As Eleven sat in her den fiddling with the radio again, Mike, Wyatt, Lucas, and Dustin all formed in a circle in the floor in front of her and waited.

They listened to the static that Wyatt struggled to hear what he was hearing.

"We keep losing the signal, but you heard it, right?" Mike looked expectantly at the other two.

"Yeah, I heard a baby," Lucas snarked.

"Same," Wyatt let out a silent yawn, rubbing his tired eyes. "I should be sleeping to be honest. Look, Mike, did you tapped into a baby monitor."

"What?"

"Nah, Wyatt's onto something. It's probably the Blackburns' next door." Lucas stated.

"Uh, did that sound like a baby to you?" Mike exclaimed, "That was Will!"

Wyatt frowned, "Mike..."

"Wyatt, you should understand. He spoke last night. Words! He was singing that weird song he loves," Mike spoke passionately, trying to convince his friends and most of all him. "Even El heard him!"

"Oh, well, if the weirdo heard him, then I guess-" Lucas began to shut him down, but Dustin interrupted him first.

"Are you sure you're on the right channel?" Dustin asked.

"I don't think it's about that." Mike thought, "I think, somehow, she's channeling him."

"Like...like Professor X," Dustin looked at him excitedly.

"Yeah." Mike nodded.

"Of course, minus the wheelchair." Wyatt let out.

"Are you actually believing this crap?" Lucas complained.

"I don't know, I mean..." Wyatt shrugged. "Do you remember when Will fell off his bike and broke his finger? He sounded a lot like that."

"Did you guys not see what I saw?" Lucas questioned, "They pulled Will's body out of the water. He's dead!"

Wyatt sighed but nodded in agreement, "Look I...I know Will's death is hard but it'll be much easier if he just...accept it. We're all sad that he's gone, I'm hurt and he was our best friend but we can't keep doing this?"

"He's not dead!" Mike spat, "I'm telling you! He was singing Should I Stay or Should I Go?!"

"Clash song," Dustin questioned before Wyatt shook his head,

"No! No more of this, Mike! You're insane!"

"Well, maybe it's his ghost. Maybe he's haunting us," Dustin proposed.

"Well sure, if you figured that if psychics were on the playing field, ghosts could be real too but I don't think that's the case," Wyatt stated.

"It's not his ghost," Mike responded with a roll of his eyes.

"So how do you know that?" Lucas demanded.

"I just do!"

"Then what was in that water?"

"I don't know! All I know is that Will is alive. Will is alive! He's out there somewhere. All we have to do is find him." Mike insisted desperately as Lucas stared at him.

The static crackled again. They couldn't hear the whimpering anymore.

"This isn't gonna work," Mike gestured to the radio. "We need to get El to a stronger radio."

Dustin suddenly had a spark of inspiration. "Mr. Clarke's Heathkit ham shack."

Mike grinned and nodded. "Yeah."

"The Heathkit's at school," Lucas reminded them. "There is no way we're gonna get the weirdo in there without anyone noticing. I mean...look at her."

Lucas gestured at Eleven and he and the boys turned to stare at her. She glanced uncertainly from one to the other and than at Lucas, feeling uncomfortable.

"Luckily, I had just the remedy for that."

After an hour of makeup and dress choices, (Wyatt: I will not go into details on that) Eleven stepped out, wearing the wig over her shaved head and the old pink dress on her body.

The boys all stared, astonished, at the results of their work.

"Wow," Dustin couldn't believe his eyes either. "She looks..."

"Pretty," Mike finished with an open mouth.

A huge teasing grin spread across Dustin's face, causing him to realize what he had said as El's mouth twitched upward in a small smile.

"Good. You look pretty good," Mike quickly corrected.

Wyatt noticed the girl was extremely nervous so he gave her a bright smile and a thumbs-up,

"You look amazing," He told her. El gave Wyatt an awkward smile in response.

Slowly, Eleven walked past them to stand before the mirror hanging on the landing wall. Examining the blond hair, pink lips, and dress, Eleven whispered,

"Pretty. Good."

Eleven held onto Mike closely as he, Wyatt, Dustin, and Lucas rode their bikes down the road leading to Hawkins Middle School. After securing their bikes in the rack in front of the school, he and his friends entered the building.

Walking through the halls to the AV club room, Mike immediately started giving out orders. "Okay, remember, if anyone sees us look sad."

Wyatt nods as the man's voice over the PA started to fill the halls,

"Attention students, there will be an assembly to honor Will Byers in the gymnasium now. Do not go to fourth period."

They reached their destination and Mike attempted to open the door to the AV Room but found it locked.

"It's locked," Mike complained.

Wyatt's eyes widened as Lucas attempted to get the door open, a bit in disbelief at the matter.

"Hey, do you think you can open it?" Dustin asked Eleven while gesturing at the door. "With your powers?"

That was a good plan in his opinion. If she could slam a door and lock it she should be able to do the same in reverse.

"Boys?" An adult voice spoke.

They all jumped to attention as their teacher appeared from around the corner.

"Hey." Lucas let out awkwardly as Mike watched him lean against the AV door, attempting to look casual.

And he totally didn't but then again, Wyatt can't either

"Assembly's about to start," Mr. Clarke told them.

Mike immediately feigned a look of devastation, "We know. We're just, you know..."

"Upset," Lucas started to smile, before remembering he had to look sad and had his face into one of despair.

"Y-yeah definitely upset," Dustin stammered out.

"We need some alone time," Wyatt added, easily acting as though he was crying as he sniffed, "To, you know...cry..."

Mike looked down and wrapped his arm around Wyatt as he pretends to sob.

"Yeah, listen...I get it, I do," their teacher said, walking up and rubbing Wyatt's back. "I know how hard this is, but let's just be there for Will, huh?"

Mike looks up at Mr. Clarke and nods.

"And then..." Mr. Clarke continued, pulling out a set of keys from his pocket and tossing them to Mike.

He caught them in surprise, he didn't realize that this would work, slowly inside his head.

Mr. Clarke added, "The Heathkit is all yours for the rest of the day. What do you say?"

Mike gave him a small smile and nodded, keeping pace with Wyatt to keep acting sad to add some sympathy and to keep him fooled. Suddenly, their teacher took notice of Eleven.

"I don't believe we've met. What's your name?" Mr. Clarke stammered out, smiling kindly.

Wyatt glanced at Dustin and Lucas then turned to look at El, crossing his fingers to hope that the disguise worked.

"Eleanor!" Mike shouted, drowning out her voice. "She's uh-"

"My cousin." inserted Wyatt quickly. "My little cousin."

Wyatt nudges Dustin before he could say something as Mike explained.

"She's visiting and decided to be here for Will's funeral."

Mr. Clarke turned to Eleven, seemingly buying their hack job of a cover. "Ah, well, welcome to Hawkins Middle, Eleanor. I wish you were here under better circumstances."

Eleven stared around at him and his friends nervously, but he said nothing.

She responded, "Thank you."

Mr. Clarke frowned, as if suddenly suspicious. "Uh, where are you from exactly?"

"Sweden!" interjected Wyatt wildly. "My mom has a lot of Swedish family."

"She hates it there," Dustin added.

"Cold!" Lucas pretended to shiver.

"Subzero," Dustin emphasized, for the measure.

Mike watched as a clearly flustered Mr. Clarke motioned away.

"Shall we?" Their teacher redirected the conversation.

Lucas nodded. "Yep!"

Thank god, Wyatt quickly came with that. Otherwise, they'd get in trouble and if they find out or call about Eleven, they'd be in deep shit and especially if the bad men are after her.

As they approached the gym, they could hear Principal Coleman speaking to the students solemnly. Wyatt and Mike both stood close to Eleven, the latter grabbing both the boys' hands in a sense of comfort.

Wyatt looked at El and could see the anxiety and fear in her eyes, he frowned, and in response, he held the hand she grabbed tight, giving the signal that he nor Mike would let anything happen to her.

"At times like these, it is important that we come together as a community..."

Dustin decided to forcefully pull the gymnasium doors open. The loud noise reverberated through the room and the principal fell silent as he and the entire student population in the bleachers turned to stare at the group of kids.

As Wyatt loves his friend, he couldn't tell if he'd ever get over the embarrassing decisions they made. So much so that he used his free hand to facepalm.

Dustin will get us killed one day

"Abort," Dustin whispered roughly,

"You think we even can now," Wyatt whispered back. Dustin tried to turn away but Lucas grabbed hold of him and forced him back into the gym.

Mike directed them to an empty section and they each took a seat on the bleachers as Principal Coleman continued his speech.

"We come together to heal...we come together to grieve..."

Wyatt couldn't really listen to the whole speech. And he can bet that Mike couldn't either. It wasn't that he was disrespectful or anything. But now that they know the truth, it's really strange to be sitting there listening to a memorial speech for someone who wasn't actually dead.

Even if they didn't know that, it still doesn't mean it was less weird.

"Will Byers' death is an unimaginable tragedy. Will was an exceptional student and a wonderful friend to all of us. It's impossible to express the hole his loss will leave in our community. I'd like to introduce you to Sandy Sloane. She's a local grief counselor from the church over in Jonesboro, but before she comes up here, I just want those of you who are having trouble dealing with this tragic loss..."

Wyatt felt eyes peering around at all the faces of the students sitting near him and his friends. This didn't make sense for the timid boy. It's no secret that 95% percent of this crowd, didn't even know his name till today. Any other day they'd treat him as an outcast. A nobody.

It was all a bunch of bullshit to him. And judging by Mike and Lucas' whisper, they thought so too.

A few feet away, Troy and James' snickering caught the boys and El's attention.

"What?" Troy whispered to James. "Who is interested in this? This is so stupid. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah."

James chuckled as Troy smirked, mocking the principal, even pretending to cry, "Oh, he was such a great student. Oh, he's going to leave a hole in the community."

Wyatt felt a sense of anger wash over him, there was an echo'd feeling. As though it was just telling him to make them cry for real.

In pain.

He overheard El let out a huff, "Mouth-breather." He slowly turned back around to Eleven, who stared at him momentarily, before sitting back in her seat in between Mike and him.

Once the school bell rang and the students stood to leave, he was going to get up and try and go back to the AV room but he turned and saw Mike following Troy and James closely.

"Hey. Hey!" Mike shouted lowly. "Hey, Troy! Hey, Troy! You...you think this is funny?"

Wyatt heard the anger in Mike's voice and he can relate to that. Will may not be dead but it still irritated the Party to hear that.

Troy turned around and saw him, gleaming at Mike threateningly. "What'd you say, Wheeler?"

While none of the four or five addition to Will, weren't the strongest or toughest (if you asked him, he'd say Lucas was the strongest out of all of them), one thing was certain.

They loved Will.

And it was time someone stood up to that big freak.

Mike's voice trembled with mixed emotions as he spoke, "I-I saw you guys laughing over there. And I think that's a real messed up thing to do."

"Didn't you listen to the counselor, Wheeler?" James replied, "Grief shows itself in funny ways."

"Besides, what's there to be sad about, anyway?" Troy taunted, voice laden with disgust and insult. "Will's in fairyland now, right? Flying around with all the other little fairies. All happy and gay!"

Those words made Wyatt fall a tear down his cheek, looking down as he felt his heart race in a survival instinct. He hated it when they made fun of Will like that. Many times when they were attempting to poke at Will's sexuality, Wyatt would try to get both themselves out of their big stupid mouths.

But now that was inescapable and those words bought like a knife to the heart at Wyatt's chest.

Troy and James laughed as Troy imitated a fairy. Wyatt watched as Mike had to suffer looking at them numbly as they turned and walked away.

Then, in a surprising fury, Mike stomped forward and shoved Troy's back as hard as he could.

Troy tripped and fell to the floor, students walking past gasped in shock. Lucas threw his hands over his mouth while Dustin was stunned.

Wyatt felt frozen for a moment, his blood boiling yet freezing at the same time. He had no exact expression on how he should feel. Only just stand there.

Of course, now that the anger was subsiding he realized Mike was about to get his ass kicked. Lucas walked past Wyatt, motioning for him and Dustin to be prepared.

"You're dead, Wheeler! Dead!" Troy hopped up and charged at him.

However, Troy stopped mid-attack. His arm was raised up and his feet stood apart, knees slightly bent as if he was about to take off running. But he couldn't move, it was like he was being held down.

Wyatt watched, eyes widened in confusion, questioning what exactly was happening. He stared in bewilderment as Troy's eyes moved around in his head and his breathing became staggered. Troy glanced around at the confused gathering of students. Mike could see he was frightened at his sudden paralysis.

Then a dark stain began to form on the pants Troy wore, starting at the groin and spreading down his leg.

Holy shit.

Wyatt felt a grin come on his face, watching as all the students, including Lucas and Dustin, began to laugh. Wyatt and Mike shared a glance, a sudden amazement had taken their side in this turn of events.

"Holy shit," Dustin let out, feeling the sweet karma that Tory constantly did to him.

Both Mike and Wyatt turn to look back at El, who gave the boys a small smile before wiping her nose and walking away.

Wyatt gave El a thankful smile as Principal Coleman came into the room. The students all turned and quickly dispersed as Lucas ran up to Mike and grabbed him.

The party hurried with Eleven out of the gym, leaving Troy standing in his own puddle of urine.

Wyatt chuckled and laughed with the group, it was a laugh he was forever gonna remember for days to come.

And it was all thanks to Eleven.