Here's the next chapter! Enjoy!
During lunch, Kali went to Steve's table, having Tommy and Carol there too. As she sat down next to her boyfriend, she saw that Carol had her foot on the table, showing a scratch she had. "It was a heated pool, Carol," Tommy said to her. "No way you could've had frostbite."
"Then what is it?" she asked him.
"Who cares?" Steve answered. "Get your foot off the table, it's disgusting!" Pouting, Carol did so. Tommy did jokingly ease his spoon to her scratch, making her slap it away and mutter, "Ew!"
Kali was still worrying about her friend, so she asked the freckled guy, "Tommy, when you and Carol left, did you see Barbara?"
He looked confused, yet not concerned. "Who?"
"Barbara, the girl with the short red hair and freckles? I haven't see her today."
"I seriously have no idea who you're talking about." He and Carol then snickered. She glared at them in irritation.
Steve looked at them disapprovingly and said, "Don't be an ass, man. Did you see her when you left last night or not?"
Tommy shook his head. "Nah, she was gone when we left."
"Probably couldn't stand to hear any of that moaning," Carol added teasingly before mocking Kali's voice and moaning, "Oh, Steeeve~!" She repeated that and her boyfriend decided to join her, practically insulting her voice and pounding the table. The dark-haired girl never felt so mortified, annoyed, and livid in her life.
She quickly got up and grabbed her tray, taking a few steps away from the table. However, the brown-haired guy said to his friends sternly, "Hey, stop." The two stopped, laughing with each other afterwards as he got up and grabbed her arm. She stopped and turned to him. "She's probably skipping or something, alright?"
Kali sighed. She knew Barbara was never the one to skip...but maybe...there was a possibility she was. She did argue with her last night - yelled at her. Maybe she couldn't stand to see Kali at school and skipped the day. She nodded, replying, "Yeah, that's probably it." Now she felt terrible because of it. Now that she thought about deeply, she never would have done that to her best friend.
She looked around in the cafeteria and saw Jonathan Byers walk outside it. He stopped and looked at her. She looked back at him, keeping their stare at each other before he left. She wondered what was that all about?
On the middle school campus, Jane and the boys began looking for rocks for Lucas's wrist rocket. Jane gave Dustin a big rock and asked, "How about this?"
He shook his head at her. "Too big for the sling," he answered as he dropped and she continued looking for another one. "Do you guys think maybe Mike was born with his powers, like the X-Men? Or do you think he got them from something, like Green Lantern?"
Lucas scoffed at him, looking at a jagged rock before dropping it. "He's not a superhero, he's a weirdo," he replied to him.
The curly-haired tomboy gave him a look of objection. "So? The X-Men are also weirdos," she rebutted. Both Dustin and Lucas looked at each other, grinning and chuckling with each other. Ther actions confused her. "What?"
They both looked at her, their grins disappearing for a bit. "Alright, what happened when you made him stay the night we found him?" Dustin asked her.
"Um, nothing?" She shrugged.
"He didn't try to sleep with you, right?" Lucas asked.
She looked baffled that he even asked that. "What?! No!" Both the boys looked skeptical at her, making her pout at them and cross her arms. "I'm serious. He didn't try any of that with me!"
They nodded at her, their grins coming back. "Okay, because I mean..." The curly-haired boy shrugged. "Well, you seem to like him very much."
"Well, yeah-"
"Like, very much," the African-American boy added, adding emphasis on that second word.
The girl arched her brows up, then realized what they were implying. She immediately shook her head, blushing a little in embarrassment. "N-no, it's not like that-"
"Why else would you keep some other boy with you?" Jane glared at Dustin.
"Because he was lost in the woods?"
"Was that an answer or a question?" She then glared at Lucas disapprovingly. "Seriously, you look at him all like..." He then did his best impression of her. "'O-oh hey, Mike! Mike! Mike! Mike!'" He then hugged her. "'Oh, Mike! I-I love you SOOO much!'"
She then shoved him away from her, making her embarassed blush expand. "Lucas, stop!"
"Yeah, Lucas, stoooop!" shouted Troy's voice as he and James approached them. The fun and embarrassment in the air disappeared when they walked towards them, the boys losing their smiles and Jane losing her blush.
"What're you losers doing back here? Looking for your missing friend?" James asked as he and his friend laughed.
"That's not funny," Dustin replied at them angrily. "He's in danger, serious danger."
"Yeah, hate to break it to you, Toothless, but he's not in danger," Troy replied to him. "He's dead. That's what my dad says. Probably killed by the queer he was sleeping with." He and his friend laughed at his joke again. Dustin and Lucas's eyes widened while Jane looked at them in pure anger.
"You're not funny," she said to Troy. He and James stopped laughing as he approached her menacingly. She looked up at him, trying her best to hold back from punching him.
"Too bad for you, Tranny. I never wanted to impress you anyway, since you're pretending to be something you're not."
"She never even looked like a girl," James added, the two laughing once again. The tomboy gripped tightly on her sleeves, almost about ready to hurt them both.
"Unless you're the one sleeping with that queer, huh?" He then pushed her, chuckling.
"Hey, that's not funny!" Dustin shouted at him.
"Probably confusing your vagina for a pe-" She couldn't hold back, so she forcefully shoved him back, making him stop and glare at her angrily.
"Come on, guys," she said in an annoyed tone as she tried to walk past the brunette. However, he then tripped her, making her fall and scrape the bottom of her chin. She screamed a little and held her chin, trying to hold back tears that were welling up her eyes.
"Jane!" her friends shouted as they both came to help her out.
"Watch where you're going, you dumb tranny." Troy then high-fived James and walked away from them.
The tomboy stood up with the support of Dustin and Lucas, now having a small scrape at the bottom of her chin. She winced when she touched it, sighing and looking at the boys going away. "Are you alright?" asked Lucas.
She nodded. "Yeah," she answered, though she didn't feel like it.
Dustin decided to cheer her up a little by giving her a rock for the wrist rocket. "How about this one?" he asked her.
She looked and fiddled with it a little, nodding and smiling. "Yeah, this is it." He smiled at her, the girl giving it to the black-haired boy.
"The monster killer, right here," he added as the kids began laughing, almost forgetting that the bullies approached them in the first place.
Leaving work early at three o'clock, Terry got out of the pub with her purse and walked to the nearest telephone booth, getting some quarters and rolling to the numbers of her home, hoping that Becky would pick up. She kept hearing the dialing tone, looking around while she was waiting. She then spotted a man with a hairstyle similar to...his. She caught her breath as she blinked a few times. Thankfully, it wasn't him, just another man. She sighed in relief. God, why was she thinking of him so often at this time? She never did before...
The phone then picked up and Becky greeted, "Hello?"
Terry smiled and greeted back, "Hey, Becky."
"Oh hi, Terry. Carl and I just came back from lunch. You still at work?"
"Actually, I'm leaving early."
"Oh really?"
She nodded. "Yeah. I want to pay an old friend a visit. You know her."
There was a small pause before her sister responded, "Joyce?"
"Yep. I want to see how she's doing. After all, we haven't seen each other for a long time."
"I haven't seen her since the wedding. Can Carl and I come with you?"
She smiled. "Actually, I was going to ask just that."
Becky chuckled. "Alright, I'll go talk to him then. See ya-"
"Wait." She paused for a few seconds. "The casserole I made last night, I put it in the fridge. It's for her. Can you get it out and bring it with you?"
"Oh, sure. You betcha."
"Thanks, Becky. Bye."
"Byeeee~." She then hung up and walked to her car. She and Joyce Byers were friends since high school, but had grown apart over the years. Now, they rarely see or call each other. Joyce was there for her as well as Becky when she was going through her divorce and she did the same for her when she got her divorce. Why not be there for her now like she did before?
Later in the Byers home, Joyce set up all of the Christmas lights she got and bought at work. She looked around, seeing all the lights glow. Since she knew that her son was communicating to her through lights, this was the only way for her to know if Will was back.
She heard a sudden knocking at the door, making her jolt a little and run to the door. She hoped it was the police and that her son was finally found. It wasn't and instead was Terry, Becky, and Carl. Becky was the one holding the covered casserole. This was quite an unexpected surprise for her. "Hey, Joyce," Terry greeted her.
She anxiously smiled at her and greeted back, "H-hey, Terry." She then hugged her. "It's been a while."
"It has, hasn't it?"
The brunette then saw Becky and Carl, smiling at them too. "Hey, you two. Man, I haven't seen you both since last year."
Becky chuckled and gave her a quick hug. "Glad to see ya, Joyce." The woman then shook Carl's hand.
"Carl," he introduced himself, her nodding.
"Joyce."
They all looked into her home and saw the Christmas lights in them all of them looking puzzled. Terry decided to look back at her and stated, "I made you a casserole." Becky then held up the tray.
Joyce smiled and offered, "W-would you guys like to come inside?" They all nodded and entered in. They all noticed that she looked and acted a bit frantic. They didn't blame her though. Her youngest son was missing, after all.
In the town's library, Hopper and Officer Powell were looking through newspapers in COMCATs. All the newspapers were on the topic of Hawkins Labs since Hopper was suspicious if they were the culprits behind Will's disappearance. He read one newspaper that talked about Hawkins Labs blocking inquiry. He then read another about it have alleged abusive experiments. He went on to read about a project named "MKUltra" being exposed, showing a picture of young adults and the two doctors themselves, Dr. Brenner and Dr. Wheeler. They both looked younger.
He suddenly saw a young woman in a lab coat that was standing next to the participants, being in the left end of the picture. The police chief narrowed his eyes and closely inspected her. To him, she looked like...
Teresa Ives.
He let out a deep sigh, covering his mouth with his hand. Seeing Teresa in that picture...god, this hole was just getting deeper and deeper.
He then read another article about Dr. Martin Brenner and Dr. Theodore Wheeler being sued by a woman named Karen Bertuzzi. This woman was the ex-wife of Dr. Wheeler and a former participant in MKUltra, suing him and Dr. Brenner for stealing her child when he was born, then her oldest, who was four. He flipped to another article explaining that in detail, showing the young woman with curly, fluffed-out hair.
Hopper rubbed his temples and began to think that this investigation was getting deeper than all of those he dealt with back in the city - way deeper...
The four adults waited for the casserole to warm up at the dinner table, the oven timer ticking and almost done. "I, uh, put these up because..." Joyce began to explain. "Will always loved Christmas. I thought that if I just put all these up..." She paused to point at the lights. "He'd...feel like he's at home, somehow." She sighed heaily, shrugging. "S-sorry if I sound crazy, but-"
"No, no, you're not," Terry reassured her, holding her hand and gently squeezing it. "I understand."
"How's your other boy holdin' up?" Becky asked the brunette woman.
She glanced at her. "Jonathan?" She nodded as she deeply sighed. "I mean, he's pretty good at taking care of himself. He always has been, you know?" Carl looked concerned and displeased, but his wife lightly hit him at the arm and glared at him in disapproval. "I mean, he thinks I'm goin' crazy, but..." She then stopped when she saw one of the lights flicker, making the others look at that direction too.
"What is it?" Carl asked.
She shook her head. "It's nothing. We just have...electrical problems." They all nodded at her, Terry keeping her hand held to hers.
"Joyce, listen to me," she said to her in a calm, kind voice. "I just want you to know that you are my friend. If you need anything at all, I'm here."
She gave her a warm smile and replied, "Thank you, Terry."
"We're also here for you too," Becky added, Joyce removing her hand from Terry's and looking at her. "Carl and I are stayin' with Terry for a week, so if ya need anything, we can help you too." Out of the corner of her eye, Terry looked and saw some of the lights flickering down the hallway. She raised her brow in confusion.
Carl nodded. "Yeah, I can't imagine how you must be feeling right now," he added. "I can help you too." Terry slowly began to stand up, slowly walking towards the flickering hallway.
Joyce nodded at the two of them. "Thank you both." They all then suddenly noticed Terry slowly walking to the hallway, making them all concerned. "Terry?"
She tensed up a little and turned to them. "S-sorry, I just need to use the bathroom," she lied.
Joyce nodded again and pointed at a door. "Right there." She nodded at her and walked to the door.
The oven timer dinged and Becky stood up and faced it. "I'll get it," she said as she approached the oven and opened it with a mitt she found on the counter.
"Be careful, honey," her husband said.
While their attention was to her sister, Terry looked up and saw the light flickering down the hallway again. Now she wondered if that was just the electricity problem. She saw more lights flickering in Will's room, so she quietly entered in there. There were a bunch of different lamps circled around his bed, all flickering one-by-one. She was absolutely stunned, muttering, "What the...?" This was no normal electricity problem. Something was happening in the house. But what was it?
...
"You've seen Jane, right?" Joyce asked Becky and Carl, both of them nodding their heads at her as Becky put down the tray onto the table. "Do you guys...know how she's handling this?"
Becky sighed. "Don't tell Terry, but when Carl and I arrived, we saw her at home during school. She looked pretty torn about your boy bein' missing, which was why she was skippin' school."
Joyce frowned. "Aw, really?" They both nodded, making her sigh. "I mean, she and Will, they were pretty good friends." She chuckled a bit sadly. "I remember him coming home and telling me he made a new friend named Jane. He was so happy that day."
Becky patted her shoulder. "Hey, now. I'm sure Jane was happy that day too." Joyce smiled at her, feeling a bit better than she did before. The short-haired woman then thought of something and said to Joyce, "Alright, Joyce, listen to me..."
...
The lights flickered faster and faster by the minute and then suddenly all stopped at once. She shot back a little at that. She then heard some low growling, making her tense up and slowly turn to where the growling came from. She saw the wall, more growling coming from it. Now she was getting more perplexed and concerned about this situation. She slowly approached it and looked at it closely. She saw nothing in it, but she still heard the growling. She could feel it rumbling underneath her skin and in her heart, making her breathing heavy and goosebumps rise onto her skin.
"What the hell?" she muttered, this time in horror. She then saw an inhumanly-shaped hand pop out and stretching out the wallpaper, making her gasp and step back. Her eyes widened as an inhuman figure began stretching out the wallpaper as well, trying to break through. What the hell was that?!
"Terry?!" Joyce exclaimed, making the woman quickly snap around to see her, Becky, and Carl with worried looks. "Why're you in here?"
She looked back at the wall and saw nothing, confusing her even more. When she looked back, she tried to cover up what she was doing, so she lied, "N-nothing. I just...saw that your electricity was buggy, even in here." She faked a chuckle. "You really do got a problem with electricity, Joyce. You should probably get that fixed up."
Joyce did notice that she was staring at the wall before calling her name, thinking that what she said was bullshit. As she left the room, she asked her, "Did you see something?"
She turned to her and shook her head. "No, I, uh, didn't."
She frowned and furrowed her brows down at her, knowing that she lied. "Terry."
She sighed and mouthed quietly to her, "I'll tell you later." She looked a bit surprised and nodded.
"You sure ya haven't seen anything, sis?" Becky asked her sister.
She looked at her and shook her head. "Nothing, trust me." She nodded, though she and her husband were a bit skeptical.
Joyce then faced everyone. "Terry, Becky, Carl, thank you all for the casserole, but I need you all to leave now."
Carl raised a brow at her. "What? Why?" he asked.
"Now!" She then ushered them out of her home and closed the door. All of them looked puzzled at what she just did, Carl sighing deeply.
"She's really paranoid," he stated bluntly.
"One of her boys is missing, of course she is," Becky replied before her face lit up. "Shit, I forgot." She then turned to her sister. "Terry, I've been needin' to tell ya something."
She looked a bit curious. "What is it?" she asked.
Becky sighed, looking at Carl and the two of them nodding before facing her. "We heard an intruder in the house, before Becky and I left for lunch," Carl said.
Her eyes widened at that piece of news. "What?"
"We both heard footsteps, then the door to Jane's room closing. We both went up there and saw no one. Carl tripped and bit his tongue, so we had to go downstairs and put an ice on that. After we came back from lunch, we looked all over the house for them again."
"Still nobody," Carl added. "Becky told Joyce that there was the possibility of her son being there."
Terry gasped, feeling gobsmacked. Will was there?! "What if it was someone else?"
"It could be, but it's a big possibility. Why would he be in the house in the first place?"
"After all, he is Jane's friend," Becky finished. Terry took a deep breath. They both had a point. What if Will was there? She thought that when they all come home, they'll do another investigation of the home, seeing any evidence of him being there.
After school, Kali began calling the Holland household in a nearby telephone pole outside of the school. She moved around a little, feeling more nervous about her best friend. "Come on..." she muttered impatiently.
The line then picked up and a woman's voice greeted, "Hello?"
She sighed in relief and greeted back, "Hi, Mrs. Holland. It's Kali."
"Oh hey, Kali. How are you?"
"Good." She paused for a couple of seconds. "Say, have you seen Barb there?"
"Um...no. She actually hasn't came home yet."
That made her worry increase. "But she did come home last night, right?"
"No, she told me she was staying with you."
Kali scoffed, feeling like an idiot. "You're right, I'm sorry. I meant by...did you see her come home this morning? I think she left her textbooks back at my house, so I was just wondering."
"No...no, I haven't seen her at all."
Now her worry skyrocketed. Where the hell was she? She didn't want to worry her mother too much, so she lied, "You know what? I think I saw her down at the library."
"Okay. And Kali?" She listened in, hearing a pause. "Can you have her call me as soon as you find her?"
She nodded. "Of course, Mrs. Holland. Sorry to bother you." She then hung up the phone and exhaled deeply. If Barb wasn't at home or in school, then where the hell could she be? She sighed, feeling stressed about her absence and began walking to where Steve and his friends might be, holding her purse tightly.
...
As she began approaching the car, she saw Steve and his friends there as well as a girl named Nicole and...Jonathan. Puzzled, she approached the clique, who were holding the auburn-haired guy's photographs, and asked, "What's going on?"
Everyone looked at her, Tommy grinning. "'Eeey, the starlet of the show comes up," he said.
She kept her confused expression. "What? What are you talking about?"
Carol glared daggers at Jonathan. "This creep was spying on us last night," she answered before handing her one photo. "He was probably going to save this one for later." She cautiously took it and looked at it. It was a picture of her through the window...taking of her shirt and revealing her bra to Steve. Her eyes widened in utter shock and horror as she glanced at him. He looked away from her, ashamed.
"You see, he knew that what he did last night was wrong, but..." Steve said coldly as he approached him. "That's just the thing with perverts, it's hardwired into them." He then shoved him a little. "They just can't help themselves." He then started tearing the photo he had up into small pieces, throwing them into his face. "For that, we'll need to take away his toy."
Jonathan looked scared, shouting, "No, please, not the camera!"
Though she didn't like what he did, Kali didn't appreciate what she thought Steve was going to do. "Steve, wait," she demanded him.
Tommy pushed him away, Steve saying, "No, no, Tommy. Wait." He stopped, laughing a little as Steve approached Jonathan with his camera. "Here you go." He reached to get it, but the athlete dropped it to the ground, breaking it. The freckled guy began laughing louder as well as Carol while Nicole just smirked. The auburn-haired guy was horrified at what just happened.
"Come on, the game's about to start," Steve said as he began to leave.
"Boo," Tommy spat to Jonathan as he left as well.
"Bye," said Carol as she ripped more photos and threw them at him. Soon, all of them left.
All except for Kali.
She saw Jonathan kneel down and pick up his broken camera before getting the rest of the ripped pieces of his photos. She didn't like that he took her picture like that, but what Steve, Tommy, and Carol did was also despicable. She saw something one of the pieces, so she knelt down with him and picked it up. It had Barbara sitting on the diving board of the pool, looking at it in misery. She frowned at the picture, the terrible feeling of how she treated her last night coming back.
"Kal! Come on!" Steve shouted to her from afar. She quickly gathered the rest of the pieces of the photo and stood up, walking to him as he placed an arm around her shoulder. She swiftly put the pieces in her bag to save for later.
Stopping here. What do you guys think? Any typos or mistakes? Sorry for the lack of more kiddos. I just came up with Karen's maiden name from the top of my head, so yeah.
Also, before I do, this marks the end of my daily updates since I have school 'til I get winter break. Sorry!
Anyways, keep supporting this fanfic and I'll see you in the next chapter!