Nancy's point of view..

I feel awful about being sneaky when it comes to Steve, but he wouldn't particularly like the idea of me going over to Jonathan's house 'just to hang,' not that that was what we were doing. We had to meet up again to talk about our discoveries with Eleven. It's not like we could tell Steve, though. Even though Steve did see the Demogorgon, he was still too far from the situation to understand what's going on. Even if I could tell him, it would be hard to explain all of the past details, plus the current situation. Too complicated. A waste.

Jonathan drove me to his house after school to talk. As soon as I walked into his house, his mom greeted me. "Oh, hello, Nancy! Funny Jonathan's brother is at your house and you're over here, huh?" Ms. Byers said with a smile. I chuckled a little. "Yeah, well, thank you for having me over, Ms. Byers. I don't really know how long I'll be, honestly..." I said trailing off. "Oh, it's fine! I'm going to go out for a bit, anyways. I'll be no more than two hours," she responded. "Oh, I should gone before then I think," I responded. "Either way, it's fine. Stay as long as you need," she said.

"Where are you going, mom?" Jonathan asked. "I'm just going to talk with Hopper for a little bit. It's nothing. I won't leave for a few minutes, anyways," she answered. "Oh, I see, well, Nancy and I will be in my room if you need anything before you leave." "Okay, honey, thanks," she said before we walked back into Jonathan's room.

We went into Jonathan's room and sat down on his bed. We had all of our notes with theories and discoveries about Eleven inside of it. Yesterday, we had remembered what Mike had showed us. The flea and the acrobat. It was
something that he said his science teacher had explained to him.

(Mike's point of view)

"So, you know how in Cosmos, Carl Sagan talks about other dimensions? Like, beyond our world?" "Yeah, sure, theoretically," My biology teacher, Mr. Clarke responded. Him saying 'theoretically' honestly made me upset. This clearly wasn't a theory. "Right, theoretically," I responded with, anyways. That's when Lucas joined in on the conversation. "So, theoretically, how do we travel there?" He asked. That's when he commented on something regarding Hugh Everett, which none of us really understood, so instead, we stayed silent. He continued, anyways.

"Well, basically, there are parallel universes, just like our world, but just infinite variations of it, which means there's a word out there where none of this tragic stuff every happens-" "Yeah, that's not what we're talking about," Lucas said, interrupting. "Oh," Mr. Clarke said. "We were thinking more of like an evil dimension like The Vale of Shadows." I nodded. "You know The Vale of Shadows?" Dustin asked our teacher.

Once we were all on the same page and understood the direction this conversation was going to head in, I spoke up again. "...how would we travel there?" "Theoretically," Lucas added to my question. "Well..." Mr Clarke began to say. Then he took his paper plate and pulled out a pen from his jacket. He started to sketch on the plate. "Picture and acrobat standing on a tightrope, and the tightrope is our dimension, and our dimension has rules," Mr Clarke was explaining. "You can move forwards or backwards," he said again, drawing arrows next to the small stick figure person. "But, what if right next to our acrobat there is a flea? Now, the flea can also travel backwards and forwards just like the acrobat can, right?" "Right..." I responded, nodding. "Here's where things get really interesting. The flea can also travel this way," Mr. Clarke said, drawing another arrow. "He can even go underneath the rope."

"Upside Down.."

(Back to Nancy..)

Yes, upside down is right. Upside down was right, however, no one gave any attention to what he said before about going on the side of the rope. No one ever cared about the side ways. And now, that's where we think Eleven is. Long ago, we've definitely ruled out the possibility of Eleven being in The Upside Down. We would have known if she was in there. The signs we've been given now are different than what we saw before, and that was our biggest clue when it came to understanding where she was.

I also feel incredibly guilty for not telling Mike about any of this. I mean, the girl lived in our basement, but Jonathan and I both agreed at if we tell anyone, Hopper is going to be the first one to know. It wouldn't be fair to drag the kids into this again and it also wouldn't be fair to get Ms. Byers worked up again like she was. I'm not even sure that Jonathan and I doing is good, either, but it's for Eleven.

Joyce's point of view...

I knock on Hopper's door once I arrive at his home. We couldn't meet publicly. This had to be a discussion that we could make sure was kept private. I knew something weird has been going on. I've seen it in Will and Jonathan, plus, and I hate to admit, but I may have listened in on one of Jonathan and Nancy's conversations when I shouldn't have been.

My original intention wasn't of course to eavesdrop. My thoughts were about how it was weird of Jonathan to bring. Nancy home for them to talk. Usually, when they hang out, they go out as well as include Nancy's boyfriend, Steve, but no. Nancy has come to our house a few times now without Steve. The reason I was listening inside of Jonathan's room was to make sure nothing, how do you say, 'funky,' was going on. That's when I overheard about...

"The water, Hopper," was the first thing I said to him when I entered his house. That probably sounded incredibly odd, and I'm assuming it did judging by his facial expressions when I spoke. "What do you mean, Joyce?" He asked. We walked outside so I could explain, being I didn't want to stay inside of his home. Not that I try to be rude like that, but it smells only of smoke, alcohol, and sweat in his home, and I'd much rather be outside. So, Hopper and I stepped outside into his backyard to talk. This was going to be a lot of explaining.

"Hopper, this is going to sound crazy...well, maybe it won't...I don't know. All I know is, there is a lot I need to explain, but I'm going to make this as short as possible," I said. He responded by nodding. "B-Back in November, you know, November..when everything started happening - I started to get signals through the lights. Well, my son Jonathan and his friend and Michael Wheeler's older sister, Nancy, have been experiencing weird things with the water, they said. I overheard one of their conversations. The water has been behaving in the same way as the lights did when that monster came and t-took my boy," I began to explain. I started to get a little emotional, but I tried to contain it. My baby was home now.

"But anyways, Nancy had said that the water was behaving smoothly instead of violently like how the lights would react when Will was around without that monster. She also said that it never has acted violent like the lights had. Jonathan never actually saw the water turn on, though. He apparently only heard it running. But anyways, my point on rambling is..." I took a deep breath before continuing. "Th-They think that it's Eleven. And honestly, I believe them."

Hopper was quiet for a minute, processing my words, I'm assuming. He looked me in my eyes, as if he was trying to figure out a code. "Why was the water running and not the lights?" Was the first thing he asked. "I heard them talk about that right before I left the house, actually. Remember the whole thing with the acrobat an the tightrope or whatever, that Mike's teacher told him that he showed us?" I asked him, hoping he'd remember, because God knows I can't explain that. "Yes..." he said, drawing out his sentence as he stood up straight. He seemed like he was having breakthrough. "And I think I know exactly where you're going with this, too," Hopper said after a bit. I gave a faint smile.

"But this means Eleven is alive, Hop. She stuck somewhere. Some...dimension that we don't know or understand. She isn't in The Upside Down, so we don't have the slightest clue as to how to get to her. Plus, we don't want the kids involved again, do we? Think about all of those boys who had to go through all of that, Hop! They will never forget this," I rambled. "But how are we going to tell the kids to stop once they know? Think about it, Joyce. They didn't stop last time. Neither the kids nor the teenagers, and they ended up with more information than we ever had a lead on. They're our solution, and wow, I hate to admit that," Hopper paused with a chuckle. "I know, I hate to get them involved back in this just as much as you do, but without them, what are we? Plus, the girl trusts them more. They've had more time with her than we have," Hopper said, completing his thoughts.

I sighed. He has a good point. Plus, things are a lot safer now since the lab isn't there and Brenner's dead. That takes a whole lot of pressure off of everyone involved knowing that we won't be chased by any people like him. "I still think that we should see what we can figure out on our own at least for now. I'd hate to put them in harm's way," I said looking at the grass below us. When I looked up at Hopper, I found him nodding. "Alright, agreed."

Will's point of view...

We were all eating dinner with the Wheelers now before we went back downstairs to do whatever. We've spent all of our time between since we left school until now discussing and figuring out theories with Eleven's situation, and we all mainly agreed that we should ease up a little bit and do something else the rest of the night to help us relax. Then, we could maybe talk more about Eleven in the morning. Everyone seemed fine with taking it easy except for Mike. I could tell that he was incredibly stressed about the whole thing.

Mike wasn't the only member of the Wheeler family who was on edge tonight. I noticed while eating that Mrs. Wheeler also seemed a bit worried. I think it is because Nancy hasn't come home yet tonight. The table was pretty silent, so I decided to break some of the ice. "The meal is very good, Mrs. Wheeler. Thank you," I said with a smile. "Yeah," "Thank you, Mrs. Wheeler," Lucas and Dustin said one after the other, finishing each others' sentences. "Thanks, mom," Mike added. Mrs. Wheeler smiled at us. "Oh, really, boys, it's no problem at-" the door opened, interrupting her sentence.

Mrs. Wheeler immediately stood up to go the door. I watched her leave the table, but Mike caught my attention. "It's probably just Nancy," Mike mumbled, putting another fork full of food in his mouth. Sure enough, we heard yells coming from the staircase soon after. "Where the hell were you, Nancy? I thought we were much over this type of thing," I heard Mrs. Wheeler say to her daughter. The voices began to fade and I could then tell that they were discussing matters upstairs. Talk about awkward. The rest of dinner was pretty quiet. Everyone knew it wasn't their place to say anything.

----------

After dinner, we all went back to the basement like planned. "What do you guys want to do?" Dustin asked. "For now, let's just do something more laid back like read some comic books," Lucas began to suggest. "Then maybe later when people are asleep, we can go up to the living room to watch a movie on the T.V." I nodded. "Sounds good," Mike said. We all went to our bags and got out things that we brought to have fun. I stopped my searching and began to slowly walk up the stairs. Mike looked at me and he opened his mouth to say something to me, but I just motioned for him to follow. "Will and I will be back in a minute, guys," Mike said to Lucas and Dustin. They responded and shrugged as Mike began to walk up the stairs behind me.

I led Mike up to his room. When we got in, he was very confused. I had to shut the door to block out the yells of Nancy and Mrs. Wheeler, that yes, were still going on. "What's going on?" Mike asked me. I sighed and sat on his bed. "Mike, I know for a fact that you're upset about Eleven. I never even met her, but, I mean, I can tell she was really something," I began to say, trying to find the right words to say in all of this. I carefully watched Mike's expressions, hoping I wasn't reminding him too much of bad memories. "I also know that knowing your best friend that you probably thought you were never going to see again is eating you alive. I can see your not acting yourself," I continued to say. Mike was standing with his arms crossed and a frown on his face.

I sighed again, but soon gave him a smile. "Tell me about her," I requested.

Third person..

Mike chuckled as he sat down and began to tell Will Byers, the boy who came back to life, every one of the memories that he shared with Eleven. All the way starting from when they found her in the rain, to finding Will in The Upside Down using the intercom, to when she flipped a van, to when they kissed (which, by the way, Mike had never told anyone about. Will, though, was his best friend. He knew he could trust him with his life and that he would understand his feelings), to when he saved everyone by killing the Demogorgon, taking herself with it.

Everything.

Little did everyone know that they were all solving a puzzle. It was all just a big game. A scavenger hunt. People were in teams they didn't even know they put themselves in.

Mike, Will, Dustin, and Lucas.

Nancy and Jonathan.

Joyce and Hopper.

Eleven.

Eleven and her telekinesis.

The thing is, if you split up a puzzle, you can still solve part of it. The teams have their own pieces of the puzzle. Each group has their own puzzle pieces. Each corner of the puzzle. They can try to figure things out on their own, but without teamwork, they would never be able to put all of the pieces together as a whole, and that's what they needed to do.

But, how can you complete a puzzle with people that you don't even know you're working on one with?