Other Friends

Chapter 2 - The Appointment

When lunch ended Lizzie and Bella were both called out of class to get picked up early. October 30th, checkup day, Bella had nearly forgotten but now she was sitting in Hopper's truck with Lizzy following behind in her car. "Have a good day?" he asks, trying to make conversation.

"As good as I can have." she replies with a shrug.

"You know if you're having trouble at school, you can alw-"

"I can talk to you, I know. But, I'm fine. Really." she lies, giving him a small smile as they pull up to the lab.

They get out of the truck as Lizzie parks and joins them as they wait for Joyce and Will to park as well. "Hey Will." Bella greets as he walks over and hugs her.

"Hey." he replies as they make their way towards the lab.

In the lab the two left to change before going through the routine, height check, weight check, then a shot, and last a blood pressure check before they get moved to another room to have their brain waves checked. Will went first, already hooked up all around his head. Bella had to have her blood checked twice because her anxiety spiked the first time.

Will lays in the room, machine on and the others in the room with them, as they wait for Dr. Owens to appear. "Sir Will, Lady Bella, how are you two?" Dr. Owens greets as he enters the room. "Mom. Pop. Niece." he says to the other with a nod. "Let's take a look, see what's going on here." he says as he looks over the paperwork for each one, starting with Will.

"I see you shaved off a pound since we saw you last. Must be making room for all that Halloween candy." Dr. Owens jokes before looking over the teen girl's charts.

"You still seem to be in the same weight, that's good. No candy for you?" he asks her, looking her way as she sits next to Joyce.

"Little too old for trick or treating." Bella replies softly.

Dr. Owens nods, "You two have a favorite candy?"

"I don't know." the two mumble out.

"Come on. Life or death situation, what would you pick?" Dr. Ownes pushes.

"I guess... Reese's Pieces." Will says after glancing at his mom for silent help.

"Kit-kat for me." Bella replies after a second.

"Good call you two. Good call. I'm more of a Mounds guy, but I gotta say peanut butter and chocolate, come on, hard to beat that." he says, mainly to Will, causing the kid to crack a smile.

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The two then are separated to continue their tests. Dr. Owens starts with Will, before joining Bella and Lizzie with Hopper in tow. "So, Bella. How are you really feeling?"

"Aside from my usual anxiety, fine." Bella replies with a shrug, now hooked up to her own brain wave checking machine.

"School going good?" Dr. Owens asks casually, wanting the teen to relax as another technician looks over her vitals.

Bella thinks back to this morning and the notes she saw, "Good as it can be, normal teenage things." she replies clenching her fist as she lies.

"Normal teenage things?" he questions, not fully believing her words.

Glancing over at her friend before looking at the Doctor, "Yeah. Halloween's coming up, we're making plans."

"Ah, I thought you said you were too old to go trick or treating?" Dr. Owens teases, putting her at ease a bit as he remembered her comment from earlier.

"Yeah, uh we are. We were thinking about going to..." she pauses at the look Lizzy was giving her, "My house, for movies, after taking Will and the Boys out for trick or treating." she lies, this time for the sake of her friend.