"Alright, Two. Today, I want you to lift the red block and move it to the end of the table. Can you do that?" A familiar man with grey hair says.
I nod my head yes and zone in on the the block. The red block starts to move, starts to float.
"That's is Two, keep going." He says.
The red block doesn't move any further, instead it drops back down to the table. And suddenly I feel very weak.
"That's alright Two, you've made a lot of progress today." The man says to me with a bright smile.
He takes weird head gear off of my head and reaches his head out for me to grab. I grab it and get off of the chair. Hand in hand we walk out of the room.
"How does a sweet sound?" He asks. "Maybe we can ask Peter to join us?"
I nod my head excitedly.
"Wonderful." He says and crouches down to be eye level with me. Still holding my hand, he reaches his other one out and gently holds my face.
"You have made Papa very proud today, my sweet, darling, Josephine."
"Danielle!"
I'm scared awake to Dustin, banging his fists on my door.
"Danielle! How many times do I have to wake you up?!" He yells from the other side of the door causing me to groan.
"Ughhhhh!" Dustin says mocking me on the other side.
"Dustin, shut up!" I yell at him.
"Mom said I have to wake you up, so until I see your face, I'm not going away!"
He starts banging on my door louder. This time, I groan again, throw my blanket back, and get up, stomping my way to the door.
"Dani-"
I yank the door open to see Dustin with his fist in the air mid-knock.
"Shut up!" I yell at him and slam the door in his face again.
I walk back over to my bed and plop down.
Papa? I need to talk to El about these dreams, maybe she knows what's going on with me. Especially, after last night.
"I'm going to Mike's now that I know you're awake!"
"Wait! I'll come with!" I shout.
"Hurry up then!" He says.
By the time I make it outside, Dustin is waiting for me in the passenger seat. He also somehow managed to put his bike in the back by himself.
"Took you long enough." He says sarcastically.
"Yeah, yeah." I say as I put the car in reverse and head towards the Wheeler's.
**
We're in Mike's basement huddled in a circle while El is sitting on the couch messing with a walkie talkie. As the boys come up with a plan that's believable, I go sit next to El.
"Hi." I say sitting next to her.
She doesn't say anything in return, so I decide to get straight to the point.
"So I was wondering, if you'd know if I had powers too?" I whisper to her.
With this she looks up from the walkie talking and looks at me a little confused.
"It's just last night, there was something in the woods and I got really scared. For some reason I held my hand out and then I felt some weird energy flow through me." I say looking down at my hands. "It's just never happened to me before."
"Never happened?" El asks.
"Um, yeah." I say looking back at her. "I also have dreams, which I'm starting to think are actually memories. That Papa guy is in them a lot."
El sits up on the couch and puts the walkie talkie to the side. She points to her tattoo and says, "Papa."
"Yes, our tattoos, he gave them to us."
"And powers." She says quietly.
"So... are we like experiments? Are there more of us?" I ramble out.
She stops me from continuing by grabbing onto my arm.
"Yes." Was all she said in return.
After a minute to think and listening to the boys argue, I say, "Can you teach me how to use my powers?"
El nods her head. "Yes." She says
"Great! I can come over again? Considering-"
"Time for school!" Karen yells down to us.
Dustin, Lucas, and Mike grab their bags and Mike comes over to Eleven.
"See you later, El." I say to her and she slightly smiles at me.
I go upstairs and see Nancy coming out of the kitchen.
"Hey." Nancy says, spotting me.
"Hi, Nance." I say back.
"Do you mind giving me a ride to school?" She asks.
"Yeah, of course."
We walk out the door and go to my jeep.
"Did you leave with Barb last night?" Nancy asks when we get inside.
"No, when I left, she was already gone." I say and leave the cul-de-sac.
Nancy doesn't say anything and she looks out the widow.
"Although, when I left, her car was still parked on the side of the road, which is a little concerning." I say to her.
"It was there when I left too." She says turning her head back to me.
We're now turning into the school parking lot.
"More happened on my way home, but I can tell you after school, okay?" I say as I park my car and grab my bag from the backseat.
"Okay." She says and we both get out and go inside.
**
I'm heading to art when someone taps me on my shoulder.
"Hello Edward." I say casually.
"How dare you call me by my real name?" He says stunned.
"You know I'm joking, Eddie." I mock.
"I know, I know." He says and we walk into art.
We sit down at our table and he says.
"So, I've noticed that you've been hanging around Steve the hair Harrington. What's that about?" He asks while drawing some bats.
"Oh, it's nothing really. I'm just hanging around him because of Nancy, she drags Barb and I everywhere." I laugh dryly.
"Oh right." He drags out. "Aren't they dating now?"
"Um, I think so?" I say, continuing my drawing.
"Just... promise me one thing?" Eddie says looking up from his drawing.
I look up from mine also and say "Sure, anything."
"Don't become one of them. All snobby and pretentious."
"I wouldn't dream of it." I say seriously.
"Good. What are you drawing?" He asks and looks at my paper. "Oh, wow! Uh... I like it." He says smiling. Than his face contours into confusion. "Why a black widow?" Eddie asks.
"Well... I'm not sure, it just came to me." I say as I shrug my shoulders.
"Mhmm yeah, you really are a weirdo." He says jokingly.
"Says the freak who plans on getting tattoos of bats. Why bats?"
"Uh, hello? Ozzy, of course!" He defends himself.
I raise my hands up in surrender and the bell rings for second period.
**
I enter the cafeteria with Nancy and she leads us over to Steve's table. He's sitting there with Carol and Tommy. Carol's foot is propped up on the table. We both sit down, Nancy sits next to Steve and I sit on the very end.
"Oh, thanks, man. It's a heated pool." Tommy says with a mouth full of food.
"Well, it's it's not frostbite, then what is it?" Carol asks.
"Ugh, I don't care what it is, it's disgusting! Get it off the table. We're eating here." Steve says.
I pick at my food and look around the cafeteria. I see Eddie sitting with his friends a couple tables away from me. He's already looking at me and raises his eyebrows as in a "I told you so." way. I just roll my eyes and look down at my tray of food.
That is until Nancy said something that caught my attention.
"Hey, Tommy. When you left, did you see Barb?"
"What?" He asks.
"Barbra. She's not here today."
"She didn't show up?" I ask Nancy and she just shook her head no.
"I seriously have no idea who you're talking about." Tommy says and laughs.
"Come on, don't be an ass, man. Did you see her leave last night or not?" Steve cuts in.
"No, she was gone when we left. So was little Danielle over there. In case you were wondering."
"They probably couldn't stand listening to all that moaning." Carol says. "Oh, Steve!" She moans.
My eyes go wide and blush. I look at Nancy and mistakenly look at Steve also, making my eyes go wider if possible.
"Oh, Steve!"
We're still staring at each other and my face is surely beet red.
"Oh, Steve!"
Steve's face starts to redden.
"Oh, Steve!"
I couldn't take it anymore. I'm not sure what came over me, but I scooted my chair back, stood up, quickly leaving the cafeteria.
Steve's eyes following my every move.
"Oh, look! The weirdo's embarrassed!" Carol whines.
"Don't worry sweetheart! I'd be embarrassed too!" Tommy yells after me.
I'm embarrassed because they think I stayed around that long!
A trashcan falls over behind me, as I walk away. I enter the hallway and nearly run into Jonathan.
"He Dani, you alright?" He asks quietly.
I ignore him and go straight into the girl's bathroom.
**
Finally school is over. After I grab my stuff from my locker I head outside to my car. I parked in the back lot this morning. When I walked to my car, I was confused seeing Nancy, Steve, Tommy, Carol, and even Jonathan at Jonathan's car. He was parked next to me.
"Here's the other starring lady." Tommy says as he smiles at me.
"What are you talking about?" I ask confused.
"This creep was spying on us last night." Carol clarifies.
I look over at Jonathan confused and he looks at the ground.
"He was probably going to save this one for later." Carol says and hands me a picture.
It's a picture of me changing in Steve's room with my bare back to the window. I look at it wide eyed before I look up, barely noticing a picture sticking out of Steve's pocket.
A picture of him and Nancy maybe?
I look over at Jonathan again.
"See, you can tell that he knows it was wrong, but..." Steve says as he walks up to Jonathan. "Man, that's the thing about perverts... it's hardwired into 'em. You know, they just can't help themselves." He says and rips apart the other pictures and tosses them onto the ground. He walks back over to Jonathan's car, reaching into his bang and pulling out his camera. "So, we'll just have to take away his toy."
"Steve..." Nancy starts to say.
"No, please, not the camera." Jonathan says as Tommy holds him back.
"No, no, wait, wait... Tommy, Tommy." Steve says and Tommy lets go of Jonathan. "It's okay." Steve says and holds out the camera. "Here you go man."
Just as Jonathan goes to reach for it Steve purposely lets the camera slip from his fingers. Tommy starts laughing at the now, broken camera on the ground.
"Come on, let's go. The game's about to start." Steve says and he goes to walk back to the school. He passes me and I look down at the picture in my hand.
"It's alright, it's handled." He says putting a hand on my shoulder.
"Is it?" I say sharply back.
"What do you mean?" He says as he slowly takes his hand away.
"I don't know what picture is in your pocket, but whatever it is, keeping it makes you just as bad as the person that took the picture." I say looking at Jonathan.
I look back at Steve and say sarcastically, "Enjoy the game, Harrington." I shake my head and walk away to my car.
**
Before I have the chance to leave the parking lot and go home, I'm stopped by Dustin, Lucas, and Mike.
"Dani come on, we're going to go find Will." Dustin says to me.
"Ugh. Okay, fine, I'm coming."
"First, we need to get El." Mike says.
**
I'm riding Dustin's bike and he's on the pegs, holding on to me. The four of us cut through the woods and make it to the meeting point to pick up El. We reach Mike's house and El is already waiting by the telephone pole.
"El!" Mike says. "You okay?" He asks her.
She nods her head yes and Mike then pats the seat of his bike and says, "Hop on. We only have a few hours."
She gets in his bike and we start to ride back into the woods.
**
As we trek through the woods, Mike and El are up front, and Lucas, Dustin, and I are in the back. It becomes dark very quickly and we are on Mirkwood, coming to Will's house. We all stop confused.
"Here." El says.
"Yeah? This is where Will lives." Mike says, confused.
"Hiding." She says.
"No, no, this is where he lives. He's missing from here. Understand?"
Eleven looks to me for help. I raise my eyebrows because I am also confused myself, so I'm really no help at all.
"What are we doing here?" Lucas asks.
"She said he's hiding here." Mike shrugs.
"Um, no."
"I swear, if we walked all the way out here for nothing-" Dustin starts to say.
"That's exactly what we did." Lucas says as he cuts Dustin off. "I told you she didn't know what the hell she was talking about!" He screams at El.
"Lucas, calm down." I say to him.
"No, Dani! She doesn't know where Will is!"
"Then how does she know where he lives?" I say back.
"Why did you bring us here?" Mike asks El.
"Mike, don't waste your time with her." Lucas says.
"What do you want to do then?"
"Call the cops, like we should have done yesterday."
"We are not calling the cops!" Mike says.
"Hey, guys?" Dustin questions.
"What other choice do we have!" Mike continues.
Dustin walks closer to the drive way and screams, "Guys!"
Lucas and Mike snap out of their argument and we all turn to see red and blue lights speeding past the Byers' house.
"Will." Mike whispers.
We all scurry to the bikes and take off, following closely behind the cop cars and ambulance.
**
After what felt like forever, we made it to the quarry. Police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances are all over the place. We get off the bikes and hide behind a fire truck and watch as they pull a body from the water.
"It's not Will. It can't be." Mike says in disbelief.
I put my hand on his shoulder to try and comfort him.
"It's Will. It's really Will." Lucas says.
I put my other hand on his shoulder to comfort him also.
Mike backs away, breaking contact. I let go of Lucas and pull Dustin into my arms.
"Mike." Eleven says as she reaches out to him.
He smacks her hand away.
"Mike? Mike? What?" He yells at her. "You were supposed to help us find him alive. You said he was alive! Why did you lie to us? What's wrong with you? What is wrong with you?"
"Mike..." El barely makes out.
"What?!" Mike snaps at her and leaves.
"Mike, come on. Don't do this, man. Mike..." Lucas cries out to him.
"Mike, where are you going?" Dustin cries. "Mike!"
Mike pushes his bike out of the quarry and goes home.
"Come on, let's get you all home." I say and wipe my face of tears I didn't realize were falling.