#also bc i was talking about a faculty member and was like ‘everybody hates her’ and he was like

[yay-depression]

god is everyone in my family allergic to fucking normal conversation?? what the fuck??

[piastrinorris]

talk 2 me abt scream into nothingness!!

!!! okay!!

it's actually a v basic premise, i'd go as far as to say it's the most obvious choice for a photocheer fic, but there's just so little out there i'm gonna put it out there myself n_n

anyway, everybody lives/no upside down au, which means jonathan has no reason to leave hawkins and nancy has had no reason to break up with steve. but jonathan is still v infatuated w nancy - nothing canon happened, after all, so he's been the borderline creep/guy who doesn't think his actions have consequences for a While now. i am Decimating my poor boy in the name of character development

so they get paired together in a class for either a bog project or just as classmates + therefore work buddies throughout the year. at first jonathan skulks like "ik you don't want to be seen w me, i'm a creep i'm a weirdo [various other radiohead noises]" and just offers to do all the work bc that's usually how it goes. but chrissy cunningham doesn't shy from her work. she can do it all! he's just jon.

anyway she tries to get through to jonathan, to no avail. eventually twigs that he's into nancy. (this is where i stumble though tbh, bc i usually write high school content being senior year, which means steve won't be there. unless a) since this is AU he gets held back, or b) he stays as an assistant coach and jonathan resents him for "turning" nancy into the kind of person who sneaks away with a member of the faculty but i kinda hate those implications so idk)

chrissy offers to try and get between steve n nancy. if jonathan wants. (i can't stop the cheerscoops i'm sorry) jonathan gets ultra defensive and verbally attacks chrissy like ugh you girls are all the same 🙄 all you think people care about is romantic validation 🙄 and chrissy gets real upset by it and runs away. maybe isn't in class the next time. and jon starts to feel bad. he apologises to chrissy and she doesn't accept it but also she still sits next to him in class. and he tries to engage w her but she p much just sets her own tasks and jonathan his and they can just put their work together.

i'm also in two minds about whether jonathan starts to see the error of his ways as a result of just that, or whether to drag it out and have them lock horns back n forth a few times until finally they have EITHER (my brain is just neverending forks in the road lol, this is why i have anna to pick for me) one especially heated argument that just ~explodes into passion~, or they finally have a heart to heart and get it all out there.