jhayess

[jhayess]

who: jenny hayes & open what: a damsel in distress tbh where: hawkins community pool

normally, jenny wouldn’t be caught dead at the public pool. they had their own pool in the backyard, of course, but while that was good for sunbathing and socializing with her friends, it didn’t give the best views. her friends always liked watching the lifeguards at the pool or scoping out the swim team as they did offseason workouts at the club. her family’d had a membership at the country club for as long as she could remember, but for some reason, her father’d forgotten to pay the membership fee for the month of july. that left jenny with two choices: tan at her place and be subjected to her mother’s complaining or go to the public pool and schmooze with hawkins lower tax bracket.

for a few days, she’d suffered through afternoons lounging at home. erica sinclair, tracy tyler, and mindy novak kept her company. but the girls were all busy today and jenny couldn’t stand the idea of listening to her mom on the phone with her dad asking why he wasn’t back from his conference yet for another day. so she’d packed up her beach bag and set off for the pool. 

she’d spent a lazy afternoon tanning and eyeing heather holloway from behind a book she wasn’t even reading and even got some boy to buy her an ice cream while she ignored his stories of his exploits on the football team last year. jenny knew the kid, of course. he’d rode the jv bench all year. but a couple of well placed eyebrow raises and smiles and she’d gotten what she’d wanted. as usual. 

a few hours later, she headed for the parking lot to go home. there would be a party to go to or a friend to bother this evening, after dinner with her grandparents, of course. but when she put the key into the ignition of a sportscar she’d never wanted but her daddy had bought her as an apology for missing her cheerleading senior night, the engine sputtered, turned over, and made a wheezing noise that even jenny could tell wasn’t quite right. “are you serious?” she said, like the car was going to talk back to her and slammed a palm into the steering wheel for emphasis. the car, predictably, did nothing but cough some more. jenny rolled down the window and killed the ignition, leaning out into the parking lot and waving at a passerby.

“hey. you. yeah. you think i could grab a lift?” she jutted her lower lip out in a pout and tipped her head. “unless you’re any good with cars...?” asking for help was something jenny hated doing, but she needed to get home. she had better things to do than hang out at the public pool. important things. meaningful things...at least, she hoped she did.

[jhayess]

SYDNEY PARK as MAKANI YOUNG in There’s Someone Inside Your House (2021)

[jhayess]

Walk the Moon // Jenny

You got curves like the ocean, gonna take it in slow motion Got emotions that’ll make it last You got freckles on your shoulder, ammunition like a soldier And visions, ambitions to be the best

[jhayess]

“What you said about me. You’re wrong.”

[jhayess]

SLEEPOVER // HAYLEY KIYOKO

[jhayess]

She swallowed down the urge to say: I’m sorry, I don’t hate you, I just kind of hate myself right now. Instead, she coolly looked away, which was the opposite of an apology.

Tamsyn Muir, The Locked Tomb: Gideon the Ninth (via antigonick)

[jhayess]

[SYDNEY PARK, CISFEMALE, SHE/HER/HERS] who’s that? oh it’s [JENNIFER “JENNY” HAYES]. i hear they’re [EIGHTEEN] and are known as [THE DADDY’S GIRL] around [THE COUNTRY CLUB]. they’re also a [FRESHMAN] at [PURDUE HCC]. they’re known to be [CHARMING & OUTSPOKEN] and [MEAN & STUBBORN]. some people say they remind them of [FOOTBALL GAMES UNDER THE LIGHTS, SUMMERS BY THE POOL, GOSSIPING IN THE GIRLS’ BATHROOM, GETTING MANI/PEDIS, & PARTIES AT THE LAKE HOUSE]. 

basics.

full name: jennifer anne hayes. nicknames: jenny, mostly. sometimes jen (though the people who call her that? generally not friends. she doesn’t go by jen as a rule.) gender/pronouns: cisfemale/she/her/hers. sexual orientation: she’s, like, super gay, dude. she’s also so deep in the closet that she’s found narnia. birthday: august 22nd. star sign: leo. charismatic, confident, determined...and a bit vain, pretentious, and arrogant. occupation: incoming freshman at purdue, on a cheer scholarship and studying hospitality or something equally boring that she doesn’t really care about. she doesn’t have to work because her dad’s a doctor. lucky her.

personality.

positive traits: outgoing, clever, charming, confident, ambitious. negative traits: confrontational, self-absorbed, vain, mean, cocky. hogwarts house: i know jkr sucks and also this isn’ a thing in the 80s but she’s a really MEAN gryffindor. the asshole kind. think james potter at his absolute WORST. that’s jenny. alignment: chaotic evil. ennegram: 3w2. personality type: esfp.

backstory.

born to the hayes family on a rainy august night, jenny arrived on the scene just like she did everything in life: early and on her terms. she was breech, supposed to be a scheduled c-section, and born in the month of september but...some things don’t go as planned. (after an emergency c-section with her youngest, mrs. hayes vowed that she was done having kids).

her father is a surgeon at hawkins general hospital, which means he’s a busy guy and not around much. her mother took care of raising her and her three older siblings. and for the most part, it was fine. her parents aren’t in love at all and should probably be divorced by now, but dr. hayes’ income supports her mom -and jenny’s- lavish lifestyle, so they’re together “for the kids”...but mostly for the cash.

the hayes family lives in the rich part of hawkins, in a housing development full of snobby people with too many cars in the driveway and lots of kids. they have a lake house on lover’s lake, a vacation home in the carolinas, and their own pool in their hawkins home, which made jenny’s house a popular place to bring the kids when they were little...and a popular party spot when they got a bit older.

jenny’s is the youngest of four and she owns it. being the baby of the family, she got pretty much whatever she wanted growing up. her dad works long hours as the hospital and her mom just didn’t seem to care outside of making sure her daughter looked good, so she was able to buy friends and popularity fairly easily throughout middle and high school.

growing up with a mostly absentee father and a mom who was exhausted and relied a little too heavily on her wine meant that jenny was free to do pretty much whatever she wanted. as a kid, she played almost every sport imaginable, but ultimately settled on a love of cheerleading because her siblings played sports and she liked cheering for them and tumbling...and, as she got older, because it opened the door to popularity. because jenny doesn’t get a ton of validation at home, she seeks it out elsewhere: from teachers, friends, and boys, mostly even though she doesn’t even like them very much.

she’s known she likes girls since she was ten. when her friends were losing their minds over tom cruise, she was obsessing over the likes of molly ringwald. when her friends were drooling over han solo, she was falling for princess leia. it’s not something she’s exactly dealt with. she’s hooked up with a few of her friends, teammates, and high school classmates since then. it’s not because she’s worried about what her parents think. they probably wouldn’t care either way...but it would  probably fuck up her reputation. it’s hawkins, indiana in the 1980s. freaks are ostracized. she knows because she was doing the ostracizing. and popularity is important to her so...she figures she’ll just wait until she leaves for college to figure that shit out. it’s not important anyway.

the first girl jenny ever kissed was taken by the mindflayer in 1985. when she started acting weird and standoffish, jenny took it as a...sign. that maybe she shouldn’t be doing that. (and that maybe she was worse at reading people than she thought.)

this still weighs on jenny a bit. the girl wasn’t just a random classmate. it was one of jenny’s best friends, cheer teammates, somebody who jenny trusted until she didn’t. it was puppy love, they were just kids but...you never forget your first, you know? and that girl’s just...gone. she’s kind of paranoid of getting too close to anybody ever again.

since she was a little girl, she’s always dreamed of the white picket fence, 2.5 kids, and a doting husband so she can keep doing the stuff she likes to do. the only problem is...she’s not sure she wants a husband if they’re not just like her dad: never present and leaving her alone. but it’s still a dream -one her mother is obsessed with- so...that’s the plan, after college.

but while she’s in college? she’s ready to mess around and figure some stuff out. marriages were never supposed to be about love anyway, right?

unbeknownst to jenny, her dad’s about to lose his license for giving out pain pill prescriptions without cause. he’s going to lose his job, probably flee town, and leave her mom to pick up the pieces...and with no access to the bank account dr. hayes is the sole proprietor of.

because of this, her partial cheer scholarship? not going to cut it. she’s gonna be stuck at HCC for the foreseeable future, much to her chagrin.

Plots n stuff

bring me ALLL the flings. i want guys she’s hooked up with to try and convince herself she’s not gay. i want all the girls she hooked up with while drunk at parties or just because she wanted to. bring me a girl she’s actually very much in love with but has convinced herself she can’t be. i want it all.

her friends are probably mostly the popular crew of the party’s time at hawkins high. she’s a cheerleader. she runs with the jocks. she probably knows some of the kids who’d have been juniors or seniors when they were freshman, too. (but she also really, really respects erica sinclair’s bite, so they’re fairly close, too.)

a beard would be fun. maybe a mutual beard, depending on the guy? idk. talk to me!

she and the party, uh, aren’t really on the same page. she was probably outright rude to most of them in middle school and pretended they didn’t exist during high school (except for you, max mayfield. you, she remembers.)

she also had a feeling about will byers. gaydar is a thing! i think part of her reaction to his death was because...she could see herself in his place if she let herself exist like she wants to once she leaves hawkins. oops. 

she does have older siblings! i’m not sure if she’s particularly close to them or if they’re relevant in her life but if you wanted to pick one up we can chat and flesh it out for sureee.

she’s completely oblivious to any and all supernatural happenings in hawkins and will probably remain that way. like you could tell her her not-girlfriend was taken by the mindflayer and she’d roll her eyes at you and ask if you were high. she simply does not really care about All of That stuff. (here for a good time, not a long time.)