They'd played for about an hour before they got bored and abandoned the game.

In his eighteen years of life, Steve was positive he'd never finished a game of monopoly... or heard of anyone else finishing one, either.

Now the kids were watching a movie -- well, at least, a movie was on, but they were mostly talking rather than watching it -- and Steve was in the small kitchen trying to figure out what to make the kids for dinner.

Over the course of the hour he'd been playing with the kids, he'd started feeling worse. He was doing his best to hide it, but as his headache worsened and his voice started to go, he wasn't sure how much longer he could keep this up.

He groaned a little as he looked through the limited contents of the fridge -- there were only a couple crappy looking TV dinners, and a few boxes of Eggos in the freezer.

"How--" the word came out so quiet and choked that the kids didn't hear him. He cleared his throat and tried again, "How's breakfast for dinner sound?"

The kids shrugged indifferently, except for El who was smiling and nodding enthusiastically.

"Eggos it is. Just remember my one rule," Steve said with a small smile, when she wasn't staring at him like the twins from The Shining, Eleven was one of the sweetest kids he'd ever met.

"Nobody tells Hopper," the kids all said in unison. Steve had never fed them a balanced dinner -- in fact it was usually just junk food -- but they all knew that if Hopper found out, then they'd probably be stuck eating shitty TV dinners, so they followed Steve's rule.

Dustin was watching Steve worriedly as he stood at the toaster making two whole boxes of Eggos for them. He'd noticed that Steve wasn't feeling well while they were playing the game. It's not like it was glaringly obvious, it was little things.

He'd been coughing a lot -- at first it seemed like nothing, I mean, people cough, right? -- but after the tenth time it became clear that he wasn't feeling so great.

So Dustin started to stealthily convince the others how boring the game was getting, and how they should watch a movie instead.

El and Will had also evidently noticed that Steve wasn't well, because they both kept giving him concerned looks throughout the game, and as soon as Dustin had started trying to end the game, they quickly jumped on board -- Max, Lucas, and Mike quickly following suit.

"...Something's wrong..." El said softly to the group.

"What do you mean?" asked Mike.

"With him," she said, looking over at Steve. Max and Will both nodded in agreement.

"He's sick," said Dustin.

"Sick?" El asked.

"Yeah," Dustin said, "You know, like when you have a cold -- you cough a lot and can't really breathe like normal and stuff?"

"He can't breathe?" she said, looking worried.

"No, no," Mike said, "You can still breathe when you have a cold, just not through your nose. --But he seems fine," he continued turning to Dustin, "What're you all so worried about?"

"He's sick, Mike," Dustin said, "Look at him."

"Why don't you like him?" Max said to Mike in a slightly accusatory tone.

"It's not that I don't like him. I just... I dunno. It's weird. He dated Nancy --and now he's our babysitter?" Max rolled her eyes.

"He did seem kinda out of it," Lucas said. Dustin nodded, "Thank you!"

"So what do we do?" asked Will. "Movie," said El.

"Yeah," Max said, "El's right. We should make him sit and watch a movie with us."

"If we're lucky he'll fall asleep," said Lucas, and the kids all nodded in agreement, though Mike still seemed skeptical.

While the kids were talking, Steve had finished making dinner and put a stack of waffles on the middle of the dining table with a stack of plates next to it, and a bottle of maple syrup.

"Food's done!" he called to the kids, who came over to eat -- El running in front of the group and taking a hand full of waffles from the stack, which made Steve laugh a little.

The kids each took a plate and some waffles and found places to sit, as the table wasn't big enough for all of them to sit at.

El and Mike sat across from each other at the table, Max and Lucas sat on the back of the couch, and Dustin and Will sat on the floor.

"Aren't you gonna eat?" Dustin asked looking at Steve, who shook his head a little, "Nah, I'm not really hungry." The kids exchanged glances and Steve gave them a confused look, "What?"

"Nothing," they all replied in unison. "What's with you guys to--" he was interrupted by a forceful sneeze, which only earned more concerned looks from the kids. He sighed, and sniffled a little.

"...Can we watch a movie?" Will asked.

"I thought that's what you guys were doing," said Steve, with a confused expression.

"A different movie," said Max.

Steve shrugged, "Hey, as far as I'm concerned, as long as you stay in the cabin, you can do whatever you want."