After their trip to the mall, the girls headed back to Hopper's cabin for a sleepover. Eleven was engrossed in reading magazines that Max had brought over for her, while Juliette and Max danced around, singing along to Madonna's "Angel."

Juliette noticed Eleven had stumbled upon a poster of Ralph Macchio. "Oh, you found Ralph Macchio," she exclaimed as she sat on the bed, and Max joined her.

"Macchio?" Eleven chuckled. "Yeah, he's the Karate Kid. Hai-yah!" Max said, playfully mimicking karate moves.

"He's so hot, right?" Max added.

"Yeah, I'm not even attracted to men, and I think he's attractive," Juliette laughed.

"I bet he's an amazing kisser too." Juliette playfully hit Max on the shoulder.

"Well, not as good as you," Max responded with a laugh.

"Hey, uh..." Juliette scooted closer to Eleven. "Is Mike a good kisser?" she asked.

"I don't know. He's my first boyfriend," Eleven replied.

"Ex-boyfriend," Max corrected. Eleven's smile faded.

"Hey, don't worry about it, okay? He'll come crawling back to you in no time, begging for forgiveness," Juliette reassured her.

"Yeah, I guarantee you, he's in his basement with the guys and is like, totally wallowing in self-pity and misery right now," Max chimed in.

"He's probably like, 'Oh, I hope she takes me back,'" Juliette mockingly imitated Mike. The girls burst into laughter.

"God, what I wouldn't give to see his stupid face right now," Juliette said. Eleven had an idea and smirked at the girls.

"What is it?" Max asked.

Eleven explained how she could visit them without them knowing she was there. Max turned on the radio static, and Eleven blindfolded herself.

"Is this really gonna work?" Juliette asked, to which Eleven nodded.

"Holy shit, this is insane."

"Max."

"Yeah, sorry, quiet," Max apologized.

"I see them," Eleven said.

"What are they doing?" Juliette asked.

"Eating," Eleven replied.

"They say we are species," Eleven uttered.

"What?" Max asked.

"Emotion, not logic," Juliette's eyes widened. "What?" she repeated.

A few minutes passed before Eleven took off her blindfold. "What happened?" Juliette asked.

Eleven didn't say anything and just burst into laughter, hysterically. The girls joined her in laughter until they heard Hopper's truck pull up.

They heard him yelling from outside the door, and suddenly he opened the door, quite loudly.

"Do you knock? Jeez," Juliette scolded him. "Yeah! Jeez!" Eleven echoed.

"Oh, hey. I'm sorry. I thought that, uh-" "Mike's not here," Max informed him.

"Max and Juliette wanted to have a sleepover. Is that...okay?" Hopper nodded.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do your parents know about this? Does Joyce know?" The girls nodded.

"Uh, yeah, it's cool. That's really cool," Hopper said, then just stood there.

"Did you need something?" Juliette asked. Hopper shook his head. "No, no. I'll just leave." He shut the door.

Later, Juliette convinced the girls to play spin the bottle, but with a twist: whoever the bottle landed on, they had to spy on.

"Holy shit, I can't believe we're really doing this," Juliette said while jotting down names.

"Ready?" Max asked. "Ready," Eleven confirmed, and she spun the bottle.

It landed on Mike's dad, Ted Wheeler.

"Mr. Wheeler. Ugh, boring," Juliette commented.

"Yeah, boring," Eleven chuckled.

"Spin again," Max suggested. "Against the rules?" Eleven asked.

"We make our own rules," Juliette declared. Eleven smiled and spun the bottle once more, and this time, it landed on Billy.

Max sighed. "Okay, look, I should just warn you if he's with a girl or doing something gross, just get out of there right away before you're scarred for life." Max grabbed the radio.

"I'm just saying, I'm serious. He's really gross."

"Max!" Eleven said.

"Okay, shutting up now," Max responded, turning on the radio, and Eleven blindfolded herself.

"I found him," Eleven whispered. "What's he doing?" Juliette asked.

"I don't know. He's on the floor...talking to someone."

A couple of seconds later, Eleven took off her blindfold, panicking.

"What is it? What happened?"

______

"I just don't understand what we're supposed to be doing," Ariana said as Dustin handed her binoculars and a walkie-talkie.

"You're looking for an evil Russian," Dustin replied.

"What does an evil Russian even look like?" Ariana asked.

"Blonde hair, sunglasses, duffel bag, tall, not smiling," Dustin explained.

"Okay," Ariana said, then walked away. She went over to the fountain to look around for an evil Russian but had no luck. All she saw were teenagers and parents shopping.

"This is useless," she mumbled to herself. She noticed Steve and Dustin over by some bushes, hoping they had more luck.

"Hey, Ariana," she turned to the side and saw one of her coworkers, Mark. "Hey, Mark, what's up?"

He sat down next to her. "Just got off my shift," he looked down at the binoculars and walkie-talkie.

"What's all this?" Ariana quickly put the items aside. "Nothing," she faked a smile.

"So, are you excited for college?" he asked.

Meanwhile, Steve and Dustin were also trying to look for an evil Russian but were having no luck. Steve turned to look at Ariana and his eyes widened. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me," he said.

"What?" Dustin asked.

"Ariana's talking with that meathead Mark Lewinsky," Dustin rolled his eyes.

"Dude, if you're not gonna focus, give me the binoculars," he said.

"Aw, Jesus Christ, whatever happened to standards?" Steve saw Ariana laughing at something Mark whispered in her ear.

"I mean, Lewinsky never even came off the bench," Dustin groaned.

"Dude, you are the worst spy in history. Why can't you just accept the fact that Ariana isn't interested in you anymore?" Steve sighed.

"I still want to look out for her. I mean, Mark Lewinsky is not the type of guy you would date. He's more of a fling if you ask me," Dustin rolled his eyes.

Ariana noticed Steve staring at her. "Uh, look, Ariana, there's something I've been meaning to ask you-"

"Hold on," Ariana stood up and started walking over to Steve and Dustin.

"Shit, she's coming," Steve handed the binoculars to Dustin.

"Can you not be a total creep for like five seconds?" Ariana asked.

"Sorry, I just...Mark? He's not exactly the dating type," Ariana rolled her eyes.

"I am not dating Mark. I don't even like him like that. We are coworkers. He just came over and started talking," Ariana whispered and yelled.

"Well, if you're not going to take this mission seriously, then you're off the team," Steve crossed his arms.

"Oh, please. You were looking at me and not looking for the Russians," Ariana said.

"Why don't you just get back to your boyfriend? I bet he misses you."

The both of them kept arguing, which Dustin found very annoying.

"Your jealousy is showing, Harrington," Ariana crossed her arms.

"Jealous? You think I'm jealous? Who would be jealous of Mark? He never even came off the bench," Steve said, offended.

"Target acquired," they both stopped arguing and looked at Dustin.

"What?" Steve asked.

"Target acquired," Dustin repeated.

"Where?" Ariana asked.

"Ten o'clock. Sam Goody's," Dustin said. Steve took the binoculars from him and looked into them. "Shit. Duffel bag. Evil Russian."

They followed the man through the mall, discreetly making sure he wouldn't see them. They followed him to a store called Jazzercise. They hid behind a plant, watching him. They soon realized that he wasn't an evil Russian but an exercise trainer.

"I can't watch this," Ariana walked away. The boys followed her. They went back to Scoops Ahoy, hoping Robin would be having better luck than them.

"Hey, Robin, you're not gonna believe who Dustin thought was a Russian," Steve said, walking into the store.

"You did too."

"Did not."

"Yes, you did. Your exact words were 'Evil Russian,'" Ariana mocked Steve.

"No, I never said that." Suddenly, Robin ran out of the store. "What's up with her?" Steve asked.

"I don't know." Ariana and the boys walked toward Robin, who was standing in the middle of the mall.

"Robin, what are you doing?" Ariana asked.

"I cracked it," Robin said.

"Cracked what?" Steve asked.

"I cracked the code."

______

Meanwhile, the girls were walking to Max's house because Eleven insisted on investigating what she had seen in her vision about Billy the previous night.

"It's going to start pouring soon. We should be at the mall or, like, watching a movie or something," Juliette said. Eleven turned to her.

"You don't believe me?" she asked.

"I believe you saw some super weird stuff, totally. I mean, it's Billy," she said.

"You said Mike had sensed you in there before, right?" Max asked, and Eleven nodded in response.

"Okay, so maybe it was just like that. Maybe Billy just...sensed you somehow," Max said.

"But the screams."

"Yeah, I know, but here's the thing. When Billy is alone with a girl, they make like really crazy noises," Max explained.

"They scream?" Eleven asked.

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

"Happy screams? What are happy screams?" Eleven asked.

"It's like...uh...Max, you explain," Juliette said. Max sighed. "I'll just lend you my mom's Cosmo."

They finally reached Max's house, and to their surprise, Billy's car wasn't there.

"His cars not here. You really want to do this?" Eleven turned to Max and nodded.

They walked inside and headed to Billy's room. Max opened the door. "Why do I get the feeling we're going to find all kinds of wrong in here?"

Juliette said. There was distant metal music playing, and his room smelled like cigarettes and cologne.

They began looking around his room and walked into the bathroom. Eleven noticed the tub full of water and empty bags of ice.

"Guys?"

The girls came over and saw the tub. Max picked up a bag. "Ice. It's just ice. Probably for his muscles or something. He works out like a maniac."

Eleven turned to the sink and saw blood on the cabinet door. She opened it and took out a trash can.

"El, what is it?" Juliette asked.

Eleven took a lifeguard fanny pack out of the trash and a yellow whistle that had blood on it.

"What the hell," Juliette mumbled.

"Okay, this is crazy. Billy wouldn't murder a girl," Max walked out of the bathroom.

"He almost murdered me last year. I wouldn't put it past him," Juliette said. Max sighed heavily.

"I say we take the fanny pack back to the pool and figure out who it belongs to, then go from there," Juliette suggested.

"You're right. We should go to the pool," Max said. Eleven nodded in agreement and grabbed the fanny pack.

The girls put on raincoats and began walking to the pool. When they got there, they walked up to the front desk. "Excuse me," Juliette asked.

There were two lifeguards at the front desk reading a magazine. "No one in the water until 30 minutes after the last strike, and don't try to argue with me. You want to get electrocuted, go climb a tree," the guy said.

"Yeah, we don't care. We're not here to swim or get electrocuted," Juliette said. Eleven pulled the fanny pack out of her pocket.

"We found this." The lifeguards looked at the fanny pack. "Does that belong to anybody here?" Max asked.

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

"We could give it back to her," Eleven said.

"You could, except she's not here. Bailed on me today." The girls looked at each other.

"What is this? You girls want a reward or something?" the guy asked.

"No. We're just...good Samaritans," Max said.

Eleven turned around and looked at the bulletin board. It had a picture of every lifeguard that worked there. The girls walked over to it and saw Heather's picture.

"That's Heather. Do you think you can find her?" Juliette asked. Eleven nodded and took the picture.

They went into the locker room, turned on all the showers, grabbed goggles, and put tape over them. Eleven sat down and laid the picture in front of her. The girls sat on the bench and waited for her to find Heather.

Eleven finally pulled off her goggles after a couple of minutes and started panicking. "What happened? El!" Eleven looked at Juliette and Max and shook her head, indicating that she had seen something bad. Max and Juliette looked at each other in worry.

After Eleven calmed down, they biked to the place Eleven saw in her vision to make sure Heather was okay. They walked up to the door that was locked, and Eleven opened it with her mind. They walked inside and looked around for Heather.

They stopped when they saw a family portrait with Heather in it. "This is her house," Juliette said.

"What?" Eleven asked.

Suddenly, they heard laughing coming from another room. They walked to the room and saw Billy having dinner with Heather's mom and dad.

"Max?" Billy asked, confused.

"We didn't mean to... barge in. We tried to knock, but...maybe you didn't hear us over the storm," Max said.

"I'm sorry, who are these people dripping all over my living room right now?" Heather's dad asked. Billy chuckled.

"I'm sorry. Janet, Tom, this...is my sister, Maxine, and the girl next to her is her...adorable little friend." Billy got up and walked toward the girls.

"Adorable?" Juliette mumbled. "What on earth are you doing here? Is something wrong?" Billy asked.

"We just wanted to make sure everything was okay," Juliette said.

"Okay? Why wouldn't it be okay?" Billy asked.

"Where is she?" Eleven asked. Billy looked at her. "I'm sorry. Who are you?"

"Well, they're a little burnt, I'm sorry-" Heather came out of the kitchen with a tray of cookies in her hand and looked at the girls.

"Heather. This is my sister, Maxine, this is her friend Juliette, and I'm sorry, I did not quite catch your name." Eleven looked at Billy.

"El," she said.

"El. Now what is it you were saying, El? You were looking for somebody?" Eleven turned toward Heather.

"I-I saw-"

"Your manager. At the pool. He said you guys didn't come into work today, so we got worried," Max said.

"Heather wasn't feeling so hot today, so we thought we'd take the day off to nurse her back to health. But you're feeling just fine right now, aren't you, Heather?" Heather nodded.

"I'm feeling so much better." Juliette got a weird vibe from Heather, almost like she wasn't herself.

"Do you girls want a cookie? They're fresh out of the oven," she asked.

"No, thank you. We should probably get going," Juliette said.

"Well, be careful out in the rain, girls," Janet said.

"We will, thank you," Max said, then walked out the door. Billy watched as they walked away from the house.

"I don't know why, but I got the feeling that your brother and Heather weren't themselves," Juliette said.

"You saw them. They're fine," Max said.

"He called me adorable, Max," Juliette said.

"Okay, maybe he wanted to seem like a gentleman in front of Heather's parents. I'm sure he's fine," Max said.

END OF CHAPTER