WILL and MIKE HAD MADE THEIR WAY BACK TO THE WHEELER'S HOUSE, sat quietly in the basement with candy crowding them.

Mike speaks up first, tilting his head down to Will and asking, "Do you wanna talk about it?".

Will shrugs and goes silent for a moment. Looking to the wall and shutting his eyes before responding. "It's like... Like I'm stuck,".

"Like, like, stuck in the Upside Down?" Mike asks softly, hanging onto each word Will speaks.

"No," Will sighs, shaking his head. "You know on a View-Master, when it gets, like..." He begins, trailing off while he searches his mind for the proper word.

"Caught between two sides?" Mike finishes for him.

"Yeah, yeah. Like that. Like one sides our world, and the other... The other slide is the Upside Down," Will nods, his voice going weak at the end.

He looks to Mike, hands trembling softly, "And... And there was this noise coming from everywhere. And then, I saw something," He says, eyes going wide as they revert into the floor.

"The Demogorgon?" Mike presses, worriedly.

"No. It was like this huge shadow in the sky. Only, it was alive. And it was coming for me," Will elaborates, eyes still boring into the floor.

Mike scoffs softly, staring at Will with fright. "Is this all real? Or is it like what the doctors say, all in your head?" He asks.

"I don't know. Just... Just please don't tell the others, okay?" Will looks to Mike, pleadingly. Mike looks down in response.

"Dustin and Lucas, they won't understand and I know Mars would get it. But, she's just so worried," He goes on, shrugging softly.

"She's always worried about us," Mike breathes out, a small sigh escaping him.

"Yeah. All the time. It's not good for her," Will nods. "We all drive her crazy, yeah?" He adds, a bittersweet smile on his face.

"More than crazy," Mike agrees. "I feel like I'm going crazy, too. I just feel so helpless when it comes to you guys. I can't do anything to protect you all," He goes on, shaking his head.

"Hey, if you're crazy, what does that make me?" Will asks, a small laugh following after.

"If we're both going crazy, we'll go crazy together, right?" Mike smiles to Will.

Will looks to him, chuckling softly. "Yeah. Crazy together," He nods.

♧

The next day, Mariella entered the school alone. Her dark green coat hanging loosely over her overall dress as she rubbed her eyes. She lost sleep from just imagining what she'd say to Mike.

Walking towards her locker, she realized how weird it was to walk around the halls alone. She was always with someone. Whether it was Will or Lucas or Mike or Dustin. She was always with someone. She shrugs as she enters the combination and opens the door.

Carefully, she places a few books in and grabs her notebooks for her classes before shutting it. Turning away from her locker, she scans the filled halls for her friends but can't seem to find anyone until she turned to the doors and sees Lucas entering with Max.

She notices how enthralling the conversation seemed from the amount of movement Lucas made with his arms. Mariella walks towards them, waving to Lucas who had noticed her. He waves back.

"After a week?" Max says in disbelief as Mariella settles next to Lucas and continues walking with them.

"Well, see, some other kid drowned at the quarry—" Lucas starts.

Mariella cuts in, waving her hand in Lucas' face with squinted eyes. "Are you seriously going to talk about this? Will doesn't like when we do," She says, shaking her head.

Lucas shrugs. "We thought it was Will, because his body was super decomposed," He goes on and explains. Mariella closing her eyes for a moment and rubbing her temple at the memory.

"What?" Max scoffs, stopping at looking to Lucas. "Okay, that's not funny,".

"You're right, it wasn't funny. Not at all," Mariella mumbles, sighing as she attempts to brush the memories away.

"It's not a joke, alright? This is public knowledge," Lucas affirms. "You can ask anybody.. Except Will because he is really sensitive about it," He goes on.

Mariella nods. "Do not even mention what happened last night," She adds.

"Okay," Max whispers, staring at them with wide eyes before turning away and walking off. Lucas and Mariella following shortly after.

♧

It was first period. Science. The party sat in their usual spots, except Dustin. He wasn't there. The usual routine was going in. Mr. Clarke explaining something as the boys listen intently as Mariella scribbles numbers over and over.

It had become some sort of habit — coping mechanism, in fact. She felt as if these number were the only things she had control over. It was logic. It had to make sense.

"The case of Phineas Gage is one of the great medical curiosities of all time. Phineas was a railroad worker in 1848 who had a nightmarish accident," Mr. Clarke begins, a picture of a human skull on the projector. For some reason, Mariella's eyes were ripped from her numbers and glued themselves to the screen.

"A large iron rod was driven completely through his head," He goes on, drawing a line through the skull. "Phineas miraculously survived. He seemed fine,".

"And physically, yes. He was. But his injury resulted in a complete change to his personality," Mr. Clarke tells them. Mariella turning a page in her notebook and beginning to write down all the information he spewed to them rapidly.

"So much so, that friends that knew him started referring to him as "No Longer Gage". At the time, this was known as the American Crowbar Case. Although, it wasn't—" He's cut off.

Dustin rushing into the room, stumbling over himself. "I'm so sorry, Mr. Clarke," He pants. "Really, I am so sorry. Please continue with the class," He rushes towards his desk. "Don't mind me. Really, continue, please. Thanks,".

"Dustin!" Mariella hisses, kicking his ankle and giving him a look. "Shut up," She whispers, Dustin looking to her and nodding, whispering a 'Sorry' out.

"As I was saying, it wasn't a crowbar, it was a rod," Mr. Clarke continues as Dustin turns to his friends, grabbing their attention.

"We have to meet. All of us. At lunch. AV Club," He says to them quietly.

"Why?" Mike asks, shaking his head.

"I have something that you won't believe," Dustin tells them, all of them nodding softly before leaning back into their desks.

Dustin then turns to Max, whispering to her to meet them. "Dustin!" Mr. Clarke says to him.

"Yes, my lord?" Dustin snaps back to him, eyes wide.

"Would you care to join the class now?" Mr. Clarke asks, agitated.

"Please, yes!" Dustin points, nodding as he goes down into his backpack.

"The case of Phineas Gage," Mr. Clarke says to him.

"Phineas Gage," Dustin repeats, sighing through his backpack.

"Page 104," Mr. Clarke goes on.

"Page 104," Dustin nods, opening the textbook and flipping through the pages.

"Focus," Mr. Clarke sighs.

"Focusing. Focusing," Dustin copies before turning back to Max when Mr. Clarke was teaching.

Mariella looks to Lucas who sat next to her, rolling her eyes. "Idiot," She whispers as Lucas stifles a laugh.

"And he began to curse, using terrible words that I don't dare repeat in here," Mr. Clarke begins again, Mariella scribbling that down and putting 'Sounds like Dustin' in brackets at the end.

Mr. Clarke lulled on, most of the class beginning to lose interest or just plain ignoring the lesson. And yet, Mariella DeGray went on and on, scribbling notes down in a messy scrawl. She was onto something and she knew it.