Gasoline(A Stranger Things Story) OCxEleven

Chapter One:The Hellfire Club

I laid on my bed, staring up at the ceiling, and sighed, tossing the little rubber ball I'd found under our couch up in the air, catching it as it fell towards my face. "It's almost spring break.. I can make it. Just one more day, and I can get out of that shithole." It had been a year since we'd left Hawkins, and needless to say, it hadn't been easy to survive high school life in Lenora, California. I mean, don't get me wrong, it was a nice place to live, but- If you were someone like me, or like El, you weren't so lucky with making friends, or getting used to the stares in the hallways at school. What made it ten times worse was the fact that El was technically my sister at that point, and so, I couldn't date her, or at least, not in public. So I'd been reduced to pretending along with her that she was with Mike, though the letters she wrote him hurt, the words feeling almost authentic.

She assured me all the time that they were just letters to a friend, and to make sure no one thought we were together, but considering how we barely kissed or cuddled anymore, it was kind of worrying me. Anytime I tried to talk to her about it, she just changed the subject, and shut me out, and I was feeling lonely, and abandoned. She didn't even say "I love you" to me anymore, though I said it every single time I saw her at home, and that hurt more than anything, and I wondered if maybe she and Mike were secretly a thing. Will wasn't much better, shutting himself in his room to paint all day and night, except for during school, barely saying two words to me, but I planned on trying to get his attention during the break, and Johnathan- Well, he was super busy getting stoned with his new friend, Argyle something-or-other, who worked for Surfer Boy Pizza, and drove us to school in his banana yellow colored van every day, and who also brought us home every afternoon.

Mom was too busy with her new job selling encyclopedias over the phone to people to pay much attention to me, and it seemed like everyone would just rather pretend I didn't exist. Maybe it was because I could barely go outside in the hot weather, or how my appetite for blood just seemed to keep growing bigger and bigger, or maybe it was the fact that my powers seemed to be glitching off and on, making everyone wonder if I was gonna lose them like El lost hers. I don't know what it was, but I was obviously a burden to them, and at school, everyone bullied me for the way I dressed, and for being a girl who liked girls, and since I was a grade higher than El and Will, my only hope of not getting my ass kicked was Johnathan, but he was always too busy to save me. I could maybe take on one or two people at a time, but since I was a sophomore, juniors and seniors liked to tag team me, and I'd go home bruised and bloody almost every single day, not that anyone seemed to notice.

I groaned, as Argyle's horn honked loudly out in the driveway, and shot off my bed, throwing on a black Rolling Stones tee and black jeans off my floor, yanking my backpack over my shoulders. I raced downstairs, nearly colliding with Will and El at the bottom, then snatched my thermos of blood off the kitchen counter and downed it, before setting it back down, and racing out the front door, hopping into the back of the van, squashing myself between my little brother and El. Argyle shouted, "Alright, hold onto your butts, brochachos!", and hit the gas, causing me to fall into El's lap, my face heating up, as I almost squished her project, which was a diorama of Hopper's cabin, complete with a tiny little figurine she'd made of Hopper himself out of stuff she found at home. "Sarah, watch out!" She yanked the project away from me, and shoved me out of her lap, which caused me to hit my head on the metal wall beside Will, tears of pain stinging my eyes. "Jesus, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to.." I rubbed my head, and scooted as far from her as possible, really hurt and upset.

I stayed quiet the whole rest of the ride to school, surprised as Will asked, "Are-Are you okay? That looked like it hurt." I blinked, looking at him, and shrugged, before quietly replying, "I'll be fine. It doesn't matter, anyway." A guilty expression crossed his face, and he opened his mouth to say something else, but by that time, I was already walking away from the four of them, my head still throbbing in pain, a bruise already starting to form on my skull. I made my way inside the school, hurrying so that the sunny day wouldn't cause my monster blood to make me pass out, and went to sit at my desk, when it was yanked out from under me, my body slamming hard against the tile floor, and heard my classmates giggling, and muttering the word, "freak", among other insults. I groaned in pain, and dusted myself off, slowly getting up, and yanked my desk away from the girl who'd moved it, sitting in my seat right as the bell rang. That whole class, I tried to pay attention to what the teacher was saying, flinching as wadded up paper balls and trash hit the back of my head and my shoulders, covering me in disgusting smelling liquid and other substances, and my notes were snatched from me.

When my notes were set back down in front of me, they were completely ruined, disgusting drawings pasted all over the writing, foul words like "dyke" and "slut" covering the edges of the pages, and it was all I could do to keep the tears that were burning my eyes from falling, knowing that would just make them happy. The teacher was watching, but he didn't even try to stop the bullying, continuing with his lesson, and I counted the minutes as they slowly ticked by, then raced out of the room as the bell rang, knowing if I didn't, I'd be dragged into the bathroom and beaten. The same bullshit happened during lunch, too, like it had been every single day since school started, cartons of milk being dumped over my head, and my tray of food knocked out of my hands, the contents dripping down the front of my shirt, as the cafeteria burst into laughter around me.

The next few classes made my day even worse, teachers handing me graded papers, showing me that I was failing at least half of my classes, and I could hear the snickers and giggles around me. I knew I'd marked the right answers, so how those clowns had gotten hold of my papers to change them, I didn't know, but it wouldn't matter if I tried to fix it. All the teachers were against me, too, or at least all the ones I had, and it was all because they'd heard me talking to one of the quiet girls I'd tried to make friends with about being into girls, and she'd completely taken their side, fully outing me to the whole town and entire school. Finally, after what felt like eternity, the final bell rang, and I moved as fast as I could, heading outside, just in time to see a blonde haired girl tormenting my girlfriend, and Will watching in shock and horror from the doorway. I raced towards the crowd of people, only to get knocked down by my own bullies, my face hitting the ground.

I didn't even have time to fight back, before I was being beaten into a bruised and bloody pulp, my ears ringing from the insults spewed from the bullies' mouths. I laid there like a limp noodle, having realized if I didn't move, they'd eventually get tired and go away, and that's what they did, leaving me to drag myself up off the ground, my whole body aching. I saw the crowd near El breaking up, and then, saw my brother helping her pick her broken project up off the ground, making my way over to them. I knelt down, my mouth and nose bleeding, and wiped it away with one hand, before helping pick up her project silently, keeping my eyes on the ground. After she had everything, I was surprised to feel her jump into my arms, and bury her face in my chest. Luckily, no one was around by that time, and I softly kissed the top of her head, before stroking her hair. "It's okay. I thought your project was good, even if those assholes don't appreciate it. Hop would be proud.." After a minute, she let go of me, and walked off towards the van, and Will and I followed.

The whole trip home was pretty quiet, except for Johnathan and Argyle laughing about something like complete idiots, stoned out of their minds, and when we got there, I hurried to my room, groaning as I remembered that Mike was supposed to visit us the next day. I cleaned my room up as much as I could, then went and took a cold shower, the water washing off the garbage and dried blood, soothing my bruises a bit. After that, I quietly ate dinner with everyone, drinking a tall glass of microwaved blood, not surprised as none of them asked me what happened to my face, then sat on my bed as they fell asleep. After awhile of not being able to fall asleep, I quietly walked to El's room, and climbed onto her bed under the covers beside her, snuggling against her, and tried not to cry. "Even if you leave me for him, I'll still be right here.. I'll always need you, El. I love you more than anything." With that, I softly kissed her forehead, and closed my eyes, before slowly falling into sleep filled with nightmares, insults, and the fear of being abandoned and replaced...