Here's the next chapter! Enjoy!

Now arriving at home with a bag of clothes she got before the clothing store closed, Terry got out of her car and grabbed it, slamming it shut. She noticed that Jonathan's car was gone, meaning that he went back home. She sighed deeply, hoping Will and Joyce were alright as well as the teen himself. She got inside and walked upstairs, removing her shoes and placing them in her closet. She placed the bag next to her bed before she began to change into her night gown.

She was still feeling shaken by the argument with Michael earlier. Not even what he did this morning could top what he did tonight. He needed to learn how to deal with the consequences of his actions and to act more mature...

But was she and Jim in the right for that argument? Because she felt like they weren't. Mike wasn't excused from his behavior, but...God, they could've handled the situation better than they did.

He got completely mad at them and broke all the windows.

Before she left, Jim had tried to reassure her that they did the best they could, but did they really? To be honest with herself...they were just as bad as he was. Both of them and Mike just kept yelling and getting angry at each other. Neither of them did the best they could, really.

As she made her ponytail into a bun, she got startled when she heard a knock on the door. "Mum?" Kali called through the door.

"Mama?" Jane also called through the door. She let out a deep sigh, knowing that she made the excuse that she was going clothing shopping in the afternoon and it was now night.

She walked towards the door and opened it, seeing the girls in their pajamas. Kali wore her favorite lavender night dress while Jane wore a long-sleeved, white and blue-dotted pajama shirt with matching pajama pants. It was rare that they would be together like this, and it was because of her. "I don't want sound rude or anything, but you usually don't shop for clothes until night," the Indian girl told her.

"Yeah, what's going on?" asked the curly-haired girl.

She sighed and looked at her two daughters. "I'm sorry to worry you both. I just..." She looked at the ground. "I've just getting stressed out."

"Why? Is it your job?"

She shook her head at her. "No."

Jane gulped. "Is it Will?" She didn't want to be reminded of what happened to the poor kid, but now that she said it, that could be another reason.

Kali looked concerned, asking, "Wait, what about him?"

"Listen, girls, I don't know why I'm suddenly so stressed out." The two looked more worried for her, making her feel more stressed than before. She faked a smile and hugged the girls. "Don't worry about me. I'll try to get rid of this stress. You two should go to sleep." She kissed the sides of their heads and let them go. They didn't look all that reassured, but nodded and left to their own rooms. She closed the door and let out another deep sigh, feeling more guilty about what she was doing. God, was this day shitty...

...

Meanwhile, Kali got into her room and turned off all of the lights in her room, getting into her bed. She wondered if she should tell Terry what she and Jonathan were going to do. She was acting a bit stressed out lately. Would telling her raise that stress? She had trusted her and Jonathan to go out before...

Maybe it wouldn't hurt to ask her in the morning before breakfast.

Settling in with that thought, she closed her eyes and began to sleep.

...

Jane got into her bed and pulled her blanket over her, feeling tired yet not willing to sleep. What happened back at school earlier stuck with her. She felt so awful for Will. She may not know what the hell happened during his episode...but she had a strong feeling that it involved the shadow monster. She should go check up on him tomorrow at school.

Wait, would he even go back to school after an experience like that? She guessed she'll have to find out when she goes to school tomorrow.

Also...Mike.

Why did he throw Will like that? She needed to understand. It couldn't be for no reason. Could it be because he thought he was about to attack her? No, that's stupid. Could it be that he didn't...like Will? How could he not? He was so willing to save him last year. So that reason seemed stupid as well. What else could be the reason?

Suddenly, she remembered something...Will mentioned the Snow Ball. She had promised Mike to bring him to the Snow Ball.

Did he throw him because he thought he was going to ask her to the Snow Ball?

There was no way Will, her best friend, was going to ask her...well, actually, now that she thought about it...he was acting a little weird talking to her. Plus, he was going to ask her something before he got thrown...

She was getting way too tired to think more about this, so she decided to finally go to sleep, hoping tomorrow was a better day.

...

Now being up early in the morning, the Ives family had began eating breakfast, which was pancakes and fruit. Jane had an Eggo as a side as well. Terry wore her waitress uniform, Jane wore a blue and white shirt, her usual brown jacket, blue jeans, and sneakers, and Kali wore a lavender sweater, black jeans, and white and purple high-tops.

When the pieces of toast popped out of the toaster, Kali went up to it with her plate to get them. Terry looked at her and said, "Kali." She looked back at her, placing one piece of toast next to her pancakes and fruit. "You're going to be fine when you get to...Ally's, right?"

She was a bit puzzled at first, but quickly realized what her mother was really saying so that Jane wouldn't get suspicious. She nodded, placing the other piece of toast on her plate before handing that to her little sister and replying, "Yeah, don't worry about me. We're just gonna do...girl stuff." The woman chuckled and nodded before resuming to eat her breakfast.

Kali had talked to her about her plan to Terry. As much as she was worried for her, Kali had proven to handle herself well. Maybe not when she and Jonathan were getting supplies to kill the Demogorgon, but when she, him, and Steve killed that thing in the Byers home. It didn't make her less worried, but she trusted Kali and what she was going to do was something Terry never thought of doing herself. She was so proud of her.

As Jane kept eating her food, she realized that she didn't try to contact Mike last night because she was so tired. As much as she felt bad for that, he wasn't exactly important to her right now. Plus, he threw Will because he probably thought he was going to ask her out to the Snow Ball.

Jeez...that thought did not resonate well with her.

Why WOULD Will ask her out? He was just a friend...but he did tell her how good of a friend she was to him before trying to ask the question...

"Are you alright, Jane?" Terry asked her, also seeing that Kali looked at her as well.

She just nodded and lied, "Yeah, yeah, I'll be fine." Terry assumed she was thinking of Will, patting her head before she continued eating. The curly-haired girl appreciated that her mother was trying to cheer her up after what happened yesterday. However, it still didn't help this feeling of uneasiness her thoughts gave her.

She decided to drop that and think about what to say to Will at school...

After breakfast, Kali got out with her bag...going to Jonathan's car. She opened the door, getting his attention and making him greet, "Morning."

"Morning," she greeted back as she put her bag in the back and sat on the passenger's seat, closing the door and buckling herself up. "I told my mum about the plan." He gave her a worried look, but she gave him a reassuring one. "Don't worry, she likes what we'll be doing."

He smiled a little. "That's good."

"What about your mum? Have you talked to her?"

He shook his head. "No, she was still sleeping, but I left a note."

She nodded at him. "Are you ready for this?"

He nodded back at her. "Are you?"

She grinned at him. "More than ever." He grinned back at her before starting up the car and driving off to the park, where they can finally begin their plan.

At Hawkins Middle, there was no sign of Will, but it still was before school, so Jane didn't get too worried yet. Right now, she, Lucas, and Max were at the back of the school near the dumpster, having trash picks and arguing about who goes in to find Dart. "Will you quit being a baby and just do it?" Jane asked him. He released a deep sigh before jumping right in there.

Max made a disgusted noise as she asked her, "Do any of us really have to do this? This is so disgusting."

She sighed and looked at her. "I mean, some animals eat garbage, so..." It was Lucas's idea to find Dart before class, but it was hers to look in the dumpster.

The red-haired girl shrugged. "I guess you're right."

Suddenly, Dustin appeared, looking puzzled at the two girls. "What's going on?" he asked them.

"We're looking for Dart, that's what's going on," the curly-haired girl answered before Lucas threw two trash bags without warning, the kids getting out of the way.

"Jesus!" Dustin exclaimed.

"Warn us next time!" Jane also exclaimed.

"Sorry," the black-haired boy replied as he hopped right out of the dumpster and looked at Dustin. "Well, well...look who FINALLY decided to show up!" He spread his arms before putting them to his sides. "And it's right AFTER I drew the short straw. REALLY convenient." Well, Jane did agree with Lucas, but...

The girls smelt his garbage scent, even though they were a couple feet away from him. They both looked disgusted, Max walking and standing right next to Dustin as she told the black-haired boy, "You stink!"

Dustin smiled at her, the two looking at each other as he greeted, "Hi."

"Uh, hi," she awkwardly greeted back, much to Lucas's displeasure. Jane just stepped back to make sure she was far from the smell.

The curly-haired boy noticed that Will wasn't around, making him ask, "Hey, where's Will?"

Everyone shrugged. "He'll be here," Jane answered him.

"Are ya just gonna stand there...?" Lucas asked him before tossing him a trash pick. "Or are ya gonna find Dart with us?" He gave him a glare before they all started picking at the trash, hoping to find him in there.

But they didn't.

In their homeroom, class had began and Mr. Clarke began talking to the class about danger instincts. While he was talking about that, Jane looked at the seat next to her, seeing that Will was still not there. That made her worry more and feel the unwelcome deja-vu of last year, when Will didn't come the day after the game. She knew he wasn't trapped in the Upside Down this time, but she thought this meant that something serious happened while he was out on the field yesterday. She hoped he was alright...

Jim was nailing in some boards to cover up the windows back at the cabin. When he was finished with the last one, he turned to see Mike peering through a crack on a door before he closed it. He sighed, feeling like shit for what he and Terry did last night. He tried to reassure her and himself that they did the best they could...but he felt like they didn't really. They both just made things worse. He thought he'd never have a heated argument like that ever again, especially when he remembered his interactions with his father and mother, but last night...he felt like he was as bad as the both of them were to him.

That didn't excuse what Mike did, but neither he nor Terry were in the right either.

Speak of the devil, he heard her car, probably, pull up and stop. He then heard the door close and steps that became louder as they got closer. He then heard the special knock. He went to the door and unlocked it, opening it up and seeing her in her waitress uniform, admiring her beauty in it for only a few seconds. She looked worried. "Is Mike alright?" she asked him.

He sighed once again, letting her in and closing the door. "Kid didn't even come out of there since last night." Her lips drew to a line, the two arriving at the door to his room and staring at it for a bit. They looked at each other, hoping things would go well, before looking at the door. The woman then greeted, "Hey, Michael."

...

He was right in front of the door, not wanting to open it, not even for Terry. He wore a gray, multi-colored, collared shirt and blue jeans.

"Hey, kid..." he heard Jim also greet through the door.

"Are you doing alright?" He didn't answer, looked away from the door, leaned against it, and crossed his arms.

...

Terry sighed as Hopper said, "Listen, kid, about last night, we, uh..." He trailed off, looking like he didn't know what to say to him exactly. He didn't want to make him more pissed off.

"Michael..." she said solemnly. "What I did to you last night was uncalled for and I'm sorry."

Jim guessed he should roll similarly to what she was saying. "Yeah, we're both sorry about last night, kid."

...

He huffed, still not answering either of them as he looked up at the ceiling. He was just so frustrated with them right now that he didn't even want to see them.

...

The two adults looked defeated, stepping away from the door. "What should we do?" the dirty-blonde-haired woman whispered to the police chief.

His lips drew to a line before thinking up of something and going back to the door. "Alright, buddy," he told Mike through the door. "You don't need to talk to us now. You need your space, I get it. We'll let you have your space."

...

Mike looked back, feeling kind of relieved that they were going to do that for him. He didn't want to see their faces anyway. "But here's the thing: we're both going off to work. That means you'll have to clean all of this up. If this cabin looks clean by the time we get back, then we'll consider fixing the TV, alright?" He sighed. Had they really changed from last night? But the fact that they would fix the TV if he cleaned up everything...

...

Terry didn't feel good when he said that, whispering, "Jim..."

"Let's go," he whispered back to her as he put his hat on and grabbed his coat from the coat rack. She looked back at Mike's room, frowning. She thought that maybe he should clean up the cabin. If her daughters misbehaved, one way to punish them was to make them do a chore. If they did it, they can get one thing they wanted most with the exception of a few. Cleaning up the cabin to have the TV fixed seemed like a fair deal. She just hoped that Mike would take it.

"Let's go, Terry," the man called out to her.

She looked away from the door and walked to him. "I'm coming." The door was opened and then it closed when they got outside.

...

The freckled boy stopped leaning against the door and thought about the offer. He didn't want to go out, not after what happened in here and at the school yesterday, and he really wanted that TV fixed, so he'll do it. He'll clean up the cabin if it meant the TV will be back to normal.

...

As the two got off of the porch, Jim asked, "You feeling okay?"

Terry scoffed. "I wish." Honestly, he felt the same. "But I hope Mike can get his act together."

He nodded. "Yeah...and I hope that we can..." She looked at him in concern, making him trail off. He shrugged a little. "You got work, I do too, so I'll see you later." He then went into his police car without another word. She wondered if he thought the same thing she did, about them also being unreasonable like Mike was last night.

But he was right, they both have work to be done, so she got into her car and started it up. As Jim left rather quickly, making her assume the situation with the pumpkins was getting bad now, she followed suit, hoping not to be late this time.

After an intense game of Shirts vs. Skins, all of the guys began to take a shower in the locker room. It was a shame for Steve to take a shower near Billy and Tommy. "Hey, don't sweat it, Harrington," the blonde-haired guy said to him. "Today's just not your day." God, does this douchebag ever shut up?

"Yeah, it's just not your week, man," Tommy added. "First, you get ten minutes of heaven tasting Kali's 'curry' during the party..."

He just shook his head at him. "That's not true," he stated. "It's just a stupid rumor."

"Oh really? Then why'd she run off with that lonely freak?" That statement shocked him, making him look up.

"What?"

Tommy looked surprised that he didn't know. "Aw shit, y'don't know?" He didn't answer, wiping the water off of his body with the towel while still looking shocked. "Jonathan and your little Indian doll skipped 4th period yesterday and still hasn't shown." He put on a shit-eating grin and leaned against the shower pole a little. "Ain't that just a coincidence?" He didn't want to give him any more of his attention, but he was still in a state of shock. "Ya do your business with her while she was drunk and then she runs off with a freak!" He laughed. "Now they can both be a freaky couple!" He shut off his shower and walked away, grabbing a towel to wipe himself off with.

Steve still couldn't believe it. He didn't see Kali today...she couldn't have believed the rumors and ran off with Jonathan. They were just friends...right? He grabbed his shampoo, poured some in one hand, and began lathering his hair.

"Hey, don't take that too hard, man," Billy told him, leaning against the shower pole. "A relationship like that wasn't gonna last long anyway." As if he wasn't much of an ass... "Plus, a pretty boy like you's got nothing to worry about. Plenty of bitches in the sea." Like the asshole he was, he shut off Steve's shower, much to his irritation. "Especially ones that look better than her." He gave him a sharp glare before he patted his back and began to leave. "I'll be sure to leave ya some." Does Billy really need to prove that he was a complete asshole time and time again? Steve decided to not care what he thinks.

But still...there was the case of Kali.

Did she really believe those rumors? She would have talked to him...but...maybe she felt too ashamed to even do that. After all, he probably looked suspicious to her when he tried to avoid the topic of what happened in the bathroom during the party. He knew he could be stupid, but he still got mad at himself for it. And for her to run off with Jonathan...why? Were they just friends? He never really gotten a "I have a crush on your girlfriend" vibe from him at all...but he could be good at hiding it. Otherwise, he would have never ran off with her.

"Damn it..." he muttered under his breath as he switched on the shower to wash out his hair. He screwed up...big time.

In the rather bustling Forrest Hills Park, Kali and Jonathan looked around for Mrs. Holland and possibly Mr. Holland too. They saw kids playing on equipment and others playing Duck, Duck, Goose. Any adults there were probably looking over/playing with their kids or reading a newspaper. Jonathan was fidgeting a little while Kali sat perfectly still, looking down at her watch and sighing. "Fifteen after..." she muttered, the two looking at each other. She noticed him moving around a little, making her ask, "You alright?"

"Yeah, just..." he answered in a whisper. "Nervous." Honestly, she felt nervous about this as well. She had kept on the hope that things will go according to plan.

"Me too, but we shouldn't look so suspicious."

He nodded. "Yeah, I know."

As they both continued to look around, the Indian girl spotted a man reading a newspaper and talking...if that didn't look so suspicious. She leaned towards her friend and whispered, "Hey, see that guy?"

He looked at the same guy and replied quietly, "Yeah? What about him?"

"He just talked to himself." That did sound creepy. It also didn't help that the man looked up at them, making them look away.

Jonathan spotted a man spreading around bird feed while Kali looked at parents push their children around in the merry-go-round. They continued looking around, their nervousness slowly increasing. They both looked at a bunch of kids playing Duck, Duck, Goose, two women supervising them, then two women stopping after a jog.

The auburn-haired guy saw the man with the bird feed look at him and the black-haired girl saw one of them women supervising the children looking at her. They both then saw one guy walking his dog and looking at them too. They also spotted the two women running looking at them too. Kali had seen a woman near the merry-go-round look at them as well. One man passing by with a suitcase also looked at them. This was creepier than they thought...

When they heard one of the kids yell, "Goose!", Kali whispered to Jonathan, "We should leave."

"Definitely," he replied as they both stood up and began walking out of the park and to his car. They both felt like they were being followed somehow.

When they reached to his car, they saw the guy with the suitcase walk out of the park as well. They both got in and buckled themselves, the guy getting his keys and trying to start up the car. It couldn't start up, much to their worry. Suddenly, a knock on the window made Kali jump a little, seeing the guy who had the newspaper earlier smiling at them. They both knew they couldn't trust him, so they just looked at him.

"Morning, you two," he greeted them in an unusually friendly voice. "I see that your car doesn't work. Is it alright if I suggest that you guys can take a lift from me?"

They didn't answer him, but then they saw a few people approaching them, their complete nervousness at its peak. There was the guy with the suitcase, then the guy with the dog, then the woman that was near the merry-go-round. When the man knocked on the door again, he asked with a smile, "You two sure you don't need that lift?" So this was it then...

They were caught.

Stopping right here. What do you guys think? Any typos or mistakes I might've missed? I knew going back to college and soon tech school would screw with the usual schedule. Oh well, they won't stop me from updating whenever I can. That said, they are important to me and I need to do my best in them.

Anyways...

How do you guys like that extra scene with the Ives girls? I felt like Jane and Kali would worry for their mother after seeing her be gone for "shopping" until night.

I hope you guys don't mind Terry letting Kali go on with her plan. It is something she would like to do herself AND she had trusted Kali to go out with Jonathan before. She just hopes she'll be alright.

So I made Hopper and Terry apologize a little early. Mike still doesn't like them...though he would clean up to have the TV fixed.

Ah Billy and Tommy, being assholes as usual. But now Steve thinks of the worst...how will that go for him...?

Review, follow, favorite, and I'll see you guys in the next chapter!