The storm outside Mike's house was wild.
There was thunder and thick rain and honestly, it seemed like it would never stop. The group crowded around the small girl, who was sitting on the sofa in Mike's basement. Mike had given her his jacket, despite it being slightly too big for her.
'Poor thing,' Grace thought. 'She looks terrified.'
"Is there a number we can call for your parents?"Mike questioned.
"Where's your hair? Do you have cancer?" Dustin asked, prompting Grace to give him a 'shut up' look.
"Did you run away?" Lucas inquired. Grace was worried for the girl. She looked so innocent. "Are you alright? Are you in trouble with someone? God, you must be freezing!"
Lucas noticed a smeared red patch on her vibrant yellow t-shirt. "Is that blood?" He went to point at it only for Grace to smack it away, "stop it!"
Mike backed her up, "yeah Lucas stop it, you're freaking her out!"
"She's freaking me out!" The boy exclaimed, trying to reason with his friends. "I bet she's deaf!" Dustin suggested, he clapped to test out his theory, which was proven false by her jumping at the clapping noise. "Not deaf."
"Alright, that's enough! Alright? Like Grace said, she's probably just scared and cold." Mike interjected, he went to get spare clothes from a laundry basket seeing as the small girl's ones were soaking wet. The thunder in the background seemed to be really scaring the girl who jumped and shut her eyes when it crackled. Lucas and Dustin's eyes were glued to the mysterious stranger, who had appeared in the forest while Grace was watching Mike retrieve the clean items of clothing. She turned away as soon as he started coming back and he handed the girl a jumper and some trousers.
"Here, these are clean," she dried her face with them slightly and got up, starting to remove her top. Suddenly the others stopped her from stripping in front of them, "no, no, no!" they chorused. Dustin went into a full on 'oh my god' panic. Grace prevented her from pulling the top up, so she got the memo. Mike moved beside Grace and pointed to the door on the other side of the room, "see over there? That's the bathroom. Privacy. Get it?" The poor girl looked slightly embarrassed as she grabbed her fresh clothes and went towards the door.
She entered into the bathroom, to which Grace went to shut the door to protect her modesty. Just as it was about to fully close the girl stopped it from shutting any further.
"You don't want it closed?" Grace asked. "No." Surprised by the girl finally uttering a word she jokingly replied, "so you aren't mute? That's nice to find out. Well, why don't we leave the door slightly opened, I'll be right outside if you need me. Is that alright?"
"Yes."
Tabby got scared of going to the bathroom alone at night and seeing as Grace's room was closest to the upstairs one, she always asked Grace to come with her. Her sister was always reassured knowing Grace was right outside, and perhaps this girl would be too.
Seeing that her friends were huddled in a group at the center of the room, she strayed towards them while her eyes were on the bathroom door.
"This is mental." Dustin started. Mike must've been listening into Grace and the girl's conversation because he replied with, "at least she can talk!"
"She said 'no' and 'yes, your three year old sister says more." Lucas stated. "She tried to get naked!" Dustin was clearly still in shock from the almost stripping incident that occurred moments before. "There's something seriously wrong with her-" Lucas did a motion to his head insinuating that the new girl was crazy, "like, wrong in the head."
Grace zoned out on their conversation just as Dustin reenacted how the stranger almost stripped. She went back to the bathroom, "You ok in there?" The girl opened the door again and nodded, she was fully dressed in the new stuff Mike gave her. "I'm Grace by the way, that's Lucas, that's Mike and that's Dustin. You'll probably be properly introduced to them later. The girl was confused but repeated, "Grace."
"Yeah! Maybe when we find your parents, we can be friends!" The girl was completely put off by that statement but slightly smiled at her nonetheless.
Grace made sure the girl was fully ready and cleaned up and then walked over to where the gang were once again just as Mike decided to let the girl stay the night. "You're letting a girl other than Grace stay?" Dustin was shocked, they had met this girl about an hour ago and now she was being invited to have a sleepover. "Just listen! In the morning, she sneaks around my house, goes to the front door and rings the doorbell. My mom will answer and know what to do. She'll send her back to Pennhurst or where ever she comes from." Grace's ears perked up. They thought the girl was from the mental institute?? She could tell the girl was genuinely in some kind of danger or went through a rough childhood. Her mom works as a councillor at the high school and on the rare occasion when Grace was sick and Mrs Livingstone couldn't babysit, she tagged along with her. Her mother told her the things to watch out for and it seemed this girl was displaying them all.
"We'll be totally in the clear. And tomorrow night, we go back and this time we find will." Mike finished. Grace was skeptical of his plan. "Hey Grace, can you stay behind a little while longer? Just to help me let her settle in? My mom will just think we're finishing homework." She nodded her head and smiled a little. Mike wanted her to help him? Of course it's probably just because she was a girl and so was the stranger but still, he had kept her over Lucas and Dustin his best friends. Not to say Grace wasn't his best friend, but you get the picture.
Dustin and Lucas started packing up to leave while Grace and Mike helped build a small pillow fort for the stranger to stay in. "This is my sleeping bag," Mike handed her the soft bag that she could sleep in for the night.
Grace realised that she didn't even know the girl's names. "Hey, I forgot to ask for your name earlier!" In return, the girl raised her arm and rolled up her left sleeve. There was a small tattoo that read '011'. Mike reached out to touch it and the girl flinched and pulled her arm away. "Is that real?" He asked. He meant no harm in investigating it, he was just curious. "Sorry, I've just never seen a kid with a tattoo before." He laughed softly, Grace thought it was adorable and giggled slightly. She spoke up, "what does it mean? Eleven? Is that your name?" She pointed to herself and nodded, signifying that Eleven was indeed her name. "Eleven. Ok, um, well my name's Mike short for Michael and I'm sure you've met Grace." Eleven turned to Grace and smiled, who returned the gesture. "Grace." She repeated.
"You seem... different." Eleven looked confused at what Grace had just said. "I like different though. There's no problem with being different."
"Maybe we could call you... El? Short for eleven." The girl nodded at Mike. "Um, well, ok. Night El." He said getting up then helping Grace up. "Night Grace, night Mike." The boy pulled the cloth over the fort area as Grace picked up her stuff, he turned off the light and followed his friend up the stairs to say goodbye.
They got to the front door, the rain had miraculously stopped. "So..." Grace wasn't sure what to say.
"Um, so... what do you think of El?" He awkwardly asked, while leaning against his wall. Grace paused. "I like her." "Yeah, me too!" Grace raised her eyebrow jokingly. "Not in that way!" He detested. She laughed, "I was only joking Mike."
"Besides, I like someone else." Grace suddenly raised her head. "Who?" "Just, uh, someone." How could she have been so stupid? Of course he liked someone and that person was obviously not her. "Is she in our year?" "Maybe." "Hm."
"Do you like someone?" She felt heat rushing to her cheeks. "Yes, well uh, I mean- maybe," the long haired girl stuttered, she had no idea how to answer him. He seemed to have a weird look of pain on his face. If only he knew about her liking him. Unbeknownst to her, he was thinking the exact same thing. "Well it doesn't matter." He stated, regretting he brought up liking her in the first place. "I liked what you said about being different." He continued. She smiled her signature smile, "I guess I'm different too. That's why I like her."
He smiled back at her again. He didn't think he's ever smiled at someone as much as her. She just made him... happy. She always looked out for him and made him laugh. She wasn't petty like the other girls, she was rational and always applied logic to a situation. 'How could she not see he liked her?' he thought it would've been quite obvious, he'd been practically drooling over her for the past month.
"I'm really worried about Will, Mike." She confided in him while looking at the ground. Mike grew a sympathetic look on his face. "He'll be alright. We'll find him, I know we will." He put his arm on her shoulder for support. Her brown eyes looked up at him and he thought they were the most beautiful eyes he'd ever seen. She leaned over and hugged him tightly and he immediately hugged back. After about a minute (which felt like an eternity to them) his mom shouted him in, he turned to her and said, "listen, I might stay off tomorrow and make sure Eleven doesn't get into any trouble, you in?" She hated lying to her parents, but if she could spend more time with Mike then she was game. "Alright. If I can't though, I'll talk to you on the com, channel 5?" He nodded in response.
"Watch out alright?"
"What? Do you think a witch is gonna take me?" She had a dark look on her face, "or worse?" He jokingly rolled his eyes. "Just stay safe ok? I know your house isn't that far away but it's already bad with Will gone. I don't know what I'd do without you." He pulled a surprised face, he was surprised with himself for admitting that out loud. She felt the odd feeling again. Maybe he did like her. She giggled
"Sweet dreams, Mike" She winked and sped away into the dark on her bike.
He whined, he needed to admit it to himself now.
Mike Wheeler had a massive crush on Grace Knightwood.
A/N:
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! He admitted he liked her!!! Grace knows she likes him but she hasn't properly said it to herself.
Also, be prepared for Eleven and Grace to be your brotp bc their friendship is gonna be so badass. The boys (apart from Mike) are skeptical of Eleven but Grace knows somethings up (and obviously as audience members we know what Eleven's secret is).
Please vote if you liked, add to library for updates and comment feedback/suggestions for the story, it helps me out alot!