fairgrieves the lunatic

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

    The bell rang, signaling the end of lunch, and the seven teenagers made their way out of the AV Room, all of them reeling from Dustin's discovery. Dustin had put Dart securely back in his ghost trap, Alina watching with disgust. She had a bad feeling about the slimy little creature, which was one of the reasons she had declined to have it dropped into her hands. Adding in whatever was moving inside of it and Alina knew that Dart wasn't an ordinary creature.

"We gotta show him to Mr. Clarke," said Lucas, who was in the lead to head back to class. He seemed more excited than grossed out by the creature, even though he had initially been when he held him. But Dustin just shook his head.

"No, what if he steals my discovery?" He sounded nervous, as if that was actually a thing that Mr. Clarke would do. Their science teacher, who wore sweater vests and got excited at the number of cells within the human brain, who always encouraged them to keep their curiosity door open. It was a joke. Besides, Dustin's discovery wasn't that monumental. Whatever that thing was had probably already been discovered before, and Dustin just hadn't found it yet.

Mike seemed to agree with her, because he let out a snort. "He's not gonna steal your discovery."

"Yeah," said Alina. "That's not something Mr. Clarke would do."

"You know," said Dustin thoughtfully, "I'm thinking about calling it Dustonious pollywogus." He turned to Max, who'd just sped up to join them, leaving Will and Gabe walking slightly behind them, unspeaking. "What do you think?"

"I think you're an idiot," the girl replied, shaking her head with a grin on her face.

"You know, when I become rich and famous for this one day, don't come crawling back to me, saying 'Oh my God, Dustin, I'm so sorry for being mean to you back in eighth grade. Oh my God.'" His voice pitched in an imitation of a girl's voice, Dustin flaunted his hips, making Max roll her eyes.

"I do not sound like that."

"You guys are all idiots," Alina groaned, rubbing the bridge of her nose. She was so enamored in the conversation she didn't even notice the crowds around her. Sometimes being with her friends was another way to be able to get to class on time. "Except for Max, but I haven't gotten to know her that well yet."

"Hey!" for once, Dustin, Mike and Lucas were all in agreement. Alina dodged an attack from Dustin and high-fived Max, who was still grinning.

While the five of them were messing around, Gabriel was walking behind beside Will. He couldn't help but feel a little left out, watching them. He knew that Alina, Lucas, Mike and Dustin had all been friends before he'd come—for how long, he didn't know, but he assumed at least a year—but Max had come the same day he did, and it already felt like she was a part of the group. And here he was, walking behind beside Will Byers, the boy he'd read about in the newspaper. And it turned out that Alina was living with him. Jeez. No wonder she'd looked shocked when he'd mentioned his name.

Just as he thought that, the boy he was walking beside stiffened, suddenly halting in his tracks. His limbs seized up, and he stared at something Gabe couldn't quite see. His brown hair was matted with sweat.

Gabe stopped, too. "Hey," he said softly. "Hey, Will, are you alright? Do you need me to get someone? Is everything—" he stopped talking. His grandma often told him he had a motormouth—he'd try to fill any silence with talking, and he tended to ramble quite a bit. Instead he just put a hand on Will Byers's shoulder and waited for him to snap out of it.

The first time he'd seen Will Byers in person, he'd been utterly transfixed. Not because he was seeing the 'boy who'd come back to life' but because Will Byers was cute. Everything from his hair to his clothes to his eyes gave Gabe strange lurches in his stomach, feelings he knew were wrong but couldn't help but have. And it was bad enough being black in a predominantly white town. He couldn't also be a queer. So he tried to ignore Will Byers as much as he could, but sometimes, he couldn't keep his eyes off him.

Will blinked suddenly, looking around the crowded hall. "Yeah," he said. "I'm okay. The problem is that I think I know what D'Artagnan is. And it's not a new species." He chewed his lip nervously. "I have to tell Mike. But he's not in my next class. Are you?"

"What about Dart?" Gabe asked, before realizing he hadn't answered Will's question. "No, I'm not in his next class. But Will, what are you talking about? What do you know about—" Will had ducked into his classroom, leaving Gabe along outside, filled with confusion. But even though Mike wasn't in his next class, there was a girl that was. And so he hiked his bag up over his shoulders and went to find Alina.

"Listen, I don't know what Will's talking about," said Alina. It was the last few moments of class, and she and Gabe were sitting at the back, quietly talking as the rest of the class finished up a worksheet. She chewed on the end of her pencil thoughtfully. "He's pretty smart, though, so he probably just figured out what species Dart is. That creepy thing's probably some obscure creature from China or something. I wouldn't worry about it, Gabe."

"Okay," said Gabe, but Alina could tell he still wasn't convinced. He popped another gummy worm into his mouth—he seemed to bring candy everywhere with him, Alina realized—and offered her the bag. And although Alina was still full from last night, she took one. As she chewed, she was reminded of last year, hunkering down in the bus to hide from the bad men, sharing gummy worms and showing Eleven the contents of her bag.

God, she missed Eleven. Max and Gabe in no way were able to fill the hole Eleven had made when she'd died, and she thought about her every day. And now, Eleven had even started appearing in her dreams. She thought back to the one last night, with the void she used to enter when she was using her powers and how different Eleven had looked with her hair long. But Alina would always recognize her big brown eyes.

The bell rang, signaling the end of school, and Gabe and Alina separated, heading to their lockers before they would meet up in Mr. Clarke's room to show him the not-pollywog. Alina was shutting her locker when she heard a very familiar voice meet her ears.

"Hey, Byers."

Clenching her fists, Alina turned to meet the eyes of Daniel Tree. The boy wasn't very tall—the two of them were practically the same height—but he still managed to imitate her regardless. Today, however, she wasn't imitated. She was angry. Angry at his stupid costume from last night, even though she had gotten her revenge.

"Daniel," she said coolly, but she was biting her tongue so hard she almost drew blood, "my last name isn't Byers. It's Fairgrieves."

Daniel let out a laugh. "They still haven't adopted you yet? Pity. I mean, this whole thing is a pity. You shouldn't be living with Zombie Boy and his creepy older brother. You should be in the looney bin where you belong. You little freak." He bugged his eyes out, imitating a zombie staring at the walls. "That's what you were doing, wasn't it? 'Cause you have stupid trauma from when you killed your dad?"

"I didn't kill my dad, asshole!" Alina usually didn't stand up for himself, but today Daniel was going too far.

"You and Zombie Boy can go make a home together in the looney bin. You wouldn't get married, of course, given that he's a little fa—"

"Shut up about Will!" Alina shrieked. Her hands automatically went to her bag, and she glared him down as she unzipped the front. "I saw you last night. Dressed as him. You're a piece of shit. You have no idea what he's gone through."

Daniel chuckled. "Yeah, I'm sure getting lost in the woods must've been real traumatizing." Then his eyes widened as he realized what she was also implying. "So you're the little bitch that cut holes in my bag. I should've known it was you." And before Alina could even react, Daniel was gripping her arm, hard enough that Alina knew it would leave bruises. She didn't cry out. She'd faced worse pain than this. But it took a lot in her not to slam her fist into his stupid face as he leaned closer. "I wouldn't mess with me, Fairgrieves. You have no idea what I can do."

Alina grabbed her switchblade out of her bag and popped it open, holding the blade in front of his face. Daniel's eyes widened, and it was nice to see the fear that filled his eyes, even though she knew she would never hurt him with it.

"And you have no idea what I can do either, Daniel Tree," Alina spat, waving the blade, "so you better leave me and my friends alone. Didn't you hear what happened to Troy and James last year after they messed with us? Because I know one of them ended up with a burnt face and the other with a broken arm."

Daniel let go of her abruptly. "Freak," he spat. "You're a lunatic, Alina Fairgrieves. And someday you and your freaky friends will get what you deserve. Especially Midnight. You and him don't deserve to be in Hawkins. Maybe someone will teach him a lesson. It'd be what he deserves."

And it was just like last night. Some invisible force took hold of Alina and thrust her forward, and before she could even react, even fight, she had slashed Daniel Tree across the cheek with her blade. Granted, it wasn't a deep scratch—she'd barely grazed him—but Daniel let out a cry of pain, and Alina's jaw dropped open. Blood ran from the thin line she'd gouged in his cheek, and he cupped it, his eyes wide with fear.

Her switchblade fell to the floor with a clatter, and then she was running, running away from Daniel Tree and his bloody face, running until she reached Mr. Clarke's classroom. She felt like throwing up.

Why had she done that? She hadn't wanted to—she didn't like having to resort to physical violence until it was absolutely necessary—and it hadn't even felt like she'd been doing it. Was this what it was like to go insane? To have your body moving before your mind could?

What if she hurt one of her friends next?

No, don't think like that, she thought as she pushed open the door. Daniel deserved it. He was being a complete asshole. You snapped, and rightfully so. Maybe now this bastard will be taught a lesson.

It took her a while to realize it wasn't her voice saying that.

Mr. Clarke looked up at the sound of the door opening. Strangely enough, he was alone, sitting behind his desk grading papers, which made Alina pause momentarily. Weren't her friends supposed to be showing him Dart? Where were they?

"Ah, Alina," said Mr. Clarke. "Your friends were looking for you. They left in quite the hurry. They were supposed to be showing me something... but never mind that. Can I help you?"

"Do you know where they went?" Alina asked, breathing hard.

"No," said Mr. Clarke, "but I'd try the AV Room to be safe."

"Thanks," said Alina, and ran off, confused as to what had happened to stop the showcasing of the creature. As she ran, her heart pounded. Perhaps Gabe had been right to be worried. Perhaps Will had known Dart because he'd seen him before. And not in this world.

Maybe Dart was from the Upside Down. 

  . ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

a/n: okay like two people responded but i decided to do mad'ouk week anyway! the chapter i posted yesterday doesn't count, so it officially starts today! i'll be updating this book every day for an entire week! i hope you're excited haha!

anyway, what are your theories on alina's strange behaviour? do you think you know what's happening? she kind of went off tbh, but what do you think the voice is?

 i hope you enjoyed this chapter! i know they're kind of short, but it's easier for me to write for some reason. make sure to vote/comment if you liked!

'till next time!