A/N: Sighthounds are breeds of hunting dogs that primarily hunt by sight and speed.

Episode 2: Gravity

Act II: The Sighthound

"Mike! You okay?" Mr. Clarke sounded alarmed.

Mike couldn't answer because he had just managed to fall from his seat. He was then succeeded by Lucas who looked like as if he had seen a ghost. Dustin kept slapping the table and frankly, he was giving an encore. Will was laughing like a maniac.

Eleven had just walked into the class, and she looked absolutely gorgeous. Mike had seen different versions of Eleven in the past, the one with the buzzcut hair and boyish face, the one with the black eyeshadow and pulled back hair, the one with the 'Poofy' hair and fluffy cheeks, the one with the devil may care look and murderous intent, but she had never looked so beautiful as she was looking today. She wore a white shirt and blue jeans, and her hair was neatly tucked behind her ears with a hairband. She had no makeup but still looked stupendous, but the most distinguishing feature was a bright red spectacle that covered her eyes. Two streaks of red bars emerged from corners of the frame and vanished behind her pointy ears to make her face appear angular and graceful. Mike fell in love with the girl who could do the impossible, all over again, and then he merely fell from his seat.

He got up and twisted his face. Mr. Clarke eyed him suspiciously and introduced Eleven as the niece of Hopper. Her name was Jane Hopper, and she would be studying with them for some time.

Jeffrey was staring at the new girl as if she was his favorite ice cream. She was cute and looked nothing like the other girls in the class. She carried a certain sense of authority as if she knew that she could beat the shit out of every student, all at once. Not to mention her eyes that somehow mimicked the bottomless depths of a lake. But at the same time, there was a subtle feminine touch that pointed towards a soft and compassionate soul.

'She is just damn pretty.' Jeffry really liked her.

He flashed a wide beam at the new girl. He was confident that she could not escape the charm of Jeffry Sullivan, the guy who had taken Clara, the reigning beauty queen, to Snowball last year. But in a moment Jeffry sighed as he noticed that she was looking and smiling nervously at Mike Wheeler for some god damn reason. 'Must be freaked out by that alien.' He shouldn't have sat beside that loser today, 'Dude's unlucky as a mirror broken by a black cat.'

But to his delight, the girl got down from the pedestal and slowly walked towards him calmly and confidently. Jeffry flashed a wide grin, 'Still got it.' The girl came to him, stopped for a moment and then gently spoke, "Get out."

Mike fell from his chair again as Lucas buried his face in his hand. Dustin kept doing the drumroll, but now it sounded like the Apache war drums, and Will was pressing his hands against his mouth to control the laughter. Jeffry kept looking at the girl with sheer curiosity and then suddenly felt a pressure in his lower abdomen. 'Shit,' he got up to run away to the washroom. Eleven sat down on the chair and flashed a smile, "Good morning, Mike."

Mike could only stare in awe and didn't notice that the entire classroom was staring at him as if was a hero that had come alive from the legends. Mike didn't give a shit, he had enough problems in his mind. Eleven was a beautiful girl, and the entire class had every right to ogle her. That wasn't a problem. When it came to Eleven, Mike was so far ahead in the race that the competition wasn't even visible. The problem was that Eleven still didn't possess the necessary aptitude to function in human society. Mike was terrified about the prospective outcomes, but then the image of a small child flashed in his mind. He hardened his jaw. He'll guide her through this shit, or get expelled from the school in the process, 'whatever it takes.'

It was way past midnight when a light came to life in a cabin somewhere in the woods. Hopper moved his finger away from the switchboard and carefully assessed his surroundings. Eleven was fast asleep in her room, probably exhausted after spending an exciting hour with Mike. Tomorrow she would go to school and enter the next phase of her life. Hopper finally felt like growing old. He placed the package on the table and carefully made his way to a corner of the room. His past was buried down there, and it was finally time to visit them. The upside down or 'whatever it was this time' had started encroaching into this world again. The monster he saw tonight near the store was nothing like what he or the others had seen before. Hopper tried to imagine the abomination that he had seen only for an instant. It had long arms and legs and a long tail which hinted towards a lithe and fast body. The snout had inch-long fangs, and there were no eyes. But the creature could somehow feel its surrounding because it disappeared a moment after the flashlight streaked by the hood. Hopper needed better weapons. He crouched over a wooden floorboard, inserted a flathead screwdriver in the gap and gently pressed the handle. The floorboard came up in a smooth motion, and a large trap door appeared on the ground. Hopper caught the screwdriver in his teeth and yanked a metal ring that was resting on the edge of the door, it struggled a bit but then gave away to the determination. A man going back to his past was literally unstoppable because he knew his way.

He placed his hands on the edge and then slid the lower part of the body into the hole. Then he let go and fell amongst a bunch of boxes and files with a loud thump, 'I'm getting too domesticated for this shit.' He fumbled to find the flashlight and after a moment clicked a button that gave birth to a small circle of yellow light. He flashed that circle around to find his way and slowly went to the back. He stopped as the ring illuminated something lying on the floor. Hopper bent over and lifted a heavy bag from the floor. He needed a big fucking gun to deal with the shit that was sitting on his van tonight, and he knew just what the doctor prescribed. As he was about to open the chain, his eyes fell on a box lying on the rubble, and suddenly a curtain lifted from his eyes. He dashed to the box, yanked the lid away and took out an old file. It was covered in dust and grime. Hopper opened the file and sat down as his feet gave away, 'It was right in front of my eyes all along.'

Hopper took out a photograph from the file and held it under the flashlight. It was a picture that nauseated him even to this day. It was a picture of a small girl. He was the one to have found her body in a ditch near an abandoned warehouse near the docks. The first time he had seen the body he promptly threw up. He was about to do the same today, but his empty stomach saved him. 'The Director' was a curious piece of monstrosity, he would abduct his victims along with their families. Then proceed to murder one spouse in front of another, then kill the other one and then kidnap the child. He would hold the children for a few months and then murdered them as well. The police never found the reason why. But they noticed a strange time lag. 'The Director' would only hold the children between three to five months before murdering them. It didn't make any sense. Hopper grimaced, 'Until today.'

Mike was thinking about the girl who was sitting beside him and devouring the knowledge that was radiating from Mr. Clarke. He was hoping that Mr. Clarke wouldn't remember the cute girl who hated Sweden and didn't speak much. Mr. Clarke turned towards the blackboard and started writing down some puzzles. Suddenly a piece of crumpled paper appeared out of nowhere and headed straight for Mr. Clarke's head. Mike watched in amazement as the paper flew towards Mr. Clarke in a lazy arc and then violently crashed against some invisible shield and went sideways. He gasped and looked at Eleven, her eyes twinkled, and he felt the air getting heavier. Before Mike could catch Eleven's arm, there was a loud crash behind them. Mr. Clarke turned around and saw another one of his students tumbling in the ground.

As soon as the bell rang, Mike jumped up from his seat, went to Eleven and grabbed her hand. Jeffry was trying to return to the classroom to get his bag. But like every time since that morning, he bent over as soon as he entered the class and ran away in haste. His intestines had waged war on him and won't let him leave the washroom. Mike lowered his face and whispered something in Eleven's ear, then she got up and resigned her seat. The jaws of almost every student in the class crashed as Mike Wheeler, the biggest loser in Hawkins high, dashed out of the room with the hot girl in his arms, and she went giggling as if she was his girlfriend. Mike ran with Eleven as the guys followed close behind. They made their way to the staircase in a breathless run, and after reaching there, Mike hugged Eleven in a tight embrace.

"Dude, I mean seriously. In the school?" Dustin was never fond of couples. Lucas just shrugged. It wasn't so awful, he would've done it. Will winked at Eleven, and she smiled at him.

"Eleven? You came to school?" Mike hated surprises, but this one was turning out to be fantastic.

"Yes."

"I…. You…. The specs?"

"Hopper said that it'll hide my face." Eleven was cheerful. She liked her new specs.

"You look amazing. I love the glasses."

Eleven didn't respond but looked at Mike's shirt, she was already blushing at that point. Then Mike let go of Eleven, and the gang swarmed around her. She kept laughing as the guys hugged her and squeezed her hands. Mike stood back and watched the scene with satisfaction. Eleven needed friends and those three were the best the world had to offer. Dustin was jumping in excitement, "What cool things can you do now? Did you do Jedi mind training while you were gone? Can you read my mind? No, shit, wait."

Lucas objected, "Dude, she is not a toy."

"Can you shoot laser beams from your eyes?" Dustin wasn't ready to give up so quickly.

Eleven just smiled and shook her head sideways. Then she thrust her hand forward. Mike felt the air getting heavier and, in a moment, a set of loud bangs indicated that all the doors of the stairwell had been closed all at once. Eleven rotated her fist, and all the locks turned with a cacophony of clicks. Then she opened her palm and gently lifted it upward. The ground moved away from their feet as all of them floated in the air. Dustin cried out in excitement, "Son of a bitch. We're all flying. WE ARE ACTUALLY FLYING."

Will laughed as Lucas kept trying to turn upside down. Mike smoothly glided upwards. They were still hovering a few feet above the ground, but they didn't feel any weight at all. As if the gravity in that area had been turned off. They were literally having the time of their life. Then someone banged the door above them, and Eleven brought them down slowly.

Dustin started jumping as soon as he landed, "That was so awesome. You can actually make us fly. We can have our own superhero team."

Mike came to Eleven and gently wiped the drop of blood that was dripping down from her nose. She had gotten really powerful over the last year, a power of this level would have resulted in a gush of blood before. The door on top of them opened, and a group of students came inside the stairwell. They look dumbfounded because they had no idea what was holding the door closed until then. Mike grimaced, the power was all good but pushing her beyond a limit could still bring out the doppelganger. He needed to solve the puzzle before time ran out. But for now, her powers have to be limited.

"Okay, we need to talk."

Mike sighed and put his arms on Eleven's shoulders,"You cannot use your powers in the school. People will notice. That's a problem because if they see a basketball hanging above the hoop, they might call the police. If they call the police, Hopper will come. Then he'll put me through the hoop and take you back. He'll never let you back in the school. Do you understand?"

Eleven was listening to Mike with complete attention. The others were feeling a bit nervous now. It had been a lifetime since Mike had scolded Eleven and she had grown up a lot in that time. But then Eleven smiled at Mike, "Okay."

'Dude's a fucking wizard!'

Mike looked at Eleven in the eyes and spoke softly, "Now that you're here, I'll rather be with you as long as possible. So please, for the sake of both of us, do not use your powers, please." Eleven nodded furiously and smiled back at Mike.

The others were already trying to suppress their laughs by that time. 'Look at those two! Yuck!'

Then suddenly Eleven clutched Mike's hands tightly, and a cold fury started raging in her eyes. A girl with fiery red hair had entered the staircase above them. '

'She had skipped the first half.'

Max came down the stairs and stood in front of the girl who was about to declare war on her, and no one knew why. Mike groaned, today will be a long day. Max didn't flinch in front of the approaching tornado. She was a girl, and she could see the signs that the boys had missed.

She addressed Eleven softly, "It's about Mike, isn't it?"

To the boys' amazement, Eleven nodded, "You want him."

Mike suddenly felt like Steve, two girls were fighting for him in the school, 'Come on Kingdom.' Then he remembered a man whose jaw was moving sideways on its own and swallowed, 'SHIT.'

Max thought for a moment and smiled, "You came to school on the day I was riding my skateboard around Mike in the gym."

Mike recalled that day vividly and buried his face in his palm, 'What is this? A cheesy soap opera produced by Fate? The girl manages to run away from prison to find her soulmate. Sees him with another girl who just happened to be hanging around for no good reason. Draws the wrong conclusion and runs away? Even I could write a better script to delay the reunion.'

Max started laughing heartily, "It was nothing like that. I was just trying to impress him, so he would stop acting weird and accept me in the party. I was never interested in him in that way."

Max placed an arm on Eleven's shoulder, "And you know why he was trying so hard to keep me out? Because he thought I was trying to replace you."

Mike wanted to die from shame if that was possible, 'Dear God, I was such an asshole.'

"People often do that when they care so much for each other," Max smiled at Lucas.

"Mike belongs to you, and you belong to him, Eleven. I promise that he's just my friend."

Max had a way of telling the truth, she grinned at Eleven, "You're the only one who's more than his friend."

Eleven looked at Mike with a rush of questions in her eyes. Mike grinned at her and squeezed her shoulder, he only wanted to be with Eleven. She breathed a sigh of relief and held her hand in front of Max, "I'm sorry."

Max clutched her hands tightly and grinned, "Wanna learn how to ride a skateboard?"

Hopper moved his flashlight around the box and found a photo frame. He picked it up and blew away the dust. Then he held it under the torch and smiled, 'Jim Hopper was not always a small-town cop.' A lifetime ago, Jim Hopper was the name of a vicious greyhound in NYPD. He was smart, he was a war hero, and he was determined. He was like a hound on the trail of its hunt, and he would never let go once he set his sights on the prey. His latest target was a serial killer who was, in all respects, an anomaly. He remembered a session that he attended in Atlanta that was taken by some head honchos from FBI BAU. They had talked about patterns. They said that humans were straightforward complex machines. Humans would often behave in random ways, but to achieve that randomness they would have to follow a pattern. This was especially true for serial killers when a serial killer would go the extra mile to showcase a random behavior, he would have to think hard to follow a strategy to achieve that feat. 'The Director' was a murderer who would kill people at random times at random locations. The police were never able to find a pattern, and they were going batshit insane to discover any little breadcrumb.

Hopper first heard the term coffee and contemplation after joining NYPD. There was a long history behind it. He was going through the newspaper one day and suddenly noticed a small poster for a theatre that hosted some obscure play which no one watched. He saw a short text that was inscribed below the banner.

'Play timings for this month will be notified once we have received enough interest. Please confirm your slot by calling the following number.'

It was a mundane poster. Theatres like these were on the verge of bankruptcy as the crowd slowly got pulled towards moving pictures on the screen. They could not afford to host plays regularly, so, they requested the patrons to notify the theatre about possible dates when they would be able to visit. Once enough interest was generated it would then host the play on the date with the most attention. Hopper sipped his coffee and started thinking hard. There was something about the past dates that were written in the poster.

Suddenly, old Martha walked in while shaking her head, "Those bastards. They'll let a random person select a random bunch of numbers to decide the winner. How's that fair? What if that guy's unlucky for me? I never win anything." She crumpled a lottery ticket and threw it into the dustbin.

She dropped a file at Hopper's desk and grumbled, "Hopper? You listening?"

Hopper was humming a tune.

"Would you stop contemplating over coffee and look at these files? They found another body today. Chief wants you to go take a look asap. It's quite horrible this time."

In a moment, a light bulb flashed in Hopper's mind, 'Theatre,' 'Director,' 'No fixed dates,' 'Random dates selected by patrons.' The best way to pick a random pattern would be to select a random group of people to generate the pattern. It was a long shot, but it was all they got at the moment. He got up, kissed Martha and ran towards the room where Alex sat. Tthe old geezer was a passionate follower of obscure plays.

It was lunchtime in Hawkins Middle School. Mike came down to the cafeteria with his friends. Eleven was walking right beside him. She kept looking around the big hall with amazement in her eyes. She had spent most of her life either locked up in the lab, or hiding inside a tent made of blankets, or lost inside deserted woods or locked inside a cabin. To her, this was the grandest view she had ever had, except Mike, he was still the best. Before leaving the staircase, she had asked Mike to hold her hand while they walked around the school. For some reason, the others started laughing as Mike's face went red and he started stuttering. Eleven felt worried, was Mike sick? But then Mike told her that it was not usual to hold hands inside the school, but he promised that he would not leave her side. So, they started their grand tour of the school. They visited the old classroom where Eleven had embraced her destiny and said goodbye to Mike. The boys were unable to look at the wall where she had pinned the monster and destroyed it along with herself. She held their hands together and assured them that she'll never leave them again. Then they made their way to the stadium where Eleven had used a makeshift sensory deprivation tank to find Will.

She reached the bench and looked at Mike, "This is where you asked me to go to the Snowball with you."

Mike felt alarmed, what if she told the guys...

"You also kissed me here for the first time."

'SHIT', Mike looked at the gang from the corner of his eyes. Max was laughing, but the rest of them seemed like they had just discovered a scandal. Then a multitude of voices rang in the air;

"You sly fox. While we were fighting for our lives, you were sucking her face?"

"Eleven didn't get food, Lucas. She was hungry before the monster took her. Of course, she didn't get any food. You were fooling around with her."

"I was stuck in the upside down, and the demo-gorgon was pushing a pipe down my throat. And you were asking her out to the Snowball?"

They were all laughing, the nightmares were over, and the hardships seemed like yesterday. Mike joined them, and all the pain and suffering vanished in a gust of wind.
Eleven was still taking in the sight around her. Suddenly she felt a tinge of hunger in her stomach. She thought about telling Mike, but he was so excited to show her around, she decided to let it go for now. She had received training in the lab to suppress her hunger and could go on for a long time without food. Mike suddenly stopped and looked at her earnestly, "Eleven? Are you hungry?"

Eleven was shocked, 'how did Mike know?'

"It's okay Mike."

"No, it's not. You're hungry, and we're going to the cafeteria right now." Mike gripped her hand and dragged her towards the staircase.

That's how Eleven found herself in the cafeteria, waiting in line for food. She kept looking at Mike's face. He appeared healthy, but something was wrong. She could feel it but had no idea what. They took the food and started searching for a table. Eleven saw an empty table by the window and moved towards it. She reached the table and sat down on a chair, leaving a space beside her for Mike. She turned around and saw them hanging at the back, still waiting with their plates. They looked concerned, Mike looked like as if he was preparing for the end of the world. Eleven had no idea what was happening, but she waved her hand towards them and flashed a smile. Suddenly there was a thump at the table. She gently turned around and came face to face with a group of large boys and a mean looking girl. One of the boys moved towards her and shouted, "Who the fuck do you think you are? You have the guts to sit on our table? Don't you know who we are? Leave now."

Eleven remembered what Mike had told her about using her powers, she decided to get up and leave. But suddenly the nice-looking professor from the class came from nowhere and stood in front of the boys.

"Uh... Mr. Clarke... Sir."

"You want to drag this further? All the way to detention for four consecutive weekends?"

In response, the boys ran away from there. Mr. Clarke smiled at Eleven, "Jim told me to check up on you. He was scared that others may try to bully you. He requested me to keep an eye out for trouble for the first few days. So, if anyone bothers you again, please come to my office."

The gang arrived and proceeded to take their seats around the table. Before leaving, Mr. Clarke suddenly asked Mike, "Jane reminds me of that cousin of yours who came to school last year. Eleanor, right? How's she doing?"

Dustin answered the question because Mike had suddenly lost the ability to move his jaw muscles. Then Mr. Clarke left, and they started eating. Mike had a distant look on his ace, and Eleven began to feel worried, 'What is wrong with Mike?'

Max had gone to get some beverages. She came back to the table and placed six cans of coke on the table. An image flashed in front of Eleven's eyes and her face twisted in pain. She remembered the cold white room, Papa giving her instructions on how to use her powers and the man in white clothes who had hit her with a metal rod that started a fire through her body. She nearly gagged and was about to turn her face away when Mike picked up the can and threw it out of the window. Others sitting on the table watched in horror as Mike picked up every can and threw them through the window one by one. Then he placed his palm below Eleven's right ribcage and gently whispered in her ears, "It's okay. They didn't know. I'll tell them. Please don't be hurt."

His voice was shaking.

Eleven was shocked, she had never told Mike or Hopper about the test with the coke can, 'How did he know? How did he know where the man in white clothes had hit me with the metal rod? Why is he crying? And why is he hugging me so tightly now?'

Eleven gently placed her hands on Mike's shoulders while he hugged her in front of the entire cafeteria. Eleven was worried, she needed to ask Mike a question. She was sure that he wouldn't lie, but she wasn't sure if she was ready to hear the truth. 'Does Mike know who I really am?'