TECHNICOLOR - stranger things.

vii. ILLINOIS

vii. wendy's decision!

when the kids and wendy arrived to the wheeler's house, max mayfield immediately tended to wendy's wound.
"i-i'm so sorry wendy, i shouldn't have called you, i shouldn't have le—"
"max, calm down. it's not your fault. the mindflayer did this, not you." wendy comforted the teenaged girl in front of her.

max only smiled softly as she wrapped elastic bandage that she found in the bathroom cabinet around wendy's arm. once she finished, wendy carmichael stood and wrapped her arms around max. even though her right arm was still sore, she continued to hug the young girl. the redhead wrapped her arms around wendy as well, leaning her head on wendy's shoulder.
"thanks for being the sister that i never had." max whispered softly.

before wendy could say anything back, the sudden opening of the bathroom door startled both of the girls and they let go of each other. mike wheeler stared at the two with his eyebrows furrowed.
"uh, sorry for interrupting whatever you two were doing, but el's about to look for hopper." mike motioned for max and wendy to follow him into the basement.

max and wendy left out of the bathroom and sat down on the floor in front of el. the teenagers watched as the girl tried to locate jim hopper.
"i found him." el stated simply.

"where is he?" max mayfield spoke up.
"woods." el answered back.
"woods?" lucas questioned.

wendy furrowed her eyebrows and glanced from max to lucas—why would chief hopper be in the woods? the sound of the tv static filled the brief silence in the room as el continued to locate hopper.
"he's with...will's mom."
"my—my mom?" will furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"what are they doing?" max inquired.
wendy watched as the blood slowly rolled down from el's nostril.
"ill...annoy. they're going to ill-annoy." the sound of banging on the basement door caused wendy to flinch slightly.

"mike! breakfast!" karen wheeler yelled from the kitchen, mike sighed and turned to face the door.
"not now, mom," he yelled back in response. "illinois? illinois, like the state?" mike turned back to look at el.

"obviously, dingus." wendy responded as el shrugged her shoulders and removed her blindfold. mike rolled his eyes at wendy's response before concluding that hopper and joyce byers were going to illinois.

"c'mon el, we have to clean your nose." max stood and held out her hand for el to accept. the young teen girls left to go into the bathroom, and wendy moved from the floor to the couch. as the boys began to talk about how el dumped mike, wendy could feel herself zone out.

before she got her acceptance letter to new york university, she had her heart set on going to illinois state university to be closer to home—they admitted her as well. yet when she found out that she was accepted into nyu, she realized that there wasn't much to hawkins besides her family.

her hazel eyes flickered up to the group of boys and she began to think about how close she had gotten to them as well as max and el. was there more to hawkins?

the sound of a knock at the door halted her train of thought as she looked towards mike as he yelled out, "not now, mom!"
"mike, open the door." nancy wheeler ordered.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

wendy carmichael listened to the discussion that was occuring as nancy tried to prove that whatever was happening to some old lady was the same thing that happened to will byers last year.
"okay, so this crazy old woman who was eating fertilizer—" mike was interrupted by his siter.

"mrs.driscoll." nancy corrected.
"right, yeah, mrs.driscoll. what time was this attack?" mike asked.
"last night." nancy answered.

wendy looked down at the information and temperatures that nancy had collected. she didn't realize that things could get that crazy.

"right, but what time last night?" mike looked at his sister, waiting for her response.
"around nine." nancy stated.
"you waited all night to call?" jonathan byers questioned his girlfriend.

wendy's eyes widened as she realized that she forgot to call her mom to say that she was okay, that she'd be home soon.
"um, so, wha—what time was your...sauna test?" nancy looked at the group.

"around nine." the kids answered in unison. wendy raised an eyebrow, it couldn't be a coincidence. as the group began to talk about the flayed and heather holloway, wendy began to think back to the sauna test. she remembered the black veins that ran all across billy's body, the super strength that he had—she wondered if mrs. driscoll showed any of the same symptoms.

"guys, we have to go. c'mon." nancy grabbed her purse from the table and motioned for the group to follow her. the group of teenagers left the wheeler's house, piling into nancy's car—nancy in the driver's seat, jonathan in the passenger's seat. lucas, el, max, and wendy all squeezed into the backseat while will and mike were left with no other option but to fit into the back of the car.

"seriously?" mike scoffed in disbelief.
"welcome to my world." will responded.