The events of last night replayed in Jenna's head the next morning as she went down for breakfast. Her mom made eggs and toast like before, only they sat there in silence as they ate their food. It went by slowly, finishing their plates and cups with the smell of coffee and the faint sound of the television in the background.

It was after the two were done with breakfast that her mom grabbed her keys and looked at Jenna, speaking the first words of the morning. "Let me take you to school today," she offered.

Jenna raised her eyebrows in confusion. "Really?"

"Yeah," she replied. "It's my day off today and I know you get tired of walking to school."

Grabbing her rucksack, Jenna smiled a little and nodded. "Okay, yeah, that sounds good."

Dorothy smiled back and let Jenna out the door first, followed by her, closing and locking the door. The two got inside the car, settling in the seats. As Dorothy cranked the car up and backed out of the driveway, the feeling of seeing Carter at school after what happened last night made Jenna nervous. Was he still shaken up about what she did and said to him? She admitted that she was worked up over it, her thoughts constantly stirring around.

"You okay, Jenna?" her mom asked, snapping Jenna back to reality.

She turned to face her, nodding again. "I'm fine," she lied

"Tired from last night?"

"Yeah, a little bit."

Dorothy focused her eyes on the road, but her expression turned concerned. "There's something I've been meaning to ask you." She took a deep breath. "Have you been feeling weird these last few days?"

Jenna felt her heart racing, wondering if she suspected that something was off. "No, why?" She attempted to shrug off.

"I was just wondering," she replied. "I know these last few days really had the whole town on edge, and now that Will's body has been found, I'm not sure if things will calm down or get worse."

Jenna let out a shaky breath. "I'm not sure, either."

For the rest of the short ride, Jenna stayed quiet, trying to ease her nerves until she got to school. When her mom pulled into the parking lot, she huffed a sigh and bid her goodbye, stepping out of the car with her knapsack. Before Jenna made her way into the school, she spotted Steve storming inside.

"Steve!" Jenna called out to him, but he simply ignored her. "Hey, Steve!"

"I'm not in the mood, Jenna!" he replied, turning back around.

"What's wrong?" she asked, catching up with him and grabbing his arm. "Dude, I'm trying to talk to you!"

Steve spun around, irritated written all over his face. "I already said I wasn't in the mood."

"What the hell is your problem?"

He huffed a sigh, shaking his head. "Look, just leave me alone, okay?" With that, he turned back around and walked down the hall.

Jenna thought about going after him, but she went against the idea, deciding that maybe leaving him alone was for the best. It looked like he needed to cool down from whatever just happened with him.

Before she could go any farther down the hall, Jenna felt someone grab her arm and pull her towards the lockers.

She looked to see who it was and groaned. "What the hell?!"

"Just shut up for a minute, Howard," Carter told me, eyeing her with his tired eyes, the bags being very noticeable. "I overheard Harrington and Nancy talking just now. She told the cops about Barbara's disappearance."

Jenna widened her eyes. "She did what?!"

"Yeah, and he's all worried about getting in trouble with his dad, which is ridiculous," he replied. "He definitely has his priorities mixed up, that's for sure."

"Is there anything else you'd like to say other than Steve's selfishness and lack of empathy?" Jenna retorted.

"Nancy also went back to Steve's house, just to see what she could find," he explained. "She thinks she saw someone, like a guy with no face."

"That's some weird shit."

He nodded. "It's all weird as fuck," he commented. "But if the cops question you, what are you going to tell them?"

Jenna huffed a sigh. "I have no idea," she admitted.

"Well, you better figure it out. The last thing we need is any suspicions about what we know and what we're up to."

"You're right," she told him. "We'll meet up after school, then, talk more about this."

"Sounds good to me." With that, Carter strolled off, keeping his head down.

As Jenna went to my first class, she began to feel her stomach do flips, wondering if the cops would actually want to ask her and the others questions about what happened at Steve's house that night.

By lunchtime, Jenna still had no lie for the cops in case she was called in for questioning. The more she thought about different scenarios, the more complicated it was becoming, which led to her being more frustrated than ever.

Janet took notice of this. While their other friends were not present, she put down her fork and eyed Jenna suspiciously. "Are you okay, dudette?"

Jenna snapped her eyes towards Janet and nodded quickly. "Totally," I lied. It seemed like she was telling that to everyone lately, and she was almost tired of it.

"You're a shitty liar," she responded. "Steve told me about his conversation with Nancy this morning. I'm guessing you know about it, too."

I do, but not from Steve. "Yeah, I do," Jenna told her. "I've been trying to come up with what to say to the cops if we're called in for questioning."

"And how's that going?"

"That's the problem. It's not going anywhere."

"Probably because you're overthinking it," she pointed out. "For all anyone knows, especially Nancy, we never saw Barbara after everyone went to go screw each other."

Jenna scoffed in disgust. "I definitely didn't need to be reminded of that."

Janet chuckled a little, picking her fork back up and using it to stab the cubed fruit on her tray. "Anyway, I wouldn't worry about any cops talking to us. Honestly, that's Nancy's problem."

"Her best friend is missing, Janet."

"Exactly. Her best friend." She let out a sigh. "It sucks that she's missing, and I know I sound like a shitty person for saying all of this, but it seems like Nancy is taking care of it by herself."

Well, that wasn't entirely true, given me and Carter's own search from last night, Jenna thought.

Jenna wasn't sure how Janet would react to her and Carter actually being civil to each other for a few hours over her crazy theory of another dimension existing, one where Barbara and possibly Will were at right now.

As lunch went by, the talking and yelling in the cafeteria was all Jenna could concentrate on, letting the sound flood her ears. But it didn't take long for that to fade away as she could see a glimpse of her new surroundings, going back and forth between the cafeteria and the other dimension. Again.

When Jenna was finally there, her breathing was becoming uneven. She wanted to get up from her chair, but she couldn't move, feeling like she was paralyzed with fear. As her heart was beating fast, the sound of clanging echoed all over the place. With each time she heard it, the noise got more loud and intense.

Jenna looked around, seeing no one from any angle. Things were quiet for a moment, which worried her a bit.

Then, a faint whimper was heard.

Jenna gasped, scanning around once more, but still seeing no one.

"Mom?"

A boy's voice came out of nowhere. Will's voice.

"Mom? Mom, please..."

Will was here. He was alive.

"Mom!"

His cries merely echoed all around Jenna, followed by another muffled voice, as she continued to frantically look for him. She wanted to stand up and continue her search, but her body was telling her to stay put. Screaming for Will wasn't a choice, either, as she thought her throat was about to close up. It was when Jenna heard something growling that she thought her entire body was gonna go into shock.

"Mom, it's coming!" he cried. "It's like home, but it's so dark! It's so dark and empty. And it's cold! Mom! Mom, please!"

Just when Jenna was about to yell for him, she could feel her body being pulled back into the cafeteria, where her heart was still beating fast.

"Jenna?" the voice of Janet asked, raising her eyebrows towards her.

She attempted taking deep breaths to calm down, but nothing was helping. "J--J-Janet..."

"Dudette, you don't look so hot," Janet said, her voice deadpanned and uncaring. "You're turning, like, really pale."

Jenna swallowed hard, getting to the point where she was beginning to pant. "Janet..."

"What?" she questioned, then her expression turned concerned. "Jenna, your nose is starting to bleed!" Janet's tone swiftly changed, standing up from her chair and rushing to her side.

Jenna could finally feel the blood coming from her nose, followed by Janet helping her from the chair, draping one arm over her shoulder, struggling with both of their knapsacks as well. "We gotta get you to the nurse."

As Jenna got out of my seat, she wondered how many people were staring at them. She imagined she would've gotten a lot if she had shouted for Will.

On the way out of the cafeteria, from the corner of her eye, Jenna spotted another person coming to her aid.

"What happened?" Dana Sellers asked, taking Jenna's other arm.

"I have no fucking idea," Janet replied. "She just completely zoned out and then all of a sudden she was pale and her nose was starting to bleed." She let out a groan. "Great. There's blood all over her shirt."

Jenna tried her best to stay in control, to make her way over to the nurse's office as fast as she could without any more trouble for Janet and Dana. She could tell that she was about to get light-headed, the dizziness getting close to taking over her.

Finally, she couldn't keep going. "Wait, stop."

They obliged, looking at Jenna. "You have to see the nurse right now, dudette."

"I know," she breathed out, leaning against the lockers. "I just...I just need to..."

Before Jenna could even finish her sentence, exhaustion took over as she fell to the floor, her vision going black.

*******

"Jenna? Jenna, can you hear us?"

"We've tried this for the past five minutes. I don't think she can hear us."

"Well, maybe hearing our voices might help."

"It hasn't been helping for five minutes, Sellers."

Jenna fluttered her eyes open, groaning as the light above her shined right in her face, causing her to squint. Her head was pounding as she sat up, grunting, along with some nausea that came and went.

A sigh of relief came from the girl on her right. "Oh, thank God," Dana stated. "Are you okay?"

Jenna turned to face her, opening her eyes a bit more. "No, not really," she admitted. "I took a hard fall, didn't I?"

Janet snorted on her left. "You sure did." When Dana shot her a glare, she cleared her throat and got serious. "Anyway, yeah, you did take a hard fall, fainting by the lockers. You scared me and Sellers here shitless."

Jenna sighed, rubbing her forehead. "I'm sorry, you guys. I know this isn't how you wanted to spend the rest of your lunchtime."

"Don't be sorry, Jenna," Dana said, giving her a soft expression. "Besides, lunch has been over for ten minutes now."

Jenna widened her eyes. "I was out cold for ten minutes?!"

"No, just for like a minute or so," Dana quickly said. "You were kind of in and out of it on the way here before you pretty much went to sleep."

Well, shit. Jenna hardly remembered it. "So, why are you guys still here?"

"We wanted to make sure you were going to wake up," a third voice chimed in from the back.

Jenna looked behind the girls to see Carter slumped in a chair, his hands locked together as he pressed his tongue against his cheek. "Why are you here?" she asked, sounding a bit harsher than she intended.

"I found these two..." He pointed at Janet and Dana. "...trying to get you off the floor, so I offered to help. Believe it or not, I can be useful."

"Never said you weren't," she pointed out. Jenna decided to try and stand up, but she could already feel her legs getting wobbly. She slowly attempted to balance herself, then began to lean on one side.

"Whoa, dudette," Janet said, catching her. "Maybe you should sit back down." She helped Jenna get back on the bed.

"I thought the nurse would be back by now," Dana stated. "She told us to stay here with you until you woke up."

"And yet you're still here," Jenna replied.

"Well, it beats being in English," Janet mentioned. "Although, Mr. Jones isn't too bad to stare at every now and then..."

Dana shot her a disgusted look. "You do know he's in his forties, right?"

"And?" Janet retorted, raising her eyebrows.

The brunette rolled her eyes in response. "Whatever. That's gross."

"Okay, if we can steer away from talking about Attaway's daddy issues that'd be great," Carter spoke up, which resulted in Janet shooting him a side-eye, then turned to Jenna. "We also failed to mention that the nurse called your mom and she's on her way here to pick you up."

Jenna closed her eyes, feeling dread and relief that she was coming. Of course, Jenna didn't want her to worry about her any more than she already did. It was obvious that she was already concerned about her and now with this happening, Jenna knew it would send her over the edge.

Before anyone else said anything, the nurse strolled back in. "Alright, Miss Howard, your mom should be here in a few minutes. The rest of you can go back to class. Here are your notes for your teachers." She handed the other three pieces of paper as they headed for the door.

"Have fun staring at Mr. Jones," Jenna told Janet, trying to lighten the mood.

"Don't encourage her," Dana replied annoyingly, exiting out first.

"Too late for that." Janet gave Jenna a wink before strolling out the door, followed by Carter, who merely gave her one last stare before sticking his hands in his pockets and keeping his head down.

Jenna took a moment not to concentrate on her headache. She looked in the mirror and noticed the blood on her face was no longer there, but it still remained on her shirt. Things were getting worse for her, which was another reason she was anxious about how her mom would react to this.

"Your mom is here," the nurse said, to which Jenna snapped my head towards the door. As she grabbed her knapsack, the lady handed her a juice box before leading Jenna towards the front office.

When Jenna spotted her, she seemed more calm than she imagined. While her expression was still worrying, she did her best not to show it. The nurse spoke to her while Jenna went ahead and took sips of her juice, hoping that it would help the headache and distract her for a brief moment before she was left alone with her mom.

However, their conversation didn't last very long.

"Come on, Jenna. Let's go home."

Jenna followed her out of the school and to the car, where she sat down on the passenger's side with her head down. So far, the headache was still there, but not as bad before she had the juice box. She thought the nausea would come back, but thankfully, her stomach was fine for now.

But it was when her mom spotted the dried blood on the shirt that she grew concerned. "How long have the nosebleeds been going on this time?"

"Since Monday," she confessed.

Dorothy groaned, turning the key in the ignition and driving out of the parking lot. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want to worry you," she answered.

"Jenna, I'm already worried about you," she said. "With the constant going out you've been doing, even resorting to lying about where you're going--"

"What?" Jenna cut her off with wide eyes.

"I know you didn't go to Carol's the other night. If anything, you went to Craig's house with the two bottles of tequila you took from the pantry."

"It was Steve's, actually," she corrected her.

Dorothy let out a scoff. "It was another party, I'm assuming."

"So what? Maybe I like to have a little fun," Jenna snapped, getting irritated. "It's not that big of a deal."

"Oh, it isn't?" she retorted, raising her voice. "You think getting drunk isn't that big of a deal?"

"Everyone does it at sixteen, Mom. You did it, I'm sure."

"I wasn't reckless like you, Jenna," she said as she pulled into the driveway.

Jenna felt hurt as her words stung her hard. She shook her head, turning towards the window and quickly getting out of the car. She stormed towards the front door, using her key to enter the house. When she got inside and made her way to the stairs, Dorothy came in right after her.

"Jenna!" she called out. "Jenna, let's talk about this!"

Jenna spun around, an angry expression coming over her face. "Talk about what, exactly? If you're going to lecture me some more about going to Steve's and drinking--"

"Clearly, this is about more than that," she cut me off.

"So what if there is?" she snapped, feeling the emotions bubbling over. She knew she was about to blurt out things that she intended to keep from her, and there was no stopping it from coming out. "What if these last few days have been nothing but headaches and nosebleeds and fainting with no other explanation other than it's happened before? On top of that, I've dealt with a whirlwind of seeing and hearing things and wondering if I'm going crazy. So maybe I want to focus on being a damn teenager and just have fun with my friends and boyfriend."

"Wait, what's this talk about you going crazy?" her mom questioned, looking confused. "Come and sit down so that we can talk about this."

A lump in Jenna's throat was beginning to form, along with tears in her eyes. "I just want to be alone right now." With that, she ascended the stairs as fast as she could, heading for her room, slamming the door shut. She didn't hear any footsteps following that, so she assumed her mom was not going to come and try to talk to her anymore.

The anger inside Jenna remained as she began to pace around the room, wiping the tears from her eyes before she could let them fall. She wanted to stay in control and calm, but the more she thought about the argument with her mom, the more frustrated she was getting. When she finally stopped pacing, Jenna sat down on her bed and exhaled loudly, thinking about the last few days. It was nothing but a series of unfortunate events that were happening to her, and at this point, Will Byers' disappearance was the start of it all, almost like a trigger. While she had dealt with this before, it was becoming obvious that things were only getting worse.

Jenna's hands were getting hot as she clenched her fists. She didn't know what was hurting more, but she could feel the heat increasing, along with her headache. She attempted to breathe in and out, concentrating on that, but it was not working. With her fists shaking, she finally let go when the trickling of the blood dripped from her nose. She let out a small gasp, staring down at the palms of her hands. Looking at how red they were, along with the fresh blood that was on my shirt, she felt even worse than before.

Once Jenna got cleaned up, she spent the rest of the afternoon in her room, remaining inside as the day turned into night. By the sound of her stomach growling, the desire to go downstairs and actually eat something was strong, especially since the last time she had some food was at lunch, right before she went back to the other dimension and passed out. However, she wasn't ready to face her mom just yet. After their argument this afternoon, she didn't know if she'd ever be prepared to face her.

Knock, knock.

Well, it seemed like she didn't have a choice but to do it now.

Dorothy stuck her head in when she slightly opened the door. "I know you're hungry, so don't even reject this piece of pizza." She entered the room, holding one plate of pepperoni pizza in one hand and a folder in the other.

Jenna took the pizza and placed it on the nightstand, crossing her legs. "Just go ahead and fuss at me some more. Let's get it over with."

She huffed a sigh, sitting down beside Jenna. "No, I'm not here to do that." By the look on her face and the way she fumbled with the folder in her hand, something was wrong. "When you were talking about going crazy and whatnot, it got me thinking about something." She paused, almost looking nervous, then continued. "It's something that I wasn't sure when would be the right time to tell you, but given the circumstances with you and Joyce and even Will, I'm thinking that now you need to know the truth."

"What are you talking about?" Jenna questioned, getting a little bit nervous about where she was going with all of this.

"I'm talking about the truth about you, Jenna," she said in a way that seemed like a relief, like a weight had been lifted off her chest. "What do you remember about your childhood?"

Jenna raised her eyebrows, shaking her head. "Nothing much before the age of five. We've had this conversation before."

She nodded. "Right, but this is serious now," she informed her, her face turning sad as she looked down at the folder, handing it to Jenna. "This has everything about your past, things that I've been keeping from you for most of your life."

Jenna took the folder from her, skeptical about opening it, already getting overwhelmed. "What the hell?"

"I know it's already a lot to take in, and I'm sorry it had to be told like this," she replied. "But I hope once you learn about your past, then you'll understand why these things keep happening to you and why they're starting back up now and in full force."

Jenna bit her lip, taking a deep breath before opening the folder and letting the paper fall onto the bed. The first thing that caught her eye was the clippings of newspaper articles from years ago. The headlines were all different, ranging from "Project MKUltra Up and Running" to "Accidental Fire at Hawkins National Laboratory" and "Explosion Resulting in Many Casualties."

"Oh my God," she muttered, already feeling puzzled and nervous.

"Just keep going through everything."

Reluctantly, Jenna obliged and continued looking through the folder. The next piece of paper that she picked up was medical records. She scanned the list and saw everything about her that came from the doctor's office. Then, she saw two more, also the final, pieces of paper from the folder, the two that she had a feeling would leave her more shocked and confused than ever.

But when Jenna took my first glance, the last thing she expected to see was a birth certificate and adoption papers.

Jenna let out a small gasp, not even finishing either one of them. "What is this?" she asked, already feeling shocked by the information. She wanted to call her "Mom," but now, seeing that she wasn't even her real mom...

Dorothy sighed. "I guess I can start off by saying that your real name isn't Jenna Howard and I'm not your biological mother."

Her heart dropped. "What?"

"Your real name is Valerie Murphy," she explained. "Your parents were Michael and Eleanor Murphy and they loved you very much, from what I gathered. I was good friends with your parents ever since I moved to Hawkins. Your father and mother got involved with Project MKUltra just before she got pregnant with you. I was skeptical about the whole thing from the very beginning, but I supported their choice to join it, anyway. By the time she found out about the pregnancy, she was in too deep with the psychedelic drugs. When you were born, your parents told me it was obvious that the drugs had done something to you, because..." She pointed to a man in a lab coat from one of the pictures in the newspaper. "Dr. Brenner saw you as a test subject."

Jenna raised her eyebrows. "A test subject?" she repeated.

Dorothy nodded. "He called you Five and had the number tattooed on your wrist." She gently grabbed Jenna's left arm and pointed out her scar, tracing along the white lines. "It's the one you supposedly got from burning yourself on the stove." She paused. "005. That's what your new name was to him."

Jenna stared at her scar, shaking her head. "I still don't get it. A test subject for what, exactly?" She looked up at her mom and gave her a confused expression.

Dorothy exhaled loudly. "For thermokinesis. The power to manipulate temperature."

Jenna became even more astonished. "You mean, I have powers?"

"Yes, you do," she answered. "Dr. Brenner pushed you to your limits and your parents didn't like that. You were just a child. When they realized the extreme tests and punishments you went through, they found a way to contact me so that they could get you out of there and away from those people."

"What about my parents? Didn't they want to leave, too?"

Her face turned sad. "Yes, they did, but both of them were in too deep with the program by the time they made the choice to get you out. Obviously, it was successful, but there was a fire that happened, which was not a part of the plan, as you saw in the newspaper articles. Many people were killed, including your parents, and the files from when you were there are most likely long gone as well."

That was when Jenna's breath hitched, an ache coming over her. "The fire...that was my doing."

"Sweetheart, you were five. You had no control over your powers, especially at that age."

"That doesn't change the fact I killed all those people!"

"There's no proof that it was you who started it."

"I think it's pretty obvious that it was me who caused it!" Jenna shouted. Closing her eyes, she paused, still trying to process it all, her emotions bubbling up. "Why can't I remember any of this, anyway?"

"You hit your head on the front porch when I first got you, so you don't remember anything before that incident." She took a breath before continuing. "After that, I got your tattoo removed, then changed your name and legally adopted you, just like your parents wanted me to do."

Jenna felt the lump come back to her throat, making an attempt to swallow it. "This...this is a lot to take in..."

"I know," her mom replied, reaching her hand for Jenna's. "I'm sure there's many more questions you have for me--"

"Yeah, there is," she cut her off. "But right now, I want to be alone."

She shot Jenna a sorrowful expression, but nodded her head in response, anyway. "Okay. I'm sorry that I hid all of this from you, but I wanted to wait until it was the right time."

"I get it," Jenna simply said. "Can I be alone now, please?"

"Sure. You know where to find me whenever you're ready to talk." With that, she gave Jenna a kiss on my temple, standing up from the bed and then heading for the door, closing it behind her.

Jenna wasn't even sure where to begin. She was a test subject. She was adopted. She had three different names in the years she was alive: Five, Valerie, and Jenna. She had powers, ones that she had no control over. It seemed like everything was thrown at her all at once.

But the biggest thing that hit Jenna the hardest was the fact that everything she thought she knew about herself and her life was just one giant lie, and she didn't even have a clue on where to begin with something so extreme as the information she was told tonight by the one person she wasn't sure she could trust anymore.

~~~~~~~

A/N: Well, this isn't good, but things are about to pick up now (especially with some exciting things coming...)

Comment, vote, more to come soon!

-A