S1- E3 ━ 𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆, 𝗷𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆
Key information-
E/C -eye color
H/C Hair color
S/c Skin tone
H/l Hair length

||𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐑'𝐒 𝐏𝐎𝐕|| next day
I had tried to quietly sneak out of the house without waking anyone up. Suddenly the lights had turned on.
'God dam it Y/N. You had one job.' I thought mentally face palming .
"Going somewhere?" An annoying voice asked. I spun around in my tracks only to be met with my two older brothers Luke, and Kayden.
"Um........ you see - I was getting a drink??" I said nervously while scratching my neck sheepishly.
"Yeah with your clothes on?" Kayden questions.
"Alright, ya caught me. How do I keep you  both from not telling on my ass?" I asked.
"Let's see. You tell us where you're going this late and let us come with but on one condition, you do both of our chores for a whole month. Deal?" Luke said. Kayden nodded his head in agreement to Luke.
"Fine deal alright. Grab your shoes and get your bikes , we're meeting the guys and grabbing Dustin." I say.
"Okay, u going to tell us why?" Asked Kayden
" Yeah on the way to Dustin's" I said.
"Okay," Luke  replied.
At Dustin's
Dustin had just gotten on his bike when he had noticed me. He had a look on his face of surprise when he noticed that I wasn't alone.
"What are they doing here?" He asked.
"They caught me sneaking out and blackmailed me. So I had no choice but to tell them everything even the part of the theory of Will being alive and the girl Mike brought to his place." I explained. Dustin shakes his head.
"Mike and Lucas are not going to like this." He said
"Yeah I know. Let me handle them."
"Okay," Came Dustin's response
Some time later
My brothers,Lucas, Dustin and I  biked to Mike's house to meet him there. Once we got there, he quickly rushed us up to his room. El was sitting on Mike's bed, a blanket on her legs. I remain standing next to The boys, but I give El a smile and a wave. She timidly smiles and waves back.
"Are you out of your mind?" Lucas argued.
"Why are they here!?" Mike yelled makes hands gestures to my brother's presence.
"Just listen to me alright. They black mailed me so I had no choice but to tell them everything. They swore they won't tell anyone." I say explaining. Mike let's out a frustrated sigh but says nothing.
"Yeah we won't say a single thing. Promise." Luke agreed.
"So that's Eleven? I'm Kayden and that idiot over here is Luke." Kayden says introducing him and Luke to Eleven. Eleven timidly says Hi to them.

"Fine! Anyways, Eleven knows about Will." Mike spoke.

My head snaps up at the mention of him and my breath hitches. "What?" I quickly look to El and then back at Mike, my eyes wide.
"What do you mean she knows about Will?" Kayden asks for me.
Mike took a few steps towards his dresser and picked up the picture of all five of us at the science fair.

"She pointed at him, at his picture. She knew he was missing. I could tell."

"You could tell?" Luke asked confused.
"Just think about it. Do you really think it was a coincidence that we found her on Mirkwood, the same place that Will disappeared?" Mike continues
"That is weird." Dustin agreed.

I turned and slowly walked over to El, cautiously taking a seat next to her, but still giving her enough space. "Is that true?" I ask in a gentle whisper. She looked me in the eye and gulped, and ever so slightly nodded her head 'yes'.
I chuckle in disbelief and look at the boys hopefully.
"And she said bad people are after her. I think that maybe these bad people are the same ones who took Will." Mike finished.
"Guys, think about it. I think he's right. I think she might know what happened to him." I speak up, hope in my voice.

"Then why doesn't she tell us?" Lucas said
"Well, maybe she's scared of you two!" I accuse.
"Why should she be scared? I'm tired of this." He walks straight over to her and starts raising his voice.
"Do you know where he is?"
"Lucas..." I warn, my hands subconsciously ball into a fist in anger.

Suddenly he grabs her by the shoulders, shaking her and begins yelling in her face. "Do you know where Will is?"
"LUCAS!"  Luke barks,standing up immediately, and rip his arms of her, she's cowering in fear. "Dammit man, get your hands off of her! And you wonder why she's scared!"  Luke scoffed, crossing  his arms.
"Yeah, that's no way to treat a lady." Kayden says shaking his head.
"Oh shut up! You two shouldn't even be here,"Lucas sassed.

" Anyways, She should be scared! If you know where he is, tell us!" She doesn't say anything and she bites her lip trying not to cry. "Lucas! Listen to me. I know you're scared and worried about Will, okay? We all are," my eyes are tearing up as well, a lump forming in my throat as I continue. "but we have to be patient okay? She's scared, she's lost, she probably doesn't know who to trust, we just need to be kind to her alright?" I plead.

"Ya know what, no. There's no time. This is nuts. We have to take her to your mom." He says turning back to Mike.
"No! Eleven said telling any adult would put us in danger." Mike argues.
For the first time in a while, Dustin spoke up, his voice soft.
"What kind of danger?"

"Her name is Eleven?" Lucas  asks.
"El for short." Mike corrected casually.
"Mike, what kind of danger?"  Kayden pressed, his voice grew significantly louder.

"Danger danger," Mike yelled back.

I look around, breathing heavily as I take everything in. Mike puts his hand up to my brother's forehead in the shape of a gun. Then the same to Lucas. Lucas swats away Mike's hand almost immediately.
Lucas begins to panic. "No, no, no! We're going back to plan A. We're telling your mom."

I try to grab his arm as stomps towards the door, but he shoves my hand away. He rips open the door, only for the door to be slammed shut all on it's own, making everything around the room to shake. We all stare at the door in confusion. He tries it again, only for the door to slam shut once more. Then, we all see the lock on the door turn by itself. 'Okay, well... I know I didn't imagine that.'
Simultaneously, we all turn to El to find her standing, blood dripping from her nose giving Lucas quite possibly the sharpest glare I I have ever seen.
"No." She states firmly. It's enough to send a chill down my spine.
It's silent for a few moments and Kayden breathes  out a shocked chuckle. "That... was the coolest thing I have ever seen."

All of us were invited to stay for dinner. Since there weren't enough chairs, they were kind enough to pull out an extra chairs for me and my brother's so Dustin and I shared the end of the table, opposite Mrs. Wheeler. Nancy and I seemed to be the only kids who were eating.
"Thank you so much for letting us stay Mrs. Wheeler! The food is amazing!" I said, followed by another bite of mashed potatoes.
"You're very welcome, Y/n. And thank you." She said, with a kind smile.

She looked around and noticed the boys were just playing with there meatloaf.
"Something wrong with the meatloaf?" She asked.
"Oh, no, I had two bologna sandwiches for lunch," Dustin said a goofy smile on his face. There's a noticeable pause before he speaks again. "I don't know why." I breathe out a light chuckle and take another bite of mashed potatoes.
Lucas chuckles nervously. "Me, too."
"It's delicious, Mommy." Nancy bats her eyelashes and a quizzical look flashed across my face. I know that tactic. Hell, every kid knows that tactic, she wants something and she is trying to butter up her mom. But to see a Nancy of all people do that is almost laughable.
"Thank you, sweetie."

I look to Mike to gauge his reaction to his teenage sister's odd behavior towards their mom. I fight back a laugh when his actions closely resemble that of an adult in a movie who takes a drink of beer with a thousand-yard stare, trying to forget something said at that moment in time; only this time it's a glass of milk.
"So, there's this... special assembly thing tonight... for Will at the school field."
I furrow my brow in confusion and shock. 'Nancy is nice and all, but since when does she care about Will?' Then it dawned on me. I remember Mike complaining to us earlier about that "douchebag Steve Harrington" and how he and Nancy have been dating, and how he's been sneaking in and out of Nancy's room.
"Barb's driving."
My jaw clenches.
"Why am I just now hearing about this?"
'Because she wants to use my best friend's disappearance as an excuse to leave the house and suck face with her stupid boyfriend.'
"I thought you knew." She played innocent. Mike and I look to each other knowingly and then at Nancy. Well, glaring was a better term for what I was doing.
"I told you, I don't want you out after dark until Will is found."
"I know, I know, but it'd be super weird if I'm not there."

CLANG
I half drop, have threw my silverware on the table in a mix of shock and frustration. When everyone turns and looks at me silently, I quickly play it off with a chuckle.
"Heh, sorry about that. Lost my grip. I'm just thirsty." I say with an innocent smile as I hold up my water, gesturing to it before taking a large gulp.
Everyone but the boys seemed to buy it.
Nancy continued and I had to bite my lip so as to not say anything.
"As I was saying, everyone is going." She emphasized the word 'everyone'.
Mrs. Wheeler sighs and looks to us, then back at Nancy.
"Just... be back by 10:00."
Nancy nods, happy with herself.
"Why don't you take Mike and his friends, too?" She suggested. We all panicked and spoke at the same time.
"No!"
"Mmm-mmm."
"I have a headache" Luke finished weakly. It was awkward though because  he got the timing wrong and was the last one speaking.
"Don't you think you should be there? For Will?"
The six of us all spot Eleven walking down the stairs behind Mrs. Wheeler.
Mike nearly chokes on his milk while I accidentally inhale my water and I begin to choke for real. Mrs. Wheeler turns to see what provoked us so much but the mix of Dustin randomly slamming his fists against the table a few times and me going into a coughing fit was enough to grab her attention.
She looked between the two of us in shock. During my horrendous coughing fit, I was relieved to see El had gotten out of sight.
"Sorry. Spasm." Dustin says sheepishly.
However, it was still incredibly awkward seeing as it was quiet as and everyone just stared at me while I coughed obnoxiously. The coughs got less violent to a point where I could speak.
"Ahh..." cough. "I'm okay... really, I" cough. I hold up a finger and cough for a solid thirty seconds. I look up, a painful and sheepish look on my face as I awkwardly try and diffuse the tension. "Don't you hate that. Like, what can you do, wash it down with water? Eh?" I look around laughing weakly, but not for long because my awkward chuckles turn into more coughing and I groan. "Haha, ahawww God." I put hands on my knees and take a breather.
My brother's look at me in fake concern.

⊹ ⊹ ⊹
"El?" Mike called down the stairs. Mike and I had were able to sneak some food downstairs for her. Thankfully we found her down here, she was in the fort that Mike had made for her, she was fiddling with Mike's Supercomm.
"Hi, El!" I say with a smile as I walk over and kneel down next to her. Mike does the same and sets down the tray of food.  My brother's, Dustin ,and Lucas remain standing.

"We brought you some dinner!"
"Yep. No adults. Just us and some meatloaf." Mike replies.

She looks to me, then warily to  my brother's Dustin and Lucas.
"Don't worry. They won't tell anyone about you. They promise." I assure her in a gentle voice. I turn for them and give them a look. "Right guys?"
Dustin gives her a goofy smile. "We never would've upset you if we knew you had superpowers." I roll my eyes and Mike turns around and swats Dustin in the shin and I look back to El.

"What my  man Dustin  meant to say was, we were just scared... earlier. That's all." Luke said.
Lucas speaks up,"We just wanted to find our friend." I turn around and smile warmly at Lucas, mouthing a 'thank you'. He's a great person, he is just is skeptical is all. And I know how hard it is for him to admit when he is wrong. He nods his head at me. I look back at El to see her face riddled with confusion.
"'Friend'?" She asks.
"Yeah, friend. Will?"
"What is 'friend'?" She asks.
Lucas starts to say something but cuts himself off, thinking better of it.
"Um, a friend-" He begins.
"Is someone that you'd do anything for." Mike finished for him.
"You lend them your cool stuff, like comic books and trading cards," Dustin said, wistfully.
"And they never break a promise," Kayden adds.
"Especially when there's spit."
"Spit?" She asked, looking concerned.

"A spot swear means..." Lucas spits into his palm and shakes Dustin's hand. "you never break your word. It's a bond."
I cringed, while Dustin looked at his hand in disgust. I turn back to El and smile.
"That's super important, because friends... they tell each other things. Things that parents don't know. A friend is someone you can trust completely."
She seems to be soaking up the information, then she looks at me and smiles.