𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥

006. Team Player.

      

      THE GROUP were now all gathered around the table, Mike dumping out some D&D figurines from a blue velvet bag he went to grab eagerly from his backpack before gathering the rest of them around the desk. "This is Derek." He held up one of the figurines, setting it down. "And this is the rest of the Turnbow family." He sets down three more right next to it.

"We're gonna need to recruit someone that the family trusts, someone that can gain access to the house." He sets down another figurine. "This person will knock the family out. Then we'll extract the family from the house." Mike goes on. "Knock them out?" Joyce asked him. "Well, safely. With sleeping pills or something." He told her, glancing around the table. "I kind of... might know where we could get some benzos." Valerie spoke up, making everyone look at her. "Those things could knock an elephant on its ass." Robin agreed, looking at his girlfriend.

"Perfect. That way if Vecna spies, he'll just assume Derek is fast asleep in bed. He'll send his Demos to grab him." Mike says, setting down one of the monster figurines in front of the ones that represented the family. "Only he won't find Derek. He'll find us. And we'll be ready. We'll get Murray to supply us with the traps. We'll burn the sucker. Send him scampering home to its master, but not before we stick him with one of these." He digs into his pocket, taking out one of the trackers they use to track Hopper.

He sets it onto the table, "we'll track the Demo across the Upside Down in the Squawk van just like we did with Hopper. And if we're lucky, the Demo will lead us back to its lair, to Vecna, to Holly." He looked around at everyone. "Holes?" He asked, but they all seemed pretty impressed by the plan, smiling and nodding.

After calling Murray up for the supplies, the group separated into three, Mike and Lucas leaving to get Erica from the middle school, and Valerie left, but not without Robin and Will both following her, and then it was Joyce, Will, Jonathan, Nancy and Steve all leaving to go get everything ready for the plan tonight. The three now leave in Valerie's vehicle, driving down the road and headed towards the hospital. Will kept glancing between the two girls in the front seat, as Val tried her best to focus on the road and not fall into disassociation. "You okay?" Robin asked, as if she knew and sensed it.

"Yep." Valerie replied so curtly, not even glancing over at her girlfriend who was staring at her so worriedly. "We're... essentially going to be stealing from your workplace, are you... chill with that? I mean, won't they notice?" Robin asked her worriedly and the Smith girl kept her eyes on the road, slowly blinking. "Um, yeah." She replied and the Buckley girl just stared at her side profile again, squinting her eyes.

"Are you sure? Because Will and I, we can go in and you can--" "I'm a team player. I'm good." Val cut off her girlfriend almost instantly and the blonde softly nods her head. "Yeah, okay." She said quietly as the car now pulls into the hospital, Val driving up to the staff parking. She turns to them, "let me do the talking." She said, glancing at the Byers boy who just nodded, giving her a small smile in response.

When she walks in, she walked straight for the reception desk where she waved and smiled at Doris. "Hi Doris. Uh, Robin here, and our little friend, Will, are here to visit Mrs. Massey." She gestured to the hall as Doris looked at Robin and Will, just as the Buckley girl lifts up a package of Twinkies with a big grin. "Oh, thank you, baby!" Doris was the type of woman who called younger women baby and Val found it so sweet and endearing. It reminded her a lot of her grandma, her father's mother.

"Ya'll go on back there." Doris gestured and Val leads the way for the two, "who's Mrs. Massey?" Will asked. "Robin's sweet granny who fell down a flight of stairs and broke nearly every bone in her frail old body." Valerie replied which made the teenage boy look at Robin worriedly. "Oh, God. I'm so sorry." He says emphatically. "Don't be too sorry. She's not my real granny. I just use her name so I can visit Val." The Buckley girl explains, gesturing to the Smith girl who was looking all around, into the hospital rooms as they walked down the hallway.