The idea for this story came to me after I saw a lookalike comparison between Finn Wolfhard and Lauren Mayberry- they could be twins. Thus, I started thinking what Stranger Things would be like if Mike had a twin sister, and now here we are. I've tried to stick as close to canon as I can without it being repetitive. The story takes place during season 2 of Stranger Things, with flashbacks to season 1 (flashback sequences are italicized). Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Rated T for language.

Faye Wheeler lived a normal life, with a normal family in the unremarkable town of Hawkins, Indiana. She had a mom, a dad, an older sister, a younger sister and a twin brother. She went to school, she liked to draw, and she played with her friends. Up until the age of 12, the most interesting thing to ever happen to her was when she and her brother Mike dug up what they thought was a dinosaur tooth in their backyard, but it turned out to be from an alligator. Aside from this, nothing untoward or unexpected ever happened.

Until the night of November 6th 1983.

The vanishing of Will Byers was all anyone was talking about. Phrases like Missing child didn't belong in the same sentence as Hawkins, Indiana. Things like that just didn't happen here. That was for the big cities and the movie screens. But it did happen. Will Byers had disappeared and nobody knew where he'd gone. Not his family, not the police, and not Faye- his best friend. As it turned out, Will's disappearance was the catalyst for a series of very untoward and very unexpected events. Ones which would prevent Faye Wheeler from ever describing herself as normal again.

***
December 1983

"Whoa whoa whoa, that's not it is it?" Dustin exclaims, voicing what everyone in the room is thinking.

Mike shakes his head "No there s a medal ceremony-"

"Oh a medal ceremony?!" Dustin cuts him off, words dripping with sarcasm.

"Yeah man, the campaign was way too short," Lucas chimes in.

"It was 10 hours!" Mike yells.

"But it doesn't make any sense!" Dustin insists.

Mike scowls at him "It makes sense!"

"You left so many plot holes!" says Faye.

Faye, Mike, Dustin, Lucas and Will have spent the last 10 hours embarking on a celebratory Dungeons & Dragons campaign- their first since Will had been found after going missing. Faye doesn't understand how every other girl her age doesn't like D&D- it's the best game ever. Even if her stupid brother messed up the story. She's just glad to have their party reunited.

The arrival of Will's brother Jonathan silences their bickering. Will gathers up his things and says goodbye as Dustin and Lucas start play-fighting. Just as Will leaves the room, Faye notices his watch still sitting on the table. She picks it up and hurries after him, narrowly avoiding Dustin's elbow hitting her in the face as she passes.

"Will! Wait up, you forgot your watch!"

Will is waiting by the front door, Jonathan having been intercepted by Faye's sister Nancy. He smiles when he sees her.

"Oh yeah, thanks" he says, returning the watch to his wrist. He then looks at Faye with a sheepish expression "Actually, I kinda left it on purpose."

Faye frowns at him "Why?"

Will opens his backpack and pulls out a folded piece of paper "Because I wanted to give you this. I thought the others might get mad because we did Secret Santa and you re not supposed to get anyone else presents."

Faye takes the paper, raising her eyebrows "Not like you to break the rules."

"Yeah but this doesn't technically count as a present because I didn't buy it," Will grins.

Laughing at his warped logic, Faye opens out the paper and sees it is one of Will's drawings. Of the group, she and Will are the only ones who really like to draw so it's something they often do together. This particular drawing is of them, the whole party, in various heroic poses. They're wearing capes in each of their favorite colors (Faye's being purple) and brandishing swords. It isn't until Faye gets to the last figure on the page that she realizes who it is.

"Is that..."

"Eleven," Will answers "Yeah. I wasn't sure exactly what she looked like, but I know you guys really miss her so I thought she should be in the picture."

At that moment Faye feels two contradictory emotions; a surge of affection for Will and a pang of sadness for her lost friend. The appearance of Eleven had been as unexpected as the disappearance of Will. They had found the strange, quiet girl out in Mirkwood and snuck her back to their house without their parents' knowledge. Faye is still impressed they managed to pull that off. While they had doubts at first, Eleven soon became one of them and helped them get Will back. Having grown up surrounded by boys, El was the first girl friend Faye ever had and she misses her terribly. Almost as much as Mike does.

"Thank you, I love it" Faye smiles.

Will shrugs, looking embarrassed. He always gets embarrassed at compliments "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas," reciprocates Faye. Spontaneously, she leans in and gives Will a hug. They aren't a particularly touchy-feely group, but sometimes, when the moment calls for it, a hug, a pat on the back or even holding someone's hand is acceptable. Will returns the hug and for the millionth time, Faye feels a flood of gratitude that she has her best friend back.

Jonathan clears his throat loudly and the two spring apart. Both of their older siblings are smirking at them "You ready Will?"

"Yeah," Will nods.

Something suddenly occurs to Faye "Hey, how did you know I'd be the one to notice your watch?"

Will laughs "I'll give you five dollars right now if Dustin and Lucas aren't down there fighting and Mike isn't sulking."

Faye joins in the laughter- Will is smarter than people give him credit for. She waves goodbye and the Byers leave, Will's drawing still clutched in her hand.

"Soo," Nancy singsongs "You and Will?"

Faye feels her cheeks flush, but two can play at that game "You and Jonathan?"

The smirk drops from Nancy's face "What? No he's, we're just friends."

Faye raises her eyebrows, muttering "Sure" under her breath as she goes upstairs to the bedroom she shares with Mike. Grabbing a pin from the desk, she puts Will's drawing up on the wall next to her bed- the newest addition to the collage of artwork already on display. As she goes back to join the others, Faye realises she hadn't denied Nancy's insinuation that she and Will like each other.

October 1984

The streets of Hawkins are aglow with candles and Jack-O'-Lanterns, and the town's Halloween preparations are in full-swing. For one small group of Middle Schoolers, there isn't a costume or scary mask in existence more terrifying than what they had come face to face with the previous year. However, they are doing their best to follow instructions and get on with their lives as best they can. And for a while, it seems to be working.

Faye, Mike, Dustin, Lucas and Will have been looking forward to Halloween even more than usual. Ever since they saw the movie Ghostbusters over the summer, they knew exactly what their costumes were going to be. There had been some dispute over who got to be who (Mike and Lucas fighting over the role of Venkman), but eventually they came to an agreement. Faye is to be Dana Barrett- the female lead- but her mother says Faye is too young to wear Dana's iconic, albeit skimpy, orange dress. Faye begged and pleaded for weeks, insisting that the only other female character was Janine Melnitz and there was no way she was being the boys' secretary. Eventually her mom relented, on the condition she would tweak the dress to "make it more appropriate."

With Halloween still a few days away, the party decide to spend an evening at the arcade. Faye had been saving up her allowance, but Mike had spent all of his on sweets, as usual. Faye watches in amusement as her brother pulls up each of the couch cushions searching for change.

"Why did you spend your allowance on candy when it's Halloween in three days?" Faye demands "We're about to get tons of it, for free!"

"Well what was I supposed to do until then?" Mike snaps, tossing aside the final cushion. Suddenly his face lights up and he dashes from the room, his footsteps thundering up the stairs. A minute later Faye hears a shriek that can only be Nancy, followed by Mike running back down. He reappears stuffing fistfuls of change into his pockets then grabs Faye's wrist.

"We gotta go!"

Mike pulls her through the house and out the back door as Nancy pursues them, screaming Mike's name. Faye frowns "Did you take her money?"

"I'll pay her back!" Mike yells.

The twins grab their bikes and jump on just as Nancy bursts through the backdoor. She runs after them for a few paces, but quickly gives up and settles for shouting "Asshole!" at Mike. Faye shakes her head.

"You are so dead when we get back."

"She'll have to catch me first," Mike retorts.

Dustin and Lucas are waiting for them outside the arcade and ' car pulls up a few minutes later. Ever since Will had been found, his mom barely lets him out of her sight. He isn't allowed to bike anywhere and he can't stay out after dark, even at weekends. Before, the group would do pretty much whatever they wanted and as long as they were back for dinner their parents didn't mind, but now Will's mom has to know exactly where they are, what they are doing and when they'll be home. Faye can't blame her really, they all thought they'd lost Will for good last year and none of them want to go through that again.

"What's taking so long?" asks Dustin.

"His mom is probably just making sure he's okay," Faye shrugs.

Eventually, Will gets out of the car and runs over to join them. Dustin hastily ushers everyone inside, desperate to try and beat the top score on Dragon's Lair- something he's been trying and failing to do for weeks. Faye bumps Will's shoulder playfully.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, my mom's just driving me a little crazy," Will admits.

Faye nods "Mine too."

"At least yours doesn't burst in on you while you re peeing because she didn't know where you were for two seconds."

Faye grimaces "My mom doesn't do that, but she did burst in on Nancy and Steve yesterday..."

Will's eyes widen "You mean?"

"Yep."

"Blurgh, gross!" he shudders.

"Steve was staying for dinner as well and my mom was just giving him this death glare the whole time, it was hilarious," Faye smirks.

Will laughs heartily and Faye smiles at how happy and relaxed he looks. It's a rare look for him these days. When he was first brought back from the Upside Down, everyone was so relieved and excited to see him that no-one really noticed anything was wrong. But after Christmas the worry crept in; if ever Will was too quiet, if he came to school with bags under his eyes, if he was even a minute late for class- they'd panic. Their brains would start going haywire and throwing out wild, ridiculous theories about Will's well-being, demanded answers to questioned they dared not ask. Is Will okay? Has he been weird today, do you think? Why does he look so tired all the time? He didn't finish his lunch, do you think he's sick? What if it happens again? What if the Demogorgon comes back?

Each and every one of them were guilty of it. Will knew it too, and he hated it. Faye could tell. They were essentially treating him like a baby, not like a friend. Faye tried extremely hard to reel in the over-protective instinct, to just go back to the way things were before. It wasn't easy, but she liked to think she managed better than the others. Maybe it was because she was a girl; her mom said girls notice things boys don't, that they're better at picking up on emotions. Maybe she was just better at picking up on Will's emotions. Whatever the reason, Faye is just glad whenever she sees Will smile, and even gladder when she is the cause of it.

The group do the rounds of their favorite games and are shocked to discover there is a new high-scorer in town by the name of MADMAX. Whoever they are, they've knocked Dustin off the top-spot in almost every game- much to his outrage. Dustin demands to know who this mysterious MADMAX is, but Keith- an arcade employee who is rude to everyone and never appears to wash his hair- refuses to tell them without something in return.

"No way! You're not getting a date with her!" says Mike when he realises what Keith is hinting at.

Lucas turns to him "Mike, come on just get him the date!"

"I'm not prostituting my sister!" Mike snaps.

"But it's for a good cause," Lucas insists.

Faye glowers at Keith "Firstly, Nancy already has a boyfriend. And secondly, even if she didn't, I have heard her call you creepy."

A grin stretches across Keith's face "So she talks about me, huh?"

"Unbelievable," Faye exclaims, throwing her hands up in resignation. Dustin continues to argue with Keith about MADMAX when Faye hears the door to the arcade jingle shut. She turns around and notices Will is missing.

"Mike," she whispers, not wanting to cause a scene. Mike glances over his shoulder and realizes what's wrong.

They look at each other with concern then head outside. Will is standing a few paces from the door with his back to them, staring off into the distance. He is unnaturally still, as if something has paralyzed him.

"Will?" Faye calls. Will doesn't respond.

"Will?" Mike tries. Still nothing.

Faye's heart jumps into her mouth. Mike shouts Will's name again, louder, and this time he spins around. He looks like he's seen a ghost.

"Are you okay?" Faye asks.

Will seems disoriented and keeps looking back out at the road opposite. "Yeah," he says eventually "I just needed some air."

Mike walks up and puts an arm around Will's shoulders "Come on, you're up on Dig Dug."

They escort Will back inside. Thankfully, Dustin and Lucas didn't even notice they left and are still trading insults with Keith. Will goes strangely quiet and Mike meets Faye's gaze with a worried expression. Being twins, they have learnt to communicate without words.

What do we do? Mike's eyes ask.

I don't know Faye shrugs.

Mike inclines his head towards Will Should we talk to him about it?

Faye shakes her head No, he won t like it.

"Will! You're up man!" Dustin announces "Let's show this MADMAX who really runs things around here."

In no-time at all it's 9PM and Will's mom is outside. They bid him goodnight and Will waves then gets in the car and drives off. The rest of them unchain their bikes and head home- Mike's question comes the second Lucas turns into his driveway and he and Faye are alone.

"What happened with Will?"

"I have no idea," says Faye "He said he just needed air."

"So why didn't he turn around when we called him?" Mike reasoned.

Faye frowns, trying to picture the scene again "It was like he was staring at something, like there was something out there we couldn't see."

Mike pauses "You don't think he saw the Demogorgon do you?"

"No," Faye answers immediately "Will's not stupid. If he saw that he would've told us."

"Well something's up," Mike states.

Faye can't dispute this, nor can she shake the uneasy feeling which comes over her.