Mike picked up Eleven and carried her to Dr. Carter's classroom (something he wasn't strong enough to do a year before). All of them noticed that Eleven's nose was slowly bleeding until the pain subsided. They determined that without Carter's precision measuring equipment, there was nothing much they could do at the moment, so once Eleven was feeling better, she left with Mike.
Nobody else was at the bike racks by the time they got there, so Mike and Eleven were able to unlock their bikes in peace. Mike accompanied Eleven home to make sure she was OK, then he turned back and went back to his own house. The rest of the evening was pretty boring. Mike spent most of it in his room working on homework while Nancy talked with Terri one room over. Mike didn't talk much to Nancy before their whole ordeal with the monster, so he never really got to know Barb too well. Now though, he talked with Nancy more and found out that Terri was actually a really nice person. He was happy that Nancy finally found a good friend to spend time with.\
When Eleven got home, she decided to ask Joyce if going to the sleepover with Sarah, Lucy and Amy. Eleven was going to confess about the headaches she had been getting recently and ask if it was a good idea to go, but as soon as she mentioned a sleepover with other girls, Joyce just went on and on about how good of an idea that was. Eleven just decided to stick with that answer instead of getting Joyce worried about what had been happening to her.
The next day of school seemed as normal as ever. Dr. Carter was back to being an enthusiastic teacher which made everyone feel a little better. After chemistry class, they all stayed behind like normal. Carter locked the door, and then turned to the kids with a big weird smile on his face.
"They came." he said. He pulled out a bunch of boxes from behind the desk and began opening them like a kid on Christmas. He spent the next couple of minutes setting a bunch of big pieces of equipment out on the table and messing with the wires to get them all powered. The kids took out their lunches, sat down in some desks near the front, and began eating. It raised all their spirits to see the person they only knew as a serious secret agent acting so much like a child at the prospect that he got to use some new toys. After about ten minutes, he announced; "OK. Let's get to work."
Carter and Eleven spent most of the rest of the lunch period working while the others watched. Carter had Eleven do a bunch of things with her powers while he fiddled with knobs, read off some displays, and wrote things down. They went through a lot of tissues to keep Eleven's nosebleeds under control, but she never seemed to mind it.
"It looks like I have everything I need." Carter said. The others perked up at the thought that they might finally have something to give them answers. "I still don't know what the readings are going to look like whenever you get another one of your headaches so you need to tell me immediately when it happens again so I can calibrate for that." Eleven agreed, showed that she still had Carter's home phone number, then they all left the room just as the bell rang.
In History class, Eleven told the group of girls that she would be happy to go to the sleepover with them. They were all so excited and spend the remainder of the time before the bell rang jumping around and talking about how much fun it was going to be. Eleven was a little scared about spending a night with people that she didn't know too well, but then she thought about how nice they were to her and she just started feeling excited.
The rest of the week was uneventful. Eleven didn't have any more headaches (or 'attacks' as they had decided to call them because it seemed more descriptive of what they were) and there was nothing really special happening at the school. The high school had another football game on Friday, but it wasn't all that big of a game so they didn't have the middle school students come to the pep rally this time.
On Friday night, Joyce drove Eleven and a small bag of stuff over to Sarah's house for the sleepover. Eleven was still a little nervous about the whole thing, but Joyce insisted it was a great thing. They eventually pulled into Sarah's driveway after Joyce talked for the whole drive over about what to expect.
"Now, if you feel scared or decide you don't want to spend the night, that is no problem. I will be home all night and will always pick up if you call." Joyce said at the last moment to give her last bit of reassurance. Eleven appreciated that Joyce was willing to do so much for he, but at this point she was just anxious to go inside.
"I know, mom. Thanks for everything." Eleven said. Joyce immediately stopped talking and wrapped Eleven up in a big warm hug. Eleven saw no reason why she shouldn't call her 'mom'. She was the closest to a mother she had ever had and loved her for everything she did. Joyce felt a certain warmth whenever Eleven called her 'mom' and all she was able to do now was smile as Eleven picked up her bag and left the car.
Eleven pressed the button to ring the doorbell and was surprised how quickly Sarah got to the door.
"Hi! I am so glad you could come!" she said, giving Eleven a big hug. "Amy is already here in the basement, we're still waiting on Lucy." Sarah motioned to Eleven to come in and led her down to the basement.
"Elle!" she heard Amy's voice screech when she was about halfway down the stairs. Amy jumped up from the couch and pulled Eleven into her arms. All Eleven could think about was that Joyce didn't tell her how much hugging there would be at a sleepover. When Amy was finally done squeezing Eleven, she asked; "OK, so… what do you want to do?" Eleven thought back to the car ride over and all the things Joyce told her people do at sleepovers, but her answer was ultimately;
"Whatever you guys want to do."
"Let's just talk until Lucy gets here, then we can figure out what we all want to do." Sarah said. The doorbell rang as soon as she finished talking. "That's probably her now." Sarah quickly got up then ran up the stairs. Amy was quiet for a moment then started to talk to Eleven;
"So… where did you live before Hawkins?" she asked. Joyce and Jonathan had helped Eleven come up with a backstory to her life if she ever got questions like this.
"I lived in Indianapolis." she said, reciting her rehearsed reply.
"Oh cool." Amy said. Eleven was appreciating the attention from a new person, but not all that happy that all she could say about her previous life were lies and half-truths. "What was school like in the city?" Amy asked. She faced Eleven on the couch and began to smile a bit, which Eleven subconsciously mirrored.
"I was home schooled." Eleven replied. She was OK with this response because it wasn't entirely untrue.
"Well, whoever taught you certainly did a good job. You're kicking ass at school with us." Eleven smiled a little more than she already was. 'Kicking ass' was a phrase she knew well because of how often the boys (mainly Dustin) used it.
They heard the door at the top of the stairs open and Sarah descended with Lucy. There was a little more hugging then they all settled down on the couch to figure out what to do. There were a lot of suggestions, but they settled on watching a movie. After going through all the VHS tapes Sarah had, they eventually decided to watch Poltergeist. Sarah, Lucy and Amy were scared through the whole movie, but Eleven was never really found it too scary considering her real life experiences.
The film ended and they all tried to figure out what to do next. Sarah suggested that they all go up to her room and nobody protested, so they all went up the stairs. They got to the first floor and were about to continue up the stairs when the doorbell rang.
"Who could that be at 9 PM?" asked Amy.
"I honestly have no idea." Sarah replied. Eleven was a little scared imagining what it could be, so she got ready to use her powers to protect them despite the fact she wasn't supposed to use them around people who didn't know she had them. Sarah approached the door and slowly opened it revealing a very angry Troy holding a bicycle.
"Here." was all he said, dropping the bike on the porch. Sarah opened the door the rest of the way.
"So, what made you decide to be nice for once?" Sarah asked sarcastically.
"My parents made me give it back." Troy said, turning to leave.
"Well… you got the wrong house." Amy yelled after him. "The bike belongs to Lucy's brother. This is Sarah's house." Troy turned back, and stomped back towards the door more furious than before.
"You know, I tried. You could just say 'thanks Troy' and be done with it." He said angrily through his teeth. He turned around and marched off in a huff. Sarah was getting ready with something else to yell after him when Eleven collapsed.
"Are you OK?" Sarah asked, rushing over to Eleven.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Eleven lied. "This happens every once in a while. May I please use your phone." Sarah helped Eleven up and showed her where the phone was in the kitchen. The other girls decided to give Eleven some privacy and left the kitchen to let her make her call in peace. Eleven reached into her pocket and pulled out the piece of paper she always kept with her: Carter's phone number. She called it and the phone only rang once before it was picked up on the other end.
"Hello." came Agent Carter's familiar voice on the other end.
"It's El..." she wanted to say Eleven, but she thought that maybe the other girls could hear her and she didn't want them to question why she introduced herself as a number.
"You got another attack I'm guessing."
"Yes. How'd you know?"
"I have another set of equipment at home. Every one of the read-outs just spiked way up. Is there anything different this time?"
"No. Same as before."
"OK. If anything else bad happens, let me know as soon as you can." Eleven gave a small sound to indicate her understanding, then hung up the phone. She left the kitchen to find the girls standing in the hallway, looking concerned for her.
"Is everything OK?" Sarah asked.
"Yes." Eleven lied again. "It will go away in a little bit. I just need to lie down." The others all helped her up the stairs and let her lay down on Sarah's bed. Sarah was then surprised by something.
"Elle, your nose is bleeding." she said, getting a tissue. Eleven took the tissue and pressed it up against the blood.
"That happens." she said, trying her best to make the others not worry too much about her. "You could ignore me for a minute and decide what to do next. I will be better soon." Sarah decided there wasn't much she could do, so she agreed to what Eleven had suggested. Eleven closed her eyes and tried not to focus on the pain. Almost as soon as her eyes were closed, she saw a familiar sight. It was the Wheeler family having dinner. She saw that Terri was there eating with them. She saw Holly moving a lot as she told another one of her stories, but the person she wanted to see most wasn't there. She searched the image for Mike, but he was nowhere to be seen. The view of the image moved and looked down at a plate, almost as if it were from a first-person perspective. When that happened, Eleven saw Mike's shirt and realized she was seeing everything from his point of view. She smiled a little bit and allowed herself to relax a bit more. She became sad when the image began to fade and everything turned to black. The sadness turned to fear when she heard the voice;
"Come back to us Eleven." was all she heard. It was enough to startle her out of her trance.
Her sudden movement scared the other girls in the room and Eleven immediately apologized for it. The headache was almost completely gone, so she got off the bed and sat next to Lucy on the floor.
"Feeling better?" Lucy asked.
"Yes." Eleven answered, happy that she didn't have to lie this time. "What did you decide to do?"
"We're going to play truth-or-dare." Amy said, happy that Eleven could join in. Eleven had no idea what 'truth-or-dare' was, but she loved games so she was excited.
"What is that? How do you win?" she asked excitedly. The other girls laughed and Sarah took it upon herself to explain the game.
"Nobody wins. You just… play. It's fun." she said.
"Oh." said Eleven, a little disappointed, but still excited to do something.
"I'll go first." announced Amy. She turned to Lucy and said; "Truth or dare?" Lucy thought for a moment before saying;
"Truth." Amy and Sarah giggled a little bit then Amy started to think. She eventually came up with something to ask;
"If I gave you a million dollars right now, what would you do with it?" she asked. Eleven was wrapped up in interest by this game even though Lucy and Sarah were a little disappointed by how tame the first question was.
"This is probably going to bore you, but I would put it all in the bank." Sarah and Amy smiled at how typical of Lucy that was. She was always the most responsible of the group.
"OK, Lucy. It's your turn." Amy said. Lucy turned to Sarah and very dramatically asked;
"Truth or dare?" Sarah didn't have to think very long before deciding to try something new.
"Dare." she said, very confident in her choice.
"Do an impression of Abraham Lincoln." Lucy excitedly told her. Sarah spent the next minute reciting as much as she could remember from the Gettysburg address as well as coming up with some ridiculousness of her own. Amy and Lucy were laughing as hard as they could and practically rolling around on the floor. Eleven found it funny, but she didn't find it as funny as the others. Eventually Sarah was done and sat back down. She turned to Eleven and asked;
"Truth or dare." Eleven still wasn't entirely sure what 'dare' meant, so she said;
"Truth."
"Is there anyone at school you… like?" Sarah asked soon after Eleven chose 'truth'. Eleven thought this was a strange question so she replied with the answer she thought was obvious;
"I like you guys." The other girls started laughing a little bit and Eleven was afraid she had done something wrong.
"No… like… is there a boy you really like?" Amy attempted to clarify. Eleven thought hard about this. Of course there was a boy she really liked: Mike. She remembered Nancy's advice to not say anything around it around the boys because Mike might get embarrassed, but she wasn't around the boys. Eleven was worried that even though this wasn't technically going against Nancy's advice, if it was going against the spirit of the advice. But the one thought that won out in the end was that Eleven had promised to tell the truth.
"Mike." was all she said.
"Mike Wheeler?" Amy asked. "One of the boys you always hang out with?"
"Yes." Eleven replied while beginning to smile.
"I'm pretty sure he likes you too." Sarah said.
"I know he likes me." Eleven said, no longer afraid to withhold any information. "We went on a date." The rest of the girls got really excited about this and they all pretty much abandoned the game of truth-or-dare in favor of grilling Eleven about Mike. This went on for a little while until everyone was exhausted and they all decided it was time for bed.
