The Byers Girl (On Pause until season 5)

Chapter One: MADMAX

In Pittsburgh, October 29th, 1984, a group of masked individuals flee an apartment building in a van as the police pursue them. As the police pursue them towards a tunnel, the lead squad car's driver sees the tunnel collapse in front of them and swerves to stop, blocking the rest off. When he gets out of the car, he realizes he imagined it. As the van drives away, a girl identified as "Kali" wipes blood streaming from her nose on her sleeve, revealing the number "008" tattooed on her forearm.

Mike, Dustin, and Lucas all pool their change (Mike's haul stolen from his sister Nancy) and meet Will at the Palace Arcade, where his mother Joyce is shown expressing overprotection of him. The boys watch Dustin play Dragon's Lair and be killed by the titular dragon before he can grab the magic sword needed to slay it, Lucas smugly professing his superiority at the game and love of the game's princess, Daphne. Arcade employee Keith informs Dustin that his Centipede and Dig Dug high scores have been beaten, and Dustin confirms this when he sees someone named "MADMAX" now holds the highest Dig Dug score by 100,000 points. Keith offers to inform on their identity if Mike can set him up on a date with Nancy, which Mike is vehemently opposed to but Dustin and Lucas are all for. As they argue, Will notices what appears to be snow falling outside and finds everyone in the arcade gone. The setting flashes into the Upside Down, and Will steps outside to see storm clouds approaching, flashing red lightning. He is snapped out of it by Mike, who has not noticed anything.

Hopper is approached by ex-journalist conspiracy theorist Murray Bauman who has questions about Eleven, hearing reports of her being a Russian experiment with psionic abilities, referencing a story of her shattering a glass door with her mind and a report of her living in the Wheelers' basement. Wanting to find out what happened to Barb, he tells Hopper his theory that Barb came across Eleven but was taken by her Russian handlers. Hopper dismisses him and goes to work on another case.

Y/n and Steve sit in Steve's car.
Y/n takes a look at Steve's college essay.
"It sucks I know" he says rubbing his face sighing.
"No it doesn't it's.." she starts but stops trying to find the right words.
"It just needs some tweaking" Y/n says smiling at Steve.
"When does this have to be finished?" Y/n asks smiling looking over the essay.
"Two days" Steve says sighing.
"Okay then we'll work on it tonight" Y/n says smiling.
They discuss what the future looks like for Steve.

A high school boy with blonde curly hair and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, a middle school skateboarding girl, arrive in the same car, the guy being ogled by girls as he walks by.
Steve watches Y/n intently seeing her reaction to the new guy.
"He looks like a douche" Steve says scoffing.
"I don't know maybe he's nice" Y/n says smiling looking where the guy went.
Steve looks at Y/n sighing jealousy.
"We should probably go in now" Y/n says grabbing her books and bag for school getting out of the car as Steve follows.
Y/n walks up to the school talking to Steve when the new guy smiles at her winking leaving her stunned and confused.
"Did he just wink at you?" Steve asks scoffing.
"Um I don't know..I think so" Y/n says nervously.
"Yep he's a douche" Steve says sighing.
Y/n laughs at Steve's comment which makes him smile.

Will finds a defaced clipping of the article about his mysterious reappearance on top of his locker with "ZOMBIE BOY" written on it. In class, Mr. Clarke discusses the complexity of the human brain before the skateboarder enters his class, introduced as Maxine but she prefers Max. As she sits down in the back of the class, the boys stare at her, making the connection between her nickname and MADMAX.

Joyce is visited at work by her new boyfriend, kind RadioShack worker and high school acquaintance Bob, becoming intimate in the back room and confirming their plans for a movie night.

Hopper arrives at Merrill Wright's pumpkin patch, who believes his crop's sudden rot to be the work of his neighbor, despite having no evidence. Hopper hears something in a nearby cornfield, but it turns out to be a crow.

Nancy receives two invitations to a Halloween party and gives one to Jonathan, wanting him to come out of his shell. He refuses, and they are interrupted by Steve and Y/n, who are debating about the new guy
"Y/n he's obviously a douche" Steve says sighing loudly.
"Steve he could've just been saying hi in body language" Y/n says smiling.
"Believe me if he was a nice guy he would've talked to you" Steve says shaking his head.
"Well you being with me probably gave him the wrong idea so he didn't come talk to me" Y/n says smiling at Steve.
"What wrong idea?" Steve asks hiding his sadness.
"That we're together, I mean a lot of people assume we are because we've been hanging out together a lot" Y/n says smiling.
"Yeah the wrong idea" Steve says laughing.
Steve's smile fades hearing the girl he likes say that there is nothing between them, during which Jonathan walks off quietly with Nancy who smiles at Steve apologetically knowing how he feels towards Y/n.

Watching Max on the blacktop, Lucas and Dustin believe she is MADMAX, while Will and Mike do not. As she heads inside, she writes a note and drops it in a trashcan. The boys fish it out, only to find that it reads "Stop spying on me CREEPS!" Will is called away for a regularly scheduled appointment and his friends watch him go, Mike noting that he is quieter than usual.

Will, Joyce, and Hopper (posing as Will's father) meet with Dr. Sam Owens, the affable new head of Hawkins National Laboratory, for some routine medical tests. After getting weighted, measured, blood work and blood pressure done, he is hooked up to a machine that measures his brainwaves while he describes his episode from the day before, and is unknowingly monitored by lab staff. The more he describes of it, the more intense his neural activity becomes. He describes feeling an evil presence that wanted to kill everyone but him. Owens talks to Joyce and Hopper privately about the "anniversary effect," in which victims of trauma often undergo temporary personality changes around the anniversary of their incident. Owens recommends to continue treating him normally.
Joyce later tells Hopper that she dislikes Owens, but he insists that she trust him. He states that he is happy she is comfortable in her relationship with Bob, but reminds her to call him immediately if things go south. Owens watches Hopper leave before overseeing a lab worker attempt to incinerate the gate in the still quarantined lower level of the lab.

Outside the arcade, Dustin and Lucas watch Max be dropped off by the high school boy, the two loudly arguing before he drives off. Watching her skillful playing of Dig Dug, they confirm she is MADMAX.
As punishment for stealing from Nancy, Mike is being forced to give up two full boxes of toys in a yard sale. Karen Wheeler notes his recent behavioral problems. Mike boxes up his toys in the basement, keeping the ones he attaches memories of Eleven to. He sits in her still preserved blanket fort and tries to contact her on his Supercom for the 352nd consecutive day since her disappearance to no avail. He hears her voice say his name over the speaker, only to be cut off by Dustin revealing their discovery, which he is not interested in.

Nancy, Y/n and Steve have their weekly dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Holland, who are selling the house to pay Bauman for his investigation of their daughter. Quietly distraught, Nancy excuses herself to the bathroom and weeps as she thinks about her and Barb's last words.
Y/n looks down sadly at the table as Steve places his hand on hers comfortingly, she looks over at him smiling slightly which he smiles back.

Dustin returns home and hears banging and animal noises on his front porch, dismissing it as his cat.
His trash can rattles as he leaves.

Jonathan finds Will in his room, drawing a "Zombie Boy" version of himself. Will expresses anger at his friends and mother treating him like he is too fragile to do anything and that it makes him feel like a freak. Jonathan professes that he would rather be friends with Zombie Boy than someone boring and Y/n walks in to talk to them agreeing with them stating that she's a freak too.
Bob and Joyce watch a movie together, the phone rings, and Joyce gets impulsive anxiety from it until Bob calms her. Later that night, the lab's machinery goes haywire.
Will gets up to use the bathroom and hears a noise outside, opening the front door to see the Upside Down. The storm clouds from before are in full effect, the lighting illuminating a large, spider-like creature looming overhead, causing the skin on the back of Will's neck to flare up.

Hopper avoids a tripwire set in the woods to reach a cabin, the door unlocking itself when he knocks on it with a specific pattern. He sees an Eggo on the dinner table and reminds an unseen party to eat dinner first, as per their rules. As the party reprimands him for being late, they sit down and reveals themself to be Eleven. The two eat dinner together.

To be continued...