dustin's new pet

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

Alina came to school the next day with a bandage on her left hand. She kept staring down at it, wondering what had come over her last night. It had almost felt like something else had made her reach her hand over the open flame in the lighter, and although the burn wasn't bad, it was still peculiar. Although she'd been burned before, she never would've done it on purpose. Which is why she was so confused when she had.

In her first class of the day, science, she knew something was up when Dustin didn't arrive on time. He never was late, a lot like Will before the entire Upside Down incident had occurred, which was what made it so strange to see his empty seat as she came to class. Lucas, who was talking to Gabe, whirled around when he noticed Dustin was missing just as the bell rang. Where is he? He mouthed to her, and Alina shrugged. She didn't know. The last time she'd seen him was last night, before taking Will home. It felt like centuries had passed since then.

Mr. Clarke smiled at them all before beginning his lesson. Their unit on the human brain was continuing, and although Alina, as usual, found his lessons fascinating, today she had to focus on paying attention. Everything from last night was running through her head so loudly that it was like trying to concentrate on the 4th of July. She leaned her head on her arms as he spoke. "The case of Phineas Gage is one of the great medical curiosities of all time. Phineas was a railroad working in 1848 who had a nightmarish accident."

Alina's eyes flickered back down to the bandage on her hand and tucked it into her lap.

"A large iron rod was driven completely through his head." To demonstrate, Mr. Clarke drew a thick line through the cartoon skull he'd projected onto the board, and Alina swallowed. "Phineas miraculously survived," Mr. Clarke continued. "He seemed fine. And physically, yes, he was. But his injury resulted in a complete change to his personality. So much so that friends that knew him started referring to him as 'No longer Gage.' At the time, this was known as the American Crowbar Case. Although it wasn't a—"

Mr. Clarke was cut off by the door slamming open, Dustin running in, breathing heavily. "I am so sorry, Mr. Clarke," he wheezed, making his way to his desk. "Really, I'm so sorry. Please continue with the class. Don't mind me." He took off his bag. "Really, continue, please. Thanks."

Mr. Clarke let out a sigh before continuing. "Although it wasn't a crowbar, it was a rod, as I said."

Alina couldn't stop looking at Dustin. What had caused him to be so late? It was quite unlike him.

Dustin gestured for her to lean in, and Alina did, along with the rest of the party. His eyes were wild. "We have to meet," he whispered. "All of us. At lunch, AV Club."

"Why?" Mike whispered back.

"I have something you won't believe." The party broke up, and Alina was trying to concentrate back on the lesson when she saw Dustin turn to Max and whisper the same thing. Of course. Instead of getting mad, however, an idea struck her, she ripped out a piece of paper from her binder and scribbled something down, before passing it to Lucas. Gabe, she mouthed, and Lucas nodded, passing it to the boy. Gabriel opened the paper and furrowed his brows as he read, before turning back to her with a confused expression.

You'll see, Alina mouthed, and that was that. She'd invited Gabe to join them for this meeting, and none of the others could do anything about it. If they could invite Max, they could invite him. And that was that.

"Dustin!" Mr. Clarke finally noticed Dustin's whispering, and the boy turned back to look at him.

"Yes, my lord?"

"Would you care to join the class now?"

"Please, yes." Dustin bent down, beginning to rummage in his backpack for his binder. He was looking flustered, and Alina knew something was up. She turned to him with an eyebrow raise, and he responded by smiling a little. Well, at least his surprise wasn't bad.

"The case of Phineas Gage," Mr. Clarke continued.

"Phineas Gage." Dustin unzipped his backpack, and Alina leaned over, noticing with surprise that his ghost trap was in there along with his textbooks. She gave him a funny look, but he didn't notice.

"Page 104," said Mr. Clarke, and Dustin nodded.

"104. 104."

"Focus."

"Focusing. Focusing." Dustin pulled out his textbook and lay it out on his desk, and Alina snuck a peek inside his bag again just as the trap rattled, a faint chittering noise emitting out of it. Dustin's eyes widened in alarm, and he looked back down at it, zipping his bag shut. Mr. Clarke continued his lesson, but Alina couldn't focus any longer. It looked like Dustin had brought some sort of animal into school.

Mr. Clarke stopped talking abruptly, and Alina turned to meet his eyes. But they were no longer the bright eyes of her science teacher. No, she was looking into the eyes of Brandon Fairgrieves, who beamed at her. "Ally," he said. "Alina."

Then Alina blinked, and Brandon Fairgrieves disappeared. She closed her eyes, stifling a whimper, and continued to listen to Mr. Clarke, although she did wonder what resided inside of Dustin's ghost trap. It wouldn't be long before she found out.

"Excuse me, why is he here?" was the first thing that came out of Mike's mouth the moment Alina and Gabe walked into the AV Room at lunch. The others—including Max—had already gathered, but Alina had made a pit stop to drop the notes she'd been given into Will's locker, and Gabriel had come with her. He was in the middle of raising his hand in a wave but dropped it when he heard what Mike said.

"Because I invited him," said Alina coolly. "Because he's my new friend."

Lucas and Dustin exchanged a shocked glance, while Mike just clenched his fists. Given the way he was glaring at Max, having another non-party member be involved in whatever Dustin was about to show them did not make him happy. "But he's—"

"Oh, I can leave, if you want," Gabe interrupted him. "I mean, Alina invited me, but it's pretty clear you don't want me here, so, uh, sorry to interrupt? Oh, hey Max."

"Hi, Gabe." Max waved at Gabriel before turning back to Mike. "Just let him stay, Mike. He's not going to do anything."

"Yeah." Will spoke up, and Alina's eyes widened. She turned to look at her friend, but he was determinately looking at the floor. His face was red again. "Yeah, Mike, let Gabe stay."

"Can we just get on with this?" Dustin asked. His legs were trembling in his anticipation. "Seriously, stop bickering. You're all going to want to see this." He rummaged through his bag, pulling out his ghost trap, which emitted a loud squeal. Everyone but Alina flinched, as she had heard the noise during class. "I found this little guy in my garbage last night," he continued. "And... voila!"

Dustin set the ghost trap on the table and opened it, and the seven kids—including Gabe, who'd stayed after hearing how everybody wanted him too—leaned forward, wanting to see what, exactly, had caused Dustin to be late to class.

Inside the container, a small, slimy creature paced about, letting out little chirping noises as it did so. It had two legs, a tail that swung behind it, and no eyes. Its slimy skin was the khaki color of a booger, and the way it wriggled about reminded her of a tadpole. Alina wrinkled her nose at the sight of it. It was one of the most disgusting things she'd ever seen.

"His name is D'Artagnan," said Dustin proudly, gazing down at the little creature before lifting it out of the trap. Alina took a step back, watching the thing gurgle in his hands. The other's eyes widened at the sight of it, but Dustin simply smiled. "Cute, right?"

"No, not cute," snapped Alina. Seeing the creature in his hands had given her a bad feeling, but she couldn't quite explain what it was. All she could think was that there was something wrong with whatever he was holding. Oddly, at the same time, there was a strange bond she could feel with the creature. But that didn't make her like it. "I can think of several words to describe whatever the hell that is, and none of them are cute!"

Dustin frowned at her, but before he could say anything, Mike was already talking. "D'Artagnan?" he asked, eyeing the strange slimy creature.

"Dart for short," Dustin said.

"And he was in your trash?" Max asked.

"Foraging for food." Dustin looked down at the creature, and then back up at Max. "You wanna hold him?"

The girl shook her head quickly. "No, no. I don't—" but Dustin was already dropping it into her hands.

"He doesn't bite, don't worry!" he soothed, and Alina took another step away from the creature.

Max grimaced as the creature was placed in her palm. "Oh, God, he's slimy!" she yelped, before dropping the thing into Lucas's hands.

"Ugh, he's like a living booger!"

Lucas dropped D'Artagnan into Gabe's hands, and the boy let out a yelp. "This is the grossest thing I've ever touched!" he cried, holding Dart up to look at it better before passing the slimy creature to Will, who let out a disgusted gasp.

"Ugh! Oh, God!" He made to place the creature in Alina's hands, but Alina stopped him.

"If you put whatever the hell that is in my hands, Byers, I will burn your bedsheets."

Will passed Dart to Mike. Instead of grimacing like the others had done, Mike seemed more curious, holding up Dart into the light. Alina could see veins throbbing under its skin and had to look away before she became physically sick. "What is he?" Mike asked.

"My question exactly," said Dustin. Mike put Dart in a coil of wire, and Dustin rummaged through his bag before slamming down a book he'd borrowed from the library on the table. This one was about Eastern Reptiles and Amphibians. "At first," he said, "I thought it was some type of pollywog."

"Pollywog?" Max repeated, leaning against the table.

"It's another word for tadpole," Dustin explained. "A tadpole is the larval stage of a toad."

Max rolled her eyes. "I know what a tadpole is."

"All right, then you know that most tadpoles are aquatic, right?" he opened the library book to a page about the life cycle of a frog. "Well, Dart, he isn't. He doesn't need water."

"Yeah," said Lucas, "but aren't there non-aquatic pollywogs?"

"Terrestrial pollywogs? Yep. Two to be exact." He flipped to a page in his book. "Indirana Semipalmata." He flipped to another page, "and the Adenomera Andreae. One's from India, one's from South America. So how did one end up in my trash?"

"Maybe some scientists brought it here?" Max suggested. "And it escaped?"

"Yeah," said Gabe, perking up. "That's a possibility. Those things have happened before."

"Do you guys see that?" Mike suddenly piped up. "It looks like something's moving inside of it."

Alina looked, and it did. Inside of Dart's slimy skin, something quivered, pushing against it. Twisting and turning and trying to escape. She gagged. "This is getting more disgusting by the minute," she said. "And yet morbid curiosity is making me stay."

Lucas brought the light closer to Dart, so as to see it better, and the little creature let out a pained hiss, climbing over the wire. Everyone screamed as Dart leaped off the table in order to get away from the light, but Dustin caught it before it could hit the ground. Alina thought it was a pity that Dustin didn't let it die. She couldn't help but hate it.

"Whoa," said Dustin, bringing Dart back to the table. "It's okay. It's okay. I got you, little guy. I know you don't like that. It's okay."

"Are you... soothing D'Artagnan?" Gabe asked in confusion.

Dustin just smiled. And there's another thing," he said. "Reptiles, they're cold-blooded. Ectothermic, right? They love heat, the sun. Dart hates it. It hurts him."

"So, if he's not a pollywog, or a reptile..." Lucas began, and Dustin smiled wider.

"Then I've discovered a new species."

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

a/n: yikes i lowkey hate this chapter but also i find it funny that it took me sixteen whole chapters plus a prologue just for dustin to find dart dhshsh like on acatalepsy alina was already meeting el on chapter four,,, but when you're not writing/reading about the other groups, it makes things go so much slower.

hope you enjoyed! i promise i'm going to go back to a normal update schedule soon, it's just that i haven't really been in a good place mentally, and quarantine+online school definitely has to do with that. but writing does help me get through these things, and i love hearing all of your feedback and theories on this series, it truly is making my entire year. thank you <3

'till next time!