*(Y/n)'s POV*
"Dustin!" I called out to him before we got ready for school. I went to go knock on his bedroom door and he didn't reply. I finished brushing my teeth, and putting on some fresh clothes and grabbed my backpack. "Let's go! We're going to be late!"
"Yeah, in a second!" He called back out.
When we got to the bike, I stepped on the back pegs and hopped on. We rode to school together. "You know, it's really weird that you and Dart have a really special bond." I said.
"Like it's not weird that you and Mike have a really special bond?" He smirked at me and I made a face that said, "Touché." "Come on, (Y/n), be happy for me that I actually have a friend that cares about me."
"And you don't think I care about you, too?" I asked. "I'm your sister, doofus. Of course I care about you."
"Yeah, but you're my sister."
We got to the school just in time, and I hopped off the bike. We looked around and didn't see any of our friends nearby. "Hey, where is everyone?" I asked.
"I don't know." He shrugged.
"Stop being a baby and just do it already!" I overheard Mike say and I started feeling butterflies in my stomach.
"This is so disgusting." Max said. We ran over to the back of the school parking lot. "Is this really necessary?" We looked at Mike and Max who had been facing the school's trashcan.
"What the hell is going on?" Dustin asked.
"What do you think?" Mike asked. "We're looking for Dart."
"Jesus!" I said as a bag of trash nearly fell on me.
"(Y/n), watch out!" Dustin pulled me back and another trash bag was flown out of the garbage.
"Ugh..." Mike scoffed.
Lucas hopped out of the garbage and stood upright. "Well, well, well." Lucas said, looking at the two of us. "Look who finally decided showed up. After I drew the short straw." He looked at me and I rolled my eyes. "Real convenient, (Y/n)."
I was appalled. "Wha-" I mumbled. "You know I can't go anywhere without my brother. He was the one who's late!"
Max walked away from Lucas. "You stink."
She stood next to me.
"And yeah, it's not (Y/n)'s fault. So don't scold her, Lucas." She grumbled.
"Yeah, Lucas." I crossed my arms over my chest with a pout.
"Hi, Max." Dustin grinned in a dorky way. She leaned towards me and whispered. "What's wrong with your brother?"
I held up my hands and shook my head as if to say, "No idea."
Mike looked at me with a smile and a wave, and I walked over to him. He kissed me and wrapped his arm around my waist. "Where's Will?" I asked.
"He'll be here." Mike said.
"Are you two just gonna stand there?" Lucas asked and handed us a stick to prod the bags with.
"All living things, from complex mammals to single-celled organisms, instinctively respond to danger. Expose a bacteria to a toxic chemical, and it will flee. Or deploy some other defense mechanism." Mr. Clarke was lecturing the class around 10am. We had finished way before class started.
I looked over to the seat next to Mike that was empty. Will wasn't here yet. I frowned, and Mike turned to look at me. He sent me a side-smile, but it faltered when I looked away.
"We are very much the same." Mr. Clarke continued. "When we encounter danger, our hearts start pounding. Our palms start to sweat. These are the signs of the physical and emotional state we call...fear."
~~~
After school, Mike and I decided to use the school's phone line and call Will's home phone. "I don't know, Mike..." I said, after it continued to dial. "Maybe he's with his mom and the chief." I heard it click, and then I heard Will's mom talking through the voice mail.
"Hey, you've reached the Byers. We're sorry..."
Mike put the phone down and sighed.
He turned to look at me with a frown and I placed my hand over his cheek. We hurried back to Lucas who was waiting for us. "Anything?" He asked.
"We need to talk." Mike said, holding his hand in mine. "AV room. Right now." We started to walk inside the school with him and Max started to get her skateboard to follow us, until Mike stopped her. "Party members only."
Dustin and I exchanged looks. "Come on, Mike." He said, since I wasn't able to get through to him the other day.
"No! This is non-negotiable." Mike said. He pulled me into the school with him.
"I'm so sorry, Max." I managed to apologize and she looked away from me.
"Sorry, Max." Lucas and Dustin also whispered to her.
~~~
"Will didn't want me or (Y/n) to tell anyone." Mike said in the AV room. He and I were sitting together on the desk and we faced my brother and Lucas. "On Halloween night, he saw a sort of shadowy figure in the sky."
"A shadow?" Lucas asked, then looked at me. "What kind of shadow, (Y/n)?"
I shrugged, and felt Mike rub the side of my hand with his thumb. "I don't know." I frowned, "But it scared him and it scared me."
"And if Will really has True Sight..." Mike said, and corrected himself. "I mean, if he can really see into the Upside Down, maybe he saw that shadow again yesterday."
"So that's why he was frozen like that." Dustin said.
"Maybe." I said.
"Can it hurt him?" Lucas asked. "I mean, if this shadow thing isn't from our world-"
"I'm not sure...Dustin?"
"Well, if you're in another plane, you can't interact with the material plane, so theoretically, no, the shadow can't hurt him." Dustin said.
"Yeah, if that's even what's happening." Mike said.
"This isn't DND." I said. "This is real life."
"So what do we do?" Lucas asked.
"We acquire more knowledge." Mike said. "(Y/n) and I will go to Will's after school. See what's going on. You guys stay here and find Dart."
"Dart?" Dustin asked defensively. "What's he gotta do with this?"
"Will heard him in the Upside Down. I don't know yet, but he's gotta be connected to all this. He's gotta be. If we find Dart, maybe we can solve this thing. Maybe we can help Will."
I looked at my brother who's eyes were - dare I say it, darting all over the place, like he was hiding something. I knew he was hiding something, but I didn't want to push him if he was. I had a feeling he knows where Dart is, and I told myself that I'd be there to listen when he tells me.
~~~
*Third Person POV*
"This is more of the same." Joyce grabbed the rest of the drawings from Will's room, and took it over to Hopper.
"Oh, it's nothing." Hopper said, flipping through the drawings. "It's just scribbles."
"Wait." Joyce said, pointing at one of them. "Wait, these black lines. See?"
She held up the papers together to connect them. "What?"
"Look, they connect." She said. Hopper continued to stare at them. "They connect."
Hopper pushed the table away along with the T.V so they could sprawl the other drawings out onto the floor. One by one, they put the puzzle together. Will was still scribbling in his room. Once Joyce connected the pieces of paper together, Hopper sat upright to see that she solved it. They ended up taping it to the floor. It was a weird tube-like structure.
"Does this mean anything to you?" Hopper asked.
"No." She said, annoyed. "I mean, is it some sort of maze or road? It's sort of forking and branching like...like lightning."
"You think it's that storm?"
"No, the storm he drew was completely different." She said. "He used red. And this is all blue and it has some weird dirt color. I mean, maybe it's roots. 'Cause remember, he was saying it was spreading and-"
"Killing." Hopper said, and she looked up at him in confusion. "He said they were killing. Vines. He's drawing vines." Hopper walked away, put his hat back on and walked out with no other explanation that left Joyce speechless.
~~~
"Hey, Max!" Lucas said, walking up to her at her locker. "Have you seen Dustin? We're supposed to meet after class."
Max grabbed her skateboard and slammed her locker shut. She walked away without saying anything.
"Max!" Lucas called out to her and followed her out the school. "Hey, Max! Hey, where you going? Come on! We've gotta go look for Dart."
"Yeah, good luck with that." She said swiftly.
Lucas was surprised by her attitude and followed after her again. "What is wrong with you?"
"What is wrong with me?" Max asked. "What's wrong with you?" She threw a hair strand away from her face.
"I don't understand! This is like talking to (Y/n) when she's mad at me." Lucas said. "But you both don't want to tell me what's wrong."
"No, we don't understand." She whirled around. "I don't understand! You guys act like you want me to be your friend, but then you treat me like garbage!"
"That's not true!" Lucas said.
"Yes it is! You go and hide in the AV club, keeping secrets like we're in second grade or something. You know, I thought you guys wanted me in your party."
"We do, but it's-"
"But what?"
Lucas tried to find the words to say, but even he was stumped. "There...there are just things." He sighed. "Things we can't tell you, all right? For your own safety."
Max was not thrilled to hear that. "My own safety?" She retorted.
"Yes!" Lucas said.
"Because I'm a girl?" She asked. "(Y/n)'s a girl, but you don't have any problems keeping her in the party."
"That's because she's been with us for four years now. She's Dustin's brother and Mike's girlfriend!"
"Did you keep secrets from (Y/n)? And El?"
"How do you know about El?" Lucas asked.
"Did you?" She asked again.
"That was different." Lucas tried to say. "Trust me. Okay? That was just...just different."
Max shook her head in disbelief. "Okay. You know what? Forget it, okay? I don't want to be in your stupid party anyway. I'm out. Have a nice life..."
She walked away, leaving Lucas on his own. "Max!" He held up his arms in the air in exasperation.
"You still stink, by the way!" She called back.
Lucas raised his arm up to his nose so he could take a whiff and boy, did he reek. "Oh, shit!" He grumbled, hating to take several showers that night.
Max was skating to her brother's car, who clearly was listening to their conversation. Max thought, 'Uh oh.'
"That kid you were talking to," Billy said to her as he climbed in the car. "Who is he?"
"He's no one." She said with her hand on the car handle.
"No one?"
"This kid from my class."
Billy pulled out a lighter to light his cigarette. His arm was out the window. "Why was he talking to you?" Billy asked.
"It was just about a stupid class assignment." Max mumbled quietly. She didn't want Billy to know what was actually going on.
"Then why're you so upset?" He asked.
"I'm not!" Her voice trembled.
"He causing you trouble?"
She turned around to face Billy. "Why do you care?"
"Because, Max," Billy sighed. "You're a piece of shit, but we're family now whether we like it or not, meaning I'm stuck looking out for you."
She threw her arms up and flung it around. "What would I ever do without-."
Billy snatched one of her arms towards him. "Hey!" He shouted, making her whimper. "This is serious shit, okay? I'm older than you. And something you learn is that there are a certain type of people in this world that you stay away from, and that kid, Max...That kid is one of them." She tried to pull her arm back, but he held onto it tight. "You stay away from him, you hear me? Stay away."
Tears formed into Max's eyes as she pulled her arm back free. She hated this. She hated the way Billy treated her, and more importantly, she hated the way he tried to threaten Lucas.