Something Wicked ➢ Stranger Things

Chapter Eleven

When Kat woke up in the morning, she winced as she had a slight headache, rolling over she was greeted by a glass of water and a bottle of painkillers. Already knowing that it was Dustin who left them for her. After getting dressed for school, she was a little surprised that Dustin wasn't waiting for her in the kitchen, shaking her head she made her way towards his bedroom and knocked on his door, not hearing anything she put her ear to it; faintly hearing him move about in the room.

"Dustin!" She knocked a little louder.

The door was abruptly opened and Dustin pulled her into his room before closing the door again. "What's with the secrecy?" That's when she realized there was something else in Yurtle the Turtle's tank. "What the hell is that?!" she asked as she moved closer to the tank, bending down to get a better look at it. Besides the small turtle, there was a slug-looking thing in the tank.

"D'Artagnan or Dart to be short. I found him in the trashcan last night, he likes nougat. I think he's some type of undiscovered reptile. Gonna bring him to school and show the guys. Can you believe it, I might have found an undiscovered new creature."

Kat snapped her attention back to her brother. "Are you insane? Dustin, we don't even know what it is. What if it's dangerous or venomous or something?"

"Hey, you can't judge me on my choices when you came home drunk and smelling like weed last night. --- Why did you go to a party anyway, you don't do parties."

Kat sighed as she ran a hand over her face. "One, I wasn't drunk, just had a few drinks. Two, how do you know what pot smells like? Three, I'm the adult out of the two of us. And lastly, shut up! --- Go do what you're going to do, but hurry up, we are running a little late."

She left his bedroom to finish getting ready herself, she was thankful she did her homework before the party last night. Walking through the house she spotted her mom in the living room watching the morning news as she held her favorite family member, her cat Mews. Dustin didn't take long, still shoving his ghostbuster trap into her backpack. Kat handed him his pop tart; both gave their mom a kiss on the cheek as they headed out the door.

The school day seemed a little calmer than the previous day, though Kat imagined a lot of teens were hungover or just exhausted from the night before. There were a lot of tardy people in first period but as the day progressed more students were finally showing up. Of course, Eddie had to be late so she had to deal with Billy talking about how she looked and how she owes him a dance. While walking in between classes she crossed paths with Eddie who gave her a curt nod. During lunch she finally found Jonathan, after asking what happened to him at the party; he explained about the fight with Nancy and Steve, how Nancy was a little too drunk and that Steve asked him to take her home. Kat nudged him with her elbow hinting to him to make his move.

When the school day ended Kat made her way towards the middle school, hoping she could talk Dustin into giving up his undiscovered creature and giving it to someone who could do something about it. Walking down the empty hallways she looked first in the A.V. classroom, where she spotted all the guy's stuff but it was empty. It felt a little creepy walking down the silent hallways, devoid of all students. Her attention was grabbed when she spotted Mike and the new girl Max going into the gym.

She figured if she followed them, they could tell her or lead her where to find Dustin. Just as she reached the gym, she heard Mike tell Max that she was annoying and that they didn't need another party member. This slightly pissed Kat off, as she remembered how open he was to having El join them. Following behind them she was able to hear them fully, walking into the gym.

"I'm our paladin, Will's our cleric, Dustin's our bard, Lucas is our ranger, and El is our mage." Mike went on to tell Max.

"You totally forgot about me! I had a small role, she could too." Kat called out as she walked toward the kids.

Max looked back between Mike and Kat before settling on Mike. "El? Who's El? --- And who are you?" Confusion on Max's face.

Mike shook his head. "She was in our party a long time ago. She moved away, okay?" Mike then looked back at Kat. "You haven't played with us in over a year!"

Kat placed her hands on her hips. "Been sort of busy." Kat looked over at Max. "Kat, Dustin's sister."

Max nodded her head at Kat then looked at Mike. "Well, I could be your zoomer." She suggested.

Mike gave her a confused look and shook his head. "That's not even a real thing!"

"It could be." Max put down her skateboard and started to go around in circles in the gym. "See? Zoomer. Come on, you know you're impressed."

"Mind-blowing. --- I don't see any tricks. You're just going around in a circle." Mike commented as he crossed his arms over his chest."

"Mike stop being an ass." Kat turned towards Max. "Ignore him, I'm impressed. Could you show me sometime?" Max turned her attention to Kat and smiled warmly.

Mike huffed loudly, making the two girls turn back towards him. "I think if I spent, like, all day practicing, I could do that."

"I would give you a million bucks if you could." Max started to go in faster circles on her skateboard. Making Mike get dizzy. Kat has to admit that she was really starting to like Max; defiantly when she told him she would stop going in circles if he allowed her into his party. Just as she was about to do another round of circles the board slipped out from under her.

Kat ran over to her, leaning down. "Are you all right? What happened?"

Max shook her head as she attempted to push herself up; Kat stood up and held her hand out to help Max up, the younger girl took her hand. "Yeah, yeah. I think so. - I don't know. It was like a magnet or something pulling on my board. I know that sounds crazy."

Kat quickly looked over at Mike who took off running out of the gym doors. Rolling her eyes, she looked back at the redhead. "Ignore him, he always acts like this."

Max shrugged her shoulders. "I figured so, but the rest of the guys follow his lead. Need to win him over so the rest will accept me."

Kat thought about that for a moment, before shaking her. "They used to, but after last year I don't think that's the case anymore. Nag them long enough and I'm more than positive that either Dustin or Lucas will just allow you in the group. --- And before you ask, their issues were all about a girl."

The pair started walking through the school trying to find the others. "Were you serious back there? Wanting to learn to skateboard?" Max asked Kat, glancing at her.

"Of course! That's not something a lot of people do around here, but it would kind of cool to have that on the list of things I can do. Be like a hidden talent that no one would guess that I can do."

They were walking down the hallway when they literally bumped into Dustin who was wearing his backpack, he was a little out a breath and was fidgeting with his backpack. Noticing this, Kat raised an eyebrow. "Kat! Hey, um... what are you doing here?" he asked with nervousness in his voice.

Kat crossed her arms over her chest, giving her brother a deadpan look. She knew he was hiding something from her. "Here to see your little discovery and talk some sense into you."

Dustin suddenly looked very guilty as he looked at his sister and then at Max. "Umm...about that, I lost it... its somewhere in the school."

Just as Kat could question him further, the trio found Joyce moving through the school. She looked panicked as she ran through trying to find Will, not once did she glance at the trio. Kat, Max, and Dustin looked at each other before following her, only to stop when they saw Will standing outside still as a statue and staring into the sky.