Neighbors - Strangerthingsau

Chapter 17

Mage

After the welcome home party, the party decided to head to Mike's just to give El some space. It was quiet. No one wanted to say anything. So, after what seemed like hours of silence, but really it was only fifteen minutes, they put a movie in just to drown out the silence.

Everyone was half watching, half in their own mind until a quiet knock was heard on the door. Mike got up from his position on the couch to open the door.

"El!" He said quietly, but still loud enough for the others to hear. They all got up from their sitting positions and looked at El who gave a soft smile. Mike opened the door more, stepping aside to let her in. As soon as the door shut behind her there was an eruption of apologies flooding the basement.

"El, we are so sorry."

"We really didn't mean to make you cry."

"We just wanted answers, but we should have waited until you were ready to tell us."

"We really overstepped, and we're sorry."

"You have every right to be mad at us."

El just stood there quietly, waiting for everyone to calm down. She didn't need to be added to the mixture of people talking over one another. Finally, after a few seconds voices started to get lower and lower until there was silence.

"I'm not mad guys." El said looking at them, her voice barely above a whisper. "I was a little bit, but I'm not anymore. I just needed some space."

"El." Mike said looking in her eyes. "We are so sorry. We were just worried about you and wanted to know what was going on in your life. We never should have pushed you and we all feel terrible about it."

"We'll understand if you don't to be in our party anymore." Will looked at her sadly.

"Guys," El said, her voice soft. "It's ok. And I still want to be in the party. If that's ok with you."

The party started to get happier with El's words. They nodded their up and down to tell her she is still in the party.

"Of course it is." Dustin smiled. "We also finally came up with a title for you."

El raised her eyebrows in wonder.

"You are now our mage." Max said happily.

"Mage?" El asked turning to Mike who smiled and shook his head.

"It means your a magician." Mike stated.

"Or a wizard." Will pointed out.

"Or a sorcerer." Lucas finished.

El looked at Mike with a confused look. Mike sighed. "It means that you are able to do magic."

El nodded her head finally understanding what the boys were talking about.

"She's definitely more like a Yoda." Dustin stated looking at her. With that El was lost again as the boys continued talking. After a while she gave up trying to understand what the boys were talking about and went to go get something to drink from the kitchen.

She was filling up a water glass when she heard the front door shut. A few seconds later a lady rounded the corner with a little girl on her hip. The women looked shocked at the sight of the teenager in her kitchen.

"Oh! Hello!" The woman said as she put down down the little girl.

"Hi." El replied nicely.

"I'm Karen." the woman said holding out her hand for El to shake.

"I'm El." El shook her hand and smiled at the young girl looking up at her.

"And this is Holly."

"Hello Holly." The girl turned away from her to hide behind her mom shyly.

"Sorry she can be a little shy sometimes."

"It's alright I understand." El said remembering how she was before Hopper.

"Are you a friend of Mike's?" Karen asked setting her purse on the counter.

"Uh, yes I am. I just moved into the house next door."

"Oh! So you live with the Byers now correct?"

"Yes."

"And your father is the new sheriff?"

"Yeah, that's him."

"Sorry we didn't greet you guys to the neighborhood. It must have slipped my mind." Karen said.

"It's okay. My father and I don't like making a big deal of things anyway."

"Maybe we can have you guys over for dinner sometime?"

"That would be really nice."

Karen smiled. "I'll try to talk to your father to have you guys over when I get the chance."

"El?" She heard Mike's voice enter the kitchen. She turned to him as he entered. "You alright?"

"Yeah, I was just talking to your mom." She said grabbing her drink off the counter. As she followed Mike she turned to Karen just before she left. "Nice to meet you Mrs. Wheeler! Nice to meet you too, Holly." And with that she disappeared into the basement with Mike.

"That El girl seems nice." Karen stated. It had been a few hours since she had met El and Mike was helping her put away clean dishes.

"Yeah, she is." Mike replied quietly.

"How come you looked so worried about her when you entered the kitchen?" Karen gave him a side glance.

"I didn't see her leave the basement." That was a lie, he saw her leave. But with her being gone for as long as she was, he started to get worried.

"Alright." Karen said knowing there was something more than that. "So I talked to Hopper about an hour ago. He's going to be coming over for dinner with El and the Byers tomorrow."

"Okay." Mike calmly said, but in his mind he was bursting with joy. Another reason to hangout with Eleven.

I can't wait for tomorrow.

Authors note

We got Karen and Holly in there now. Next chapter should introduce Nancy and Ted since it's going to be the family dinner. Ted is going to stay a background character, he is just going to be there for the sake of the story. He is basically going to be just like in the show.

Let me know if you have any ideas for the story. Let me know if I have spelling mistakes that need to be fixed.

Thank you! See you next week!