"There it is fellas. Hawkins High School." Dustin said as they put their bikes into the rack in the parking lot. He grinned." You'll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy." he said, impersonating Ben Kenobi from Star Wars. Everyone laughed, but they all noticed that Eleven had a confused look on her face.
"What is a, "Star Wars?" she asked with a puzzled look on her face.
Everyone was bewildered at the fact she didn't know what Star Wars was. Dustin finally spoke up. "Wait, El, do you mean to tell us you've never seen the movie Star Wars?" She shook her head no. "Alright that settles it then. Mike, us 5 are having a sleepover at your place on friday, and we are going to watch all of them in a row, and teach her how to play D&D." Everyone nodded in agreement enthusiastically.
"Mike," Eleven piped up from behind him. "What is a sleep-over?"
"Oh, it's when you and your friends all stay over at someone's house and stay up late and talk and watch movies and eat junk food and play games. It's super fun. You need to ask Hopper about it first though."
Will added, "And if he says no, tell me and I'll get my mom to convince him. It'll be so much fun!"
Eleven still wasn't sure what the point of a "Sleep-over" was, but she could understand that the boys around her were overjoyed at the idea, and she felt her heart swell with happiness. Her eyes got teary and she drew them all into a hug. "Friends," was all she said for an explanation. And that was good enough for the boys.
Eventually, they let go of each other and walked into the school. Mike and Eleven had Algebra with Ms. Polonski, then all five of them had Science. It was supposedly a new teacher, and then they all split up for third period, then lunch, then Gym class, and then they all had English together.
Algebra was pretty uneventful for the most part. Ms. Polonski was nice enough, and she had been very nice to El, as she was the new student this year. Thankfully her hair wasn't actually blonde or else Troy or anyone else that had seen her two years ago might have recognized her.
They all met up in the hallway near the science room, and as they walked to class they talked about their first period. Apparently the math teacher Lucas, Dustin and Will had was a real asshole. He had already assigned homework and told them their first test was friday. They were very jealous of Mike and Eleven's teacher, as she had told them the first unit would take at least a week and half, and to not expect a test until then.
They were still grumbling as they walked into science and saw… Mr. Clarke?
He grinned at them. "Well boys, from your surprised faces I guess you haven't heard. I'm
happy to announce that I'll be continuing to teach you four in your curiousity voyage!" He then finally seemed to notice Eleven holding Mike's hand. "Or, I guess you five. And what's your name dear?"
Eleven reached to shake his hand like Hopper had taught her to do. "Jane."
"Oh, and such nice manners too. Did you just move here?"
Eleven answered like she had a thousand times before. Which she probably had done
during her practice with Hopper. "No, Chief Hopper adopted me over the summer and I'm just starting here now."
"Oh, well I'm glad you made friends with these boys so fast. They are some of the
smartest kids in the school, and most kind."
She glanced at them. "Yes, yes they are."
Science class was also uneventful. Troy sat in the back and couldn't answer a single question Mr. Clarke had. The boys at times still fought to see who could answer his pre-test questions faster, and Eleven surprised everyone by answering a few even the boys didn't know. Her tutoring sessions with Hopper must've been more through than anyone believed possible. After class had ended, they formally inducted Eleven into the Hawkins High School AV Club.
"Alright guys, I promised Max I'd go and meet her for woodshop." Lucas said before leaving the classroom and waving.
The rest of them left the classroom and walked through the hallways, each of them breaking off as they reached their respective classrooms. Finally, it was just Mike and El alone, and as they came to her classroom, she hugged him tight. "I'll see you in the lunchroom Mike, bye."
"I'll see you then El."
Eleven walked into her History class and sat down in the first vacant seat she could find, slightly near the back of the classroom but more towards the middle than not. There was a group of girls sitting next to her, and when she sat down, they looked at her but didn't say anything. They just started whispering and she thought nothing of it.
History was uneventful. They went over the class syllabus and what they would be studying throughout the year. The World Wars, American History, that sort of stuff. Finally the bell rang and she hurried to gather her things and put them into her backpack, as he was excited to see Mike. She swung her backpack around her shoulder and turned to leave but ran into the group of girls from earlier. "Oh, sorry. I didn't see you." She tried to get around them but the girl who appeared to be the ringleader stepped into her path again. Eleven looked up in bewilderment at this.
"So, you're the new girl here, "she sneered. "Who bought you that outfit?"
Eleven still didn't realize what was happening. "Oh, um, my dad did. His name is Hopper. Maybe you know him!" she smiled at them.
The girls laughed. "Don't you know those are so like 5 years ago? Where'd he get them? Goodwill?"
"Yes, I think so." she smiled again. "Now can I please get past? I need to get to my friends."
They all kept laughing, which was starting to confuse her. "Don't you know they look ridiculous, and your dad is the chief? You know he's a drunk and a drug addict right?"
Eleven started to tear up. "You obviously don't know my dad. He is a great papa to me. And all my friends said I looked nice."
The girl on the ringleader's left spoke up. "And who are your friends exactly?"
"Lucas Sinclair, Dustin Henderson, Will Byers, and Mike Wheeler. He's my boyfriend."
"Oh darling, those are all a bunch of weirdos. You know that right? But even so, you have a boyfriend? I'm sorry but you're not pretty enough for even weirdos to like you. Have a nice first day darling." The trio of girls left, and Eleven stayed where she was standing, tears quickly filling her eyes. Why had they been so mean to her? She had endured torture for failing to comply in the lab, but this was different. These were normal girls in a normal school. She quickly left the classroom at that point and walked into a courtyard area outside. She sat down at a table and began to sob as silently as she could. She had thought she was pretty, and that her friends were good ones. She still believed they were, but why would anyone say such mean things to her?
Lunchroom, Hawkins High School
Will walked into the enormous lunchroom. It was at least double the size of the one at Hawkins Middle. It was filled with a dull roar from the several hundred kids sitting around eating their lunches. He went through the lunch line as fast as he could, and then began to search out the rest of his friends. He wished he could get somewhere higher, as he was too short to see over many of the other student's heads.
"Hey Byers! Over here!" He looked around and saw Lucas waving him over. He was sitting with Mike, Max, and Dustin. He didn't see Eleven, so she must've been still finding her way to the lunchroom. It was a confusing school to navigate, that's for sure. He made his way over to the table and sat down. The rest of them were already horsing around. Max and Lucas were making jokes and playfully insulting Dustin while he fired back with insults of his own. Mike was laughing at them and Will joined in with him. They began insulting them as well and it sooned turned into a full on battle between Mike, Dustin, and Will versus Max and Lucas. In the end, they considered it a tie as they were all laughing too hard to continue with the play fighting.
When they stopped laughing, they realized that Eleven still hadn't shown up, and that the lunch line had ended, meaning she had either gotten her lunch and not been able to find them, or that she hadn't found the lunch room at all. Mike stood up and looked around for her roaming the lunchroom possible, but he saw no one that looked like her. He began to get worried. "Guys, what if someone noticed her and she got taken again?"
Dustin, always the voice of reason in the party, spoke up first "I wouldn't worry Mike. It's a big school, and she never even went to a small school, so she probably just got lost."
"Look, there's Mr. Clarke. Let's go ask him if we can leave early and go look for her."
They all quickly finished their lunches and strode over to the teacher.
Mike spoke before anyone else had a chance, "Hi Mr. Clarke. I was wondering if we could leave early and go look for Ele- Jane. She hasn't come to lunch and we think she might be lost."
He nodded in understanding. "It is a big school after all. Just don't be late to your next period!" he called after them as they had already run off in search of Eleven.
They walked out of the cafeteria and into the main lobby. On their right was the administrative offices and to their left and behind them were hallways leading to the math and science and history and english wings respectively.
"Alright, Lucas and Max, you two search the english wing, Dustin you take history, Will, you go look in the science wing, and I'll look around the math wing." They all nodded and ran off in their respective directions they need to go.
Max and Lucas went from classroom to classroom looking in through the windows for any sign of Eleven. They roamed through the hallways. Unfortunately, they couldn't call out for her because some teachers were still having classes. They got to end of the hallway and reached the gym where Max and Eleven had had their first interaction. Well, it hadn't exactly been an interaction, Eleven had just thrown Max off her skateboard when she had been talking to Mike and she believed that they had been "flirting" as Mike had called it when he had explained what they were doing the day after she had closed the gate. When they had all woken up and had breakfast, Max had finally asked why Eleven didn't like her. She had explained that she saw her and Mike together in the gym. Mike had taken her off to another room and had explained that they had just been talking. Just because she was a girl, he didn't feel the same way about her as he did about her. Eleven had then gone out and had given Max an apology, and the two had seemed to reconcile. At the Snowball, they had chatted about girly things, even though El didn't know most of them.
They checked out the gym and the bathrooms and hadn't found her, so they began to walk back over to the lobby. Over in the history wing, Dustin was having no more luck than Max and Lucas, he had checked all of the classrooms, even walking into the teacher lounge by accident. He finally checked the bathrooms,even calling into the girls one. Nancy walked out a few seconds later and gave him a strange look as to ask what he was doing. "We can't find Eleven, she's missing."
She nodded and wished him good luck before continuing back to class. He gave up before walking back towards the main lobby. In the meantime, Will had found nothing as well. He saw Mr. Clarke again and asked if he had seen or heard Jane anywhere, and he had said no. He reached the end of the hallway and sighed before turning back to meet up with Max and the guys again.
Mike had searched through the entire math wing, and had found… nothing. He hoped that one of the others had found her, as he was getting worried. He was walking back through the hallway when he passed by a door that led to one of the outside courtyards that was empty at this time of day. He glanced outside and walked past it before doubling back. There was Eleven sitting at one of the metal tables. He had no idea what she would be doing out there, but that wasn't the point. He walked outside and then as he got closer, he began to see her shoulders shaking and began to hear soft sobs coming from her. He ran over to her and sat down next to her, putting his arm around her. She leaned her head into his shoulder and flung her arms around him as she cried.
He finally spoke up when her crying started to slow down. "El, what's wrong? Why are you crying?"
She looked up at him with her big brown eyes filled with tears. "Some girls at the end of my math class stopped me and told me I looked ugly in my clothes. And then they all laughed at me and told me you and the others were weird, and that you wouldn't love me because I was too ugly." She began to sob even harder, and leaned into his arm once more.
Mike was heartbroken. Her first day and it had been ruined by a bunch of stupid girls. He even could guess who it was. Claudia Nadine and her two friends Julia Whipper and Hannah Ripley. They were the most popular girls in the school, or so he had heard from Nancy. She had told them they constantly put other girls down, most likely to boost their own self-esteem. Mike knew what she had told Eleven wasn't true, but she had never really dealt with other teens other than him and the boys, so the criticisms hit her a lot harder. He just held onto her while she cried.
Once she began to slow down again, he tilted her head up to look at her. "Listen El, that girl who told you those things, she just an asshole that feels the need to make other people feel bad about themselves."
"Asshole?"
He smiled at her, she was so innocent in some ways, but had also committed murder on the other hand. "A mouth breather, and don't repeat that word around Hopper or any adults, it's called a swear word. At the sleepover we'll tell you about them. "
"And watch Star Wars?"
"Yes, we'll watch that too. "
"Mike, you think I'm pretty right?"
He leaned down to kiss her. When he came back up, he said "Yes, El, I really do think you are the prettiest girl I have ever seen."
She smiled at him, "I don't think you or our friends are weirdos either."
He laughed, "No, all 5 of us are weirdo nerds, but that is the best kind of person to be."
She hugged him and wiped her eyes off. "Thank you Mike. I feel much better now. And I have an idea." She had a grin on her face that looked very devious.
He raised an eyebrow. "And what is that?"
"Remember when I made that boy pee himself two years ago?"
The same devious grin formed on his face as he realized what she was thinking.
They met up with the other 4 in the lobby, and when they had asked Mike where he had found Eleven, they had told the others what had happened, and they were all furious. Max had also had an encounter with them earlier in the day, so she told her she knew how she felt. They then told the others their plan, and they all agreed that it was the right course of action to take.
They all went to their last period of the day together and painfully sat through the hour, counting down the minutes until they could enact their mischievous little plan. The teacher, while nice, was paid no attention as they all whispered back and forth, fine tuning the details. They would have to do it either in the lobby or parking lot, as that was how the most people would see it happen. Finally, they were told to pack up, and as soon as the bell rang, they all were the first ones out the door as they ran to find Claudia.
After a few minutes of searching, they found her and her two lackeys hanging out by the vending machines, even better, she was talking to Harry Springs, who she adored. They all got close enough to see the action unfold, but far enough away that they wouldn't be noticed. As they all got into positions around the room, Mike nodded at El, and she started staring at the girl, her face slightly contorting as she channeled her powers towards the girl.
At first nothing happened, but then the girl froze and everyone looked at her strangely before a slight hissing sound was heard. Her pants were getting darker by the second as her bladder emptied itself against her will. Everyone was laughing and pointing at her, and Mike and the rest of them were high fiving as El worked her magic. Finally, the girl seemed empty, but Eleven didn't stop there. All of a sudden, the girl bent over, and the people standing next to her jumped even further away as a horrible stench filled the air. Everyone realized what was happening, and while some covered their noses and ran away, everyone else started laughing even harder at the girl. Finally, Eleven let go, and her, Max, and the boys all ran to their bikes, Max hopped on her board and started pushing alongside them.
After several minutes, their laughter settled down. "I can't believe that she made her shit himself!" Lucas exclaimed, chuckling.
Eleven looked at him strangely. "I made her poop herself, not shit herself. Shit is something Hopper says when he is mad at me."
Everyone laughed at this. "Yes, that is another one of those bad words I told you about." Mike explained. "It can be used like 'Oh shit, I forgot to clean my room' or as 'Oh, she shit herself' in the place of the word poop."
She nodded in understanding, and they peddled along, giggling at the faces Claudia had made. They all went to Mike's house and went downstairs to plan out their sleepover for Friday. Who would bring what snacks, who would rent the movies, etcetera, etcetera. Mike would get the movies and make sure everything was set up, Dustin would get all the best snacks with some help from Will. Lucas and Max would bring their happy little selves, along with extra pillows. Eleven's only goal was to get Hopper's approval to sleep over. Since it would be everyone and not just Mike, that would most likely help. And Joyce could always convince him.
After an hour, Hopper showed up to pick Eleven up. She hugged each other them goodbye, and gave Mike a kiss on the cheek. She walked outside and pushed her bike to the car. When she reached it, Hopper swept her into a hug. "So kid, how your first day?"
She smiled. "It was good Papa! I met all my teachers and everyone seemed friendly, but these three girls were mean to me." She could she his face grow dark. "But don't worry, Mike comforted me and made me feel way better. So it was a great day!"
His face softened and he smiled. "Well that's great to hear. I was thinking we could get some takeout for dinner and watch a movie, and maybe have some Eggos for dessert?"
She nodded and said that sounded good, and she hopped into the passenger seat. Hopper turned on some music and put the car in gear, and they were off. She leaned her head out the window and let the wind hit her face. She realized it would be better to get it over with sooner rather than later. She turned to Hopper. "Papa, today Max and the boys asked me if I wanted to join them for a 'Sleep-over' on Friday. They wanted me to watch Star Wars with them."
He frowned. "I don't know kid. A sleepover with Mike?"
"And everyone else. Mike is getting the movies, Dustin and Lucas are getting pillows, and Will and Max are getting some pillows and blankets. Why are you so worried about me and Mike sleeping in the same place anyways?"
He let out a little chuckle, "That will be a talk for when you are older kid. I guess maybe to celebrate you being allowed to go out in the world again, you can stay over. But you are not allowed to leave Mike's house. Understand?"
She nodded fiercely and gave him a quick hug. "Thank you! Thank you! Now I won't have to get Joyce to convince you. That makes it easier."
"Yeah, she would've forced me to. That women is a force to be reckoned with."
