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"is this it?" max asks, stopping her bike outside of a large, white house.
el nods. "yeah."
we walk towards the door and eleven opens it with her powers. it creaks open and we slowly walk inside. there was a picture on the wall of heather and her parents.
"this is her house." i say.
"what?" el asks, softly.
"heather's house."
we hear a woman laugh in the other room and we slowly walk towards the sound to see heather's parents sitting at the table with billy.
heather's mom stops laughing and everyone turns to look at us.
"max." billy says.
"we didn't mean to...barge in. we tried to knock, but, um-" she struggles to find an excuse.
"maybe you couldn't hear us over the storm." i say, quickly.
"i'm sorry, who is this dripping all over my living room right now?" heather's dad asks.
billy chuckles. "i'm sorry. janet, tom, this...is my sister, maxine."
"oh!" janet smiles as billy stands up and walks towards us.
"what on earth are you doing here?" he asks. "is something wrong?"
"we just wanted to make sure everything was okay." max answered.
"okay?" billy makes a face. "why wouldn't it be okay?"
"where is she?" el asks.
"i'm sorry, where is who?" he asks.
heather walks into the dining room with a tray of cookies in her hand. "well, they're a little burnt, i'm sorry-"
"heather! this is my sister, maxine." billy says. "and, i'm sorry i did not quite catch your names."
"el."
"i'm y/n." i say.
"el and y/n." billy says, slowly. "now what is it you were saying, el? you we're looking for somebody?"
eleven murmurs, trying to figure out what to say. she turns to heather. "i-i saw...i saw you-"
"your manager. at the pool." max interrupts her. "he said you guys didn't come in to work today, so we got worried."
"heather wasn't feeling so hot today, so we thought we'd take the day off to nurse her back to health." billy answers. "but you're feeling just fine right now, aren't you, heather?"
"i'm feeling so much better." she smiles. "do you girls want a cookie? they're fresh out of the oven."
"no, thank you. we should get going." i smile, pulling the other two girls out of the house.
we pick up our bikes as the thunder rumbled overhead. as we walked away, i looked back to see billy closing the front door. i watched as he continued staring at us through the window, until finally, he walked away.
—
"which one?" max asks us, holding up a wonder woman comic and a green lantern comic. we had decided to go back to max's house and have another sleepover in an attempt to get our minds off of what had just happened.
"i don't know." el says, sitting on the bed. she had a blank expression on her face.
"hey, there's nothing to worry about anymore, okay?" i say.
"it doesn't make sense." el says, softly.
"what doesn't make sense?" max asks.
"heather. the blood. the ice."
"heather had a fever, so she took a cold bath, but she's better now." max suggests. "that had to be it. i don't know where that blood came from, but...we saw her. we all saw her. she's totally fine."
"what about billy?"
"what about him?" max asks.
"he seemed wrong." el says.
max chuckles. "wrong is kind of like his default. but it's nice to know he's not a murderer, because that would've totally sucked."
el chuckles before looking back at the comics. she points at the wonder woman one. "who...is that?"
"see, this is why you can't just hang out with mike all the time." max laughs before picking up the comic and explaining it to el.
—
"this is a code red. do you copy?" i wake up to the sound of lucas's voice over max's radio. "max. do. you. copy?"
finally, max picks it up. "shut. the fuck. up."
she turns it off and puts it back down. a few second later, her phone starts ringing.
she scoffs. "you've got to be kidding me."
she stands up and answers it. "i'm sleeping. go away."
"this is mike. do not hang up. something happened, something bad." i hear over the phone. "our very lives can be at stake."
"what are you talking about?" max asks.
"just come over to my house. we'll explain everything."
"what?" max asks.
"hurry."
max hangs up and looks back at us. "we need to go. now."