El and Mike were already hugging each other I just stood there looking like a lost cause. 

"Alex." Lucas said walking up to me.

"Lucas." I answered he hugged me.

"Is that..." The girl asked Dustin and Dustin nodded. Me and Lucas let go after holding onto each other.

"I never gave up on you. I called you every night. Every night for-" Lucas started.

"353 days I heard." I finished for him.

"Why didn't you tell me you were there? That you both were okay?" Mike and Lucas said looking at us. I didn't look at my dad still mad at him.

"Becuase I wouldn't let them. (he walks over and looks at El) The hell is this? Where have you been?" He asked her ignoring me.

"Where have you been?" El asked.

"Hey sorry to interrupt but Hopper your daughter is in the room and she's been away for some time." Lucas said annoyed.

"Lucas its fine honestly." I started looing at Lucas.

"The hell is it fine it isn't fine your dad doesn't seem to care about you and you think it is fine to hell with this." Lucas yells.

"Lucas honestly it is fine I'm fine." I try to convince Lucas.

"So your letting your dad ignore you?" Lucas asked.

"Yes because he has been doing it since El has been around." I answered.

"What that is so not true." Dad tried.

"Well did you care where I was no did you try contacting El yes me no honestly I wished I stayed with my mom." I yelled.

"You went to your moms?" Dad asked.

"Yes I went to my moms in LA I went there felt like I couldn't of dealt with her drama and came back here to deal with your drama meaning I love you so much but you don't love me." I stated.

"No Alex I love you very much what gave you that idea?" He asked.

"The fact I was treated second best to you like I wasn't your kid and El was. I felt like an outcast." I answered. Dad sighs.

"Sorry I haven't been such a good dad to you Alex I do love you and I'm sorry I made you feel like an outcast." Dad said hugging me I hugged back.

"Just please don't do that again." I mumbled into his chest.

"You've been hiding them. You've been hiding them this whole time!" Mike and Lucas yelled. Mike shoves Hopper angrily but Hopper's built like a brick shithouse so it doesn't do much but annoy him.

"Lets talk. Alone." Dad says pulling both boys into the kitchen. I walked to Dustin.

"I missed you." Dustin told me and El.

"I missed you too." We answered.

"We talked about you pretty much every day." Dustin pipes up.

"Dustin teeth." I answered smiling.

"What?" He asked me.

"You have teeth this time." I answered.

"Oh. You like these pearls?" Dustin asked then purrs.

"This is what I befriended in 4th grade everyone and never do that again." I answered.

"Eleven Alex? Hey. Um, I'm Max. I've heard a lot about you." This Max piped up. El went somewhere.

"Sorry about my sister she don't like new people. Give her time." I answered looking at Max shaking her hand.

"Yeah of course." Max answers. I walked over to Joyce.

"Mom." I started hugging her.

"I'm here sweetheart." She answered hugging me back.

"I missed you so much." I mumbled into her neck crying.

"I missed you too." She answered. El went to Will's room with Joyce.

"Jonathan." I yelled running into his arms he picked me up and hugged me tight.

"Alex I missed you so much." He answers.

"I missed you Jonathan so much." I carried on. He put me down and I went to Nancy.

"Alex your alive." Nancy starts.

"Yes I am." I answered hugging her.

"Hi. Alex. I'm Steve the babysitter." Steve piped up after I hugged Nancy.

"Yeah nope." I answered walking off.

"[sighs] It's not like it was before. It's grown. A lot. [everyone is in the kitchen] And, I mean, that's considering we can get in there. The place is crawling with those dogs." Dad tried.

"Demo-dogs." I butted in and I wasn't even here Dustin looked at me.

"[sighs] I'm sorry, what?" Dad asked.

"I said, uh, Demo-dogs. Like Demogorgon and dogs. You put them together, it sounds pretty badass-" Dustin explained.

"How is this important right now?" I asked him.

"It's not. I'm sorry." Dustin answers.

"We can do it." El pipes up I nod.

"You're not hearing me." Dad states.

"We're hearing you. We can do it." I answer.

"Even if El and Alex can, there's still another problem. If the brain dies, the body dies." Mike pipes up.

"I thought that was the whole point." Max piped up from next to me.

"It is, but if we're really right about this... I mean, if El and Tess closes the gate and kills the mind flayer's army..." Mike starts.

"Will's a part of that army." Lucas answers.

"Closing the gate will kill him." I stated looking round around the room. Joyce is thinking, she gets up and goes to Will's room with everyone following her.

"He likes it cold." Joyce pipes up.

"What?" Dad asks. Has he not learnt anything.

"It's what Will kept saying to me. He likes it cold. [she closes his window] We keep giving it what it wants." Joyce explained.

"If this is a virus, and Will's the host, then..." Nancy started.

"Then we need to make the host uninhabitable." I answered.

"So if he likes it cold..." Nancy carries on.

"We need to burn it out of him." Joyce piped up looking at us.

"We have to do it somewhere he doesn't know this time." I pipe up knowing the perfect place.

"Yeah, somewhere far away." Dustin said from beside me I gave him a quick high five. I could tell dad knew I was happy to be back round everyone being the crazy bunch with Dustin always pretended we knew what was going on. I saw a photo of last years Halloween when I went as Princess Layla and Will went as Darthvader. 

"Take Denfield, then you'll see a large oak tree. You're gonna swing a right. That road is gonna dead-end. And it's about a five-minute walk from there." I explain. I put Will in the backseat of Jonathan's car taking my powers off him.

"[panting] Okay. Denfield to oak tree. Swing a right. That's it. But it's channel ten, right?" Jonathan asked.

"It's channel ten. Listen... You let me know when that thing is out of him." I answered.

"Stay safe I can't loose you again." Jonathan looked at me.

"I'm not always safe since stupid and dangerous are my middle names." I answered smiling. I watched Jonathan get in the car and drive off.

I was sat on the steps with Lucas. I was cuddled into his side I knew El and Mike were together. I looked up at Lucas smiling.

"I love you Lucas." I started.

"I love you too Alex." He answers. I leant towards him about to give him a kiss before dad beeped the horn of the car.

"El Alex... Come on, let's go. It's time." Dad yelled at us. I gave Lucas a quick kiss on the cheek before running to the front seat jumping in. El was already in the truck when I got in so dad started the engine. 

"So, what, we're just not gonna talk about it, huh?" Dad asked. I looked at him confused El did the same from the back seat.

"About what?" El asked.

"Oh, I don't know. I'm just curious, you know, why all of a sudden you look like some kind of MTV punk and a kid that fell into paint and had gum stuck in her hair. I'm not mad, kids. I just want to know where you've been. That's all." Dad answers. I looked at him more confused.

"To see Mama." El answered.

"You know I went to LA." I continued.

"Okay. How'd you get there?" Dad asked.

"A truck." El answered Dad looked at me slightly.

"A bus I took a bus ride to LA." I answered.

"A truck and a bus?" Dad asked.

"A big truck." El carried on.

"Well this bus was your normal bus had one floor was a metal box moving." I answered El tried not to laugh in the back.

"A big truck? Whose truck was it? And did you know the person driving the bus?" Dad asked.

"A man drove the bus dad." I answered El chuckled slightly in the back making me laugh.

"A man's." El answered.

"A man?" Dad asked us both.

"A nice man." El answered Dad has a surprised Pikachu face.

"Well this man that drove the bus was nice enough willing to drive me there." I carried on. 

"Okay. So let me just get this straight in my head. So a nice man in a big truck, he drove you to your mama's, and then what? Your Aunt Becky gave you those clothes and that makeup? A nice man drive you to LA to meet your mom? And did your mom let you do this to your hair?" Dad asked.

"I... I shouldn't have left." El piped up.

"Me ether dad." I carried on.

"Mmm-mmm. No. No, this isn't on you, kid. I should've been there. I should never have lied to you about your mom. Or about when you could leave. A lot of things I shouldn't have done. Sometimes I feel like I'm... [inhales sharply] Like I'm just some kind of black hole or something." Dad answered then he sighed. 

"A black hole?" El asked. 

"Yeah, it's a... You know, it's this thing in outer space. It's like, it sucks everything towards it and destroys it. Sarah had a picture book about outer space. She loved it." Dad piped up. I looked down.

"Who's Sarah?" El asked.

"My...er...she's...my sister." I answered.

"Sarah? Sarah's my girl. She's my little girl. Other then Alex." Dad answered.

"Where is she?" El asked.

"Well, that's kind of the thing, kid. She, uh... She left us." I tried to explain.

Eleven: Gone." El carried on.

Hopper: Yeah. The black hole. It got her. And somehow... I've just been scared, you know? I've just been scared that it would take you, too. I think that's why I get... so mad. I'm so sorry. For everything. I could be so... so..." Dad carried on.

"Stupid?" El asked. I just laughed.

"[chuckling] Yeah. Stupid." Dad said. El joined in laughing.

"Just really stupid." I stated.

"[she takes his hand] I've been stupid, too." El states. I put my hand on top of their hands.

"Well as I like to say stupid is my middle name." I answered making them laugh harder.

"I guess we broke our rule. [chuckles softly] I don't hate it, by the way. This whole... [motions to them vaguely] look. It's kinda cool." Dad says.

"Bitchin'." El suggested. I just laughed harder.

"Okay. Sure. Bitchin'." Dad states.

"I bet the whole weird vibe of you dad so that is why I'm weird." I state dad smiled at me. Me dad and El arrived at the lab. Me and El both have bad flash backs from the place.

" All right. You let me do the heavy lifting up front, all right? You save your strength till we're below. You okay?" Dad asked us both. I just got out of the car ignoring him so did El. Me and El walked down to the stairway with dad behind us. I noticed Owen.

"Stay here." I said to the others. "Oh hell. Hey, doc." I started. Owens sighed.

"Those suckers got you pretty good, huh? It's okay, don't talk. [she takes off his belt] Don't talk. I got you. I got you. I got you. h, yeah, I've been meaning to tell you. This is Eleven. Eleven, Doc Owens. Doc Owens, Eleven. She's been staying with me for about a year and she's about to save our asses. Maybe when this is all said and done, maybe you could help her out, too, you know? Maybe you could help her lead, like, a normal life. One where she's not poked and prodded and... treated like some kind of lab rat, you know? I don't know, just a thought. Even though you didn't help me live a normal life since I am here right now again." I explained. Owens groaned in pain. Dad grabbed his shoulders. He said something to him but I walked back to El. Dad managed to attack some demo-dogs and we walked to the entance to the gate when Jonathan's voice came through my walkie talkie.

"Alex, are you there? Alex, do you copy?" Jonathan asked.

"Yes I copy Jonathan." I answered.

"Close it." Jonathan said. Me El and dad went down in the elevator. We were right in front of it. My breath hitched at the sight of how big it was. El took my hand in comfort and I took dads. 

Me and El dropped our hands and used our hands and started using our powers. I remembered what happened with mom and El remembers something and we both use different ways to make our powers stronger. The gate starts to close. We were both making progress in the gate. I could tell dad was watching us close the gate. I heard something growl but I couldn't look. Dad used to his shotgun to shoot whatever it was. I started using my memories to make me angrier and angrier. The mind flyer tried to approach us like it did Will but we both raise both of our hands. We both scream causing us to lift up off the ground. 

We both continue screaming and with the last of mine and El's energy we closed the gate. Everything to do with the gate died. I dropped to the grown El followed shortly after. Dad held us both. El started crying which set me off because I hated when El was sad.

"You two did good. You did so good." Dad piped up still panting.


ONE MONTH LATER.

I was forced by Nancy to attend the snowball tonight. I didn't want to go because I hated dance's and I attended most school dance's just to make the boys happy about not going alone. Erica was so happy when I popped over to the Sinclair house yesterday morning. I was surprising everyone there. Mrs Sinclair even made my favourite which made me happier. I was surprised dad let me go out even after he told me about what Owens said. I was happy El was apart of the Hopper family finally. 

AT THE SINCLAIR HOUSE.

"Hey wanna dance?" Lucas was practicing to ask Tess to dance.

"No. We should, you know, get out there, like do our thing... Stop." He didn't seem to notice Erica at the door.

"I love this song." Lucas was standing in front of the mirror doing it. "You?" Erica thought it was a good idea to make herself noticed.

"Yeah, I love it. But not as much as I love you, Luckey." Erica piped up. 

"Get out my room!" Lucas yelled.

"But if I hear from Alex you hurt her your dead." Erica mentioned.

"Why would I hurt her Erica?" Lucas asked.

"Because you are a nerd." She answered. 

AT THE MIDDLE SCHOOL.

I managed to get ready without dad going all dad mode on me. El convinced dad to drive us to the dance. Dad took a quick picture of us before we left for the dance. I could tell if we stayed any longer he would of started crying that I was growing up and this was El's first dance. 

"Look you guys be careful please." Dad said as we got to the school.

"Dad you know that we Hoppers are never safe I mean look at what happened." I answered looking at him.

"Yeah you make a good point there. Oh and before you leave I need to give you something." Dad said before I got out the van.

"Dad what is it my friends are waiting." I answered.

"Right you know how Sara had them hair ties?" Dad asked.

"Yeah I know about her two favourite hair ties." I answered. He handed me something.

"That's the blue hair tie I know you wanted." Dad answered. I looked at him.

"Dad you said you wanted it." I stated.

"I know but Sara would of wanted you to have it because we both know blue is your favourite colour." Dad answered I smiled at him.

"Thanks dad." I carried on.

"Alex you coming or what?" Dustin asked from the door. I knew he had just arrived because I saw Steve.

"One second Dustin." I yelled back.

"Go Alex I want you and El to have fun." Dad answered.

"You sure I don't have to attend?" I asked him.

"No go I know your boyfriend is waiting inside." Dad answered I smiled at him.

"I love you dad." I carried on kissing his cheek.

"I love you to Alex. Now go." He answered. I nodded and ran towards Steve giving him a hug.

"What's this for?" He asked before hugging me back.

"Because I am sorry about how I acted towards you when I first met you and because you helped my friends." I answered.

"Right it's okay. I'm guessing you saw what happened between me and Nancy when you were gone?" He asked I nodded.

"It was one of the reason's I was sour to you when I first met you so I am sorry." I answered.

"Alex come on." Dustin yelled.

"Go Dustin is waiting to go in with you." Steve carried on and I ran to Dustin.

"About time Alex." Dustin started I just laughed.

"Yeah because I was saying a long goodbye to my dad." I stated. 

"Well let's go because everyone is waiting." El said walking up to us.

"We're coming we're coming." I laughed and held El's hand and walked inside Dustin walked beside me.

"Looking very snazzy tonight, sir." Mr Clarke said to Dustin he clearly didn't notice me.

"Thank you, my lord." Dustin answered. 

"You look good tonight sir." I piped up from beside Dustin.

"And who might you be?" He asked.

"Alex, Alexander Hopper." I answered.

"Alex is it really you?" He asked.

"Yep in the flesh sir." I answered.

"Good to see your up and well." He stated.

"You to Sir." I continued before walking to Nancy.

"Hello Nance." Dustin started.

"Hey." She answered.

"Hey Nancy." I stated. She smiled before giving me a hug. I noticed El went back to dad because he needed something. Me and Dustin walked up to the boys. I guessed Lucas noticed me because he was walking up to us.

"Hey baby." He started when he got to us.

"Hey you look good." I answered.

"So do you." He stated I smiled and gave him a quick kiss before walking up to the others.

"Holy shit. What happened to you two?" Mike asked me and Dustin.

"What do you man, "What happened"?" Dustin asked.

"What?" Mike asked.

"Dude." Lucas said turning his attention to Dustin.

"Your hair and your wearing a dress." Max answered looking at me and Dustin.

"Well I wear dresses for special events." I answered Max nodded.

"Is there a bird nesting in there?" Lucas asked making me laugh.

"What do you mean, "What's wrong"? There's no bird nesting in here, asshole. Okay? I worked hard." Dustin complained. Time after time started to play. It was one of my all time number one slow song to try dance to.

"[exhales nervously] Alex... Hey. Um, it's nice, right? You want to, um... You want to, like... You know? Like, just you and me?" Lucas asked.

"Are you trying to ask me to dance loser?" I asked jokingly.

"No, of course not. Unless you want to." He answered I smiled and dragged him to dance.

"I would love to dance loser." I smiled putting my arms around his neck slightly. 

"I'm glad baby." He carried on.

"So I'm guessing we are together again?" I asked Lucas kissed me.

"There's you're answer." Lucas answered making me smile and carry on dancing with him.