Brileigh and Five (and Delores) continued to walk through the streets of Hawkins, Brileigh trying to admire their surroundings and ignore her wandering thoughts of their somewhat sticky situation while Five talked to Delores as if she would actually answer.

She tried her best to ignore that, too.

Eventually, Brileigh spotted a school building, several kids wandering around outside. "Five, we should go in!"

"And why on earth would we do that?" Five asked.

"Because we can look like we fit in, make ourselves not look as suspicious," Brileigh explained. "If adults catch us wandering around town by ourselves they'd think we're skipping and we'd get in trouble, and until we can figure out how to get the hell out of this place to stop the end of the world, we're stuck here."

Five sighed as the two headed towards the nearest doors of the school. "I guess you've got somewhat of a point. Let's just not draw attention to ourselves."

Brileigh snickered as her eyes ran up and down Five. "Says the one wearing some preppy looking school uniform in a public middle school."

"Shut up," Five rolled his eyes right before a small kid bumped into them. He muttered a quiet "Sorry," before scurrying off. Five eyed the kid, a small smirk forming on his face.

"He's the perfect target to follow," Five said before grabbing Brileigh's hand and running off after the small kid.

"What do you mean, 'perfect target'? We're not killers, Five! This isn't some Bonnie & Clyde spinoff!" Brileigh exclaimed right before Five took a sudden stop, Brileigh stumbling to catch herself as he hid around a corner. He grabbed the back of her shirt and yanked her behind him, both of their heads peeking around the corner as they watched the small boy enter a classroom. Five quickly moved around the corner and placed his ear against the door to where he could faintly hear voices, and he tried to listen; but of course, Brileigh had to ruin that.

"I just don't understand why we're following around some innocent little boy. We're supposed to be fitting in, Five, not following kids around like we're—" Brileigh rambled on and on, but was finally interrupted when Five's hand covered her mouth.

"Bri, dear, would you please do me a favor and shut the fuck up?!" Five whisper-yelled before removing his hand. "I'm trying to listen!"

"Oh, you mean spy on those innocent people?" Brileigh raised her eyebrows.

"Just shut up, Bri!" Five said a little too loudly, the voices on the other side of the wall going dead silent. A few moments later, the door swung open, which Five was leaning against moments before. He fell over, Brileigh landing on top of him. They both looked up to see a red haired girl looking down at them with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Can I help you, stalkers?" The red haired girl asked.

"Who the hell are they?" A long haired brunette asked from behind her, her electric blue eyes locking on the two of them on the floor.

"Heh... hi..." Five chucked nervously as Brileigh rolled her eyes.

"Great. Just great," she muttered under her breath.

•••

"Okay, you've got some explaining to do; who the hell are you guys?" The red haired girl asked after dragging the two of them inside the classroom and sitting them down, a hot lamp aimed down at the two of them.

"I feel like we're on one of those detective shows where we're about to get interrogated—" Brileigh began to ramble.

"Shut up, Bri! Seriously!" Five hissed frustratedly.

"They act a lot like an old married couple," The brunette blue eyed girl pointed out.

"We are not a couple!" Brileigh and Five exclaimed in unison.

"That just adds more onto my point," the brunette blue eyed girl laughed.

"I'm going to ask one more time," the red haired girl leaned in closer to the two of them. "Who are you two?!"

Brileigh sighed. "My name is Brileigh, he's Five—yeah you heard me right, I had the same look on my face when I first found out his name, too—and we got a little lost on a road trip and ended up here..." As Brileigh continued to explain, Five's eyes wandered around the room, examining his surroundings. He then spotted a briefcase in the corner, and it seemed so very familiar to him. He tried to wrack his brain for where he had seen it before, and that's when he remembered; when he first found Delores, she was next to a briefcase that looked exactly like the one he was eyeing right in that very moment. A briefcase from the future.

"Hey, where did you get that briefcase?" Five asked, interrupting Brileigh's explanation about how they got to Hawkins.

"It's mine, don't worry about it," the brunette blue eyed girl quickly responded as she shoved it further back and out of sight, avoiding eye contact with Five. He started getting weird vibes about it, and her, and he made sure not to let it slip out of his mind.

"So anyway, now that you know us, who are you guys?" Brileigh asked.

"I'm Max," the red haired girl answered. "That's Avabelle, Dustin, Lucas, Mike, and Eleven, or El for short." She pointed to each one as she introduced them.

Five's eyes widened. "Eleven?!"

The girl, Eleven, raised an eyebrow. "Guess you're not the only kid with a number as a name."

"I guess not," Five sat back in his seat, fascinated. He then leaned in towards Brileigh, whispering to her, "I think we'll fit in just fine here."

•••

A/N: this was absolute CRAP but it's fine i'm fine 🤷🏻‍♀️ but in the next chapter or so things will start to get juicy 🤭

anyway i hope you enjoyed this chapter! if so please don't forget to vote comment and share because i love your feedback!

thanks, until next time ;)