Will to Survive

Hawkins Community Pool

Jordan and Ryder were at the community pool, working as lifeguards. They both figured that if they became lifeguards, then they could start getting girls. So far, Jordan was succeeding in getting girls since he was hanging out with Quinn a lot, but Ryder wasn't so lucky. He had a crush on Keelan after all, so he didn't want to flirt with any other girls. He still got advice from Jordan in order to get Keelan to like him.

The two boys noticed Billy Hargrove coming into the area. They both rolled their eyes once they saw the mullet wearing asshole. Luckily, Billy wasn't going towards them and instead to some girls that were hanging out by the side of the pool. 

"How is it that Billy fucking Hargrove gets all the girls even though he's a horrible person, yet we are good people and we don't get anyone?" Ryder wondered out loud.

Jordan shrugged. "I don't know man. At least I got Quinn hanging out with me," he said, smirking a little. He really liked Quinn and he could just tell that maybe she liked him back. He hoped she liked him back because then he could finally have a girlfriend and be loved by someone.

Ryder groaned at the mention of Quinn. As much as he wanted Jordan to be happy with a girl, he was jealous because Jordan was able to get a girl, but he couldn't get Keelan to like him more than a friend. It upset him because he liked her a lot. In the lab, he had to use his flame powers on her to test her force fields, but she had always refused to do it because she didn't want any of the flames rebounding back to him. Ryder also didn't want to because he didn't want to accidentally hurt her. One time, the doctors forced him to throw fireballs at her and she deflected them, but accidentally hit him back, just like how she feared. She ran to his side and tried to help them, but they were both locked up in dark rooms. That was when he started to like her, but he didn't know what it meant back then.

As he was thinking back to that, Ryder noticed Quinn coming over to them. "Hey Jordan, your girlfriend is here!" He said, nudging him on the shoulder. Jordan looked over and his eyes widened when he saw Quinn, especially since she was wearing a bikini.

"H-Hey Quinn!" Jordan stuttered a little. Ryder shook his head at him, realizing how flustered he looked when he saw Quinn. "You, Uh, you look nice today," he complemented.

Quinn smirked at him. "Thanks Jordan," she said. "You know, there's something I want to tell you," she said, sitting down next to him. Right when she was about to say something to him, someone in the pool started to shout. 

Jordan ran over to the person who was shouting and noticed that she was drowning in the water. He blew his whistle and dove into the water. Looking around underwater, he saw the girl at the bottom of the pool and immediately swam to her. Her leg was caught in a purplish vine and it was pulling her under. Jordan immediately knew what it was and he proceeded to get her out of the vine's grip and brought her back to the surface. Laying her on the ground, he started to try CPR as Ryder immediately went over to the phone and called an ambulance. Everyone watched the scene, scared for the girl who was mysteriously pulled underwater.

After a few minutes, an ambulance finally showed up, but the girl wasn't waking up. Jordan, Ryder, and a few others put her in the ambulance as it drove off. The manager of the community pool ordered everyone to leave the pool immediately.

Jordan pulled Ryder aside and they went behind the lifeguard chair. "Ryder, this wasn't a normal drowning. There was a vine that was holding onto her leg, and I think it has something to do with the Upside Down," he told him in a low voice so no one could hear what they were saying.

"Shit," Ryder muttered under his breath. "What are we going to do? If that vine is from the Upside down, then that means that a gate could possibly be opening," he said.

"We need to investigate into this. That's what we have to do," Jordan said. "Tonight, the two of us will sneak in here and investigate these vines," he explained to him. "We figure out if there's a gate or if it's just a prank that went wrong, which seems super unlikely now that I say it out loud."

Their conversation was interrupted when they noticed Quinn next to them. The boys' eyes widened when they realized she overheard them. Unknowingly, this was all part of Quinn's plan to reopen the gate. And it didn't matter if she overheard because she was the one trying to open it with Ezra and Shawn's devices. The pool gate was only starting to open up. It would only be a matter of time before all the gates opened up.

"What is this Upside Down thing? Cause I want to help you guys out with this," Quinn asked them. "It doesn't matter anyway since I overheard what you're saying and I saw what happened back there. I want to help with this and you're not stopping me."

Jordan sighed and shook his head. "Fine. You can help us," he said. He really didn't want her to be involved with any of this, but now that she overheard everything, he had no choice but to let her help them out. Why did this have to come back? He just hoped that it was just a false alarm and those vines were just his imagination.

Unbeknownst to them was that Billy was also listening in to their conversation. He had already known his stepsister's secret about being 012 and about the lab. This also made him learn that these two boys hung out with her sometimes and that they were like her. He could just tell that they were. Even though he hated Max, he didn't want her to get hurt because then he would get the blame for it from his dad and probably be beaten. He made the exception with her hanging out with the other five kids, even though one of them was black and he was dating her, but he wasn't going to let her hang out with anyone like her.

Billy would have to spy on these three people and make sure that what they are doing has nothing to do with his stepsister.