Y/n's pov
As we walked inside the school, El looked around curiously.
"Remember, if anyone sees us, look sad." Mike reminded as we walked towards the A.V. room.
We walked up to the door and he tried the handle, which didn't budge.
"Locked." Mike sighed in disappointment.
"Now how are we gonna get in there?" I asked in frustration.
"Boys and Y/n?" I heard a man's voice ask from behind me.
I turned around to face Mr. Clarke.
"What are you four doing here? The assembly's about to start." He said with a confused expression.
"We know, we've just been... Sad." Mike explained, putting on a fake sad face.
"Very sad." I nodded, not helping.
The four of us were frozen in place and I could tell that El was freaked out.
"We came to... Cry." Dustin added, saying the first thing that came to mind, which obviously didn't help the situation.
How on earth was Mr. Clarke going to believe this.
He isn't stupid.
"Yeah, I know it's hard for you guys but you need to be there. For Will. Then, the Heathkit's yours for the rest of the day." Mr. Clarke declared, to my surprise, tossing Mike the keys.
Maybe Mr. Clarke is stupid.
Mr. Clarke glanced behind me, where El was standing.
"I don't believe we've met, what's your name?" He asked her.
Oh, man.
"Elev-"
"Eleanor!" Mike cut her off quickly.
Nice save, Mike.
"She's mine and Michael's..." I tried to think of a reasonable lie.
"Cousin!" Lucas added on.
"Second cousin." Dustin finished for us, holding up two fingers.
"She's here for the funeral." Mike said.
"Well, welcome to Hawkins, Eleanor. Too bad you couldn't come under better circumstances." Mr. Clarke said.
"Thank you."
"Where are you from?" Mr. Clarke asked.
Oh boy.
Damn you, Mr. Clarke and your dreaded small-talk.
"Bad place-" El shook her head, making all our eyes go wide.
"Sweden!" Dustin said, cutting El off.
"We have a lot of Swedish family." Mike explained.
"She hates it there." I added.
"Cold, very cold!" Lucas finished, imitating a shiver.
"Sub-Zero." Dustin said.
Mr. Clarke seemed very confused and there was a long pause of silence before anyone finally spoke.
"Shall we?" He asked.
We all nodded in agreement, confused ourselves as we commenced our walk down the hallway.
The next thing I knew, we were at the entrance to the gymnasium, where the assembly was being held.
And then, for reasons I will never understand, Dustin stepped in front of us all, and threw the doors open as forcefully as he could, making them swing back against the walls and creating a loud bang in the process.
Every. Single. Person. In that room, turned and stared at us.
"Abort!" Dustin said, and Mike, Dustin, Lucas and I tried to leave but Mr. Clarke pushed us back into the gymnasium.
We all awkwardly walked up the bleachers and pushed past people to get to empty seats.
Then we sat down, Mike then El then Lucas then me then Dustin, to listen to our principal talk about our "dead" friend.
"Will Byers' death was an unimaginable tragedy. Will was an exceptional student and a friend to all of us. It is going to be hard to live, with the hole he left in our community. I would like to introduce you to Sandy Sloane, a guidance counselor from a church in Jonesbrough. Before she comes in here, students that are having trouble dealing with the tragic loss..." Our principal started speaking.
"Look at all these fakers. They probably didn't even know his name till today." Lucas scoffed, looking around.
The bell rang and all the kids stepped off the bleachers and walked away.
"Let's go." I said to the boys and El, picking up my backpack and walking down the bleachers with them.
"Hey. Hey! Troy! You- you think this is funny?!" I heard Mike yell, and I turned around to see Mike facing Troy.
Oh god, Michael.
"What did you say, Wheeler?" Troy asked him.
Oh No.
"I saw you laughing. I think that that's a real messed up thing!" Mike yelled.
"Like the principal said, grief shows itself in funny ways. Besides what's there to be sad about?" James cut in.
"Yeah, he's in fairy land now, right? All happy and gay!" Troy spat.
He turned and skipped away, wiggling his fingers and making weird 'Fairy' noises with every step he took.
Mike had finally had it with Troy.
He walked up behind him and shoved Troy as hard as possible, launching Troy to the ground.
Troy quickly stood up and took a step towards Mike, ready to beat him up.
But he couldn't.
He was frozen to the spot.
Then I looked at El and I could tell it was her.
People started to crowd around us, Michael and Troy in the center of the commotion.
"Dude! Troy peed himself!" Greg McCorkle, a boy I sat next to in my History class exclaimed.
Troy looked down, and sure enough, he was peeing himself.
People were laughing, including me but Mike just looked confused.
He looked behind himself, confusion etched onto his face until he saw Eleven.
El wiped her nose, looking like a badass, before she left the inner circle.
"Time to go." I said, lightly grabbing El's and Mike's arms and dragging them out of the circle of people.
——
"Now what happens?" I asked no one in particular.
We were all staring at El, who was sitting in a chair in front of the Heathkit.
"Now El finds Will." Mike shrugged.
El softly closed her eyes, which got Mike excited.
"She's doing it! She's finding him!" Mike exclaimed.
"Holy shit." Dustin said.
"Relax, she just closed her eyes." Lucas rolled his eyes at the two of them.
Then, almost the second after he said that, the lights burned out and the radio became clear.
We all jumped back, and a burning smell came from the HeathKit.
Meanwhile, heavy breathing and whimpering sounded from the heathkit.
Then, we heard Will's voice.
"Mom? MOM!"
"No. Way." Lucas said.
But for some reason, Will couldn't hear us.
"Hello? Will can you hear us? Why can't he hear us!?!" Lucas yelled at Mike.
"I don't know!"
"It's dark, it's cold, it's like home but it's so dark! Mom! Mom!?!"
We watched as the radio went up in sparks.
Without thinking, Dustin grabbed the fire extinguisher and coated the radio, flames and all, in the substance.
Eleven was toppled over, exhausted.
"Okay, uh, Michael, get Eleven onto that cart!" I ordered, pointing to a rolling cart with a bunch of headphones laying on it.
Mike went over and flung all the headphones off, struggling to lift Eleven onto the cart, resulting in Lucas ending up helping him.
We wheeled her out of the room, and to where our bikes were, making our escape.
Word count: 1165