A.N.: Hi everyone, I decided to write a tiny D&D adventure for our favourite weirdos, minus the actual D&D. There'll be 3 or 4 chapters in total, this one is kind of a prologue, and I hope you won't be annoyed at me for the rather slow pace of the story. As always, thank you so much for reading and I hope you have a lovely weekend. :)


Autumn, 1985

Okay, so here's the thing:

Talking to girls isn't easy.

It's not easy when your hair looks fantastic, or when your cool new friend has talked an almost unreal amount of confidence into you. And not even when your brand-new teeth are blazing in disco-lights and you're tucked into a fancy suit and surrounded by them, will it ever be easy to talk to girls.

But.

Science is easy. Math and biology and physics. At least at the level they're at in school right now, this stuff comes easy to Dustin Henderson.

And it's finally going to pay off.

„No way!", Lucas exclaims, as he's almost choking on a piece of broccoli-pizza. „No way did Mona McConnor ask you to be her tutor!"

Dustin decides to play it cool, as he takes a bite from his own lunch. „Believe it or not, it happened!"

(Okay, maybe he's not really playing it all that cool, with that uncontrollably wide grin of his, but whatever.)

„No. Freaking. Way.", Lucas repeats, shaking his head.

Will smiles, looking happy for his friend, while Mike is still busy explaining the word „asparagus" to El, who just discovered that yes, there are in fact vegetables far more disgusting than mushy peas out there in this world.

Max, on the other hand, is crossing her arms in front of her chest, annoyedly.

„So what? It's just Mona McConnor, not the freaking Mona Lisa, or something."

Dustin shrugs. „Yes, but this Mona is an actual person."

„A person that smells like cat hair most of the time, Dustin.", Max scoffs, rolling her eyes.

„Seriously?", he asks, perhaps sounding a little too eager for such a question, but if Mona happened to have a cat, his mom would definitely like her!

„Urgh, gross.", his red-haired friend comments, still looking annoyed.

„I think Mona's nice.", is what Will has to say, who used to sit next to her in arts class, last year, if Dustin remembers correctly.

And she looks good.", Lucas adds, before quickly focusing on his plate again and dodging the invisible bullets coming from Max' eyes.

„Who looks good?", El asks, who is now, that the most bizzare veggies are finally gone from her meal, paying attention again.

„A girl whose tutor Dustin will be soon.", Will says, smiling. „But Max doesn't like her very much."

„No, I just don't like having this conversation very much.", Max states, digging into the last bit of her vanilla pudding. „And now, if you'll excuse me, I have a history homework to finish."

„A bit late, isn't it?", Mike grins. „Don't you have history in like ten minutes?"

„Shut up Wheeler.", she replies, and makes her way out of the cafeteria, tablet in hand.

„Well, that was weird.", Dustin says, eyebrows raised.

„What, Max finishing her homework a little late?", Lucas snorts, „That's not weird, believe me."

„Nah, I meant that whole „Mona McConnor smells like cat hair" part. That's not true, right Will?"

„Er, I don't know.", Will answers, surprised at the question.

„Well, you probably smell like demodog half of the time, Dustin, so what's the big deal?", Mike jokes, chuckling. Eleven starts giggling too, next to him. These two are like lemings, these days.

„Max is right: Shut up, Wheeler."


Mike is carrying El's bag as they walk to class. Not to his class, to hers. It's strange that he wants to carry things for her so often, but it's even stranger that he still feels the need to follow her to almost every place she goes to in this school.

Eleven loves it. She used to think he was scared of her messing something up, talking to a teacher in a weird way or accidentally revealing her powers when none of her friends are around, to cover it up somehow. But then El noticed how Mike isn't really surprised when she gets things right, either, always looking at her with so much faith in his eyes and smiling the nicest smiles at her.

So now Eleven thinks that he just likes to follow her through school, and that's quite convenient, because she likes to have him around, too. She often wonders how Mike and the others are not much more popular than they are. Who wouldn't want to be friends with them? High schools really do have a lot of mouthbreathers inside, it seems.

But there's also nice people. Like Susan, from El's English class, or Benji, who El has PE with. But no one's ever as nice as Mike, of course. She likes him like no one else, and that's a weird feeling, because usually these likings don't seem to be as strong, with people their age. El noticed how other people in their grade held hands, a couple weeks or months ago, and how they have already stopped doing so again. And her soaps, the ones she used to watch so much when she still spend all her days in the cabin... They always just have adults in them, when it comes to love.

It's a big word, isn't it? Everyone acts like it's the biggest word of all, love, but El wants to use it so badly, sometimes. And not just applied to Eggos or board games she can't get enough of. No, she wants to say it about Mike.

But maybe it won't mean as much if she says it now.

Now, while everyone holds hands and stops again, and while some movies are still too scary or some drinks are still dangerous for them. There's so much stuff she isn't allowed to do yet, and El doesn't really care for the most part. But if that word, the love thing, is also forbidden somehow, then maybe Eleven would like to break this one rule.

Because Mike wants to walk her to class, and he smiles when he explains tricky words to her. And Eggos are yummier with him around, and things make sense when he says them.

„Hey, you okay?", he asks, looking concerned for a moment as they stop in their tracks, a couple feet away from her history classroom. El smiles and takes her bag from him, her right hand still in his. He looks relieved, blushing a little and pressing her hand slightly.

„So, um... I'll go then, yeah?"

She nods, waiting for him to let go of her, a little amused when he still hasn't, half a minute later. He just looks down at their intertwined fingers, deep in thought, it seems.

„Oh, look, who's here! Frogface and his little girlfriend, that's nice.", a loud, twanging voice says behind them, and they both turn around.

While James and Troy, two of the first mouthbreathers El has ever met (in the outside world, at least), have recognized her quickly after her arrival in school this summer, not all of the mouthbreathers know how dangerous she can be. Maybe Troy and James tried to tell people about what El can do, but no one believed them? Or maybe, they were clever enough to keep this fact secret, staying away from Jane Hopper and all her „nerdy friends", for the most part.

George Huffington, a bulky, pale kid with stringy blond hair and the most evil eyes on the planet, probably, does not stay away, for the most part.

„What do you want, George?", Mike says, chancing a cold glance at the other kid, and looking like he's inwardly arming himself.

But Mike doesn't have to, and George's nasty smirk quickly disappears, as Mr. Fitch crosses the corridor. He's the school's janitor, and while he might not have quite the same authority as a teacher, Mr. Fitch is „scary as hell", as Dustin likes to put it. He's got these really low eyebrows that always make him seem like he's angry, and his death stares look very deadly indeed.

Mr. Fitch eyes them up and down, before pulling out a small plastic bottle and applying oil to every locker's door hinge, one by one. George looks pretty annoyed at this, but not even he is stupid enough to cause a fight right under an adult's nose. So he just casts another dark glance in their direction, before walking past them. And Mike? Mike turns around to El, his eyes still a little agiagated. She takes his hand again, and he looks back down at their clasping fingers. Highschools are full of mouthbreathers, indeed. It's so good to have a Mike around.

She pecks him goodbye before he leaves, and he seems to melt just a bit.

She wants to tell Mike that one word again, but maybe today's not the day for that. Maybe it's just an adult-thing, anyway.

Whatever it is, El can wait.


Eleven is smiling at Max, when she enters the room and drops down in her seat. Max can see it from the corner of her eye, but is too busy finishing her homework to look up.

So El waits, looking like she has something important to say, something that derserves Max' full attention, but that also can't wait till after class.

When Max lowers her pen and closes it, she turns towards her friend and grins.

„Hey, El."

„Hi.", Eleven replies, her tiny smile spreading a little wider.

„What's up?", the redhead asks, encouraging El to finally tell her whatever she wants to tell her.

Eleven looks down at her school bag – a light blue back pack formerly used by Hopper to store first aid supplies in, as Max has been told before,- and she pulls out a book. A very familiar book.

„I'm done.", El says, contentedly, and Max beams.

„You finished it?"

Eleven nods.

„And? Did you like it?"

Eleven nods again. „It's really good.", she states, looking serious.

„I know, right?", the redhead exclaims, excited to hear so.

Murder on the Orient Express must be the coolest book she's ever had to read for school, back in California, and when Max saw El sitting around with one of those terribly long Lord of the Rings books the boys were so into, a couple weeks ago, she couldn't help but to interfere, borrowing her this one instead. Baby steps, and stuff.

„Were you surprised at the end?", Max wants to know, right as Mr. Gordon, their teacher, enters the room, the school bell ringing loudly.

„Yes.", El states, her eyes wide. „I thought the detective was the murderer."

„What?", Max snorts, smirking. „Really?"

„He was... confusing the others.", Eleven argues, furrowing her eyebrows.

„Yes, but only because they weren't really good at solving crimes, and he was always a step ahead of them. Right?"

El nods, smiling again as the last of their classmates sit down and get their books out, around them.

„I liked it.", she says again, and then Mr. Gordon starts talking about the Civil War, while drawing a complicated diagram on the board. But Max' mind is elsewhere.

She thinks about last November, when she'd first met Eleven and became a part of this entire, weird world El and the boys had been living in for a year, already. One with monsters and alternate dimensions, and all that.

And then Max wonders what it was like for the Chief and Will's mom, when they were looking for clues on their own, also trying to figure out what had happened to Will. Everyone had been part of some sort of investigation, slowly coming to terms with just how insane their situation really was. Max sometimes feels sad for having missed all of that. It makes her feel... excluded, somehow, even now that things with Mike are okay again and that El is super fond of her. Everyone likes Max, and of course she feels like a part of this entire thing, now. A real member of the party.

But that doesn't mean Max doesn't wonder sometimes what it could have been like, being there right from the scary start.

Max shakes her head, pulling herself out of the awkward thoughts and trying to focus on her class again.

The last thing she needs are problems in school.


It's eight 'o'clock when the walkie sizzles. Max has spend most of today's afternoon re-reading her Agatha Christie book, now that she just got it back from El.

It's been a while since she last read it, and thoughts of Max' former favourite teacher from California are lingering between the pages. This book might be pretty old, but it's still not so bad, Max thinks. She puts it away when Wheeler's voice drowns from her night stand.

„Guys? This is Mike, are you there? Over."

„Hey Mike, Dustin here. Over.", says another familiar voice, a moment later.

Max picks the device up and pushes the button. „Yeah, me too."

„Max, you have to say 'Over', when you're done. Over.", Mike reminds her, not for the first time. She rolls her eyes at him.

„Guys? Hello, are you there? Over.", Will asks, his voice a little muffled and barely understandable from the distance.

„Yes.", El answers, and suddenly the rustling in their connection becomes far less obvious, her voice clear and precise.

„Oh, perfect, thanks El! Over.", says a well-audible Mike, before clearing his throat. And of course, he doesn't remind her on finishing all sentences with that stupid 'Over.', Max notices with a smirk, but whatever.

„So, uhm, I'm sorry guys, but I think I might need another week for the campaign. It's nowhere near ready yet, and I still have a bunch of other stuff to do until Friday, so...-"

„What kind of other stuff?", Dustin wants to know, sounding confused. „Over."

Mike sighs. „Well, if you need to know, Coach Nielson is making me write a 1000-word essay on team-spirit for Thursday. And anyway, this campaign is a total mess right now, I need another week to work on it. Over."

Then, he adds: „Hey, where's Lucas, by the way?"

„I think he's helping his neighbour in his garden again?", Will answers, uncertain.

„Don't try to change the subject, Wheeler!", Max grins, still caught up on something else.

„Yeah, why don't you tell us how the hell you got yourself into writing an essay about team-spirit for Coach Nielson?", Dustin comments, amusedly, „We're in the same class and I didn't even notice that!"

Another annoyed sigh. „So, apparently I was „trying to lose at dodge ball on purpose" in order to sit on the bench for the rest of the lesson. But that's not even true, okay? I just suck at dodge ball, it's such a stupid game!", Mike complains, while Dustin cackles.

„Okay, but you have to admit that it kind of makes sense for him to assume..-"

„Shut up.", Mike replies, exasperatedly. „Over."

„So, are we going to the arcade then, on Friday?", Dustin offers, once his laughter dies down. „I'm not really that packed with cash at the moment, though, guys. Over.", he warns, and Max silently agrees. Will probably does, too.

„How about we watch a movie at my place?", Will suggests. „Over."

„Which movie?", Mike asks, contemplating this.

Right then, Max' eyes fall over to her novel, the yellowish paper decorated by a green bookmark, the story still fixed in her head even after so much time. And suddenly, Max gets an idea.

„Hey guys?", she says, still unsure whether this will actually work, or not... But it's only Monday, and maybe this could be awesome...

„This is weird, but would it be okay if I tried to get a campaign ready for Friday, just this once?"

Silence. Complete, gobsmacked silence.

Then, Dustin answers. „Oh, ha ha. Very funny, Max."

„No, I'm being serious here!", she states, annoyed that he thinks it's a joke.

„Since when do you know stuff about D&D, Max?", Mike says, sounding almost a little snotty.

„I'm not talking about a D&D campaign, I'm talking about a mystery campaign. You know, with crime, and stuff. Ever heard of that?"

„Not really, what did you have in mind?", Will replies, sounding curious. That kid is far too nice for this party, sometimes.

„Well, it's basically just some game where everyone dresses up and gets a character discription, and stuff. A bit like with Dungeons and Drangons, but it would probably be more fun without pen and paper, I think. We just show up in custumes and so on, and then, during the course of the evening, a few things happen and we might have to solve a crime.", Max shrugs, rolling her eyes. „But we don't have to do that, if you freaks are so convinced I couldn't pull that off, or whatever."

„I think it sounds cool.", El says, shyly, and Max annoyance drops off a little. „Like in Murder on the Orient Express?"

Max laughs. „Yeah, a bit like that, but I'd probably think of our own plot instead. One we don't already know, El."

„We should definitely do that!", Mike proclaims, excitedly. Oh sure, now that El's on board...

„Let's give it a try.", Will agrees, sounding contented, and even Dustin offers an agreeing hum.

„Sure, okay. Over."

„Really?", Max says, starting to feel excited for this brand-new plan of hers, and even moreso at the fact that the others actually like it. „Okay, um, then I'll start to think of a story, and stuff. See you all tomorrow, yeah?"

Max puts the walkie back on her night stand, taking a deep breath while the others are still saying goodbye. She can't help but to grin. She has a lot of work to do, and it might be the nerdiest she's ever behaved, but this could actually be fun...


El is still laying in bed with her walkie, an excited feeling in her stomach and lots of questions about this new game in her head. But that all quickly becomes marginal, when her walkie buzzes, yet again.

„El? Are you still there? Over.", Mike says, his voice sounding muffled and distant again, until El focuses on it...

She also tries to isolate their frequence, making it less likely for the others to overhear them. Sometimes, El just wants Mike all to herself.

„Yes?", she replies, speaking raspily and with a smile on her lips.

„Oh, um, hey... I just, um, I just wanted to say goodnight."

„Goodnight Mike.", she replies, hoping that isn't all that he had on his mind.

„Er, so, what are you doing right now?", he asks, somehow sounding embarrassed. Mike can be strange, sometimes.

„I'm talking to you.", she replies, smiling. „And you?"

He chuckles. „Me too. I mean, I'm talking to you. Not to myself, that would be weird..."

„Mike?", she interrupts him, before he can get into another one of his ramble fits. He seems extra-nervous, at the moment, but El isn't sure why.

„Yes, El?"

„I was trying to do one of Nancy's chemistry exercises, but I'm not sure if it's right...-"

„Do you want me to come over and help you?", he offers, eagerly. „No, wait, it's already dark outside, my mom wouldn't like that... Maybe you can show me tomorrow at lunch what you mean? And then we can figure it out together?"

El feels her lips twitch, happily. „Okay."

It sounds like he's smiling, too. „Cool..."

It's quiet for a moment, and she waits for Mike to say something else. Eleven knows that he's thinking hard, maybe trying to find the right words for something, but there's only the sound of his breathing and that of her quiet heartbeat. And then, he sighs.

„Okay, I think I'll start with that essay I was talking about, then... Um, goodnight, El."

„Mike?", she says, fidgeting with her sleeve.

„Yes?"

„You're right."

„Huh?"

„Dodge ball is stupid.", she states, hoping he feels a little better now, maybe.

A second later, he laughs. „Oh. Oh! Yes, I mean, it sucks, right? I'm just not good at it.", he admits. „I'm kind of glad we're not in the same sports class, so at least you don't get to see me messing that up all the time."

El giggles. „Mike, it's okay."

He chuckles again, and something about the breathy sound makes El's insides flip.

„Goodnight, Mike.", she repeats, softly, wanting to hug him through the walkie, if that was possible.

„Night, El.", he says again, and then: „I- .. You..- You're really cool, you know that?"

Another giant flip in Eleven's tummy. „You're really cool, too, Mike."

„Bye, El."

„Bye, Mike."

She sinks into her pillows after they hang up. It always takes her a little while to calm down again, afterwards.


Tuesday noon starts off with potatoes, spinach, noodle soup and a tiny chance of chocolate pudding, wich certainly could be worse. Amazingly, that chocolate pudding part actually works out in the end, saving Dustin's day and making El quite happy, too. As well as the chemistry exercise Mike helps her with, a goofy grin on his lips when she finally solves it almost entirely on her own.

Lucas and Max share a smirk across the table, but don't say anything.

When Will finally sits, as well, once again being the last one at the table due to his confusing liking of the cafeteria's salad bar, Max reaches inside her bag and pulls an old, red binder out of its depth.

„So, as you guys now, I have a plan for Friday."

„Yes, we heard.", Mike nods, curious. „What, are you already done with all the planning?"

„No, but I'm already done with half of it, and I thought I might let you know. You all will have to do a lot of preparing as well, after all. Finding costumes, getting into character, I want you to take this thing seriously, alright?"

Dustin grins, looking excited. Lucas, who has been instructed about the weird plan just this morning, raises his eyebrows.

„You don't talk to any of the others at this table about the character cards I will now give to you, okay? Except for me, I'm the game master this time and you can ask me questions, if you have a problem. You talk to me, not to anyone else, understand?", Max makes clear, looking particularily at El, who eyes her innocently.

Dustin laughs. „Wow, I didn't know you could be so serious about some campaign, Max... Who's the nerd now?"

Max puts a piece of potato in his glass.

„Hey, what?", he complains, while Will snorts.

„So, you all ready?"

The boys and El nod, watching Max inquiringly. She continues with her speech.

„So, the year is 1929, and we're in Chicago.", the redhead starts, looking from one of her friends to the other. „You all are guests at someone's dinner party, but you'll find more about that out on each of your roll cards. And again, I expect you to stay in character for the entire evening, get it? You're costumes don't have to be perfect, but... Anyways, here you go."

She reaches across the table and gives each of them a folded piece of paper.

The cafeteria noise fades into the background, as they all start to read.

(to be continued)