~ Hidden Love ~

CH7 - The Bathtub [PT1]

An officer told us that they radioed Hopper to tell mom to come pick Nancy and I up. A little while later, they finally showed up. Mom came bursting through the door with Hopper right behind her. "Hey. Jonathan? Y/n? Jesus what.. what happened?" she asked us.

"We're fine." I told her.

"Why is he wearing handcuffs?" She asked the officer.

"Well, your boy assaulted a police officer. That's why." An officer told her.

"Take them off." She ordered him.

"I am afraid I cannot do that." He told her.

"Take them off!" She yelled at him.

Hopper interrupted, "You heard her. Take 'em off."

"Chief, I get everyone's emotional here, but there's something you need to see." They took Hopper outside to show him something, and he brought a box back inside. He dropped the box in front of us. I scoffed.

"What is this?" Mom asked Hopper.

"Why don't you ask your kids? We found it in his car." Hopper told her.

"What?" Mom asked Jonathan, surprised.

"Why are you going though my car?" Jonathan asked Hopper.

"Is that really the question you should be asking right now?" Hopper questioned. "I wanna see you three in my office."

"You won't believe us." I told Hopper as he looked at me.

"Why don't you give me a try?" He told us as he made his way to his office. We all followed into his office and told them everything. He asked us a few questions about the thing and we answered them. At the end, Mom pulled us outside the room.

"We're sorry mom." I told her.

"What, you're both sorry? You're.. you're sorry?" she asked us. "That's not good enough. That's not even close. That's not even in the.. in the ballpark.

"We wanted to tell you, I just-" Jonathan said to her.

She interrupted him, " What if this thing took the both of you, too? You both risked your life.. and Nancy's."

"We thought we could save Will.." I told her. "We still do."

"This is not yours to fix alone." She said to both of us. "You-you both act like you're all alone out there in the world, but you're not. You both are not alone."

"I know." Jonathan says as she pulls us into a hug. Suddenly, we heard commotion coming from the main room. Hopper told us to stay there, but I walked over there anyway.

"What the hell is going on here?" Hopper asked them.

"These men are humiliating my son." The woman accused the officer. I recognized the kid standing next to her. He's kid that bullies the party. Troy, I think.

"No, no, no. Okay, that's not true." One of the officers tried to defend himself.

"There was some kind of fight, Chief-" The other officer told him.

"A psychotic child broke his arm!" The woman yelled.

"A little girl, Chief. A little one." The officer said in a sarcastic tone.

"That tone! Do you hear that tone?" She asked him.

"Honestly, I'm just trying to state a fact." The officer told him while he crossed his arms.

"I don't have time for this." Hopper told them. "Will you please take a statement?" The officers agreed as he walked away. I stood there for an extra second, and the officers asked the boy for what the girl looked like.

"She had no hair and she was bleeding from her nose." I froze for a second. Was he talking about El? I looked at the boy, and Hopper walked back to us.

"Hey Troy, uh, did she happen to move something with her mind?" I asked him.

"Yeah. She-she did. She made someone fly and made someone piss themselves. " He told me.

"Was she with a group of boys?" I asked him. "'The Losers' Club'." I put in air quotes as I said it.

"Yeah, she was with those freaks." I looked over to Hopper to see him staring at me as we walked off.

"We need to check on the Wheeler's house." I told him as we walked back to the others. I told them about going to the Wheeler's house to make sure everything was okay. They all agreed and we left in Jonathan's car. When we got there, there were lots of vans outside their house. People bringing stuff outside to their vans. Nancy wanted to go inside to check on her family.

"They haven't found him. Not yet at least." I heard Hopper say outside the car as he pointed up to the helicopter flying around. He shoved Nancy back inside the car as he got in. "Look, we need to find them before they do. Do you have any idea where they might have gone?"

"No, I don't." Nancy told him.

"I need you to think." He told her.

"I don't know. We haven't talked a lot. I mean lately."

"I might know, I-I mean maybe know how to ask them." I answered them. I told them to drive back to our house to get my radio. We all rushed inside and I ran into my room and grabbed my radio. Nancy tried to talk to them first.

"Mike, are you there? Mike? Mike, it's me, Nancy. Mike, are you there? Answer. Mike, we need you to answer. This is an emergency, Mike. Do you copy? Mike, do you copy? I need you to answer. We need to know that you're there, Mike." Nancy kept asking.

"Here, Nancy lemme try." I reached my hand for the radio. "Hey guys? Are you there? It's Y/n. Do you copy? Please answer me. We know you all are in lots of trouble with the bad men, and if I were on their side, I still wouldn't help them. Please answer. You know the main rule, friends don't lie. I would never break one of your rules. Just please respond. Over." I sighed.

"Yeah Y/n, I copy. It's Mike, I'm here. We're here." They told us they were at the old junk yard not too far away. Hopper decided that he was the only one going. All of us disagreed, but he won at the end of it. So we all sat around in silence as we waited anxiously for him to return. We heard a car pull up outside and we ran out of the door. I saw Hopper get out and the kids followed. A wave of relief fell over me. Nancy ran to Mike and hugged him and I walked over to them and gave the four a group hug.

(1100 Words)