• 𝙲𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝙼𝚎 - 𝙱𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚎 •

The next morning was like every morning. The girls ate breakfast, got ready for the day, said goodbye to their parents, and Barb drove them to school. Barb walked Bea to the middle school before going to the high school. After last night's events, the girls eventually went to bed in the same room. That way they felt safe.

The party was now in school, minus Mike, and obviously Will. They were in Mr. Clarke's class when Dustin started saying how it wasn't good that Mike was this late. Lucas then accused the plan of sucking ass. Well... In a less vulgar way. The trio came to the conclusion that Mike was in 'deep shit' because Mrs. Wheeler probably found the girl from last night.

"Hey, what if she slept naked?" Dustin asked, which resulted in a gag from Bea behind him. The seat next to her being empty for the second day in a row.

Lucas scoffs, "Oh, my God, she didn't."

"Hey," Dustin begins, turning to Bea, "did you get any weird feelings? Like a bad feeling about Mike or that girl?" He's hoping Mike wasn't actually in deep shit 'cause they would be too.

"No." Bea admits with a shrug, "I do have a gut feeling, but it's a good one. Like, my gut is telling me to be friends with this girl, or something. I don't know." She dismisses her thoughts and shakes her head unsurely. Her feelings have been going haywire the past two days.

"No." Lucas disagrees, "You won't become friends because all that matters is that after school, the freak will be back in the loony bin, and we can focus on what really matters, finding Will." Both Bea and Dustin nod slowly as class is about to start.

The bell rings and the principal speaks over the PA, "Attention, faculty and students. At 8:00 p.m. tonight, there will be an assembly on the football field in support of Will Byers and his family. All are encouraged to attend. Volunteer sign-ups for search parties are still available in the office."

Mr. Clarke hands the kids their papers before he starts today's lesson.

•••••

After school, Lucas, Dustin and Bea rode their bikes straight to Mike's house. The ride was quiet — except for the occasional questions asking what they might walk into. They rode past the gardener and left their bikes in the garage. As soon as they were let in, they headed straight to Mike's room. And they noticed an extra person there, sitting right on Mike's bed with a blanket wrapped around her.

"Are you out of your mind?" Lucas asked in disbelief, as Bea walked a little closer to the girl who still has no name to the kids who just walked in.

"Just listen to me." Mike persists.

"You are out of your mind!" Lucas concludes.

"She knows about Will." He informs.

"What?" Bea asked quietly as she continued to stare at the girl on the bed.

Bea zones out of the conversation after that to stare at the girl. She's sure she looks creepy, but she could care less. Her gut is telling her to get to know her, but her friend is saying that she's crazy.

She realizes she's staring when Lucas comes up to the girl and asks her questions about Will. "Do you know where he is? Do you know where Will is?" He shouts as he grabs her shoulders and shakes them.

"Stop it!" Bea yells, as she sits next to the girl, comforting her.

"You're scaring her!" Mike shouts.

"She should be scared!" He argues against Mike, "If you know where he is, tell us!" Lucas looks back at her.

No reply.

While Lucas argues with Mike, Beatrice tries to comfort the girl. She wasn't paying much attention to the boy's conversation until she heard Mike call the girl 'Eleven'.

"Eleven?" Bea furrows her eyebrows, now completely facing the girl. "Is your name Eleven?" She repeats, and she gets a nod in response. "I'm Beatrice, or Bea for short." Bea softly said, smiling at Eleven.

"B— Bea?" Eleven tries to sound-out the name.

"Yeah. Do you have a nickname?"

The girl ponders for a moment, thinking back to what Mike called her earlier, "El."

"El." Bea repeats, "It's pretty."

"Pretty?" The word was foreign on the new girls tongue.

"Yeah." Bea nods with a bright smile. She taught a new friend something!

Their conversation gets cut short when Lucas tries to leave the room, already over Mike's bullshit. But before he could, El slams and locks the door with her mind. All the boys turn at her scared, while Bea stares at her in awe as she stands.

"No." El states, as blood drips down her nose.

•••••

The kids stayed over for dinner, while El kept upstairs, out of sight. They were all picking at their food. Baby Holly was playing with her empty cup and the peas.

"Something wrong with the meatloaf?" Mike's mom questioned, seeing how the kids barely took a bite.

"Oh, no, I had two bologna sandwiches for lunch." Dustin informs her, smiling sheepishly, "I don't know why."

"Me, too," Lucas points out, chuckling.

"Me, three," Bea adds.

"It's delicious, Mom." Nancy said, being a suck up.

Karen smiled at her oldest, "Thank you, sweetie."

"So there's this..." Nancy began, "...special assembly thing tonight... For Will at the school field. Barb's driving." This made Bea perk up at their conversation.

"Why am I just hearing about this?" Mrs. Wheeler asked, aggravated.

"I thought you knew." Nancy shrugged, ignoring the questioning eyes of the little Holland on the other side of the table.

"I told you, I don't want you out in the dark until Will is found. And besides, what about Beatrice?" Karen asked, turning to Bea.

"I know, I know, but it'd be super weird if I'm not there. I mean, everyone's going."

"Just... be back by 10:00." Karen gives in, as Bea feels a pit in her stomach begin form like before.

She puts her fork down on the plate and grabs her stomach with both hands, leaning back in her chair. She has a bad feeling about this. She shares a glance with the boys, as they look at her worried. She completely ignores Mrs. Wheeler's suggestion to Nancy about bringing the kids with her to the assembly.

The boys deny as Bea stays quiet, clutching her stomach as she starts to hear weird buzzing noises. They sound familiar, as if she's heard it before. But it's much louder now. It's telling her to not let Barb drive Nancy.

"May I be excused?" Bea abruptly stands up from her chair. "Sorry, I was just wondering if I could call Barb. Let her know that you fed me and that I'm staying the night since my parents won't be home." She comes up with a quick lie. She needs to tell Barb about her instincts. Maybe she'll listen.

"Of course, sweetie." Karen allows, "You know where the phone is." She jerks her head to the kitchen.

"Thank you." Bea sends the woman a quick nod.

When she reaches the phone, she quickly calls her home number right away. After a few rings, Barb picks up. "Nancy, I told them we're studying. Don't—"

"Barb it's me, Bea." Bea cuts off her sister, letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

"Bea? What are you doing at the Wheelers?"

"No time for that," Bea dismisses. "Don't go out with Nancy tonight."

Barb doesn't even question how she got this information. But she does question her younger sisters demand. "What? Why?"

"I have a gut feeling Barb. A bad one. And I don't want something to happen to you. I know you're not studying, and I know you're not going to some assembly for Will. Please, wherever you're going, don't." The young girl sniffles as her eyes begin to water.

"Hey, hey. It's okay." Barb tries to calm her sister down through the phone, "How about this? The truth is, we're going to Steve's. Nancy really wants to go, but she doesn't want to go alone, so I'm fifth wheeling." Bea lightly giggles at the term 'fifth wheeling'. "Now that you know where I'll be, are you okay?"

"No," Bea deadpans. "Please be careful. It's a gut feeling Barb. It's worse than the one I felt for Will."

"I will, okay?" Bea nods even though Barb can't see her.

"Okay. I love you, Barb."

Barb smiles. "I love you, Bea. Have a good night, okay?" Bea sniffles again. She can't help but feel as if this'll be the last time they get to say that to each other.

"Okay. You too. Stay safe!" She points at the phone.

As she hangs the phone back on the wall, she was grabbed by two pairs of hands. She looked to her right to see Dustin, and saw Lucas on her left, dragging her.

"What happened?" Bea wondered, only to be ignored. She rolled her eyes at her friend's behavior and just went with it.

The boys brought her downstairs as Mike brought meatloaf down for El. Bea smiled wearily at El as she was still in the boys' grips. She got out of it and crouched next to Mike, in front of El. Eleven smiled at the girl in return, and then her attention went to Mike who was speaking.

"Don't worry. They won't tell anyone about you. They promise. Right?" He assures, looking back at his friends.

"Promise." Bea nods, responding quickly.

"We never would've upset you if we knew you had superpowers." Dustin speaks truthfully, making Bea roll her eyes and Mike hit his leg, "Ow!"

Mike turns back to her. "What Dustin is trying to say is that they were just scared... earlier."

"Not me." Bea shrugs simply. The boys behind her slightly glare at the back of her head while Mike smiles, knowing at least someone's on his side.

"We just wanted to find our friend." Lucas tells her.

"'Friend'?" El questions.

Lucas specifies, "Yeah, friend. Will?"

"What is 'friend'?" She mumbles.

Bea's eyes go wide as Lucas asks, "Is she serious?"

"Lucas, shut up." Bea hissed, her eyes still on El. Lucas ignores her and tries to tell El what a 'friend' is, only to be cut off by Mike.

"A friend is someone you do anything for."

"You lend them your cool stuff, like comic books and trading cards." Dustin adds.

"You paint each other's nails and spend all night screaming at the top of your lungs to a song you like." Bea puts in her input. She never really had a girl friend. She only had Barb. No girl her age.

"And they never break a promise." Bea smiles at what Mike said, knowing that the party knows how much promises mean to Bea.

"Especially when there's spit." Lucas says. Bea rolls her eyes in disgust.

"Spit?"

Lucas then explains what a spit swear is by spitting in his hand and shaking Dustins. Bea looks away and groans, repeatedly mumbling 'gross'. Mike continues to speak to Eleven as Beatrice clutches her stomach and walks over to sit on the couch.

"Is she o— okay?" El cautiously asked, pointing towards Bea who is sitting on the couch looking like she's going to throw up.

"Oh, my God. Bea?" The boys ask, rushing to her aid.

"Barb." Bea croakes out, "Barb. Bad gut feeling." She starts to cry. She can't control the feeling in her throat. It's like how she felt about Will, only amplified.

"Are you okay?"

"Do you need anything?"

"Water?"

"I— I feel like I'm either gonna scream or puke." Bea chokes out.

"Okay, okay. Just calm down, um..." Mike tries not to panic, "Go to the bathroom. Dustin, get her water." He slaps his friends arm as he rushes up the stairs. Bea nods and gets up, almost falling to the floor, before catching herself.

The boys are scared. She's scared. None of them have ever seen her like this before. When she reaches the bathroom, she hears Dustin's footsteps running downstairs with her water. She thanks him as she shuts the door. Her friend's conversation drowned out by the noise in her head and the closed door.

Ever since the night Will went missing, she's heard this noise. A weird buzzing-like sound. But, tonight. Tonight it's the loudest it has ever been. And all she can think about is her sister. She knows something bad is going to happen. She can feel it. She just wishes that Barb was with her right now so she would be safe.

When she had calmed down, and chugged the entire cup of water, she stood up and walked out to the party. She still heard the buzzing, but she chose to try and ignore it. At the sound of the door opening, everyone's heads snap back to her. Her eyes were red and puffy, and she was sniffling.

El and Mike were sitting at the table with the Dungeons and Dragons game board upside down. Dustin was pacing with his hands on his head, and Lucas just stood there in disbelief of what he just heard.

"What?" Bea asks, out of the loop.

"El, um... She showed us where Will is." Mike said, still trying to process everything.

Bea flinched at the noise in her head and masked her face as she perked up, "Really? Where?"

No one said anything. All the boys, and El, pointed to the upside down game board. Bea stood there, confusion written all over her features.

There it was again. The buzzing, though it sounded different. It was growing louder, and louder, and Bea couldn't just ignore it anymore. She started panicking, hyperventilating. Her breathing was getting heavy and her chest quickly moved up and down.

She put her arm out to try and grab something as she was stumbling backwards, but nothing was there and she fell onto the carpeted floor. The boys rushed to her to make sure she was okay, but she didn't respond to anything. All she could think about before she passed out was Barbara.

Her sister. The oldest of the Hollands. Her only girl friend. The girl who taught her everything. The one who helped her with her homework when their parents were at work. The girl who let her drive the family car to the end of the block.

That's all Bea saw. Flashes of her sister going through her mind.

Barb.

Barb.

BARB!

Beatrice jumped out of her sleep. She was in Mike's basement, on the couch. She kept mumbling Barb's name, not even noticing the four pairs of eyes on her. Then she started to remember what happened before she passed out. Barb. Something happened to Barbara.

Then she just snapped.

It was so loud that all of Hawkins probably heard her scream. It was a scream of bloody murder. The four kids in front of her covered their ears, not knowing what to do. The party's best friend was screaming like crazy, and they didn't know how to help.

When she stopped, her breathing was still rapid. She turned her head to the four kids her age with tears in her eyes. "Barb. She's dead." She croaked out before she went back into a sobbing fit, pulling her legs into her chest.

The boys walked up to her and engulfed her in a group hug. El stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to do. She was never shown affection at the lab, so she stayed still, sitting at the table.

Eventually, Bea fell asleep in her best friend's arms, still on the couch. The boys all thought it would be best to sleep down there tonight to comfort their friend, if need be. They all brought down sleeping bags as El wrapped a blanket around Bea. Eleven went back into her makeshift bed and said a quick good night to Mike. It took the boys a while to fall asleep. Their friends' previous behavior stuck in their heads.

They fell asleep that night thinking; What's going on with Bea?

•••••

(🕰) T TIME!

bye bye, barb ! 👋

•••••