Hello my lovely people! I saw a lot of writers doing a sequel to the second season, so I thought I would try my hand as well and play around with the idea! Also because this hiatus is killing me and I have to fill the void somehow... anyway, please enjoy!

OoOoOo

Eleven was sure she couldn't be happier.

She rested her head on Mike's shoulder as they slowly swayed to the music. His hands were firmly holding her waist, as if he were afraid that if he let go, she would disappear for another year again. Eleven in turn had her fingers locked around the back of his neck, she herself dreading the idea of going another year without seeing him in person or being able to touch him.

"Missed you a lot," she told him for what felt like the hundredth time. She couldn't help it. The year they had spent apart had been the hardest year of her life. Harder than all the abuse by her "father," her body and mind being exposed to complete strangers, and being punished physically and mentally when she messed up. Nothing compared to the aching in her heart at not being able to be with him.

Of course, Mike didn't seem to mind. "I missed you too," he whispered back. If it was possible, his grip on her tightened. Like her, he had never experienced a more difficult time in his thirteen years of existence. He didn't expect himself to be so attached to someone - to a girl no less. But El was different. He couldn't explain how, she just was.

"Hopper says another year..."

Mike froze at that. "What?"

"Talked to Dr. Owens," El continued. "Says it's not safe."

No, no, no! He couldn't go another year without seeing her! Calling her for those three hundred and fifty three days and never receiving an answer had been absolute torture, never knowing if she was dead or alive. There was no way he could survive for that long without her again. Mike gently took her hand and pulled her off to the side. "Have you talked to him about it?" he asked.

El shrugged. "Stubborn," was all she said.

Mike crossed his arms with a huff. "Yeah? Well, I'm stubborn too. Don't worry about it, El. I'll talk to him."

El smiled at him brightly. "Promise?"

Mike nodded eagerly. "I promise."

Eleven smiled contentedly before another thing came to mind that made her frown. "Mike?"

"Yeah?"

She nodded to the redhead who was dancing happily with Lucas. "Do you 'like' her?" She made sure to put extra emphasis on the word "like." Nancy had told her that the word could mean two different things; it all depended on how she said it.

Mike's eyes followed her gaze, immediately catching on to her tone. "Who, Max?" He couldn't help himself, he let out a hearty laugh at that. He had only just started tolerating her as a friend. Why would she think that? "No, no. Max is a friend. Just a friend." He grinned down at her slyly. "El, are you jealous?"

Eleven stared at him. "Jealous?" she repeated, trying to remember if that had been one of her words of the day. Right, that had come up in one of her soaps and Hopper had her look it up in a dictionary. Feeling or showing envy of someone. She immediately felt her face heat up as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Not jealous."

Mike laughed again and led her back onto the dance floor. "I think it's cute," he admitted. The corners of her mouth turned up, but she said nothing in response. Still, she suddenly felt bad. Max was only a friend to Mike and she obviously 'liked' Lucas. It was mean of her to push her off her skateboard and to treat her so coldly at the Byers' household. The right thing to do, she had learned from TV, would be to apologize.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Max retreat to the bathroom. Perfect. El pulled away from Mike. "Be back," she promised before quickly following the redhead, hoping to make a friend. She slowly opened the door to the bathroom. "Max?"

"Ew, what are you wearing?" Eleven caught sight of the redhead being cornered by a black haired girl with a fancy dress on. "Where did you get that dress? The dumpster?" El thought this was poor judgement, Max's dress was really nice in her opinion.

Max wasn't about to back down. "Piss off, Yvonne," she snarled. "At least I'm not wearing a poodle on my head."

"You'd better watch your mouth, tomboy," the girl, Yvonne, snapped, getting in Max's face. She said the last word as if it were something to be ashamed of. El racked her brain to see if she knew what the word meant. A girl who enjoys rough, noisy activities traditionally associated with boys. Wait, didn't that make her a tomboy as well? What was wrong with liking guy things?

"I'd rather be a tomboy than a bitch," retorted Max. Yvonne went to slap her, but was suddenly frozen in place. Max had to cover her mouth to hold in her laughter as blood came running down her leg, obviously from her period. The girl screeched loudly and ran out of the bathroom (and probably the school).

El smiled in satisfaction before striding into the bathroom and approaching Max. "Sorry," she said simply, holding out her hand.

Max looked from her hand and then back at her before pushing away her arm and bringing her in for a hug instead. "It's cool," she assured the other girl. "I've been waiting to meet you, the guys never shut up about you."

El was surprised, but hugged her back. "Not mad?" she asked.

Max snorted and pulled away. "Mad? How can I be mad when you literally just made Yvonne Kelly's period overflow?"

Eleven giggled. "Mean?"

Max nodded. "The bitchiest bitch you'll find in the eighth grade," she confirmed. She paused and looked at the shorter girl with uncertainty on her face. "Are we... friends now?"

"If you want to be."

Max grinned widely. "I want to be."

OoOoOo

"You can't keep her locked in the cabin for another whole year!" Mike insisted. As he promised El, he was talking to Hopper about going to school at the Buyers house. He was getting extremely frustrated going back and forth with Hopper about this. El had been kept inside the damn laboratory her whole life. She deserved more than anybody to be able to go to school, walk to the store for Eggos, and hang out with her friends whenever she pleased. He knew she felt like a prisoner again and that's the last thing he wanted her to feel. El was watching them with nervous eyes and Mike sent her a reassuring smile.

Hopper wasn't backing down. "Do you want her happy or do you want her safe?" he demanded.

"What makes you so sure she's safe there?" Mike shot back. "They know she's going to be hidden, they'll be looking for her hiding. But not one will suspect she's hiding in plain sight."

Hopper squinted at him. "What the hell kind of messed up logic is that?"

Joyce seemed to find this a good time to intervene. "He has a point, Hop. Sometimes, it's best to hide in plain sight, it's something they'll never expect." Mike gave her a grateful smile.

Hopper groaned. "Don't you start, Joyce."

"Hop, please." Everyone stopped and looked at Eleven whose eyes were filled with tears that were threatening to fall. "I want to be normal."

Of course, if you could resist El's puppy dog eyes, you weren't human. She and Hopper stared one another down before the latter finally sighed. "Dammit. Okay, here is what we're going to do." El immediately perked up and Mike sighed in relief. "El, you won't start school until the next school year." He held up a hand to stop Mike's objections. "But, you will be able to go out into town a few times a week to hang out with your friends as long as you wear sunglasses to cover your face. You all have to call her Jane in public - no exceptions." His eyes narrowed at Eleven in particular. "And no using your powers unless it's an emergency."

"Sunglasses?"

"Glasses that protect your eyes from the sun," Will explained.

"But they're also dark enough to hide your eyes," Jonathan continued.

"I think some red ones would look nice on you, El," Nancy piped up. "Or maybe purple."

Hopper rolled his eyes. "I don't care what the color is as long as she wears them. So, what do you say, kid? We got a deal?"

El nodded eagerly. "Deal." Halfway happy was better than not happy, after all.

OoOoOo

"El?" whispered Mike her a few hours later. After everything had calmed down, the two were alone in the living room. Hopper had gone to the police station for something, Jonathan and Nancy were in his room doing God knows what, and Joyce was doing a bit of work outside of the house.

"Yes?"

"Where were you before you flung that Demodog through the window?" It was something he'd been wanting to ask her for a long time. "And why were you wearing all that black?"

Eleven stared at him quietly for a moment before responding. "I was with my sister," she told him. "She and friends gave me a 'makeover.'"

Mike's eyes went wide. "You have a sister?" Well that was news to him.

El tilted her head to the side. "We were both in the lab," she revealed. "When we were small. Mama sent me to her."

"What's she like?" asked Mike.

Eleven smiled wistfully, looking up at the ceiling. "Very pretty," she answered. "And... intense. Smart too." She chuckled. She wondered where Kali was now. Probably living life to the fullest with no worries at all. "Her name is Kali, used to be Eight."

OoOoOo

Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.

This was bad. This was worse than bad, this was the worst thing to ever happen. Kali Prasad jabbed a knife deep into a nearby wooden wall, anger surging through her veins at what she had just learned. Martin Brenner was alive. He was alive and looking for her and Jane. She had to warn the girl. She had to get to Jane and take her to safety, somewhere Brenner would never find them. Because as far as Kali was concerned, she was her only family left.

Easier said than done, however. Brenner has eyes everywhere and she didn't even know where Jane was. What was the name of that damn town? Holden? Hawker? Wait, it was Hawkins. Yeah, that's right. Jane was living in Hawkins, Indiana in a secluded cabin with that police officer. Kali's experience with the police had never been good, so she was naturally untrusting of them. And she would never trust one with her sister.

Well, it looked like she was going back to Indiana. Great.

OoOoOo

Mike and El were still talking when the latter suddenly felt a sharp pain in her lower abdomen. She attempted to ignore it, instead trying to focus on what Mike was saying. She bit her lip, feeling the pain increase exponentially, becoming almost unbearable. It felt like there was something eating away at her very insides, trying to claw its way out of her.

Mike noticed her pain. "El?" he said frantically. "El, are you okay?"

El gave him a pained expression before collapsing onto the floor, writhing in pain and clutching at her stomach. "M-Mike," she gasped out. "H-Hurts." She soon began to scream, a horrible, hurt shriek that broke his heart in two.

"El!" exclaimed Mike, his voice cracking with worry. He was by her side immediately, gripping her shoulders. "What's wrong?!" To say the boy was scared was an understatement. He was terrified for her. He lost her once, he couldn't bare to lose her again - for good this time. He put his hand to her forehead, but recoiled half a second after; she was burning up. "NANCY! JONATHAN!"

His sister immediately rushed over to him, concern etched on her face. "What is it, what's wrong?"

"I don't know!" shouted Mike. "She just started screaming and holding her stomach!"

A wide-eyed Jonathan came into the room. "The same thing's happening to Will," he told them before rushing back to his brother. Nancy and Mike looked at each other before picking up El and carrying her into Will's room. They placed the two children next to each other and watched as they both screamed their pain, all three of them powerless to stop it.

"MOM!" yelled Jonathan.

Joyce immediately came running into the room. Her expression turned to one of panic as she caught sight of her son and (practically daughter) and rushed to their sides. "What happened?" she demanded.

"They both just started screaming," explained Nancy, biting her lip nervously. "We don't know why." Will and Eleven's screams only grew louder, making them all wince at their obvious pain.

Mike couldn't watch his best friend and his girlfriend (still debatable) hurting so much. He looked around the room for something to make it stop. He spotted the syringe they used to sedate Will before and quickly grabbed it before injecting it in both El and Will's necks. They continued to shriek for a few more seconds before their eyes began to droop and they were rendered unconscious.

The rest of them simply stared at each other, none of them knowing what was wrong with the two children or how to fix it.

OoOoOo

Guys, the app for this website is complete and utter trash. I went back to this chapter to fix one word, one word, on it because I didn't feel like going on my laptop and the dumbass app deleted, like, five hundred words. Five hundred freaking words, just gone. I don't even know how since the word I fixed was nowhere near the part that got deleted. So, I'm really sorry that the last part of this chapter is so different and not as good. I just couldn't remember everything I wrote. And anyone who's coming across this fic now, just know that it was a lot better before, I promise.