Felicity Devoe didn’t mean to become Billy Hargrove’s safe place. It just… happened. Somewhere between midnight knocks on her bedroom window and the way he never looks anyone in the eye during the day, they fell into a quiet, secret arrangement that asks for nothing and promises even less.
Margot *Bunny* Irving was once the girl everyone in Hawkins swore would never look back — the crown jewel of the cheer squad, the hometown darling with perfect pirouettes and a laugh that made boys ditch curfew. And across the hallway from all that sunshine stood Jim Hopper: the resident bad boy, the guy smoking behind the bleachers, the one who pretended not to care about anything… except maybe her.
Neptune, California is a town split in two: the rich kids with beachfront mansions and the rest of the population trying not to drown beneath them. At the center of it all are three best friends who know exactly how ugly Neptune can get — and keep digging anyway.
For centuries, the North Pole has run like clockwork under Bernard’s ruthless organization and endless devotion to Santa’s operations. Schedules never slip. Deliveries never fail. Emotions, however… remain strictly off the docket.
Sabrina Henderson arrives in Hawkins like a comet someone forgot to warn NASA about — brilliant, chaotic, all elbows and tripping hazards, and dragging behind her a trail of crystals, sea-creature doodles, and the kind of stubborn independence only an older sister can weaponize. She’s here for two reasons:
For the first time in her life, Lorelai “Rory” Ryder has no idea what she’s doing. She’s accomplished everything on her To-Do list. She left her small hometown of Meadowlark, Wyoming, went to college, and made a career for herself by doing her favorite thing: making pottery and being a ceramicist. But after a fatal car accident involving her toxic and abusive ex boyfriend, Robbie Colton, she moves back home to get away from him and to heal, she doesn’t tell her family what happened and she probably never will.
This story starts April of ‘86, where Calliope Gilmore, a senior at Hawkins High School, “accidentally” falls in love with the school freak. Calliope had talked to Eddie Munson before, they’d been good friends, smoked weed together on occasion, talked nerd stuff regularly in the school library after hours, kissed a couple times when they were high (both of them don’t talk about it even though they both really like doing it).
When a lead on the lost gold of the Ferdinand Magellan expedition resurfaces, Victor Sullivan realizes there’s one problem—he can’t finish the job without the second key.
Maeve Talon came to Hawkins with her cozy sweaters, Icelandic soft-girl energy, and zero intention of falling in love — and then Steve Harrington happened.
Charlotte “Lottie” Hawksley has always been a constant in Fred Weasley’s life—woven in so tightly that he never thought to question her place there. Summers spent at the Burrow and in her aunt’s seaside cottage blur together into a shared history of scraped knees, laughter echoing through gardens, late-night kitchen snacks, and letters sent just for the sake of staying close. The Hawksleys and the Weasleys have been inseparable for generations; their bond is old, warm, and unbreakable. So is Fred’s certainty that Lottie belongs here—even if he’s never quite examined what that means.
When Scott inherits the role of Santa Claus, he expects eternal Christmas chaos, rogue reindeer, and maybe the occasional elf uprising. What he doesn’t expect is a magical clause buried deep within the ancient contract: **Santa must be married by Christmas Eve, or the mantle — and the magic — will pass to someone else.**
Josephine Callahan comes home to Wabang with a business degree, a theatre-trained smile, and plans to turn the old Banks Boarding House into the most charming inn Wyoming has ever seen.