Early the next morning, after a whole night of anxiety and no sleep, Emily asked Joyce to take her to the Wheelers', using the excuse that she was going to ride her bike to school with Mike again. Even though she again had no intention of actually going to school, she was glad when Joyce agreed and dropped her off at the Wheelers' with her bike. Just like the day prior, Emily went straight to the basement where Eleven and Mike were, and Mike explained what had happened the night before.
Apparently just after Emily had left, Lucas tried to leave Mike's room to tell Mrs. Wheeler about Eleven, but Eleven had used her telekinetic powers to close and lock the door. Emily had just stared openmouthed at Mike for a few moments in disbelief, then looked at Eleven and back again.
"You know, if we were talking about anyone else, I probably would not believe you," she confessed, "but somehow, it makes sense."
But that wasn't all that had happened. Later on that night, Mike told her, Eleven had used his Dungeons & Dragons gameboard, along with the character Will always used and the Demogorgon piece to demonstrate to the boys that Will was hiding from something: A monster.
Eventually, Lucas and Dustin arrived, and the group of four began to formulate a new plan for going out to look for Will. This time, they would include Eleven, who clearly knew something they didn't.
"We just tell our parents we have AV Club after school," Mike said. "That'll give us at least a few hours for Operation Mirkwood."
"She's not in AV Club," Dustin pointed out, motioning to Emily, who stood between him and Mike as the four were gathered around the table.
"She is now."
Emily found herself grinning but quickly stopped when she saw Lucas looking suspiciously at her.
"You seriously think that the weirdo knows where Will is?" Lucas asked.
"Don't call her that," Emily told him.
"Just trust me on this, okay?" Mike requested. "Did you get the supplies?"
"Yeah," Lucas said, reaching down to grab his backpack and setting the items on the table as he listed them off. "Binoculars... from 'Nam. Army knife... also from 'Nam. Hammer, camouflage bandana... and the wrist rocket."
"You're gonna take out the Demogorgon with a slingshot?" Dustin questioned.
"First of all, it's a wrist rocket-"
"'First of all,'" Emily began in a mocking tone, "it's useless." She turned to Dustin, ignoring Lucas rolling his eyes at her. "What'd you get?"
Dustin grabbed his backpack and dumbed all of its contents onto the table. "Well, alrighty," he began. "So, we've got... Nutty Bars, Bazooka, Pez, Smarties, Pringles, Nilla Wafers, apple, banana, and trail mix."
Emily grabbed the Pringles and opened them. "Dustin," she said, taking out one of the chips, "you're a genius."
"Seriously?" Lucas asked exasperatedly.
"We need energy for our travels. For stamina. Which is exactly why someone shouldn't eat all of the Pringles before we even leave the house," Dustin said, taking the Pringles away from Emily, who groaned. "And besides, why do we even need weapons anyway? We have her." He motioned to Eleven, who was sitting on the couch playing with Mike's supercomm.
"She shut one door!"
"With her mind! Are you kidding me? That's insane! Imagine all the other cool stuff she could do. Like... I bet... that she could make this fly." Dustin left the table and grabbed Mike's replica of the Millennium Falcon and got Eleven's attention. "Okay, concentrate. Okay?" He let go of the ship, hoping that Eleven would use her powers to make it levitate or something of the sort, but she didn't, and it fell to the floor with a crash. He tried again with the same result.
"Idiot."
Mike went over and grabbed the ship off of the floor. "She's not a dog," he said to Dustin.
"Kids! Time for school!" Mrs. Wheeler called from upstairs.
The boys hurriedly grabbed their school things, and Emily asked, "Wait, does that mean I have to go to school?"
"What else would you do?" Lucas asked her before hurrying up the stairs with Dustin.
Emily groaned again. At least Mike will be there, she thought as she slipped on her backpack, which she had to bring in order to make her mother think she would be going to school like she said.
Meanwhile, Mike kneeled down in front of Eleven. "Just stay down here," he told her. "Don't make any noise, and don't leave. If you get hungry, eat Dustin's snacks, okay?"
"Not all of them, though, please," Emily added. "I would really like some. We don't have those kinds of things at my house. Not at the moment, at least."
"Michael! Emily!" Mrs. Wheeler called again.
"Coming!" they both yelled back.
"She'll be fine," Mike said to Eleven. "We get lunch at school."
"The school food is disgusting, Mike," Emily said.
"Take some snacks with you, then," he told her before turning back to Eleven. "You know those power lines?"
"Power lines?" Eleven repeated.
"Yeah. The ones behind my house?"
"Yes."
"Meet us there, after school."
"After school?"
"Yeah, 3:15." When Eleven just continued to stare at him, Mike suddenly realized she had no way of telling time and that even if she did, she probably didn't know how. So, he took the watch off of his wrist and put it on hers. "When the numbers read three-one-five, meet us there."
"Three-one-five."
"Three-one-five."
"Mike, we really have to go," Emily told him. Her backpack felt a little heavier now with the snacks she had added.
"Right. See you, El."
"Bye, El."
The two of them ran up the stairs, leaving Eleven by herself in the basement for the next eight hours.
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.
So far, what Emily thought would happen if she came to school was correct. Whenever she was walking in the hallway from class to class, someone would come up to her and ask her some question related to Will's disappearance. Some people seemed genuinely concerned while other people were just taunting her. Whenever this happened, Emily would try her best to ignore them, and Mike, Lucas, and Dustin would tell whoever it was to leave her alone.
The teachers, at least, all seemed to be sympathetic, even the ones Emily had had problems with (which was most of them). They all gave her the work she had missed over the last two days but told her that they would give her any accommodations she needed, and that they weren't going to push her to turn in assignments while Will was missing. Mr. Clarke, her science teacher, was particularly kind to her while she was in his class, and Emily knew that it was partly because Will was one of his favorite students, along with the other three boys. Nevertheless, she was grateful for the leniency, even though she knew she wouldn't have done her homework even if her teachers had told her she was required to.
After lunch was recess, and Mike, Lucas, Dustin, and Emily were all outside searching for rocks that would work with Lucas's slingshot.
"So do you think Eleven was born with her powers, like the X-Men, or do you think she acquired them, like Green Lantern?" Dustin asked the other three curiously.
"She's not a superhero. She's a weirdo," Lucas said.
"I thought I told you not to call her that," Emily said.
"And why should I listen to you?"
"Because how would you like it if someone called you a weirdo all the time? You wouldn't."
Lucas rolled his eyes but didn't reply.
"She has a point, Lucas," Mike agreed with Emily.
Lucas rolled his eyes yet again and said, "If you love her so much, why don't you marry her?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Mike, seriously? Do you really think we're that dumb?"
"Yes, definitely," Emily answered.
"And you too, Emily. I don't think it's just because of Will that you went over to Mike's the night after he went missing."
"She was wearing his coat that night, too," Dustin reminded him with a grin.
"Because I didn't have one!" Emily said.
"So?" Lucas said. "If it was me or Dustin, Mike would've let us freeze."
"Shut up, Lucas," Mike said.
"Yeah, shut up, Lucas," a voice mimicked from nearby, and they all turned to see Troy walking over with James. Emily immediately began to glare at them, because not only were they always making fun of her, but they bullied Will and the boys, too. "What are you losers doing back here?"
"Probably looking for their missing friend," James said with a taunting smile.
"That's not funny," Dustin said. "It's serious. He's in danger."
"I hate to break it to you, Toothless, but he's not in danger," Troy said. "He's dead. That's what my dad says. He said he was probably killed by some other queer." He and James both laughed while Emily's anger grew.
"Come on. Just ignore them," Mike said to his friends. He began to walk away, walking past Troy, but it seemed this was a mistake. Troy casually stuck his foot out, tripping Mike and making him fall and split his chin open on a rock. The other three ran over to him to see if he was okay.
"Watch where you're going, Frogface."
The sight of Mike's bleeding chin as Lucas and Dustin helped him to his feet was enough for Emily. She whipped around as fast as she could and punched Troy, hitting him in the nose with a loud crack. Troy doubled over, holding his hands over his nose, which was gushing blood.
"You'll pay for that, Byers."
"Yeah, yeah," Emily said dismissively, not in the least bit intimidated. "Run along before your friend ends up in the same situation as you."
James's eyes widened and he led Troy away as fast as he could.
"Assholes," Emily muttered before turning around to face the boys, who were all looking at her with awe. However, her eyes were only on Mike. "Are you okay? That looks like it hurts."
"Not too bad," Mike said, though she knew he was lying. "What about you? That punch was loud. Incredible, but loud."
Emily smiled. "It's fine. I think the noise was mostly from his nose."
She looked down at her hand for a moment and moved it a little, wincing slightly at the pain; if it was broken or fractured, she was screwed. She looked back up at Mike and accidentally made eye contact with him. They were both reminded of what Lucas had said just a minute earlier and quickly looked away from one another, blushing. Having watched this whole encounter, Dustin and Lucas exchanged a knowing look.
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.
During the last few hours of school, Emily had been pulled out of class to speak with the principal. She knew immediately that Troy had snitched and she was in trouble. The principal confirmed this. However, he was going very easy on her, saying things like "You're obviously very emotionally vulnerable right now" to justify her behavior. For the first time, she would not be receiving a disciplinary referral or a detention, but he told her that he would be calling her mother and telling her what had happened.
After school, the four friends rode back to Mike's house on their bikes and as Mike had told her, they met Eleven by the powerlines. She rode on the back of Emily's bike as they all biked to the woods by Mirkwood. When they got there, they got off of the bikes and just began to walk, as it was much easier.
"Why did they hurt you?" Eleven asked Mike and Emily as she walked between them at the front of the group with Dustin and Lucas following behind.
"What?" Mike asked. Eleven pointed at his chin and then at Emily's bruised hand. "Oh, that. Uh... I just fell at recess."
"And I, uh... wasn't paying attention and slammed my hand in my locker," Emily lied.
"Friends tell the truth," Eleven said.
Who taught her that? Emily wondered.
With a sigh, Mike admitted, "I was tripped by this mouth breather, Troy, okay?"
"And I punched said mouth breather," Emily added. "May have broke his nose."
"Mouth breather?" Eleven questioned.
"Yeah, you know... a dumb person," Mike explained. "A knucklehead."
"Knucklehead?"
"I don't know why I just didn't tell you. Everyone at school knows. I just didn't want you to think I was such a wastoid, you know?"
"And I didn't want to scare you, or make you think I'm a violent person," Emily said. "I don't do that very often. I only hit people if they deserve it. And Troy... he definitely deserved it."
"Mike. Em," Eleven said.
"Yeah?"
"I understand."
"Oh. Okay. Cool."
"Cool."
"And, Mike..." Emily said.
"Yeah?" he asked.
"You're not a wastoid. Troy and James, they're the wastoids."
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.
Operation Mirkwood ended up taking a lot longer than they had expected. When night came, they were still out in the woods, allowing Eleven to guide them. The boys had told their parents that they had AV Club, but Emily had not, and knew that when she finally went home that day, she would be in huge trouble. However, even the boys' excuse would not hold up; AV Club would have ended hours ago.
Even in the dark, as the group walked, Emily began to recognize the area they were in and knew they were going in the direction of her house. She didn't say anything, though, just in case they made a sharp turn or something and didn't actually end up at the Byers'.
This didn't happen; Eleven kept leading them closer and closer to Emily's home and eventually, they came out of the woods and actually saw the house in front of them.
"Here," Eleven said, turning to face the group.
"El... this is my house," Emily told her. "Will and I live here."
"Hiding."
"No. We've been here, and we've searched here many times. He's not here."
"What are we doing here?" Lucas asked when he saw where they were.
"She said he's hiding here," Mike told him.
"Um... no!"
"I swear, if we walked all the way out here for nothing-" Dustin began.
"That's exactly what we did! I told you she didn't know what the hell she was talking about!"
"Why did you bring us here?" Mike asked Eleven.
"I-" Eleven tried.
"Mike, don't waste your time with her," Lucas told him.
"What do you wanna do then?" Mike asked him.
"Call the cops, like we should have done yesterday."
"No! We are not calling the cops!" Emily said.
"Hey, guys?" Dustin said. He was ignored.
"What other choice do we have?" Lucas questioned.
"Guys!"
At Dustin's raised voice, they all fell silent, now able to hear sirens approaching in the distance. They watched as police cars and ambulances passed by them on the road, all with their sirens on.
"Will," Emily muttered, knowing somehow that this had something to do with her brother.
They all got on their bikes and raced after the official vehicles as fast as they could, their hearts racing.
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.
The vehicles finally came to a stop at the quarry. The kids stopped there as well, hiding behind an ambulance to watch what was going on so that none of the adults would see them and make them leave.
They watched in horror as they pulled a body out of the water. Said body was wearing the exact clothes Will was wearing the night he went missing, and it looked astonishingly like Will as well.
"No..." Emily breathed. Tears began to form in her eyes as her heart broke.
"It's not Will. It can't be," Mike said.
They watched on as the police brought the body onto shore, their hopefulness fading exponentially with every second.
"It's Will. It's really Will," Lucas said, despair evident in his voice.
Emily looked over at Eleven, her vision blurred by tears. "You said he was alive," she choked. "You said he was hiding. You can't hide if you're dead!"
"Em..." Eleven said quietly. There were tears in her eyes as well.
"'Em'? 'Em' what? If you knew he was dead, you should've said so! What is wrong with you, giving me false hope like that? About my own brother! I can't believe you!" Emily stormed away, going to her bike.
"Emily..." Mike called after her, but she ignored him. She couldn't be there any longer.
She rode away from the quarry as fast as she could possibly go. With the darkness of the night combined with the tears streaming down her face as she sobbed, she could hardly see a thing. After a while, she saw headlights up ahead, and in the beams of light, she could see two figures hugging. As she got closer, she recognized the figures as Joyce and Jonathan. She stopped her bike and got off, a little too fast as she nearly fell off, and then embraced both her mother and her brother.
"They found him," she sobbed.
[word count: 2769]
[written: 12/18/20]
[published: 12/18/20]