Neighbors - Strangerthingsau

Chapter 6

El's First Day at School

On Monday morning, everyone was up in the Byers/Hopper home, either getting ready for school or work. El's nerves had started to set in the moment she woke up this sunny morning. She felt sick to her stomach. She didn't know what to expect. She didn't know if she would get lost on her way to class. She didn't know if her new classmates would like her. She didn't know anything. She hated that feeling.

Will sensed her nervousness when they were just pulling up to the large, brick school. As they were getting out of the car he took El to a private place to calm her down.

"It's going to be alright, okay?" Will said calmly, watching the girl in front of him fiddle with her hands.

"Okay." El sighed looking around at all the students.

"We aren't just all going to leave alone to fend for yourself." Will chuckled at his own joke.

"Fend?"

"It means to look after yourself." Will said as they both head towards the office to pick up her paper work.

As they walked in, the lady at the desk looked over at them and stood up with a warm smile on her face and walked towards them.

"You must be our new student!" She said looking at El, then turning to grab some papers on her desk and looked back at El. "Miss umm-"

"El!" El quietly interrupted. "I go by El."

The desk lady looked at her then at the papers she had in hand. She went to her desk to scribble something on the papers, then handed them to El.

"Welcome to Hawkins High, El Hopper." She said with her warm smile.

Will and El left the office quietly. As they were heading down the hallway she looked at the papers, curious as to what she wrote on there. She saw that something had been crossed out and put right beside it was the word Elle. She smiled to herself at the misspelling of her name. Will took the papers out of her hands to see her class schedule.

"I have some good news for you!" He said looking at his sister.

"What?" El curiously asked.

"You won't be alone in any of your classes!"

"Really?" El said peering over his shoulder to get a look at her schedule.

"Yeah! We all have science together, you and I have English and art together, you and Max have history, Mike is in your math class, and Lucas and Dustin are in P.E."

"Cool!" El said as she found her locker and started to put her things inside of it. As she was organizing her locker the rest of the party joined them.

"Hey guys!" Max said with a little wave.

"Hi." El replied.

"You excited?" Dustin asked.

"Yeah, for the most part."

"Do worry you'll be fine." Mike said giving her a comforting smile.

"Oh no." Lucas said looking down the hallway. "Here comes Troy."

El followed Lucas's gaze and saw two people walking towards them with a smirk. A smirk that she had seen many times in her past. A smirk that meant trouble.

"Oh look! The freak show has a new act!" Troy laughed.

"Shut up Troy!" Mike said glared at him.

"You know, I'm surprised that you could actually get another girl to talk to you. But I guess that proves that not everyone is right in the head." Troy said looking straight at Mike.

That comment got El mad. Why wouldn't I hangout with them? They are so nice compared to him. Why is he being like that?

The two boys laughed and high-fived each other and walked off. They didn't get too far before one of Troy's legs was swiped out from under him. By what? You may ask. Trust me, your not alone, the party and the rest of the hallway had no idea what happened either. They thought he tripped over nothing or something else happened. Everyone in that hallway was laughing at him even though they were confused. Well, one person wasn't confused.

After Troy ran off, the party decided that it was time to head to their first class, science. As they walked in the room El handed one of her papers over to Mr. Clarke so he could know he was getting a new student. He introduced her to the class and had her take a seat right next to Max in the back of the class.

Through most of her first day, it was fine. That was until math came around. Math was her last class of the day, she sat next to Mike, which she didn't mind at all, and everything went smoothly. Until the teacher wrote a problem on the board and called on her.

El, not knowing the answer, just shook her head and looked down at her hands embarrassed, only getting a sigh from the teacher and calling on another student who, of course, got it right.

After class, El walked with Mike to her locker.

"Hey." Mike said as they both stopped at her locker. "I noticed in class you were struggling a bit. If you want, I can tutor you."

"Tutor?" El asked turning to face him.

"You know, teach you and help you out with things you need help on."

"I would really like that." El said closing her locker to go join the party outside by the bike rack, leaving Mike behind once again.

She's going to be the death of me. He thought.