Friends Don't Lie - Eleven x Mike (Stranger Things)

[Ep.1] 011

It was around 5pm and the sun was almost at the trees. Despite the cold temperature, the sky was clear, rays of sunlight falling through the trees and shaking on top of the hard ground. Will pushed his bike over the forest path until he reached a small opening. "Hey, Will's here!" Shouted Dustin as Will placed his bike against a nearby tree and joined the others on the picnic sheet in the middle of the opening.

"Hey guys." Said Will, a big grin on his face. All of their parents had no idea they were camping; Lucas told his parents he was staying at Mike's, Mike told his parents he was staying at Will's and so on.

"Wait, did you bring them?" Asked Lucas. Will pulled a pack of matches from his coat pocket and put them in the middle. "Yes!"

"I also brought these." Said Will, as he opened up his bag. He pulled out at least 15 superhero comics: Batman for Lucas, Avengers for Mike, The Incredible Hulk for Dustin and 11 X-Men comics for himself.

"We knew we could count on you!" Exclaimed Dustin.

"And you got Avengers!" Shouted Mike, admiring the cover art.

"Hold up." Laughed Lucas, digging through the pile. "There like all X-Men!"

"Oh, yeah. I really like X-Men." Will smiled, digging through the bag himself now.

"Really? I thought you liked Doctor Strange." replied Lucas.

"And Captain America." Said Mike.

"No his favourite was always Green Lantern." Said Dustin.

"Yeah, I like all of those, but I love X-Men."

"Why?"

Will smiled, looking at the front of his favourite issue. "Because it's a team, a whole community even. On their own they're mediocre, maybe even boring, but when they team up as friends they can do anything." The other boys looked at him strangely. Maybe they understood completely, or maybe they weren't old enough yet, but they still smiled. "Well what did you guys bring?"

"Mike got the camping stuff!" Replied Dustin. Mike went back to his bike and brought back the biggest bag out of all of them.

"This is my dad's tent, you know the big one we put in my garden on Halloween." He emptied the bag, 4 giant metal poles hitting the ground as well as at least 10 pegs and a bunch of sheets.

"Have we got to put it up?" Dustin asked.

"What kind of question was that?" Replied Lucas.

"Hey, I was just asking!" Said Dustin.

"I was just asking!" Mimicked Lucas, putting on a silly voice.

"Guys! Shut up! What did each of you bring?" Shouted Mike, trying to break up the argument. Dustin grabbed a grocery bag from behind him and emptied a giant load of sweets, chocolate and leftover pizza onto the picnic sheet. "We've got Rocky Road, Candy Cigarettes, Charleston Chew, Bazooka, Lips, Fangs, Clarks..."

"Wait, Pizza?" Questioned Will.

"Yeah, pepperoni from last night." Smiled Dustin. He had snuck it into the bag during pizza night, almost starving the whole night for it.

"What about breakfast?" Asked Mike, looking at the heaps of unhealthy snacks.

"Erm..." Dustin dug around in his bag, looking for something. "Ah, Eggos!" Lucas rolled his eyes, looking at Dustin.

"What did you bring then?" Asked Dustin looking at Lucas' backpack.

"Everything we actually need." He grabbed his bag from his back and opened it up. He pulled out a bunch of torches, "This is for walking around in the night." He pulled out his catapult, "This is for protection."

"From what?" Asked Will but no one was listening.

"And this is the best bit!" He pulled out a giant knife, deep inside a leather case. "This is my dad's Bowie knife." He grinned, unsheathing it.

"Be careful!" Warned Mike, "Were only using it for cutting wood if we need to."

"Fine." Moaned Lucas, going back into his bag. "And I brought this for you." He pulled out a compass and threw it to Dustin.

"Yes!" Grinned Dustin, looking at the north point.

"A it correct?" Asked Mike.

"Of course it's correct, it's always correct. Do you even know how compasses work?"

"Yes, bu-"

"It doesn't have a battery, it relies on magnetism. It picks up the magnetism of the North Pole and always point in that direction."

"We know!" Blurted Lucas. "You've told us a million times!"

"Well you never remember." Muttered Dustin.

"Come on guys, we need to put this tent up." Said Mike.

"How the hell are we going to do that?" Asked Lucas. "We'll never figure it out."

"Not if we work together, like X-Men. Right Will?" Said Mike.

"Yeah." He replied, a big grin on his face. After hours of putting it up wrong, re-reading instructions and arguing, it was finally finished.

"It's getting kind of dark now, guys." Said Dustin, watching the sun set in the forest.

"He's right, we need to make a fire." Replied Lucas, grabbing the matches from earlier.

"Well we need wood first." Said Mike. "Any of you guys going to come with me?" Lucas and Dustin just looked at each other.

"I will." Replied Will as he got up.

"Great, can we use the knife?"

"Knock yourself out." Laughed Lucas, sitting back and relaxing. Mike and Will went off into the woods, finding small branches and trees and breaking them off. They made sure to keep in view of the tents, not hard due to the bright green colour.

"I liked what you said earlier." Said Will, watching Mike pull a branch off.

"What did I say?" He asked, puzzled.

"You know, about us being the X-Men."

"Oh right, I was just trying to motivate them two." He looked back to see them throwing sticks at each other. "They can be hard to work with."

"Well I still liked it." Smiled Will. Suddenly there was a loud crack of a twig and both of the boys jumped, turning around. There was nothing, just Dustin and Lucas still at war.

"It's fine." Said Mike, turning back. In front of them was a young girl, wearing nothing but an oversized t-shirt with her feet bare on the hard cold ground. She was shivering, scared of something. Mike stared at her, her short hair, weird clothes and tear stained face. The only thing was a tattoo on her left arm that said '011'.