the group brought him food the next morning. eddie, however, was still very much on edge and ready to attack when they opened the door with their to-go bags. "delivery service!" dustin cheered, holding out the bags.

while eddie ate his food rapidly, the group all made themselves comfortable. "so, we got, uh, some good news and some bad news." dustin told him. "how do you prefer it?"

"bad news first, always." eddie said, as if it was a fact that everyone should know about him.

dustin nodded. "alright, bad news. we tapped into the hawkins pd dispatch with our cerebro, and they're definitely looking for you. also, they're, uh, pretty convinced you killed chrissy."

"like a hundred percent kind of convinced." max added.

meadow sent her a look. "okay, that's not helping."

"and the good news?" eddie then asked, looking back to dustin.

"your name hasn't gone public." robin told him. "yet. but if we found out about you, it's only a matter of time before others do too. and once that gets out, everyone and their shallow-minded mother is gonna be gunning for you."

meadow raised her hands in defeat. "and i'm the pessimistic one."

dustin then swooped in. "so, before that happens, we need to find vecna, kill him, and prove your innocence."

eddie wasn't convinced. "that's all, dustin? that's all?"

"yeah, no, that's pretty much it." dustin smiled.

meadow turned back to him. "listen, okay, eddie. i know everything we're saying sounds delusional, but we've been through this kind of thing before. a couple of times, actually." she added, looking over to steve.

robin nodded. "mine was more human-flesh based, and theirs was more smoke-related, but yeah, we've gone through this before. and bottom line is, collectively i really feel like we've got this." she smiled.

"yeah, see, we usually rely on this girl who has super powers." steve said. "but, uh, those went bye-bye, so.."

"so we're technically in more or kind of a.." robin tried.

"a brainstorming phase." max concluded.

"brainstorming!" steve agreed.

"there's nothing to worry about!" dustin smiled.

meadow looked to eddie. "basically, we have no actual plan." she looked up as the entire group gave her a look. "but.. we will. have one. just not right now. at this present moment. in time."

eddie nodded. "very reassuring."

"that's why you're the pessimistic one." her brother told her.

the sound of sirens stopped her from arguing, and she pointed to the tarp that eddie was now sitting on. "tarp, tarp." he understood what she meant and hid back under it while everyone else moved to the window. multiple cop cars and a firetruck. "that can't be good, right?" meadow asked, looking over at steve.

they all, except for eddie, immediately got into steve's car and followed where they'd seen the vehicles go. when they exited the vehicle, they were confused to see nancy talking to a group of officers.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

"so you're saying that this thing that killed fred and chrissy," nancy was clarifying after both groups had updated each other, "it's from the upside down?"

"if the shoe fits." steve confirmed.

dustin nodded. "our working theory is that he attacks with a spell or a curse. now, whether or not he's doing the bidding of the mind flayer or just loves killing teens, we don't know"

"all we know is this is something different." max told her. "something new."

nancy shook her head. "it doesn't make sense."

"it's only a theory." dustin told her.

"no, fred and chrissy don't make sense." she clarified. "i mean, why them?"

dustin shrugged. "maybe they were just at the wrong place? they were both at the game."

"and near the trailer park." max added.

"we're at the trailer park." steve reminded them.

meadow nodded. "yeah, maybe we should.. you know. relocate to a spot that isn't a crime scene."

nancy looked over at them. "there is something weird about this place. fred started acting weird the second we got here."

"acting weird as in..?" meadow trailed off.

"scared, on edge, upset." nancy described.

"max said chrissy was upset, too." dustin thought aloud.

she nodded. "yeah, but not here. she was crying in the bathroom at school."

meadow thought for a second. "serial killers.. they stalk their victims before they strike. what if vecna is sort of the same? and the.. the visions he would make you see are linked to something in your past?"

"i don't know about you guys," steve said, "but if i saw some freaky wizard monster, i would mention it to someone."

"maybe they did." max looked to him. "i saw chrissy leaving ms kelley's office. if you saw a monster, you'd never go to the police, they'd never believe you. but you might go to your.."

"your shrink." robin finished.

the group then decided to make a visit to ms kelley, the counselor that would hopefully give them answers to what the victims had in common. when they were all making their way to steve's car, meadow watched nancy go the opposite way. "nancy? what's this, where are you going?"

she shrugged. "oh, there's just something i wanna check on first."

"something you maybe wanna share with the rest of us?" dustin asked.

"i don't wanna waste your time." she replied. "it's a real shot in the dark."

meadow raised a brow. "okay, yeah, so you're going to leave the group and go by yourself? in the middle of.. of a thing? this is a thing, okay, an upside down thing and you're just gonna.. you're just going on a field trip?"

steve nodded his agreement. "yeah, you really shouldn't be going alone right now with this vecna creep on the loose."

"i can go with her." robin offered. "no offense but whatever it is is probably going to be more interesting than the mesmerizing depths of steve's eyes."

dustin then broke out laughing. "you read meadow's diary from the seventh grade?"

meadow turned to both of them. "you both have read it? well enough to have it memorized?"

steve smiled. "you wrote about me in your diary in seventh grade?"

"no." meadow said. "no, absolutely not. this conversation isn't happening right now. robin, nancy, keep this handy." she tossed a walkie talkie that robin caught. "we'll tell you where to meet us, let us know if you find anything."

"you sure you don't wanna come with us?" robin asked.

meadow shrugged her shoulders. "someone's gotta keep these boys from killing each other."

"wipe your feet." steve reminded dustin, who made a show of rubbing his feet on the floor of the car. "on the outside, not the inside!!" he sighed. "always the babysitter. always the goddamn babysitter, us two." he groaned, turning to look at meadow, who had taken the passenger seat.

she shrugged her shoulders. "babysitting, saving the world. same old."