Hi everyone!

Thank you all for your comments, I love reading them. They keep me motivated to continue writing. I'm glad I'm not the only one who loves Stranger Things and Riverdale :)

Enjoy!

...

Mike's POV

It's now been 2 months since Will Byers went missing. This mystery has shook the town of Hawkins more than anyone could've anticipated.

But Will wasn't the only thing Hawkins' had lost; the movie theater, The Hawk, where I work, my home away from home, one of the most favored spots in town, is being shut down. Just when everyone needed a place to escape to the most.

Chief Hopper spent his days knocking on doors trying to figure out what happened to Will Byers. Friends began turning on each other and Hawkins was starting to become a place of accusation and resentment.

And meanwhile, the girl next door, Eleven Hopper, with her dark brown curls, was struggling with the realization that her good friend Lucas Sinclair was caught up in a forbidden romance with none other than Will Byers' girlfriend.

...

El paced back in forth in her room thinking about what Callahan had said the day before. She didn't want to understand why Jennifer and Lucas were in the woods, but deep down she knew. As much as it pained her to admit, she knew that they were together and why they had both lied.

Lucas had also been one of Will's closest friends and despite what he must have felt for Jennifer, he still felt the guilt for betraying one of his oldest friends.

She had to find out for herself, she knew Lucas wouldn't lie to her.

...

"The Hawk closing is just another nail in the coffin that Hawkins is becoming. No, forget Hawkins, the coffin of America!" Mike vented as he, El, Max, and Dustin sat in a booth in Benny's later that night. El, though she was sitting next to him, wasn't paying attention to what he was saying. Too deep in thought of what she would say to Lucas the next time she saw him.

Mike continued to vent despite the lack of interest. "As the god of cinematography, Quentin Tarantino would say-"

Dustin cut him off, "Mike, quit it with the Tarantino references!"

"Look, I'm pissed, okay?! Not just about losing my job, the Hawk should mean something to all of us, right? We should try to save it!"

Max rolled her eyes. "In a world with Netflix and Hulu, are people still going to drive all the way to see a movie? Who even goes there anymore anyways?"

"Drug dealers," Dustin said.

Mike cut him off, "And cinema files, writers, film critics, right El?" Mike turned to El, who looked up at the sound of her name, the nickname she had almost forgotten was given to her by Mike 4 years ago.

"Yeah, right," she said lamely.

"Anyway, it's only closing because the town decided not to invest in it, until an anonymous buyer made an offer the town couldn't turn down-"

"Wait, an anonymous buyer? What are they trying to hide? Who cares?" Max interrupted.

Mike glared at her. "I do! Also, you guys should come to closing night on Saturday. I'm thinking of playing Pulp Fiction, or is that too obvious of me?"

"I vote for anything not having to do with Star Wars," Max said earning an eye roll from Mike.

"Ooh! What about Star Trek?" Dustin smiled. He looked at El, who was looking at her food. "What do you think, El?"

El looked up at them and blinked.

"Are you okay, El?" Max asked.

"Oh, yeah, I'm just thinking...How about The Godfather?" She suggested looking to Mike.

Mike looked at her and smiled, appreciating her taste in good movies.

Susan came over and gave them their milkshakes they ordered and they all thanked her.

Jennifer Hayes, who was sitting in a booth by herself, watched with a glare. When Susan came to take the money, she spoke up.

"Make sure all this money goes into the register. You are married to Neil Hargrove after all and we know how much money he stole."

Max, who had heard the exchange, stood up and started walking over.

Susan put a hand up to stop her. She took the money and walked away, leaving Jennifer satisfied.

Lucas and his father walked into the diner and sat down in the booth with Jennifer. Dustin noticed them first.

"That's a weird combination of humans."

El and Mike who were facing away from them turned around and she gaped at them.

"I'll be right back," she said and stood up.

Mike tried to grab her arm and stop her, but she was too fast. "El, stop, don't."

"What just happened?" Dustin asked.

She ignored him and walked over to the booth. She greeted Jennifer and Mr. Sinclair and then turned to Lucas.

"Can I talk to you outside, Lucas?"

Lucas avoided eye contact. "Uh...Can I call you later?"

"No, it has to be now. Just a school question." She turned and walked outside with Lucas behind her. Mike watched them with a concerned expression.

"Lucas, you know you're my best friend, so is there anything you want to talk about?" El questioned him.

Lucas shook his head. "No, I don't think so."

El sighed. "Jennifer was in the woods with some guy the night Will disappeared." Lucas looked down. "Were you the guy she was with?"

Lucas looked up at her. "Mike told you, didn't he?"

El blinked at him confused. "Wait, Mike knows about this?"

Meanwhile inside, Dustin, Max, and Mike were looking out of the window watching the interaction.

Max spoke up, "What's going on out there? Do we know? Am I involved?"

Mike slumped in his seat. "I have a feeling..." He rolled his eyes. "Also no, and please don't get involved."

Max stood up. "Too late, I need to check on them. I'll be back." She walked out of the door to where Lucas and El were standing talking.

"It's not what you think," Lucas explained.

"Oh, so it's completely platonic then?" El challenged.

Lucas sighed. "Well, I guess it's a little bit of what you think-"

"Lucas, are you and Jennifer...together? Romantically?"

"Oh my god. You and Jennifer Hayes, Will's girlfriend, are a thing?!" Max said. Lucas and El turned to see her walking towards them.

"We are...together, look this seems bad but-" Lucas tried to explain.

"Bad!? That sounds scandalous," Max said.

"It sounds like cheating to me! She was Will's girlfriend!" El exclaimed.

"El, stop-"

"No, Lucas I won't stop!"

Lucas turned to Max. "Max, back me up here."

Max shook her head. "No, I'm with El on this one. She was cheating on Will, one of your best friends, and then you lied about it! What is she to you anyways? Your girlfriend...? Booty call?"

Lucas rolled his eyes. "I don't know, okay? I don't know what we are."

El spoke up again. "You said you were alone in the woods. You lied to my dad, to all of us! Why would you protect her?!"

"She believed in me when no one else did!" Lucas yelled.

El looked down at her feet.

Max rolled her eyes. "Forget it, Lucas."

He ignored her. "El, talk to me."

El didn't say anything as her mom's car pulled into the parking lot.

"Let's go, El. Now," Terry said.

El shook her head at Lucas and walked over to the car and left.

Lucas turned back to Max, who was shaking her head.

"Oh, Stalker. You're in deep shit now."

Jennifer walked out of the diner not making eye contact with Lucas. She got into a car, where some of her friends were sitting. As she turned to put on her seatbelt, she saw something on the side of the building.

Susan Hargrove was arguing a man, who was wearing a leather jacket, with the symbol of the local gang, "The Demodogs."

She smirked and took out her phone to take a picture. "Well, well. Looks like Mrs. Hargrove is hiding something after all. Why else would she interact with a lowlife member of the Demodogs?"

Back at her house, El furiously wrote all of what just happened in her notebook, unable to control her emotions.

...

The next day at school, Lucas frantically searched for Mike before finding him handing out flyers to save the movie theater.

"Dude, how hard would it have been to give me a heads up about El?!"

Mike sighed. "Look, dude, you know me. I've always been a conscientious objector. Not saying anything to you or El was the best decision I could make to protect you."

"She's not gonna write about it in the Blue & White, is she?" Lucas asked nervously.

Mike rolled his eyes. "Seriously? El would never do something that would actually hurt you, even if there was just a chance."

Lucas relaxed and nodded.

"Probably," Mike said.

"Oh my god!"

"Dude, calm down, I'm joking. She might have a point though. What do you think is going to happen long term? With Jennifer?" Mike reasoned.

"I want to be with her, Mike. I just don't know how, but I'm going to hold on for as long as I can."

"I understand that," Mike said as he hung up a flyer about the theater. "Trying to hold onto something for as long as possible that you care about? It's tough."

"Just please let me know if you think El is going to do something crazy," Lucas said.

...

"Thanks for meeting with me, Jennifer. The Blue & White is doing a series of articles on all of the cheerleaders and since you're the captain, naturally, you're first!" El said as she sat with Jennifer in the Blue & White Office.

"Of course, El! Anything to get my name and picture to get in the newspaper," Jennifer said, excitedly.

"Let's get started, you've been a cheerleader for 3 years now, that's impressive! And it says you've also helped out with the football team?"

"Yeah, my good friend Steve Harrington and I worked on a program to get the football team and cheerleaders to work together last year," Jennifer explained.

"Lucas Sinclair's football team?" El asked with a polite smile.

Jennifer's smile faltered. "Well, I suppose since he's on the team, yes."

"He's cute, right?" El smiled.

Jennifer frowned. "I'm still grieving Will, honey. Lucas is a great friend, but nothing more. I don't see how this has to do with your article. I'm leaving." She stood up and walked out.

...

Dustin and Max sat in the student lounge together during their free period.

"I don't know what to do, Max! I wanna ask Stacey to go with me to closing night, but she doesn't want to be seen in public together!" Dustin fell onto one of the couches exasperated.

Max felt bad for him. "Why don't you and I go? As friends, obviously, but maybe it'll make Stacey jealous. I need someone to go with anyways since Lucas and I aren't talking right now and I don't think El's going."

Jennifer walked into the lounge and walked straight over to Max.

"I'm so sorry Max."

Max looked at her confused. "For...?"

"It's just such a tragedy to think that your own mother would stoop so low to provide for you," she said with mock sorrow.

"My mom's a waitress, Jennifer. Not Fantine. What are you doing here anyways?"

"Only to remind you of your place in the school's social caste system. Hanging around with losers like Dustin Henderson and Mike Wheeler..."

Dustin looked up offended.

Max scoffed. "Threatened, Jen? You might think you rule the school with your attitude, but what I wanna know is how this has anything to do with my mom being a waitress?"

"Oh nothing...I just saw her mingling with a Demodog last night outside of Benny's. I coudn't hear what they said, but it sounded pretty heated. See?" She held up her phone so she could see the picture before stalking off.

Max turned to Dustin. "What the hell is a 'Demodog?'"

"It's this biker gang on the southside of town. They're pretty dangerous, you know, drug dealers, petty thieves, rebel rousers..." Dustin explained.

"Well, why was my mom talking to one?" Max asked confused.

Dustin just shrugged.

After school Max went home to see her mother sitting on the couch watching TV.

"Hey sweetie, how was school?" Susan smiled at her daughter.

Max paused. "Jennifer Hayes showed me a picture today of you talking to a Demodog outside of Benny's. They're thugs, what are you doing with them?"

Susan smiled. "First, I don't want you to worry, because you don't have anything to worry about. Second, I did grow up here. The Demodogs might be a gang now, but I did go to school with some of them. I was just saying hi to an old friend from high school, that was it."

Max stared at her. "But she said you were arguing..."

"Arguing? No of course not. He made a rude comment and I told him off, that's it."

"Mom, if you're in trouble-" Max started.

"I'm not, sweetie. I promise."

Max nodded, but didn't quite believe her as she changed the subject.

...

Mike walked over to the mayor's office, trying once more to convince somehow that the theater was worth keeping. Thankfully, he knew the mayor, it was Dustin's mother, Claudia, so he thought it would be easier to convince her.

"I'm sorry, Mike, but the Hawk has just become a waste of land and a hang out spot for the Demodogs and drug dealers and criminals. The deal is done, Sinclair Construction is scheduled to tear down the spot next week."

Mike tried one last time. "Mrs. Henderson, when I was a kid, my family and I went to the Hawk every Saturday, partly because that was the day kids under 5 could get in for free so my sister Holly didn't need a ticket. We couldn't afford the expensive candy and popcorn there so we always snuck some in, my sister Nancy and I. It's like a home to me and my family."

Claudia sighed. "That's a really sweet story, Michael, but the future of Hawkins is at stake."

Mike nodded in defeat and left.

...

El and Max asked Lucas to meet them at Benny's on Friday for dinner after doing extensive research on Jennifer.

"I found out from a few reliable sources that she's been with almost half the guys at school, nearly everyone on the football team! Some of them even before you and when she was still with Will."

Lucas stared at her unsure. "Where did you get all this information?"

Max spoke up, "We asked around. And before you ask, yes these are reliable sources...We made sure they'd tell the truth."

Lucas was about to ask how they did that when El spoke up again. "She's not trustworthy, Lucas. There's something wrong with what she's doing. If she wanted to be with all these guys, what if she did something to Will to get him out of the picture?"

"So did you question all these people before or after you interviewed her for a fake article?" Lucas snapped at El, who looked down and didn't respond. "Why are you doing all of this, El? I'm not in danger."

"You don't know that-" she started.

"Yes, I do. I'm with her. I know our relationship. You don't. So let this go, if you're really my friend, let it go." Before she could respond, Lucas stood up and walked out of the diner.

...

Later that night, Lucas went over to Jennifer's house to watch a movie together. Her parents weren't home so they wouldn't get caught.

"I know it's not the Hawk, but since we couldn't really go there..."

Jennifer smiled at him. "It's perfect." She leaned in to kiss him and he met her halfway.

Unbeknownst to them, Max and El had followed Lucas to Jennifer's house. They snuck over to her silver BMW, where it was parked in the driveway.

"So much for letting this go..." Max muttered.

El ignored her and pulled out a bobby pin trying to unlock the door.

"Are we really breaking into her car right now? You know this is a felony right?" Max watched El work the lock. "Where did you learn to do this?"

"Jim taught me how to fix cars. It was something we did together the first year I was stuck in the cabin. His cruiser was crappy and always needed fixing." They heard the car unlock and El smiled.

They went into the car and shut the doors quietly so as to not let Lucas and Jennifer know they were outside.

Max looked at El. "Look, El, you know I love you, but I do need to ask one thing before risking going to jail...Are you doing this before you still have feelings for Lucas?"

El rolled her eyes, "No, Max. I'm doing this because Jennifer has Lucas under some kind of spell and we need him to know that she's bad news. Look for something!"

They searched the car, but didn't find anything. Max opened the glove compartment and searched through it, after rifling through a bunch of papers, she saw something at the bottom. She grabbed it and pulled it out.

"El...?" Max held up a gun.

Half an hour later, Lucas came out of the house to see Max and El standing in the street.

"Oh my god. I swear, you guys better not be still doing this crazy witch hunt..."

El rolled her eyes, "It's not a crazy witch hunt!" She paused and looked at Max who nodded. "We were just in Jennifer's car-"

"What!?" Lucas yelled.

Max spoke up, "Thank god we were because we found a gun."

"Oh my god, are you serious?"

"Lucas, what if she had something to do with Will's disappearance. We know she was in the woods that night, she cheated on him multiple times, she made you lie, and now she has a gun!" El explained.

"So does your dad and you didn't think he had anything to do with it!" Lucas argued.

"Wake up, Lucas!" Max snapped. "She clearly didn't want to be with Will. Look at the facts. There's something really weird about her."

Lucas shook his head before running off towards his house.

...

Mike knocked on the Sinclair's door the next morning. He wasn't there to see Lucas though, he wanted to talk to Mr. Sinclair.

Thankfully, he was the one who answered the door. "Hey, Mike! How have you been? It's been a while."

Mike didn't answer. "Mrs. Henderson says that you're the one tearing down the Hawk next week."

Mr. Sinclair sighed. "Yeah, I am. Look, Mike, I'm sorry I know how much that place meant to you. Hell, it meant a lot to me too."

"Please, Mr. Sinclair, give me a week to figure out who bought it and convince them not to take down the best place in town!"

"Mike, it's a big contract for me. I can't just say no. Whatever's gonna be built in its place will mean more to everyone-"

"What?! Because of some idealized, futuristic Hawkins?!" Mike snapped. "Look, you already put one Wheeler out of work, so you're just gonna put out another?"

Mr. Sinclair looked at him with a pained expression. "I had to, Mike. Your father was stealing money and equipment."

Mike shook his head. "Right. You had to do what's best for the company. Like you're doing now?"

Mike turned and walked away before he could respond.

...

Thanks for reading!

This was a fun chapter to right because a lot was happening. There's some foreshadowing in here. If you've seen Riverdale you can probably figure it out, but don't spoil it in the comments :)

I wasn't sure what to call the gang at first, btw. I didn't want to just keep it the Southside Serpents lol so I thought the Demodogs sounded "badass" as Dustin would say!

Also, why is Mike so invested in the movie theater, huh...?

I'll try to update as soon as I can!

Please review!

Xoxo

-CW