TEN: THREE, ONE, FIVE

DANIEL'S DAY WAS ALREADY TOO WEIRD. The girl, apparently her name was Eleven now, instead of telling the boys where Will was, she flipped over a board game. Yeah, super helpful. Mike seemed to grasp what she was talking about, which was pretty much all that mattered. Daniel wanted to talk to his sister about it, but when he got home that night, she seemed to be in a bad mood. She and Veronica were soaking wet and he heard something along the lines of "and he still chose her" along with some colorful words Daniel didn't want to think about. Seeing Veronica made him think about what Heather told him about her. They were the same, kind of, they were both weird when it came to who they loved. Speaking of, the boy wasn't sure he had come to terms with that quite yet. Every time he looked at Mike, he scolded himself. Yet at the same time, he wanted to kill Eleven anytime her eyes landed on the Wheeler boy for more than three seconds. He didn't want himself to have Mike, but he didn't want anyone else to have him either.

"Hey, you didn't tell mom anything, right?" Heather greeted when Daniel went to walk into the upstairs bathroom the next morning. She was leaning against her doorway, Veronica's sleeping form just visible in the crack of the open door. Daniel pretended he didn't see his sister's ever so slightly tear-stained cheeks. "I-I didn't tell her about you going out."

The boy shook his head. "No, I didn't say anything. Are you okay?"

She nodded unconvincingly, "Yeah, yeah, why?"

"No reason." What could she be crying over? Was it because of Steve? She had been there last night. If it was him, that was a complete one-eighty from what he thought his sister thought about Steve Harrington. He didn't want to pressure her into telling him anything, but he really did want to know if she was all right. "Just know you can talk to me, too, not just Veronica."

The girl smiled, brushing a curl behind her ear, "Yeah, I know. Um, Mom left for work, but do you want me to make you some pancakes? You can ditch school, if you want, Ronnie and I probably aren't gonna go either."

"Can you still do your stellar mom impression? 'Cause you're gonna need to call the school and tell them we're sick or something," he pointed out, leaning against the bathroom doorway which was adjacent to his sister's room.

Heather giggled before clearing her throat. "Oh, yes, unfortunately, my son came home with the flu and his sister caught it as well, thank you for understanding," she said in a near-perfect imitation of their mother. She broke into a laugh, her smile lighting up her face. "I think we're good, feel free to go hang out with your little friends after breakfast, Ronnie and I are just gonna chill here most likely."

Daniel smiled and nodded, "Sounds like a plan, Stan."

"Never say that again, please and thank you," Heather said with a laugh, pushing off from the doorway and heading down the stairs, "Try not to wake up Veronica!"

"Will do!" he called down the stairs before moving to close his sister's bedroom door. His sister and his dynamic were definitely interesting, that's for sure, but it was rare that Heather was nice enough to not only make pancakes but also call them in sick for school. Maybe she would do those things on separate days, but an overload of kindness typically meant she was hiding something from her younger sibling. Daniel thought maybe he should leave it alone, let Heather come to him if she wants to talk, he really didn't wanna push her away. He needed her, he thought.

"ELEVEN?" Daniel asked when he walked up to the powerlines behind Mike's house where he had been told to meet the boys via walkie-talkie earlier this morning. The girl was pacing and checking a watch Daniel assumed Mike gave her while muttering a series of numbers. "Where's Mike and the others?"

The girl shook her head, "Don't know. It's three, one, five. Mike said three, one, five."

"3:15?" he raised an eyebrow. He reached out a hand to touch Eleven's shoulder in an attempt to stand still. She let him and she stilled, breathing heavily. She seemed to get stressed easily, Daniel could relate. She nodded and Daniel checked his watch, seeing it was indeed 3:15 pm. There was a noise that drew their attention, a cat growling.

"Oh no," Daniel muttered before he sneezed twice. Eleven looked at him with confusion and he motioned to the cat, "Allergies."

"Allergies?" she repeated and Daniel remembered she didn't even grasp the concept of friends, let alone allergies.

"The cat. It's messing with me, making me sneeze," he was going to explain further, but he was cut off by another sneeze.

Eleven furrowed her brows, clearly still confused as Daniel stepped back from the fence and away from the animal. The girl chose to step closer, ignoring the creature's unwelcome sounds. Her brow was furrowed like she was concentrating and suddenly, she was gone. Daniel could tell she was thinking of something else, something not good judging by the saddened expression on her face.

"Eleven?" he asked. No response.

"El!" the voice of Mike Wheeler called, earning Eleven's attention, the girl seems to come out of her trance. The boy turned to Daniel, "Why weren't you at school? Is she okay?"

Daniel just shook his head, not having an answer to the second question. "Um, uh, Heather let me skip."

"Lucky," Dustin muttered.

Mike didn't ask for further explanation and turned back to Eleven, "You okay?" Wow, he got three seconds of attention, he should be honored. Eleven nodded.

Daniel sneezed again, the cat still there for some reason. Mike tried to say 'bless you,' but then the boy sneezed again. Mike groaned and walked over to the fence, shooing the cat away in an attempt to get Daniel's immune system to calm down.

"You good?" Mike asked. Daniel nodded, regaining his breath as the Wheeler boy pat him on the back softly. "Good. All right, let's get down to business." Mike walked over to his bike, looking at Eleven and patting the seat, "Hop on, we only have a few hours."

"Here, Daniel, you can ride with me," Lucas nodded over to the curly-haired boy, "You really need to get your own bike, dude."

"Yeah, well, usually there was room for me on Mike's bike," he mumbled bitterly, only Lucas hearing the statement and letting out a small laugh.

"Trust me," he whispered to Daniel, "I like her about as much as you do."

That was the end of the conversation as the five rode into the woods. From what Daniel grasped of the situation, they were looking for the 'Demogorgon' which was apparently what took Will. Daniel didn't believe a word of it, but he trusted Mike. Would that screw him in the end? Probably. Would he blame it on Eleven? Definitely.

( note! )

okay before the eleven/mileven stans get mad at me, you know how eleven hates max because she doesnt know her and only sees her as competition because she saw max with mike that one time? that's kind of like daniel's attitude towards eleven because he's had a crush on mike forever and then all of a sudden there's this new girl that has all of mike's attention, so he's gonna pretty much hate eleven for awhile!! BUT!! he will get to know her down the line and they're gonna be brotp i swear