Stranger Things

The Body

El and I eventually got home and snuck in through the basement. El went to go fiddle with the radio and I cuddle into her side still crying and sniffling. Mike was also down here looking through the pictures Will drew for us. "Can you please stop that?" El looks up at him and turns off the radio but when he looked away she turned the radio back on. "Are you deaf? I thought we were friends, you know? But friends tell each other the truth. And they definitely don't lie to each other. You made me think Will was ok, that he was still out there but he wasn't! Maybe you thought you were helping, but you weren't. You hurt me. Do you understand? What you did sucks. Lucas was right about you."

I sat upright and growled at him, "That's enough, Mike!" He sighs and looks back the pictures and I lean on El some more. The static on the radio cleared and a voice was singing on the other side, "So come on and let me know should I stay or should I go? Should I stay or should I go now?" Mike runs over and kneels before the radio and El hands it out to him. "If I go there will be trouble. If I stay it will be double." Mike yanks the radio from her, "Will, is that you? It's Mike! Do you copy? Over." But static only greets him. I hug El and smile, "Was that-" she nods and smiles, "Will."

The next morning, mom wakes me up and comes into our room. "Hi, sweeties. How are you feeling?" I roll over and make crying sounds, mom rubs my back and checks with Mike, "I don't think me or Mika can go to school today." I ignore what mom says but the moment she walks out the door I fling my blankets back and quietly slip out of bed. Mike gets Lucas and convinces him to come over and bring Dustin, I grab my clothes and get dressed.

When the guys get here the radio starts acting up, we can't hear Will very well and it's just whimpering. "We keep losing the signal, but you heard it, right?" Lucas shrugs, "Yeah, I heard a baby." Mike shakes his head and Lucas groans, "Mike, she obviously tapped into a baby monitor. It's probably the Blackburns' next door." "Uh, did that sound like a baby to you? That was Will!" Mike tries to convince him and I huff, "Lucas, you don't understand. He spoke last night. Words!   He was singing that one song he loves. Even Mike and El heard him!" Lucas rolls his eyes, "Oh, well, if the weirdo heard him, then I guess-"

Dustin interrupts him and turns to El, "Are you sure you're on the right channel?" I shrug next to El, "I'm not sure it's about that. I think she's somehow channeling him." Dustin smiles, "Like... like Professor X!" I nod and Mike smiles. Lucas huffs and turns to Dustin, "Are you actually believing this crap?" He just shrugs, "I don't know, I mean... do you remember when Will fell off his bike and broke his finger? He sounded a lot like that." Lucas glances at all of us, "Did you guys not see what I saw? They pulled Will's body out of the water. He's dead!" I shake my head and Dustin looks down, "Well, maybe it's his ghost. Maybe he's haunting us." Mike shakes his head, "It's not his ghost." Lucas turns to him and frown, "So how do you know that?"

I grab my walkman and headphones, "Do you wanna listen too?" I look at El and she shakes her head. "Alright, but if they hurt your feelings squeeze my hand." She nods and I slip on my headphones and take El's hand in mine. I watch them argue back and forth until Dustin smiles and then Mike does. I take off my headphones and Mike tells me the plan. "We're gonna dress up El so we can get her to Mr. Clarke's radio." I nod and grab El's hand. I take her to my room and sit her at the window seat.

I sneak into Nacy's room, take some makeup, and meet back with El. I dust some pink blush on her cheeks, her reaction was funny. She kept backing up and making weird faces. Then I put some pink lip gloss on her. Finally, I grabbed a blonde wig and one of my old pink dresses, I handed them to her with a smile. When she came out of the room, I blushed and felt my heart speed up. Dustin broke the silence first, "Wow, she looks-" I feel my body grow warm and interrupt, "Beautiful." El smiles at me and stands in front of the mirror next to us, "Beautiful."

We all get to our bikes, my heart starts beating really fast as I feel El wrap her arms around my waist. When we get to school, Mike runs the plan by us, "Ok, remember, if anyone sees us look sad." We make it to the AV room but it was locked. I nudge El, "Hey, do you think you can open it?" Before she could answer, Mr. Clarke turns around the corner and sees us. "Boys? The assembly's about to start." Mike sniffles and rubs his eyes, "We know. We're just, you know..." He trails off and I rub my eyes next, "Upset. We need some alone time." Dustin stammers, "To cry." Mr. Clarke nods, "I get it. I do. I know how hard this is, but let's be there for Will, huh? And then, the Heathkit is all yours for the rest of the day." He tosses me the keys and his eyes trail to El, "I don't believe we've met. What's your name?" She goes to say Eleven but I stop her.

"Ellie, she's my friend. She's here for Will's funeral." Mr. Clarke gives her a sad smile, "Ah, well, welcome to Hawkins Middle, Ellie. I wish you were here under better circumstances." She nods, "Thank you." Mr. Clarke squints, "Uh, where are you from exactly?" I quickly speak for her, "Bloomington! You know, the next city over..?" He gives me a weird look but shrugs, "Shall we?" I nod and we all follow him.

Dustin opens the doors to the gym bringing everyone's attention to us. He goes to leave but Lucas stops him. We find a place to sit. As the principal was droning on and a monotone pace, everyone looked bored and tired it made my blood boil. "They probably didn't even know his name till today." I overheard Lucas say. I hear laughing and see the guys who gave me a black eye mocking the principal and Will. El nudged me, "Mouth breather." I nod.

The bell rings and everyone gets up from their spot. I wave to the guys and stalk off, pushing through the crowd to get to the guys laughing. "Hey, hey! Hey, limp dick! I'm talking to you!" The guys turn around and I glare at them, "You... you think this is funny?" Small crosses his arms, "What'd you say, Wheeler?" I glance at El and take a deep breath, "I saw you guys laughing over there. And I think that's a really messed up thing to do." Tall smirks, "Didn't you listen to the counselor, Wheeler? Grief shows itself in funny ways." Small smirked too, "Besides, what's there to be sad about, anyway? Will's in fairyland now, right? Flying around all the other little fairies. All happy and gay!" I glance at Mike and see tears welling up in his eyes when I turn back to the boys they're walking away.

I run forward and tackle Small to the ground and give a single punch to the back of his head. I scramble up, back to El and hear him call from behind me, "You're so dead, lesbian! Dead!" I tense up but feel nothing, I glance over my shoulder and turn to see he was frozen in place. I hear a weird dripping sound, look down and the guy was pissing his pants!! The entire school bursts out laughing, I smile and turn to El who was having a slight nose bleed. "Hey! What's going on here?" It was the principal! I feel Mike grab my hand and we start running out of the gym.

We sneak into the AV room and sit El in front of the radio. Dustin stands next to me, "Now what?" Mike speaks up from on the other side of El, "She'll find him. Right, El?" He tunes the radio and static fills the air. We all shift awkwardly around El and glance at each other. The static changes here and there and Mike shakes me, "She's doing it! She's finding him!" Dustin shakes his head, "This is crazy." Lucas just shrugs, "Calm down. She just closed her eyes." The lights go out causing us to gasp, the radio starts to make a clanging sound and it starts to intensify. " What is that?" Dustin stutters out.

"Mom?" Will! I gasp and hold onto Mike. "Mom... Please..."  We all freak out, "Will! Can you hear us?" "We're here!" It was hard to know who said what over us but Will's voice still came through and shook me to my bones. "Hello? Mom?" "Why can't he hear us?" "I don't know!" "It's like home but it's so dark... It's so dark and empty. And it's cold! Mom? Mom!" I start crying but I freeze as sparks fly from the radio and the back of it catches on fire! Dustin grabs a nearby fire extinguisher and I grab El, "El, are you ok?" I wipe away the blood from her nose and lift her into my arms, one supporting her legs and the other her head. We run from the room, I was falling behind a lot, and we got out of school.