Other Friends

Chapter 16 - Splitting up

The three teen girls stare at El with surprise. Liz's surprised the girl found her way here, Windy's surprised she's alive, and Bella's surprised that the girl she talked to a few days ago was actually The El from the stories who helped save her and Will. Slowly Liz turns to her friends as the others begin to make a fuss at the powered Pre-teen entering the home and reuniting with her friends.

"That's why I've been off. I was keeping her a secret." she admits to them softly.

The two turn to look at her, eyes widening even more of that's even possible. "You've been keeping her alive, in secret this whole time?" Windy questions, mind spiraling with questions.

Liz shrugs, "We thought it would be safer to keep her a secret after the government agents came around. It was hard enough to explain away why two people disappeared with no memory of what happened, how would we explain a little girl appearing randomly?" she explains to them.

"That makes sense. You were keeping a big secret. But you know we would have helped you keep it." Bella tells her, "God I hope no more surprises happen, I'm surprised out."

The two smile at her words, "So am I." Windy agrees.

"I don't know, I think I can take one more." Liz jokes.

"Let's talk, alone." Hopper says gaining the girls attention to see Mike glaring at the police chief before following him into another room.

Dustin and Lucas waste no time going to hug El, the three quickly chatting while Max stood next to the 3 teen girls awkwardly as they all watched. Dustin does his weird growl purr thing making El blink in surprise.

"Please tell him to stop doing that." Bella says looking to Windy who was watching with a cringe expression.

"I will." she agrees as Liz rolls her eyes and walks over to the three, Max quickly follows after her.

"Where's my hug?" Liz jokes making El's eye light up before hugging the teen. "I was worried about you." she admits.

"Sorry." El mumbles before getting out of the hug, "You okay?"

Liz smiles, "Only if you are." she replies, to which El nods.

"Eleven?" Max's voice says from behind the teen making the group move a little to reveal the red head, "Hey. Um, I'm Max." she greets holding out her hand, "I've heard a lot about you."

The pre-teen doesn't respond, simply walks past the redhead and out of the group to greet the others. "Hi."

Windy was first to pull her into a hug, "We've missed you kid." she tells the girl who hugs her back. "Are you okay? Did you die? How are you here?" she asks quickly, holding her at arm's length at the end.

El blinks at the questions before shrugging. "I've missed you too." she simply responded, before looking at the teen next to her. "You're Bella?" she says, sounding unsure of herself.

Bella gives her a soft smile, "I am. It's nice to properly meet you El." She tells her to make the girl return the smile. "Thank you, for helping save Will and I."

She didn't know how to respond to that and simply nodded her head before looking past the teens and spotting the last person she needed to greet. Without a word, El moved to speak with Joyce.

"That was interesting." Bella says to her friend quietly as they watch the girl wander to the kitchen only to be hugged by the mother.

"You get used to it." Windy tells her as Liz rejoins them. "So we have El, Will is still possessed... Do we have a plan?"

"I hope the adults have a plan, cause I have nothing." Liz admits with a sigh.

—

Everyone has regrouped, tensions are no longer high in the air and a plan is beginning to form, El needs to close the gate. Hopper sighs, "It's not like it was before. It's grown. A lot. And, I mean, that's considering we can get in there. The place is crawling with those dogs." he explains to the group the idea.