MIKE SAT WITH Eleven on the floor as she was picking up his different toys and figures. Since Julianna totally ditched school today, she decided to take out her social studies notebook and study for her upcoming test.
She knew this was random timing but it helped calm her nerves since she was scared about Nora finding out she ditched school.
Mike picked up a Yoda figure, slamming it onto the table, "Ready are you? What knows you of ready?" His mimicked Yoda's voice as Eleven eyed him weirdly.
"His name is Yoda. He can use the force to move things with his mind, like this." Mike paused to knock all of the figured off the table.
Mike began to talk about another one of his toys, not noticing Eleven get up and walk towards his trophy table. When he did, he got up and followed her.
"These are all of my science fair trophies. We got first every year." Mike said, "Except last year when we got third." Mike remembered with a grumble.
There was a silence that made Julianna look up from her book and walked towards the other two, who were inspecting a picture of Lucas, Dustin, Will, Ashton and Mike holding a trophy.
Julie didn't miss the way Eleven's eyes slightly widened when her eyes landed on Will, her finger slowly moving to touch his place on the picture. "You know Will? Did you see him last night? On the road?" Mike asked, getting interrupted by the sound of a car pulling into the driveway.
Mike quickly rushed to window before turning towards the two girls, "Shoot, my mom's here. We have to go." He grabbed Julie's hand as she ushered Eleven to follow and the three hurried out of the room.
As they ran downstairs, the turn of the doorknob made them all halt and run back up the stairs. "Ted?" A feminine, mothery voice called out to the sound of footsteps going up the stairs.
"No , it's just me mom!" Mike called out as the three of them all rushed back into his room. "Michael? What are you doing home?" Confusion could be heard in her tone.
"Just one second!" He shouted before closing his bedroom door and moving towards the closet. "You both have to sit in here for a second."
Julianna moved to get inside the closet but Eleven was hesitant. "Please El, you have to get in or my mom will find you. I won't tell her about you, I promise."
"Promise?"
"It means something you can't break. Ever." Mike quickly explained as the bald girl glanced between Mike and Julie. The hetero-chromatic eyed girl offered a soft smile, "I'll keep you safe El, don't worry."
Finally, she took her place next to Julianna as Mike quickly closed the door behind them, darkness consuming the two of them. The two stood against the wall, eventually sitting on the floor as Eleven closed her eyes, breathing heavily.
"El?" Julianna whispered, trying to keep her voice down as the girl opened her eyes and turned towards her.
"Is it--is it papa who's after you?"
The brown eyed girl stared at her before nodding slowly. "Is he still looking for me?" She questioned once more. El nodded her head again slowly which made Julianna's heart skip a beat in fear.
Julie clenched her fists tightly before taking inhaling once and exhaling deeply.
"It's okay El, I'll make sure we won't go back there. Promise." El looked at the girl, her mouth twitching into a small smile.
Suddenly, the two heard the door close and Mike's voice. "Julie? Is everything okay? El?" The closet door swung open as Mike worriedly stared at the two girls who sat on the floor, El's arms wrapped around her legs and Julie's arms wrapped around the smaller girls figure.
"Are you okay?" He glanced between the two girls as they both nodded. "Are you sure?"
"Promise."
--
ASHTON, LUCAS AND Dustin rode to Mike's house in a hurry, panic rushing through each of their veins. They reached his house, not hesitating to run through the door and run to Mike's room only to see Eleven sitting on Mike's bed beside Julianna with a thin blanket wrapped around her.
"Are you out of your mind?" Lucas questioned quietly in disbelief after a short moment of silence. "What happened to the plan Mike?" Ashton asked, quickly glancing at the bald girl.
"Just listen to m-"
"You are out of your mind!" Lucas repeated, louder this time.
"She knows about Will." Mike blurts out. Dustin's face showing confusion, "What do you mean she knows about Will?"
Mike picked up the photo from earlier, "She pointed at him, at his picture. She knew he was missing, I could tell."
Lucas's brows narrowed, "You could tell?" He repeated, ridiculing him.
"Guys just think about it. It's not a coincidence that we found her on Mirkwood, the exact same street where Will went missing-"
"That is weird." Dustin cut in.
"And she said that bad men are after her. Maybe these bad men are the same ones that took Will." Mike explained as Ashton crossed his arms in thought.
"Then why doesn't she just tell us?" Lucas questioned, looking at Eleven before stomped towards her and Julie.
"Do you know where he is?" Lucas asked with annoyance lacing through his tone. His hands on each side of her shoulders as he shook her violently, "DO YOU KNOW WHERE WILL IS?"
Julianna was quick to rip his hands off of her, "Stop it Lucas!" She shouted as he rolled his eyes, getting a slight push from Ashton, "You're scaring her, you moron."
Lucas turned to him, "She should be scared." He told his blue eyed friend before whipping back around to Eleven who only stared at him, clearly frightened due to his loud tone.
"If you know where Will is, tell us." He said slowly, almost like she was a baby as he paused to let her answer but she didn't.
"This is nuts. We have to take her to your mom." Lucas threw his hands in the air, speaking towards Mike.
"No! Eleven told Julie and I that telling any adult will put us in danger." Mike shook his head as he informed the others.
"Danger? What kind of danger?" Dustin asked in a frightened tone. "Her name is Eleven? As in the number?" Ashton added on, his brows raising.
"MIKE! WHAT KIND OF DANGER?" Dustin questioned again in a louder tone than the last.
"DANGER DANGER!" Mike shouted back, making a finger gun and pointing it at Dustin's head, then Ashton's and Lucas's before he slapped Mike's hand away.
"No, no, no. We're going back to the plan of telling your mom." Lucas shook his head as he moved towards the door, Julianna moved off the bed quickly to stop him as he opened the door but stopped in her tracks when the door closed forcefully on its own.
Mike, Dustin and Ashton all glance at each other, puzzled, but then it clicked and Julianna knew who was behind this.
Lucas went to touch the door again before the door before it slammed shut as it did before.
The boys and Julianna all turned around in union to look at the shaved head girl who was stood up from the bed and had a blooded nose, a hard expression on her face.
"No." Eleven stated in a firm tone.
--
MS. WHEELER INSISTED that Mike and his friends all have dinner at her house so the five children all sat at the table in silence.
Julianna was in deep thought about the whole situation. Hiding Eleven, Mike knowing her secret. It was bad that Mike knew the truth about her but it would be worse if he knew that she could do things like Eleven. She was dangerous. Him and his friends would probably all turn on her and report her to the police and then Eleven and her will be back in the lab again.
She glanced at Lucas who only used his fork to mess with his food, not bothering to eat. In fact, none of the children at the table, besides Mike's little sister, Holly, wanted to eat.
Ms. Wheeler glanced up from her plate to see the faces of the children, "Is something wrong with meatloaf?" To that, their heads snapped up, immediately fixing their posture.
"Not at all, Ms. Wheeler. My mom made her special lasagna so I just wanted to make sure I don't get too full." Ashton said respectfully but his friends could tell that it was just a lie.
"Yeah and I had two bologna sandwiches for lunch. I don't know why," Dustin said as Lucas quickly nodded, "Me too."
"Julie?"
Julianna quickly sat up in her chair as all eyes at the table turned towards her. "Are you alright, dear?" Ms. Wheeler questioned, concerned.
"Yeah, I just--I'm sorry, can I be excused for a second?" Without waiting for a response, she stood from her seat and rushed to the bathroom, closing the door behind her.
All she needed was a quick moment of silence. All of her thoughts were being interrupted and it made her head spin. She moved towards the sink and turned on the water, letting the cool water run over her hand. She looked at herself in the mirror before turning off the faucet.
She walked out the bathroom to join the others back at the table but as she turned to walk back to the kitchen, she could hear the quiet footsteps of the brown eyed girl, walking down the stairs.
Eleven, who came down the stairs without the parents knowing, was beginning to walk towards the kitchen but Mike looked up in time, coughing loudly. As Ms. Wheeler was about to turn towards Eleven, Dustin banged his hands on the table which made her whip back around. Julianna acted quickly and grabbed Eleven's hand, rushing to the basement.
Eleven walked back to her fort, nonchalantly, as Julianna sat next to her with a sigh, "You almost got caught El, you have to be more careful next time. Okay?" Eleven nodded her head before picking up Mike's supercomm and fidgeting with the knobs.
A couple minutes after, the basement door opened and multiple footsteps were heard which made Eleven tense up.
"Don't be alarmed, just us and some leftovers." Mike said as he reached the final step with the others. Ashton carried a tray of food in his hand before leaning down to place the tray in front of Eleven, then standing back up to stand with the others.
She looked at Lucas and Dustin with a skeptical look before Ashton assured her, "Don't worry, we won't say anything about you to the adults. They promised, right guys?" He turned towards his friends with a look.
Lucas only stayed silent but Dustin nodded, "We never would've upset you if we knew you had superpowers."
"We were just a little scared earlier. That's all." Ashton explained to Eleven as she picked up a fork and started to eat her food.
"We just wanted to find our friend." Lucas added to which Dustin nodded.
"Friend?"
"Yeah, our friend. Will?" Lucas said, Eleven's expression showing that she still didn't understand. He turned to Dustin and Mike, "Is she serious?"
Dustin shrugged his shoulders before Lucas licked his lips, "A friend is-"
"A friend is someone you'd do almost anything for." Ashton finished as he smiled at Eleven.
"And you lend them your stuff like comic books and cool action figures." Dustin added as he remembered how he was supposed to give Will one of his X-Men comics before he went missing.
"And you would go to any extent to protect your friends and do anything to keep them safe." Mike chimed in, the freckled-faced girl beside him not noticing his gaze that was on her.
"And they never break a promise."
"Especially when there's spit."
"Spit?"Julie and Eleven both questioned simultaneously.
"A spit swear means--" He paused to spit into his hand and handshake Dustin who eyed him disgustingly, "You never break your word." He shook Dustin's hand as Dustin stoof stiffly, staring at his hand in digust.
Both Eleven and Julianna's face showed grossed out expressions, Julie mumbling a small 'ew'.
"That's really important because friends...they tell each other things. Things parents don't know." Ashton explained lastly as Eleven's eyes moved between the five standing in front of her.
--
IT WAS LATER ON AND the four boys were huddled in a circle, talking about something that Julianna couldn't really hear well from the couch where she read a book that was in her school bag.
She noticed Eleven get up from her fort and walk over to the D&D table, which still had the board and figures on top of it, as she rested her hands on it and closed her eyes.
Lucas was first to notice her, "What's the weirdo doing?" He asked to which the three boys turn and walk towards her slowly, Julianna glaring at Lucas to his use of 'weirdo' on Eleven.
Julianna closed her book and joined the others in surrounding Eleven around the table.
"El?" Mike called to her but she didn't answer. Ashton looked at the others, "Do you know what she's doing?"
They all shook their heads as they watched El's next movement. She picked up Will's figure from the table and stared at it, "Will."
"Superpowers." Dustin blurts out as Lucas gives him an annoyed look. Ashton takes a seat beside her, "Did you see him? Do you know where he is?" Ashton questioned twice, not getting an answer out of her.
Eleven knocked all the other figures off the board and onto the floor. Then, she flipped the board over to show the black side of it, placing Will's figure in the middle.
Ashton and Mike both looked at each other, almost silently asking each other if they understood. Neither of them did.
"I don't understand." Ashton admitted. "Hiding." Eleven told him in a whisper as his brows raised.
"Hiding? From who?"
Eleven looked at Ashton for a second before picking up another figure and slamming it down next to Will's.
The Demogorgan figure.
author's note !
hiii everyone!! sorry for not updating for a while. Thing's have been really busy and I've been packing to go on vacation (which i leave for tomorrow). I won't be able to publish another chapter for a couple days so the next chapter will most likely be next weekend (so sorry for the wait )
Recap: In this chapter Lucas, Dustin, Ashton and Mike find out about the powers that Eleven have. Julianna is worried that if she tells too much or if they know to much, they'll take her back to the lab. Eleven reveals some disturbing news to the group about Will.
Fun Fact: The group (including Mike) doesn't know that Julie has powers .
thank you so much for reading !!!!