Stranger Things React

"The Pollywog"

This can be used as a distraction if you have had enough of Family events or want to ignore the whiny cousin begging you to play with them. Otherwise, good luck!

Dustin Henderson stashes the thing he found in his garbage can in the trap of his Ghostbusters costume, sneaking it past his mother into his room. He drops the thing into his turtle tank, revealing a small, round, bipedal amphibious creature with no facial features save for a mouth, which he names d'Artagnan, or "Dart" for short. He feeds it Three Musketeers and finds that it avoids the tank's heat lamp. Dustin falls asleep reading about reptiles, and Dart shudders in his tank before letting out an unearthly hiss.

"What the hell is that!" Someone shouts from a distance.

"Dusty! Why would you leave it in the house!" Dustin's mother camplains.

Eleven is found by Jim Hopper when she searches his lockbox for food. In the present day, she forgives him for his absence on Halloween when he makes her a breakfast from Eggos and candy. Eleven wants to see Mike Wheeler, having concluded from his most recent call that he needs her, Hopper swears she will see him soon, but Eleven reminds him that he has often promised her that with no results. She smashes a plate across his chest with her powers and storms off to her room.

Everyone stays mainly quiet through this. It was clear the child was not ok. And had some severe trust issues.

Dustin stops at the library and checks out several books on reptiles. Bob Newby drives Will Byers to school and mentions him staying up late. He tells Will a childhood story of being terrified of a clown at a local carnival and having it appear in his dreams for months, but it went away when he stood up to it.

Joyce smiles a bit at this, looking over to Bob who gives a little wave and a thumbs up as he gestures to Hopper. She gives him a thumbs up back and turns towards the screen again.

At school, Lucas Sinclair tells Max Mayfield a fictionalized version of what happened to Will in 1983. Scott Clarke tells his students the story of Phineas Gage, a man who had a tamping rod shot through his brain and survived, but his personality changed severely. Dustin comes in late and orders the boys and Max to meet him in the A.V. room at lunch, and Dart is shown rattling around in his Ghostbusters trap.

"Great so then there was not only a powered girl hiding in the woods, but also an angry creature trapped in a box inside the school. It cannot get worse!" a whiny teenage girl groans.

"It can definitely get worse Lillian." Another teen responded. "Clearly, it got worse."

Phil Callahan and Calvin Powell show Hopper their marked locations of the rot spreading throughout the town's rural areas, and Hopper identifies the specific area it comes from. Restless, Eleven considers trying to contact Mike again but decides against it. She remembers Hopper first bringing her into the cabin, which belonged to his grandfather and is mainly used for storage. Over a period of time, the two fix up the cabin to be livable, set up the morse code radio, and rig it with tripwire. In the present, Eleven violates all three of Hopper's set rules about her safety and leaves the cabin.

"Sorry..." El whispers to her Dad.

He, in repsonse, pats her head.

Billy Hargrove taunts Steve Harrington as they play basketball before Nancy Wheeler pulls Steve aside. He recounts the things she said to him on Halloween, and when she is unable to tell him she loves him, he tells her that "I think that you're bullshit" and leaves. Dustin shows the group Dart, unsure if he is even a reptile. Will recognizes it by its noises as a creature from the Upside Down. Over lunch, Bob mentions to Joyce that his video camera had slight dings on it, and noticed Will being harassed on Halloween when he watched the tape. He admires Joyce's willingness to defend her son when she reacts with anger.

Again, some muttering can be heard from parents scolding their children.

Hopper shows Sam Owens the patterns he charted stemming from Hawkins National Laboratory. Owens reluctantly agrees to look into it. Jonathan Byers claims to Nancy that Steve asked him to take her home, actually covering for him. Nancy expresses worry that she may have meant what she said to him and is tired of pretending everything is normal, and Jonathan empathizes with her. He expresses his idle worry over Will not being the same, musing that things can never truly go back to the way they were. Nancy notices a nearby student playing a tape and gets an idea to take down the lab, asking Jonathan to skip the rest of class with her.

Everyone seems pretty calm at this point. The usual teenage drama was a good change of pace.

Eleven wanders into a backyard, coming across a mother and her toddler daughter and remembers Hopper claiming her mother is dead. She uses her powers to distract them when noticed.

Becky looks over to Hopper at this and a tear falls down Terry's face.

Joyce watches the tape from Halloween and notices the camera starts to fizzle when Will experiences his episode. She notices a dark shape highlighted by the TV static when she pauses it, and finds that when she traces it and compares it to Will's drawing of the creature in their yard that they bear a striking resemblance. As Billy leaves the school with a female classmate, she refers to Max as Billy's sister, which he firmly tells her to not do. Dustin, Lucas and Max are stopped short from showing Dart to Clarke when Will tells Mike his realization about the creature and they stop the trio. The boys reconvene in the A.V. room (with Max excluded) and Mike theorizes that Will's episodes may be real glimpses into the Upside Down. Lucas and Mike want to take the creature to Hopper, but Dustin knows Dart will be killed. They let Dart out of the trap to test his behavior and he sprouts two more legs from his side. Mike attacks it and is stopped by Dustin, and Dart escapes into the school when Max, annoyed at being left out, picks the lock on the door and opens it just as he flees.

"Oh my god. Why did you never tell anyone!"

"We did, just not any of you lot!"

Nancy and Jonathan set a meeting with Mrs. Holland over the phone to talk about Barb while Hawkins Lab staff listen in.

"I'm so sorry..." Nancy looks almost pained as she speaks to Barb's parents. "I'm so sorry, I wanted to tell you but I didn't know how..."

Hopper and Owens watch as his men take samples of the infected soil and pumpkins, the latter telling the former to think of a cover story to tell the town and keep the area clear. Hopper gets a call from Powell, who is at the scene where Eleven used her powers in front of the mother. He leaves quickly. Eleven arrives at Hawkins Middle, smiling as she sees Mike's bike.

"You were there?" Mike whispers, hurt.

"I'm sorry Mike.." El mutters back.

The boys split up and search the school, Mike encountering Max also searching for Dart in the gym. She asks why he clearly does not want her around, and he tells her the group does not need a new member, accidentally referencing Eleven and inadvertently revealing he does not want a new girl replacing her. As she skates circles around Mike on her board and he briefly warms to her, Eleven follows his voice to the door of the gym and sees the situation with no context. Enraged, she trips Max using her powers and becomes heartbroken when Mike helps her up. Realizing Eleven might be nearby, Mike hurries out of the gym to where she just was, but does not see anyone.

Max looks shocked for a moment.

"I was never trying to take yo- her place!" She says sharply.

"I know. I'm sorry for doubting you. Either of you.." Eleven apoligises again.

Joyce calls to talk to Clarke, and drives to the school when she hears he is not in. Will finds Dart in the toilets, whose noises force another episode. A wave of shadow pursues him and he flees outside. Dustin finds Dart and hides him under his hat when he hears Mike and Lucas approaching. Remembering Bob's advice, Will turns around to face the shadow, a tendril of the monster, and screams at it to go away as it reaches for him. Undeterred, the monster's tendril touches him, inserting bits of itself into his eyes, nose, and mouth.

"Oh god, My baby!" Jocye cries into Hopper's arms.

This is a Last minute written Chapter before Christmas Day (Currently Christmas Eve), so no Word is being used. Sorry for any spellings or grammar mistakes.