Joyce
While Lonnie is in the shower, I dig through his bag and find a blue slip of paper in his wallet. I unfold it and look it over.

Kᴏʜɴᴇʀ
ʟᴀᴡ ᴏꜰꜰɪᴄᴇs & ᴘᴀʀᴀʟᴇɢᴀʟ sᴇʀᴠɪᴄᴇs
ᴀᴄᴄɪᴅᴇɴᴛᴀʟ ɪɴᴊᴜʀʏ ᴏʀ ᴅᴇᴀᴛʜ
ʟᴇᴛ ᴜs ꜰɪɢʜᴛ ꜰᴏʀ ʏᴏᴜ

Etcetera, etcetera. So, that's what he's here for? Just for the money? I guess I should've known from the beginning. He wouldn't give a crap about his son going missing. There's always something in it for him.

.^.^.^.^.

"You were here for the money!" I yell at Lonnie when he gets out of the shower.

"No!"

"The money!" I shove him. "Admit it! You weren't here 'cause of Will! You never cared about him! You never did!"

"Jesus, Joyce, it was his funeral today. Do we have to do this right now?"

"I can't believe I fell for this!"

"I'm here to help, Joyce."

"To help?"

"We could use that money for good."

"Oh, like, maybe to pay off your debts?"

"To pay for Jonathan to go to school!"

"Oh, don't do that."

"Do what?"

"Lie to me!"

"I'm not lying to you!"

"Yeah, well, where does he want to go? Huh?"

"What?"

"Where does Jonathan want to go to college?"

"We get that money, anywhere he damn well pleases!"

"NYU, Lonnie! He's wanted to go to NYU since he was six years old!"

"Then he goes to NYU!"

"Get out. Get out!"

"You need me here, Joyce."

"Oh, brother, I have not needed you for a long time!"

"Oh, no? Look what happened."

"Don't you dare. At least I was here!"

"Oh, come on, Joyce! Just look around this place. All your Christmas lights. What the hell am I supposed to think? You're such a great mom? You're a mess."

"Maybe I am a mess. Maybe I'm crazy. Maybe I'm out of my mind! But God help me, I will keep these lights up till the day I die if I think there's a chance that Will's still out there." I shove his bag into him. "But get out! Get out of my house!"

Nancy
I pull a bat off the rack and practice swinging it. I swing harder and harder each time. I have to be prepared for when I fight this thing.

By the time I take my third swing, I hear someone exclaiming defensively {I don't know give me a break} and turn around to see Steve standing in front of me. The last person I need to see right now.

"What are you doing here?" I ask breathlessly.

"What are you doing?" he asks.

"Nothing," I shrug.

"I hope that's not meant for me," he says, gesturing to my bat.

"What? No. Oh, no, I was just . . . thinking about joining softball," I lie.

"Oh. Well, uh, listen, I'm really sorry. I mean, even before you threatened me with the baseball bat."

"Okay."

"I panicked and . . . I mean, I was a total dick."

"Yeah, you were."

"Did you get in trouble with your parents?"

"Totally, but . . . You know, who cares? Screw 'em. Any news about Barbara?"

I shake my head.

"Parents hear from her? Or . . ."

"No." I shake my head again.

Dead air. Silence. "Hey, listen," Steve says, walking closely toward me, "why don't we, uh, catch a movie tonight, you know? Just kind of pretend everything's normal for a few hours. All the Right Moves is still playing. You know, with your lover boy from Risky Business?"

"Yeah, I know."

"You know, Carol thinks I actually look like him. What do you think? Yeah?" He takes the bat from my hand and holds it to his mouth like a microphone. "Just take those old records off the shelf. I'll sit and listen to them by myself."

"I just . . . don't think I can," I say. "I've been really busy with this whole funeral thing, and . . . with my brother. It's been really hard on him."

"Yeah, sure. Sure, yeah, yeah."

"So . . . I should go."

"Sorry. I'll call you later. Is that okay?" I give him a peck on the lips.

"Yeah. Yeah, of course." He pats my arm and walks away, still singing Old Time Rock and Roll.

I glance at him one last time as he walks away and continue swinging.

Jonathan
I shoot at the cans on the fenceposts, missing every time.

"Aren't you supposed to be hitting the cans?" a voice says, and I look in the direction from where it's coming to see Nancy coming up the hillside.

"No, actually, see the spaces in between the cans? I'm aiming for those," I say.

"Ah." She drops her bag and bat to the ground.

"You ever shot a gun before?"

"Have you met my parents?" she scoffs.

I chuckle. "Yeah, I haven't shot one since I was ten. Dad took me hunting for my birthday. Made me kill a rabbit."

"A rabbit?"

"Yeah. I guess he thought it would make me more of a man or something." I reload the gun. "I cried for a week."

"Jesus."

"What? I'm a fan of Thumper."

She snickers. "I meant your dad."

"Yeah. I'm sure he and my mom loved each other at some point, but . . . I wasn't alive for that point."

She holds her hand out, asking for the gun.

"Yeah." I hand it to her. "Just, uh, point and shoot."

"I don't think my parents ever loved each other."

"They must have married for some reason."

She aims the handgun. "My mom was young. My dad was older, but he had a cushy job, money, came from a good family. So they bought a nice house on the end of a cul-de-sac . . . and started their nuclear family."

"Screw that."

"Yeah. Screw that." She pulls the trigger and hits the middle can head-on.

Damn.

.^.^.^.^.

"You never said what I was saying," Nancy says as we walk through the woods.

"What?" I ask.

"Yesterday," she says. "You said I was saying something and that's why you took my picture."

"Oh, uh . . . I don't know. I guess . . . I saw this girl, you know, trying to be someone else. But for that moment, it was like you were alone, or you thought you were. And, you know, you could be yourself."

"That is such bullshit." {Nancy's favorite word.}

I stop. "What?"

She stops and walks back to me. "I'm not trying to be someone else. Just because I'm dating Steve and you don't like him—"

"You know what? Forget it." I keep walking. "I just thought it was a good picture." {I just got ridiculously excited because I thought Rock Lobster was playing but it was just a Panic! song.}

"He's actually a good guy." She catches up to me.

"Okay."

"Yesterday, with the camera . . . He's not like that at all. He was just being protective."

"Yeah, that's one word for it."

"Oh, and I guess what you did was okay?"

"No, I . . . I never said that."

"He had every right to be pissed—"

"Okay, all right. Does that mean I have to like him?"

"No."

"Listen, don't take it so personally, okay? I don't like most people. He's in the vast majority."

"You know, I was starting to think you were okay."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I was thinking, 'Jonathan Byers. Maybe he's not just the pretentious creep like everyone says."

"Oh yeah? Well, I was just starting to think you were okay. I was thinking, 'Nancy Byers. Maybe she's not just another suburban girl thinking she's being rebellious by doing exactly what every other suburban girl does until that phase passes and they marry some boring one-time jock who now works sales, and they live out a perfectly boring life at the end of a cul-de-sac, just like their parents, who they used to think were so depressing, but now—guess what?—they get it."

Hopper
I dial her number and wait for her to pick up, toying with the blue bracelet.

"Hello?"

"Hey."

"Jim?"

"Yeah."

She sighs. "Why are you calling me here? I told you not to call me." {Someone please explain how Tyler Joseph can scream in all his songs but still sound amazing.}

"I know, I know. I just wanted to . . . I just wanted to hear your voice, and, uh . . . I just wanted to say that, um . . . even after everything that happened, I don't . . . I don't regret any of it. And those seven years, they were . . . They were everything to me."

"Have you been drinking?"

"No. No."

A baby cries on the other line. "Sh, honey, hey . . . Hey, it's okay. It's okay, sh."

"You know what, I actually have been drinking. Sorry."

"Jim, I can't . . ."

"Just take care of yourself, okay? Say hi to Bill for me."

I hang up the phone.

I gather some papers on my coffee table and head out the door. The phone rings and I yank the cord out of the wall.

Lucas {This is like the first time ever wow}
"How much further?" I ask Dustin, walking down the train tracks, following the compass.

"I don't know. These things tell direction, not distance," he says. "You really need to learn more about compasses."

"I'm just saying. How do we know when we get to the gate?"

"Uh, I think a portal to another dimension is gonna be pretty obvious."

I glance back at Mike, (Y/N), and the weirdo. "Do you think she's acting a bit weird?"

"(Y/N)? Yeah, she's head-over-heels for Will and she's worried to death."

"No, I mean the weirdo."

"You're asking if the weirdo is acting weird?"

"I mean weirder than usual."

"I don't know. Who cares?"

Eleven
"How far, Papa?" I said.

"Farther than we've gone before." He shows me a picture of a man.

"The bath?"

"Yes. Yes, the bath. Is that okay?"

I nodded my head. I wanted to say no. But I couldn't.

They put me into a suit. They led me up the stairs. I looked behind me again and again to see if I could escape. There was a man behind me. I couldn't. A man put the wires on my head. Another one opened the bath. They put me into it. Papa waved from outside. I waved back. Then the outside went black.

I grab Mike's arm. "Mike."

"Yeah?" he says.

"Turn back."

"What?" he says.

"Why?" (Y/N) says.

"I'm tired."

"We must be almost there," (Y/N) says.

"Can you hold on a little longer?" Mike says.

I look back. I keep walking. It's not safe. But they won't listen.

Hey look at that I did get it out today. I just put off my homework woohoo. I may or may not regret that.
Nah.
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