Frankie Walsh was seemingly perfect.
She was popular, got good grades, was very pretty and could play piano better than anyone in Hawkins. The only thing to taint this perfection was her twin-brother, Troy, who was the schools biggest bully.
Dusti...
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After breakfast, Dustin and Frankie said goodbye to Mrs. Henderson before hopping on their bikes and cycling to Mike's house. Frankie tried her best to memorise the route they took, but her head got muddled up after the fifth turn.
When they got there, Frankie started to walk her bike to the front door but Dustin stopped her and brought her down to the door of the basement, where Mike would most likely be. Dustin knocked on the door in an order that was too uniform to be unplanned and less than a minute later, it was opened by Mike.
He looked from Dustin to Frankie, who was standing to the left. Mike crossed his arms "What the hell is she doing here?"
Dustin shot Mike a look and pushed him inside the basement, following him in. "Just a second, Frankie," Dustin assured before closing the door behind him.
The door did nothing to block out the conversation, as they were speaking loud enough for Frakie to hear what they were saying. "She's part of this whether you like it or not!"
"She wouldn't have been if you didn't tell her about everything!"
"OH! I'M SORRY! SHOULD I HAVE NOT GIVEN HER AN EXPLANATION AS TO WHY LUCAS GOT THROWN THROUGH THE AIR RIGHT INFRONT OF HER FUCKING FACE?!"
"THE ONLY REASON YOU TOLD HER IS BECAUSE YOU-"
"SHUT UP MIKE, SHE CAN HEAR YOU!" Dustin said before the pair dropped to a whisper and Frankie couldn't hear anything else. A few minutes later, the door was opened by Mike, a look of discontent on his face. Behind him stood a smug-looking Dustin, his arms crossed as he smirked.
"You coming in or what?" Mike asked bluntly. Frankie nodded and entered through the door to the basement.
Mike's basment was big enough in size. It was decorated with worn, 70s looking furniture that his mother probably put down there when she had bought a more stylish set. In one corner was a blanket fort that looked like it had fallen down and Frankie had to fight the urge not to fix it back up. She always loved making blanket forts with Troy as a kid.
Instead, she sat down on the couch that was more comfortable that it looked. Mike stood infront of her, his arms crossed. Frankie cracked a smile, as she thought that he looked like a Dad, about to lecture his kid after they broke a window playing catch.
"Dustin has already told you about everything and unfortunatley, I can't do jedi mind-tricks which means that there is no way I can change that fact. So, you gotta promise not to tell anyone," Mike warned, pointing his finger in Frankie's face.
"Tell a soul, I won't. Hhmmm," she replied in an accurate-enough impression of Yoda. From the corner of her eye, she could see Dustin silently laugh at this. He was impressed of her Star Wars knowledge and the way that she was using it to annoy the shit out of Mike just amused him even more
Mike rolled his eyes, even though he too was shocked that the popular girl liked Star Wars. He stuck out his hand for Frankie to shake as he said the words. "Welcome to the party, Frankie Walsh,"
Frankie smiled and shook Mike's hand. He the rushed away, trying to find his supercom under all the fallen blankets of the fort. While he was pre-occupied, Frankie walked over to Dustin and whispered "What does he mean by party?"
Dustin thought for a moment before answering in the same hushed tone. "That's what we call our friend group. Yanno, like in DnD," he tried to explain but it just sparked more questions.
"What's a dee end ee?" she asked, a look of genuine confusion on her face.
Dustin chuckled and shook his head. He knew that her knowledge of nerd culture had to have it's limits. "I'll tell you later," he smiled and softly patted Frankie's shoulder.
"Ok," the girl smiled and fixed Dustins hat, which she had reluctantly given back to him before they had left his house earlier that morning.
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"I just... can't believe she didn't come back," Mike said, pacing back and forth. He had finally started to talk about El after twenty minutes of Dustin and Frankie being there.
"Well, she's gotta be close," Dustin nodded.
Mike shook his head. "She said it wasn't safe. She just messed up the compasses to protect us. She didn't betray us," he rambled on, his pacing starting to get faster.
"I think you should just calm down for a minute," Frankie spoke, she was still trying to wrap her head around everything going on. Mike ignored her and contined to talk.
"I shouldn't have yelled at her. I never should've done that," he told himself.
"Mike, this isn't your fault," Frankie cut-in before he spiralled any deeper into his pit of self-blame.
"Yeah," he stopped and turned to face his friends. "It's Lucas'"
"Well, it's not his fault either," Dustin shrugged. It was true, even though he knew it wasn't what Mike wanted to hear.
"You don't think it's his fault? So you're saying that he wasn't way out of line?" He asked, his voice getting slightly raised as he looked between Frankie and Dustin for an answer.
"Totally. But so were you... and so was Eleven" Dustin admitted.
"Oh give me a break," Mike waved Dustin off, but it was clear to see that the curly-haired boy was getting annoyed.
"No, Mike you give me a break! All three of you were being a bunch of little assholes," Dustin rasied his voice as he stepped closer to Mike, almost like he was squaring him up. "Frankie and I were the only ones being reasonable!-"
Frankie looked up at the sound of her name being mentioned, as she had zoned out a few minutes prior. She did this whenever two people started arguing. It was a habit she had formed, listening to her parent's fight all these years. "Wait what?" She asked.
Dustin didn't hear her as he continued to speak. "The bottom line is... you pushed first, and you know the rule if you draw first blood-"
"-No way!" Mike cut in "I'm not shaking his hand,"
Dustin shook his head. "This isn't a discussion," he persisted. "It's a rule of law. Obey, or be banished from the party. Do you wanna be banished from the party?"
Frankie grew even more confused. First an alternate universe and now there were banishings going on? What the hell was she getting herself into...
