Chapter Twenty-Four: Everything Has Changed

Thunder roared above as the three girls walked to Max's house. El was still pretty shaken when they woke up that morning, so the girls decided to leave a note for Hopper that they'd be sleeping over at Max's.

El had told them a bit more this morning about what she had seen, including the fact that Billy had "sensed" her in there. This made shivers run down Annie's back. From what she had heard from El and the others in the Party, that was not supposed to happen.

Annie felt her feet ache slightly in her white converse. They'd been walking for forever. With the threat of rain, she wasn't exactly thrilled to be wearing her white t-shirt. She'd try to borrow a jacket from Max.

She was also hoping the rain would hold off until they got into Max's house since Annie was carrying the backpack that had the girls' stuff in it. Well, some clothes for El the next day and the stuff the other two brought with them to El's.

Again, Annie was really hoping she'd be able to borrow something of Max's to wear the next day.

"It's gonna start pouring soon," Max said as more thunder rolled. "We should be at the mall, or like, watching a movie or something."

El looked over at the redhead. "You don't believe me?" she asked, somewhat hurt.

Max's eyebrows raised. "I believe you saw some super weird stuff, totally... but you said Mike has sensed you in there before, right?" El nodded. "So maybe it was just like that. Maybe Billy just... sensed you somehow," Max concluded.

From the other side of El, Annie shrugged. "Who knows, I think it's worth it and then once we figure it out we can hang out at the mall again, go bother Steve," Annie suggested.

El sighed. "But the screams," she said. This was the part that made Annie grimace if the 'screams' were what Max was talking about.

"Yeah, I know, but here's the thing. When Billy is alone with a girl, they make, like, really crazy noises," Max said, and Annie shivered in disgust.

"They scream?"

"Yeah, but like... happy screams."

The sex talk wasn't going well. "Happy screams? What is happy screams?" El asked, completely lost.

"It's like..." Max shook her head. "I'm just gonna lend you my mom's Cosmo."

Annie chuckled. "We can talk about this later, I doubt Hopper will. Hell, we'll bring in Joyce if needed," Annie said, joking around a bit. Max smiled and laughed, but El just looked confused.

They stopped right outside Max's house and the redhead noticed Billy's car was gone right away. "You really wanna do this?" she asked El, and the girl nodded. "All right."

The girls walked up and into the house, Annie stopping at Max's room to drop of the bag of stuff, then down the hall to Billy's. Annie was weirdly intrigued, having never been near his room before- there was no need to. Plus, if Billy ever caught Max and her snooping, they would've been running for their lives.

Max went first and opened up the door, and some rock music filled the room. "Why do I get the feeling we're gonna find all kinds of wrong in here?" she asked.

"Because we will," Annie said with a humorless laugh.

Max walked further in, going for the table by his bed. Annie only took a few steps in, not sure where to go. El remained by the door, looking around.

"Ugh! Gag me with a spoon," Max exclaimed, and Annie turned to see her quickly shutting the top drawer. Max turned and caught Annie's eye, and the brunette raised a questioning eyebrow. "Disgusting." Annie turned back around, putting together what it was.

A couple minutes, and some images Annie can never erase later, the girls walked across the hall to the bathroom, El leading the way this time.

Annie followed Max while El went to the bathtub. "Max? Annie?" They walked over and looked into the tub as well. It was full of water and bags that said 'Ice', so that's what the water started out as.

"Ice," Max read as she pulled one of the bags out of the water. "It's just ice. Probably for his muscles or something, he works out like a maniac."

Annie had a few memories race to her head, when Steve used to play basketball and would have to take ice baths. She never really understood the point of it.

El looked away and over the cabinet, Annie following her eyes. "Max?" she said this time, alarmed at the blood on the cabinet door. El walked over and opened up the cabinet, Annie looking at Max, officially concerned.

Max looked at Annie, too, finally starting to look concerned as well. They looked back over at El when she pulled something out. A green bucket.

"El, what is it?" Max asked. She pulled out a red fanny pack from the bucket, setting it on the counter, then something else.

With the second thing in hand, she turned and faced the other two girls fully. Annie gasped and covered her mouth. A bloody whistle swung lightly in El's hand.

"Believe me?" El asked, but she didn't sound cocky. She was scared. Max swallowed and nodded, Annie having to look away. She had kind of hoped El had been wrong, because that would've been better than this.

"What do we do now?" Annie asked in a small voice.

She looked at Max first, who sighed and looked at El, the whistle, and the fanny pack. "Well, let's start with the pool? That's where Billy works and that's a lifeguard bag and whistle," she said.

El nodded, finally setting the whistle down. Another roar of thunder boomed overhead, this time accompanied with the sound of pouring rain.

"Great timing," Annie muttered.

Max nodded in agreement. "Come on, I've got a few raincoats we can wear. Then we can take my bike and yours to the pool?" Max suggested, looking at Annie. The brunette had completely forgotten she rode her bike to Max's the day before.

They followed Max to her room where she pulled out three coats; red, yellow, and green. "Sorry it's not pink, Barbie," Max joked, a ghost of a smile showing up on her face as she handed Annie the green one.

"It's okay, I just find it funny Red has a red raincoat," she joked back.

Max rolled her eyes and handed the red coat to El, taking yellow for herself.

The girls then hurried outside, El holding the fanny pack with the whistle tucked inside, and they all got situated on the bikes. Max took El on hers, and the girls were off to the pool.

Despite the rain, or even because of the rain, they managed to make it in record time. There was a lot going on- they didn't have time to take the scenic route. When they got there, the usual crowd of people in the pool was up and running around, trying to get out of the rain.

Max and Annie parked their bikes and the girls went over the front desk, removing their hoods along the way.

"Excuse me," Max said to the very bored teenagers.

"No one in the water until 30 minutes after the last strike," the boy said. Obviously he'd been saying it a lot. "And don't try and argue with me. You want to get electrocuted go climb a tree." Yep, a lot.

"Yeah, we don't care, we're not here to swim," Max said. "Or get electrocuted."

El pulled the fanny pack from her pocket and held it up, saying, "We found this."

When neither of them said anything, Annie jumped. "Does it belong to anybody here?

"Oh yeah, that's Heather's," the boy said. "I'll get it back to her."

"We could give it back to her," El interjected.

"You could. 'Cept, she's not here. Bailed on me today," he said, as if finally admitting he could actually talk to them like people, not children. Annie felt goosebumps fill her arms and looked at the other two, worried. "What is this?" the guy questioned. "You girls want a reward or somethin'?"

"No, we're just," Max started.

"Good Samaritans," Annie finished, giving them a smile. The girl gave a sarcastic smile back, and Annie resisted the eye roll she wanted to give.

Annie looked over at the other two and saw El walking off. She and Max followed, seeing her go towards a wall that had pictures of the '85 lifeguards. Including Heather.

"Heather," Max said. "Do you think you can find her?" After a quick glance to the ones at the front desk, El looked back at the wall and pulled Heather's picture off of it.

"Yes," she answered as they all walked off.

Annie had an idea. "Locker room, let's go in there since no one else is going to be." They went off in that direction and locked the door for good measure.

They got the set up done, meaning Max and Annie turned on each shower for white noise and El duck taped some goggles they found as her mask.

Annie sat on the bench next to Max and watched El move the mask over her eyes with the picture sitting in front of her. In the silence, Annie's hand found Max's to hold. She was scared, scared of what El would find, scared of what happened to Heather... scared of what Billy could've done.

Max squeezed the hand in hers, wanting to say something to reassure Annie but she didn't want to distract El, either. So a squeeze would have to be enough for now.

When it had been quiet for too long, Max asked, "What do you see?"

"A door... a red door," El answered quietly. Clearly she was still trying to process what she was seeing in there (whatever 'there' was).

Annie felt her leg start to bounce up and down. She wasn't exactly an anxious person, but this was an anxious matter if that made sense. After the events of last year, too, she's become a little more on edge.

Annie's jolted from her thoughts when El gasps and pulled the goggle mask off. "What happened?" Max immediately asked as the girl in question started hyperventilating. "El!"

El looked at the other two for a second, then put her head in her hands to calm down. After a minute, she looked back up. "She needs help."

A/n: hee hee