like i can \/ nancy wheeler

ix. everybody wants to rule the world

"Listen, that's different." Steve insisted, pulling Carter's hand off of his mouth. "She's hot, alright? You can't blame me for that one."

"You're such a perv." scoffed Josh bitterly.

"What the hell does that mean, Harrington?" Colby's jaw dropped. "You have a crush on my-"

Steve shoved Colby's shoulder to shut him up. "I do not. And what about what she was talking about before? You like Nancy?"

"Does it matter?" Colby narrowed his eyes at Steve. "Me and Nancy are friends, that's all it is."

Steve rolled his eyes and the three boys turned around as Dustin began shouting. He looked irritated, and was taking it out on Mike, who stood before the table with a small contraption in his hands.

"-The chief's right on this." said Dustin loudly and solemnly. "We can't stop those Demo-dogs on our own."

"Demo-dogs?" repeated Max, furrowing her brows together. Colby wondered how he'd never seen her before— she must've been a new student, considering he'd never seen the boys hang out with her either. And then it hit him; Max Mayfield must have been the girl Dustin and Lucas had been stalking at the arcade about a week prior.

"Demo-dogs." affirmed Dustin, motioning with his hands. "It's like Demogorgon and dog. Demo-dog. It's like a compound. It's like a play on words, you know-"

"Okay!" huffed Max impatiently, widening her eyes at Dustin as if he were insane. Steve grimaced from beside Colby.

"I mean," Dustin continued, a little bit saddened, "when it was just Dart, maybe..."

"But there's an army now." finished Lucas, staring at the ground. Colby took a moment to look at him; personally, Lucas was Colby's favorite party member. He was laid back and inviting. And of course, his headband style was intriguing to Colby.

"Precisely." sighed Dustin. Dustin was Colby's second favorite member of the party. Of course, he didn't lay down the specifics of who was one through five, but Dustin was happy enough knowing he was somewhere in the top three.

"His army." muttered Mike, looking up at Dustin with slightly widened eyes.

"What do you mean?" queried Steve, turning to look at Mike with interest.

"His army!" repeated Mike, looking around at everyone standing before him. "Maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army, too!"

Mike raced out of the kitchen and, very confused, everyone else followed after him. Colby took a second to look around at the walls, which were covered in pictures of some sort of vine-looking trail. They headed into Will's room, where Mike grabbed a picture of a large monster standing in a field.

"The shadow monster," mumbled Dustin, taking the picture into his own hands.

"It got Will that day on the field." nodded Mike, staring with a small smile at Dustin. "The doctor said it was like a virus, it infected him."

"And so this virus," said Cassie, tilting her head, "it connects him to these tunnels?"

"To the tunnels, monsters, the Upside Down, everything!" confirmed Mike, nodding his head vigorously at Cassie.

"Woah. Slow down, slow down!" Steve ordered. Colby smiled lightly— it wasn't rare for Steve to be confused, although he did notice a change in Steve. While he still seemed like a total idiot, the douchebag, popularity of him had washed away. Like Cassie said, maybe it was from the babysitting.

"Okay," sighed Mike, turning over his shoulder to explain everything to Steve. "The shadow monster is inside everything. And if the vines feel something like pain, so does Will."