Evermore.

Four.

The next morning, after a rough night of tossing and turning, Antoinette decided she needed some sort of boost before dealing with school. However, on her way down the street she was almost stunned when Joyce Byers grabbed her as they passed each other, her son quickly following after her.

"You believe me, don't you, Toni?" She asked, the bags under her eyes making her lack of sleep obvious.

"Believe you... what, believe what? I don't understand."

"Will. Will's alive, I know he is. I've seen him. He said... he said he's at- like home, but its dark and cold and I- I've seen him, and nobody believes me." She whined.

"I believe you." Toni told her. "I believe you."

"Really? You do?"

"Of course I do."

"Don't feed into this." Johnathan chirped from behind her. "She's hallucinating."

"No, I don't think she is." Toni argued. "Don't be so harsh on her."

"No? You think it's fine for her to think her son is alive even though his body is lying in the morgue?"

"That's not my son!" Joyce snapped. "I don't know what that thing is, but it's not my boy."

"I've been seeing him too."

"You have?" She nodded. "I'm not crazy?"

"No. No, you're not crazy."

"Why don't you go and have this conversation with Steve." Johnathan scoffed.

"What is your problem with Steve? He's my friend."

"Yeah, really? Is that why he blows you off all the time to try and get into Nancy's pants?"

"You don't even know him, so you don't get the right to judge him."

"Why are you so attached to him anyway?"

"Because he's been there for me, and he doesn't patronise me when I think I see something, just like you're doing to your mom."

"You know what, you can go and play your little fantasy game, while I go and have a funeral for my brother." He turned on his heal, storming off. Joyce looked up at Toni, like she was on the verge of bursting into tears, like she was fearful of walking away from her and losing the one person that didn't call her crazy.

"Hey, you wanna go get some coffee?" She nodded, taking her by the hand.

-----

"And if we substitute in X, we can..." The teachers voice seemed to drowned out in the back ground as Antoinette found her eyes refused to focus on the words in front of her.

"Will Miss Antoinette Henderson report to the front desk, that's Miss Antoinette Henderson to the front desk." She sat up, beginning to gather her books and shove them into her bag. As she got to her feet, she made eye contact with Steve, and he could tell just from that look that she was nervous. She'd never been called to the front desk ever in her whole school life, and she was scared she might be in trouble. He sent her a reassuring smile before she exited the room. When she got to the front desk, her nerves were soothed when she found the boys stood waiting for her.

"What is going on?" She wondered.

"You have to come home, quick! A pipe burst under the sink!" Dustin said quickly, like it was life or death.

"Oh my god! Well, come on, let's go!" She panicked, ushering them out of the door like a pack of puppies. However, as soon as they were outside, they began casually walking to their bikes as if they had all the time in the world. "Pick up the pace, the house is flooding!"