Chapter One: how to be a heartbreaker

A/N: So hey and welcome! Remy is definitely a piece of work initially - that will all eventually change. The pairing will ultimately be Steve/OC, although there is some Billy/OC.

This is how to be a heartbreaker

Boys they like a little danger

We'll get him falling for a stranger

If there was one thing that Hawkins took seriously, it was the impending arrival of Halloween. Merrill and Eugene had already started their latest argument over pumpkins, or at least that was the last thing Remy Saunders had heard before she'd said goodbye to her dad and left Hawkins Police Station to get to school.

Remy leaned against the side of Tina's car, smoking a cigarette and milling around the front of Hawkins High School. It felt weird to be a junior. Only this year and next year left, then she'd be out of high school altogether. What did she want to do with her life? Her parents were constantly asking, and Remy was no closer to having an answer for them.

A blue Camaro screeched into the school parking lot, making Remy roll her eyes. Why did guys drive like such assholes? Half of the time they parked crooked, and she hated having to listen to people slamming on their horns because someone had almost hit another person's car. The guy who got out had longish dirty blonde hair and wore double denim. At a glance, Remy had to admit that he was attractive.

"Who is that?" Vicki asked, her tone mirroring exactly what Remy was thinking

"I have no idea," Tina admitted, her tone becoming playful, "But would you check out that ass? Just look at it go."

He is definitely going to be her conquest at the Halloween bash, Remy thought. She couldn't wait for Tina's Halloween bash, in truth. Any excuse to get black-out drunk was totally fine by her. Besides, it wasn't like she could really have the party at her place. It'd be a firm 'no' from both of her parents - not that they were really home much in any case.

She'd just crash in Tina's spare bedroom like she had a million times before. Thank god Tina's parents were way cooler than hers. Tina hadn't officially started handing out the pumpkin-orange invites yet, but she'd been talking about the party for at least a week.

"What do you think of him, Remy?" Vicki, Tina and Carol all looked to her for approval. She was, after all, the queen bee of their year group.

"I don't know." Remy shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly, blowing out a ring of smoke. Carol had been trying to get Remy to teach her how to do it since the start of their sophomore year, but it was kind of just Remy's thing.

"Do you think he's hot?" Tina persisted.

"I guess." Remy knew that her disinterested responses weren't what the other girls wanted to hear, but she didn't care. She had made her disinterest in their basic fawning over boys evident from the beginning.

It was a cruel and vicious cycle. Remy indicated her lack of interest in a boy, another of the girls would pursue him, and Remy would end up fucking him. She'd always shrug it off as she had her disinterest in the beginning - she couldn't help that the guys liked her, that they wanted her more than they wanted her friends. Carol was steady with Tommy, but Tina and Vicki got disheartened. It was Remy reminding them of her place. She was the alpha, and she could get away with whatever she liked.

Remy noticed as Nancy Wheeler and Steve Harrington walked over to the school from the parking lot, holding hands. It was still weird to think she, Nancy and Barb Holland had all been best friends throughout middle school. It had only been in their freshman year that they'd started to drift apart. Nancy and Barb had remained close, but Remy...she'd started hanging around with the popular clique. Drinking, doing drugs, generally doing things that had earned her the derisive label of 'white trash' from Barb, which had seen any distance become the end of a friendship.

Barb had disappeared last year, not long after Steve and Nancy had started dating. Remy had no idea what had happened to her. It seemed no one did. People had stopped asking, and Remy's dad had said the case probably wouldn't ever be solved and not to keep digging about it.

Remy tossed her cigarette to the ground and stomped it out under her bright blue sneaker. She had English first, which was tolerable. She could stand the teacher rambling on about whichever Shakespearean play they'd be studying this term. Reaching into her bag, she withdrew her water bottle and jiggled it with a smug smile.

"I got us a little something to get us through first period."

"Is that vodka?" Vicki gasped, while Tina gaped.

Remy smiled, enjoying being scandalous. Someone had to be, in a town as boring as Hawkins. It wasn't a true term unless Remy had been suspended at least once, and she'd made a point to have her suspension for a different reason each time. Her dad had grounded her for three months when it had been for having sex in the boys' locker room.

"Of course it is. Just a sip, I don't need any of you throwing up or anything gross." She took the first sip, then passed the bottle around. Vicki coughed and spluttered, but Tina at least took it like a champ. Once the bottle was returned to her, Remy screwed the lid on tightly and offered them her most charming grin.

"Alright, ladies. Time for class."

Biology so wasn't Remy's thing, so she decided to cut class and head into town last. Usually she ducked through the gymnasium to head out, but today the senior boys seemed to have basketball. Undeterred, Remy headed around them to the exit, their sneakers squeaking across the gymnasium ball as they fought for dominance over a stupid ball. A ball which smacked Remy right in the head.

Stumbling, Remy almost tumbled onto the bleachers. Picking the ball up, she spun around with a fierce glower already on her face, ready to lay into whoever had been careless enough to almost kill her with a basketball.

"Sorry." It was the new guy who jogged over - the one that Tina and Vicki had been obsessing over since the start of the day. There was an apologetic smile on his face. "Didn't mean to get you."

"Well, you did." Remy folded her arms over her chest. "So I think I'm owed more of an apology than some half-assed 'sorry'."

"Really sorry then." The boy took the ball from her. She noticed that his eyes raked over her figure. "Billy Hargrove, by the way."

Remy's smile was as sweet as it was fake. "Don't care."

"You're one of Tina's friends, right?" Billy raised his eyebrows. "The girl having the Halloween party?"

"You could say that." Remy shrugged her back securely on her shoulders. "Tina's parties are always pretty epic."

"Guess I might have to go then." Billy grinned, glancing back at the other boys and tossing the ball in their direction when they started calling his name. "Will you let me know your name if I bring you some drinks at the party?"

Remy was pleased, but she concealed it with arched eyebrows, tossing her dark blonde hair back over her shoulder.

"Maybe."

Billy laughed. "You're a tough nut to crack."

Then he sprinted back off toward the basketball game. It didn't escape Remy's notice that Steve was staring in her direction, expression unreadable. They'd been friends once too - he'd hung around with their group before he'd started dating Nancy. She was such a nerd now. Remy wondered if she'd even had sex with Steve, or if she was waiting for marriage or something corny like that.

Her head throbbing, Remy headed out of the gymnasium. She was certain now that Tina wouldn't be hooking up with Billy at her party at all, because he'd be too busy trying to catch Remy's attention. Remy knew that she was pretty - she was on the tall side, slim with an hourglass figure, and big baby blue eyes. The boys knew Remy was pretty, too. She liked it that way.

Yet Billy's interest was somewhat dampened by that guarded look Steve had shot her. He'd be at the party - pretty much everyone in junior and senior year would have been invited, knowing Tina. That was, if Nancy didn't have some boring study night or something planned. They'd barely spoken a handful of words over the past few months, so why did he pay her any attention at all? He wasn't her friend, wasn't Nancy's friend.

Remy focused on Tina's party. She was renowned for being the centre of attention, the life of the party. Remy would indulge in any drink, and sometimes the occasional drug. She had to make an impression on this Billy guy if nothing else. She knew whatever her costume was, it had to be killer.

"How was school, honey?" Penelope Saunders was in the kitchen putting a potato bake in the oven when Remy crunched the keys in the lock and stepped inside. She seemed to love playing the classic housewife when she got home from work. She frowned when she saw the lit cigarette in Remy's hand. "Remy, I've told you, no smoking inside the house."

Remy rolled her eyes and tapped out into the ashtray on the kitchen bench. Her dad smoked like a chimney at the dinner table, but she wasn't about to get into that argument. He was home from work already, early for Kieran Saunders, reading a newspaper on the couch. He shot his daughter a disapproving look over the top of it.

"I hope you haven't managed to get yourself into trouble already."

Remy beamed. "Of course not, Daddy."

"Don't try that with me. That incident in the boys' locker rooms was completely unacceptable behaviour, do you know how embarrassing that was for me?"

Remy was extremely aware. In fact, the only time her parents paid her any attention was when she acted out. Sometimes, that was why she did it. Her dad barely spoke to her in the rare hours when he was actually home, and her mum was always out getting something done to her hair or nails or getting coffee with a friend. Remy was home by herself most of the time, so having both parents home tonight was truly some kind of celebration-worthy occurrence.

"I'm at Tina's for Halloween." Remy dumped her bag on the dining room table. "I'll probably stay the night."

"When was this discussed?" Kieran put down his newspaper. He had frown lines on his forehead that seemed permanently etched there. Paired with his receding hairline, Remy often thought he looked older than his forty-two years.

"Um, it's being discussed now."

"None of the attitude, young lady." Kieran pushed himself up from the couch. "What exactly does this Halloween event entail?"

"It's just a few friends, maybe a punch." Remy shrugged her shoulders. Lying about these events came easily to her now. That was why she stayed at Tina's - to avoid her parents suspecting too much of the truth.

"It's just a night out, Kieran," Penelope said calmly, "Besides, we won't be home that night in any case, perhaps it's best that Remy has company."

"Wait, you won't?" It wasn't surprising, just disappointing.

"We have a legal conference for your mother's work." Kieran was back on the couch, the newspaper in front of his face again. "We will be out of town for a few days. I've already notified the station."

"Great, so you can have Jim keep an eye on me?" Remy couldn't help the sarcasm dripping from her voice. Kieran and Jim Hopper, the chief of police, had been high school buddies. Whenever Kieran and Penelope went away, Jim would call in and check on Remy. She was seventeen years old and didn't need a babysitter, especially not a cop, but like her parents would listen to that.

"Again with the attitude." Kieran sighed.

"He's just making sure you're alright, sweetheart," Penelope assured her. Her mum did this thing where she opened her mouth and soothing words came out, like their softness could mask the hurt of constantly abandoning her only daughter.

"Look, I'm going to my room." Remy picked up her bag again and headed upstairs, taking care to slam and lock her bedroom door. She flopped down on the down and heaved a sigh. At least with her parents out of town, it wouldn't matter if she did go on a massive bender for Halloween. They wouldn't know. They probably wouldn't care. She'd answered the door to Jim high several times before, she could do it again.

"It's a cute costume," Tina commented, sitting on her bed and watching admiringly as Remy did a twirl in front of the mirror. Not that Remy needed Tina's validation - she already knew that she looked hot. A smug red-lipped smile crossed her face. There was a lot of skin on display, but what else would one expect from a Playboy bunny costume? Remy was looking to get laid, and she would be extremely surprised if this costume didn't deliver the desired result.

"You've still got plenty of time to make that awesome punch," Vicki piped up.

It was true that Remy made the best alcoholic punch, so good that you couldn't even taste the alcohol in it. Right now, she was too busy taking in how great she looked. Her stiletto heels made her legs look even longer, and the bodysuit definitely emphasised how small her waist was. She glanced over her shoulder at Tina.

"How many people are we expecting tonight?"

"Not sure." Tina shrugged. "Whoever shows up, really."

"I've still got the guest room," Remy stated. It was common knowledge that was her place at Tina's, but she needed to assert herself anyway, in case anyone got ideas about hooking up in there.

"I'll share with you," Vicki said eagerly.

"Maybe," Remy responded with a knowing smirk. Vicki looked a bit crestfallen at the reply, but composed herself and began filing her nails. If Remy was going to bring a boy to bed, there was no way she'd be sharing with Vicki.

"So, what do you think my chances with Billy are?" Tina shuffled across on the bed so that Remy could sit down.

"We don't really know much about him." Remy played with Tina's hair, working it into a loose braid. She knew how much her friends enjoyed any sort of attention or affection from her. "We don't know what he likes in a girl, you know?"

"That's so true," Tina admitted, as if she hadn't even thought about that. "I guess all I can do is give it my best shot, pay extra attention to him, you know?"

As the party's hostess, Remy sincerely doubted that Tina would have the time to dedicate to Billy, but she wisely remained silent on that issue. Instead she focused on finishing Tina's braid, picking up a hairband from the bedside table.

"Your hair looks so good like this."

"Do you think I should wear it like this tonight?" Tina asked, tilting her head to the side.

Remy shrugged. "Up to you. Whatever you think Billy would like more."

Personally, she didn't think it would matter how Tina wore her hair in the end, but she wasn't exactly about to tell her that. Remy never made it obvious who she would go for and when. She just made her move whenever she wanted to, regardless of the consequences.

This time, however, she didn't know just what those consequences would be.