"There's something wrong with Nancy," Becca mused, studying where the girl stood behind Steve in the lunch line, and Anna turned in her seat at the lunch table to follow her gaze.

Where Nancy Wheeler usually looked so calm and put together, enough that Tommy and Carol usually referred to her as Princess, or Little Miss Perfect when she wasn't around, that day she kept glancing around as if she were lost, or searching for something. When Steve spoke, causing Nancy to turn her gaze back to him, her smile never quite reached her eyes, and she only looked at him for a moment before scanning the room again.

"She's probably just tired." Anna said, shrugging. "It's not like any of us got much sleep last night, thanks to her and Steve or Tommy and Carol."

"Alright, I'm going to pretend you didn't just say that." Landon said, hiding his grimace and popping a french fry into his mouth.

"Nance, c'mon, this way," Anna could hear Steve's voice from a short distance behind her.

"I'll be right there, just give me a second." Nancy responded, and Anna could hear her footsteps growing closer as she turned back around in her seat again, seeing Nancy making a beeline for their table rather than where Tommy and Carol waited at theirs, her eyes locked firmly on Becca and Anna. "Hey," she spoke up, glancing around again before looking back at them.

"Hey, Nance," Anna said. "What's up?"

"I was just wondering if you guys had seen Barbara around at all today?" she asked. "Or even if you knew what time she left last night? I haven't seen her around anywhere, I don't think she's here."

Anna's eyebrows furrowed together in concentration as she thought back to the couple of morning classes she usually shared with Barb, but having come up short. She also didn't know where Barb's car was parked for the party, or how late she stayed, but given how uncomfortable she'd looked the night before Anna had assumed she left the second Nancy had gone upstairs with Steve, while she and Becca had been working on their math homework.

"I haven't seen her," Becca said, and Anna shook her head.

"Sorry," Anna added.

"It's alright, just..." Nancy trailed off for a moment. "I'm sure she probably just stayed home today, I'll give her a call after school. Thanks anyways."

The three of them watched as Nancy scurried off in the direction of the lunch table where Steve, Tommy, and Carol were all watching her expectantly, and as soon as she sat back down, Landon looked back at them with a confused glance.

"Alright, so everything... else put aside concerning the four of them," he said, grimacing slightly. "What did I miss last night? What happened with Barb?"

"You really didn't miss much." Anna assured him. "Barb cut her hand when Nancy tried convincing her to shotgun a beer, and since Nancy wound up staying later at the party and going upstairs with Steve, Barb's probably just avoiding her."

"I felt bad for her, though." Becca added. "You could tell she didn't want to be there. Not that Tommy and Carol made it any easier for her."

"Did you talk to her at all?" Anna asked. "When you went to get her the first aid kit?"

Becca nodded. "A little." she said. "She said she was sorry if any blood got onto the carpet, but it was fine. I told her I was sorry in return if she wasn't having a good time, I mean Anna, you saw how uncomfortable she was, but she didn't say much after that. After she went into the bathroom to try and fix it, I went back out to the pool with you guys."

Anna spared one last glance at Nancy to see her still looking around the room, though by now she had to know for sure that Barbara wasn't in the cafeteria, if she hadn't been in any of her shared classes with Nancy that morning. When she looked back at her friends, Becca and Landon had managed to change the subject, moving onto that of the new movies premiering at The Hawk that weekend.

Anna kept an eye on Nancy during their afternoon classes, seeing the girl get progressively more and more worried about Barb as the day went on. Though Anna knew Barb probably hadn't been feeling well after the night before and simply stayed home, she could tell it was really bothering Nancy, showing a side of the girl Anna had never really seen before, even back in middle school when they'd been good friends.

When the bell finally rang at the end of the day, Nancy made a beeline down the hallway for the double doors leading out into the parking lot, but Anna wandered over to her locker, where Becca was already waiting for her so they could go meet Steve, Tommy, and Carol before that evening's football game was set to begin. She quickly swapped out any books she needed for that night's homework into her backpack and shut her locker door, following Becca outside towards the parking lot.

"That doesn't look good," Becca spoke up suddenly, and Anna looked over to where her car was parked next to Steve's, and a few rows over sat Jonathan's car, where Steve stood with Tommy, Carol, and Nicole Tanner. Steve was saying something to Jonathan, and when the Byers boy tried to move past him, Tommy grabbed his backpack, tossing it to Steve. "What the hell is going on?"

Jonathan stood with his head down as Steve went through the boy's backpack, pulling out what looked to be a stack of photographs, and he began to go through them, along with Carol and Tommy. Carol looked up as she saw the two girls approaching, and gave them a snarky smile in greeting.

"Hi girls," Carol greeted in a false cheery tone.

"What the hell are you guys doing?" Becca asked. "Steve, c'mon, give him his stuff back."

"Just in time." Steve said. "Becca, Anna, have you guys ever seen any of Byers's art before? It's really, really something." he said sarcastically, passing a couple photographs over to each of them.

Anna's eyes narrowed as she studied the photograph in her hand. It was taken outdoors at night, making the quality of the picture appear grainy, but it captured a group of people outside near a pool. At a closer glance, she could unmistakably make out where she and Becca lay in the lounge chairs watching while Steve shotgunned his beer can, causing her blood to turn to ice in her veins as she hesitantly looked back up to where Jonathan was looking at her, purposefully avoiding looking in her eyes.

"Jonathan?" she asked, her voice small.

"I was looking for my brother." Jonathan tried to explain.

"No," Steve protested, "No, this is called stalking."

"What's going on?" Another voice joined the mix, and Anna looked over to see Nancy approaching them, studying the group with a confused expression.

"Here's the starring lady," Tommy announced with a sly smirk, causing Nancy to narrow her eyes in his direction.

"What?" she asked.

"This creep was spying on us last night." Carol explained, glaring in Jonathan's direction, and Anna looked over at Becca, but her eyes were still firmly glued to the picture in front of her. "He's probably gonna save this one for later." she added, passing a photograph to Nancy, but Anna couldn't make out what was on it.

Steve clicked his tongue, looking back over at where Jonathan was still standing, staring at the ground. "See, you can tell that he knows it was wrong, but..." he trailed off, stepping closer to him. "Man, that's the thing about perverts. It's hardwired into 'em, you know, they just can't help themselves." He reached up while he spoke, fixing the collar of Jonathan's shirt and smoothing it down before ripping up the photographs in his hands. "So, we'll just have to take away his toy."

"Steve," Becca warned, snapping out of her trance as Steve moved back to where Jonathan's bag still lay on the hood of his car, reaching inside and pulling out his camera.

"No, please, not the camera," Jonathan begged, attempting to follow after Steve but Tommy stepped between them, holding him back.

"No, no, wait, wait, Tommy." Steve said, backing the other boy off with the camera held firmly in his hand. "It's okay. Here you go, man." he said, holding the camera out towards Jonathan.

Anna watched as Jonathan reached out to grab the camera, though before he could reach, Steve let it go, dropping the device as it toppled to the ground. It collided with the pavement with a dull thud, breaking apart as it came to rest, and Anna's eyes widened as the sound reached her ears, looking back at where Steve stood with a satisfied smirk, and where Jonathan stared at the broken camera with a defeated expression.

"Steve, what the hell?" Becca asked.

"Come on, let's go, the game's about to start." Steve said simply, moving past them, and Anna spared one last look back in Jonathan's direction before following after where Becca had gone after him back towards the school.

As they walked into the school with Tommy, Carol, and Nicole close behind, Steve shouted for Nancy to hurry up. When she finally joined the group, Anna took a seat on the floor in front of a group of lockers, where Becca sat next to her with Steve on her other side and Nancy standing next to them, and Tommy and Carol lounged on a bench across from them with her head in his lap. Anna's mind flashed with images of Jonathan still staring down at the broken camera while the Harrington cousins continued to argue next to her, pulling her attention back to them.

"You didn't have to do that, Steve." Becca scolded.

"Bullshit, I didn't have to do that, Becs." Steve scoffed. "The creep was in the woods behind our house, taking pictures of us, what did you expect me to do?"

"I'm not saying what Jonathan did was right." Becca insisted. "I'm creeped out by it too, believe me. But think about what that family's going through right now. Their little brother is missing, and they're going out of their minds searching for him, you didn't have to break his camera."

"Hang on, I'm not the bad guy in this situation." Steve said.

"I never said you were, Steven." Becca sighed. "But you went too far."

Anna stood up suddenly as she looked around at all of them, Becca and Nancy watching her with confused expressions while Tommy and Carol seemed annoyed. Despite how creeped out she'd felt by Jonathan taking pictures of their party the night before, after the way Steve and the others reacted, she hadn't felt much like being around them for the rest of the afternoon, either.

"Anns, you alright?" Becca asked then.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine." she said, shrugging lightly. "I think I'm just gonna head home, actually. I've got a ton of homework to try to get done tonight."

"But the game's starting soon," Steve pointed out.

Anna shrugged again. "I guess I'm not in much of a football mood." she said. "I'll see you guys later."

Anna turned and headed back for the doors at the end of the hallway, making a beeline for her car. Jonathan's car was already gone from the lot, the afternoon rush out of the parking lot having dissipated except for those milling about before the game, and Anna threw her bag in the passenger seat of her car, sitting down in the driver's seat and taking a deep breath before turning the key in the ignition.

The music played softly through the speakers as she drove home, the final chords of a Journey song playing before the radio station moved to a commercial break. She turned the dial on the radio until a channel surfaced playing a rock song she didn't quite recognize, tapping her fingers along to the beat as she pulled into the driveway of the Henderson house.

"Annie, you're home early." Claudia greeted her eldest child as Anna stepped through the front door, unzipping her jacket to hang up on the coat rack in the corner of the room. "I thought you were going to the football game with your friends."

"Uh, yeah," she said, "I just had a lot of homework, so I figured I should get that done instead."

"That's my girl," Claudia beamed proudly. "That reminds me, how was your test this morning?"

"My chemistry test?" she asked after a moment, remembering the lie she'd told her mother to stay over at Becca's house for the party, pushing Kaminsky's test back a day and claiming their need to study. "It was fine. I think I did alright."

"I'm sure you did great, dear." her mother assured her.

"Where's Dustin?" Anna asked.

"He went to Mike's again today with Lucas. Those poor boys, they must be so worried about Will. I couldn't even imagine what I'd do if it was you or Dusty that was out there." Claudia said, a frown etching onto her features. "Well, come on inside dear, and you can get your homework started while I get everything ready for dinner."

Anna moved into the living room, setting her backpack on the floor and taking a seat in front of the coffee table as she began to pull out her things. She opted for her history homework first, opening her textbook along with her notebook and pens to begin taking notes on that week's chapter. As she worked, she'd hardly noticed the sun going down in the early hours of the late fall evening, the television where Claudia watched the nightly news playing as background noise.

It was shortly after the two women finished dinner and Anna had moved back to start working on her english essay when the front door opened, slamming against the wall and pulling their attention to where Dustin stood in the doorway, hands clenched at his sides and tears streaming down his face. As his eyes locked with Anna's, he began to cry harder, and she quickly jumped back up to her feet, moving quickly over where her little brother was still standing.

"Dustin?" she asked, pulling him into her arms, and he hugged her back tightly, clinging to her as his tears instantly began to soak into her shirt.

"Dusty, what happened?" Claudia's voice rang out as she followed Anna. "Are you alright, are you hurt?"

"Dustin, what's wrong?" Anna asked, looking down at him with a worried expression.

"W-we were riding our bikes when we heard a bunch of sirens." he stammered, his voice slightly muffled from where his face hid in Anna's shoulder. "So we followed them down to the quarry, where they were pulling someone out of the water. I-it was Will." he said, his voice cracking as the sobs racked through his body. "He's gone."

Claudia gasped, tears springing to her eyes as Anna led Dustin over to the couch, grabbing a blanket and wrapping it around him as they sat down. She wrapped an arm around his shoulders as he continued to lean against her, and she reached up to take his hat off, running a hand through his hair in an attempt to calm him down. Tears pricked at the edges of her vision at the sight of seeing her younger brother so broken-hearted, though she could only imagine what Jonathan and Michelle would be going home to that evening.

"I just can't believe he's gone." Dustin said, sniffling. "I-I just saw him the other night, we were going to finish our campaign this weekend."

"I know," Anna murmured. "I know. I'm so sorry, Dusty."

Anna lay on the couch with Dustin as he continued to cry into her shoulder, her homework long forgotten on the coffee table as Claudia put on Dustin's favorite movie in an attempt to cheer the boy up, though none of them paid much attention to it while it played. It was only near the end of the movie that she felt his breathing even out as he fell asleep with his head on her shoulder, exhausted from crying and the constant worrying about Will's whereabouts over the past few days.

She shifted under him, careful not to wake him as she stood up, picking him up from the couch and carrying him into his bedroom. Claudia pulled the sheets back as Anna lay him down in bed, tucking him in and kissing the top of his head.

"Get some rest," she whispered, her heart breaking further at the thought of Mike and Lucas going through the same exact motions that evening. "Goodnight, Dusty."