Lyn found herself in the Wheeler's basement again. "You sure, you don't want to wait until tomorrow? I have the day off." She had to work after school. The boys wanted to search the woods for Will with El.
"You're the one that said time is of the essence when mom questioned you about going out to look for Will." Dustin reminds her.
"Don't worry, Lyn. We are prepared," Mike assured her.
"Tell me the plan again." She demands.
"We tell our parents we have an AV Club after school. That'll give us at least a few hours for Operation Mirkwood." Mike explained how they were going to get around their parents.
"You seriously think that the weirdo knows where Will is?" Lucas leans into whispers to them. Eleven was sitting on the couch behind them. They were going to use her to try and track Will, since she may have been the last person to see him.
"Just trust me on this, okay?" Mike stared into Lucas's eyes. He nods, saying that they would give it a try. They didn't have anything to lose at this point. "Did you get the supplies?" Mike asked him. Lyn stood up, wanting to see what kind of weapons they had to defend themselves.
"Yeah. Binoculars from 'Nam. Army knife also from 'Nam. Hammer, camouflage bandana, and the wrist rocket." Lucas pulls all the items out of his backpack. He was clearly the most excited about the last one.
"You're gonna take out the Demogorgon with a slingshot?" Dustin asks. A Demogorgon was the name of the monster piece that Elven put on the board last night.
"First of all, it's a wrist rocket. And second of all, the Demogorgon's not real. It's made up. But if there is something out there, I'm gonna shoot it in the eye and blind it." He pulls back the slingshot and lets it go, making Dustin jump even though nothing was in it.
"Dustin, what did you get?" Mike asked his friend to put a stop to their argument before it started.
"Well, alrighty. So, we've got Nutty Bars, Bazooka, Pez, Smarties, Pringles, Nilla Wafers, apples, bananas, and trail mix." Dustin dumps his backpack on the table. His friends push their eyebrows together in confusion. Lyn bites her lip, remembering her brother packing the junk food in front of her. She told him to take his old hockey stick, but he told her it wouldn't fit in his backpack and it would do nothing against a Demogorgon. She was going to give him a crowbar, but that was too heavy for him to carry around all day.
Mike and Lucas share a look that said can you believe this guy before Lucas said it for them. "Seriously?"
"We need energy for our travels. For stamina. And besides, why do we even need weapons? We have her." Dustin points to Eleven. He hadn't shut up about how amazing it was to know a superhero on the ride there this morning.
"She shut one door." Lucas pointed out that they didn't know the details of her power.
"With her mind! Are you kidding me? That's insane! Imagine all the other cool stuff she could do. Like I bet that she could make this fly!" Dustin grabs Mike's toy millennium falcon and stands in front of Eleven. "Hey. Okay, concentrate. Okay?" He drops it, making it hits the floor. "Okay, one more time. Okay. Use your powers, okay?" He looks hopeful at El as he drops it on the floor again.
"Idiot." Lucas and Lyn mutter under their breath.
"She's not a dog!" Mike scolds him as he grabs his toy off the floor before he ends up breaking it.
"Boys! Lyn! Time for school!" Mrs. Wheeler yells down to them.
"Just stay down here. Don't make any noise, and don't leave. If you get hungry, eat Dustin's snacks, okay?" Mike kneels in front of El to explain. Mrs. Wheeler yells her son's name again. "Coming!" Mike yells up harshly to his mom before turning back to speak softly to El. "You know those power lines?"
"Power lines?" El asks. Lyn was thinking of a way to explain power lines. She never realized how hard everyday things were to explain.
"Yeah. The ones behind my house?" Mike told her which power lines he was talking about.
"Yes." El nods, making Lyn stare at her in confusion. How did she know what power lines were but not friends?
"Meet us there, after school." Mike gave her instructions.
"After school?" She asks, never having heard of school.
"Yeah, 3:15," Mike told her.
"There is no clock down here for her," Lyn told the boy. The girl would have no way of knowing when it was 3:15.
Mike took off his watch and put it on her wrist. "When the numbers read three-one-five, meet us there." He told her. They repeat it to each other. El smiled at him to let him know she got it. Mike grabbed his bag off the table. They went upstairs. The boys rode their bikes to school while Lyn drove.
Lyn looks down in disgust at her lunch plate as she makes her way to the bookworms table. It was a group of students who prefer solitude over socializing. They sat together at lunch and read their books. "Hey, Rosalyn," Nancy called out her name as she passed the popular table.
"Yes." She put the tray down on the table but didn't take a seat.
"Was Barbara in biology today? I know she's your lab partner." Nancy asks. Barbara was in Lyn's junior biology class despite being a sophomore.
"No, what happened? Did she fall into Harrington's swimming pool at the 'assembly' you attended last night and caught a cold?" Lyn puts air quotes around the word assembly. Tommy and Carol giggle like idiots. Steve stares at her wondering when was the last time she called him by his first name.
Nancy shot Steve a glare, not liking that Lyn seems to know what happened last night. If a girl who didn't participate in gossip knew then everyone knew. "No, no one even saw her leave the house." She turns back to the girl standing in front of the table.
"Two horny teen couples didn't take notice of their surroundings. Oh my, that is worrisome." Lyn's words dripped with sarcasm. "She probably got tired of waiting and went home."
"And she is not here now, because?" Nancy wanted someone to take this seriously.
"Because she's probably skipping," Steve told her.
"Yeah, you're right." She mutters but doesn't look convinced. She stared out the door. Lyn looks over to see Jonathan standing there. He broke eye contact with Nancy and hurried along before anyone could notice him.
"Look, Nancy, go to her house after school. If she isn't there, then go to the police with her parents and you lie. You say she's been missing for a full 24 hours or they'll dick you around like they did Ms. Byer." She explains to the worried teen, whose eyes light up that someone seems to have a plan on what to do with Barbara missing. She picked up her tray and went over to her table. She pulls out Stephen King's Firestarter.
Lyn was sprinting out of the school. Her history teacher kept her late and now she was going to be late for work. "Sorry." She yelled back at the teens she pushed aside.
She was running through the parking lot when she tripped. "Fuck." She cursed as she got up. She looks back to see Jonathan holding a broken camera. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry Jonathan. I'll buy you a new one I swear." She apologizes as she helps him pick up the broken pieces.
"This wasn't you, it was Harrington." He spat out the name.
"What! Why would he do this?" She looks around at the ripped-up photos.
"Honestly, I can't blame him. If I was in his shoes I would have done the same. When I was looking for Will last night in the woods, I found myself in his backyard. They were having a party, I don't know why I took those pictures." He rambles.
Lyn picks up a piece of photo that was of Nancy taking her shirt off with her back to the window. "I can see why he would be mad." She shows him the picture before ripping it up. "Neither her nor you want that getting around."
She stood up after helping Jonathan shove everything into his bag. He opened his mouth to further explain himself, but she put her hand up to stop him. "We have only had brief conversations while waiting for our brothers at the arcade, but you don't seem like a peeping tom. Everyone makes stupid mistakes. I would love to stay and console you some more but I'm late to work." She waved to him before running off to her car. She speeds to the vet clinic.
She pulled in, parked her car, and ran inside. "Sorry for being late." She apologizes as she runs into the bathroom to change into her scrubs.
"I don't care if you're late but that better not have been you I heard speed down the road." Janise, the office clerk, pounds on the bathroom door.
"It wasn't me." She threw her clothes into her bag.
"You damn liar." The clerk hit the door one more time before walking away.
Lyn walks out and goes into the boarding area to see the dogs and cats in their cages. "Hey, guys." She smiles at the animals. The room echoed with excited and aggressive barks.
"Hey Spikey." She bent down to greet the Shih Tzu that was boarding there while his owners were on vacation. She opens the cage to hook a leash onto his collar. She led him out of the clinic and walked him around the block. She smiles at Spikey. His nose stayed on the ground and his tail constantly wagging. She was going to miss him when his owners came back next week.
She loved her job, the good days outweigh the bad. She got to play with all types of animals. There was nothing more gratifying than watching them raise back to health, especially when they were being abused.
But, there were cons too like cleaning the kennels. The smell of urine, feces, and vomit was something that took a long time to get used to. The hardest was blood, not physically but mentally. She wanted to cry when she had to clean up a lot of it. She always cries when a pet passes away.
She remembers the first time it happened, she told her boss she didn't know if she was right for this job. Her boss told her the day she didn't feel anything when a pet dies is the day she wouldn't be right for this job.
Her boss, Dr. Penelope Myung was someone that Rosalyn deeply admired. She was a second-generation Korean immigrant. She was a woman ahead of her time. She works while her husband stays home and takes care of the kids. He never let his wife being the breadwinner ruin his pride of being a man like most would.
Dr. Myung was educated, kind, and funny. She was able to keep it together no matter how chaotic things got at the clinic. She handles the most ridiculous patients with kindness. Which is how Lyn meets her in the first place. Her mom brought Mews to the Clinic because she heard her cough. Even though the vet told her nothing was wrong, she made her run every test she could. It ran up a high bill.
When Lyn found out she cried all night long. The next day she went to the clinic to see if she could work out a payment plan. Penelope took one look at the worn-out teen that was crying and gave her a job. She told her she could work it off. If she was good, then she would keep her on.
It has been two years of working there, Lyn loved it so much. The only time she took a vacation was during the summer when Penelope made her take two weeks off.
"Come on Spikey time to go back." She pulled the small dog toward the building when it came back into their view. She cleans his cage and puts him back.
She took the next dog out and continued the routine until they all went on their walks. She had dinner with Janise, Penelope, and a few vet techs. Then she gave the animals their medication and dinner.
By the time she got home, it was dark. She went inside to be greeted by the smell of chocolate cake putting a smile on her face. "What's the occasion?" She hurried to the kitchen. Her smile dropped when she saw her brother sobbing at the table. "What's wrong?" She runs over to hug him.
"On the way home from the AV club, cop cars and fire trucks flew past the boys and they followed them. The poor things saw them dragging Will's body from the lake." Her mom informed her.
That night they cried and ate the whole cake together. Lyn was so sure they would find Will alive. He would be scarred mentally and maybe physically, but they would help him get better. She was wrong and it felt terrible. She would do anything, she would even kiss Tommy just to see Will's shy little smile one last time.