"Here they are," Anna announced to Becca, who continued to scrawl away at a shopping list as Nancy, Jonathan, and Michelle pulled into the parking lot, coming to a stop in the space next to theirs.

As the three of them piled out of Jonathan's car, meeting them in front of Becca's, Anna couldn't help but notice that they all seemed a little worse for wear after their night in the woods before, the same as she and Becca had. Anna had tossed and turned all night, with visions of the monster from the pixelated photograph appearing whenever her mind had finally allowed her to drift off for a moment or two, dragging the injured deer farther and farther away from them.

"Did you guys sleep okay?" Michelle asked, but Anna and Becca simply shook their heads.

"Not even a little bit," Becca said. "You?"

Michelle shook her head back in return. "Nope,"

"I made two shopping lists," Becca explained, handing one to Nancy. "Michelle, Anna, and I can hit up Melvald's, see what we can get from there. Nancy and Jonathan, the other list is for any hardware and hunting supplies you can find over at Hunting and Camping."

"Wouldn't you guys want to take that one?" Jonathan asked, his eyebrows furrowing together slightly as he peered over Nancy's shoulder to inspect the items on the list. "Landon works there, right?"

"That's exactly why we're not the ones going in there." Anna explained. "If he sees us going in there to buy monster hunting supplies, he'll get suspicious, and the last thing we want is to get him involved in whatever this is. He'll probably think it's weird for you guys to be in there, sure, but he wouldn't question it the same way."

"We'll take care of it," Nancy said, nodding understandably. "We'll grab the supplies, and then meet back here in forty-five minutes?"

"Deal," the others chorused before the two groups began to split up, Nancy and Jonathan rounding the corner as the three girls made their way down the street to the general store.

The bell above the door jingled with a dull thud as Anna pushed open the glass door, leading the other two girls inside. It was mostly empty, save for a few adults milling about the store, looking down at shopping lists they'd also compiled for that Sunday afternoon. Becca glanced down at the list while Michelle grabbed a cart, gesturing for them to follow her back towards where the pet supplies were usually kept, for whatever marked the top of the items she had deemed important to their mission.

"Why are we back here?" Michelle asked, her eyebrows furrowing together in confusion. "What, are we distracting him with squeaky toys?"

"Of course not," Becca said, eyes scanning the shelves before grabbing a few cans of dog food and dropping them into the shopping cart.

"Becs, what do we need dog food for, exactly?" Anna asked, fighting a smirk as she glanced over at the blonde, who gave her a shrug in return.

"This thing might be hungry." she said. "Besides deer, we don't know what all it eats. Meat's a safe option, and this shit's cheaper than anything we'd get at the grocery store."

Anna and Michelle exchanged a quick glance. "She's got a point," Anna said finally, and Becca smiled satisfactorily as they continued to move onto the next item on her list.

To make their trip go quicker, the girls each took a section of the list, splitting up to gather the necessary items that would help them trap the monster that evening. By the time they'd placed everything on the counter, with Michelle waiting outside so her mother's boss wouldn't see her and get suspicious of the variety of items the girls were purchasing, it was nearly time to meet Nancy and Jonathan back in the parking lot.

"Do either of you see them?" Michelle asked as they neared the cars, where both vehicles still sat in the lot, though Nancy and Jonathan were nowhere to be found.

"Maybe they're just still getting the hunting supplies?" Anna suggested as they reached Becca's car, placing the items inside the trunk, but when she peered into the backseat of Jonathan's car, bags full of hardware were perched on the leather seat. "The stuff is all here," she observed, eyebrows furrowing together in confusion.

"Where'd they go, then?" Michelle asked. "Becca, was there another store on that list they needed to go to?"

"No," Becca said, shaking her head. "Everything on there should've been in the-"

Becca's voice was cut off as a siren began to blare, drowning out their conversation as a police car rushed by, back in the direction of the other shops in town. The girls exchanged a look, knowing that any cause for the police in the past week had been for something less than good, that more than likely had to do with the situation they had somehow found themselves right in the middle of.

"Get in," Becca said, slamming the trunk door, and the girls quickly hopped inside her car, with Anna in the passenger seat and Michelle in the backseat.

Becca pulled onto the main road, following behind the cop car, and the girls watched as it swerved into an alley on the other side of The Hawk Theater, where a flash of red drew Anna's attention. Where the marquee had once simply stated the movie times for that day's showings of All the Right Moves, the addition of 'Starring Nancy "The Slut" Wheeler' had been hastily scrawled in bright crimson spray paint.

"What the hell?" Becca asked as she slammed on the brakes, rolling down the driver's window as Nancy's voice cut through the air.

"Stop it!" Nancy shouted, a number of indiscernible voices all yelling around her as the police officers jumped out of the vehicle, moving quickly to dispel whatever was taking place in the alley. "Jonathan!"

Michelle's face paled at the mention of her brother's name, and she quickly undid her seatbelt. "I-I have to go," she stammered, reaching for the door handle. "I'll see you guys later."

"Come here, you little guys!" Officer Callahan's voice could be heard, though as he continued to yell, it grew further and further away as he ran in the opposite direction.

As Michelle ran into the alley, Becca's gaze went back to the graffiti on the marquee, and she gripped the steering wheel tightly, turning her knuckles white as she shook her head. "Unfuckingbelievable," she said, turning her car in reverse so she could turn around, and she turned the car around the block, attempting to get to the other side of the alley. "Hold on,"

Anna spotted Carol and Nicole first, running down the block as far from the alley as they could get. Not far behind them were Steve and Tommy, gaining distance between them and Officer Callahan, and as Anna rolled down the passenger side window, Becca slammed on the brakes.

"Get in the car, Steven!" Becca shouted, grabbing Steve's attention as he broke away from Tommy and the others, pulling open the door and jumping into the backseat.

As he turned to face them, Anna could see a cut splitting the skin over the bridge of his nose, as well as a much larger one around his left eye, the skin already beginning to bruise as he held a hand over his eye to attempt to stop the bleeding. As soon as the car door was shut behind him, Becca took off, rounding the corner and leaving Officer Callahan, Tommy, and the others far behind as they vanished from sight.

"Are you going to tell us what the hell just happened?" Becca demanded, shooting Steve an angry glare through the rearview mirror as she reached for the glove compartment, grabbing a napkin and handing it to him to cover the bleeding under his eye. "Why is Nancy Wheeler's name spray painted on The Hawk with the word 'slut?'"

Steve sighed, pressing the napkin to his eye. "I tried to stop by Nancy's last night after the movies, but when I got there, she was sitting on her bed with Byers. Can you believe she actually cheated on me with that freak? It was Tommy's idea for the marquee, he's the one who did it, but then Nancy showed up with Byers, she and I both said some things, and then he threw the first punch, alright? He threw the first punch after sleeping with my girlfriend."

"She didn't sleep with him, you idiot, Michelle was there too last night." Becca said. "There's nothing going on between Jonathan and Nancy, and this whole thing could have been avoided if you'd just asked her. But no, as always, you and Tommy had to go and be assholes about the whole thing. You know, sometimes there's a lot more to the story than two people deciding to just sleep together."

"Hang on," he said, looking back up at her intently. "How do you know Michelle was with them last night? How do you know there's more?"

"That's not important," she shrugged off, the last thing on the blonde's mind being everything Nancy had been through with the monster the night before. "The point is, you have no idea what's been going on with that family, and now you just got Jonathan arrested, which is another thing Mrs. Byers is going to have to deal with after she just buried her youngest son. Did you ever think about that?"

"Why am I always the bad guy here, Becs?" he asked. "He's the one who took our pictures in the woods, and I was the asshole for breaking his camera. He threw the first punch today, why is this my fault?"

"You know exactly why, Steve." Becca huffed, turning the car as they pulled into the Harringtons' neighborhood. Becca pulled the car into the driveway, putting it in park and killing the engine. "I'll be upstairs, I need a minute," she said, walking inside the house and up the stairs, where the sound of her bedroom door shutting soon echoed throughout the house.

Anna stood in the entryway for a moment with Steve, an awkward silence falling between the two as he moved into the kitchen, throwing away the napkin Becca had given him in the car and instead reaching for an ice pack from the freezer, holding it up against his eye as it began to turn a deeper shade of purple.

"What did you say to them?" Anna asked finally, looking up at where Steve had now followed her into the living room.

"What?" Steve asked, the ice pack still firmly held against his eye.

"You said that you and Nancy both said some things to each other before you and Jonathan got in the fight." Anna explained. "What did you say to them, Steve?"

Steve avoided her gaze as he took a deep breath, his gaze down on the floor. "Look, Becca already told me enough that I'm being an asshole." he said. "I don't know, I accused Nancy of cheating on me with Byers, said their whole family's a bunch of screw ups, I mean, look at what happened to his brother, and that's when he hit me."

"Steve," Anna said, her blood turning to ice in her veins at his words.

"I know, I know," he said, shaking his head.

"Becca's right, you know," she said. "You don't always have to be such a jerk."

"Oh save it, Anna." Steve snapped. "I don't need this from you, too."

"You know, Steve, you could actually be a good guy." she said. "You could be a really good guy. I've seen it, I know he's in there somewhere."

"Okay?" he asked, urging her to continue.

"You could be that guy if you weren't always so worried about what Tommy H and Carol thought of you." Anna said.

"Oh, I'm worried about what they think of me?" Steve asked in disbelief.

"I know you are," she said adamantly.

Anger flashed in Steve's eyes as he looked back up at her, though before he could respond, a horn sounded in the driveway, pulling their attention to the window. Outside, Tommy's car sat in the driveway, with him and Carol waiting impatiently in the front seats.

"Speak of the devils," Anna muttered, crossing her arms over her chest. "I think your ride's here, King Steve."

Steve looked at Anna one last time, shaking his head before wordlessly pulling the door open and slamming it behind him, leaving her alone in the living room as he ran to join the others. She watched as he climbed into the backseat of Tommy's car, and saw the smirk Tommy gave her from the driver's seat as he backed out onto the road, the car slowly turning the corner and vanishing from view.