Stranger Things

Holly, Jolly

We were all huddled in the basement, El and I were sitting together on the couch she was messing with the radio and the boys were discussing plans. "We just tell our parents we have AV Club after school. That'll give us at least a few hours for Operation Mirkwood." Lucas glances in our direction and I narrow my eyes. "You seriously think that the weirdo knows where Will is?" I huff and cross my arms, "Just trust us on this, ok?" The boys start showing the supplies they got, I patted El's arm and got up to join them. Lucas brought binoculars, an army knife, a hammer, his favorite camouflage bandana, and his wrist rocket (it's just a slingshot.) I scoff, "You're gonna take out the Demogorgon with a slingshot?"

"First of all, it's a wrist rocket. And second of all, the Demogorgon's not real. It's made up." He snaps. Dustin empties his backpack and shows off a shit ton of snacks. That caused bickering between the two and I sigh, going back to El. "What's the point of being with them? All they do is bicker." I chuckle and smile at El, "Pretty." She smiles back and turns back to the radio. "I bet that she could make this fly!" Dustin stood before us with the millennium falcon in hands. "Ok. Concentrate." He drops it and it falls to the floor.

"Ok, one more time. Use your powers, ok?" He picks it up and holds it out towards her before dropping it again, it clatters to the floor. "She's not a dog!" Mike picks up the millennium falcon and puts it back. "Time for school!" I grab my bag and shove my walkman in my sweatshirt pocket. "Stay down here, please. Don't make any noise and please don't leave. If you get hungry, eat Dustin's snacks." Mom calls for me and I sigh, I smile at El and give her a hug. As I leave, I see Mike take my spot and tell her the plans for after school.

The school day was going by faster than usual. Next thing I knew we were outside looking for rocks for Lucas's slingshot. "So, do you think 11 was born with her powers, like the X-Men, or do you think she acquired them, like... like Green Lantern?" I picked up a rock and examined it, "I think she... was born with it. And then the bad people had to take her because of it." Dustin's eyes widen and Lucas scoffs, "She's not a superhero. She's a weirdo." I cross my arms, "Why does that matter? The X-Men are weirdos."

Lucas turns to me, "If you love her so much, why don't you marry her?" I freeze up, how did he know? I try to play it off, "What are you talking about?" All 3 of them turn to me with their eyebrows raised. Lucas broke the silence first, "Mika, seriously?" I shrug and Mike steps up with a chuckle, "You look at her all, like... 'Hi, El! El! El! I love you so much!" He runs up and hugs me and we laugh and Lucas joins in too, "Oh, El! Would you marry me?!" He grabs my hand and gets down on one knee, I just laugh and push him away, "Shut up, Lucas."

"Yeah, shut up, Lucas." My blood boils and I turn to glare at the jerks. "What are you losers doing back here?" The shorter one snarls and the taller one chuckles, "Probably looking for their missing friend." Dustin frowns, "That's not funny. It's serious. He's in danger." Smal glares at him, "I hate to break it to you, Toothless, but he's not in danger. He's dead. That's what my dad says. He said he was probably killed by some other queer." The 2 laugh and I ball my fists. Mike nudges me with his elbow, "C'mon. Just ignore them." I stay put and watch as Mike tries to walk past Smal but he trips Mike and he falls onto a rock chin first.

I run forward and try to punch Smal but his face turns to Mike making me miss his face. I stumble forward and he pushes me back against the bleachers behind me. "Did you just try to punch me, lesbo?" I snarl at him and he smirks. Next thing I knew, I was slumped over on the ground, the left side of my face felt like it was burning, I could barely open my left eye, and the boys were huddled around me. "What happened?" Mike helped me up, "He punched you in the face and you fell so we chased them off"

Time Skip

You have no idea how difficult it is to ride a bike with one eye swollen! But we made it to the phone lines and there was El waiting for us! But she was staring off into space. "El! You ok?" I panted as I spoke, "Hop on. We only have a few hours." She got onto my bike and I got on after her, we followed after Mike who was in the lead.

We all got tired and walked beside our bikes, I clipped back my hair (it was covering up my black eye) thinking it would help me see at least a little better. "Why did they hurt you?" I face El, "What?" She points to my eye and I mentally curse at myself, "Oh, that. Uh... a ball hit me during recess." I look down and feel guilt squeeze my heart, I don't want to lie to her I just don't want to worry her

"Mika... friends tell the truth." I sigh. "Mike was tripped by this mouth breather so I wanted to protect him and thought the only way to that was if I punched the mouth breather but instead he punched me." I look over at her and see confusion written on her face, "Mouth breather?" I scratch my head trying to think what it means, "Yeah, you know... a dumb person. A knucklehead."

She repeats that and I chuckle, "Also a dumb person. I'm sorry I just didn't tell you. Everyone at school knows. I just didn't want you to think I was a loser, you know?" I finally look at her and smile. "Mika... I understand." I smile, "Ok, cool." I swoon as she smiles too, "Cool." I looked ahead of us and see Lucas, Dustin, and Mike looking back at us with goofy grins.

It was nightfall now, somewhere along the way El and I started to lead but where we were leading I had no clue. El stopped in front of Will's house, "Here." I glance from the house to her, "Yeah, this is where Will lives." "Hiding." Her voice was small and sounded scared. Mike joined my side, "No, no, this is where he lives. He's missing from here. Understand?" Lucas and Dustin joined us too but Lucas was really irritated, "What are we doing here?" I gulp, "El says he's hiding here."

Dustin was the next to get irritated, "I swear if we walked all the way out here for nothing-" "That's exactly what we did!" Lucas interrupts. "I told you she didn't know what the hell she was talking about!" Mike turns to El and I grab her hand. "Why did you bring us here?" El stammers and squeezes my hand. "Mike don't waste your time with her. Mika's already doing that." Lucas crosses his arms and glares at me, Mike huffs, "What do you want to do then?"

"Call the cops, like we should have done yesterday," Lucas shouts and I growl at him, "We are not calling the cops!" Me, Mike, and Lucas all start bickering and Dustin keeps trying to break it up. The sound of sirens approaching makes us all stop and stare as 2 cop cars and an ambulance race by. "Will," Mike whispers. We all race to our bikes and chase after the sirens as fast as we could.

The sirens lead us to the bottom of the quarry and we hide behind a firetruck. My heart breaks as I watch them pull a familiar kid with a bright red vest out of the water. "It's not Will. It can't be." "It's Will. It's really Will." Lucas says in a broken voice. I squeeze El's hand as tears run down my cheeks El puts her free hand on my shoulder, "Mika..."

I feel her get push away and look up to glare at... Mike. "'Mika?' Mika, what? You were supposed to help us find him alive. You said he was alive! Why did you lie to us? What's wrong with you? What is wrong with you?" Mike yells and pushes El away from me, El gasps and calls his name softly. "What?" I push Mike away and wrap my arms around El. "What's wrong with you, Mike?" Lucas backs me up, "Mike, come on. Don't do this, man." Mike grabs his bike and Dustin calls out to him, "Mike, where are you going? Mike!" I call out for him too but he's already racing away from us.