Thursday, 10th November, 1983
THAT MORNING, BEA WALKED INTO Dustins room ready for school. The blonder highlights in her wavy caramel hair bouncing off the light as she walked into the clean room - or at least as clean as a 12 year old boys room is.
"Hey Dustin, how you doing?" She asked as she saw him sitting on the bed, his signature cap resting in his hands.
He sniffed before looking up at her.
"Mike needs us at his, I'm not going to school today," he explained and Bea smiled at him.
He stood up and she placed a quick kiss on his forhead and for the first time in months he didn't wipe it off.
"You be good for me, and look after your friends, you need one another," she said and Dustin laughed at his sister being so corny.
"Go on, be safe," Bea said as he ran out the door, shouting his goodbyes out and hopping on his bike, making his way over to the Wheeler's house at immense speed.
Bea bikes to school on time and walks along the path alone, Jonathan was shopping for coffins with his mum and even though she wished she could be there for her, she knew that they needed time to grieve together as a family.
But as she walked down the path she saw Nancy storm away from Steve who was left in the alleyway, calling her name out in desperation, as if she knew something that could get him in a lot of trouble.
"What did you do now Harrington?" Bea asked as she leaned against the wall behind him, pressing one foot to the brick wall. Steve turned around and smirked at her, he wouldn't admit it, but he loved the new bob she she gotten at the start of the school year with the highlights.
"Not much, just a party getting out of hand," he said and Bea scoffed.
"Yeah. If out of hand means sleeping with Nancy while her best friend goes missing," she said and he went red.
Steve Harrington was lost for words, something that was a very rare occasion, especially with Bea. Around her he felt so comfortable, like he could say anything - but of course he messed that up years ago.
"Yeah, I noticed. You forget how well I know you," she said, an almost sad tone to her voice as she walked towards him. Steve just chuckled, regaining his composure and his signature smirk returning to his face.
"You forget how sometimes I still know you better than you know yourself Bear," he said before his smirk dropped off his face.
"How you doing?" He asked, obviously referring to Will's death. Bea sighed and looked up from the ground to meet his hazel eyes meeting her dark brown eyes.
Growing up, Steve swore that if anyone looked close enough at her eyes than you could see the red colour to them but it always made Bea laugh.
"I'm fine, or at least I will be," she said before seeing Mr Clarke rushing around. He spotted her and rushed over.
"Beatrice, the office needs you," he said, obviously out of breath.
Bea took one more look at Steve, flashing him a smile before following Mr Clarke back to the office.
When she was there the lady held her the phone and Bea answered it, hearing Jonathan on the other line.
"Can you meet me at the funeral parlour, mum freaked," he asked, his voice cracking, and Bea sighed, nodding her head and answering yes before hanging up. She signed out with the school before biking all the way to the room where she saw Jonathan standing outside, a sad look on his face.
☆☆☆
SHE ARRIVED AT THE FUNERAL
parlour after biking there and saw Jonathan standing outside the door. She ran up to him, pulling him into a hug as he cried gently on her shoulder, his arms wrapped around her waist. They separated when the man from the funeral parlour walked out, clearing his throat and walking them inside.
He started to show them around a selection of coffins, explaining everything. Bea noticed Joyce never turned up but she knew it was because Joyce didn't actually think Will was dead.
The man led them over to another coffin.
"It's made of soft wood with a crepe interior," the man explained in his montone and heartless voice. Bea sighed, watching the tears well up in Jonathans eyes.
"I don't know what your budget is, but over here we have copper and bronze," the man explained, gesturing to the other coffins. Jonathan sighed and Bea reached down, holding his hand gently to reassure him that someone was in his corner, it was completely platonic.
Nancy stood in the doorway and Jonathan looked at her.
"Can you give me a second?" Jonathan asked and the man nodded, he slipped his hand out of Bea's and walked over to Nancy.
"How much are they again," Bea asked the man, trying not to make the silence awkward and he showed her some of the pricing options on a picture. Bea watched as Nancy walked away with Jonathan before turning to look at the page again in an attempt to distract herself.
Once she got bored she walked outside to see Jonathan and Nancy ogling at some picture and Bea walked over.
"What you got there?" She asked and both of their heads snapped to look at her.
"We think we found something," Jonathan said and Nancy looked at him.
"Should we tell her?" She whispered but Bea still heard.
"I'm not deaf Nancy, yes you should tell me," Bea said and Nancy sighed as she passed her the picture of Barb sitting next to the pool.
"On the right side there's this creature," Nancy explained and Bea gasped when she saw the looming figure. It wasn't to obvious but you could see the outline and a hand.
"It reminds me of this thing from D&D," Bea said as she handed it back to Jonathan.
"You coming?" Jonathan asked and Bea scoffed, crossing her arms across her chest and looking at her best friend.
"You think I wouldn't?" Bea suggested and Jonathan asked, opening the door to his car.
"I call shotgun," Bea yelled as she jumped into the front seat.
Nancy sighed, opening the door and sitting in the back where she occasionally tuned in on Jonathan and Bea's conversation.
Once they arrived at school none of the students noticed them because they snuck in through the back gate, heading straight to the dark room and ignoring other students. Once they got inside Jonathan immediately locked the door, grabbing the pictures as Bea set up the solutions for the pictures in the corner and Nancy stood around helplessly.
Nancy watched in awe as Jonathan works out all the machinery so that it lined up perfectly.
"Did your mum say anything else?" Nancy asked and Jonathan was too focused in enlarging the image at that moment. Bea sat on the other side of him, listening to Nancy talking.
Jonathan slipped the image back into the dilution and they waited for a second whilst Bea rocked it back and forth whilst Jonathan talked to Nancy.
She didn't want to interrupt their little flirty moment.
He apologised for taking the picture of Nancy and she was about to reply when Bea noticed the image had come in.
"That's it," Nancy said as she pointed at the tree like figure that must have been at least 9 feet tall. The three of them all stared at it, Jonathan and Nancy on either side of Bea.
"My mum, I thought she was crazy," he said and he took a deep breath, "Because she said it wasn't really Wills body, that he's alive," He explained and Nancy nodded her head,
"And if he's alive," she said and Bea understood what she meant, "Then Barb is alive too," she finished for Nancy and the three all stared at the creepy image.
1382 words