Joey Hopper//Will Byers

The weirdo on maple street: part 1

We all stand in Mikes basement, crowded around the mystery girl.

"Is there a number we can call for your parents?" Mike asks in a kind tone.

"Where's your hair, do you have cancer?" Dustin continues, receiving a shove from me.

I roll my eyes. "You can't just ask someone if they have cancer Dustin!"

"Did you run away?" Lucas questions being just as invasive as Dustin.

Mike sends them both a glare before asking, "are you in some kind of trouble?"

"Is that blood?" Lucas suddenly perks up, reaching out to touch her only to have Mike yank his hand away.

"Stop it!" Mike starts, "your freaking her out!"

"She's freaking me out!" Lucas shoots back.

Honestly, I don't really know how to feel about this girl. While I do agree with Mike that Dustin and Lucas are being way too much, I'm kinda freaked out too! I mean, every instinct I have is telling me to call my dad or to get her away from me and my friends but there's something about her. Something in the back of my mind telling me to trust this girl, to help her. That...she's in trouble.

"I bet she's deaf," Dustin says proceeding to clap his hands in front of her face causing her to flinch. "Not deaf."

"Wow great idea Dustin," I say with high levels of sarcasm. "Make sudden movements in front of a scared girl. I'm sure that's bound to comfort her."

"All right that's enough," Mike stands in between Dustin and I. "Joeys right. She's just scared and cold."

I look back down to the girl in question. She's so small...I know I'm not one to judge but I've never seen anyone as frail as her. She also has a cleanly shaven head. To be honest, I don't even know how I knew she wasn't a boy on first glance, instinct I guess? That feeling from yesterday begins to come back. Fear. But this time I don't know who to be afraid of. I should be afraid of her but something about this girl makes me more afraid of myself, which just makes me more scared of her and...well the loop continues.

Lightning strikes outside making the girl flinch and closes her eyes.

 "Its okay," I say, trying to calm her down. "It's just lightning. It can't hurt you from in here."

Mike walks up to her, holding out some of his clothes from the hamper. "Here, these are clean. Okay?"

She hesitantly takes the clothes and put them up to her cheek. She then proceeded to try and lift up her wet t-shirt.

"NO!" We all simultaneously shout as I pulled her top back down. 

She didn't actually reveal anything but still, who just does that?

"See over there," Mike nicely points. "That's the bathroom. Privacy, get it?"

She luckily grabs the clothes and walks over to the bathroom, Mike in toe. 

"What the heck was that? "I whisper-shout.

"I don't know," Dustin replies, speechless.

Suddenly a new voice appears in the room.

 "No," The girl tells Mike in a quiet voice, drawing everyone's attention to where they stand in the doorway.

"Oh, so you can speak? Okay, well um how about we just keep the door..." Mike proceeds to close the door, leaving it only a crack open, "like this? Is that better?"

She nods her head slowly. "Yes."

"This is mental," Dustin says as Mike walks back over to us.

"At least she can talk," Mike states