The Next-Door Down

School

You fell fast asleep as soon as you got inside, the memories of that day's events quickly faded into nothingness as you dove into the oblivion that was your dreams.

In the morning, you awoke as if nothing happened, only to remember everything as you passed the bike lying on the side of the street on your way to school.

Obviously, the back wheel had stop spinning, but your head hadn't.

You felt as if you knew whose bike that was but you couldn't quite figure out their name.

The thoughts of the abandoned bike brought back what happened yesterday in the laboratory.

Deep inside you, you knew it was real but your tiny human brain could barely comprehend it.

Then your heart started to wrench...

You had thought of your dead parents.

You weren't sure what to do about it, you were pretty sure that they'd signed a dodgy contract with the Lab so you couldn't call the police about it.

Anyways, even if you could, you'd just get sent to foster care and that would be the worst.

You pushed it out of your head, repeatedly telling yourself to focus on the day ahead of you.

The pop quiz.

Shit, you'd forgotten about that.

Now one of the nerds were going to beat you, probably Dustin.

Suddenly, you remembered whose bike it was...

Will Byers'!

But he had got his bike pretty recently so you had no idea why he would be leaving it at the edge of the woods.

You were shaken from your thought-track when you quickly swerved your bike, narrowly avoiding the massive yellow school bus in front of you.

You'd reached the school.

You locked your bike up at the stand just as you noticed Mike Wheeler walking away from his.

You weren't sure whether to ask about Will's bike. It might not even be his!

Just as Mike was about to turn and catch up with Lucas who was rushing up to Dustin who was waiting in the doorway.

"Hey Mike," You say, making him turn his head around in surprise.

He looked genuinely astonished that you were talking to him but he soon snapped out of it.

"Y/n!" He says, his tone neutral.

"Have you seen Will this morning? I think I might've seen his bike and it was on the side of the road. It looked like he'd abandoned it."

At this point, Lucas and Dustin had also turned around to watch the conversation play out.

"No, I'll tell him when I see him though." Mike quickly turned around and began speed walking to Lucas and Dustin.

You weren't sure if Mike just didn't like you or didn't want to talk to you because you were a girl but either way you were slightly annoyed.

You weren't giving up now.

"Dustin, Lucas," You say after you'd followed Mike to them, "Have you seen Will?"

Lucas just shrugged and Dustin said, "I last saw him Mirkwood."

"Mirkwood? From the Hobbit?" You raise one eyebrow.

Dustin grinned revealing a toothless smile, "Exactly!"