Everything Written In Science Books Will Change
A/N: Here's the next chapter I hope you guys enjoy. As always feedback is appreciated.
Barb and her family had left the hospital shortly after 4am and she got maybe 45 minutes of actual sleep. Hopefully the worst of it was over for her. It still boggles her mind that any of the events that had happened just a mere few hours ago are real. Now suffering from lack of sleep and her thoughts focused on a certain blonde boy in the hospital, Barb found it hard to focus today. She was almost late for the warning bell to hurry and get to her first period class.
"Hey are you okay?" Nancy asked, leaning against the row of lockers with her books in her arms "You look kind of out of it did something happen?" Her voice showed concern. Barb had looked unlike her usual self during first period and Nancy really didn't get a chance to talk to her.
Barb had her head in her locker gathering her books for her next two classes "I uh..Nance can I tell you something?" She asked, shutting her locker with her books in her arms.
"Anything." Nancy replied.
Barb cleared her throat as she wasn't sure how to tell her best friend this. Sure her parents had believed her thanks to her and Alex's stories matching in the sequence of events, but she doesn't have his testimony to back her up now at least for the moment. "We've been best friends since sixth grade Key Club. I feel like we can tell each other anything and everything but I need to know that you'll wholeheartedly believe me before I tell you."
Nancy cracked a smile and placed a hand on her shoulder "Barb you can tell me anything, why did something happen with one of Steve's friends?"
A confused look came across Barbs face "What? No." She cleared her throat again "Last night when you and Steve wen-" The warning bell overtook the noise of students chatting and shuffling to get to their next class.
"Shit! Barb tell me at lunch!" Nancy exclaimed before turning and running down the hallway.
"O-okay!" Barb replied as she turned and walked down the hallway a few feet before heading into her class.
Taking a seat in the back by the window with a view out into the schoolyard. She waited for Mr. Edwards to shut the door to his classroom and began teaching English. They were last talking about Shakespeare and doing a reading of Hamlet. Keeping her gaze out the window, her mind wondered back to Alex and how he was doing. Last thing she heard before she left the hospital was that he was stable.
"I don't know man I haven't heard or seen Alex at all today since we dropped him off near Harrington's house last night." She recognized that voice, Eddie Munson. Barb turned to her right and saw Eddie and whom she assumed was one of his bandmates talking. Her and Eddie were chemistry partners last year and thanks to her, he passed it. They weren't friends, more acquaintances if anything but they were both cordial towards one another if they saw each other.
"Alex is okay, last I heard." Barb said as Eddie quickly spun around in his chair and looked at her.
"How do you know that were you with him? Did he go to Steve's?" Eddie asked.
Nodding her head "Yeah, I cut my hand while trying to drink a beer and Alex heard me yell in pain and came over and drove me home. He had a seizure last night and we took him to the hospital this morning a little after three and last I heard he's stable."
"Oh fuck what happened?" Eddie asked as both he and his bandmate leaned forward with worried looks.
Barb shrugged "I'm not exactly sure I think maybe a strobing light or something in the hallway, one of our nightlights is shorting out and maybe that induced his seizure." It was a little white lie but to be honest she didn't know what caused his seizure. Besides she didn't want to just go telling everyone that'll listen about the events that had transpired last night.
Eddie was about to say something as the classroom door was heard closing and securing in place within the doorframe.
"Good Morning Class!" Mr. Edwards announced.
Barb sat her tray of food down at the table. Nancy set her tray opposite of her much to the dismay of Steve as his friends noticed and began teasing him. Nancy glanced at Steve before turning her attention to Barb.
"Okay so tell me what happened last night!" She was eager and yet concerned at the same time.
"When you and Steve went to go up to his room to you know...do it. His friends left and I was by myself at the pool. I was bleeding and some of my blood fell into the pool and next thing I know this monster just come out of nowhere and snatches me up into the upside down."
Raising an eyebrow Nancy gave Barb a quizzical look "Upside down?"
"Okay so think of it like a chessboard. On one side it's our world right here right now, on the other side it's still our world but it's a dead world full of overgrown vines and spores floating through the air. I know this sounds crazy but please you have to believe me. When a chessboard folds out, all the lines where the board folds meet in the middle, think of the middle like a entrance and exit from our world to the upside down."
"I'm with you so far." Nancy said as she took a sip of her strawberry milk. Barb wasn't a liar and given the fact that she looked a bit out of it and shaken up this morning caused alarms in Nancy to go off. Originally she had thought maybe one of Steve's friends made a move on Barb but this tale is much more interesting. There was no way Barb would be making any of this up, she's a much more logical and fact based person. Besides from what she's heard so far this is a science fiction story and Barb isn't a writer.
A small smile formed on Barb's face as it was reassuring to know that her friend believed her, much like her parents did. "Okay so far the only way I know to access the upside down is through a tree in the woods. However I don't know when the entrance opens and closes. I'm getting ahead of myself though. So when I came to, this creature which stood I don't know maybe like around seven feet tall and it's face opened in like four different sides showing rows of sharp teeth. I thought I was going to die and screamed for someone. This creature starts closing in on me and next thing I know I hear someone whistle and saw Alex Hopper standing there with his guitar in his hands."
"Alex Hopper?" Nancy was shocked as she didn't ever think that name would come out of Barb's mouth.
Barb nodded her head "I know it surprised me when I saw him show up but if it wasn't for him Nance, I'd be dead right now. He distracted the creature and I climbed out of the pool which in the upside down is completely empty and Steve's patio was completely overgrown with vines."
Taking a bite of her pizza Barb wiped her mouth as some sauce got on the side of it. "So we start running through the woods and we stop for a moment so I can catch my breath, of course Alex is in superb shape so he's not even broke a sweat yet. Next thing I know the creature is behind Alex. He can tell by the look on my face and you can always kinda tell when someone is behind you. He turned around to shoot fire at it from a lighter he had taped to his guitar and some hairspray. The creature sent his guitar flying into a nearby tree and snapped it in half. Then this creature pinned Alex down and was trying to open his mouth and Alex bit it's finger and it filled his mouth with I guess what was the creatures blood."
Nancy took another sip of her milk as she let Barb continue. The amount of detail she's giving off hand is just to precise to be made-up, not only that but Barb is telling it with such conviction.
"The creature roared and Alex spit in it's mouth and yelled at it and then at me and he told me to save myself. For a split second I thought about it but then I couldn't leave him there to die when he literally saved me from dying. I ran and grabbed the top part of his guitar and fumbled with the lighter before lighting the creature on fire and helped Alex up as we both ran towards the tree. Alex made sure I went through first and I got covered in this gooey liquid stuff. Alex crawls through and just when he's almost out, the creature had grabbed his foot and starts pulling him back. I guess my flight or fight instinct kicked in and I grabbed Alex's hands and pulled him through back into our world, the creature had grabbed his shoe and Alex managed to wiggle it loose. But honestly Nance if it wasn't for him, I'd be dead and vice versa." Barb took a sip of her chocolate milk as she let the events of last night sink in for her friend.
"I need to tell you something Barb. This morning Jonathan Buyers had taken pictures of us at Steve's house last night for some reason but I think he captured the moment you got snatched and taken to the upside down. I mean I only saw a piece or two of the photo, I'll ask Jonathan if I can see the photos he took. Do you think you can show me this tree?"
Barb nodded "My dad wants to see it and I'm sure so does Alex's dad. I can show you after school."
Nancy glanced at Steve before turning back to Barb "That works! you mind if I got sit by Steve? I mean I wanted to talk to you and hear everything you had to tell me but it looks like his friends are giving him a hard time and he looks unhappy, I feel like I need to save him."
"No it's fine, I mean your popular it's what popular people do, they stick together. I'll see you after school."
"After school, I'll meet you in the parking lot I promise!" Nancy replied as she picked up her tray and headed to the other end of the table. Just like that, Barb was left alone again, except she wasn't the only one alone, Alex was alone in that hospital with no friends or family there just the staff on hand. She wondered how he was doing and hopefully he'd be okay.
A/N: So that was the next chapter I hope you guys enjoy and as always feedback is appreciated. It's a bit shorter than I think the last few chapters have been but I needed a good solid filler chapter to just keep the story progressing. I'm trying to stick to the original canon as much as I can without really altering anything too much. Anyways I'm sure at some point somethings will be changed just due to the story itself but we'll see.