cardigan𓏲

the weirdo on maple street pt 4

"god damn it." lucas exclaimed, pacing across the room muttering curse words.

"these bad men, what if they're the ones who took will? and that's how she knows him?" mike piped up from next to dustin.

"maybe she knows what happened to him?" rory asked aloud, more to herself then the others.

"then why won't she tell us?" lucas glared at el. she blinked back, not knowing what was happening. he stomped over to her.

"do you know where he is?" he yelled at her. he then slammed his hand onto her shoulders, "do you know where he is?!"

"stop it, you're scaring her!" rory pushed lucas away from the shaking girl. she narrowed her eyes at him before looking at el to make sure she was okay.

"she should be scared," lucad muttered. "if you know where he is, tell us." el's lip wobbled as he turned away from her.

"this is nuts. we have to take her to your mom." he declared.

"no! eleven knows him! she can help us!" rory's anger and grief took hold of her as she screamed at lucas.

"her name is eleven?" lucas said, distaste evident in his words. rory rolled her eyes.

"el for short."

"no! no! no! we're telling your mom!" lucas stalked past rory and towards the door. he twisted the handle and yanked it open but it quickly slammed shut. he tried again but it shut once more, the lock twisting.

the group turned to face el. blood dripped from her nose as her face was lowered towards the door.

"no."

~

joyce arrived back home with a new telephone and dinner for the rest of the week.

"i'm home!" she called out, placing the bags down on the kitchen table, searching through them to find the phone. she quickly unpacked it and set it up then returned to the kitchen to prepare dinner for her family.

the party walked down the hallway, lucas' anger filling the room. joyce was surprised to see the boys since the group usually hung out at the wheelers, but nonetheless was happy to see the twins' friends.

"hey mom, is it okay if they stay for dinner? if we have enough for them?" rory asked, her eyes glinting.

"uh, yes, sure." joyce said, unpacking the paper bags. the group sat in uncomfortable silence with lucas' rage and rory's annoyance at the boy filling the room. dinner was ready shortly, a simple meal of meatloaf and green salad.

lucas twirled the piece of meat on his fort, still irritated with rory. the byers' girl glared at lucas and dustin sat uncomfortably. mike however, was enjoying the meatloaf and soon his plate was cleared.

"something wrong with the meatloaf?" joyce asked, her voice soft.

"oh no, i had two bologna sandwiches at lunch today," dustin smiled, hoping he hadn't offended joyce. "i don't know why."

"me too." lucas chuckled awkwardly. rory took a sip of the glass of milk in front of her, then choked mid-sip when she saw eleven walked down the hall.

dustin must have seen the girl too, as he slammed his arms on the table. joyce looked at the two, concerned.

"sorry," dustin said. "spasm."

el retreated back down the hallway and into rory's room. rory and dustin sighed with relief.

rory packed up the dishes as her mother sat down in front of the tv, placing her untouched meatloaf onto another plate.
she walked down to her room and pushed open the door, el scrambled to behind rory's bed, then relaxed when she saw it was rory.

"no adults, just us and some meatloaf." rory assured eleven, placing the plate on the bed in front of her. el looked cautiously at the boys standing behind rory.

"don't worry, they won't tell anyone about you. they promise. right?" rory turned to face the boys. she widened her eyes at them, urging them to agree.

"we never would have upset you if we knew you had superpowers." dustin smiled, his eyes twinkling with awe.

rory hit him in the shoulder and he let out a soft "ow!".

"what dustin is trying to say is that they were just scared earlier. that's all." rory explained, silently laughing at dustin's choice of words, although she wouldn't say that out loud.

"we just wanted to find our friend." lucad said, stepping forward.

"friend?" eleven asked, leaning forward.

"yeah, friend. will?" lucas said.

"what is 'friend'?" the girl asked, her eyebrows knitting together at the foreign word.

"is she serious?" lucas asked, turning to dustin in disbelief."uh, a friend is-"

rory butted in,"someone you'd do anything for."

"you lend them your cool stuff, like comic books and trading cards." dustin explained, thinking about all the comic books his friends had lent him over the years.

"and they never break a promise." rory said, hoping her conversation about promises with el earlier would assist eleven in understanding what friendship is.

"especially when there's spit." lucas added.

"spit?" eleven asked, raising her eyebrows.

"a spit swear means," lucas paused to spit on his palm. "you never break your word."

he turned to dustin and slapped his hand against dustins, "it's a bond."
dustin looked at his palm in disgust.

rory grimaced at the boys,"what's important, is that friends tell each other things, things that parents don't know." rory explained. eleven narrowed her eyes, understanding but still the slightest bit confused.

eleven stood up and sat at the small circular table which rory's dnd board rested on.

"what's the weirdo doing?" lucas teased, earning a smack on the back of the head from rory.

"don't call her that."

el placed her hands on the surface of the board and shut her eyes, lowering her head.

"el?" rory questioned. the group was now standing around the table, watching as el opened her eyes. the girl picked up the wizard figurine- will's character.

"will." she said, holding the small plastic piece between her thumb and forefinger.

"superpowers." dustin whispered, watching closely. lucas glanced at him through the corner of his eye.

rory sat in the chair across from el, "did you see him? on mirkwood? do you know where he is?

she studied el's face, searching for an answer. eleven glanced at rory as she swiped the rest of the pieces of the board. she then flipped the piece of cardboard upside down and placed will's figurine on the black painted surface.

"i don't understand." rory said, pushing her glasses up and tucking the loose curls out of her eyes.

"hiding." el said softly, eyes glued to will's character.

"will is hiding?" rory asked, praying her twin was safe.

eleven nodded.

"from the bad men?"

she shook her head, her eyes still glued to the miniature plastic wizard.

"then from who?" a concerned mike spoke up.

eleven picked up another playing piece which lay on the table and slammed it on the board infront of will's character. it loomed above the wizard, it's arms outstretched.

the demogorgon.

VIV'S THOUGHTS: okay but can we talk about how freakin cute dustin's smile is. i wanna give him a hug 😕🫶
i should've put this in the intro but this book will be a slow burn:) anyway i hope you enjoyed and chapter 8 will be up soon!