EIGHT: DANGER DANGER

"OH THIS IS WEIRD," Dustin said as Lucas, Daniel, and he sat down in Mister Clarke's class, staring at Mike's empty seat, "He's never this late."

"I'm telling you, his stupid plan failed," Lucas sighed, dropping his backpack.

Daniel nodded, agreeing with Lucas. "Oh, yeah, there's no way it worked."

"I thought you guys liked his plan?" the curly-haired boy asked as the three of them got their books out and got ready for class.

"Yeah, but obviously it was stupid or else he'd be here," Lucas argued.

"No, I just thought it was stupid," Daniel cut in with a sigh, "This whole situation feels wrong. I don't like it, I don't like hiding it." Which, was kind of a lie, since he had told his sister about the whole mysterious girl with the shaved head, but the other two didn't really need to know about that. Part of him felt bad about not telling them, but he couldn't handle them being pissed at him. It was too much for him to hold it in and he knew the one person he could absolutely trust with the truth would be Heather.

Dustin scoffed and rolled his eyes at the two of them. "If his mom found out a girl spent the night —"

"He's a dead man," Daniel said with a slightly sadistic laugh. His mother never had to worry about girls, the boy realized. He felt as if another weight had been lifted off his shoulders after his talk with Heather. Maybe he was okay with being who he was, so long as he kept it to himself. No one else really needed to know besides Heather and that was okay.

"If she found out," Lucas started, "He's in deep shit right about now."

"Hey," Dustin began in a whisper, "What if she slept naked?"

"Dude!" Daniel exclaimed, unfortunately earning the attention of a few other students. He smiled awkwardly at them before turning back to Dustin. "That's gross!"

Lucas sighed as well, "She didn't, let's be real. Why would you even ask that?" Dustin just shrugged.

Dustin was pretty much known for being the most girl-crazy one in the group and it was moments like this that only cemented that status. Although, it was mainly Heather and Nancy that Dustin cared about. His sister said it was a little cute, but she was probably just being nice. Then again, she hasn't ever really met Dustin besides brief "hellos" and "goodbyes."

"Oh, if Misses Wheeler tells my parents. . ." the curly-haired boy put his head in his hands. Daniel thought as to what would happen if Heather actually did spill the truth. There was a good chance that his mom would simply say he just spent too much time reading "those damn sci-fi" novels as she called him or she would blame it on the excessive amount he spent around the boys when they played Dungeons & Dragons. There would be a point where she would realize her children weren't lying to her. That's when the real storm would rain down. He shivered just thinking about it.

"Then we're all screwed," Daniel said quietly, more to himself than the other boys.

"No way!" Lucas interceded both of the boy's dangerous trains of thought, "Mike would never rat us out!"

"I don't know," Dustin insisted.

"All that matters is, after school, the freak will be back in the loonybin, and we can focus on what really matters: Finding Will." There was a certain finality to Lucas's statement as if that was really what was going to happen. They all hoped things would work themselves out, but there was a huge chance this was going to go wrong. Daniel had a sickening feeling that the situation would lean towards the latter and the boys would be screwed by the girl they found in the woods. After Lucas finished his statement, the two boys went quiet and instead continued preparing for the class that was about to start.

Daniel wished he knew what was going on with Mike and that girl. Maybe he was jealous, maybe it was just genuine curiosity about that girl and where she was from. He had seen more than a few crazy people in his thirteen years, but she seemed different. Part of him knew that girl wasn't from Pennhurst, but somewhere else. Somewhere much worse, judging by her behavior and speech patterns (or lack thereof). He didn't want to think about it. Now that he had said the words aloud, he felt weird. He felt weird, but he finally felt like he knew what was happening with him. Maybe that was worse since he knew it was never going to happen. His chances were already slim and now that the girl had Mike's attention, he was even more screwed.

RIDING HOME FROM SCHOOL, Daniel didn't have Mike's bike to ride on the back of, so Lucas usually let him on the back of his. They pulled up to Mike's house since the boy had never shown up at school. The house was dead silent as they walked in without knocking and made their way upstairs to Mike's room. They closed the door but said nothing. The girl was still there. Of course, she was. Daniel wanted to sigh but now didn't seem like the time. The shock in the air was too much. This was real and last night hadn't been some type of collective fever dream. Awesome.

"Are you out of your mind?" Lucas broke the silence as they all stared at the girl on the bed.

"I'm starting to think you belong in the asylum with her," Daniel said with a scoff, earning a small nod and smile from Lucas. "Isn't she supposed to be gone?"

Mike sighed, "I know, I know, just listen to me!"

"You are out of your mind!" Lucas continued, ignoring Mike. Daniel definitely was on Lucas's side with this one. Mike's actions had gone awry ever since they found that stupid girl in the woods.

"She knows about Will!" the boy exclaimed, shocking the three of them back into silence. How could she know about their missing friend?

"What do you mean she knows about Will?" Dustin questioned, sounding concerned yet hopeful. This was getting too weird. Daniel needed something normal in his life right about now.

Mike walked over to his dresser and picked up a picture of the boys winning the AV club competition a while ago. Daniel had unfortunately missed that certain competition due to a killer stomach flu, but he remembered the boys stomping into his room holding the trophy triumphantly even though it was only third place. Mike had joked that they only got third because Daniel wasn't there. He missed that Mike. The Mike from the past two days seemed to be a complete one-eighty of that.

"She pointed at him, at his picture," Mike explained as he held up the picture, "She knew he was missing. I could tell."

"From a picture?" Daniel asked, sounding unimpressed.

Lucas sounded the same when he asked, "You could tell?" with an eyebrow raised.

"Just think about it!" Mike insisted, "Do you really think it was a coincidence that we found her on Mirkwood, the same place where Will disappeared?"

"That is weird," Dustin commented, earning a quiet scoff from Daniel.

"And she said that bad people were after her. I think maybe these are the same ones that took Will. I think she knows what happened to him."

"I call bullshit," Daniel cut in, rolling his eyes, "You can't know that just from a picture. She's said one, maybe two words, there's no way to know if she knows anything. She's probably just using us to protect her from the people trying to take her back to Pennhurst or wherever. She's pulling your leg, dude. This is all bullshit, I'm trying to find my friend, not rescue some stupid girl."

"Hey!" Mike began to argue, but Lucas cut him off.

"Yeah, if she knows what happened, then why doesn't she just tell us?"

None of them had an answer as they all turned to look at the girl. Mike was probably hoping she would prove Daniel wrong, but Daniel knew she was only going to prove his point.

"Do you know where he is?" Lucas asked the girl, walking closer to her so he was in her face.

"Maybe she's working with whatever bad people took him," Daniel suggested with his arms crossed. Mike glared at him. If being on the right side of things meant Mike hated him, then so be it. It's not like anything was ever going to happen for him with Mike, so he might as well fight.

"That's actually not totally stupid," Dustin agreed, looking from Daniel to Mike worriedly.

Meanwhile, Lucas was getting all up in the girl's face, gripping onto her shoulders and yelling, "Do you know where Will is?"

"Stop it, you're scaring her!" Mike argued.

"She should be scared!" Lucas countered.

Daniel didn't like this. He didn't need a screaming match among his best friends, not now. So, he decided to direct the attention to himself. "I told Heather about her!"

"You what?" Mike whipped around to face Daniel, his expression angry. At least he wasn't yelling at Lucas anymore or vice versa. "Why would you do that? Is she gonna tell your mom?"

"No, no she won't, I swear! It, it was one of our stargazing nights, we never tell anyone anything that's said on that roof, I swear.

"Oh, my god," Dustin mumbled, "We're so screwed."

"Why would you do that?" Lucas asked him, his attention off of the girl. Daniel's eyes met the girl's and her expression better be her thanking him silently because he was being totally chewed out by the boys.

"I-I told her because I knew I could trust her! She's my best friend before any of you guys are, she's my sister! I mean, I mean, I tell her everything and she's never told anyone! I tell her things I've never told anyone! She won't tell, I promise!"

"Oh, yeah? You tell her everything? Like what?"

"I-I can't tell you."

"Oh, so you can tell your bitchy sister everything, but you can't tell us?" Lucas yelled. Daniel was shrinking down into himself, wishing he could get smaller by the minute.

"Because I tell her things that you guys would call me a freak for!" He shouted back, hoping he could regrow his spine. He was dangerously close to spilling everything.

Mike's expression seemed to soften, "Danny, we would never call you a freak, I promise."

"I-I can't tell you guys, okay? Just know that she won't tell."

"Why can't you tell us?" Lucas asked, his voice was softer but still pressuring. The girl and Dustin were just sitting there, watching silently. Dustin was never one for a confrontation like this, so that made sense.

"You guys wouldn't get it. You'd think of me differently."

"No, we wouldn't!" Mike insisted, "We don't want you to think you can't tell us anything! We're supposed to be better than your sister, we're your best friends."

"I-I think, I think," Daniel started his voice shaky, "I can't say it."

Mike sighed, "Fine, you don't have to tell us. But, you do have to help us with Eleven."

"Eleven?" Daniel asked, calming down immensely. Mike nodded towards the girl.

"You named her?" Lucas exclaimed, "Her name is Eleven?"

"El for short," Mike shrugged. Although that name was weird as hell, Daniel found it cute that Mike had a nickname for her already. "She's in danger, we have to help her."

"What kind of danger?" Dustin asked insistently, finally speaking up again.

Mike turned to the curly-haired boy with a serious expression, "Danger danger."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Daniel asked softly. Mike raised two fingers and his thumb like he was making a gun and pointed it at each of the boy's heads. So maybe this was more serious than they had originally thought.

( note! )

steve's party is probably gonna be next chapter so say goodbye to barb lmao!! it was originally gonna be this chapter, but I knew if I finished this scene and added the party this chapter was gonna get way too long because these two scenes alone were 2k words and i didn't wanna end up with like a 6k word chapter because for me, those take forever to read lmao