THE POLLYWOG
“you want answers?”
CHARLIE DIDN'T FEEL BETTER IN THE MORNING, but she felt a little less tired. When she woke up, it took her a second to even remember the night before. But slowly, it came back, and honestly, she wished it hadn’t. The stinging in her chest felt like it was only growing, but with the memories of Nancy, she also remembered what Hopper had explained out on the porch. How El had been alone Halloween night because they’d both forgotten to signal.
Finally coming out from her bedroom, she heard movement from the kitchen, turning the corner to find Hopper at the stove with a frying pan. It looked as if he was making pancakes, and there were a ton of them, all of them piling up on a plate beside him. Charlie knew this was his attempt at an apology, but this wouldn’t work for her. She needed to do her’s personally.
Walking back away from the kitchen, she walked up to El’s door, it having been left ajar a little. Charlie didn’t think El completely trusted the cabin just yet, therefore she kept her door open the tiniest bit every night just in case. The blonde leaned forward, knocking lightly, the door swinging open even wider, allowing her to see El’s back facing her as she was turned towards the wall, still in bed. Charlie wished she was still in bed.
“El, I’m sorry,” Charlie started with. She felt like she was apologizing a lot lately. She could tell El was listening because her head turned up the smallest bit. “I broke a promise last night, I know. And that’s definitely on me. I should have signaled at least. I shouldn’t even have gone to the party in the first place.” Charlie wished she hadn’t. “I should have stayed home with you, and watched whatever horror movie was on, and ate so much candy we could puke.”
She heard a stifled chuckle from Eleven’s bed, and Charlie took it as she was slowly being forgiven. The blonde moved away from the doorframe, gently sitting herself down on the end of Eleven’s bed, the smaller girl emerging from her bundle of duvets and blankets.
“I made a mistake, okay?” Charlie admitted honestly. “And I’m sorry. Really, I am.”
Eleven sat herself up, crossing her legs underneath her. “I forgive you.”
“Okay,” Charlie smiled briefly, letting out a small sigh of relief. “Now, I have to warn you, if you stay in bed all day, you’re going to miss out on Hopper’s apology triple-decker pancakes. I’m telling you, you will love them. They’re not Eggos, but, dare I say, they could be even better.”
Eleven’s eyes widened at the prospect. “I don’t believe you.”
“Hey, if you don’t believe me, you should come try ‘em,” Charlie shrugged teasingly, getting back up from the bed. “If you don’t, your plate’s all mine, you know.”
The blonde gave her a challenging smile before heading for the door, but it shut in her face. El quickly got up from her bed, getting in front of Charlie, making sure she was able to leave first.
“Snooze you lose,” Eleven told her, recalling Charlie saying it a lot.
“Your powers are cheating,” Charlie called after her as they both came out into the kitchen, finding Hopper placing down three plates of triple-decker pancakes, absolutely smothered in whipped cream, jelly beans and chocolate chips.
Hopper turned around as he sat down in his seat at the table. “Ah, you’re both up.”
The two girls quickly made their way into their seats, digging in as Hopper watched with a humorous grin. He picked up his own knife and fork, cutting into his pancakes and chewing on with a satisfied hum.
“Hmm,” Hopper mumbled, wiping his mustache as he looked at the two girls. “Good, right? I know. You know the great thing about it? It’s only 8,000 calories.”
While Charlie snorted into her whipped cream, Eleven looked at the man blankly, not understanding the joke. Hopper shrugged it off, taking another bite as he scanned his eyes over the cabin. His gaze immediately caught sight of the television cord that led right into El’s room, his smile dropping into a serious expression that made Charlie want to bury herself in her pancakes.
“You visited him again last night?” Hopper asked, even his tone was full of dangerous anticipation.
Eleven could tell Hopper wasn’t happy either, hesitating before responding. “He says he needs me.”
“Want me to go check on him?” Hopper questioned, which made Charlie have hope that this conversation could end somewhat okay. Eleven shook his head, chewing on a piece of pancake for a particularly long time. “I know you miss him, all right? But it’s too dangerous. You’re the last thing he needs right now. You’re gonna see him. Soon. And not just in that head of yours. You’re gonna see him in real life. I feel like I’m making progress with these people.”
Right. Those people. Charlie didn’t think those people could be reasoned with. If they wanted you to do something, they’d find a way to get you to do it. They were the ones that had killed Barb. They were the ones who had covered it up. They did an awful thing and were now hiding it with threats and blackmail. They definitely couldn’t be reasoned with.
“Friends don’t lie,” Eleven leaned forward on the dining table.
“What?” Hopper asked, and Charlie was already pushing her chair further backwards.
“You say ‘soon’ on day 21,” Eleven continued, her voice rising with clearly repressed anger. “You say ‘soon’ on day 205. You now say ‘soon’ on day 326?”
“What is this?” Hopper demanded, irritated himself. Charlie still tried to find some sort of way to escape from this boiling nightmare. “You’re counting the days now like you’re some kind of prisoner?”
“When is ‘soon’?” Eleven ordered.
“‘Soon’ is when… it’s not dangerous anymore,” Hopper shrugged, trying to busy himself with his police badge on his uniform.
“When?”
Hopper raised his head, giving up. “I don’t know.”
“
On day 500?” Eleven kept going and Charlie had just accepted her fate.
“I don’t know.”
“On day 600?”
“I don’t know.”
“
Day 700? On day 800?”
“No!”
“Okay…” Charlie hurried herself away from the dining table, grabbing her school bag as she heard the fight getting more and more heated behind her.
As she headed for the door, she felt herself nearly trip over something on the floor. Looking down quickly, she saw a floorboard turned upwards slightly, something glinting beneath it. Her eyebrows furrowed, moving down to check underneath.
There was a crash of plates behind her and it seemed El had used her powers to throw all three of the triple-decker pancakes into Hopper’s lap. Charlie took that as her for sure sign to leave and left the floorboard as is, disappearing out the front door.
Andrew was sweating from head to foot. Honestly, it felt like he’d been pushed into yet another swimming pool. Never had he thought basketball would be such a hard activity to participate in it. He was sure that ‘participating’ was much too strong of a word for whatever he was doing, he was just lingering at the back of the court, hoping no one threw him the ball.
However, as Steve dribbled the ball closer towards him, Andrew realized his fate. He tried to get ready, placing his stance as strong as he could into the gym floor, his hands outstretched in front of him.
“Andy!” Steve called, the ball leaving his hands and heading right for Andrew.
The darker-haired boy felt a bead of sweat dripping down the side of his face as he leaned in, about to catch the ball when a hard shoulder slammed into his side. Andrew toppled over onto the court, his head hitting the floor with a thud. He scrunched up his face as he let out a grunt of pain, the fall still echoing through his bones as he tried to sit himself up.
“Hey, man. What’s your problem?” Steve jogged over, Andrew watching him get in the taller boy’s face. Andrew was pretty sure the boy’s name was Billy. “We said a clean game.”
“Yeah, a clean game, it was a clean intercept,” Billy argued, a smirk on his face.
“Alright, men, reset!” the coach called from the sidelines, getting impatient. “Aldridge, shake it off! On your feet! Let’s go.”
Steve slowly walked back from Billy, the shirtless guy only chuckling at him as he walked towards the break line. Steve held out a hand to Andrew, the darker-haired boy taking it, bouncing back onto his feet, the side of his body pretty bruised up.
“You good?” Steve asked, tearing his glare away from Billy.
“Yeah, yeah… Peachy,” Andrew assured him, patting him lightly on the back as they headed for the break line again. “Besides, I believe in karma.”
“I’m hoping that’s coming sooner rather than later,” Steve mumbled bitterly.
Once again, the coach blew the whistle and they were off. Andrew kept to the sidelines, trying to keep himself out of the way of the people who were actually good at sport. Steve seemed to get himself in a small tangle with Billy on the outside of the key before getting tripped up. Billy took the ball and shot it right through the hoop and Andrew sighed, stepping back before feeling himself knock gently against someone.
He looked over his shoulder, seeing Nancy. “Oh, hey.”
“Uh, hi,” Nancy replied rather awkwardly before looking over to the middle of the court, finding Steve easily amongst the other boys. “Steve!”
Steve stopped trying to mark Billy, placing a hand on his hip as he panted for breath, turning his sweaty face over to the girl. He huffed a little, but he followed after Nancy when she gestured towards the back door. He took a glance over his shoulder at Andrew, but the darker-haired boy could only give him a half-hearted thumbs up before being thrown back into the basketball game again by the coach.
It was third period. Her free period. Charlie was at peace knowing she had managed to avoid a specific someone all day. She’d like to say that she hadn’t even spared a thought about what had happened, but realistically, that would be a definite lie. Every moment she didn’t have her mind on studying, it always found itself pondering back on that memory. The memory that only belonged to her and wanted to be anything but her own. Yet it was stuck, trapped in her head, and for some reason, she was punishing herself with it.
She clutched her books closer to her chest as she swung herself around to her locker, watching most of the students start to either disappear into the parking lot or their next class, leaving the corridor somewhat empty. It was nice for the static to take over, but it meant Charlie now had to work to distract herself. She made sure to take longer on her locker code, even took the time to organize her books as neatly as she could, checking herself in the small mirror on the back of the door. She was able to control herself, wasn’t she?
“Lottie!”
Nope. No. She wasn’t. For fuck’s sake.
Charlie shut her locker door closed, heaving her backpack onto her shoulder as she turned to find Nancy walking up to her from down the nearly empty corridor. She looked slightly flustered, as if she had hurried over from somewhere, but the blonde tried to ignore it.
“Drew, what’s up?” Charlie asked, her register pretty normal. Her stomach flipped inside.
“Last night… at the party…” Nancy said slowly, coming to a halt in front of her. Charlie’s palms felt clammy, her mind flashing back. The fear welled up in her throat, unsure how she could explain this if she did remember. “You took me home, right? I… Steve said some things. A lot of things. But you took me home, right?”
“Yeah, just took you home,” Charlie said, cursing the small break in her voice. Luckily, Nancy didn’t notice it, her eyes focused on the girl’s face. “You… You asked me to. You seemed pretty drunk, I didn’t think I could just leave you there.”
“Okay, so I asked you?” Nancy made sure, not seeming to be alluring to anything else. Charlie felt like she could take a breath of relief because she’d decided it was better if Nancy didn’t remember. She’d probably never see her again if she did.
“Yeah,” Charlie assured her. “I kind of heard about what happened… Andrew doesn’t really have a filter most of the time. It sounded like he was pretty upset.” She let out a small sigh before her eyes caught sight of Nancy’s concerned expression as she turned her head towards the floor. “I mean… He must’ve been worried as well. All of this… what you said to Steve. You were drunk, Nance. I know I’ve said some stupid things when I’ve been drunk…”
“Yeah, but that’s the thing,” Nancy interjected, looking back up from her shoes with a new, more sure expression. “What if it wasn’t stupid? All this time, I’ve been trying so hard to pretend like everything’s fine, but it’s not. I… I feel like there’s this… I don’t know, like, this…”
Charlie blurted out, “A burden weighing you down. Something that’s, like… stuck to you.” Her eyes shot up to Nancy, quickly adding, “That’s what you’re feeling, right?”
“Yeah… Pretty much,” Nancy scoffed with a weak smile. She leaned her shoulder onto the locker, taking a second of hesitation. “Definitely feels like I can’t shake it off.”
“I just wanna say I’m sorry, by the way,” Charlie said, leaning herself on the locker next to the girl. She was pretty sure Nancy didn’t remember the kiss, so she probably didn’t remember her apology. The blonde thought she should at least repeat that. “I shouldn’t have told you to—”
“Go to the party?” Nancy guessed, raising an eyebrow, the weak smile back on her lips. “Yeah, I remember the apology.” Charlie’s heart skipped a beat. “Well, briefly. I remember you saying you’re sorry, but it all gets a bit… hazy. I took a logical guess about what it was for.”
“Oh, right…” Charlie breathed out, feeling her heart slowly go back to its usual pace after that uncomfortable jerk of shock. “I guess I just want to say that… I should have actually listened to you. I think I’ve just got so used to myself ignoring it all for my own benefit. With everything that happened, I don’t know…” She lifted her right arm up, pulling her jacket sleeve up just enough that Nancy could make out the first claw scar. “It took me a while to even get used to looking in the mirror.”
“Yeah, I get that…” Nancy nodded solemnly, absent-mindely touching two fingers to the girl’s scar. Charlie averted her eyes, cursing at her stomach for filling with that buzzing that she had still not gotten used to.
Nancy’s eyes slowly raised back up to Charlie’s and the girl realized what she was doing. She cleared her throat, taking her hand back by her side while the blonde covered up the scar, shoving her right hand into her pocket instead.
“Maybe nothing can be like how it was, you know?” Charlie tried to get the conversation back on track. She tried to ignore the internal somersaults that slowly killed her inside.
“Does that not make you mad?” Nancy questioned with a pained expression. “That those… those people who did this, who ruined so many lives, they just get away with it.”
“Those people… are dead,” Charlie said, furrowing her eyebrows. “They’re gone. Don’t you think that’s enough punishment for what they did?”
“Do you really believe that?” Nancy asked with narrowed eyes, leaning her head forward so she could lower her voice in the quiet corridor.
Charlie chewed on her bottom lip, turning herself away as she leaned her back against the locker. Nancy sighed, her eyes scanning down the corridor as she paused, but they were quick to find something that sparked an idea in her head. A student walked past them, a walkman strapped to their belt as they bobbed their head up and down to whatever was coming out of the headphones over their ears.
“Jonathan’s mom’s boyfriend,” Nancy suddenly said.
Charlie’s face screwed up in confusion, looking at the girl as if she’d gone mad. “Bless you?”
“He works at RadioShack, right?” Nancy asked, ignoring the blonde’s comment.
“I think so…” Charlie replied, unsure where this was going, but trusted the brunette’s judgment. “Could you catch me up with your plan?”
Nancy thought for a second before looking at the girl with a mischievous smirk. “You don’t have any plans for fourth period, right?”
“Apart from Bio, no,” Charlie said.
“Great,” Nancy decided, pushing herself off the locker. “We’re skipping.”
“Okay…” Charlie shrugged, hitching her backpack further up her shoulder. “Alright.”
The two girls headed down the corridor towards the exit to the parking lot when Nancy stopped, her eyebrows knitted together.
“Do you know where RadioShack is?” Nancy asked, seeming a little confused herself.
Charlie hesitated for a second. “No, actually.”
“Oh,” Nancy pursed her lips together.
“We should… probably go get Jonathan.”
“Yeah, that’s a good idea.”
Charlie remembered very specifically when she was last at the Wheeler’s house as they walked in through the back door. Despite it still haunting her, the new plan had her brain distracted so she was all for it, even though there was the possibility of fatal danger. Charlie was hoping it wouldn’t come to that.
Jonathan had been caught up on the idea and he seemed all for it after they explained. They got the walkman from the RadioShack, narrowly avoiding a long-winded interrogation on why they were buying it from Bob and had headed back over to Nancy’s as soon as.
However, as they tried to sneak their way past the kitchen, hoping to avoid any other interrogation sessions possibly in their way, one found them anyway.
“Charlotte? Jonathan?” Mrs Wheeler’s voice called out from the kitchen as the three of them tried to sneak up the stairs as quickly as they could.
Nancy sighed heavily, but they all headed back the way they had come, trying not to look suspicious. They stopped themselves in front of the woman as she wandered over with a welcoming smile, Charlie was sure they each looked guilty.
“Uh… Mrs. Wheeler,” Jonathan greeted the woman first with a nervous chuckle.
“What a pleasant surprise,” the woman commented, looking between the boy and girl with the same look of sympathy. It was the type mothers in particular held for kids they wished better for.
“Yeah…” Charlie agreed, her smile straining painfully. She took a quick, helpless glance over to Nancy, catching sight of the English textbook in her arm. “Right. Mr. Hauser set a test for tomorrow.”
“Hmm,” Mrs. Wheeler hummed as Jonathan and Nancy quickly nodded along in agreement. The woman’s eyes turned down to the paper bag in her daughter’s hand, the RadioShack symbol printed across the seal. “Oh, did you go shopping?”
“Oh, uh, yeah,” Nancy tried to cover her tracks rather clumsily. “My Walkman broke.”
“Aw!”
“Anyway, we should go,” Nancy interjected, sending a pointed look over at the other two. “It’s a really big test.”
“Yeah,” Charlie agreed. “Animal Farm.”
“Difficult to interpret…” Jonathan forced a chuckle.
“Stressful.”
“Very.”
“Bye, Mrs. Wheeler,” Charlie and Jonathan called back simultaneously as they all inched their way back towards the stairs, Nancy pushing them to go faster.
“Bye! It’s good to see you,” Mrs. Wheeler called behind them, not seeming at all fazed.
“Okay, are you both sure about this?” Jonathan questioned after letting out a quick sigh, turning away from the closed door to where Charlie and Nancy both sat on the Wheeler’s bed in preparation of what they were about to begin.
“No,” Nancy replied instantly, her hands sitting in her lap.
“Hey, it’s totally okay if you don’t, but I think you should,” Charlie assured her quickly, taking a different approach with it this time. She was wrong to tell Nancy to forget about it, and now she was making up for it. So she picked up the girl’s phone from her bedside table, handing it out to her. “You want answers? This is the only way we can get them. You can do it.”
Nancy looked up at her for a couple of seconds, taking a shaky breath before nodding, knowing she was right. She gave her an affirmative nod, taking the phone from her and placing it down on the duvet in front of her. Jonathan took a seat next to Charlie at the end of the bed, both of them watching as Nancy picked up the receiver and spun in a phone number.
She held the handset to her ear, trying to settle herself as the landline rang. It took a couple seconds of silence before a click from the other end alerted them all that someone had picked up at the Holland residence.
“Hello. Marsha speaking,” Mrs. Holland’s voice spoke from the other end, the sound clear in the silence of the bedroom. Nancy pursed her lips, lifting her head up, taking a quick look at Charlie. The blonde gave her a reassuring nod. “Hello? Hello?”
Nancy’s lips quivered with silent words before finally responding. “Mrs. Holland. Hi, it’s, um… It’s Nancy.”
“Nancy?” Mrs. Holland questioned in confusion.
“I, uh… I need to tell you something,” Nancy said, her eyes stuck on Charlie’s as she spoke, her breathing steadying itself as she looked to her for assurance. “Something about Barb. About that night. I, uh… I, uh… I haven’t been honest with you.” Charlie glanced over her shoulder and Jonathan and she could tell he was listening just as intensely. “But I can’t tell you here on the phone. Meet me tomorrow, Forrest Hills Park, 9:00 a.m. Don’t tell anyone. And don’t call me back here. It’s dangerous.”
“Nancy, what is this?”
“I just need you to trust me,” Nancy told her solemnly. “Please.”
She snatched the handset away from her ear, shoving it down onto the receiver with a clatter. Her eyes lifted up to look at Charlie and Jonathan, and Charlie could tell Nancy was really serious about all of this. But the guilt on her face was all too clear.