Chapter Four: Invisible

When Annie got home after walking quite a bit, she was right: Steve was already there. He didn't here her come in, though, and continued to sit on the couch with his head in his hands. The pain was so great, he didn't even make it to his room before he just needed to sit.

"Steve?" Annie asked quietly, not wanting to scare him. He still jumped a little, and when she saw his face her heart broke. "What happened?" She quickly went over to him and sat down, pulling him into a hug.

They were pretty close considering how their parents weren't exactly involved in either of their lives unless one of them did something incredibly awful. It was nice, Steve being a few years older than Annie. It helped them bond rather than bump heads. He also inadvertently helped her become a semi-popular kid with his own popularity.

At first, he didn't want to say anything, unsure of his little sister getting it. But he told her everything, and she told him everything. "Nancy... she called us bullshit. Said our love was bullshit," he managed to get out. To him, he sounded stupid.

To Annie, he sounded seriously heartbroken. "Oh, Steve." She hugged him longer and they just sat there, not saying anything for a minute. It was nice having a sibling there for him, Steve thought.

After a bit, they ate a few bits of candy from Annie's bag, and then they both went upstairs to go to bed. Annie decided she'd talk to Steve about her problem a different night, when he didn't need her to be there for him.

~~

At school the day, Max and Annie were walking together to Mr. Clarke's. "I still don't get why they call him 'Zombie Boy'. I mean, I get it, he got lost in the woods for like, a week or something, but why is he a zombie? Cause everyone thought he was dead?"

Annie nodded. "Yeah, there was a funeral and everything. It was really rough."

"After a week?"

"Well, another kid had drowned at the quarry and they assumed it was him. I don't really remember all the details, but I think the mix up happened because his body was super decomposed and they couldn't tell. It was a bad week for everyone around."

Max sighed as we stopped. "Okay, that's not funny."

Annie looked at her, confused. "It's not a joke, I promise. It's public knowledge- everyone here knows about it and all. Just ask- but not Will. It's kinda traumatic," she explained.

"Yeah, I guess it would be..." Max said. She wanted to know what really happened, but didn't think Annie would know and she knew none of the others would tell her, so she took that as her answer for the time being.

In Mr. Clarke's he was talking about the case of Phones Gage and the iron rod that changed his life forever. It was kind of interesting, but Annie didn't want to focus on it. A couple times, she glanced over at Max and even thought about trying to draw her. But every time she dropped that thought and moved on to drawing other things.

That was until Dustin came barging in out of breath. Everyone stared at him as he stumbled out apologies and hurried to his seat. Then, he said something to the Party, before he turned and whispered something to a very confused Max.

Mr. Clarke called him out again and Dustin stopped and started paying attention to the class. Annie wasn't surprised she didn't get to be in on this secret knowledge. During trick-or-treating the night before, she noticed how Lucas and Dustin liked her. She pretended not to care that they did.

The day continued on, nothing of importance happening. When it came to lunch, Max said she was meeting Dustin at the A/V club and would see Annie in their next class. She smiled and said cool, then went to lunch where she met up with Holly and Meghan.

"Hey, how was last night?" Holly asked, after they established her ankle was okay.

Annie shrugged. "It was okay. Max and I found Dustin, Lucas, Will, and Mike and ended up hanging out with them before Will had to go home. From there we all disbanded," she explained. She pulled a piece of candy out of the open bag in the middle of them all.

Meg looked confused. "Wait, I thought you hated those guys?" she asked.

"I do, yeah," Annie clarified. "But Max is kind of becoming friends with Dustin and Lucas so I thought I'd hang out with them too. It was either than or go alone or go home. Besides, they got me to Loch Nora and all these huge candy bars." Holly and Meghan laughed and each took a piece from the pile.

"Speaking of, where's Max? With the others?" Holly asked. Annie nodded, and missed a look go between Holly and Meghan. "That's a bummer. Well, it's not the end of the world. Just a lunch period."

Holly was right, and of course Annie knew that, but she was still kind of sad over Max becoming friends with the Party, maybe even taking her spot-

No. Annie, don't think like that. Annie physically shook her head then kept eating her food. "Yeah, duh. She's allowed to have other friends and stuff. It's just weird who she chose..." Her voice got quieter at the end and she took another bite of her school food.

The day went on and Max was there in the last classes, but left with the Party before Annie got a good chance to talk to her. Now she was genuinely sad and didn't trying to hide it from herself. Why she was sad was a bit trickier for her to figure out. It couldn't have anything to do with what she felt yesterday, could it?

Annie was walking through the halls when she spotted Max, banging on the door to the A/V Club room. She was yelling and she figured the Party left her outside.

She finally sat down on the ground by the door, still hitting it a couple times. Annie took in a deep breath and walked forward, sitting down across from her. "Hey," she said quietly.

Max stopped and looked across to see Annie sitting up against the wall on the other side. "Hey," she said back. It was awkwardly quiet for a moment as Annie didn't know how to continue from here, and neither did Max.

"So, I thought you were friends with Dustin and Lucas? Why'd they lock you out?" Annie finally asked. She didn't want to be nosey, but at the same time, Max was making a somewhat big deal out of it by banging on the door.

She shrugged. "I don't know. It has to do with the thing at lunch that I was a part of, but for some reason I guess that was the extent of my involvement," she explained, leaving the details about the lunch meeting out.

Annie nodded along. "I'm sorry. I was really hoping they wouldn't do that to you," she said. It reminded Annie of her own exclusion from the Party last year. Yeah, it stung when they invited Max to join, but she didn't deserve this.

"What happened with you guys?" Max finally asked. She wanted to know why they made Annie upset. Even though they got along well enough during Halloween, that was a one time thing. Every other time Annie was near them, she hurried by or ignored them.

It didn't surprise Annie that Max would want to know. "Well... we had been friends for a while before Will went missing last year. We were all devastated and then suddenly I wasn't their friend anymore... I don't even know how it happened. Even after Will came back they were all distant to me."

Max felt horrible for her. That was maybe the worst timing the Party had for dropping her like that- it was incredibly rude. It made her mad, and she turned to bang on the door again. She wanted to give them a piece of her mind and she wanted to bring Annie in on all of this.

"Guys! What's going on, come on!" she yelled. No reply, so she leaned back up against the wall. "I'm sorry they did that to you," she then said.

Annie shook her head. "It's not your fault at all, Max. But thanks anyway." There was a sad sort of smile on Annie's face. She missed the fun she had with them, she really did. They had more nerdy fun than she did with Holly and Meghan.

Suddenly, Max pulled her backpack in front of her and opened it up to retrieve a paperclip from a notebook. "Whatcha doing there?" Annie asked as Max opened up part of it and stuck it in the door lock. "Oh my god, are you really trying to pick the lock?" She didn't sound mad, in fact she was amused.

"You bet your ass I am, and I'm good at it, too," Max said as she worked the lock. Annie stood up and walked over to the side Max was on. She dropped her backpack next to the other girl's and watched as she picked the lock.

She wasn't wrong. She was pretty good at this. "I feel like I should be concerned that you can pick locks," Annie commented. Max smiled and got the last bit she needed before the door was unlocked. "Nice!"

There was loud noises and commotion coming from inside when Max opened the door. "What the..."

A strange slimy slug came out of the room and towards Annie, who screamed and fell back trying to get away from it. "What the hell is that?" she yelled. The boys came sprinting from the room, tripping over Max and Annie along the way.

"Where'd he go?" Mike asked.

"What the hell was that?" Annie asked again, getting help from Max to get off the floor.

Mike turned to the girls, furious. "Dart! You let him escape!"

"What's a 'Dart'"?

"Why did you attack him?" Dustin yelled, coming for Mike. Everyone was shouting all sorts of things and Annie couldn't keep up with all of it.

Finally, they started running in different directions. "What's going on?" Annie asked Max. Worry and fear was all over her face because what the actually hell was that and she couldn't process.

Max just grabbed her arm and pulled her a direction, saying, "Come on! We've got to find it!" Annie just went along with it, happy to have Max touching her arm-

Stop it!! You can't think like that. Her thought was distressed because it was right. Annie can't think like that at all. No chance.

They explored the school, looking around for the strange gooey creature. Annie shivered just thinking about it, something Max noticed. "Cold there, Barbie?" she jokingly asked.

Annie laughed a pitiful laugh, but shook her head. "No, just thinking about that thing... it was so gross and strange. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it," Annie explained.

Max didn't know how to answer because she had no idea what it was either. By the sound of the meeting the Party just had with her, though, they did. And it wasn't anything good. Neither of them said anything more until they got to the gym.

"Locker rooms?" Max suggested. Annie nodded her agreement and they went inside. It was dark, and neither of them could find a light switch so they just went with it. Max and her immediately went to the lockers and looked through them, the redhead being much more confident in pulling stuff out and looking for it.

Annie hesitantly moved things and peered very carefully. She didn't want that thing jumping at her again. Once was enough for her.

"Anything?" Max shook her head. Annie sighed and walked over to her as Max dropped something and let it clatter.

Annie was about to say something when a figure jumped around the corner with a yell. Max turned quick to see who it was and Annie hid behind her. Bravery wasn't one of her top skills.

"What the hell are you doing?" Max asked the intruder. Annie peeked out to see it was Mike with a bat?

The boy looked at Max and threw the question back at her. "What are you doing? Why are you in here?"

Annie shrugged, finally stepping out from behind Max. Her hand moved away from the redhead's arm and she weirdly separated herself as to not be too close. Her mind didn't need anything new. "Looking for Dart," Annie answered.

"This is the boy's room," Mike snapped as if it were obvious.

"Yeah, so?" Max snapped back, not caring whatsoever.

"So you should go home! Both of you." Mike dropped the bat and started to leave the locker room. Max and Annie followed behind and Max started asking all the tough questions, not even beating around the bush. Mike, the denier he was, did just that.

Mike started explaining the roles in the party and mentioned a name Annie had never heard before. "El?" she asked, and Mike realized his screw up. "Who's El?" The hurt in her voice was overly evident and it caused Mike to look away from her. Max wanted to do something but didn't know how.

"Someone... no one," Mike finally answered, looking away and refusing to meet Annie's gaze.

Max, however, was pissed. "Someone or no one?"

"She was in our party a long time ago and moved away, okay?" he clarified. Annie knew it was a lie because she didn't remember any one of them mentioning her when she first met them. It was embarrassing but she couldn't stop the tears from coming into her eyes.

Max and Mike started arguing about how Max could be a new thing, a zoomer. Annie wasn't paying much attention at this point, though, just enough to see Max going in circles on her skateboard.

She couldn't help but smile as Max tried to prover her point, arms out and smiling wide- she even glanced over at Annie with a smile even bigger than what she gave Mike. But then she and Mike started arguing over how impressive it actually was.

"Come on, Barbie agrees with me!" Max suddenly said. Mike looked over at Annie super confused, and the girl just nodded along. "Come on, I bet you a million bucks you learn how to do this."

As she was doing another turn and arguing with Mike, who seemed to be growing on her, the board suddenly went out from under her feet and she went falling to the ground. "Max!" Annie called and hurried over to her, beating Mike when he was only a couple feet away.

"Jesus, are you all right?" Mike asked, coming to Max's help as well.

She was clutching her side and Annie couldn't stop worrying. "Yeah, yeah, I think so," she answered with some strain. Annie held her hand out and helped Max up off the ground with some help from Mike.

"What happened?" Mike asked once Max was on her feet.

She shook her head. "I don't know, it was like a magnet or something pulling on my board... I know that sounds crazy." After saying that, she went off to grab her skateboard that had rolled away almost across the gym. Annie looked to Mike, who hadn't remarked, and saw him looking out the doors.

"Mike?" she asked. He didn't answer, instead running over to the doors and rushing out of them. Annie just gave him a weird look then turned back to Max. She was carefully grabbing her side, causing Annie to frown.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Annie asked, walking back over to Max.

Looking back up at her, Max nodded. "Yeah, just weird, you know? I don't even know how that happened if I'm being honest," Max explained. Annie just nodded along.

They followed the way Mike went, just a lot slower. "For what it's worth, I think you'd be a great zoomer," Annie said quietly. She had her arms crossed in front of her stomach and she was rubbing her left arm with her right hand.

This isn't suspicious, Annie thought. Just trying to cheer her up.

Max smiled at her and then gently bumped her shoulder into the brunette's. "Thanks, Barbie." They stayed quiet for a second longer before the question burning in Max's head finally came out. "What were you in the party? Mike didn't mention..."

The happiness on Annie's face fell quickly. She didn't really want to remember that whole conversation that went down. "I... I was never really given a role. I was still learning DnD when I became their friend and they were in the middle of a pretty big campaign, so I didn't play with them much. The dumbest part is I didn't even know they had roles like that- they're all vital to the group."

She felt bitter when Mike mentioned that 'El' girl. Whoever she was, Annie was almost positive she took Annie's place. The others would never admit it, but they didn't need to. The tears in her eyes made her feel even more dumb and she tried to discreetly wipe them away.

Of course, Max was smarter than that. She heard the way Annie's voice quieted down greatly when talking about the Party and saw her quickly wipe her eyes. But this is where Max didn't know what to do. She could either ignore that she saw that and move on completely, or comfort Annie and try to make her feel better.

Max decided to go for a middle ground. She shifted her skateboard into the arm furthest from Annie then hooked that freshly empty arm through Annie's. "Well, let's find ourselves a weird slug thing and prove to these idiots we're better than them," Max said matter-o-factly. It made Annie laugh, which was her goal, and they picked up their pace to continue searching the school.

Mike was still in the hall and had just gotten word on Dart's location. They all hurried off and made their way to the bathroom it was found in. We met up with Lucas along the way and burst into the bathroom, finding Dustin already there.

"Where's Dart?" Mike asked as we all came to a halt.

Dustin, leaning against the wall, gave a little shrug and answered, "I don't know, not here."

Everyone started throwing out things about how this was the right spot, this is where Will said to meet them. Annie quietly realized that the finder in question wasn't even here. Not wanting to interrupt them, she walked out quietly and looked around for where he went.

She walked down the hall, looking down each branch off to see if he was chilling out there or something. Each one came up empty. "Damn it, where are you Will?" she asked out loud.

It didn't take long before that question was answered.

A/n: yay, another one! Let me know what you guys are thinking so far 😁😁