The Haunting - Stranger Things [UNDER CONSTRUCTION]

05 - School

"Slow down, Mike. That's disgusting." Nancy grimaces at the sight of our younger brother quite literally inhaling his waffles. 

"Do a lot of studying last night?" I kick Mike's foot under the table. He needs to not be so obvious right now. I understand that we need to check up on El, but he was being weird with inhaling his food so quickly. 

Nancy's eyes widen at my question, "Yeah, actually I did." She stares at me probably wondering how I knew about Steve sneaking in her window last night. 

Mike finishes his waffles. "What was your test on again? Human anatomy?" 

I choke on my orange juice with laughter. My little brother can be quite sarcastic at times. There's no one to really blame for that except for myself. I was the most sarcastic person in this house. 

Nancy kicks Mike from under the table. The movement shakes the whole table. I pick my glass of orange juice up from the table. The liquid nearly sloshed out of the glass. 

Mom sharply look at the three of us, suspiciously. "Hey, what's going on?" 

We turn to her with innocent smiles before all of us reply with, "Nothing." 

Mike jumps up from the table and rushes to the kitchen. When no one is looking, he shoves two Eggo waffles in his jacket pocket. I chug the rest of my orange juice and grab the last waffle from my plate. 

I pretend to notice that I'm not wearing a jacket, "Oh, shit." I mutter loud enough for everyone to hear. I ignore my dad warning me about my language. "I think I left my denim jacket in the basement."

I open the basement door and jog down the stairs. Mike follows closely behind. Static noises come from the blanket fort. Mike reaches the fort first and lifts the blanket up to reveal El messing with one of Mike's toys. 

"Hey, you found my supercomm." Mike notices. He settles down on the ground, much like he did last night. "Pretty cool, huh? I talk to my friends with it. Mostly Lucas, 'cause he lives so close. Signal's pretty weak. Got you breakfast." He fishes the waffles out of his pocket.

El eagerly takes the food in her hands. The look in her eyes gives off the idea that she doesn't eat normal food that often. 

"So, listen." Mike glances at me before beginning the whole plan that we came up with. "This is gonna sound a little weird, but we just need you to go out there, then go to the front door and ring the doorbell. Our mom will answer and you'll tell her that you're lost and that you need help."

I hold my hands up, "But, whatever you do, you can't tell her about last night or that you know us." I motion to my brother and myself. 

"Understand?" Mike asks, "Really, it's no big deal. We'll just pretend to meet each other again and our mom, she'll know who to call."

"No." El deadpans.

My eyes widen, "Um, no?"

"No." She repeats herself. 

Okay, we didn't prepare for her to disagree with our plan. This is the only plan we had. This is the plan that we were counting on to work. 

"No you don't want my mom to get help?" Mike questions. He stares at her curiously. "You're in trouble, aren't you?"

My blood runs cold. I nervously swallow. "Who- Who are you in trouble with?"

She utters one word, "Bad."

My eyes dart to meet my brother's. What does she mean by 'bad'? I don't really like that term. That could mean a whole bunch of different things. I'm hoping that she doesn't mean 'bad' as in our lives could be in danger for helping her.