Stranger Things: Rebuilding

Chapter 35 of my Stranger Things story, enjoy.

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Now onto the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Stranger Things or its characters.

Nervous Meeting and Worrying Reveals

With lunch over for the day, Will made his way to his next class, considering the possibilities for where El and Mike could have gone.

'For them to take the risk, not surprising considering the danger Eric's in.' He noted to himself. 'Still, I just hope we can find out where they've gone and help them, they shouldn't have to do things like this alone.'

He sighed sadly at this, it was something he'd noticed about both Mike and El, when someone was in trouble they wanted to help. Yet they were always reluctant to accept help themselves. He was almost at his next class, when suddenly he became aware of someone talking to him. He turned, surprised and became even more so, as well as suddenly feeling very awkward.

"Hi Will."

It was Jennifer Hayes. All at once Will felt his mouth go dry, while his palms felt suddenly rather sweaty. She looked lovely with her hair tied back in a low ponytail and in a nice white blouse and charcoal grey skirt.

He swallowed and tried to compose himself. "Um, hey."

He silently cursed himself. Was that really the best he could do.

"Are you okay?" She asked suddenly.

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine." He said quickly. "I was just...I'm worried about El and Mike."

He wondered just how much he should really say, it would be problematic surely if he was to mention them having ditched school.

Jennifer hesitated, concerned yet at the same time, feeling awkward. She'd hoped that, after so much effort and trying, she'd finally be able to tell Will Byers how she really felt about him. To admit that she loved him. After all her efforts with the party, hoping he'd show up, doing her best to show him how much she cared, especially when he ended up hurt by that car. Now she had dressed in her cutest clothes that weren't in the laundry and wanted to be up front and honest with him.

'Yet now I'm here, I can't help but feel scared.' She thought sadly. 'I just...I can't bring myself to say, I'm scared he'll tell me he has someone else, or that he doesn't feel the same way…'

She tried to swallow back her fears, but she had still felt so much doubt that just made things even worse when she finally tried to talk to him, especially after hearing he was worried about two of his friends, apparently something had happened to them.

"Are, are they okay?" She asked concerned, before revealing. "Everybody at school is talking about them, how they've gone missing. How they've ditched school, there's so many...rumours."

Will flinched at that, then stared at her worriedly. She bit her lip, worried she'd said too much.

However he seemed to calm enough to speak. "I um...it's true, they have left school. But there's, there's a good reason for it."

"What?"

Will bit his lip. "I...there's not much I can say right now. But there's something they need to do, to help someone. They don't have much time so, they needed to go right away."

"What, Will, that's…" Jennifer gasped. "You're sure this is…?"

Will nodded and Jennifer couldn't help but wonder, and hope that things would turn out alright. All the same both she and Will found themselves silently lamenting their inability to tell each other the truth.

XXXXX

Sighing heavily as he entered the station, Hopper removed his hat and began making a bee-line for his office.

"Chief."

"I've already done everything possible for the crime scene, Flo." He said quickly. "Right now I just want to get the paperwork side of it over with, I don't need-"

Flo shook her head and interrupted. "You got a call from the school. Jane is no longer in school."

He stopped at that, turning sharply. "What?"

"That's what they said. She showed up for homeroom and first period and hasn't been seen in school since." Flo explained.

"I don't believe this, how could-" He began, quickly checking the tracker, but it showed no signal.

"Wait, your daughter is missing from school too."

He looked around to see, to his surprise, Karen and Ted Wheeler standing there.

"Excuse me, what are you-?"

"That's why we're here chief." Ted said. "We got a call from the school that Michael hasn't been seen since second period."

Karen nodded. "We were worried about this and wanted to make a report."

Hopper sighed. "This is a bit...okay so, neither of them have been seen since second period, in school?"

"Or anywhere, we've not heard anything about them being seen anywhere." Karen explained.

Hopper glared at Ted, already seeing the way the gears in the man's head were turning as soon as he heard both Mike and El were missing.

"Alright, let's go to my office and we'll talk." He said at last.

With that he led the way, now even more worried, while also noticing some rather obvious tension between the Wheelers which he began to consider if it had anything to do with the obvious state of exhaustion that Mike Wheeler had shown when he first showed up at the door that morning.

End of chapter, hope you enjoyed it, read and review please.