Jeopardy- Stranger Things

Chapter Thirty Three

November 10th, 1983

George and Nick stayed sat on the hood of her car. Nick had marched straight up to him and practically scooped him up off the floor. She hasn't listened to Mike's protests, or Lucas' or Dustin's either. Nick didn't care that they had to be somewhere, George needed patching up.

Nick pinched the bridge of his nose and held a wad of already bloody tissues under his noise.

"Tilt your head back." She instructed.

"I am tilting my head back." George grumbled, sounding comically nasally as he couldn't breathe through his nose. 

His shirt front was soaked read and some of his blood bad seeped through the tissues onto Nick's hand.

Nick looked down at him and sighed softly. He looked a right state. Both his eyes had purple, raised bruises circling them. His eyelids were only half open. His face was a mosaic of green and blue bruises and grazes where his blood had started to clot and turn black. His nose was still bleeding. Nick pinched harder to try and stop the blood flow.

"Ow!" George protested and tried to pull his head away from her but Nick's grip on his nose was so strong he bounced straight back.

"Stop moving, it'll only hurt more." Nick warned. 

Nick looked out across the parking lot. Shed skipped a lesson to patch George up and was convinced an angry teacher would march up the path at any second. Instead she saw Mike, Lucas and Dustin, as well as the mystery girl, walking up the path to join them.

"How is he?" Dustin asked once they'd got close enough. They could hardly see George through all the tissues.

"Been through the wars alright." Nick teased, "But he'll recover. Besides, ladies like a few battle wounds." She joked but by the way Lucas elbowed Mike and Dustin and wiggled his eyebrows, she reckoned they took it literally.

"Next time I'll stand up to them." Lucas whispered to the others. 

Nick wasn't sure if he meant to speak loud enough for her to hear. He looked at her and raised his eyebrows. Yep, he meant for her to hear.

"How's your lip?" Nick asked upon noticing that Mike's lip had burst. It was no longer bleeding but there was an impressive slit coated with dark, dried blood.

Mike shrugged.

"That's gonna need cleaning." Nick said, sucking air through the teeth and wincing. It was going to sting.

The girl Nick noticed from before was lingering behind the boys. She looked painfully shy. Nick caught her eye and smiled warmly but she just turned her head away. Nick shrugged and turned her attention back to George who was still squirming under her grip.

Nick gently released her grip on George's nose and lifted away the wad of tissue. It has just about stopped bleeding. His top lip was slightly red. The tissues were so full of blood, it dropped down onto Nick's car. It's a good job my car's red, Nick thought and she balled up the tissues.

George slid off the hood and joined his friends. Nick watched and smiled as they joked together about taking down Troy. The girl was still loitering on the outskirts of the group. Nick couldn't help but stare  how had she not seen her hanging around with the boys before?

"She's my cousin. Second- er, second cousin." Mike fumbled as he saw Nick staring at El. "She's... She's from Sweden." He mumbled.

Nick frowned. Was she really supposed to believe Mike's second cousin from Sweden was just waltzing around in Hawkins Middle school? Nick looked to George. He hung his head to avoid looking at her. They were definitely up to something. And it had to be something bad for George to keep it from her.

The boys started whispering amongst each other, which only raised Nick's suspicions.

"We need to put our plan into action." Mike hissed and the others nodded. George raised his head to see if Nick heard but she was still looking at El. She must no something's up.

"We should get back to class." George excused. Nick narrowed her eyes at him. He gulped. "Don't want to keep Mr Clarke waiting."

The others nodded and mumbled their agreements. Nick nodded once and George sighed. He though he'd got away with it.

"Where are you going?" Nick asked blatantly. They all froze. Even El knew something was up.

"Urm," George mumbled as he turned back around to face her, "Science class. With Mr Clarke, the science teacher."

The others nodded but Nick saw through it. Why would he falter if he was telling her the truth?, she thought as she watched him run off down the path back into school.

He always did that, falter before he lied. He did that to Naomi when he was trying to get out of something or hide something she disapproved of. They'd always been a team trying to keep their family together in spite of Naomi. Nick had even lied to her to cover George's tracks.

She never thought he'd lie to her.