rest of the students packed up their things. Molly quickly followed suit and returned to her locker. She realised she had gym next and that meant more basketball with Billy. She just couldn't lose him.

↻ ◁ II ▷ ↺

The gym class was warming up by playing a couple practice rounds in which Billy got the chance to somewhat kick the shit out of Steve Harrington. He'd annoyed Billy ever since he first saw him throw his arm around Molly's shoulder, when he had no idea about his little 'King Steve' reputation.

When he stole a pass from him, Billy started taunting him, "King Steve! King Steve, everyone! I like it, playing tough today. Like taking candy from a kid instead of a baby."

"Jesus, do you ever stop talking? Come on!", Steve shot back.

Molly had gotten changed and during that round, she walked in to find Billy pushing Steve to the ground before scoring a goal. The sight of her friend getting pushed around frustrated her so Molly called Billy's attention in the best way she could think of.

"Hey, Hargrove! Save some of that fire for me," she called out, running up to the court and helping Steve up.

She felt guilty for seeming less concerned for Steve but if anyone could take Billy's fire, it was her. Redirection was her best tactic when it came to Billy.

"I was wondering when you'd show, Gordin," he called back before she got closer, "And I've got plenty of fire saved for you."

"Good," she looked him straight in the eye before swiftly snatching the ball off him and officially beginning their rematch.

Neither of them noticed, but the rest of the class groaned, realising it was going to be a repeat of the previous day and hardly anyone else would get any practice.

˖𖥔 .

Although she initially had her frustrations about it, Molly found her anxiety quelling once she started vigorously fighting Hargrove on the court again. It allowed her mind to give its all to what was happening in front of her, something that had hardly ever happened at school before. Initially, Molly feared this investment would be a setback in case something bad really did happen and she needed to divert her attention elsewhere, but the more she played, the calmer she felt, it was possibly the calmest she'd felt in ages. Its a strange thing to say about an intense basketball match, but for her, it was the most zen activity. She was still keeping extremely physically active, her mind was sharp with focus, yet her life was in no danger. And all this was perfectly accentuated by her passionate desire to whoop Hargrove's butt. And strangely, it was all thanks to him.

If he hadn't given his all, this would've been a bore for Molly and her mind would have naturally drifted back to all her anxieties, yet since Billy was fighting so vigorously against her, he made it perfect for her. For such a long time, it felt like she had either been fighting against a wall of daggers or a wall of clay. No inbetween. Yet finally, when she fought against Billy, he stood his ground. He didn't pierce into her skin or collapse on contact. He was a brick wall. She found her equal. And he felt wonderful.

The match was also a highlight of Billy's day. Finally, Molly would stop giving all her attention to that idiot, Harrington. He finally had her all to himself. And the best part was that this was her at her strongest. She was dialled all the way up to a hundred and it was all for him. It was a sheer battle of passion between them and it was such a delight to both feel all her strength thrown out onto him and to throw all his onto her.

However, this paradise couldn't last forever. Molly realised there was only a short amount of time left in the period and the realisation staggered her. She missed the shot that would've won her the game.

Coach whistled, "Draw! Period's over. Shower time, boys."

"I guess another rematch is in order, Hargrove," Molly sighed and packed away the ball before heading to the showers.

Billy looked at her in confusion. She missed. She hadn't missed a single shot since the first fifteen minutes into the game the previous morning. What's more is, it looked like she missed on purpose. She was just about to make the shot but then she looked like she realised something and then missed. That shot could have won her the game. Could she... could she have missed on purpose, because of Billy?

That joke he'd started about their rematch came about because they draw'd the first time they played. And now it looked like she missed on purpose and proposed another rematch with him. Well, what it really looked like was she was looking for an excuse to spend time with him, finally falling for his charms. But just earlier in math, she acted like he was a pain in her ass. What was going on with her? Did she think he was irresistable or annoying?

As the boys were showering, Billy stared over at Steve in jealousy and disbelief. This was the guy who had that skillful, genius, powerful girl who nearly whooped his ass at basketball, chasing after him like a little puppy, ignoring her in favour of his prissy girlfriend who doesn't even like him anymore. What the hell was so special about Harrington? Why did she spent what felt like every waking moment with him? Why did she walk to class with him? Why did she ride in his car? Why did she stay by his side despite how wrecked he was getting over some other girl?

Billy continued to taunt Steve, "Don't sweat it, Harrington. Today's just not your day."

"Yeah, or your week," Tommy H chimed in, "You and the princess break up for one day, she's already running off with the freak's brother," he laughed before seeing Steve's expression, "Oh shit, you don't know. Jonathan and the princess skipped town yesterday. Still haven't shown. But that must just be a coincidence, right?"

"Don't take it too hard, man. Pretty boy like you has got nothing to worry about. Plenty of bitches in the sea," he said with venom in his voice. To add insult to injury, Billy then turned off Steve's shower, "I'll be sure to leave you some."

As he walked off, Billy couldn't deny that the venomous feeling he felt singeing his chest whenever he looked at Steve was jealousy. What did he think he was doing with her anyway? Everyone knew his ex had run off with that same loner Molly was talking to at the party. The guy already blew it with that priss, couldn't he just let him have Molly? Selfish, arrogant prick.

˖𖥔 .

When the day ended, Molly pondered if she should tell Steve about Jonathan and Nancy's plan. On one hand, he had been very good at keeping her true identity a secret and it would be a good way to both prove that she wasn't against him in his whole 'divorce from Nancy' and to make him feel better when he sees that she hadn't just immediately moved onto Jonathan, which was a weak spot for him. On the other hand though, it would be breaking Jonathan's trust and Molly was nervous that Steve would let things get out of hand like he did last year and would do something rash, however this could be slightly more life-threatening than graffiti calling his then-girlfriend a slut.

Finally, Molly decided not to tell Steve. If she was going to treat this like a proper mission, everything had to remain confidential. This could indeed be life or death so there was no room for risk. Molly could begin to tell that Steve knew she was keeping something from him but she couldn't cave just because he was going through a rough breakup.

Just as she was about to get into Steve's car with him, Molly noticed something going on between Billy and who she assumed was his younger sister. She had noticed they didn't seem particularly close but she didn't want to assume anything before learning more. She got a sour feeling when she saw Billy staring at one of his sister's friends with that same hateful stare she came to know from him. Molly realised it was actually one of Will's friends, Lucas. It was nice that Billy's sister was making friends with good kids, however it certainly seemed Billy had a problem with it.

She started heading over. Even if she looked like a complete weirdo, she didn't want anything bad to happen between Billy and his sister, and she knew Billy's strength. She could take it but she was by no means a normal girl, let alone a normal child like Billy's sister. Molly would be lying if her actions weren't influenced by her intense feelings of guilt about her sister's death. If she couldn't protect her own little sister, she could at least protect someone else's.

She could hear their conversation growing more tense. She hesitated for a moment behind the car when she thought things calmed down for a moment.

"... I'm stuck looking out for you," she heard Billy say.

"What would I ever do without you," his sister said.

"HEY!"

In that moment she jumped back into action and appeared in front of Billy's window. Just in time too. She saw he had grabbed her arm.

"Hi," she smiled at Billy, pretending she didn't just see him quickly drop her arm, "Sorry for interrupting, but I thought we could take our rematch to one of the courts at Lincoln Park, maybe sometime this weekend? Tomorrow?", she lowered her voice, dropped the perky smile, "We just seem to be getting nowhere with... all these people around. You could show me your moves, I could show you mine?"

She waited for him to give her an answer. He finally said, "Sure. I just gotta get this brat off my back," his frustrated eyes, tracing over to Max.

She then pulled his chin back to face her, leaning in so very close, "Hey. I thought I told you to save your fire for the court," she then traced her eyes down his body, leaning in close enough to kiss, "And for me."

She then began walking off, but not before going to his sister's window and saying with a gentle smile, "I'm Molly. And you are?"

"Max," she nervously muttered out.

"It's nice to meet you, Max," she said softly to her before leaving.

Molly came to understand that for whatever sexually-driven reason, Billy refused to ever bully Molly in any way, even if most of his frustration came from her. Her main source of this theory came from his treatment of Steve. After what he said to her at the party and the way he always stares at both her and Steve from across the parking lot every afternoon, she refused to believe that all this torment and malice towards Steve came purely from wanting to upstage him in some popularity contest. She suspected he was taking his sexual frustration over Molly out on Steve.

It was more than likely that his unkindness towards Max was to do with something else entirely, likely something going on at home, however it seemed the smartest course of action for protecting Max would be to divert Billy's attention. Yes, she wasn't doing any diversion for Steve's sake but that was because she knew Steve could take it. It was clear by now that Steve genuinely didn't care about Billy and was just upset over his breakup with Nancy. She wasn't going to whore herself out to Billy just to make her friend feel a little bit better. She'd whore herself out to Billy to help Max. Max was just a child, even if she had been putting up with this for a long time, she shouldn't have to.

If she tried directly telling Billy not to harm Max right off the bat, he'd probably just roll his eyes and disregard her for as long as they continued to know each other. She knew well by now that the way to get Billy's attention was vague sexual distractions. Of course, she couldn't simply offer him sex, he'd call her desperate. He had already turned down far prettier and more popular girls than her. But the key to his heart appeared to be basketball.

And it was a key only Molly seemed to wield.

When she got back to Steve's car, Steve asked her, "What were you doing over there?"

"I just prevented child abuse, you're welcome," she said as she got into the car, providing no elaboration.