"Since when are you and Nancy Wheeler friends?" Abby asked as they stood by their lockers while figuring out where to go to lunch. "Her and Steve broke up so we don't have to be friends with her anymore, you know."

Sloane just shrugged, "I don't know. She's cool. I'm not gonna let petty breakup drama influence my opinion, sometimes people just fall out of love."

"Or they were never in love in the first place," a scoff came from behind Sloane as Steve walked up to the group, "So, where are we going for lunch?"

Abby shrugged and began to ramble off their options, but Sloane had stopped listening. Nancy was standing down the hall, whispering with a boy Sloane knew by name alone as Jonathan Byers. His younger brother disappeared for a week last year and had apparently even been declared dead for a few days. According to Abby, it was the first weird thing to happen in Hawkins since the sixties. Her gaze steadied on the pair as she yearned to be able to hear what they were saying. After a moment, the pair left the hallway and Sloane panicked for a reason she had no knowledge of.

"Um, I'm not feeling too well, I think I'm just gonna head home. That cool with you guys? Okay, bye," Sloane spoke in a nervous rush, not pausing long enough for her friends to ask her any questions. She tried to walk away as quickly as she could, but Abby paced after her and caught her by the wrist, causing her to turn around.

"Hey," the girl spoke gently, "What's been up with you lately? You seem way more on edge than usual. Do you need to talk about anything?"

Sloane shook her head, doing her best to muster up a small smile to reassure her friend that she was okay, "Nah, everything's okay. Just been slipping into old habits." On the tip of the word, her head swiveled to the spot Nancy had been standing in moments before. "I'm really not feeling well, Abby."

The girl looked hesitant to let the other go, but she nodded and dropped her hand. "Okay, feel better, Sloane."

"Thanks," she managed to give a full fake smile before walking off towards the parking lot where she had seen Nancy and Jonathan walk off towards. Nancy looked surprised to see her, Jonathan even more so. "Hey, Nance, uh my friends were going somewhere nast for lunch, any chance I can just chill with you guys?"

Nancy looked taken aback by the casualty of how they spoke. Both girls refused to acknowledge what happened last night, but that didn't mean Sloane couldn't be mature about things. After a moment, she finally answered, "Uh, sure. Jonathan, this is Sloane. Sloane, Jonathan."

"Nice to meet you," Sloane smiled at him, sitting right in the middle of them. "What were you guys talking about? Looked like a bummer."

"Steve and I are officially broken up," Nancy sighed, "And I just feel..."

"Like there's this weight you're carrying around with you. All the time," Jonathan offered to fill in where Nancy drifted off. The blonde sighed, she knew that feeling well.

"Will came home," Nancy spoke firmly and Sloane was just wondering where the subject changed. Weren't they just talking about Steve?

Sloane sighed, "You're Will's brother, right?"

Jonathan nodded, "Yeah. He hasn't been the same since he got back. I try to be there for him, you know, to help, but... I don't know. I mean maybe, maybe things just can't go back to how they were."

"Doesn't that make you mad?" Nancy scoffed, looking confused.

"PTSD is one hell of a bitch, Nance, you don't get it," Sloane shrugged, eyeing Jonathan's small nod at her statement, "and there's nothing you can do about it. That's the part that makes me mad."

Nancy shook her head, "Yeah, but those people that did this. They hurt so many people and they just got away with it."

"What are you talking about? I thought Will just got lost in the woods?" Sloane furrowed her brow at the girl, searching for answers. The way Nancy spoke was as if something much deeper happened in Hawkins than Sloane originally thought.

"The people responsible for this are dead, Nance," Jonathan blatantly ignored Sloane's questions.

"Do you really believe that?" The Wheeler girl exclaimed before something caught her eye and distracted her for a moment, "Sloane, we'll fill you in in a minute, but Jonathan, your mom's boyfriend works at Radioshack, right?"

"Yeah, why? What are you thinking?"

After a moment, Nancy asked the pair, "Do you guys wanna skip fourth period? I have a plan."

"Can someone tell me what the hell is going on? I came here for space from my friends, not a conspiracy," Sloane scoffed as Nancy hopped off the hood of the car and pulled Sloane with her.

"Jonathan, wait in the car, please," Nancy instructed. Once he was inside, she turned back to the girl in her grip, "How do I know I can trust you?"

"Was last night not proof enough?" Sloane attempted, but her heart panged at the mere mention of it. She never wanted to acknowledge the night before again, she couldn't do that to herself. Hawkins Sloane would not become the girl from San Francisco again. She had a good place here and she was never going to be one to jeopardize that. She was Sloane Andrews: blonde bombshell who was wanted by every boy in her grade. Maybe a little reminder was necessary. Her instincts screamed at her to steer clear of her curiosity for Nancy Wheeler, but the way she spoke as if Will's disappearance was something deeper was too intriguing to ignore.

Nancy looked too serious for this to be a joke, not to mention her nails digging into Sloane's wrist were a pretty good indicator of the tensity of this situation. "Tell me something. Everything you said last night was drunk rambling. Tell me your secrets sober."

Sloane searched her mind for something that seemed worthy as a secret considering she spilled most of her life story, or at least its tragedies, on that rooftop. A beat of silence passes before an idea comes to the tip of her tongue, "My name is Carolina Sloane Andrews. Nice to meet you. Can you tell me what the hell is going on now?"

At first, the girl crossed her arms and looked skeptical. "Listen, once you're involved with this, you're in. No one knows what really happened last year except for a handful of people. If this gets out to the wrong people you'll be sent to an asylum or killed or some crazy government cover-up shit, got it?"

"I'm in," she doesn't know why she agrees. She had the complete ability to simply walk away from this. She could walk away and never speak to Nancy Wheeler again, write her off as a crazy fling never to be spoken of or to again. Yet something in her caused those words to pass through her lips. Maybe it was the dangerous look in Nancy's eyes, maybe it was the memory of her lips from the night before. There was something in Nancy Wheeler that Sloane couldn't stay away from and it was going to be the death of her.

hi hi this is a little short but i've been super inspired to write this! i know this is a baby chapter, but it was pretty necessary in order to get sloane actually involved with the actions of season two so basically the actual story part of this book is startin which is super exciting! i've got big angsty things happenin!