"I would like to know what's going on, can someone please tell me? Like, I'm serious," Sloane complained as her, Nancy, and Jonathan all left Radioshack together. They had bought a tape recorder and Sloane had no idea why or what the plan was.

Nancy turned around from the passenger seat and began explaining, "First, we need you to remain calm. Last year, these people from Hawkins Lab let a creature out of a gate they opened to another dimension —"

"Is it too early in the story to call the cops?"

"Yes," Jonathan interjected before motioning to Nancy to continue talking. They were in Nancy's room now and Sloane didn't know what she expected but the girlish decor was not it. The only time she had seen her room was looking in through the window that night. Jonathan mentioned for Sloane to stay quiet and for Nancy to finish the story.

After it was quiet again, Nancy continued. "This creature took a boy, Will Byers, my brother's best friend and Jonathan's brother. And then it took my best friend. Will got out, but Barb died in there. The problem is that Barb's parents don't know she's dead and are selling their house in order to afford an investigator to find her. So, we're going to get into the lab and record them saying the truth and expose them, do you understand?"

"How are we going to get in?"

"Easy," Nancy shrugged, looking nervously at Jonathan then back to Sloane, "We're gonna walk through the front doors."

The next morning, Jonathan and Sloane were parked outside the Wheeler house waiting for Nancy. Sloane hadn't even had to lie to her parents, she just slipped out quietly before anyone woke up. Life was easy when no one cared where you were or what you were doing. She had her hair pulled back into a small bun (the one issue with short hair) in case any emergency ass-kicking had to take place. For Sloane, that meant slapping away someone trying to punch her and running away from men with guns. She had no idea what she was getting herself into, but she knew she was going to be doing a lot more running away than fighting back. Can't risk hair getting into her face for that one. She didn't know what she was doing here since she was so beyond her league. Actually, she knew why but there was no way those words were going to leave her mouth.

"Why haven't you run away yet? Called the cops or something?" Jonathan questioned while they waited. Sloane was thrown aback by the questions since he had barely spoken a word to her since they got into the car. She much preferred the awkward silence. When she didn't answer, Jonathan answered for her. "You like her, don't you? Something like that."

Not knowing how to react to that accusation, Sloane simply shot back, "I could say the same thing about you. Sorry, bucko, if you're trying to get into her pants, I kind of already beat you to it."

"What do you mean by that?" Jonathan whipped around in his seat, looking worried; his concerned eyes didn't match the tone of anger in his voice. Sloane simply shrugged, a small half-smile forming on her face as she nodded towards Nancy who was nervously walking towards the car.

"Play nice, Byers," Sloane teased as the girl opened the passenger door and they both went silent.

"Hey, Sloane, Hey Jonathan," was the first thing Nancy said when she got into the car, clearly not noticing the rising tension between the two. Looking at Jonathan, she asked, "Did you see your mom?"

He shook his head, "No, she was still sleeping. I left a note."

Looking back and forth between the two, Nancy muttered, "You guys don't have to do this you know. She was my friend, you guys have nothing to do with this."

"Stop saying that," Jonathan shut her down immediately.

"We're doing this because if these fuckers are as bad as you say they are, they need to be knocked off their pedestal," Sloane actually agreed with Jonathan, nodding along from the backseat as she leaned in between them. Together, they all nodded; making the final decision. They were doing this, like, actually doing this. Sloane was lucky no one else could hear her heart beating to the tune of a jackhammer at the current moment. Getting herself into trouble for the sake of herself and girls was very in character for Sloane and she hated it. Another thing she hated was how quickly Jonathan had been able to pin down Sloane's feelings for Nancy. She despised feeling so transparent. As they started the car, the blonde leaned against the backseat and was consumed by her thoughts, drowning in them as they drove.

Once they stopped at a nearby park, the three of them crowded onto a bench with Nancy sitting in between Jonathan and Sloane. There was just enough room for the three of them, but it was almost uncomfortable. Nancy had called the Hollands claiming to have information on Barb as a way to lure the people from Hawkins Lab to the park, they just had to hope that someone was listening. It appeared that someone was because the longer they sat there, the longer Sloane began to feel gazes creeping along her spine like chills.

"It's 15 past," Nancy broke the silence as she whispered to the two people next to her.

"Yeah, I know," Jonathan responded, bouncing his leg nervously.

Sloane sighed, looking around but trying to not be obvious. "Something tells me the Hollands are taking a rain check."

Nancy was going to say something, but her eyes caught something else. "That guy, there, he just talked to himself."

"Oh, God, here we go," the blonde muttered to herself. As they looked at the man reading a newspaper at a picnic table, he looked back and they all averted their gazes. They all looked around different areas of the park, waiting to find more people who were watching them. There was a man feeding birds staring at Jonathan, a mother looking at Nancy, and Sloane made eye contact with a man walking his dog. Chills crawled their way down her spine. They were being watched, it was undebatable. Everyone at this park could have been planted there by the people from Hawkins Lab. It was just now that Sloane was truly realizing what she had gotten herself into. This was too real.

"I think we should go," Nancy suggested and they couldn't agree more. Quickly, but not too fast, they stood up and speed-walked over to Jonathan's car. Right away, they were being followed. As they piled in, the car stalled. It had been sabotaged was Sloane's first thought. This was confirmed when the man who had been speaking to himself at the picnic table knocked on the passenger side window.

"Trouble with your car, miss? I can give you three a lift if you like?" the man offered, but there was something just vaguely off. An emptiness behind the eyes, a friendly tone falling just a little too flat. The man who had followed them took post outside Jonathan's window.

Nancy looked from the girl to Jonathan slowly, "Jonathan, Sloane..."

"Just stay calm, this is what we wanted," Sloane did her best to not show how much she was freaking out within her words. In reality, her heart was going a mile a minute.

Looking behind them, a woman was standing behind their car so they couldn't back up even if they were able to get it started. The man knocked on the window again, causing Sloane to nearly jump out of her skin. "You sure you don't need that ride?"

im so excited for Sloane to start getting involved with the actual season two plot because i love her character and how she reacts to the dangers they're gonna go through and ahhhh im just hype!! also thank you for (almost) 10k reads on this book it's been in the works for so long im glad you guys are liking it!