"…and this is your room, I guess."
Jane looked around at the barren space. There was a closet, a bed, and a dresser, but not much else. She glanced at Will, who swallowed nervously.
"Look, we'll fix it up and make it look nice. And you can make it look however you want. It'll be great. You, me, Mom, Jonathan, and Hopper."
"Family."
"Yeah. Family."
It was hard to believe the girl who now stood in the doorway of the former guest room was the same girl who, scarcely a year prior, had saved his life. And now she was moving in to be his sister. If you had told him that a year ago, he would've called you a mouth-breather and told you to shut up. Now, though? Now he welcomed her with open arms. The nervousness he felt was from the fact that she was obviously overwhelmed.
Well, that and the amount of shit his friends would give him over this.
You have a girl living in your house that's not related to you?!
Imagining the looks on their faces made him smile a bit as Jane entered the bedroom, looking around with her wide brown eyes. Will headed down the hall to his own room, which was far more personalized than his soon-to-be sister's. He knew that he'd likely be roped into helping decorate sometime soon, and the thought of that wasn't too unpleasant.
"Will! Jane! Time for dinner!"
His mother's voice drifted up the stairs and he headed down, Jane right behind them. Will took his seat and Jane took the one right next to him, and there they were: the Hopper-Byers family.
Joyce, Hopper, Jonathan, Will, and Jane.
The five of them against the rest of the world.
"Mom, I was wondering something," Jonathan stated, setting down his fork.
"What is it?"
"We're putting Jane in school, right?"
Silence.
"Not smart enough," Jane mumbled, staring at her food. "And too weird."
"You're plenty smart," Joyce reassured her. "And I promise you—once we get you all caught up with everyone else, we'll send you to school with Will and Jonathan."
Jane smiled and Will couldn't help but smile back.
That smile had been full of relief and fear a year ago…
He'd been on his way home from a D&D session at Mike's that night—November 6, 1983. Will had already split off from Dustin and Lucas, both of whom were heading towards their own houses to get some sleep before the living hell known as 'middle school'. In fact, he'd briefly beaten Dustin in a race and won X-Men 134 from his curly-haired friend. Excitement over winning the comic fair and square almost made him crash into a tree at the side of the road.
Then there'd been growling. He'd turned to see a snarling stray dog—the kind that had turned feral already—and quickly ditched his bike in favor of running for his life. In moments of panic, people tend not to look or pay attention to where they're going, and Will was not an exception to that rule. He'd kept running, even after the growling had stopped and the dog gave up the chase.
He didn't stop until he lost his footing and fell down a steep embankment, into some freezing water below. It was deep and dark, and his backpack was weighing him down and the water was too cold for him to swim to shore. All he could do was feel the water filling his lungs as he tried to scream for help. The world around him started to fade and he started to slip away.
Next thing he knew, he was being given CPR by a girl with a buzz cut.
"Please," he heard her plead in a soft voice. "Live."
Will sat up, coughing up water and getting a good look at his rescuer. She wore a pale pink dress with a white collar and a blue windbreaker, both of which were thoroughly soaked. She was panting and he knew that she'd pulled him from the water. She'd saved his life.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"Eleven," she whispered.
"I'm Will. How did you save me?"
"Swam. Papa says swimming is good."
She spoke in short, choppy sentences that he typically attributed to three-year-old Holly Wheeler. Even though she was about his age, based on her size. Her eyes were big and brown—the kind of eyes that instantly made you want to protect her. And Will knew that he would. She'd saved him and it was the very least he could do in return.
"I need to get home," he told her. "To my mom and brother and stepdad."
"What is… stepdad?" He furrowed his brow; okay, that was weird.
"A stepdad is like… when a mom and a dad aren't together anymore, the mom—or sometimes the dad—will marry another man and that man will be your stepdad."
"Oh."
"Eleven, where do you live?"
She waved towards a hill. He swallowed; clearly, something was wrong.
"Can you take me there? I need to get warm."
Eleven nodded and helped him to his feet. Together, they walked towards where she'd pointed and arrived at a cabin. A cabin that had clearly seen better days.
"Where are your parents?"
"Mama's gone. Papa is… bad."
Bad. It was a word she often used to describe her life.
Her Papa? Bad.
The house she grew up in? Bad place.
The people who she'd met? Bad men.
"Maybe you can come with me when I go home," Will offered gently. "My mom is good, and my stepdad and brother are good."
"Good." She fixed him with a look. "Will is good."
"Eleven is good."
She smiled, a real, genuine smile that made him smile back instantly. How could he not? He ended up falling asleep by a small fire she made in the fireplace, and she'd bring him food. Where she got it, he didn't know and he didn't want to know. But what he did know was that he and Eleven stayed together for a week and he learned things about her.
Why is your hair so short?
Papa hates long hair.
Do you live alone?
Papa is bad.
Do you know where your mama is?
Gone.
At first, she'd sit a few feet away from him. She didn't like being touched and she was jumpy. But over that week, she'd warmed up to him and he'd stopped calling her Eleven. Instead, he called her El. She seemed to like that more than Eleven.
After a week, though, he knew he had to get home.
He and Eleven trekked through the woods, avoiding ponds and the like, until they emerged across the street from his house. It was a pretty two-story place that his mother and stepfather had bought shortly after their wedding. Seeing that house made him relieved and he ran towards the door, banging on it furiously.
"I'm coming!" he heard Jonathan say. His older brother opened the door and stared. "Will?!"
"Hi. I'm home."
Not twenty minutes later, Joyce and Hopper came home, too. Both were happy to see him and nobody seemed to notice El fading into the background until Will reached out his hand to her.
"This is El. She saved me and helped me get home. Can she stay with us?"
"Will?"
He looked up to see Jane in the doorway of his room. He was busy doing his homework and preparing for Halloween.
"What's up, El?"
"I'm scared."
"Of what?"
"I'm scared of… this." She gestured all around her and Will instantly understood.
"El, we're not getting rid of you anytime soon. You're part of our family now and that's that."
"Sister."
"That's right—you're my sister."
Over the past year, through legal battles with Martin Brenner (Jane's father), tracking down Terry Ives (her catatonic birth mother), and trying to bring Jane into their home, Will and his family had begun teaching her things that most thirteen-year-olds knew. Like math, basic history, reading, writing… all that good stuff. And yet, through all of it, Will hadn't breathed a word about Jane to any of his friends. They could be such shits when it came down to it and he wanted his sister to be more comfortable around people before anything else.
Naturally, she'd warmed up to Will first. After a week together in the cabin, there was no way she wouldn't have. Then, shockingly, she'd bonded with Hopper, who taught her words that she hadn't known before and brought her Eggo waffles. Which, of course, were now her favorite food. Joyce had been next, and she'd shown Jane nothing but kindness and motherly love—something that Will knew Jane had lacked growing up. Jonathan had been a different story; he found it difficult to connect with his new little sister.
She still didn't speak to him much.
"You'll get the hang of it, El. I promise."
"Promise." She smiled again. Promise was her favorite word.
"Yeah, promise."
"I'll be normal."
"Normal is overrated. Trust me."
AH. Will and El being brother and sister gives me life.
So, in this story, Hopper and Joyce had been married a few months before Will met El. And of course they let our Eggo-loving little sweetheart live with them. As for why Will didn't let his friends in on El's existence…
Before everything was finalized, Hopper and Joyce asked both Will and Jonathan to keep the truth under wraps until El was comfortable with going in public. This included the Party (which had yet to include Max) because Joyce knew that all three of those other boys would stampede their way to the house to meet her. And her daughter is not a social person.
She'll meet Mike soon, though… ; ).
So long and thanks for all the fish!