EVERYONE STOOD IN solitude the next morning, listening to the priest ramble a prayer over Will's fake body. Jasper and Dustin stood next to each other, discreetly poking each other as a part of their game. The two had to poke each other without getting caught by anyone.

Dustin's sky blue eyes peeled away from Jasper, a smile creeping onto his face as something else caught his attention. He lightly prodded Jasper and the boys' shoulders, nodding his chin towards a blonde-headed girl.

Jasper recognized the pale-skinned blondie from school: Jennifer Hayes. The girl was trying to be subtle about it, but the four could see tears streaming down her milky face.

"Just wait 'til we tell Will that Jennifer Hayes was crying at his funeral," Dustin whispered to them with a playful smirk. The others were smiling too, gazing at the crying girl in amusement.

"Shh," Karen Wheeler leaned forward, hushing the Henderson boy. The smirk was immediately wiped off Dustin's face with a more serious, somber look.

Shortly after the priest's prayer, everyone began throwing flowers on top of the wooden casket. Jasper couldn't help but avert her eyes to Joyce Byers, who was standing in solitude. She had an unreadable expression on her face, one mixed with anger and defiance.

"C'mon, Jasper," Dustin tugged at the redhead's coat sleeve. "I'm starving...and cold," he whined, his bottom lip sticking out in a pout.

"You don't have to wait for me," Jasper scoffed, playfully rolling her eyes. "I wanted to mourn over my friend's fake dead body for a bit longer," she mumbled sarcastically.

"I wait for you because you're my best friend," Dustin pointed out, raising his eyebrows. "You know, it's—"

"Yeah yeah," Jasper interrupted him, chuckling as she shoved her frozen hands into her pockets. "It's our code, I know. But it's not like it would be hard to find you. You'd be standing right at the snacks table the whole time," she teased.

"Guys," Mike ran up to them, Lucas at his heels. "We need to talk to Mr. Clarke," he reminded them.

"Lead the way, Wheeler," Jasper nodded, following the others into the small reception. It didn't take long to find their science teacher camping out by the food table.

"Mr. Clarke?" Mike piped up, gaining the attention of their science teacher.

He turned away from placing food on his table, a small smile on his face when he saw them. "Oh, hey there," he greeted them in a gentle voice.

Dustin eagerly grabbed a handful of Nilla Wafers from the table, munching on them thoughtfully.

"How you guys holding up?" He asked them kindly.

"We're...in...mourning," Lucas answered awkwardly, glancing down at his shoes in attempts to look sad.

"Man, these aren't real nilla wafers," Dustin muttered with a mouthful of crumbs. Disappointment coated his voice as he gazed at the snacks. Jasper slyly took one from his hand, popping it in her mouth. She gave him a small nod of agreement at the slightly stale taste.

Mike and Lucas turned their heads towards the two lovers, narrowing their eyes at them. Leave it to the two of them to foil their "act depressed" plan. Jasper continued stealing Dustin's Nilla Wafers, unbothered.

"We were wondering if you had some time to talk?" Mike questioned hopefully.

"We have some questions," Lucas explained.

"A lot of questions," Mike added.

Mr. Clarke gave them a quiet nod, leading them to a table. Jasper and Dustin exchanged amused glances before both shoving handfuls of Nilla Wafers on a napkin and following them.

"So you know how in Cosmos Carl Sagan talks about other dimensions?" Mike began, eagerly sitting up as he faced the teacher. "Like, beyond our world?"

"Yeah, sure," Mr. Clarke nodded. "Theoretically."

"Right, theoretically," Mike corrected himself.

"So, theoretically, how do we travel there?" Lucas inquired.

"You guys have been thinking about Hugh Everett's many-worlds interpretation, haven't you?" he asked, a tiny smile on his face.

Dustin and Jasper exchanged confused glances as they all sat in silence, waiting for him to continue.

"Well, basically, there are parallel universes," he explained. "Just like our world, but just infinite variations of it. Which means that there's a world out there where none of this tragic stuff never happened."

"Yeah, no," Jasper shook her head, sassily placing a half-eaten Nilla Wafer down. "That's not what we're talking about."

"Oh."

"We were thinking more of an evil dimension, like The Vale of Shadows," Dustin suggested. "You know The Vale of Shadows?" he asked, shoving another Nilla Wafer in his mouth.

"An echo of the material plane where necrotic and shadow magic—" Mr. Clarke rambled off, earning a nod of approval from Dustin.

"Yeah exactly," Mike butted in. "If that did exist, a place like The Vale of Shadows, how would we travel there?"

"Theoretically," Lucas added with a weird hand gesture.

"Well..." Mr. Clarke trailed off, lost in thought. He slide out a plain paper plate from under his plate of food, before digging in his coat pocket and pulling out a ballpoint pen. He clicked the pen and began drawing on it.

"Picture...an acrobat. Standing on a tightrope. Now, the tightrope is our dimension," he continued. "And our dimension has rules. You can move forwards, or backwards."

Jasper eyed the drawing of the acrobat, noticing the arrows. You could move forward in time, or backwards in time. This is exactly what Jasper could do without the need of a time machine.

"But...what if, right next to our acrobat, there is a flea?" He proposed. "Now the flea can also travel back and forth, just like the acrobat. right?"

"Right," Mike nodded slowly.

"Now, here's where things get interesting. The flea can also travel this way..." he murmured, drawing arrows inside the rope. "Along the side of the rope. He can even go...underneath the rope."

"Upside down," Jasper and the boys breathed in shock.

"Exactly," Mr. Clarke confirmed.

"But, we're not the flea, we're the acrobat," Jasper muttered, leaning forward and rubbing her chin.

"In this metaphor, yes, we're the acrobat."

"So, we can't go upside down?" Lucas asked, slightly puzzled.

"No," Mr. Clarke replied.

"Well, is there any way for the acrobat to get to the Upside Down?" Dustin questioned eagerly.

"Well...you'd have to create a massive amount of energy," he described. "More than humans are currently capable of creating, mind you, to open up some kind of tear in time and space. and then..."

Mr. Clarke folded his paper plate in half before aggressively poking a hole in it with the pen. "You create a doorway."

"Like a gate?" Dustin recommended.

"Sure. Like a gate," Mr. Clarke nodded in agreement. "But, again, this is all—"

"Theoretical," Lucas interjected.

"But...but what if this gate already existed?" Mike offered, cocking an eyebrow.

"Well if it did, I'd think we know. It would disrupt gravity, the magnetic field, the environment," his face dropped as he said the next words. "Heck, it might even swallow us up whole."

Everyone paused, taking a moment to let all the new information sink in. Jasper was already beginning to question everything, including if her powers had a role in the gate.

"Science is neat. But I'm afraid it's not very forgiving," he finished.

After the funeral, the four all gathered in the basement of Mike's house, as usual. Mike sat on the couch next to El, explaining what Mr. Clarke had told them, including the acrobat and the flea metaphor. Lucas sat in a chair across from them, while Dustin paced around the room gazing at a compass.

Jasper, on the other hand, was lying on her back on the floor. Her hands were raised in front of her face as she gazed at them curiously. Needless to say, something about Mr. Clarke's explanation earlier had given her a small crisis. She couldn't stop thinking about her powers, and what significance they could hold with the Upside Down.

"It would take a lot of energy to build a gate like this," Mike explained to El in a soft voice. "But that's gotta be what happened. Otherwise, how'd Will get there, right?"

"Right," El stuttered in a nervous tone. Jasper tilted her head, gazing at the girl with sad eyes. She could sense the fear coming off El. The boys were uncovering more pieces of the puzzle, and something told Jasper this gate was more dangerous than the others think.

"All we wanna know is, do you know where the gate is?" Lucas questioned El.

El didn't answer, only gave the boy a small shake of her head.

"Then how do you know about the Upside Down?" Lucas exclaimed, sending her an incredulous look. The girl's eyes shifted down to her fidgeting hands.

"Ow! Dustin!" Jasper groaned as the boy's pacing feet kicked her side. "If you wanna move around like an idiotic, at least watch where you're going!"

The other three's heads snapped towards the two. Lucas and Mike narrowed their eyes questionably at him, while El continued eyeing the compass in his hand anxiously.

"Sorry Jasper," he mumbled distractedly, continuing to spin in circles.

"Dustin, what are you doing?" Mike inquired, receiving no response. "Dustin?"

Lucas and Mike both shouted his name, still not gaining his attention. It wasn't until Jasper shuffled to her feet and lightly slapped her hand over his palm that he let out a small gasp and looked up from the compass.

"I-I need to see your compasses," Dustin stammered with big eyes.

"What?" Mike recoiled.

"Your compasses. All of your compasses, right now!" Dustin demanded.

Mike, Lucas, and Jasper all exchanged puzzled looks. They all scrambled to their feet, collecting every compass in the house they could find.

"I found more than all of you," Jasper snickered, throwing her haul on the table next to the other compasses. Mike and Lucas just simply rolled their eyes at the redhead's amusement.

"What's exciting about this?" Mike asked, looking at the curly-haired boy.

"Well, they're all facing north, right?" Dustin proposed, eyeing all four of them with a smirk.

"Yeah, so?" Lucas shrugged.

"Well, that's not true north," Dustin declared.

"What do you mean?" Mike asked.

"I mean what I just said, that's not true north," Dustin huffed. "Are you all seriously this dense?" He inquired, giving them an exasperated look.

"Well, sorry I'm not the master of compasses," Jasper fired back, raising an eyebrow. "But you're right, that isn't true north."

"Exactly. The sun rises in the east, and it sets in the west. Right?" Dustin explained as if he were teaching preschoolers. "Which means, that's true north," he pointed with his finger.

"So the compasses are broken," Mike concluded.

"There's no battery pack on this, Mike," Jasper held up a compass, examining it. "That's not how compasses work."

"She's right," Dustin stated. "The needles naturally draw north to the Earth's magnetic pole."

"So, what's wrong with them?" Lucas asked in bewilderment.

"I get it!" Jasper screeched, holding a compass in the palm of her wide open hand. "If there's a stronger magnetic force, the needle will draw to it. Right?" She glanced at Dustin.

"Right, and then I remembered what Mr. Clarke said. The gate would have so much power."

"It could disrupt the electromagnetic field," Mike murmured in realization.

"Exactly," Dustin nodded.

"Meaning, if we follow the compasses north..." Lucas trailed off.

"They should lead us to the gate," Dustin concluded.

"So, what are we waiting for?" Jasper exclaimed, thrill lighting up in her blue eyes. "Sounds like an adventure to me!"

"Gather your supplies then," Mike ordered, racing around the room and grabbing an assortment of things.

"Jas," El's soft voice whispered. she placed her hand worriedly on the redhead's forearm. "You can't."

"Can't? Can't go to the gate?" She asked, looking around at the three boys cautiously. Slowly, the girl took a seat on the couch next to El. "What do you mean we can't?" She murmured in a hushed voice.

"It's dangerous," she whimpered, her eyes darkening. "Bad place."

"I know," Jasper nodded. "But...this is Will we're talking about! Our best friend. And, honestly, I don't think I'd be able to stop the boys from going."

El and Jasper turned their heads, watching the boys anxiously spout out words to each other. They were preparing for what seemed like the most important mission of their lives. Maybe it was.

"They want to find their best friend," Jasper mumbled, facing El again. "And so do I."

"You don't understand—" El began fearfully, but was cut off by Jasper placing her hands in El's.

"We're in this together, El," Jasper spoke soothingly. "I can control time and you can control almost anything with your mind. We won't let anything happen to each other, or to them. Okay?"

El hesitated, a storm brewing in the young girl's mind. "Okay," she finally answered with a timid nod.

"Great," Jasper grinned ear to ear. "Now let's go find our friend."