Jeopardy- Stranger Things

Chapter Twenty One

November 9th, 1983

"Nicole!" Donald shouted as soon as Nick set one foot through the door. "Nicole, I need you on the till. Now please, now would be good. Chop, chop!"

Nick huffed and stormed through to the break room. The smell of smoke hit her as soon as she swung the door open. Through the haze, Nick could make out Frankie, perched with her legs up on a bench and puffing long drags of a cigarette.

"Yo." She breathed nonchalantly, blowing smoke in Nick's general direction.

"Jeez, Frank." Nick spluttered, coughing out smoke fumes. "How long have you been in here? I can hardly see you."

"I've been hiding out." She said, stubbing out a cigarette and tossing it onto the floor. Nick followed it as it fell and landed on top of a huge mound of other cigarette buts. "I'm chaining 'em, Nick. I'm so stressed I'm falling apart."

"Um, okay..." Nick mumbled as she got changed into her uniform. "Well, I'm going to go back out there," She said, pointing over her shoulder to the door to the shop floor, "Where I can breathe again."

"Nick!" Donald pounced as soon as she'd opened the door, "Is Frankie in there? She's been there all day, I've hardly seen her and she's supposed to be working!" He rambled, throwing his arms around, exasperated.

"Well I-"

"But you know who was here when she's not supposed to be working?"

"I have a feeling you're going to say Joyce before listening to my answer." Nick mumbled.

"Joyce!" Donald exclaimed, turning his back on Nick as she took her place at the till. She'd hoped that was the last of that conversation and she could get back to working but alas, Donald turned back around.

"She was in here today! No, before you ask, she was not working," Donald rambled.

"I know, you just said." Nick murmured under her breath, not that Donald was listening anyway. He was purely ranting about how his employees ignored him...while ignoring his employee...

"She was buying! And I had to take the price out of her salary because she didn't have any money with her. You know what she bought? Do you? You won't even guess!" Donald prompted but Nick had a feeling he would start talking again the moment she opened her mouth. "She bought all the Christmas lights we have! Her son's just gone missing but she has time to deck the whole house out as a Winter Wonderland in time for Christmas. It's the beginning of November!"

Nick sighed as Donald walked away, obviously fuming but at least he had said his piece and got a load off his chest. Nick despaired at Donald sometimes. He was a good boss and cared a lot about making his business succeed but he could be narrow minded at times. Sure, Nick didn't know why Joyce bought thousands of Christmas lights, but they had no idea what she was going through. How could they judge her? Nick only hoped she'd get Will back. Somehow.

*

George hopped off his bike and pushed it a little ways up the hill. Eleven was standing at the top, by the power lines at the back of Mike's house, with her back to them. She was just standing there, looking beyond the fence, oddly still.

"Hey, El." Mike said, softly as he reached the top of the hill. George noticed that Lucas hung back a ways and looked away. Probably for the best after what happened last time.

"You okay?" Mike asked innocently and she turned around. Her eyes were wide but her face was otherwise expressionless. She nodded slowly. "Hop on." Mike encouraged, tapping the back of his bike. She furrowed her brows a little but apprehensively perched on the back of Mike's saddle.

And that was that, off they went. Lucas cycled off first, of course. George hung back slightly. He'd expected something a little more exciting. After his last encounter with Eleven things had gotten...exciting. This encounter seemed a bit mundane.

When they'd had enough of cycling, they hopped off their bikes and opted to push them along a straight path through the trees. George, Lucas and Dustin hung behind Mike and Eleven. All three of them just watched as they walked and talked. Ever since the night of the search party, when they'd found Eleven, she and Mike had been joined at the hip. George was starting to see Lucas' point of view. It did look a little loved up between them and Mike had certainly been spending less time with them and more time with, or at least worrying about, Eleven.

"Are you seeing this?" Lucas hissed, disapprovingly, leaning in closer to George and Dustin so Mike wouldn't hear. "Look at them!"

George lifted his head, as did the others, and for a while they just stared. Mike was trying to cover up the graze on his chin from where Troy had pushed him over at recess. George had tried to ignore most of what happened at school that day. When he wasn't in lessons that he couldn't concentrate on, he was with the boys listening to them argue. And as if that wasn't bad enough, he still had to deal with that douche bag, Troy. Now, when they were supposed to be finding out what happened to Will, Mike's attention was fixed on Eleven and all Lucas could do was moan about it. The party was divided.

Lucas scowled at Mike, not at Eleven, at Mike then frowned at George and Dustin before making a very flattering, and not at all exaggerated, smooching noise. That got Mike's attention and he snapped his head around to glare at the three boys. George looked done in and Dustin stopped walking and looked guilty. Lucas just shot him daggers.

The boys plus Eleven trudged on along the path through the sporadically dotted trees. At times they'd walk through a cluster of trees all grouped together and the sun would disappear through a canopy of leaves. By the time they emerged George realised that it was partly the trees why everything had gotten so dark but mostly because the sun had set. They'd spent the entire afternoon and now some of the evening walking around after a girl they barely knew. And who some of them, no names (Lucas), didn't want anything to do with.

As the trees cleared, George could make out the faint lights coming from windows: they were back in civilisation! Eleven walked quickly ahead and turned around looking monotonously triumphant. George could barely read her face. His eyes narrowed as he realised where they were.

Up ahead, Mike was talking to Eleven. The others, including George had hung back to give them some privacy. Mike was moving his around too much to look pleased and based on how Eleven's nose crinkled, George guessed Mike was thinking the same as he was. They'd reached Will's house. They'd wasted their evening walking to the place he was missing from.

For all they knew it was the furthest place away from where he'd be now.