The group of 5, and a passed out Steve were now in Billy's car with Max driving. Lucas was in the front seat holding a map, directing the girl, and Dustin, Mike, Alex and Steve were in the backseat. Dustin was on the end, Mike right next to him and then Alex next to Mike with her brother laying on her.
Max was driving them to where Hopper's hole was, where they were planning to enter the Upside Down and go to the hub which they would set on fire, buying some time for El to close the gate.
"What are we gonna do if Steve wakes up?" Lucas asks.
"I don't know." Dustin replies.
"I mean, look at him." Alex points to Steve. He was covered with blood and he had a huge black eye. He had a few colorful bandages on his forehead and Mike was holding an ice pack on top of them. "I don't think he's gonna wake up until we finish." Alex assured the group.
"Nancy?" Steve then mutters, opening his eyes and looking at Mike. Mike furrows his eyebrows, turning to Alex.
"Shit. He woke up." She whispers.
Steve then groans in pain, holding his hand up to feel his bruised face.
"No, don't touch it." Dustin slaps his hand away. "It's okay, you put up a good fight."
"Yeah." Alex nods. "He kicked your ass but you put up a good fight." She lies. "Now, shh." She closes his eyes, trying to get him back to sleep.
"Okay, you're gonna keep straight for a half a mile, then make a left on Mount Sinai." Lucas reads the map.
"What's going on?" Steve turns to his sister and then to Max, on the drivers seat.
"Steve, don't freak out." Alex says, but it was too late.
"Oh my God!" Steve yells, sitting up.
"Just relax, she's driven before." Dustin tries.
"Yeah, in a parking lot." Mike scoffs.
"Yeah, that counts." Lucas says.
"Oh, my God." Steve repeats.
"They were gonna leave you behind." Dustin tells Steve. "I promised that you'd be cool, okay?"
"Yeah, so be cool!" Alex commands.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What's going on?" Steve panics once Max started driving faster. He was definitely not cool. "Stop the car! Slow down!"
"I told you he'd freak out." Alex looks at Dustin.
"Stop the car!"
"Everybody shut up! I'm trying to focus!" Max shouts.
"Wait! That's Mount Sinai, make a left!" Lucas yells.
"What?" Max looks at the boy.
"Make a left!" Lucas repeats and then Max make's a sharp left, causing everyone to freak out, but mostly Steve. He was screaming like a little baby.
And after a few moments, they finally got to the spot, Max hitting the break a bit too hard, causing Steve to panic once again.
"Whoa! Hello!" He shouts.
"That was awesome." Alex admits.
"Told you. Zoomer." Max smirks.
The five kids then got out of the car, taking out the gas tanks, and some extra gear that they brought with them.
Steve rolls out of the car, the five completely ignoring him. "Guys." He says. "Oh no, guys."
Alex and Mike then get some gas tanks and start heading over to the hole.
"Hey, where do you think you're going?" Steve turns to the two. No answer. "What are you deaf? Hello? We are not going down that hole, I made myself clear. Hey! There's no chance were going to that hole alright?" Steve grabs Alex by the shoulder. "This ends right now!" He then grabs the gas tank out of her hand.
"Steve!" Alex shouts.
"Look we know you're upset." Mike says, pushing his arm off of Alex's shoulder.
"Yeah. But the bottom line is, a party member requires assistance, and it is our duty to provide that assistance." Dustin explains.
"And you promised Nancy that you would keep us safe," Alex reaches out for his backpack. "So keep us safe." She throws it at him and then heads into the hole with Mike.
The others followed them shortly after, Mike leading the group, holding a map in one of his hands and Alex's hand in his other hand.
"Im pretty sure it's this way." He points his flashlight.
"You pretty sure or you certain?" Dustin asks.
"Im 100% sure, just follow me and you'll know." Mike replies, leading Alex into one of the tunnels.
"Whoa. Whoa. Whoa." Steve stops them. "I don't think so."
"What?" The two turn around facing Steve.
"Any of you little shits die down here, I'm getting the blame. Got it?" He grabs the map out of Mike's hand. "From now on, I'm leading the way.
Let's go." He walks in front of the group. "Come on."
And after 15 minutes of walking, they finally got to the 'hub'.
"All right Alex." Steve points his flashlight. "I think we found your hub."
"Drench it." She speaks, starting to pour some gasoline all over the place, the other five doing the same.
And after they covered the whole place with gas, Steve pulled out his lighter, ready to set the place on fire. "You ready?" He asks the kids.
"Ready." They all respond.
"I am in such deep shit." Steve sighs, throwing the lighter in the middle, and after a moment, the whole place was on fire.
"Go, go, go!" Steve gets up and starts running, the five kids following. "Let's go, let's go!" He grabs Alex's hand, in order for her to move faster.
"This way!" Alex points with her free hand.
"Help, help!" A voice then calls from behind.
Mike.
Alex stops for a moment and immediately pulls her hand away from Steve, turning around and running back.
"What the hell are you doing?" Dustin yells.
"Alexandra get your ass back!" Steve shouts, running after the girl leaving the rest to follow him.
She was running and running until she finally saw Mike. He was on the ground, a vine wrapped around his leg and arm.
"Mike!" She shouts dropping on the ground.
"Oh my, Jesus!" Steve curses, grabbing Mikes free arm. Dustin, Lucas and Max standing right behind him.
"Pull him out!" Steve yells, Dustin and Lucas then helping him pull the boy out.
"Wait!" Alex stops them. She holds her hand up, and starts ripping off the vines with her powers. And after a few moments Mike was finally free. "Are you okay?" She asks the boy.
"Y-yeah." Mike speaks. "You came back." He smiles.
"I'll always come back for you Mike." She smiles back. "Always and forever."
"We gotta go!" Steve then interrupts the two, helping them up. Then turn around and see a Demo-Dog in their way.
"Shit!" Alex curses, holding her hand up, but Dustin slaps it away.
"Dart." He stands in front of the group.
"What the hell?" Alex looks at him.
"Trust me, please." He says, walking up to Dart.
"Hey, it's me." Dustin pulls his bandana off. "It's your friend. Dustin. It's Dustin alright?" He smiles, bending down. You remember me? Will you let us pass?" He asks, but the creature opens up it's flower head in response, causing everyone to jump back.
"Okay, okay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry about the storm cellar. That was a pretty douchey thing to do." Dustin admits. "You hungry? Yeah?" He reaches in his bag.
"He's insane." Lucas sighs.
"Shut up." Steve holds up his finger.
"I've got our favorite. See? Nougat." He gets a Three Musketeers candy bar. "Here alright?" He unwraps the candy and throws it over to Dart. "Eat up buddy." He says and then signals the group to run back to the exit.
"Lets go." Steve whispers and carefully walks over to the tunnel.
"Goodbye buddy." Dustin smiles to Dart and then follows the five.
"Lets go." Alex pats him on the shoulder and they all start rushing over to the exit.
Right when they got close to the hole, they heard some growling come from behind them.
"What was that?" Max freaks.
"Run!" Alex yells and they quickly rush over to the hole. Max was the first one to get out, Steve helping her. Next was Lucas, then Mike, then Dustin and right when it was time for Alex to get out, monsters started rushing over to her and Steve.
"No! Alex!" Mike yells reaching his hand out for Alex to grab it, but it was too far.
However, the monsters rushed past the two siblings, Steve still trying to protect his sister.
"It's El." Alex smiles to her brother. "El." She repeats looking over to her friends. And when the monsters passed them, the two siblings finally got out of the hole.
"Phew, no one died." Steve smiles.
-
A few months have passed since the gate was closed, and now everything was pretty normal. It was now time for the Snowball, a school dance that was held every winter. It was Alex's first time to go, so she was pretty exited. Mike had asked her to go with him a while ago. He first asked her last year, but he asked her again a week ago just incase.
She was now getting ready, with Steve's help. He was helping her pick out her outfit now, and he would do her hair later, based off of her outfit.
"Okay so, this one? Or this one?" Alex picks two dressed from her closet, showing them to Steve.
"None." He says, moving her away from the closet, searching for something else for her to wear.
He finally gets a brown skirt that she had and a dark blue knitted sweater. "This." He smiles. "You like it?"
"Sure." Alex sighs. She was thinking about something more fancy, to impress Mike. "Shouldn't it be more fancy though?"
Steve rolls his eyes. "This is good, Alex. Trust me." He says. "Put these on too." He points to her white converse.
"Okay, okay." She says rushing over to the bathroom to put the outfit on. Maybe he was right, she shouldn't dress too fancy. Maybe Mike wouldn't like fancy? And dressing fancy wasn't really her.
She had to admit that the outfit Steve picked looked pretty good though. She exits the bathroom, walking back over to him twirling around a few times. "How do I look?" She smiles.
"Perfect. Now the most important part, your hair." Steve grins, signaling the girl to sit down on the chair in front of him.
Once she sat down, he started curling her hair, which looked pretty good. He then clipped it back with two small brown clips that matched her outfit. He sprayed some Farrah Fawcett hairspray that he always used and she was finally done.
"How do you like it?" Steve smirks, pretty impressed by how he styled her hair.
"It's nice. Thanks Steve." She looks at her brother while applying some lip gloss.
"No problem. Now lets go, we gotta pick up Dustin on the way."
-
"All right, here we are." Steve says, stopping in front of Hawkins Middle, ready to drop the two kids off. "So remember, once you get in there-"
"Pretend like I don't care." Dustin says. His hair was styled differently, which Steve obviously gave him advice on, and he was dressed pretty fancy.
"Like you don't care? I would rather prefer someone who cares." Alex joins their conversation.
Steve rolls his eyed. "You don't care."
"I don't care." Dustin nods.
"There you go. You're learning my friend, you're learning." Steve looks at the boy he was pretty nervous. "Come on, you look great.Now you're gonna go in there."
"Yeah." Dustin turns to him.
"Look like a million bucks."
"Yeah."
"And you're gonna slay 'em dead."
"Like a lion." Dustin smiles. "Grrr." He makes some weird noise.
"Yeah don't do that." The two siblings say in unison.
"Come on let's go Dustin we're gonna miss the whole dance." Alex says, getting out of the car.
"Good luck!" Steve yells driving off.
"Thank you!" The two kids say, walking into the school. They walk over to Mr. Clarke, who complimented them.
"You look very snazzy today, sir." He looks at Dustin.
"Thank you, my lord."
"You look amazing Alexandra." He smiles at the girl.
"Thanks Mr. Clarke." She says, looking into the gym while waiting for Dustin to finish talking with their teacher.
The first person she spots is Mike. He was with Will, Lucas and Max. El was supposed to join them later. Hopper promised.
"Should we go in?" Dustin asks the girl who nods in response. The two then rush over to their friends and the first thing they commented on was Dustin's hair.
"Holy shit, what happened to you?" Mike chuckles.
"What do you mean what happened?" Dustin's smile fades. "Do I look bad?" He turns to Alex.
"You look just like my brother." Alex laughs.
"Is that bad?" Dustin asks, Alex raising her shoulders in response.
"Is there a bird nest in there?" Lucas reaches for the boys hair.
"There's no bird nest in here, asshole." Dustin rolls his eyes. "I worked hard."
"Max?" Lucas turns to the girl.
"Yeah?" She looks at him.
"Hey. Um it's nice right?" He smiles."You want to... you wanna like, you know?" He stutters. "Like just you and me?"
"Are you trying to ask me to dance, stalker?" Max jokes.
"No, of course not." Lucas awkwardly says. "Unless, you want to?"
"So smooth." Max laughs. "Come on." She takes his hand, leading him to the dance floor.
"Hey zombie boy." A girl then walks up to Will. "Do you wanna dance?"
"Um... I don't know." He turns to Alex and Mike.
"Go." Alex smiles at him. "You'll be fine." She whispers.
"I mean, yeah, yeah sure." He walks away with the girl.
Dustin then takes a deep breath. "Wish me luck, guys. Im going in." He walks away, leaving the two alone.
They sat in silence for a moment, until Mike finally decided to speak up. "You look, pretty." He compliments.
"Thanks." She smiles. "You don't look too bad yourself."
"So, uh do you wanna dance?" He holds out his hand.
"Oh, shit." Alex curses. She forgot to practice dancing with Steve since she didn't know how to. "I don't really know how to dance." She admits.
"It's okay. I don't know either." Mike chuckles. "Do you wanna figure it out?"
"Sure." She takes his hand and the two walk over to the dance floor.
"Okay, so like this." Mike places Alex's arms on his shoulders, and he then places his on her waist. The two then sway around the dance floor, accidentally stepping on each other a few times.
Alex couldn't take her eyes off the boy. He looked really nice. He always did. Without even noticing, the two started leaning in for a kiss, until they bumped into each other.
"Ouch." Alex laughs, and then leans in for a proper kiss. She pulls away and rests her head on Mike's shoulder, letting him lead the dance.
"So, uh Alex?" He speaks.
"Yeah?"
"What are we?" He tilts his head.
"Well, what do you want us to be?" She smirks, facing the boy now.
"I- I don't know... I thought maybe if you like me and I like you and we both like each other and we know that unless... you don't like me anymore?"
"Of course I like you Michael." Alex chuckles.
He smiles. "So are we? You know?"
"Are we what?" She asks, even though she knew exactly what he meant.
"Well, boyfriend and girlfriend?" He smiles, causing Alex to slightly laugh.
"Sure." She smiles, Mike leaning in for another kiss.
The Snowball turned out to be really fun. Once El joined the group, they all gathered around and danced together until their feet got sore, so they had to take a break and sit on the bleachers. They were talking and joking around, almost forgetting about the traumatic events that happened just a month ago.
Alex was really happy with the friends she had. She had her sister, her first boyfriend, and her four best friends. One thing she knew was that she would never replace them for anything in the world. And they all knew that they would always be there for each other, in good and in bad no matter what.