STICKS AND STONES ↝ S. HARRINGTON

[25]

The chilly November morning air cut through the thin layers of Anna's PE uniform as she pushed herself to run faster, the finish line in sight to end the number of laps the girls were set to run during their class period. She crossed the line where Coach Jacobs waited with his clipboard, nodding approvingly at the girl as she slowed to a walk, instead heading back up the small hill leading to the gym.

"Well done, Henderson," Coach nodded curtly before turning back to the rest of the girls, blowing his whistle to signal they only had a few minutes left until the end of class.

Anna entered the gym to see the boys' basketball scrimmage still ongoing in the last few minutes of class, seeing a junior boy pass the ball to Billy, who caught it just as Steve moved to block him. As Billy looked up to see the Harrington boy standing across from him, he began to laugh, backing up a step and beginning to dribble the ball.

"Alright!" Billy exclaimed, Anna's eyebrows furrowing together at the sinister tone in his voice as his eyes wandered around to the audience now watching the two boys face off. "Alright, alright! King Steve. King Steve, everyone!"

Anna watched as Billy's voice lowered, unable to make out his next words, but she saw the angry expression cross Steve's face at his old nickname, the look on his face as he nearly spat the name at her the day before during their fight. "Jesus, do you ever stop talking, man?" Steve scoffed. "Come on,"

"What?" Billy chuckled, his voice nearly echoing through the gymnasium walls. "You afraid the coach is gonna bench you now that I'm here? Huh?"

Without another word, Billy lunged at Steve, his shoulder colliding with the Harrington boy's and sending him to the ground as Billy ran ahead, leaping up and tossing the ball into the net with a swish. The coach's whistle blew as Billy landed back on his feet, Tommy high fiving the boy before Billy walked back over to where Steve lay on the ground, catching his breath.

Anna watched curiously as Billy reached a hand out to help Steve up, which he took. Billy leaned closer to Steve, whispering something to him as Steve looked back with a stony expression, and instead of helping him the rest of the way up, Billy shoved his hand back down, sending Steve back onto the wooden floor as the blonde boy stalked back in the direction of the locker room.

"Something's really wrong with Steve," Becca's words from yesterday echoed in Anna's head as Steve pulled himself back up onto his feet, walking in the same direction back to the boys' locker room without so much as sparing a glance in Anna's direction after their argument the day before. As he'd also done yesterday after their fight, Steve was nowhere to be found at lunch that day either, nor were Jonathan and Nancy, who Michelle claimed had ditched for the day.

"They've all been acting weird." Michelle whispered to Anna and Sandy as the three girls pored over their homework in the library after school. "Everyone has, really."

"You're telling me," Anna said, her eyes glued on the clock counting down the hours until the team's basketball practice ended, when she'd planned to meet Jason out front for their date. "Dustin's been acting strange since Halloween. I thought it was just all the Three Musketeers from trick-or-treating, but if it's possible, he's even weirder now." she sighed. "And to make matters worse, we can't find Mews anywhere, and my mom's worried sick about her."

"I'm sure she'll turn up." Michelle assured her. "Will's been weird too, since his episode on Halloween. He had another one yesterday out on the football field, too, so my mom kept him home today."

Sandy watched the girls converse, jotting down her notes to study for Kaminsky's chemistry class, and Anna pondered over Michelle's words, careful of what to say around the Newby girl. While she was close to the Byers' family, seeing them nearly every day now that she lived in Hawkins with her father, Bob, Anna knew they weren't too keen to clue either of them in on what really happened the night Will got lost in the woods the year before, or the reasons for his episodes that followed.