bathroom stalls » mileven

sparknotes/powerpoint

here is a sparknoted version of bathroom stalls. i'll explain what goes down as well as little things that happen because it goes down for a reason! note, each section keeps getting longer because there's so much to cover. oh my gosh, this is so long: 1400 words to explain 40 little section chapters.

i originally wrote bathroom stalls in 4 distinct parts, so it's been sectioned off that way. hope this helps! and should i do this for other stories or just the confusing ones?

also this was lowkey requested by a reader, so shoutout to you!

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parts un - dix:

mike takes el to the bathroom stall where they begin their vandalizing journey. it's a form of self-expression for el. troy attacks eleven and calls her fake, saying that she is a monster and fake. el doesn't use her powers to retaliate because she wants to be normal. troy confronts mike and eleven in the halls, and el breaks his arm. later, el says that it was wrong, but mike disagrees. he tells her that her powers are gifts. the next day, el comes down with a cold. blood trickles out of her nose, and she realizes that someone is trying to channel her. through the lab tests from her youth, el knows that channeling does not work. someone is trying to do something powerful or trying to kill her.

the following day, troy continues to verbally attack el. el helps max, troy's "girlfriend," break away from his toxicity. mike continually tells el that he loves her, and el can't help the feeing that something is going to go horribly wrong. because i am writing this story, everything goes completely wrong. el finally reveals to mike that someone is trying to channel her. she tells him that she has to leave, which mike disagrees with heavily. she angrily tells him that he is not god and cannot prevent death; the quote hangs over the couple like a dark cloud. it foreshadows a horrible end, but for who? no one will know quite yet.

parts onze - vingt:

part onze opens a week later, where el leaves class regularly because of the toll it takes on her body and mind. el thinks it could be ten who is trying to channel her, yet ten is supposed to be dead. (note ten never makes a reappearance. i think i meant for one and ten to be the same person.) mike thinks constantly about eleven, the girl he cannot bear to lose because she destroyed him but came back to fix him. at this point, he loves her dearly, and that love is important for the coming parts.

the snowball is coming up, and el and max go dress shopping and bond. max reveals moved around foster homes a ton. el begins going back to the bathroom stall with mike. she knows she's getting worse and she doesn't have a lot of time. the gang - mike, eleven, max, lucas, dustin, and will - decide to have a sleepover the night before the snowball. they play uno truth or dare and have fun before it all goes wrong (part dix-sept if you want to read more!) the next day is the snowball. eleven is a tragic hero- she's meant to die at the snowball. there is no way for the story to continue if she does not die. but this is not entirely the case.

parts vingt et un - trente acts 1+2:

mike learns about tragic heroes in english and connects that el is a tragic hero. a flashback reveals that the snowball was ruined, a storm of bullets rained down upon them all, so an attack. mike has a dream that a girl like eleven tries to attack him, which is important. this year at school, the gang is suddenly popular; they've jumped from nerds to the cutest boys of their year. mike grows an innocent crush on the new girl. she offers to tutor him, and he accepts. the mysterious girl's name? jane ives.

during one of their tutoring sessions, jane's sleeve rises, and mike grabs her arm. in delicate print, is the numbers: 012. she reveals that eleven is another version of herself. jane is the normal version, if eleven had never been taken away from her mother. brenner takes and uses jane to get eleven back for more testing. if you watch the vampire diaries, it's like elena and katherine. they're the same person, made from the same cloth, but they have their differences in personality. jane faints and is taken to the hospital. she tells mike that in her world, they had been dating but broke up a while ago. mike thinks this is the universe's sick and twisted way of bringing them back together.

jane cuts her hair short as an act of rebelling against brenner. mike and jane talk about may 30. the day eleven died. but it's also the day jane tried to kill herself. jane says that her memories feel forced, as if she HIT her head, and her mind recreated the memories. in a flashback, the intruders at the snowball throw el onto the floor, causing her to HIT her head harshly. mike examines her tattoo again and says that it looks a bit like 011. jane refuses to believe it, for it means that her entire life is a lie, but she does remember.

okay, this is important. jane says that she prefers jane rather than eleven, and that eleven died the minute she was shot. mike backtracks. he says that eleven didn't die because of a gun wound. jane tries to cover it up, but she can't. it's too late. jane shares the same face as eleven, yet they are two completely different people. jane also says "eleven byers," which doesn't make sense because mike never mentioned that eleven's last name is byers.

mike has a dream about the girl from earlier. her name is one. the next day, the gang meets and argues about jane. lucas says that eleven needs to stay dead because she caused too much heartbreak for mike. it causes jane to break. mike brings jane to the bathroom stall to calm her down. it's revealed that eleven died when the intruders bombed the school. blood trickles out of her nose, and jane says "one." it reveals who the channeling person is. channeling never makes another appearance.

parts trente et un - quarante

this is where the plot thickens heavily and is hard to understand. mike runs to the nearest classroom for help. he tells hopper and the police that he thought jane died. he had killed jane, but surprise! she survives. brenner had cut into her and closed her wound poorly. it somehow had opened and caused her to faint and act dead. mike couldn't help her, he was stuck. he tells her that he loves her, and jane tells him to leave. he doesn't really love jane. he loves eleven. brenner tries to take jane back to the lab, but someone stops him.

we'll see if i can explain this. eleven and jane are the same person. they are in the same body. eleven is like an alternate side of jane, and vice versa. eleven comes out to rescue her other self. with her powers, she escapes brenner, takes his gun, and goes to mike's house. jane comes out as the couple go to the bathroom stall at school. inside the stall, jane hits him on the head with the gun. we don't know if it's jane or eleven at this point.

the police come and jane has mike in a death grip. jane shoots brenner in the leg. the rest happens so quickly. jane raises the gun and shoots herself and mike. this references a death in criminal minds, where a girl kills her victim and herself to avoid prison. the last part is a newspaper article. the police and brenner cover it up as a double suicide. hopper plans to create a memorial for them both, but the book ends on the premise that hawkins will recover.

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well hopefully this clears something up. if you have questions, ask them! i really want to clarify this for all my readers.