(DISCONTINUED!!) 𝙃𝙖𝙬𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙨 𝙃𝙞𝙜𝙝 ⁎⁎⁎ Stranger Things AU

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟑

Chapter 3 - 1:00 PM - Monday

El's POV

!!TW!! Descriptions of an eating disorder. Skip if you don't want to hear about that

El stood in front of the bathroom mirror, examining herself. She never really thought she was ugly, but she never really thought she was pretty either. But the whole school thought differently, so she had to keep up her looks. She pulled her mascara out of her bag, standing in the dimly lit bathroom, looking into the vandalized mirror. She was about to grab her lipgloss when she heard the bathroom door open. She didn't think much of it, every girl fixes her makeup in the bathroom. But then she saw who it was in the reflection behind her.

Max Mayfield. Fellow cheerleader, but very soft spoken. She had a boyfriend- Lucas Sinclair, but despite him being El's boyfriend's best friend, she rarely spoke with Max. Though she wanted to. El loved looking at her. She loved her red hair and her freckles. She wished she could be Max. 

She looked at her reflection in the mirror and realized she was blushing. Hard. She splashed her face with water and stuffed her makeup back into her schoolbag, heading back to the cafeteria where her friends waited for her.

"El, there you are. I was starting to worry!" Mike put his arm around her shoulder as she sat next to him. She smiled, kissing Mike on the cheek and looking down at her food. She stared at the wrapped sandwich her dad had packed her for lunch. She picked around in her lunchbox before finally deciding on the bag of grapes.

El never liked the way her body looked. She always wished she could be skinnier like the other cheerleaders. She'd weigh herself every day, happy when she lost any weight, and disgusted with herself when she gained. She would sit in bed and cry for hours every day after cheer practice, an hour of practicing with girls 2x skinnier than her. But she had only recently started worrying about what she was eating. Some days she wouldn't eat at all, other days she would eat dinner, so her dad wouldn't get worried. She didn't want to hurt him. 

"Hey El, you alright?" Mike snapped her out of her thoughts, looking deep into her eyes. She smiled at him and nodded, leaning into her boyfriend. She felt safe. She pushed the thoughts into the back of her mind and ate her lunch, chatting and laughing with her friends. 

⁎⁎⁎

El sat in class next to Mike, passing notes back and forth with him when Mr. Clarke wasn't looking. She finished scribbling little notes and stick figures on her paper and was ready to pass it to Mike, but when she looked over at him, his gaze was somewhere else. His eyes were fixated on the boy in front of him. The nerd. The boy she saw Troy bullying earlier. Mike's eyes were wide and his finger was tapping on the desk as he examined every detail of the boy. 

El reached her leg over and tapped his leg, getting his attention and tossing the note onto his desk.

"Eleanor, something you'd like to share with the class?" Mr. Clarke's voice rang in her ears. She froze.

"I- Uh, no, Mr. Clarke, it's nothing. Mike just.. Needed a piece of paper." El stuttered and stumbled over her words. The whole class had their eyes on her. Mr. Clarke raised one eyebrow at her and went back to teaching. El blushed out of embarrassment and sank down in her chair.

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Word count: 594