Hopper had been wrong about Steve Harrington. Yes, Steve was an arrogant idiot, but he did end up leaving Kim. The rest of that summer, the two friends still hung out, getting into less trouble than normal to appease Hopper. But the humid summer turned to a breezy fall, and Kim finally entered high school. It had been one thing when Steve had hung out with the younger girl outside of school, but a whole different thing in front of his cool, popular friends. Steve put aside his friendship and his feelings for Kim so he could keep ruling the school as 'King Steve.'
A year later, Kim had finally made other friends and had taken Hopper's advice on not getting into fights or stealing anymore. On top of that, she had decided to move on completely from Harrington. That wasn't so easy to do when he was dating one of her best friends. Everyone had always thought that Barb, Nancy, and Kim made a strange group, but they honestly worked together really well. Kim got Nancy and Barb out of their boxes a bit, while the two kept Kim in line.
"So, did he call?" Barb asked, Kim walking on Nancy's other side.
"Keep your voice down," Nancy said, her eyes darting nervously around the hallway.
"Did he?" Barb pressed, her voice quieter this time.
"I told you, it's not like that," Nancy said, a blush creeping onto her smiling face. "Okay, I mean, yes, he likes me, but not like that. We just made out a couple times."
Kim rolled her eyes as she leaned against Nancy's locker. "We just made out a couple times," she mimicked.
Barb and Nancy laughed at their friend. "Nance, seriously, you're gonna be so cool now, it's ridiculous," Barb sighed, feeling a little jealous.
"No, I'm not," Nancy protested, a giddy smile still on her face.
"You better still hang out with me and Kimmy, that's all I'm saying," Barb shrugged. Nancy looked confused, so Barb elaborated. "If you become friends with Tommy H or Carol-"
"Oh, that's gross," Nancy muttered, digging through her locker. "Okay, I'm telling you, it was a one time-" Kim and Barb exchanged a skeptical look, "-two time thing."
Nancy picked up a folded up note at the bottom of her locker with Steve's hand writing on it. Kim exchanged another look with Barb before they both burst out laughing. "You were saying?" Kim teased.
•••••
That night when Kim got home from school, she heard her brother crying in his room. Worriedly, she knocked before entering and sitting down on his bed. Feeling her weight make the bed sink, Dustin looked up.
"What's wrong, Dust?" Kim asked, putting a hand on her brother's shoulder.
"It's Will," Dutin replied, tears still falling from his eyes.
"Did you guys get in a fight?" Kim asked, trying to picture sweet, little Will doing anything that would make her brother cry.
"N-No," he shook his head, whipping at tears. "He-He's missing."
"What?" Kim gasped, her voice barely audible. "How have I not heard about this?"
"Cause people don't think he's in any real danger," Dustin replied. "But I just have such a bad feeling about it, Kimmy. I think he's in serious trouble."
"Are the police doing anything about it?" she asked, anger filling her at the thought of Hopper just lounging at his desk while Will could be hurt.
"I think they have a search party out," Dustin said. "But they don't know Will. I feel like I should be out there but you know Mom would never let me go out."
Kim started to think of how she could convince their mom when she heard a knock at Dustin's window. She walked over and smiled sadly as she helped Lucas climb into the room.
"Come on," Lucas said, trying to pull Kim and Dustin back out the window with him. "We're going to look for Will."
"Wait, now?" Dustin asked, eyes darting between his older sister and Lucas. "Like right now? What about Mom?"
Kim shrugged. "You said yourself we should be out there, looking for Will."
Dustin sighed, giving in. The girl and the two younger boys crept through the house to the garage, getting Kim and Dustin's bikes before pedaling to where they were meeting up with Mike.
•••••
"Wait, Kim is coming?" Mike asked once he watched her stop her bike next to his.
She rolled her eyes as she felt a raindrop hit her forehead. "I could leave if you want. But someone needs to supervise you guys and make sure you don't die out here."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Dustin mumbled. "I think maybe we should go back."
"No," Mike said quickly. "We're not going back, just stay close together. Come on. Stay on channel six and don't do anything stupid."
"Yeah, not doing anything stupid will be really hard for you guys," Kim joked, trying to make the boys laugh and be less scared of what they could be walking into. As they walked further into the woods, the rain started to fall harder, drenching the small group.
"Will!" they all called over the thunder, their flashlights scanning behind trees.
"Guys, I really think we should go back," Dustin said again.
"Seriously, Dustin?" Lucas started to argue, not having Will to keep the peace in the group. "You want to be a baby, then go home already!"
"I'm just being realistic, Lucas!" Dustin yelled back. If there was anything lurking in the shadows, it definitely knew where they were.
"No, you're just being a big sissy!" Lucas shot back.
"Did you ever think Will went missing because he ran into something bad?" Dustin asked, having a really bad feeling about these woods. "And we're going to the exact same spot where he was last seen?"
"That's a nice thought," Kim muttered, trying to shove her fear to the side as she smoothed her dripping hair out of her eyes.
"And we have no weapon or anything," Dustin went on.
"Dustin, shut up," Mike cut him off.
"I'm just saying, does that seem smart to you?" Dustin asked.
"Shut up!" Mike said more forcefully. "Shut up. Did you guys hear that?"
The group went silent, trying to hear what Mike had heard. Kim's body tensed when she heard a small rustling noise behind them. She turned around, ready to defend the boys only to see a young kid, standing in the cold and the rain with nothing but an oversized tee-shirt on.