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KAREN CALLED THE FOUR upstairs to have dinner with the Wheelers.
"So, Michael, is this your new friend?" Karen asked, sawing through her meatloaf.
"Uh... yeah, this is, um..." He started.
"Julie," she cut him off. "My dad's the chief of police."
Karen smiled before noticing that none of them had touched their meatloaf. "Is something wrong with the meatloaf?"
Dustin smiled. "Oh no, I had two bologna sandwiches for lunch."
"Me too," Lucas said with a smile at the woman.
"It's delicious, Mommy." Nancy assured.
"Thank you, sweetie."
"So there's this..." Nancy began, "Special assembly thing tonight." She paused. "For Will...at the school field, Barb's driving."
Julie could immediately tell the girl was lying from her tone of voice. How could she use Will's disappearance as an excuse? It wasn't a joke.
"Why am i just hearing about this?" Karen asked.
"I thought you knew." The girl shook her head.
"I told you, I don't want you out after dark until Will is found." Karen argued.
"I know, I know, but it would be really strange if I'm not there. I mean, everyone's going."
Karen sighed, "Just...be back by 10:00."
Nancy nodded.
"Why don't you take the kids too?" She suggested, pointing her fork at the four of them.
"No!" Mike exclaimed.
"Mm-Mm.." She, Lucas and Dustin shook their heads frantically.
"Don't you think you should be there?" She started. "for Will?"
Mike took a sip of his milk just as Eleven came down the stairs. He choked on his milk, making her laugh.
Just as Karen turned her head, Dustin banged on the table, making Karen gasp and immediately turn to him. "Sorry, spasm..." he smiled and slid down in his seat.
The four of them exchanged glances, and Julie mouthed to Lucas, "What the hell?" He simply shrugged in response.
Mike's baby sister, Holly, became upset due to the noise and started to cry. "It's okay, Holly," Karen reassured her, gently settling the child. "It's just a loud noise."
"Nice," Nancy whispered, nodding sarcastically.
After dinner, they went downstairs to check on Eleven, who was playing with Mike's Supercomm.
Mike walked toward her with a tray in hand. "No adults, just us and some meatloaf," he said with a smile.
"What's that she's holding?" Julie asked, furrowing her brows.
Mike looked up at Julie and replied, "It's my supercomm. It lets me talk to Dustin, Lucas, and Will, or even my mom, if I don't feel like leaving my room to get a drink."
Okay, right," she nods, smiling at the boy. El looked at them. "Don't worry, they won't tell anyone about you; they promise, right?"
"We never would have upset you if we had known you had superpowers," Dustin laughed. Julie smacked his forearm and shot him a 'shut up' look.
"Ow!" he yelped.
"What Dustin is trying to say is that they were just scared earlier. That's all," Julie said as she sat down next to Mike.
"We just wanted to find our friend," Lucas said.
"Friend?" She asked, confused.
"Yeah, our friend, Will."
"What is a friend?"
"Is she serious?" Lucas asked.
Dustin just shrugged.
"Um, a friend—"
"—is someone you'd do anything for," Mike interrupted.
"You lend them your cool stuff, like comic books and trading cards," Dustin laughed.
"I'm new to this whole friend thing, but it's pretty awesome having people who always have your back," Julie smiled.
"And they never break a promise," Mike said, following up.
"Especially when there's spit," Lucas added, while Julie grimaced.
"Spit?" El and Julie asked in unison.
"A spit swear means..." Lucas explained. He spat into his hand. "You never break your word."
He then shook Dustin's hand, and Dustin gave them a look of disgust.
"That's super important because friends tell each other things," Julie interrupted, noticing Mike was struggling to find the right words. "Things that parents don't know."
They all watched as Eleven sat at Mike's basement table in front of a D&D board. "What's the weirdo doing?" Lucas said. Julie nudged him.
"El?" Mike asked. She then picked up a figure from the game. Julie had no idea how to play DND; honestly, she didn't even know it was a thing until two nights ago.
"Will," She mumbled.
"Superpowers," Dustin spoke.
Lucas looked at him and shook his head. Mike sat down in front of the girl.
"Did you see him on Mirkwood?" He paused, "Do you know where he is?
She then shoved all the characters off the board. "Is that how you play D&D?" Julie pointed her finger.
"What, no!" Lucas furrowed his brows, and Julie just shrugged.
El then flipped the board and slammed the character down onto it. "I don't understand," Julie said.
"Hiding," El stated.
"Will is hiding?" Mike asked, his voice hinting at fear.
El nodded.
"From the bad men?" Julie interrogated. El shook her head. "Then from who?" She placed the demogorgon figure on.
The three boys exchanged looks, while Julie sat confused, having no idea who any of the characters were.
A/N i loved writing this!!! also dustins reaction was absolutely priceless when lucas did the spit shake
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