A life less ordinary ||~~Elax/Elmax~~||

A brief history

El was ready to be discharged after only 5 days in hospital, with strict guidelines about her diet to ensure she put on much needed muscle, and weight in general. The next hurdle was where she was going to live. Hopper was taking care of the official records, ensuring she was treated and registered under a name that wouldn't alert any unwanted agencies to her existence. Even though Hawkins lab had been shut down, the appearance of a girl with any links to the number eleven or the name Ives would send alarm bells ringing pretty quickly. He even coached anyone involved in her care not to discuss anything over the phones that could give her away, knowing that there was always the possibility that someone would be listening.

Joyce had been desperate to take her in, feeling an immediate connection to the girl again after all this time, but with Will being ill and Jonathan heading off to college soon she knew she couldn't afford it.

Mike begged his parents to take her in, remembering the promise he'd made El minutes before she sacrificed herself. "Please mom, she saved our lives, the whole town, she needs us, we have the room" and so on. Karen was reluctant, but she agreed when Nancy and everyone else involved backed Mike.

They gave El Ted's small study, Mike insisted that it was far too small but when El saw it and was told it was hers, her eyes lit up in wonder. Nancy looked through her old clothes that had been stored away and found items that would fit El and weren't too outdated. To El it was like all her Christmas's had come at once, except she had no clue what Christmas was. She settled in well to family life at first, Mike was patient and helped explain things as necessary to ensure his parents wouldn't become resentful, knowing how reluctant they'd been at first to take her in.

Hopper secured official paperwork for El, no-one questioned from where as he never gave a straight answer, but everyone came to a similar conclusion that Hopper must have had an 'interesting' past before winding up in Hawkins as he seems to have 'buddies' everywhere. He worked fast, knowing that the longer he delayed, the more at risk she would be, the more attention she might draw. Exactly four months after returning to Hawkins she officially became El Wheeler, she finally had a family to call her own, a home, a room, friends, a life.

Her education at the lab had been severely lacking, and much as they would have liked, she was incapable of going to school with the gang. She knew the alphabet and how to read basic words, the same with numbers, but she was pretty much at the same level as Holly. Karen, Joyce, and Hopper worked tirelessly to help her, and she was a hard worker. She never once complained about their expectations, an unfortunate, but in this case useful, side effect of her upbringing, doing as she was told without question. Much as they hated this part of her personality, her submissiveness, they made use of it in a way to benefit her. They soon realized that she was incredibly smart. She had an eidetic memory, able to recall virtually everything they ever taught her, drilled into her from an early age she had never had to learn reading as she was able to perfectly reproduce anything in writing that she had seen just like a picture. She had only to pass the entrance tests and she would be able to join them for 10th grade and beyond, something she was desperate to do, another step closer to the normal life that she craved.

Eventually, however, the nightmares began. The distraction of her new life had staved them off for a few months, but as the novelty wore off, and her new friends thought they didn't need to distract her so much, her thoughts once again turned dark, she tried to hide it but it was inevitable that someone would find out.

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A/N sorry, it's a bit filler-y, but necessary. Will get going again next chapter  😊