Alternative Realities

Mileven. Mike wakes up to a completely different El and wonders what went wrong.

Chapter two

Mike woke up to the doorbell, jumping from his bed. He was lying in a strange position, still wearing his shoes and a pool of drool was visible on his pillow.

The bell rang again and the visitor seemed impatient. Mike turned his pillow upside down, smoothed his clothes and went down the stairs to open the door as fast as he could.

What he saw would have made his jaw fall on the floor if it were possible. Eleven was standing in front of him, hair much longer than he remembered she had, wearing a black dress, combat boots and lots of black makeup on her eyes. She reminded him of herself when she appeared at Will's house after spending a year hiding in Hopper's cabin. She seemed pissed at him, which has a first in all of the years they knew each other.

"It was about time, Wheeler! Were you sleeping or what?"

"… Well, I was sleeping. I didn't know you were coming over." He answered a bit embarrassed and shocked at her attitude.

"Did you forget about it?"

"About what?"

"The physics homework, idiot! Are you going to let me in or what?"

"Oh, sorry. But we finished that last week! It's due tomorrow!" He said giving her space and closing the door behind her. He was worried now, why was El treating him like that? Also, how could they forget about homework? She was always careful to study first for the subjects she wasn't very good at. She wouldn't have let it slip.

"Uh… no, we didn't. And don't worry, it'll be easy. Physics is mostly interpretation. Once we're over that, it'll be piece of cake." She smiled for the first time. However, it wasn't her normal smile, but it was a confident, much wider than her usual smiles.

"Okay. We can study downstairs in the basement. I'm going to get us something to eat; you can wait for me there." He said heading towards the kitchen.

"Uh… Michael?" She called and he came back quickly "yeah?"

"Where's your basement?"

"What?" He almost shouted this time, not believing his ears.

"I've never been here, Wheeler. Where is your basement?"

"What do you mean you've never been here? Of course you have!"

"Michael, we've known each other for ten years, but I never came here and you never went to my house. Are you crazy? Are you still sleeping?" She almost shouted too.

Ten years? No, it couldn't be. They were seventeen now. They met at 12 or 13 years old. It didn't make sense. She was pissed. He had never seen El so pissed before; he didn't even know she was able to be so angry at him. Still, what was she talking about? She didn't make any sense at all, from her long hair to her attitude, even the words she was speaking.

"Look, why don't tell me where the freaking basement is and go, I don't know, wash your face or something?" She said massaging her temples.

Mike gave up. He took her to the door and opened it, and she disappeared downstairs. He went to the bathroom and brushed his teeth, washed his face. The he grabbed his backpack; got a few snacks and put them in a tray with a jar of juice and glasses, and went to the basement too.

She was looking at the place as if she actually never went there. She read the books' spines and video tapes' covers, looking curiously at the blanket fort and brushed her fingers on the Millennium Falcon, clearly looking like she never saw it before.

He placed the tray on the table. Her notebooks were already out of her backpack. The cover showed a rock band and a label read Jane Ives in a delicate cursive handwriting that didn't look at all like hers, which was stiffy since she didn't have the opportunity to write a lot in the years she should have been at school.

Jane Ives? What about Hopper?

"Jane?" he called, the name feeling strange in his mouth.

"Hmm? Ah." She walked towards the table. "Your basement is very nice. I see why you wanted me to see it so much."

"I did?" He asked, not helping making himself look like a fool again.

"Yeah, you know, when you were talking about how we could do the homework here. When Mrs. Collins assigned us together."

"Oh." He pretended he understood, afraid she would be mad at him again. They always did their homework together, except if the teachers chose the groups, and then El would end up with some moron who didn't treat her and her usual questions like he did. But this girl didn't ask him a single question until now. At least not the kind of questions he usually got from her. She, actually, was giving him answers for the first time.

He bit the inside of his cheek, checking if he was dreaming, but apparently not. Maybe he was trapped in a reality where El was a normal girl and they weren't friends. He actually thought about these possibilities a lot, these alternative realities. After all, the Upside Down was real. Very much real.

Then he just decided to go along with it and enjoy this El while he could. It wasn't a normal behavior for this kind of situation from what he knew, but taking strange girls home on rainy nights wasn't exactly normal too.

Meanwhile, Jane was already sitting down while he was standing, looking at nothing and frowning. She didn't know if she was supposed to run away from him or if she could laugh at him, but she chose the latter.

"Did you see a ghost?" She asked playfully. He realized what he was doing and shook his head, sitting down.

She was really good at Physics and her handwriting was beautiful. He was surprised every time she stopped a few seconds to think about an exercise and came up with a huge theory about it, throwing her pencil around to show him the movement the objects were supposed to make, even explaining some exercises to him. She did the Math calculus silently instead of murmuring the concepts and counting on her fingers. She put her hair up in a bun with a pen and she didn't have the tattoo on her wrist.

They finished homework in record time.

"And we're finished! See? Piece of cake" She was a lot happier than before, smiling all the time. Her smile was really bigger than El's, like she was more used to doing it than… well, herself. From another dimension, maybe.

"Yeah, it was really easy. I didn't know you were so good at Physics."

"Well, I'm not used to brag about my grades, but Mrs. Collins says I'm one of the best in our year"

"Wow! This is amazing, El!" He said surprised and proud, forgetting who he was talking to.

"What did you just call me?"

"Jane. I called you Jane. There was something in my teeth, you know…" His voice got a pitch higher because of the obvious lie.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I don't need to know the details, Wheeler."

"Sorry."

There was an embarrassing silence between them and Jane finished her drink to fill it. Mike looked at his watch.

"So… it's still early. Do you want to watch a movie or something?" He asked embarrassed. It was already hard to invite El to this kind of things; he didn't even know how he got the courage to do it with this nerdy-punk version of her.

"Yeah, I guess. What do you want to watch?"

They sat down on his couch, sharing a popcorn in between them. Jane popped it, she had this crazy secret recipe and it was delicious. The movie was nice, she had never watched it before and looked as interested as El would.