THEY FOLLOW JOYCE THROUGH THE SCHOOL AND OUT THE FRONT DOORS, watching from the schools entrance as she leads a dazed Will towards the car.

Max looked to the four of them, all of them looking desensitized to what had happened — the fear and emotion flooded from them and just replaced with blankness. "Okay, that totally freaked me out. Did that not freak you guys out?" She says, looking for some sort of reaction. Any type of reaction. Anything but their blank stares and squinted eyes.

They all stay silent for a moment before Lucas speaks up, staring as Joyce gets Will into the car. "Two episodes in two days,".

"It's getting worse," Mike responds almost instantaneously.

Mariella sighs, leaning into Mike and resting her head in his shoulder. "Somethings wrong. Something really bad is happening," She mumbles softly.

"You think it's True Sight?" Lucas asks the party, looking between them.

Max stares back at him. "What's True Sight?".

Mike wraps an arm around Mariella, her closing her eyes — attempting to forget all that worried her before he turns to Lucas and shaking his head solemnly.

"It's nothing," Lucas shrugs, looking away as the car begins to pull away from the school and speeds off down the road.

In that moment, Mariella couldn't help but feel every ounce of dread in her body flood her mind. Will, oh, how she just wanted him to be happy. Eleven, the girl who seemed to have impacted her so deeply in only a few days time. Of course, the most minuscule but seemingly most terrifying to her, her feelings about her best friend, Mike Wheeler. And so, in pure fear and exhaustion from the world, she leans into Mike's arm and lets out a sigh of defeat.

♧

The next day, Mariella found herself sat in her dad's car with her backpack on her lap. It was 8 in the morning. "Dad?" She starts, turning her head to face him.

He nods, keeping his eyes on the road before responding, "Yeah?".

Mariella goes silent for a moment, pulling her bottom lip under her top while blinking a few times. "Do you remember how you told me about those cases? From Hawkins Labs? How they were unethical?" She asks, rambling on.

Charlie nods again. "Yes, I remember them. The cases were dropped. Why?" He tilts his head, furrowing his brows before catching a glimpse of how his daughter wore the same expression. It was the look they both did when they were mentally writing down each thing they heard.

She squints her eyes before shrugging. "Nothing, I'm just curious. Why were they unethical?" She babbles, twisting the ribbon tied to hair tie around her finger.

He sighs, not wanting to get into it with his daughter — not after what had happened last fall. Not after Will. Yet, he seemed to know that if it didn't come from him, she'd find a way to find it out one way or another. "It wasn't much, Marl. There were accusations from former employees, saying that they were kidnapping children for experiments and all things considered, it's not too far fetched. They dropped the case suddenly," He explains.

"So, it was just out of nowhere? Just like that, they dropped them?" Mariella presses, squinting her eyes as her dad turns the steering wheel to the left and the car turns a corner.

Inhaling, he nods. "Yes. What's going on, Mariella?" He asks her.

She responds with a shrug. "Nothing, dad. I just don't understand how they we dropped, after everything," Furrowing her brows with a sigh. "Hey. Would you mind if I were to look through the case files? Do you still have them?" She adds.

Pondering the question, Charlie wonders to himself whether or not he should tell her that he still has them or not. Ultimately deciding that he should save himself the trouble of finding her knee deep in his filing cabinets at home searching for them when they're really at the firm. "I still have them and I suppose it'd be okay," He sighs, pulling up to the front of the school and parking.

Mariella's eyes light up, a smile spreading across her face. "Seriously?" She says, bouncing her head excitedly.

He looks to her, nodding. "I'll sort through them and bring them home tonight, alright?" He says, already planning on what papers to leave out of the packet he'll give her.

"Okay! Thanks, dad," She responds, grabbing her backpack off her lap and opening the door of the car. "Bye!" She says before running off before Charlie could even respond.

His voice dying out as he watches her stand at the front of the school and open her backpack, pulling out her walkie-talkie and speaking into it. He laughs, shaking his head as he drives off. She was probably saying something along the lines of, "Guys? Where are you?".

♧

Mike, Max, and Dustin stood at the back of the school. Lucas in the dumpster, searching for Dart as Dustin looks at them asking what was going on.

With a shrug, Mike looks to him. "What do you think? We're looking for Dart," He responds before looking to Max and laughing at the noises Lucas was making from inside the trash.

"He sounds so... Stupid," Max says, smacking the dumpster with the stick she held.

In the far corner of where they were, sat their backpacks, Mike's walkie sitting on top in case one of the others were to call. "Where the heck are you?" Mariella's staticky voice echoes through the small radio. They don't hear it, too busy laughing at Lucas.

"Hello! Where are you?" She says again, catching Max's attention, her head turning towards the walkie before she nudges Mike with the stick.

"Your girlfriend is looking for us," She says, pointing towards the walkie which went silent for a moment before Mariella spoke again.

"Okay. Well, I'm starting to get a bit lonely up front and we always meet here so I've either been abandoned or..." She goes on, voice full and unimpressed.

Dustin snorts, "Answer her," He laughs looking to Mike who already dropped his stick and went to answer it.

Picking it up and pressing the button, "Mars? We're round' back, the dumpsters," He responds.

They hear rustling from her end before she responds, "Alright, coming,". Mike drops the walkie before picking up his stick and going back to his spot next to Max.

"She's not my—" He begins, glaring at Max who wore a playful smile as she watches the corner for Mariella.

"Girlfriend, she's my best friend!" Dustin finishes, rolling his eyes.

"Hey! Shu-" Mike begins to protest but stops when he sees Mariella turn the corner, her shoes dragging against the concrete. "Hey!" He says, beginning to walk over, Max pulling his hood and back away as Lucas tosses a bags of trash out of the dumpster.

"Jesus!" Dustin shouts out, his head looking away from Mariella and back to the trash which now littered the floor.

They all exclaim in disgust, backing away as Lucas hops out. "What did I miss?" Mariella asks, looking at her friends with her lips formed into a line.

"Mike thought Dart might be in the trash. Lucas, by the way, you stink," Max responds, walking farther from Lucas and towards Mariella who continued staring.  

"So you throw Lu into the dumpster?" Mariella presses, turning her gaze to Mike.

"No, we drew straws. It was fair," Mike waves off, digging three straws from his back pocket and holding them up to show her.

She sighs, looking away as she pulls her hair-tie off her wrist and tying part of her hair up. "So? Did you find anything in there?" She turns to Lucas curiously, scrunching up her nose. "Oh god, Max was right. You smell like—" She goes on, laughing.

"Shut up! And no, I didn't. Mike made me do it for nothing," He replies, taking his jacket off and beginning to fan it around in an attempt to get rid of the scent.

Mariella laughs, walking over to the other side where Mike stood. "What's with the sticks?" She babbles before leaning closer to the trash, curious.

"To go through it," Max tells her, grabbing one that sat on the side and tossing it to Mariella, catching it.

"Oh," She responds as Mike begins to poke at it, all of them following. A cockroach escaping and scattering away.

As they do so, Mike leans in closer to Mariella, voice barely above a whisper. "We still gotta talk," He says before clearing his throat.

She looks up to him, bottom lip encased in her mouth, nodding. "Yeah. We do,".