Joey Hopper//Will Byers

the weirdo on Maple street: Part 3

The party and I all stand in Mike's bedroom, circled around the new girl who's currently sitting on the bed. Mike just explained to us that instead of sticking to the plan and telling his mom, he decided to just hide her in his house all day. Which in my opinion is CRAZY.

Lucas looks at Mike in disbelief, "are you out of your mind?"

"Just listen to me-" Mike starts.

"You are out of your mind!" Lucas interrupts.

"Yeah, for all we know she just escaped a mental hospital, Mike!" I say, feeling slightly guilty.

I want to hate her, to blame her for Will. I just can't though. I wish I could but it's like somewhere in the back of my mind I want to...protect her. That sounds weird, doesn't it?

"She knows about Will,'' Mike says.

Dustin finally speaks up. "What do you mean she knows about Will?"

Mike picks up a photo of the party from last year. Dang, that's when I still had a few inches on Will. We all stood there smiling, holding our science fair trophy. It was second, but Mr. Clarke said the whole thing was rigged anyways.

"She pointed at him, at his picture." Mike says, "she knew he was missing. I could tell."

"You could tell?" Lucas questions, skeptically.

"Just think about it. Do you really think it was a coincidence that we found her on Mirkwood?" Mike begins. "The same place where Will disappeared?"

"That is weird," Dustin blurts in.

"And she said bad people were after her."

"Bad people?" I ask, playing through my hair.

Mike nods. "I think maybe these bad people are the same ones who took Will. I think she knows what happened to him."

"Then why doesn't she tell us?" Lucas starts to get annoyed.

We all look towards the girl.

"Do you know where he is?" Lucas questions but is sadly met with no response. "DO YOU KNOW WHERE WILL IS!"

As he begins to yell, he grabs the girl by her shoulders.

"Stop it!" I shout, pulling him off her.

Mike gets right into Lucas's face. "You're scaring her!"

"She should be scared! If you know where he is, tell us!"

She looks up with tears in her eyes, the odd part is that she seems to be looking right at me.

"She knows where he is," the girl says in a small voice.

Suddenly all eyes turned to me, "I-I don't know anything."

"Joe?" Lucas pries in a calmer voice.

My palms begin to sweet as I realize I'm now tugging at my hair.

"I had a dream where I saw him, but that was it." I relent. "It was just a dream, this is all-"

"Nuts," Lucas says, finishing my sentence.

The girl looks up and points to my wrist, "Twelve"

I peer down at the small tattoo, "what about it?"

She lifts up her wrist, showing a nearly identical tattoo. The only difference being hers says eleven.

"Eleven," then she points to me. "Twelve"

My eyes go wide. I've never seen another kid with a tattoo before, let alone one so similar to mine.

I blink and suddenly everything's...different. The air around me, the sounds, the smells. As I open my eyes I flinch. I'm now in a metal room. Wires surrounded me, some connected to my head. A far cry from the boys bedroom I'm supposed to be present in.