Samantha looked around the busy parking lot looking for Jules' car, she wasn't very surprised to find that it was no where in sight.

He always did have a tendency to be late to pretty much everything. And considering that he was out all night because he had joined Will's search party, Sam couldn't blame him for having slept in.

Another day had gone by and Will continued to be missing. It felt like her hope for his return was slowly getting chipped away. Lucas refused to talk to her since the night he snuck out, and even though she hadn't told their parent's about it she still kept a very close eye on him.

"Hey." Viviane greeted as she fell in step with Sam. Together they pushed through the doors of Hawkins High, both girls dreading having to start the day. But there was something about Viv that was different today.

Sam was surprised by Viv's eagerness and brighter mood this morning. It was so unlike her to be anything but irritated at school, which meant that she wanted something. "Hey."

"I was just wondering if there was any way that your uncle could probably give me an extra shift or two at the dinner this week."

"Oh." Sam muttered her mind somewhere else entirely as she attempted to focus on what Viviane was asking her. She knew about the financial issues that Viv's family was having since their father left them a couple of years ago. Viviane worked harder than anyone she knew to help her mom. For Sam working at the diner was a way for her to help her uncle and have some extra spending money. Anyway since Will had gone missing she didn't think she could focus on work at all. "You can have my shifts on Thursday and Friday."

"Really?" Viv asked sounding just the slightest bit relieved.

Sam nodded in confirmation happy to help her in any little way that she could. "Yeah, I mean... that way I can stay with Lucas. I haven't really felt comfortable leaving him alone."

"How is he doing?" The other girl questioned immediately losing the forces bright tone she was using earlier. Sure she grew more serious because they had changed the subject to something more serious, but Viv always sounded just the slightest bit bored.

"This hasn't been easy on him." Sam admitted.

Lucas wasn't himself. Not that she expected him to be considering what he was going through but all she wanted was for her little brother to talk to her. To show any signs that he would be able to get through this regardless of the outcome.

But things weren't that easy or simple. They never were.

For now all she could do was keep a close eye on him and make sure that he didn't do anything stupid again.

Viviane then bit her lip with uncertainty, a gesture that was so unlike her that Sam couldn't help but feel worried. "Can I tell you something? But you have to promise not to tell anyone. I don't want to get involved with the police. I fucked up and lied when they questioned everyone in the neighborhood. I said I didn't see anything that night but I did. I got scared and lied to the police."

Sam froze in the middle of the hallway, and she felt her heart stop in her chest from what she was telling her. "What happened?"

"The night Will went missing the lights inside the Byer's house were flickering. I think Will was already home, so I assumed he was messing around. He's a kid."

Clearly all of this had been haunting Viviane for some time. The relief was clear on her face as she was saying her confession. But her confession also brought up a lot of questions. Because if Will had come home that night then what happened?

"You should tell the truth to the police."

"No." The other girl said immediately as she shook her head. "My family is enough trouble as it is. Anyway the electricity in our shitty neighborhood sucks. It could have been nothing."

It didn't feel like nothing though. It felt incredibly important. Because what if this one small detail was the missing piece to finding out what happens to Will Byers.

The school day had ended and Samantha hadn't seemed Julian all day. It wasn't uncommon for Julian to miss a day of school, sometimes when things got really bad between him and his father her would have to skip school. Jules preferred not to have the entire school whispering about any bruises that he might have.

They would all know what was happening to him because no one would assume that Julian Becker had gotten in a fight. That simply wasn't the kind of guy he was. Julian was quite and sweet. He would never have it in him to be involved in any conflict.

Samantha could only assume that Julian's father didn't know that he had gone to the search party. Maybe the man had one too many beers and things got out of hand like they tended to do.

The sight of Jonathan Byers quickly bursting through the doors of the school with his head bent down, had Sam rushing across the parking lot toward him.

"Hey, Johnny." Sam greeted as she walked in step with the boy. She was surprised that he had come to school, though there really wasn't much he could do but wait for the police to find a clue. He had to be incredibly frustrated to not be able to do more for his little brother, He had to be going out of his mind with worry.

"Sam." He replied awkwardly doing his best to offer her the slightest smile.

"You haven't seen Jules today have you?" Sam questioned not sure if it was best to bring up Will at the moment. Jonathan probably didn't want to talk about his younger brother and truthfully Sam was worried about Jules. And she felt selfish and unkind for asking but she just needed to know.

"No, he wasn't in English or Trig." Jonathan replied as he adjusted the strap of his backpack on his shoulder. He was acting weird, not that Sam was really concerned. He was going through a difficult time and was grieving, but he turned to look at Sam who was nervously biting her lip. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, everything is fine." Sam said quickly trying to convince herself that she was paranoid and that there was nothing wrong. "How's Joyce?"

Jonathan was silent for a moment as they walked across the parking lot, he seemed to be carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. And although Sam didn't consider Jonathan a close friend she was worried about him. "Honesty, I'm really worried about her."

She didn't have a chance to question him any further as the both came to a sudden stop at the sight of Steve Harrington and his friends surrounding Jonathan's car. Tommy and Carol, along with a girl she recognized as Nicole had smug looks in their faces as if they were eagerly waiting what was about to happen next.

"Hey, man." Steve greeted as he pushed himself off Jonathan's car. His eyes met Sam's momentarily before he returned his focus on Jonathan.

"What's going on?" He asked nervously as he looked around at the group of teenagers around his car. His voice was trembled for a moment and although he was questioning what they were doing, he didn't seem surprised. Only scared about where all of this was headed.

Steve looked back at Nicole, one of the girls who ran the photography club, and from the angry look on Steve's face Sam didn't know what to expect. "Nicole here was, uh, telling us about your work."

"We've heard great things." Carol mocked as she chewed her gum loudly.

"Yes, sounds cool." Tommy added.

"And we'd just love to take a look. You know, as connoisseurs of art." Steve continued as he took a couple steps closer.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Jonathan stated firmly and although he was doing his best to keep his voice even, nothing could hide the emotion reflected in his eyes. He was nervous. Suddenly Tommy reached forward and violently pulled Jonathan's backpack away from him. "Hey."

Samantha took a step forward in an attempt to help Jonathan take his bag back only to be pushed back by Carol.

A rush of anger took a hold of Sam when Carol touched her that she was sure she was moments away from finally snapping. Both girls took a step towards each other but Steve put his hand on Carol's shoulder holding her in place.

"Leave her. I'm sure she doesn't even know." Steve told the other girl who only tightened her jaw in annoyance as she continued to chew on her gum.

"Please, give me my bag." Jonathan practically no pleaded, and Sam couldn't do anything but watch as the scene unfolded in front of her.

"Man, he is totally trembling. He must really have something to hide." Steve said as he began to dig through Jonathan's began before pulling out a stack of photographs. "Here we go."

"Oh man. Let me see." Tommy said unable to hide the excitement in his voice as he looked over his friends shoulder to look at the photographs. Surprisingly Tommy's glee faltered for a moment as he looked at Jonathan with disgust. And only then did Sam slowly realize that whatever those photographs were about couldn't be good. "Dude."

Carol took some of the photos from Steve and began looking though them, annoyance setting on her face too. "Yeah this isn't creepy at all."

"I was looking for my brother." Jonathan quickly defended.

"No. No, this is called stalking." Steve corrected as he held to photograph up and took a step towards Sam holding out one of the photographs for her to take. "Here, take a look."

Sam reluctantly took the photograph from Steve, her curiosity getting the best of her. She didn't know what kind of photographs would get this kind of disgusted reaction from this group. But the moment she looked down at the photograph in her hands her mouth went dry knowing that there was no defending Jonathan.

The black and white image of Nancy Wheeler undressing from the window was something that Sam didn't expect. She was clearly caught in a very intimate moment, and it wasn't hard to imagine who she was with in that moment.

She had never thought of Jonathan as someone who looked through girls windows to see them undress. Sam was truly horrified as she turned toward Jonathan who was looking down at his feet in shame.

"What's going on?" Nancy Wheeler questioned as she joined the group.

"Here's the staring lady." Tommy announced and all eyes were suddenly on Nancy, all eyes except for Jonathan who was now looking down at his feet in shame.

There was no predicting how Nancy would react. Sam herself still couldn't full process what was happening and she definitely didn't know how she would react if she was in Nancy's shoes.

Nancy looked around at the group. Her expression a mix of confusion and worry. "What?"

"This creep was spying on us last night." Carol stated as she gave Jonathan another disgusted look before ripping the photograph from Sam's hands and giving it to a very confused Nancy. "He was probably gonna save this one for later."

Nancy remained silent as she looked down at the picture in shock. Surprisingly she didn't seem very angry as she looked at Jonathan who continued to avoid all eye contact.

"See, you can tell that he knows it was wrong, but...." Steve continued as he looked at Jonathan with disgust. "man, that's the thing about perverts it's hardwired into 'em. You know, they just can't help themselves."

Taking Jonathan's backpack away from Tommy he then began to look through it before he found what he was looking for. Steve held Jonathan's camera up as he let the backpack fall to the ground. "So, we'll just have to take away his toy."

"No, please, not the camera." Jonathan begged. And Samantha understood that desperation in his voice. Although she didn't take photography as serious as Jonathan did she always did take photographs of scenes and people that she intended to paint later.

Snapping out of her shocked state Samantha stepped forward. She knew how much that camera meant to Jonathan. And as much as she understood Steve's anger, she also couldn't allow him to be cruel. Especially, not now with everything that Jonathan was going through. "Steve that's enough."

Steve seemed momentarily surprised that she had spoken to him. Like he couldn't believe that she was defending someone else when she never attempted to defend herself. Sam always just let them bully her, knowing that any form of retaliation would just make things worse for her.

"Okay." He replied softly as he slowly looked away from Sam and towards Jonathan. He held out the camera towards Jonathan who clearly wanted nothing more than the ground to open up and swallow him whole. "Here you go man."

Just as Jonathan was about to reach out for his camera, Steve let it fall t the ground. The camera instantly shattered when it hit the ground, and if Sam was angry before then she was definitely furious now. Or maybe she was angry at herself for thinking for only a moment that Steve would do the right thing and give Jonathan his camera back. "You asshole."

Her words seemed to anger Steve further as he looked at her in disbelief. And suddenly Sam realized that she had never really seen Steve Harrington angry. He always seemed carefree and like he never had any problems in his life to be angry about. But someone taking pictures of his girlfriend was undeniably a good reason to be upset. "Was that not proof enough that you should stay away from this creep?"

"I know exactly the kind of people I should stay away from." Sam replied raising her voice to match his. It irritated her how Steve Harrington of all people was attempting to act like the bigger person, as if he already wasn't a terrible human being.

"Come on, let's go. The game's about to start." Steve ordered his friends as he walked away not bothering to take another look at Jonathan or Samantha like they weren't worth his time.

As her boyfriend walked away, Nancy bent down and quickly picked up some of the torn pieces of photographs only sparing Jonathan and unreadable glance before leaving.

Sam was furious as she watched Nancy run to Steve, but it wasn't Nancy she was upset at. Or maybe she was upset that Nancy, who was known to be a nice girl, would let herself get involved with Steve Harrington and his friends for popularity.

She remained silent as she kneeled down beside Jonathan to help him pick up the remaining pieces of his camera and the torn photographs that were now being blown away by the wind.

Sam didn't know what to say, but she knew that she had to say something. "Johnny...."

"I know." Jonathan muttered quickly, once again refusing to meet her eyes.

"This is not okay." She continued, taking one last look at the pictures before crushing them in her hand. No one else should see such intimate photos and she also didn't feel entirely comfortable leaving them with Jonathan. As terrible as she felt that Jonathan had lost his camera, especially knowing that he would not be able to afford another, Sam also recognized that he felt like he deserved what Steve had just done.

"I know. I don't know why I did it." He admitted as he finally looked up at her crushing the pieces of photograph in his hand. She could see that he was ashamed, but that shame was slowly becoming anger. "But I really was out in those woods looking for Will."

Sam hesitated, not sure how much more she wanted to know. But Jonathan knew something, and she couldn't help her curiosity. "What's your theory?"

"I don't know." Jonathan began, clearly not entirely sure if he wanted to continue with what he was going to say. Like whatever it was would only cause her to think even less of him than she probably already did. "My mom... she says she... she says she saw this man with no face. She thinks it took Will."

"A man with no face?" Samantha repeated in disbelief, doing her best to not look at him like he was insane. Even though the words that had just come out of his mouth were definitely insane.

What he was describing was a monster. And there were no such thing as monsters.

"I know she sounds insane."

She shook her head immediately, although what he was saying was crazy that didn't mean Joyce was. She had to be dealing with a lot of grief, and this was her was of trying to cope. It was easier to say that a monster took her son and not that something real had happened. Because sometimes reality was scarier, and Will getting kidnapped was a terrifying thought.

But somehow it felt like there was more to the story than Will getting lost. Viviane's confession to her this morning felt like there was more happening that they didn't know about yet. She knew that she had made a promise to Viv, but if what she told her could help in finding Will she couldn't keep quiet. "You know... Viviane told me that the night Will disappeared that the lights were flickering in your house."

"What do you think that means?"

"I don't know."  Sam admitted unsure of what either of them were thinking.

They didn't know anything. And they didn't even know what they were speculating but something definitely felt wrong. Sam couldn't explain it and she didn't even know why she felt it but it felt like something terrible was going to happen. That they were all simply waiting for that bad thing to happen.

Although she couldn't entirely shake that feeling, Sam knew that she was getting too much into her head. That she was making connections that weren't even there. That fueling whatever weird suspicions Jonathan had was cruel for her to do.

So, it was better for her to let go of that unreasonable feeling that she couldn't ignore since she realized that Jules had missed school. She knew that once she stopped by his house that he would be here. That Jules was okay and she was coming to pointless conclusions.

A/N: I'm getting to the point where we're getting to the thick of the plot and we're officially three chapters until the end of Side A. Rewatching the first season of Stranger Things has been so much fun, so I've really been writing out these chapters quickly. Hopefully the few of you that are actually reading this story are enjoying it.