It has been almost a year since Will came back and a year since losing a new friend. The now teenagers are back again to solve yet another problem done in Hawkins. But will they lose another friend in the process of saving the world?
Stranger Things...
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That night Roni barely got any sleep or homework done. Too nervous and worried about Will. She sluggishly gets out of bed and begins her day. She put on an orange, red, and blue striped sweater with black jeans and a black belt. Roni stomped her way to Steve's car.
She didn't notice that Nancy wasn't with them again or how quiet her brother had been, yet again. Roni was too caught up with her own thoughts to notice.
Roni hops out of the car and watches Steve drive off for a second. She heads to the bike rack and notices that everyone was there but Will's bike.
She glances around and sees her curly haired friend stumble around, probably in search for the same friends.
"Hey," Roni greeted. He nods. They walk to the back of the school. There they fine Mike and Max standing around a dumpster with sticks in their hands.
"What's going on?" Dustin wonders.
"What do you think? We're looking for Dart," Mike answers snappily. Then a garbage bag launches from the dumpster and almost hits Roni. She jumps back and almost trips. Dustin holds her shoulder, steadying her. Roni nods in thanks. Lucas hops from the dumpster and lands on his feet.
"Well, well, well. Look who finally decided to show up. After I drew the short straw. Real convenient." Lucas throws his hands up in the air. He didn't even look Roni's way knowing that she's almost always late.
Max, who was standing nearest to Lucas, wrinkles her nose. "You stink!" Max says and turns, walking away from him. She stands beside Dustin. He looks at her with a goofy grin. Roni frowns and crosses her arms over her chest.
"Hi, Max," Dustin says sweetly.
"Hi," She draws out the word, her eyebrows furrowed. Roni and Mike roll their eyes at the same time, both annoyed but for different reasons.
"Where's Will?" Dustin asks.
"He'll be here," Mike answers confidently. Roni stayed quiet. She wasn't sure if Will would show up. It seemed to her that the episode he just had was pretty serious and wasn't like the other times.
"Are you just gonna stand there? Or you gonna help?" Lucas tosses Dustin a stick and throws one to Roni. She catches it one-handed. They poke around at the garbage bag in search for Dart.
Soon it was time to head to class and to their favorite teacher, Mr. Clarke's science class. "Expose a bacterium to a toxic chemical, and it will flee. Or deploy some other defense mechanism," He explains.
This topic was much less interesting than the one before. Roni never cared about how animals or organisms reacted to danger. She was more intrigued by a man that had a stake thrown through his head and survived.
But of course, interesting class were a rare thing in this school. Maybe high school would have more interesting courses, but Roni was extremely doubtful.
*****
A few hours and more boring classes later and it was lunch time. The group sat on the steps of one of the entrances of the Middle School. Max and Roni talked about music and sports and such. Finally enjoying getting to eat lunch together.
Mike runs back from the phone that was attached to the school. He tried to get in contact with Will, who Roni was sadly right, did not make it to class that day. "We need to talk. AV room. Right now," Mike informs.
Roni gathers her lunch into her 'The Hulk' metal lunch box. Max grabs her lunch as well. Mike turns back and yells, "Party members only."
"Come on, Mike," Dustin says.
"Don't be a jerk," Roni looks up at him with a hint of anger.
He shakes his head. "No! This is non-negotiable," He says firmly. The boys, minus Mike, apologize. Roni mouths, 'Sorry' to her, sending her an apologetic look.
Roni knew what it felt like to be left out. Before she met the boys, most of the girls at school didn't want to play with her because she liked to make the Barbie's fight each other or use Playdoh to make them have weird growths on their necks.
To them it was gross and they ignored her. When she went to the normal boys and they didn't want to be seen with a girl or play with them. Thinking that girls are too delicate and they can't be rough with them. Again she was alone. Soon she found the boys and been with them ever since.
They entered the room and Mike began to explain his phone call and his plan. "Will didn't want me to tell anyone, but one night he saw a shadow in the sky," He starts.
"A shadow?" Lucas asked. Roni sat on the floor with her legs crossed over each other. "W-what kind of shadow?"
"I don't know. But it scared him. And if Will really has True Sight... I mean, if he can really see into the Upside Down, maybe he saw that shadow again yesterday," Mike spoke.
"So that's why he was frozen like that?" Dustin wonders.
"He could've been frozen in fear or something," Roni twirls her hair.
"Maybe," Mike answers.
"Can it hurt him?" Lucas asks. "I mean, if this shadow thing isn't from our world."
"It might. I don't know," Roni speaks softly, holding herself. She had Will back in her life, safe, but now this possible new threat might take him away to the Upside Down. Or worse. Finish the job it started.
"Dustin?" Mike looks to him.
"Well, if you're in another plane, you can't interact with the material plane, so theoretically, no, the shadow can't hurt him," Dustin says.
"Yeah, if that's even what's happening. This is real life."
"So, what do we do?" Lucas look between them.
"We acquire more knowledge. I'll go to Will's after school. See what's going on. You guys stay here and find Dart," Mike orders. Roni nods in agreement. And that was the reason why Mike was usually the leader.
"Dart? What's he gotta do with this?" Dustin asks almost accusingly.
"Will heard him in the Upside Down. I don't know how yet, but he's gotta be connected to all this. He's gotta be. If we find Dart, maybe we can solve this thing. Maybe we can help Will," Mike looks at all three of them with serious and determined eyes.
Roni watches Dustin for a moment. His blue eyes downcast. Something is wrong with him. Roni thinks. He was acting very suspicious from the beginning. She wasn't going to call him out for it, she gave him a chance to admit it but he refused. So Roni was going to play it out and see how it goes.
The last bell rings and Dustin, Roni, and Lucas begin searching around for Dart, without Max. She asked where the red head was and all Lucas said was that she didn't want to be friends anymore. Roni wanted to go to Max's house and tell her everything but they had to keep it quiet, or else. And Roni didn't want to find out what that meant.
They searched high and low for Dart for hours before they gave up for the day. Dustin was very quiet throughout. Roni wanted to say something but she knew he would have to come to her first.
