teenage tragedy (Max Mayfield)

1. two

"So, El?" Camden asked, watching as the boys pulled their bikes from the bike shed racks.

She had her skateboard under one arm, eyebrows raised expectantly.

"We went looking for Will the night after he went missing, the day we came to your place. We found a girl, Eleven, in the woods. She's kind of got powers. She closed a door with her mind," Dustin said.

"Right," Camden said. "That sounds completely made up," she said.

"It's not," Mike said.

"And she said she knows where Will is. He's in the Upside Down-" Dustin said.

"That's from Dungeons and Dragons. Let me guess, the Demogorgon is after him?" Camden raised her eyebrows.

"You know D&D?" Lucas said.

"You know about the Demogorgon?" Dustin asked.

"Yeah, El said the Demogorgon is after him," Mike said.

"Of course I know D&D. I do have some culture. So, where are we going now and why?" Camden asked.

"We're going home to get El and then she said she can take us to where Will is hiding," Mike said.

"Oh, this is gonna be fun. I should've brought my knives," Camden said.

"We've got this," Mike offered her the pocket knife back.

She took it, throwing it up and catching it in her pink jacket pocket.

"Thanks," she said.

They rode, and skated, to Mike's house, meeting a girl with a shaved head by the powerlines at the back.

"El, this is Camden. Camden, this is Eleven. El, get on. We've only got a few hours," Mike said.

Eleven climbed on the back of his bike and they rode off to the woods.

The entire time, Eleven stared at Camden. She recognised her but she couldn't put her finger on it. Camden didn't even realise, too busy fiddling with her pocket knife to pay attention to much else.

"How can you skate and play with your knife at the same time?" Lucas asked.

Camden looked up.

"What?" she said.

"How can you skate and play with your knife at the same time?" Lucas repeated.

"I don't know. Guess I've got good balance or something," Camden shrugged.

"Here," Eleven led them out of the woods to Will's house a few hours later.

"This is where he lives," Mike said.

"Hiding," Eleven said.

"No, no, this is where he lives. He's missing from here. Understand?" Mike said.

"What are we doing here?" Lucas asked.

"She said he's hiding here," Mike sighed.

"Um... no!" Lucas scoffed.

"I swear, if we walked all the way out here for nothing-" Dustin started.

"That's exactly what we did. I told you she didn't know what the hell she was talking about!" Lucas said.

"Why did you bring us here?" Mike looked at Eleven.

"Mike, don't waste your time with her," Lucas said.

"That's a bit mean," Camden sat down on her skateboard, stretching her legs out before crossing them over so she didn't flash anyone in her skirt.

"What do you want to do then?" Mike asked.