⚠️homophobia⚠️
-november 9th 1983-
-reader's pov-
the sound of radio static bounced off the walls as el messed with the walkie again.
"we just tell our parents we have AV club after school," informed mike to the group, "that'll give us at least a few hours for operation Mirkwood."
lucas sighed deeply, "you seriously think that the weirdo knows where Will is?"
"just trust us on this, okay?" I spoke.
"fine.." replied lucas.
"you get the supplies?" asked mike.
"yeah," lucas pulled his backpack onto the table before unzipping it and pulling out many different items, "binoculars from 'nam, army knife also from 'nam, hammer, camouflage bandana... and the wrist rocket!" he proudly exclaimed whilst pulling his slingshot from the bag.
"you're gonna take out the demogorgon with a slingshot?" retorted dustin, clearly unimpressed.
"first of all, it's a wrist rocket," lucas corrected him, "and second of all, the demogorgon's not real! it's made up!.. but if there is something out there.. I'm gonna shoot it in the eye," he then shot the empty slingshot which caused us all to flinch, "and blind it!"
"and what about you dustin?" I turned my attention to dustin as he lifted up his own backpack
"well, alrighty!" his jovial voice brightened up my mood in an instant, "we got nutty bars, bazooka, pez, smarties, pringles, nilla wafers, apple, banana and trail mix." his joyful grin spread across his face once his list was finished.
"seriously?" lucas rolled his eyes.
"we need energy for our travels, for stamina and besides, why do we even need weapons anyway? we have her!" dustin pointed to el.
"I agree with the first part henderson," I spoke whilst picking up an apple and biting into it, "but not the second, because like I said, she's still a human no matter what, not some I dunno.. dog."
"okay, okay sorry.." muttered dustin, "but we need to save the food for later so stop eating it!" his voice raised as he saw me handing a pack of smarties to el.
"BOYS, Y/N TIME FOR SCHOOL!" shouted karen from upstairs.
"COMING MUM!" me and mike both yelled back but I waited a little bit for the boys to disperse upstairs before I went over to speak to el.
"I've gotta go to school now but I'll be back at 3:15, so in the meantime stay quiet, stay down here and eat dustin's food if you get hungry," I told her as I noticed she was enjoying the smarties.
"3:15?" she repeated, confused after swallowing a mouthful of smarties.
"yeah.." I handed her my watch and put it on her own wrist, "when these numbers read, 3:15, go outside by those power lines right there, you see them?" I asked whilst pointing outside.
el nodded in response before holding out a smartie to me, "smartie," she beamed.
"hey, thanks." I smiled whilst accepting the kind offer and popping the sweet into my mouth.
"Y/N!" karen roared.
"COMING!" I boomed back.
"god, that woman," I muttered sarcastically which made el snicker quietly, "see ya later!"
"bye y/n." el said as she watched me climb the stairs.
——————
me and the boys were searching for a good rock to use for lucas' wrist rocket.
"this one?" questioned mike as he showed the rock to dustin.
"too big for the sling." dustin typically shook his head, "so do you think eleven was born with her superpowers like the x-men or do you think she acquired them like green lantern?"
"oh, born with them for sure," I answered whilst chucking a rock that was too small away, "yesterday she was telling me about where she comes from vaguely, she called it the 'bad place' and she asked if I was from there too. there's most definitely something that she knows and I don't."
the boys all gave me the same funny look. "what do you mean by that?" asked mike.
"I dunno.. but it seemed as if el thinks I'm also from the bad place." I answered with a shrug.
"why were you off with her yesterday, anyways?" lucas changed the subject.
"..keeping an eye on her, I guess?" I shrugged at the difficult question.
"pfft! excuses, excuses, excuses!" lucas exclaimed, "you obviously like her! we've all seen the way you look at her."
"what are you talking about?" I tried my best to fake sigh but fighting the heat that was burning at my cheeks would be a losing battle.
"y/n, be real. whenever you're near her you start getting all flustered and you start blushing. you even blush when she's just mentioned," lucas spoke, "you're doing it right now!" he then pointed to my tomato-like face.
"shut up lucas!" I spoke, my cheeks starting to die down in colour a little.
"yeah, shut up lucas." troy's agonising voice called out as all eyes fell on the two figures that were approaching us, "what are you losers doing back here?"
"probably looking for their missing friend," sniggered james.
"that's not funny. it's serious, he's in danger." dustin spat back.
"I hate to break it to you, toothless, but he's not in danger." troy teased, "he's dead. that's what my dad says. he said he was probably killed by some other queer like you two wheelers."
my hands clenched into fists as I stared at troy, anger flaring up in my eyes.
"come on y/n, just ignore them." mike eased as he noticed my angered expression.
"no mike. I'm not going to just ignore them." I spoke back calmly before stepping closer to the two bullies, who just looked me up and down with a smirk, clearly judging me.
and that was when my balled fist raised in an instant and almost thumped into troy's face, not actually hitting it but it created a cracking noise nevertheless.
blood was flicked on my fingers as I pulled my hand away to examine troy's face. and it didn't take a genius to realise that troy's nose was broken despite me not even touching it, the others also recognised it was broken although I hadn't even touched the boy. troy's eyebrows furrowed in irritation as he pinched his broken nose.
"what did you do." he shouted in my face, spit spraying all over me.
"say it don't spray it motherfucker." I smirked but before I could barge past them a large, beefy hand crashed into my face causing me to tumble over backwards. I hit the ground with a thud as the bullies began to laugh.
"and that's what happens when queers like you try to stand up for themselves." troy jeered as him and james stalked away.
"god, are you okay y/n?" asked mike in a worry as all the boys knelt down to my side.
"y-yeah.." I held a hand over my left eye.
"n/n, can you just move your hand for us to look?" questioned an equally concerned lucas.
I followed his orders and slowly removed my hand, which caused all the boys to scowl at the sight.
"w-what is it?" I stuttered.
"you've just got a little.. bruise.." dustin soothed.
"well, more like very noticeable black eye but yeah, same thing right?" shrugged mike as he helped me to my feet.
"eh, I don't mind really, I did more damage to him than he did to me," I said.
"yeah, how'd you do that?" asked a curious dustin.
"no clue," I smiled through the pain as mike softly patted my back.
"thanks for standing up for me," he praised.
"ah no worries, anything for you frogface," I teased playfully before ruffling his messy hair. the boys all chuckled at the fact I could still keep my humour up despite the fact I was in pain.