Joey Hopper//Will Byers

The bathtub: Part 2

I sit next to Eleven in a slightly moldy seat as Dustin loudly paces around the room, annoying the crap out of me.

Mike finally cracks. "Will you stop pacing?"

"It's been way too long," Dustin starts. "Do you know what? Maybe you're right, Mike. Maybe this is all a trap and the bad men are coming to get us right now!"

To be honest, I can't bring myself to disagree with him. I mean it's obvious my dads been keeping secrets from me my whole life. How do I know he's not lying about this too? No, he's my dad. He loves me. He'd never let anything bad happen...right?

"It's not a trap!" Lucas exclaims, "why would Joey's dad-why would the chief set us up?"

"Lucas is right guys," I finally say. "I mean maybe Nancy, but my dad wouldn't. Especially after Sarah...he wouldn't put us all in danger."

Dustin looks down at me. "Joe, you said it yourself, Lando Clarissian."

Lucas rolls his eyes, "will you shut up about Lando?"

"I don't feel good about this. I don't feel good about this!" Dustin repeats.

"When do you feel good about anything?" Lucas shouts.

Suddenly the sound of cars approaching is heard outside. We all jump to the front of the bus only to see two vehicles quickly approaching.

"Shit!" Dustin exclaims.

"Go, go, go, go." Mike says as we rush back, grabbing our makeshift weapons.

"Lando." Dustin remarks.

I roll my eyes, "not the time Dustin!"

"You think they saw us?" Lucas questions.

"All of you guys, shut up." Mike hisses as we all huddle in the back of the bus.

I hear the doors of the cars open and close, then the sound of footsteps.

"Get behind me." I say, pushing to the front of the group

"Why?" Dustin asks.

I send him a look. "Um, maybe because all you have is a few rocks and I have actually super powers."

He lets me through.

Suddenly the bus door cracks open. The weird thing though is that it's met with a grunt and the sound of someone falling to the ground.

A figure pops into the bus and before I even think, I push my hand out in front of me, throwing the man backwards.

"Shit!" The voice grunts from outside of the bus.

Wait, I know that voice-

I rush outside after him and question, "Dad?" 

I see my dad struggling to get up off the floor.

"Joey? How did-what just-"

I run up to him, "oh my gosh Dad! I'm so sorry. I didn't know it was you!"

He finally gets to his feet, the others now standing behind me.

"You-you have a lot of explaining to do."

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We all pile into my dad's truck and drive off to Will's house. Once we get there I realize that we're accompanied by Will's mom, Nancy, and Jonathan.

"Mike!" Nancy starts running towards us. "Oh my god, Mike!"

She embraces him in a big hug.

"I was so worried about you."

"Yeah, um...me too." Mike awkwardly says, pushing away.

She then looks over and notices El standing right beside me. "Is that my dress?"

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We all take turns explaining everything that's gone down this week. Apparently while the party has been looking for Will, my dad with Will's mom and Nancy with Jonathan have all been doing similar things. Nancy tells us that her friend Barbra's missing too so that adds on another problem.

"Okay, okay, okay," my dad says and then points to me. "Joey Susan Hopper, how in the world did you throw me out of that bus with your mind?"

Dustin snickers, "your middle name is Susan?"

I shove him aside "Dad, I-I don't really know...let me just explain-"

So I do. I tell my dad the whole story. I tell him about the visions, about how I've been able to visit Will in my sleep, I tell him about the strange things I can now do. My dad looks at Will's mom and then turns back towards me.

"Joey, I-I was going to tell you this eventually-"

An odd silence fills the air.

"Tell me what?" I question, my tone turning serious.

"I...Joey I didn't get you from an orphanage, heck I don't even think those still exist in America."

"Wha-what are you talking about?" I ask suddenly stunned, not expecting for that to come out of his mouth.

"I was on duty. It was 1973," my dad starts. "It had been a normal day, I only had an hour left on my shift so I was driving around looking to bust any teenager's still lingering around. Then I saw something at the edge of the forest. I thought it was an injured animal or something so I got out to take a look at it. But it wasn't an animal. It was a little kid, lying there."

"No." I say as my eyes begin to sting.

But he just continues on. "About two years old, I thought it was a little boy. Kid was wearing a hospital gown and had a head injury. I drove them to the hospital. I didn't know what to think. Kid didn't match any missing persons, as far as the government was concerned they didn't exist. They woke up disoriented, missing pieces of their memory. After a few days they were gonna put him into foster care. I talked to your mom and we decided to take the kid in. We named him Joey thinking he was a boy but she wasn't. She was just a little girl with a shaved head."

My brain feels like it's going to explode. This can't be real. None of this can be real.

"Joey-"

"Shut up!" I scream, "just-just-"

I run into his arms and begin to cry. I don't even care that all of my friends are looking at me. I don't care that they're seeing me cry. I just can't hold this all in anymore. I just can't.

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EDITED