12 • Stranger Things

Chapter II - E M P A T H Y

The boys sit, awed, their mouths wide open. You can almost see the questions churning through their minds. But Elanor sits there, confused.

"Who are you? How...?" Elanor slowly asks.

"I'm Test Subject 012, but Jess just calls me Tara. I'm eleven years old. I've been stuck in the labs until two weeks ago." I smile, she remembered. I told her to say those things just in case she got into a bad situation.

"Wait, wait... What?" Mike exclaims, profoundly confused. "There are more test subjects? El, did you know about this?" We all look to El and she started chewing on her fingernails. "El?"

"I saw one," she started, not looking up at us. "008, Kali. She was my sister."

"There are more." Tara stares at El. "Lots more."

"Six of them are original test subjects, Terry Ives is the only one we've identified." I say and El looks up at me. "That eaves subjects 007, 009, 010, and possibly more. There could be 50 of them for all we know!"

"They could be dead, some of them." Will add and all eyes land on him. "Dr. Brenner's experiments are brutal. Who says they've never killed." We all nod slowly, it's a lot of information at once.

"Well," Mike starts and turns to Tara. "Do you remember any of them?" Tara nods.

"I was in a room with 013, she was a month younger than me. We were both young, but she was special, even for us. She could already access her abilities. She was able to see all of time, a timeline only seen in her mind. They took her out soon, though. And I never saw her again." Tara replies nervously.

"Well, if some of them are still alive, we have to help them!" Mike states looking around at all of us.

"Mike, we can't just, just... Go around saving people! We're not-" I start but am interrupted by Nancy honking the car horn. El and Tara jump in their spots, still not accustomed to the noise.

"See you tomorrow! Meet us in the AV Club room after school!" Mike says as he and Eleven head out. Will smiles at me.

"Bye," he says and leaves. I look out my window and see the three of them hop in Nancy's car. "Goodbye." I say out the window.

"Jess. Jess! Where am I going to sleep tonight?" I nod to Tara and take some blankets and a pillow into my bathroom, setting up a bed in my bath.

"Don't leave this room, okay?" I say and she nods. I walk back into my room and lay down on my bed. I pull the covers over my head. What the hell did I get myself into, I think again right before I fall into a long, dreamless sleep.

+++

"Jessica, time to wake up!" I hear my dad yell from the hallway. I sit up slowly and rub my eyes.

"John! It's my job to wake her up!" I hear my parents argue, but block their usual banter out. You'd think we were the perfect family, Jennifer and John, high school sweethearts fall in love and have Jessica, a brown haired, blue eyed girl. But, the truth is, my parents never stop arguing, and it's over the smallest things like this. Nonetheless, I pull on a loose sweater and some jeans and socks and sneakers and head to the kitchen for breakfast.

"Jessica, honey, would you like some pancakes?" My mom asks sweetly and I nod.

"Can I have four?" I ask and my mom looks confused.

"Honey, if you eat this much food, you'll never make the cheer team just like your mom!" She protests.

"Hey, Jesse can eat what she wants! She'll need the calories and energy for the basketball team!" My dad smiles at me. They both have high expectations, that I rarely meet. I'm not flexible enough to be on cheer and not nearly tall enough to be on the basketball team.