Bookworm & Toothless (Stranger Things AU) #Wattys2018

[13]

"Mama Byers?"

Joyce snapped out of her daze to see Jessica Hernandez looking up at her, tears running down her cheeks.

"Oh, hey sweetie. Thank you for coming," she says, smiling sadly at the 12-year-old girl.

Jess hugged Joyce, pressing her face against her jacket, sniffling.

"Lo siento para todo...(I'm sorry for everything...)" she mumbled.

Joyce sighed, hugging the girl as well rubbing her back.

"I appreciate you coming today...I know how you feel about funerals." 

Jess nodded, sniffling.

"Jess!" 

Jess turned to see Dustin rush towards her, grabbing her hand, motioning with his head to follow him.

"Adios Mama Byers..." she mumbles, smiling sadly at her.

X

"Will! Will, it's us! Are you there?" (Lucas)

"Will, ¡por favor! ¡Respuesta!" (Jess)

"Can you hear us? We're here!" (Dustin)

"Hello? Mom?" (Will, distorted)

"Why can't he hear us?"  (Lucas)

"I don't know!" (Mike)

"Mom, it's coming!" (Will, distorted)

The man listening to the recording puts the headphones down.

"She was there. And it looks like she's found her old Social Experiment friend."

X

"Mr. Clarke?"

Mr. Clarke turned to see Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Jess standing there, Lucas having an arm around Jess as she sniffled, tears still running down.

"Oh, hey, there. How you guys holding up?"

Mike looked down, grabbing Jess' hand while Lucas looked at Dustin who was crunching on a wafer, wanting so badly to hit him in the head for not acting better.

For crying out loud Jess was CRYING!

"We're...in...mourning," he says, Jess looking towards him and back down, sighing.

"Man, these aren't real Nilla Wafers."

Jess turned away to stifle her giggle, as Mike and Lucas looked at him incredulously but secretly grateful that he was making Jess giggle and break out of her zone every once in a while. 

"We were wondering if you had time to talk?" Mike asked.

"We have some questions," Lucas added.

"Un montón de preguntas (A lot of questions)." Jess says, deciding to stop the 'mourning' for a second so she empathize how important this was without having to drop the speaking in fluent Spanish.

X

"So you know how in Cosmos, Carl Sagan talks about other dimensions? Like, beyond our world?"

"Yeah, sure. Theoretically."

"Right, theoretically," Mike says, Jess, nodding along.

"So, theoretically, how do we travel there?" Lucas asked.

"You guys have been thinking about Hugh Everett's Many-Worlds Interpretation, haven't you?"

Jess looked at Mike who shrugged at her.