"Michael, I want answers. Hello Will, so good to see you."
"Hello Mrs. Wheeler," Will greets her. Mike gives him a look and shakes his head. Will mouths What?
"There have been two earthquakes and a fire in our neighborhood. You should have been home after the first tremor. I have been worried sick," she keeps the righteous mom-anger for another minute or so before she breaks down and gives her son a hug. She brings in Will too for good measure. "I want you two in bed now!" Mike and Will nod furiously. They take a step to leave, but she isn't done yet. "I should tell you that those earthquakes terrified Holly. She's been waking up screaming every 30 minutes; I doubt she'll be sleeping tonight poor thing. They really frightened her."
Mike nods silently to his mother. He's not about to say anything that will make her more upset than she already is.
"I'm going to bed. We'll do pancakes in the morning if you're up for it. Make sure you take a shower. Will, honey, you're wet; is everything okay?"
"I got sprayed by a hose," Will replies quickly. It's a dumb excuse and he knows it. Will isn't a very experienced liar. Mike closes his eyes painfully. Karen lets it go and lifts her robe a bit as she heads up the stairs. Mike signals Will to walk right behind her and keep her going up to her bedroom. Mike backs up and opens the door for El. In the best synchronization they can muster in the dark with no practice, they walk two-by-two to his room. Once the door is locked, they can breathe a little bit.
"Your mom looks pretty calm. How are you going to get them to leave tomorrow?"
"Holly," Mike says immediately. El's brows purse together. "Holly doesn't want to be here right now. If I was 6 years old, I probably wouldn't want to stick around here either. Maybe I can convince my dad to take her away someplace far like Disney World."
"Good luck with that," Will smirks good-naturedly.
"What's Disney World?" El asks curiously.
"It's supposedly the 'happiest place on Earth'," Mike replies nonchalantly. El's eyes widen to this information.
"Where is it?" she asks him.
"Orlando, Florida. You know Disney, right?" she shakes her head. "Um… Mickey Mouse?" She breathes in and nods.
"I know Mickey."
"Yeah, it's an amusement park dedicated to him and some other characters. It's great for kids. She'll be happy there."
"Okay, that's great and all, but how are you going to convince your family to leave you behind?" Will asks. El is curious about his answer too.
"That's a little harder… So maybe Disney is a little unrealistic. I just need them to get out of town. Maybe I can get them to head East. What if I say that I'm going to drive my friends? We want to help Dustin deconstruct Cerebro, but we'll catch up."
"It might work, but there's a lot of holes."
"We'll figure it out as we go along. I'll get you two out of here early, like before my mom gets up. Your mom thinks you're going to be on the 6am bus. You'll need to call her at some point about why neither of you showed up at home."
"She's not going to like that," Will whispers.
"Tomorrow I'll drop both of you off at Will's house on Mirkwood since it was abandoned by the last owner."
"Wait, what?" Will asks.
"What you didn't know that? Some people in town got in their heads that the place was haunted or something and they moved out after the holidays. It's been empty ever since."
All Will can say is, "Oh."
"It's better this way because now we can use it as a base."
"What about Hopper's place—the cabin? Do you know?" El asks him. The mood shifts as she mentions it.
"I don't think anyone else is living there and the cabin hasn't been mentioned. I think it's just…" Abandoned. He doesn't want to call it that though in case she has a bad reaction to it.
El understands. Joyce took her there to collect whatever stuff was left. They dug out all the files about her mother. She kept them in a trunk of her personal items. It shouldn't make much sense to cry over the skeleton left behind, but she's quiet about it anyway.
"You should tell the others about this plan. See if they can convince their families to head East too and at the same get them to believe we'll be following them when really, we're going to be going to the site of the earthquake," Will says. Mike thinks for a moment.
"I think I have a way that might work for everyone. Adults move in packs; they do what other adults tend to do. So really, we just need one to set a trend and invite the others. The question is, who is the weak link?"
~A.N. Oh boy, scheming teens gotta love it! Mike IS the master planner.