Lover boy

It begins the night Will Byers disappears in Hawkins.

Mike Wheeler is just a normal kid riding home after a long Dungeons & Dragons game-until he finds a girl alone in the woods. She's scared, barefoot, and barely speaks. She calls herself Eleven.

Mike hides her in his basement, even though he knows it could get him in serious trouble. While the town searches for Will, Mike slowly earns Eleven's trust. He gives her food, dry clothes, and a place to feel safe. In return, she helps them understand that something dark and dangerous has taken Will.

As government agents close in and a monster hunts from another dimension, Mike refuses to give up on either of his friends. And through the fear and chaos, his bond with Eleven grows into something deeper-something neither of them fully understands yet.

This is a story about the very beginning-about friendship turning into first love, and about a boy who chose to see a scared girl not as a weapon, but as someone worth protecting.