The Badass and The Bard

The Strange Girl

After finding the strange girl the woods, we brought her back to Mike's house. We were currently standing in front of the couch in Mike's basement. The girl was sitting on the couch, breathing heavily while we stared at her.

"Is there a number we can call for your parents?"

"Where's your hair? Do you have cancer?" 

"Did you run away?" The boys are all asking questions but the girl doesn't answer any of them.

"Boys, stop asking her so many questions." I say but they ignore me, I had a million questions running through my mind but I didn't want to ask them till the girl was ready to talk to us.

"Are you in some kind of trouble?

"Is that blood?" Lucas asks reaching his hand towards the girl but Mike quickly slaps it and shouts. "Stop it! You're freaking her out!" 

"She's freaking me out!" Lucas retorts.

"I bet she's deaf." Dustin says, move closer to her and clapping his hands. The girl flinches when he claps. "Not deaf."

"All right, that's enough, all right? She's just scared and cold." Mike says walking away. The thunder rumbles loudly and the girl closes her eyes, scared of the thunder. "Hey, its okay, youre safe with us." I say trying to comfort the girl. Mikes comes back with some clothes. "Here, these are clean." Mike says handing the girl the clothes. The girl takes the clothes, then she stands up and starts to pull off her shirt.

"No, no, no"

"Oh, my God. Oh, my God."

The boys all turn and cover their eyes as I stop the girl from changing in front of the boys.

"See over there? That's the bathroom. Privacy. Get it?" I try explaining to the girl, as the boys freak out. The girl picks up the clothes and I lead her to the bathroom. I start to close the door but the girl stops me. "You don't want it closed?"

"No." The girl says timidly.

"Oh, so you can speak. Okay, well... Um, how about we just keep the door... just like this. Is that better?" I say closing the door most of the way but leaving it open three inches.

"Yes."

"I'll be right here if you need anything, my name's Emma by the way." I tell the girl before walking towards the boys.

"This is mental." Dustin says.

"At least she can talk." Mike says.

"She said "no" and "yes." Your three-year-old sister says more." Lucas says.

"Well maybe she can say more but she's too scared too." I add trying to have some hope she was not crazy.

"She tried to get naked." Dustin says stating the obvious.

"There's something seriously wrong with her. Like, wrong in the head." Lucas has a point but she doesn't seem likes she's crazy, she's just seems scared. Afraid of something. "She just went like..." Dustin says motioning what the girl did moments earlier, but knocking off his hat in the process.

"I bet she escaped from Pennhurst." Lucas suggests. That could be a possibility but it doesn't seem like she's from there.

"From where?"

"The nuthouse in Kerley County."

"You got a lot of family there?" Dustin asks, I smirk at his comment. 

"Bite me. Seriously though, think about it. That would explain her shaved hair and why she's so crazy." Lucas continues. 

"Why she went like..." Dustin says, doing the same motion again.

"She's an escapee is the point. She's probably a psycho."

"Like Michael Myers." I facepalm at Dustin's comment.

"Exactly! We should've never brought her here."

"So you just wanted to leave her out in that storm?" 

"Yes! We went out to find Will, not another problem."

"Lucas!" I yell at him.

"I think we should tell your mom." Dustin suggests.

"I second that." Lucas agrees.

"Who's crazy now?"

"How is that crazy?" 

"Cause, we weren't supposed to be out tonight, remember?" Mike says, and I get an idea of where Mike might be going with this conversation. "So?" Lucas asks, not understanding what Mike's implying.  "So if I tell my mom and she tells your mom and your mom..." Mike continues looking between the four of us.

"Oh, man."

"Our houses become Alcatraz."

"Mikes got a point."

"Exactly. We'll never find Will." Mike concludes as Dustin does the motion again. "All right, here's the plan. She sleeps here tonight."

"You're letting a girl..." Dustin starts to say before being cut off by Mike. "Just listen! In the morning, she sneaks around my house, goes to the front door and rings my doorbell. My mom will answer and know exactly what to do. She'll send her back to Pennhurst or wherever she comes from. We'll be totally in the clear. And tomorrow night, we go back out. And this time, we find Will." Mike states his plan.

"Let's go with your plan." I tell Mike, knowing its the only way we all won't get grounded. Lucas and Dustin mumble their agreement. We help Mike set up a fort as the girl comes out of the bathroom. I walk over to the girl. "This is where you'll be sleeping tonight, okay?" I say pointing towards the fort. The girl nods and walks toward the fort. I watch her sit down in the fort. Lucas, Dustin and I grab our jackets and walk up the stairs as Mike gets more blankets for the girl.

"You really think she's psycho?" Dustin questions as we stop on the stairs.

"She doesn't seem psycho." 

"Wouldn't want her in my house." Lucas says before he continues up the stairs.

"Mental." 

--------------------------------------------------------------------

As Eddie and I rush into the school the next morning, I see Johnathan walking quickly out of the school. "Hey, you go ahead of me." I tell Eddie before walking over to Johnathan. "Johnathan," I say trying to get his attention. He turns around to talk to me. "Hey, I'm sorry about what happened to Will. Call me if you or Joyce need anything okay?" I say trying to offer him some help. I understand Will's disappearance is probably really hard on him, I knew how I would feel if something like that ever happened to Dustin. "I will, thanks Emma." Johnathan says before walking off. I rush back to Eddie, as we hurriedly make our way to class, we were already very late.

"You think Will's okay?" Eddie asks.

"I hope he is."