A/N: The material in the following chapters will be a mixture of season 1 from Mike's point of view, and original material that takes place in between the show content. If you see something familiar, that's because it is. And I obviously don't own it. If I did, there would have been a hell of a lot more Mileven in season 2.

A couple of hours later, Eleven was strong enough to sit up and her hands weren't cold anymore. We carefully got her back to my house. She was ravenous. I sent Dustin upstairs to get something for her to eat. Everyone was home but they were all used to the guys helping themselves. She wanted Eggos but Dustin brought her dinner. Brought dinner for all of us, actually. He handed us an entire casserole dish of lasagna, looking triumphant. It hadn't even been touched.

"Uh."

I finally noticed that he was still wearing oven mitts.

"Did you take that out of the oven?"

"Yep! It's nice and hot." He beamed at us.

"Jesus," Lucas muttered.

"What?"

"Dustin, you idiot. You can't just take the whole freaking thing."

"Why not? El really needs it!"

"Uh, well, for starters, I think Mike's mom will probably come looking for it. Considering everyone upstairs is probably fucking hungry, too, and their dinner just walked off."

"Oh." Dustin paused for a second. "So I should bring it back upstairs?"

"Yes!" I snapped, then reconsidered.

"Actually, no. Go get some plates. And silverware. That way we don't have to sneak a plate down later."

"Okay."

Dustin sat the dish on the floor and ran for the stairs.

Lucas and I looked at each other.

"And get some breadsticks!" Lucas yelled.

"On it!"

Dustin didn't look back.

Once we were finished eating, Eleven stretched out on the couch. She still looked tired, but she was a lot less pale. I sat next to her while Dustin collected the plates and brought them back upstairs.

I tapped my fingers impatiently because he was taking forever. We needed to get down to business now. When he came back empty-handed, I realized he'd just brought up four dirty plates.

"Was my mom up there?"

"Yep. I told her dinner was great. As usual."

"How did you explain the extra plate?" Lucas asked. He'd noticed our mistake, too.

"Oh. I just told her I was really hungry."

We stared at him.

"What? All that crying and grief and stuff. That's why people make like, a shit-ton of food when someone dies. It makes you hungry."

I gave up. We didn't have time for this. We needed to figure out the riddle.

"What was Will saying? Like home…like home. But…dark?"

I stood up to pace around the room.

"And empty," Lucas added.

"Empty and cold. Wait, did he say cold?"

"I don't know. The stupid radio kept going in and out," Lucas grumbled. I rolled my eyes.

Dustin leaned his head back to look at the ceiling. "It's like riddles in the dark."

"Like home. Like his house?" I remembered, very well, how El had led us to his house. Right before I'd yelled at her.

"Or maybe like Hawkins!" Lucas exclaimed.

Eleven had turned over to watch us. She cradled a hand under her face. She finally spoke. "Upside down."

We stopped talking to look at her and I finally stopped pacing.

"What'd she say?" Lucas asked.

Eleven didn't answer; she just looked at me, to see if I understood. I did. I glanced involuntarily at the board and then back at her. She nodded.

"Upside down."

"What?"

"Upside down!" I pulled my hands out of my pockets and reached for the board. "When El showed us where Will was, she flipped the board over, remember?" I demonstrated and the guys came up behind me.

I flipped it over again, to the black side. "Upside down. Dark. Empty."

Lucas stared at me blankly for a second and then looked at Dustin. "Do you understand what he's talking about?"

"Uh, no."

"Guys, come on. Think about it. When El took us to find Will, she took us to his house, right?"

"Yeah. And he wasn't there," Lucas grumbled.

"But what if he was there? What if we just couldn't see him? What if he was on the other side?" I turned the board over again. "What if this is Hawkins, and…" I turned the board over. "this is where Will is? The Upside Down."

Dustin looked excited. "Like the Vale of Shadows!"

"Yes! Exactly!"

"I have no idea what you two are talking about," Lucas told us both. Dustin sighed. I grabbed my manual and Dustin practically yanked it away from me. He flipped the sheets frantically until he found the right page.

"The Vale of Shadows is a dimension that is a dark reflection or echo of our world. It is a place of decay and death. A plane out of phase. A place of monsters. It is right next to you, and you don't even see it."

We looked at each other. Lucas didn't scoff. And he sure as hell didn't roll his eyes this time.

"An alternate dimension," I said.

"But…how…do we get there?" Lucas asked us. There was no disbelief in his voice.

"You cast Shadow Walk," Dustin replied immediately.

Lucas finally rolled his eyes. "In real life, dummy," he snapped.

"We can't shadow walk, but…" Dustin turned to look at El. "…maybe she can."

"Do you know how we get there? To the Upside Down?"

She didn't meet my eyes. She gave a tiny shake of her head. No.

Lucas threw his head back in exasperation and sighed. "Oh, my God!"

Eleven didn't respond. I finally noticed that she was still wearing her wig. She loved that damned thing, loved how normal it made her feel.

"Well, at least we're getting somewhere," Dustin said optimistically.

"We're getting nowhere. Fast."

I sat down on the couch again. Eleven pulled her feet up at the same time to give me some room. I leaned my head back and tuned out the bickering. I turned my head to El, she was watching me.

"You feeling any better?"

She nodded.

"She's feeling like she needs dessert, right, El?" Dustin called cheerfully from the table.

"Seriously?" Lucas asked.

"Dessert?" El looked at me for an explanation.

"It's what you eat after dinner. Like candy or ice cream or whatever. But we don't need dessert right now."

"Or fudge," Dustin added.

"Yes, Dustin, or fudge, but we don't need…wait, did my mom make fudge?"

"Yep. I told you. Grief makes you want to eat."

I looked at Lucas for a second, then back at Dustin. I opened my mouth.

"I'm on it," Dustin said, standing up again.

El loved the fudge. She licked her fingers after eating it and looked disappointed when our little plate was empty.

"Here," I said, giving her my last piece. Lucas rolled his eyes again. I was pretty sure they'd eventually fall out, since he'd been doing it so much lately. El took the piece from me and held it in the palm of her hand. She looked at the empty plate again, then back at the piece of fudge. She frowned a little and it broke evenly in two. She handed me half of it and ate the other half.

"Thanks," I told her, and she smiled.

"Awesome!" Dustin breathed.

I'll let you guess what Lucas did.

El went back to her fort when the guys left. She looked exhausted, and I realized she hadn't been fully recharged. Maybe she needed to sleep to do that. I went over to check on her.

"I'm okay," she said before I could even ask. I laughed.

"Okay. Good night. You want me to leave the light on?"

"Trolls."

"Huh?"

"Trolls," she repeated, watching me.

"Oh! You want me to read to you?"

She nodded and looked at me hopefully. I grinned at her. I stretched out on the floor and reached for The Hobbit.

We had to leave El alone the next day. It was the day of Will's funeral.

I brought her breakfast and some juice while my parents were getting ready. While she ate, I grabbed a stack of clean clothes I'd washed. The yellow shirt from Benny's was on top.

"Hey. Here are your clean clothes, if you wanted to change." I sat the sweats down on the table and picked up the shirt. "And you can have this back." I'd washed it separately, so my mom wouldn't see it. I held it out for her but she didn't take it. She just stared at it before turning her head away.

"No."

"No?"

"Don't like it."

"Oh." I unfolded it and looked at it. I'd heard what had happened to Benny. He'd killed himself. It was weird, because he was always in a good mood. He always gave us free dessert whenever we came in. He'd shot himself the same day we found Eleven.

I remembered the way she'd illustrated the danger we were in. She'd mimed shooting us both.

"Were you…there? At Benny's?"

Her face darkened and she looked away. I didn't think she'd respond, but she finally nodded.

"What happened?"

She was quiet for a long time.

"Bad."

I knew what she meant, and I didn't know what to say to that. That was fucking horrible. He'd tried to help her and they'd killed him for it.

I folded the shirt back up and set it aside.

"Well. You can change back into the sweats if you want?" I had another thought. "Actually, we're all going to be gone for awhile, because of the funeral. You could go upstairs when we leave and take a bath if you wanted."

Her startled eyes met mine and I blinked at her, confused.

"Bath?"

I was used to her repeating words that she didn't know, but this was different. She looked afraid and I didn't know why.

"Um. Yeah. You know, to get clean? Or you could take a shower?"

She relaxed again and nodded. She knew what that word meant. I handed her the clean clothes and she took them.

"I've gotta go get ready, we'll be back in a few hours, okay?"

She nodded and I started to walk away. I stopped and turned back to her. I knelt in front of her and touched her wrist, the one with my watch. She looked at my hand.

"When the numbers read 1-2-0-0," you can go upstairs, okay?" We'd be gone by then.

She nodded again and I let go of her wrist.

"Okay. I'll be back later."

I looked at her again before I'd made it a couple of steps up the stairs. I felt bad for leaving her alone down here for so long. I hoped she wouldn't be bored. There were plenty of books but I wasn't sure how well she could read. I wished we had a TV down there so she could at least have something to do, but I knew that my parents definitely wouldn't go for that.

The funeral was surreal.

Even though we knew he was alive, we also knew he might not be. Not for very much longer. It felt like an ill omen to be there, watching the casket that could easily have held our friend. We tried to talk to Mrs. Byers, but she looked distracted and we gave up. Everyone was there. Dustin grinned and nudged me. Jennifer Hayes was crying. Will's always had a crush on her.

"Just wait until we tell Will Jennifer Hayes was crying at his funeral." We grinned until my mom shushed us. Luckily, she didn't actually hear him.

We were excited, but we tried to mask it as well as we could. We couldn't hide it completely, though. We were too eager. We had a plan. Eleven might not have known how to get to the Upside Down, but we knew someone else that might. Someone who always had the answers to any question we could come up with.

We approached him at the refreshment table. I shuddered inwardly. It was pretty gruesome, actually, to have a refreshment table set up after a funeral. Like we were at a freaking party and would care about cookies and sandwiches. Judging from the long line, though, I guessed Dustin was right. Grief made people hungry.

"Mr. Clarke?"

Mr. Clarke turned around.

"Oh, hey there," he said, smiling.

Dustin reached for a handful of cookies.

"How are you boys holding up?" Mr. Clarke looked sympathetic. Lucas and I tried to look as gloomy as possible.

"We're…in…mourning," Lucas answered robotically.

"Man, these aren't real Nilla wafers!"

We both looked at Dustin in dismay and I jumped in quickly.

"We were wondering if you had time to talk?"

"We have some questions," Lucas added.

"A lot of questions," I said.

Dustin chewed the faux nilla wafers morosely but didn't say anything. Mr. Clarke agreeably sat down with us and I began immediately. No time to lose.

"So, you know how in Cosmos, Carl Sagan talks about other dimensions? Like, beyond our world?"

Mr. Clarke nodded. "Yeah, sure. Theoretically."

"Right, theoretically."

Lucas interrupted. "So, theoretically, how do we travel there?"

"You guys have been thinking about Hugh Everett's Many-Worlds interpretation, haven't you?"

Um. I guess.

I shrugged noncommittally and Mr. Clarke smiled.

"Well, basically, there are parallel universes." Mr. Clarke fell into his teaching voice. "Just like our world, but just infinite variations of it." He smiled at us gently. "Which means there's a world out there where none of this tragic stuff ever happened."

I could practically feel Lucas holding in an eye roll.

"Yeah, that's not what we're talking about," he said bluntly.

"Oh."

"We were thinking of more of an evil dimension, like the Vale of Shadows," Dustin explained hopefully. "You know the Vale of Shadows?"

"An echo of the Material Plane, where necrotic and shadow magic-"

Dustin beamed and nodded.

"Yeah, exactly," I interrupted. "If that did exist, a place like the Vale of Shadows, how would we travel there?"

"Theoretically," Lucas added.

"Well…"

Mr. Clarke looked around for something to demonstrate with. He grabbed his plates and separated them, holding up the empty one. He reached into his coat pocket for a pen and started scribbling.

"Picture...an acrobat…standing on a tightrope. Now, the tightrope is our dimension. And our dimension has rules. You can move forwards, or backwards." He drew a line on the plate. "But, what if, right next to our acrobat, there is a flea? Now the flea can also travel back and forth, just like the acrobat. Right?"

"Right," I agreed.

"Here's where things get really interesting," Mr. Clarke said, eyes shining. "The flea can also travel this way…along the side of the rope. He can even go…underneath the rope."

"Upside Down," we said in unison.

"Exactly."

"But-we're not the flea. We're the acrobat."

"In this metaphor, yes. We're the acrobat."

"So, we can't go upside down?" Lucas asked.

Mr. Clarke shook his head. "No."

"Well, is there any way for the acrobat to get to the Upside Down?" Dustin asked.

Mr. Clarke wrinkled his forehead in thought.

"Well, you'd have to create a massive amount of energy. More than humans are currently capable of creating, mind you, to open up some kind of tear in time and space, and then…" He folded the paper plate in half and stabbed it with the pen.

"You create a doorway."

"Like a gate?"

"Sure. Like a gate."

Mr. Clarke raised his hand, because we looked excited.

"But again, this is all-"

"Theoretical," Lucas finished, nodding.

"But…what if this gate already existed?"

"Well, if it did, I…I think we'd know. It would disrupt gravity, the magnetic field, our environment. Heck, it might even swallow us up whole."

We looked at each other gravely.

"Science is neat, but I'm afraid it's not very forgiving," Mr. Clarke finished.

We were silent for a few seconds.

"Thanks, Mr. Clarke," I said.

"Yeah, thanks. That was awesome," Dustin enthused.

"Really helpful," Lucas added.

We made meaningless small talk for a few minutes. Finally, Dustin pointed at a crowd of people at the door.

"Mike! It's your mom."

"What?"

Lucas got the hint faster than I did.

"She's waving. See? I guess she's ready to leave. We'd better go, too," Lucas told me, staring at me intently.

"Oh. Right. Thanks again, Mr. Clarke."

Mr. Clarke gathered up his plates.

"Anytime, boys."

Half an hour later, we were back at my house. I sent the guys downstairs and quickly ran to check the bathroom, to make sure there was no sign of Eleven. She'd folded her towel carefully and left it on the counter. I grabbed it and threw it in the laundry hamper so my mom wouldn't notice before running back downstairs.

I stifled a laugh when I got back to the basement. She'd showered, but she'd changed back into the dress. And she'd put her wig back on. They were all silent. Dustin was being unusually quiet, he was pacing the room.

I sat next to El on the couch and demonstrated what Mr. Clarke had told us with a sheet of notebook paper and pencil.

"It would take a lot of energy to build a gate like this. But that's gotta be what happened. Otherwise, how did Will get there, right?"

"Right," El said quietly.

"What we want to know is, do you know where the gate is?" Lucas interrupted.

Dustin finally stopped pacing, but El shook her head.

Lucas was exasperated.

"Then how do you know about the Upside Down?"

I looked at El, because it was a good question. I hadn't thought about it before. Eleven avoided my gaze. She looked down at her lap.

Dustin started pacing again. Lucas and I both watched him.

"Dustin, what are you doing?"

He didn't answer. He didn't even hear me.

"Dustin. Dustin!"

"Dustin!" Lucas yelled irritably.

Dustin finally looked around. We could see the eagerness in his face.

"I need to see your compasses."

"What?"

"Your compasses! All of your compasses, right now!"

We hastened to obey, because he sounded frantic with excitement. We dumped them on the board and Dustin examined each one thoroughly.

"What's exciting about this?"

"Well, they're all facing north, right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Well, that's not true north."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean exactly what I just said. That's not true north."

Lucas and I stared blankly down at the compasses.

Dustin sighed.

"Are you both seriously this dense?"

Lucas shrugged, baffled.

Dustin's tone indicated he was speaking to a not very bright five year old. He explained it as slowly as possible.

"The sun rises in the east, and sets in the west. Right? Which means, that's true north," he said, pointing.

"So what you're saying is, the compasses are broken?" I asked.

Dustin sighed and leaned over, putting both hands on the table as if we were exhausting him with our idiocy.

"Do you even understand how a compass works? Do you see a battery pack on this?"

He twirled it in front of my face.

"No."

"No, you don't. Because it doesn't need one. The needle's naturally drawn to the Earth's magnetic North Pole."

"So, what's wrong with them?'

"Well, that's what I couldn't figure out, but then I remembered. You can change the direction of a compass with a magnet. If there's the presence of a more powerful magnetic field, the needle deflects to that power. And then I remembered what Mr. Clarke said. The gate would have so much power…"

"It would disrupt the electromagnetic field," I finished. I smiled at Dustin.

"Exactly."

"Meaning, if we follow the compasses' north…"

"They should lead us straight to the gate," Dustin said.

Lucas clapped him on the back and Dustin grinned.

None of us noticed the look of horror on Eleven's face.

We left immediately, while we still had daylight. We already had our supplies in our backpacks. We walked the railroad tracks, following the compasses north. Lucas and Dustin led the way. El and I followed further behind.

El seemed really worn-out. I tried talking to her but she kept her sentences even shorter than usual, so eventually we walked in silence. Eleven's breathing was heavy. I didn't think she was fully recovered from using the radio. She stopped suddenly, grabbing my arm and startling me.

"Mike."

"Yeah?"

"Turn back."

I looked at her in surprise.

"What? Why?"

"I'm tired."

Her reply came quickly. Too quickly. The lack of a pause should have given me pause. I didn't notice. I sighed instead.

"Look, I'm sure we're almost there. Just hold on a little longer, okay?"

She stopped walking, looking behind us. Looking back the way we'd came. I walked slower until she caught up with me again.

What felt like hours later, we ended up in the junk yard, still following Dustin. When he stopped and glanced around, we all halted.

"Oh, no."

"'Oh no?' What's 'oh no'?" Lucas asked.

"We're headed back home."

"What?" I asked. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. Setting sun, right there. We looped right back around." Dustin turned in a circle, examining his compass.

"And you're just realizing this now?" Lucas snapped.

It was a good question.

"Why is this all on me?"

"Because you're the compass genius!"

Dustin sighed and looked at his compass.

"What do yours say?"

We both looked down.

"North," Lucas and I said in unison. Shit.

Dustin glanced around in irritation.

"This makes no damn sense."

"Maybe the gate moved," I suggested.

"Nah, I don't think it's the gate. I think it's something else screwing with the compasses."

"Maybe it's something here," I said, looking around at the junked-out cars.

"Nah, it has to be, like, a super magnet."

I shrugged. I had no idea.

Lucas, however, turned around immediately to face El. He jabbed his finger at her.

"It's not a magnet. She's been acting weirder than normal! If she can slam doors with her mind, she can definitely screw up a compass!"

I glared at him.

"Why would she do that?" I asked.

"Because she's trying to sabotage our mission. Because she's a traitor!" And he stalked toward her. She shrank away from him.

"Lucas, what are you doing?" I snapped, running after him. He was getting way out of line.

"You did it, didn't you?" Lucas asked her, disgusted. The animosity was unleashed. El bit her lip and stared at him nervously. "You don't want us to reach the gate. You don't want us to find Will."

"Lucas, come on. Seriously. Just leave her alone!"

Lucas ignored me.

"Admit it."

"No," El said in a tiny voice.

"ADMIT IT!" Lucas shouted, right in her face. He grabbed her roughly by the arm and raised it slightly, to show the inside of her jacket. It was covered in blood. He pushed her arm away from him angrily.

"Fresh blood. I knew it."

"Lucas, come on!"

"I saw her wiping her nose on the tracks! She was using her powers!"

"Bull! That's old blood, right El?"

El looked at me tearfully, but didn't respond.

"Right, El?" I prompted, more emphatically.

She started to cry and my heart sank.

"It's…not…it's not safe."

Lucas and I turned on each other while Dustin hovered uncertainly. Usually he and Lucas were the ones to bicker with each other. And never with any real anger.

"What did I tell you? She's been playing us from the beginning!"

"That's not true! She helped us find Will!"

"Find…Will? Find Will? Where is he, then? Huh? I don't see him," Lucas snapped, making a big show of looking around.

"Yeah, you know what I mean."

"No, I actually don't. Just think about it, Mike. She could've just told us where the Upside Down was right away, but she didn't. She just made us run around like headless chickens."

Dustin finally tried to break us up. He grabbed us both.

"All right, calm down!"

"No!" Lucas slapped his arm away. "She used us, all of us! She helped just enough so she could get what she wants. Food and a bed." He made those necessities sound like something horrible. "She's like a stray dog."

I snapped. That was enough. She was right there, listening. Listening and crying.

"Screw you, Lucas!"

"No, screw you, Mike!" Lucas jabbed a finger in my face. "You're blind; blind because you like that a girl's not grossed out by you. But wake up, man. Wake the hell up! She knows where Will is. And now, she's just letting him die in the Upside Down."

"Shut up!" I screamed.

"For all we know, it's her fault.

"Shut..up."

"We've been looking for some stupid monster…"

Lucas pushed me roughly as he spoke.

"…But did you ever stop to think that maybe she's the monster?"

We all looked at El. Right. A monster. Lucas was insane to even think it. To think that of a crying 11 or 12 year old girl in a dirty pink dress.

"I said shut up!" I screamed the words, lunging at Lucas. I grabbed him and threw him to the ground.

"Stop!" El cried.

"Knock it off, you idiots," Dustin shouted.

Lucas tried to seize my shoulder to get the upper hand. We rolled on the grass, scuffling.

"Stop it!"

"Mike, get off!"

Lucas jumped on top of me.

"Stop it!" El shouted. When that didn't work, when Lucas raised his fist to hit me, she forgot the words. She just screamed. It was a piercing sound, an unnerving sound. It seemed to last for minutes. It echoed across the yard. Before she'd finished screaming, Lucas was ripped off of me. He flew backward across the yard, hitting his head hard. He slumped over and didn't move.

Shit.

"Jesus!" Dustin screamed, running toward him. I pulled myself up out of the dirt and ran after him, panicking. He'd hit his head so hard. What if he was dead?

"Lucas! Lucas! Lucas, are you all right?"

Dustin grabbed for his wrist to feel his pulse.

"Lucas. Lucas, come on!"

"Lucas, wake up!"

"Come on, Lucas!" Dustin shook him lightly but Lucas didn't move.

I turned to Eleven and glared at her. It was like I was seeing her for the first time, but in a completely different light. And I knew she wasn't the monster. I never thought that, never thought anything like that. I knew she hadn't meant to hurt him. But I also knew she was dangerous. Especially since it had been an accident.

"Why would you do that?"

She was crying.

And I said it again, the thing I had regretted.

"What's wrong with you? What is wrong with you?"

I turned away from the broken look on her face because I couldn't think about that right now. I couldn't think about her right now. I shook Lucas.

"Lucas. Lucas, come on."

Lucas stirred and Dustin laughed in relief.

"Lucas," I gasped.

Lucas struggled to sit up.

"Lucas, you okay?"

He didn't say anything, and Dustin held out a hand in front of his face.

"Lucas…Lucas. How many fingers am I holding up? Lucas, how many fingers?"

Lucas didn't answer and Dustin and I looked at each other in alarm.

"Let me see your head," I said, extending a hand. Lucas slapped it away angrily.

"Get off of me!"

"Just…Lucas. Lucas, let me see."

Lucas stood up slowly and I touched his arm. He slapped that away, too.

"Get off of me!"

He started walking away without looking at either of us. I tried to run after him, but Dustin held me back.

"Let him go," he said.

I did. Lucas didn't look back.

Dustin let go of me and I sighed, near tears.

I looked around for El. I needed to apologize. Again. I knew she didn't mean to hurt him. She was trying to stop us from fighting. She was trying to protect me.

She was gone.

"Where is El?"

Dustin looked over to where she'd been standing. He shook his head. Neither of us had seen her leave, we'd been too focused on Lucas.

"El! El!"

"Eleven!" Dustin shouted.

"El! Eleven! Eleven!"

We looked everywhere. We retraced our steps, but we couldn't find her. Dustin tried to stay positive because I was freaking out. It was getting dark. And she hadn't eaten anything since breakfast, as far as I knew. I never should have yelled at her.

"She's probably like, back at your house and already in her fort."

I kicked a pebble.

"Maybe."

I didn't want to get my hopes up, but I hoped, anyway. I had to. She'd come back last time. Where else would she go?

Except that she didn't come back. Not that night. I waited all night on the couch in the basement, just in case. I watched the door. I didn't want to think about her, outside and cold. Hungry. Thinking that we hated her. That I hated her.

Now that I knew Lucas was okay, I was angry with him all over again. For not even giving her a chance. For not seeing how scared she was. For not realizing that she'd been through things he couldn't imagine. For treating her like a dog.

But most of all, I was mad at myself.

And then it was morning, and she still hadn't come home.

I looked at her fort. And I suddenly couldn't stand seeing it anymore. I wanted to tear it down. I threw the chairs aside and kicked the blankets out.

"Stupid! Stupid!" I said it every time I kicked. I was crying. Once I'd demolished it, I put it back together again. Just in case. I wanted her to know she could come home.

Dustin biked over later to check on me, and to see if El had come home.

"I just…I can't believe she didn't come back."

"She's gotta be close," he said reassuringly.

"She said it wasn't safe. She just messed up the compasses because she wanted to protect us. She didn't betray us!"

I was pacing.

"Mike, calm down."

"I shouldn't have yelled at her. I never should have done that."

"Mike, this isn't your fault."

"Yeah, it's Lucas's."

"It wasn't his fault, either."

I stopped pacing and stared at him in shock.

"It wasn't his fault?"

"No."

"So you're saying he wasn't way out of line?"

"Totally, but so were you!"

"What?"

"And so was Eleven," he added.

"Oh, give me a break."

"No, Mike. You give ME a break. All three of you were being a bunch of little assholes. I was the only reasonable one. But the bottom line is…you pushed first. And you know the rule. You draw first blood…"

"No! No way. I'm not shaking his hand!"

There was no way in hell I was going to apologize. Not until he did.

"You're shaking his hand."

"No, I'm not."

"This isn't a discussion. This is the Rule of Law. Obey or be banished from the party. Do you wanna be banished?"

I could tell he meant it. Even though there were currently only two people left in the party. He still meant it.

"No," I told him reluctantly.

"Good."

Dustin grabbed his jacket.

"Where are we going?"

"Where do you think? We're going to get Lucas. And then we're gonna find Eleven."

He tossed my backpack to me and was out of the basement and halfway next door before I could even pull it on.

Lucas answered the door, already pissed off. Or still pissed off.

"What do you want?"

I didn't answer. I stared at him sullenly until Dustin smacked me in the chest. I sighed.

"I drew first blood, so…"

I stuck out my hand. Lucas didn't budge. I waited a few seconds, then looked at Dustin for instructions. Dustin looked like he was ready to strangle both of us.

"Lucas."

"What."

"Shake his goddamned hand."

"I'll think about it," Lucas said mulishly.

I dropped my arm and sighed. I opened my mouth to snap at him but Dustin shoved me, accidentally-on-purpose, before pushing past Lucas.

"Well, can we all think about it inside the goddamned house? It's cold."

Lucas grudgingly stepped aside and let us in.

Ten minutes later, Lucas was still pacing while we waited impatiently. He finally turned to me. He still looked irritable.

"Okay, I'll shake."

About damned time. I stuck out my hand again but Lucas folded his arms.

"On one condition. We forget the weirdo, and go straight to the gate."

Dustin groaned. I think he was angrier than the two of us combined, but he was trying to hold it together.

"Then the deal's off," I snapped angrily, withdrawing my hand.

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"No. No! Not fine! Guys, seriously?"

Dustin grabbed me roughly by the shoulder and turned me to face him.

"Do you even remember what happened on the bloodstone pass?"

I shrugged.

"We couldn't agree on what path to take, so we split up the party, and those trolls took us out one by one! And it all went to shit! And we were all disabled! So we stick together, no matter what!"

"Yeah, I agree," Lucas said. "But this is the party, right here in this room."

"El's one of us now," I told him. I was not backing down on that.

"Um, no. No, she's not. Not even close! Never will be. She's a liar, a traitor-"

I glared at him.

"She was just trying to keep us safe! She didn't mean to hurt you! It was an accident!"

"An accident?"

"All right, accident or not…admit it, it was a little awesome," Dustin told him.

Lucas stared at him in disbelief.

"Awesome?"

"Yeah, she threw you in the air, with her mind!"

"I could have been killed!"

We were all shouting at each other. Luckily Lucas's parents were gone.

"Which is exactly why we need her! She's a weapon. Do you seriously want to fight the Demogorgon with your wrist rocket? That's like R2-D2 going to fight Darth Vader! We're no use to Will if we're dead."

Lucas huffed and completely ignored the validity of that argument. For someone who was usually so logical, he was really being a dumbass.

"If you two want to waste your time looking for a traitor, go ahead, but I'm not spending my time on her anymore. No way! I'm going to the gate. I'm gonna find Will."

And Lucas pushed past both of us, making sure to extend his arms and shove us both on his way out.

I stumbled and Dustin steadied me.

"I tried," I told him lamely, because he was glaring at me.

He muttered something under his breath, something that I was pretty glad I couldn't hear, actually.

"Now what?"

"Lucas will come around. Eventually. We need to find Eleven," Dustin said. We both walked out the door and back to my house to grab our bikes.

I started to get on, but Dustin stopped me.

"Wait. Maybe we should check inside again, just in case."

I dropped the bike and hurried inside, but her fort was empty. When I came back out, I shook my head. Dustin sighed.

"Let's go," he said.

"This is weird without Lucas," Dustin said, riding next to me.

"He should have shaken my hand."

"He's just jealous."

"What are you talking about?"

Dustin sighed. "Sometimes, your total obliviousness just like, blows my mind."

I stared at him blankly and he sighed again.

"He's your best friend, right?"

"Yeah…I mean, I don't know."

"It's fine. I get it. I didn't get here until the 4th grade. He had the advantage of living next door. But none of that matters. What matters is that he's your best friend. And then this girl shows up and starts living in your basement, and all you ever want to do is pay attention to her."

"That's not true," I denied automatically.

"Yes, it is. And you know it. And he knows it. But no one ever says anything, until you both start punching and yelling at each other like goblins with intelligence scores of zero. Now everything's weird."

It wasn't true. Well, maybe it was, but Jesus. We'd only known her for a couple of days, and she was in serious danger. I thought that took precedence over Lucas's feelings. Not to mention that he'd been hostile toward her since the very first day. I didn't point that out, though.

"He's not my best friend," I said instead.

"Yeah, right."

"I mean, he is, but so are you. And so is Will."

"You can't have more than one best friend," Dustin said reasonably.

"Says who?"

"Says logic."

"Well, I call bull on your logic, because you're my best friend, too."

Dustin smiled at me and I returned it.

"Okay," he said, giving up.

We both glanced around for a distraction, because it was starting to get sappy. And we found one immediately. We both braked at the same time, staring at the grocery store.

"Woah," I said.

"You don't think…"

"Uh…definitely."

There were police officers in front of the store, interviewing people. There was a crowd gathered, watching them. The glass doors had been shattered. We rode slowly, closer to the store, staring at the crowd. Dustin hopped off his bike and headed toward them. He chatted up a couple of people, trying to figure out what happened. He came back a couple of minutes later, grinning.

"What?" I asked him.

Dustin chortled.

"There was a robbery."

"A robbery?"

"Yeah. Get this. Like a dozen boxes of Eggos were stolen."

That's all I needed to hear.

We both started giggling.