chapter ten
sticks and stones

        Alex finds herself in the Wheeler's basement bright and early the next day, just as they had agreed to the previous evening, while the rest of the town is still waking up from their slumber.  It's different riding the streets of Hawkins in the light of dawn rather than the shadows of night.  It's a different type of silence, and Alex enjoys the early morning peace.  Mike's face falls for a split second as if maybe he had hoped arriving early would deter her from being there.  Dustin and Lucas, however, greet her with warm smiles, and Dustin even musters up the courage to clap her on the back. 

Eleven curls up on the couch and tinkers with Mike's walkie-talkie frequency while the others gather around the card table as if they're King Arthur's knights at the round table.  The prospect of adventure makes Alex giddy all over again, and she has to remind herself that they're looking for Will.  This isn't a board game.  This is reality.  The figurines that still sit in the center of the table are enough of a reminder for Alex.  

"We just tell our parents we have AV Club after school," Mike says, "that'll give us at least a few hours for Operation Mirkwood."

"I don't have AV Club," Alex reminds him.

"Well, you don't have to go," Mike argues. 

"We're not doing this again—"

"You seriously think that weirdo knows where Will is?" Lucas intervenes before Alex and Mike start a shouting match.  His voice is harsh as he glances at Eleven who continues to play with the frequency, oblivious to their stares.

"Just trust me on this, okay?" Mike says.

Lucas nods.  "Okay."

"You get the supplies."

Lucas nods again as he begins to unload his backpack onto the table.  "Binoculars...from 'Nam.  Army knife...also from 'Nam.  Hammer.  Camouflage bandana and...the wrist rocket."

Dustin raises his eyebrows skeptically.  "You're gonna take out the Demogorgon with a slingshot?"

"First of all, it's a wrist rocket," Lucas retorts.  "And second of all, the Demogorgon's not real.  It's made up.  But if there is something out there, I'm gonna shoot it in the eye..." Lucas raises the wrist rocket and pulls back the yellow rubber band before releasing it.  The sound of the snap echoes throughout the room and Dustin flinches at the sound.  "...and blind it."

Alex claps slowly.  "Inspirational."

Lucas only crosses his arm over his chest.  "Okay, fine.  Let's see what you brought."

Alex sets her backpack on the surface of the table and unzips it.  "Steve's lighter—this is for his own good.   Pocket knife—also Steve's, also for his own good.  My mom's Mace spray, letter opener, scissors, paperweight—"

"Anything that's not a weapon?" Mike inquires.

"Um," Alex digs around in her backpack to find a crumpled piece of paper sitting at the bottom.  She withdraws it and flattens it out.  "Old math homework?"

Mike lets out an exasperated sigh.

"Hey, you asked, I delivered," Alex retorts.  "Beggars can't be choosers, Wheeler."

Mike only lets out another sigh and turns to Dustin.  "Dustin, what did you get?"

"Well, alrighty," Dustin begins with a proud grin spread across as he empties the contents of his backpack onto the table.  Alex watches in amusement as instead of supplies as expected, an array of snacks and treats spills across the table.  Lucas raises his eyebrows and exchanged a glance with Alex who only shrugs in response.  "So we got Nutty Bars, Bazooka, Pez, Smarties, Pringles, Nilla Wafers, apple, banana, and trail mix."

"Seriously?" Lucas questions

"We need energy for our travels," Dustin defends.  "For stamina."

"He's right," Alex agrees quietly.

Dustin grins and gestures emphatically toward Alex.  "See!  Thank you!  And besides, why do we even need weapons anyway?"  He gestures toward Eleven who looks up from the walkie-talkie once she senses that the conversation has focused on her.  "We have her!"

"She shut one door!" Lucas argues.

"With her mind!" Dustin reminds him.  "Are you kidding me?!  That's insane!  Imagine all the other cool stuff she could do.  Like..." he trails off, eyes bright with an idea and turns on his heel crossing to where Mike's toys sit, discarded on a table pushed up against the wall.  He throws back the green blanket covering them and picks up a toy resembling a giant spaceship.  "I bet...that she could make this fly!"  He turns his attention to Eleven who has resumed turning the knobs on the walkie-talkie.  "Hey, hey."  She looks up.  "Okay, concentrate.  Okay?"

Without any further instruction, Dustin releases his grip on the spaceship and it clatters uselessly to the ground.  Eleven's eyes follow its track, almost disinterested.  Alex resists the urge to burst out laughing.  Undeterred, Dustin scrambles to pick the spaceship up.

"Okay, one more time," he tells her.  Eleven's eyes follow his movement.  "Okay.  Use your powers, okay?"

As if he is respecting different results, he lets the spaceship fall to the floor once more, but Eleven's eyes are glued to him rather than the spaceship that sits uselessly at Dustin's feet.  There's a gleam in Eleven's eyes that suggests that she's amused by this too.  Mike and Lucas roll their eyes in annoyance.

"Idiot," Lucas whispers.

"Dumbass," Alex agrees.

Mike leaps forward and takes the ship in his arms before Dustin can attempt his experiment again and snaps, "She's not a dog!"

"Boys!  Alex!" Karen calls from upstairs.  "Time for school!"

Alex, Dustin, and Lucas scramble to pack their backpacks and dash up the stairs two at a time, leaving Mike behind in the basement with Eleven.  As soon as he's confident that Mike is out of earshot, Dustin says, "Don't listen to Mike.  Your stuff is great."

Lucas nods.  "Yeah, and you're pretty badass."

Alex pauses, suddenly self-aware.  She isn't used to this.  Validation.  Of course, there's Steve, who assures her that there's nothing wrong with her, who tells her that he's proud of her and that she's doing good, but Alex has always felt that was out of moral obligation.  But now there are these two boys, two boys who she doesn't know, saying this.

"You really think so?" She asks, her voice betraying her excitement.

"Duh!" Dustin exclaims.  "I mean, you were scary at first, but you're like super cool—and you broke James' nose!"

"Plus, you don't have to be doing this—helping us find Will—but you are," Lucas adds.  There's a grin across his face—a genuine grin.  "As far as we're concerned, you're practically one of us."

. . .

Alex used to spend lunch in the gym with her walkman and her homework and her backpack clutched to her chest.  Before, she used to think that she was better off alone with her anger.  At least then, she wouldn't hurt anyone.  She comes home with fewer detention slips when she's alone, and for a while, things are a little better for Alex and her anger.  But now that she's with Dustin and Lucas, she doesn't mind the company.  The chatter and screaming of the other children fade into the background as she, Lucas, Dustin, and Mike scour the ground for rocks.  Her back aches from hunching over and dirt is caked under her fingernails and stains the knees of her jeans, but she's determined to prove to Mike that she's not just dead weight. 

"So do you think Eleven was born with her powers, like the X-Men?" Dustin wonders, breaking the comfortable silence.  "Or do you think she acquired them like...like Green Lantern?"

"She's not a superhero," Lucas responds.  "She's a weirdo."

"What does that matter?" Mike pipes up.  "The X-Men are weirdos."

Lucas turns to face Mike with a taunting grin on his face.  "If you love her so much, why don't you marry her?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Mike, seriously?" Lucas deadpans, spreading his arms.

"What?" Mike questions.

"You look at her all like..." Lucas takes a step closer to Mike and in a high-pitched voice says, "Hi, El!  El!  El!  El!  I love you so much!"  He pulls Mike into a hug while the other boy tries to bat him away before sinking to the ground on one knee.  "Would you marry me?"

Alex lets out a small laugh and beside her, Dustin is laughing too.  She's noticed that Mike is different around Eleven—he's softer, kinder.  She doesn't know a lot about love (she blames her parents for this), but she thinks that loving someone makes you soft, and maybe that's a good thing.  She sees how Steve is around Nancy, carefree and happy, and now that she thinks about it, Mike seems the same way around Eleven.  Maybe in another universe, where Will isn't missing, and where Eleven is not a girl who carries the world in the palms of her hands, it would be possible.  And maybe it still is, here in this universe, but it seems almost unlikely.

(But what does Alex know about love?)

"Shut up, Lucas," Mike spits out, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Yeah, shut up, Lucas," a voice sneers.

The grins melt off of Alex's and Dustin's faces as Troy Walsh and James Dante approach.  Lucas jumps back to his feet and takes an involuntary step back, falling in line with Dustin and Mike.  Alex does not fall into line because Alex is not afraid of Troy and James.  The three boys behind her, however, have been a part of this cruel cycle of submission for too long.  They have forgotten their own free will when Troy and James are near.  The boys are like livestock and Troy and James are the butchers. 

"What are you losers doing back here?" Troy sneers.  "And with Hothead Harrington?"

Alex scoffs.  It took them long enough to find name to call her.

"I mean, it was only a matter of time before she joined the freakshow," James replies with a shrug.  "Besides, they're probably looking for their missing friend."

"And you're probably back here looking for your brain cells," Alex seethes, "oh sorry that was mean, I forgot you never had any to begin with."

"Ooh, ouch, she really told us, didn't she, James?" Troy replies, pretending to wince.  "I hate to break it to you, but we'd probably have a better chance of finding them than your friend."

"That's not funny," Dustin snaps, scowling, "it's serious.  He's in danger."

"I hate to break it to you, Toothless, but he's not in danger.  He's dead.  That's what my dad says," Troy says.  There's no hint of remorse in his voice, no emotion.  Just pure maliciousness.  For a moment, all Alex can see is red.  She feels the anger boiling in the pits of her chest.  Today James is the fan that turns the small spark into a flame.  Her fist is clenched so tightly that it tremors as the skin across her palm threatens to break under her fingernails.  "He was probably killed by some other queer."

Troy and James guffaw and this is the final straw for Alex.  Heart pounding, jaw clenched, with fury burning in the pits of her chest and sparking in her eyes, she advances toward Troy and James.  She knows that they're just trying to get a reaction out of them because people like Troy and James live off of other people's misery, they just keep coming and coming until they're sucked dry.  But this doesn't make Alex any less angry.  But before she can get any closer, Mike is reaching out a hand to stop her, and soon Lucas is on her other side, holding her back, too. 

"Come on," he tells them, "just ignore them."

Mike lowers the arm that restrains Alex and takes a step forward to leave Troy and James behind.  To show them that their words do not affect him.  But at the very last second, Troy sticks out a foot, and Mike is sent tumbling to the ground.  Mike's chin hits a rock with a sickening crack and blood splatters across his face and shirt.  Troy and James guffaw again as Lucas and Dustin rush to Mike's side.

But now, there's nobody holding Alex back, and once Alex's anger has surfaced, it's hard to keep it down.  It only takes two strides to clear the space between her and the bullies and before Troy and James can react, her clenched fist swings directly at Troy.  She tells herself that this is for Will and only Will.  But she knows that she's lying to herself.  This is for Mike too.  Even if he doesn't know it.  The impact doesn't sting as much as it used to.  She's grown used to bare-knuckled brawls and splitting her knuckles until they were raw and needed to be wrapped in band-aids.  She knows that later, her knuckles will ache, but for now the sting gives her a sense of satisfaction, and the ghost of the fight will leave her with peace of mind.

Troy stumbles back, clasping a hand to his face.  Alex readies her fist, ready for another round because right now, she feels like she's on top of the world, but Troy and James are already stumbling away, gasping for breath.  The anger simmers down and Alex is left with a trembling fist, and a bloody palm, skin torn apart by her nails and knuckles pale from clenching them so hard.

"Holy shit!" Dustin exclaims.  "That was awesome!"

Alex smiles and turns to Mike.  Blood is drying on his chin, and Alex thinks he might have just earned himself a scar.  "Are you okay?"

"I am now," Mike answers.  "That was...pretty amazing...um, thank you."

He offers a hand to Alex who stares down at it for a few moments.  She doesn't know if this is a sign of comradery or acceptance, but she knows that it's at least a truce.  A first step on their journey to friendship.

And Alex shakes his hand.

author's note: lol i kinda hate this chapter.  especially how it ended.  but,,, mike & alex growth.