✓ | Happiness Is A Butterfly ~ Lucas Sinclair

|11| salt water

"What? What happened?"
"I cant find them"

Leahs pov

We drive to Joyces house and as soon as we get there nancy comes up and hugs mike. "I was so worried about you" she tells him. "Yeah, uh.. me too" he says. Nancy looks at el. "Is that my dress?" She asks.

We walk inside and start to explain. Mike draws the flea and acrobat. "Okay, so, in this example we're the acrobat. Will and Barbara and that monster, theyre this flea. And this is the upside down, where Will is hiding. Mr clarke said the only way to get there is through a rip of time and space" mike explains.

"A gate" dustin says. "That me and Leah tracked to Hawkins Lab" lucas says. "With our compasses" i say. They give us confused looks. "Okay so the gate has a really strong electromagnetic field, and that can change the directions of a compass needle" dustin says.

"Is this gate underground?" Hopper asks. "Yes" el says. "Near a large water tank?" Hopper asks. "Yes" el nods."h-how do you know all that?" Dustin asks. "Hes seen it" mike says. "Is there any way that you could... that you could reach Will? That you could talk to him in this-" joyce starts before el finishes for her "the upside down"

"Down, yeah" joyce whispers. El nods. "And my friend Barbara? Can you find her too?" Nancy asks her. El nods. We show her a picture of Barb and will and turn on Wills radio to static. She closes her eyes and the static stops.

The light bulb starts to flicker above us. El opens her eyes "im sorry" she says. "What? Whats wrong? What happened?" Joyce asks. "I cant find them" el says through a breaking voice. She goes to the bathroom and Joyce looks at us confused. "When she uses her powers she gets weak" mike says.

"The more energy she uses, the more tired she gets" dustin says. "Like she flipped the van earlier" i say. "It was awesome" dustin says. "But shes drained" mike adds. "Like a bad battery" dustin says. "How do we make her better?" Joyce asks.

"We dont. We just have to wait and try again" mike says. "She needs rest" i add. "Well, how long?" Nancy asks. "I dont know. None of us do" mike answers. El walks back out and says "the bath". "What?" Joyce questions. "I can find them. In the bath" el says. "We need her to float" i say.

"Mr clarke!" Dustin says. "What?" I ask. "We need to call mr clarke" dustin says. We run over to the phone and put in his number. "Mr clarke? Hey, its dustin" he says. "Yeah, yeah i just i, i have a science question" dustin says. A pause. "Do you know anything about sensory deprivation tanks? Specifically how to build one?" Dustin asks.

"Fun" dustin says. "You always say we should never stop being curious. To always open any curiosity door we find.  Why are you keeping the curiosity door locked?" Dustin asks into the phone. I start laughing. Dustin grabs a piece of paper and starts writing stuff down. He says a couple of "uh huhs" and "mhms" every once in a while.

He hangs up and asks joyce "do you still have that kiddie pool we bobbed for apples in?" "I think so, yeah" joyce replies. "Good, then we just need salt. Lots of it" dustin says. "How much is 'lots'?" Hopper asks. Dustin looks at his paper "1500 pounds". "Holy shit!" I say. "Where are we gonna get that much salt?" Nancy asks.

Time skip to at the school

After we pull into the parking lot, we hop out and grab the kiddie pool. We walk into the gym and set it up. "Pull on that side" lucas says. Dustin pulls but it dosent work "shit!" He says. "Yall its a kiddie pool how hard is it?" I ask as i grab a side and pull. The whole thing straightens out. I start laughing and they give me confused looks "you guys were pulling from the wrong end" i say through laughs.

Nancy and mike set up the hoses and fill it up with water while we put the salt in. "Egg time" dustin says while holding a carton. He puts it in but it sinks. We put in more salt, and then another egg. This time it floats. We set up all of our walkie talkies to static.

El puts on the goggles made of duct tape and climbs in. The lights start to flicker. She says "barb. Gone. Gone GONE!" nancy starts crying and Jonathon hugs her, a little more time goes by and she says "castle byers. Will" we hear on the talkie "hurry" it was wills voice.

Joyce pulls her out of the water and el starts crying. We put a towel around her and sit on the bleachers. I put my head on lucas' shoulder as hes rubbing eleven shoulder. Joyce and hopper leave to go find Will.

846 words