River rushed to her locker the next day, she hadn't seen the boys when she pulled up to school, but she didn't really care. She just wanted to see if Will was okay.
"Hey-"
She turned to see, Andy, again, though this time he was confidently walking up, unlike the first time he approached her, he grew comfortable quickly.
"Hi." She muttered, fixing her sweater before looking around, shutting her locker gently and turning, she didn't want to seem rude, though she did. She was just worried, and she wanted to get to see Will as fast as she could.
"Is Will alright?" Andy continued, as River nodded slowly, though shrugging quickly after.
"I actually don't know I haven't seen him since. I'm sure he's in Clarkes right now though. If we could- go." She gestured for the both of them to walk now, and Andy quickly caught on, walking forward, taking the books from her hands, and holding them in his own.
Andy straightened his posture. He slightly towered over River as they walked side by side, entering the classroom.
He had slid the books onto her desk, earning a small thank you from her as he sent the rest of the boys smiles, nodding at Will who nodded back, slightly confused.
"Alright, I will see you later." He spoke softly to River who nodded in response.
And with that, River plopped down in her seat, dropping her backpack beside her, zipping it open to grab her book out, setting it down on the desk before she looked up, to see all of the three boys that were present, stare at her in disbelief.
"What?" She whispered in a harsh tone, furrowing her eyebrows as Mike shook his head.
"What?" He mocked, "What's with you and Andy?"
"Are you leaving us, River." Lucas asked, a hint of disappointment within jealousy in his voice.
"Yea are you?" Will leaned forward, meeting her eyes and frowning slightly as Mike rolled his eyes, though looked to her for an answer as well.
"What? No! Never, ever. No I'm not. He just walked me over here." She shrugged, watching all boys eyes on her, before turning to Will quickly, clearing her throat.
"Are you feeling better, Will?" her tone softened and he nodded slowly, and Unsurely.
"Yea." He simply said that and she smiled, turning back around in response.
Dustin had walked into class super late and he apologized to Mr Clarke. Slamming down into his seat, he turned to the party and started to whisper.
"We need to meet all of us. At lunch, The AV Club." Dustin pointed to all of them as River furrowed her eyebrows, like the others.
"Why?" Mike had questioned, as River watched Dustin who gestured for them to speak quietly various times, as if they weren't doing exactly that already.
"I have something you won't believe.."
˗ˏˋ✦ ✦ ✦'ˎ˗
"His name is D'Artagnan." Dustin stated simply, shortly after opening his proton pack from last night.
"Cute right?" Dustin smiled, now grabbing him and holding him up in his hands, as everyone leaned forward, observing the small creature.
"D'Artagnan?" Mike looked up at Dustin, while he leaned against the table with a small look of disbelief, yet also mixed with a look of curiosity.
"Dart for short."
River continued to study the creature from beside Will, who was pretty timid at the moment, seeing that.
"And he was in your trash?"
"Foraging for food." Dustin nodded in response to Max's question, before looking up to the redhead once again, with a smile. "Do you wanna hold him?"
Max shook her head quickly, "No, No." She protested, before Dustin slid Dart into her hands, causing her to groan in disgust, "Oh, god. He's so slimey."
Now she handed it over to Lucas, who cringed just like the others did as they watched. "He's like a living booger." The young boy had pointed out before handing it to River who was continuously shaking her head at him.
Once it was in her hands, she found herself glancing at it before shaking her head once again in disgust, passing it to Will. "It's wet, It's wet, It's wet." She muttered quickly as she did so.
Will had been quick to pass Dart onto Mike, after groaning in disgust. Mike had only leaned down as he held Dart up, observing it close up. "What is he?"
"My question exactly." Dustin chuckled, taking Dart out of the boys hands, and setting him down before grabbing out a book, and setting it down.
"At, first..I thought it was some type of pollywog." Dustin started off, before looking back down at the book.
"It's another word for tadpole. A tadpole is the larval stage of a toad." Dustin explained, with a nod as Max lea was against the table, nodding.
"I-I know what a tadpole is." She assured.
"Alright, then you know that most tadpoles age aquatic, right? Well Dart isn't, he doesn't need water." Dustin continued to speak on Dart, as River leaned forward, gesturing to the book, as if asking Dustin to hand it to her, in which he did.
"Aren't there aquatic pollywogs?" Lucas questioned, while River had flipped through the pages, studying each one quickly as Will and Mike had both watched, reading the pages along with her.
"Yeah, two. Ones from India, and the others from South America, though. So how did one end up in my trash?" Dustin responded, before gently snatching the book back from River.
"Maybe some scientists brought it here, and it escaped?"
"Hey, Hey, Hey." River interrupted, holding a hand out as she stared down at Dart. "Do you guys see that?" She asked, looking up at them to see Mike, who had furrowed his eyebrows and nodded slowly in response.
"Looks like somethings..moving inside of it."
˗ˏˋ✦ ✦ ✦'ˎ˗
"We gotta show him to Mr. Clarke."
"No. What if he steals my discovery?" Dustin argued as they started to walk through the halls, after leaving the room quickly.
"He's not gonna steal your discovery.." Mike shook his head with a small scoff, while River nodded in agreement.
"Yeah. Dustin, stop being so paranoid." She added in, as she walked beside Max who was laughing.
"I'm thinking about calling it's..Dustonious Pollywogus." Dustin said with a big smile. "What do you think?" He asked turning to Max who shook her head and looked down with a scoff.
"I think you're an idiot."
While showing Dart to Mr Clarke after school had just ended, River had a gut feeling that it wasn't good, earlier when looking at Dustin's book she'd found nothing that would make Dart seem like something normal, like it was normal to find that in your trash, especially considering what happened last year.
She didn't listen to what the others were speaking about, she only stared at the trap, thinking of what was in it.
Only the door swung open, causing River to perk up, seeing Mike and Will rush through.
"Stop!" Mike had yelled as running over, grabbing Dustin's proton pack.
"What?" River asked in a short panic, glancing around, before he shook his head.
"I'm really sorry, Mr. Clarke. It was just a stupid prank." Mike muttered, walking off quickly before turning. "We need to go right now, right now!" He finished off, as they all ran out in a hurry, following him.
In the AV room, The party discussed what was happening as they left Max out, who was banging against the door.
While inside the A.V room, Mike had explained everything. "Maybe these episodes Wills having..aren't really flashbacks at all..." Mike explained.
"Maybe he can see into the upside down.." Mike added.
"So that means Dart is from the upside down?" She continued as Mike nodded, pointing to her. "We have to take him to Hop."
"I agree." Mike spoke up with yet another nod, causing River to furrow her eyebrows for a slight second in shock. That was a first for that to happen in a while.
"Yeah." Lucas agreed as well, while Dustin shook his head, immediately protesting.
"No. No way if we take him to Hopper, Darts as good as dead."
"Yeah..as he should be?" River shrugged, causing Dustin to send her a quick glare.
"How can you say that?" He raised his voice, as the young girl gave him a shrug.
"How can she not?" Mike butted in, causing Dustin to look over at him. "He's from the upside down!"
"Maybe, but even if he is, it doesn't automatically mean that he's bad."
"That's like saying just because someone's from the Death star, doesn't make them bad!"
"We have a bond!" Dustin cried out, looking down as the party had sighed, shaking their heads.
"A bond? Just because he likes Nougat?!" Mike exclaimed causing Dustin to shake his head quickly in response.
"No, because he trusts me!" He yelled out, as Lucas rolled his eyes.
"He trusts you?" He repeated, as if questioning Dustin.
"You do realize that this could put Will in danger, right?" River had yelled, stepping forward to be interrupted by something unusual.
Suddenly the box started to move, aggressively from side to side, bouncing up and down.
Grabbing the microphone, Mike held it up as he stepped back over to beside River who glanced at him in slight confusion, then nodding once she realized it was for precautions.
"Don't hurt him." Dustin sternly ordered, pointing at Mike who shook his head.
"Only if he attacks."
"Just open it already!" Lucas urged, causing Dustin to lean forward and click a button from his proton pack, as a way to open it.
Dart came out and started to shed out of his skin, and soon it screeched at Mike who started to slam the Microphone down, before Dustin pushed him away. The door had opened to reveal Max, and next thing they all knew, he escaped.
˗ˏˋ✦ ✦ ✦'ˎ˗
Looking around, as she quickly walked out through the almost empty halls, she ran into Andy.
"Shit." She muttered under her breath, before proceeding to walk towards the boy who sent her a small wave, and picked up his backpack.
She lowered her Walkie Talkie, that her friends voices currently came out of, stating whether or not they had spotted dart yet.
"Hey. Are-Are you on a team or something?" River questioned cluelessly, causing the boy to shake his head in response.
"No, No. I had to run something by Mrs. Patterson. A-are you?" The young light haired boy had gestured towards her.
"No, of course not..." She responded, laughing slightly. "Alright. I-I have to go now. So, i'll see you." She muttered.
"Yea, when?" He added on, smiling down at her as she shrugged quickly, smiling as well.
"Whenever you'd like." An awkward silence kind of filled the room for a quick moment before Andy spoke up.
"I'll see you tomorrow." His soft voice caused her to smile even more as she nodded, saluting him playfully.
"See you tomorrow, Voorhees."
After that encounter, River walked through the empty halls, glancing around, before she had heard Will's voice through the Walkie Talkie, informing them that he'd found Dart.
With a quick nod to herself, River started to walk faster, towards the boys restroom.
She walked up to the restroom, and had proceeded to walk in, only to see her friends already questioning each other about where Dart was. Dustin didn't seem to know though.
Though the first and only thing she noticed, was that Will wasn't there. "Hey, where's Will?" She asked causing Mike to look up at her in realization.
"Will."