Alice the Amazing ⇒ STRANGER THINGS

[17] Alice in Wonderland

{The Upside Down, Part III}

When Dustin, Mike, and Lucas arrived at Hawkins Memorial with their parents, they didn't expect to see Hopper standing out front with Mews' cat carrier in his hands.

They didn't expect him to ask Mrs. Henderson and Dustin to hang back while the others went to wait for Will to wake up.

They didn't expect to hear the news about Alice—that she'd collapsed at the Byers house with an unimaginable fever, and that she was unresponsive.

"They're running tests now," Hopper explained grimly, having horrible flashbacks to him and his wife hearing news about Sarah. "They don't know what's causing it."

Mrs. Henderson, overcome with worry, burst into tears immediately. A nurse lead her into a private room to wait to hear back from the doctor, and she didn't even make the anxious mother leave the cat behind.

Dustin, on the other hand, was angry. Pissed, even.

He stormed into the waiting room his friends were in and marched to the corner where Steve, Nancy, and Jonathan were standing and whispering.

"What happened?!" Dustin demanded. "Why didn't you keep her safe?"

"Dustin," Jonathan began, but he cut the older boy off.

"Don't patronize me!"

"All I did was say your name!"

"You said it in a patronizing tone."

"I did not—"

"Boys!" Mr. Wheeler barked from his seat along the wall. "Some of us are trying to sleep. Take your bickering someplace else."

Dustin huffed, but lead the teens to a nearby hallway.

"I'm only going to ask one more time," Dustin said sharply. "What. The. Hell. Happened?"

"It was weird, man," Steve said, eyes darting around the hallway, wondering how much he should say. "She like—it was like—she kinda started to—"

"Use your words, Harrington."

"She's got superpowers, okay!" Steve hissed. "She did this crazy thing with her hands, and they started to glow—and her eyes! Her eyes glowed! She looked like a supervillain! Or like she was radioactive, or something!"

"She did something to the Demogorgon," Nancy explained, placing a hand on Steve's arm to get him to stop freaking out. "Steve's right—her hand glowed, and she screamed, and he got thrown back."

"All the way across the house!" Steve added, waving his hands emphatically.

"I'm sure this has something to do with...whatever she could do before," Jonathan said, choosing his words carefully.

This only confused Steve more.

"What do you mean, 'whatever she could do before'?" Steve asked frantically. "Are you suggesting that Al—our friend Alice—Alice Henderson—has superpowers?"

"She does," Dustin shot back. "She can heal people. It's not our fault your tiny brain can't comprehend anything except basketball."

Steve glared.

"My so-called tiny brain has seen a lot of weird shit tonight," Steve said through clenched teeth. "I'm not about to get talked down to by a ten-year-old dweeb."

"I'm twelve, dipshit!"

"Stop it, you two!" Nancy said, glaring at them both. "You're acting like children."