Jeopardy- Stranger Things

Chapter Thirty Nine

November 11th, 1983

Nick slid off the hood of her car, keeping her arms tightly folded against her chest until she'd walked forward and was mere inches away from George. She unfolded her arms and jabbed a finger against his chest.

"What is going on?" She asked, her voice was hard and unyielding. She was determined not to let George wriggle out of this with another flimsy excuse. She needed to know what was going and she was going to find out.

She carried on staring down at him. She had dropped her accusing finger to her side but more than made up for the loss of the intimidating gesture with her hard stare. But he didn't say a word.

"You've been acting weird for days now." She continued, dropping her stern tone halfway through her sentence out of pity for him. He had just come from his friend's wake after all, "You haven't been yourself and you've been sneaking around. I just thought, given recent events, that you'd be more careful. Now can you please tell me what's going on?"

George looked at the ground. He shuffled his feet and kicked at a loose stone on the dirt driveway.

"I don't have to tell you anything." He mumbled, clearly trying to be defensive but he didn't have the courage to stand up to Nick. They both knew that, "You're not my mum-"

"We don't have a mum!" Nick exploded. Up until now she was prepared to go easy on him but this had struck a nerve, "We have a woman who gave birth to us, who is never around and is always drunk. I cook for you, work so we have a place to live and drive you everywhere. I do everything our mum neglects to do herself so you can have a normal life. I think I deserve to know! Now tell me!"

George froze. He had lifted his head to meet her eyes but was rendered motionless, wide eyed and too scared to utter a word. Nick faltered. Had she gone too far this time? No, she needed to know what was going on. She needed to keep him safe. God knows no one else would. But still George wouldn't tell her anything. The silence was starting to get to everyone. Mike looked away from her and Lucas looked shocked, if slightly impressed. It was only Dustin who seemed to see the importance of the situation

"Will's not dead. He's trapped in another dimension. We're going to get him back." Dustin said so matter of factly that Nick was thrown for a second.

She didn't know what to say except: "You've gotta be kidding me!"

*

Nick wasn't sure what she should do next. Although she was only 17, Nick was forced to become the responsible adult, in her mum's absence. Part of her wanted to parent the boys. They were clearly going through some stuff and now believed Will was trapped in a different dimension. Will was dead and they were all clearly struggling. But she knew from past experience that if she argued with them now all they'd do was get angry and argue back. And no one needed that, least of all Nick.

So she piled them all up in her car and drove them to the nearest burger joint. They were now all sat in a booth, all the boys on one side and Nick on the other, stuffing their faces with burgers.

"Right," Nick said, chewing, "Will's where?"

Dustin, Mike and Lucas didn't hesitate in all blurting out their explanation at once. They were talking over each other and correcting each other and arguing about which parts of their story went in which order and Nick wasn't following any of it.

"Stop, stop, stop!" She said, flapping her hands at them to get them to shut up, "One at a time."

The boys all took a deep breath and explained exactly what had happened. Mick told her how they had all agreed to meet up to go looking for Wil when he had first disappeared. Dustin told her rather enthusiastically how El had superpowers and Lucas confirmed, albeit reluctantly, that she really, genuinely did have superpowers and she had contacted Will via the radio. And, finally, George told her how they'd asked Mr Clarke and he'd told them all about the multiple dimension theory and how Will must be stuck in one and El can communicate with him.

Once their story was done, they all leant forward across the table, staring at Nick, waiting for her to say something.

She sighed, shut her eyes and pinched her nose and said: "I think this is a symptom of grief."

The boys all groaned and leant back in their seats.

"I knew this was a bad idea," Lucas grumbled.

"It's perfectly normal to feel denial but other dimensions..." Nick said, trying her best to both comfort them and knock some sense into them, "Do you think perhaps you play too much D&D? I'm so sorry guys but Will isn't coming back. This isn't like D&D where there's always another campaign, this is life. Real life. And that can't be explained by radical theories based on board games"

"Told you," Lucas said to Dustin, "I told you she wouldn't get it."

"I think that's a rash judgement," Dustin argued and Lucas raised his eyebrows and threw his hands up in a mock surrender at Dustin, "Nicole's-" Dustin continued but was cut off by Nick.

"Don't!" she warned.

"I mean, Nick's cool," Dustin corrected and appealed to the group.

"Doesn't make our theory any less crazy," George shrugged, "If we can't even get Nick to believe us then we're screwed."-

"I think I have a way," Mike said, barely above a whisper as he stared into the distance wistfully. The others just stared at him like he'd gone mad, "Show her El!"

"Your Swedish cousin?" Nick asked, remembering what they had told her at school, "What's she got to do with this?"