~ Hidden Love ~

CH2 - The Weirdo on Maple Street [PT1]

We all rushed to the basement of the Wheeler's house. She was sitting on the couch, breathing heavily. "Is there a number we can call, for your parents?" Mike asked nervously as she looked up to them.

"Where's your hair? Do you have cancer?" Dustin asked.

Lucas cut him off. "Did you run away?"

"Guys, shut up you're freaking her out." I say to all of them.

"She's freaking me out!" Lucas shouts at me.

"I bet she's deaf." Dustin interrupts.

"How is she deaf, you dingus? She answered us a bit ago." I said to Dustin, him ignoring me. He clapped his hands in front of her which makes her jump. "Dustin, stop!" I yell at him.

"She isn't deaf." Dustin says.

"No shit, sherlock." I said to him. "Everyone just shut up, okay? She's scared and cold." I looked over to Mike. "Do you have any dry clothes for her to wear?" I said to him with me also soaked with rain. Mike nodded his head and ran to his nearest laundry basket. He hands me the dry clothes. "Here, these are clean, okay?" She wipes her face with them for a moment. She tried to take her shirt off infront of us. All the boys yell and turn away. "Stop, stop. Look, there's the bathroom over there for you to change in. Privacy, right?" I ask her. She looks at me, grabs her clothes and walks to it. I walked over there with her. As she walks in, I start to close the door. She stops it before it can close. "You don't want it closed?"

She answers, "No."

"Okay, how about I just leave the door cracked. Like that?" I leave a little spot so she can still see us. "Is this okay?"

"Yes." she responds. I turned around to face the opposite way, leaning on the wall, also ignoring what the three kids say.

"This is mental." Dustin says to his friends.

"At least she can talk." Mike responds.

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

"She tried to get naked." Dustin shockedly.

"Something's seriously wrong with her. Like, wrong in the head." Lucas exclaims.

"She just went like.." Dustin says as he shows us how she almost 'took her clothes off' and his hat falls off.

"I bet she escaped from Pennhurst." Lucas bets.

"From where?" Mike asks.

"The nuthouse in Kerley County." Lucas replies.

"You got a lot of family there?" Dustin asks.

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

"And why she went like.." Dustin does the same motion as before.

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

"Can you guys just shut up?" I say to the three boys as they look at me.

Dustin says a little after, "I think we should tell your mom." talking to Mike.

"I second that." Lucas says after them. They never shut up do they?

Mike yells, "Who's crazy now?"

"How is that crazy?" Lucas asks.

"'Cause, we weren't supposed to be out tonight, remember?" I answered him. I stand up to talk to them.

Lucas looks at me confused. "So?"

"So if we tell his mom, she'll tell all of our moms." I answered him once again.

"Oh man." Dustin says nervously.

"Our houses become Alcatraz." Lucas sighs.

"Exactly, we'll never find Will." Mike responds. Mike tells us about his plan of her staying here for the night, and her going to ring the doorbell in the morning to act like she's lost. "And tomorrow night, we go out. And this time, we find Will." We all make our way out of the Wheeler's house. I finally made my way back to my house. I safely made my way back to my bed. I dried off from the rain and as soon as I laid my head down, I fell asleep.

> TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8th <

I woke up to Jonathan knocking on my door. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah" I said to him in a yawn. He walked in and sat onto my bed.

"Did you find anything last night?" He asked me quietly.

I decided to lie to him. "No, last night was a bust." I heard him sigh.

"Well, breakfast is made and if you're still going to school you should get up." I looked over to him.

"Yeah." I said quietly. He got up and made his way out. I got dressed, grabbed my backpack and headed out to the kitchen. "Hey mom." I walked over to her and gave her a hug.

"I made you a plate, Y/n." Jonathan said to me.

I smiled at him. "Thanks Jonathan."

"No, no. Be careful of the poster." Mom told both of us as he laid the plates down, away from the poster. I sat down where he laid my plate down.

"No, I can't eat." Mom said to Jonathan.

"Mom, please eat." I told her.

"Listen. Listen, the Xerox place opens in, like, 30 minutes." she says sadly. "And I don't want you to go alone, so Jonathan could take you and drop you off at the school. Remember honey, you don't have to go to school."

"I know mom, I just can't sit around all day, and no mom I told you, I can ride my bike there." I told her.

"No, no. Go with Jonathan. Please." She says, sounding defeated. "We need to make, what, 200, 300 copies? How much is a copy?" We both tried to get her attention. "Ten cents? If we.. ten cents-" "Jonathan interrupts her.

"Mom! You-you can't get like this, okay?"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." She says to both of us.

"No, it's okay mom." We both tell her. Then there's knocking on the door. Mom puts her cigarette out and we both stand up to head to the door. She opens the door and it's Hopper.

She sighed and said to Hopper. "We've been waiting six hours.

"Yeah, I know. I came as soon as I could." Hopper says lowly.

"Six hours." She put emphasis on the 'six'.

Hopper replies, "A little bit of trust here, all right? We've been searching all night. Went all the way to Cartersville."

"And?" she asks impatiently.

"Nothing."

"Oh, God." she says worriedly. Hopper then asked about the phone call. I didn't know about it until now. She shows us what happened to the phone. He didn't believe it was Will. I don't know what I believe anymore. He brought Lonnie back up again and said he's having him checked out. He walked out and soon after Jonathan followed him. I just stood there with mom and hugged her.

(1128 Words)