Chapter Seven: Back To School

Elizabeth's alarm buzzed and rang incessantly atop her nightstand, signaling that it was finally time for her to get ready for her first day back to school. She stood from the floor where she had been sitting with her back to the wall to stop the sound, running a tired hand down her face. She hadn't slept the entire night.

Two weeks after being back home, Elizabeth was supposed to be back in school. It felt silly that she couldn't just wait until the new semester, considering there would only be two weeks left until they let out for winter break. More than that, though, she just didn't feel ready to go back. While physically she had recovered from her "animal attack", there were lingering symptoms that couldn't be seen by the naked eye. The people from the lab said she probably had PTSD. They could call it whatever they wanted, but she called it being ready for whatever came next.

She found it difficult to sleep once she was out of the hospital and no longer medicated to do so. Most nights she sat on the floor with her back against the wall, facing her bedroom door with her knees tucked against her chest. Even though she had been told multiple times by different people that the monster was dead, a part of her knew that none of this was over. She could feel it in her bones. She had crawled through a tree into another dimension. There couldn't possibly be a whole other world out there with only one creature living inside of it. There were others out there, she just knew it. She didn't know when or if they would come, but if they did, she wanted to be ready.

It had been Elizabeth's second morning in the hospital when Hopper had come to visit her. To explain what exactly had happened to her and Will, and everybody else involved. He told her about Will's friends finding Eleven in the woods, him and Joyce infiltrating the lab, Will's fake body and funeral, when Nancy, Jonathon and Steve had fought the Demogorgon, and finally how he and Joyce had come to find them in the Upside Down. He also explained that she could never discuss it with anybody outside of those who had experienced it, including her father.

The official story was that Barbara had run away from home and not come back, that Will had been lost in the woods, and that Elizabeth had run away and been hiding in the woods before she was attacked by an animal and was found the same day as Will. If anybody ever asked her about what happened, she wasn't supposed to say any more than that. Everybody would suffer the consequences if she did. Considering very few people ever talked to her at all, Elizabeth didn't think it would be a problem to keep her mouth shut.

Elizabeth was released from the hospital before Will was. She had been suffering from extreme exhaustion and dehydration, a few bruised ribs, and a mild concussion, but a few days of sleep and IV administered fluids had her well enough to go home at the very least. Whatever had been inside of Will though had caused some sort of illness, and he remained there for a few extra days. Elizabeth was there every day to visit him, accompanied by Joyce and Jonathon and at least one of his friends. Even being out of immediate danger, Elizabeth could never shake the feeling that they weren't out of danger yet and had been so ingrained with the instinct to protect him that it felt wrong to leave his side.

Her relationship with her dad seemed to change the first few days, but after he seemed convinced she wasn't going to drop dead in the middle of his living room, he slowly pulled back to his old ways. He had gone back to working regularly, which meant drinking regularly. The first time he woke her up at four in the morning from throwing up loudly in the bathroom next to her, knocking who-knows-what off the counters in the process, Elizabeth had simply rolled over in her bed and pulled her blanket over her ears to block the sounds out. If she had ever thought that the scare of losing his daughter only a few short years after his wife would have scared him into getting his life together, she never said it out loud.

"Shut that damn thing off," she heard her father call lazily as she walked out of her bedroom. It sounded like he hadn't left the bathroom floor the night before. Must have been a bad night.

"It's already off," she replied as she entered the bathroom, kicking her dad's leg out of the way so she could stand in front of the sink and turn the water on. "You're just hearing the ringing in your head."

Her dad grumbled to himself about nothing in particular, pushing himself to his feet while Elizabeth brushed her teeth and washed her face before school. He placed a hand briefly on her shoulder before walking out of the room, though it was anyone's guess whether it was meant to be comforting or if he was just trying to keep himself from falling over on his way to pass out in his bed.

Elizabeth stared in the mirror after drying her face, her hands planted on either side of the sink. She looked exhausted. Dark blue-black bags sagged under her eyes, tangled hair hung around her face, and her cheeks looked sunken in. Frankly, she looked like the walking dead. She knew if she just let herself sleep and eat on a regular schedule it would probably clear up eventually. If she cared more she probably could have tried to cover the dark bags under her eyes with makeup at least, but she didn't. The only people that mattered knew what she had been through and wouldn't comment on how rough she looked. At least she hoped they didn't. She really didn't feel like explaining anything to anyone today.

Elizabeth returned to her room and covered her messy hair with a knit beanie before slipping her trusty denim jacket over her sweater. If she was lucky, everyone would just ignore her like they always had.

—

Elizabeth sat in her car for a long time. Long enough that she thought she might be late for first period before finally making herself step out of the car. If she was late she would only draw more attention to herself, and that was the last thing she wanted today. Though she had decided that she didn't necessarily want to be completely alone anymore, it didn't mean she suddenly wanted every teenager in Hawkins staring at her either. She just hoped that she had been invisible enough before that nobody even noticed she had been gone for three weeks and simply ignored her as she walked into the school now.

Sadly, that wasn't the case.

Elizabeth's shoulders were tensed practically up to her chin as she walked through the halls of Hawkins High, her eyes firmly on the floor in front of her until she made it to her locker. She could hear the hushed voices around her, calling her a ghost or a freak. People saying how stupid she was for getting lost in the woods for an entire week. How they thought the animal attack was a cover story. That maybe she had been the one to kidnap Will and keep him trapped in the woods. Any and every rumor they could come up with, she heard it whispered as she passed by them.

She pulled her locker open, briefly wondering if she hit her head against the metal hard enough if she could get out of school again for the next two weeks before break.

"Hey, Lizzie."

Elizabeth took a deep breath before peeking around her locker door to see who was talking to her. She let out a small sigh of relief when she saw that it was just Steve. "Hey."

Steve smiled at her, moving to lean against the lockers on her left side so he wouldn't have to talk to her through her locker door. His smile faltered when he got a good look at her face — specifically how exhausted she looked. "You look like shit."

"Gee, thanks," she scoffed, slamming her locker closed after retrieving her chemistry textbook. "That's exactly the kind of compliment I was hoping to start my day with."

"You know what I mean. Have you been sleeping?"

"Of course I've been sleeping," she lied with a roll of her eyes. "Everything's been so peachy since I got home, how could I not? My life is great."

Steve stopped her from walking away from the conversation with a gentle hand on her shoulder, leaning down slightly to meet her at eye level to show he was serious. "I mean it, Liz. Don't pull away again. I just wanna make sure you're okay."

Elizabeth chewed on the inside of her cheek, glancing at the students passing by them who were stopping to watch them. "Sorry," she muttered in a hushed tone. "I'm fine. Can we talk about this later? People are staring."

Steve seemed to only notice the people looking when she pointed it out. "So what? I'm just checking on my friend."

"Yeah," she scoffed, stepping away from him just enough that his hand fell from her shoulder. "It's just that to these people I'm the freak back from the dead and you're King Steve and we have no reason to talk to each other and I already have enough attention on me as it is and I don't want —"

"You're rambling again."

Elizabeth closed her eyes and released a breath of air through her nostrils, trying to calm herself down. "Sorry. I'm not trying to be an asshole. It's just hard to go from people barely realizing you exist to having the entire town down your throat."

Steve grabbed Elizabeth by the hand and started dragging her down the hallway, ignoring her quiet protests. Once he had her in front of the janitor's closet, he looked around to make sure nobody was watching before pushing her inside, closing the door behind them after joining her. "There, now nobody sees us together. Better?"

"You're insane," Elizabeth huffed instead of answering.

"Yeah, says the girl volunteered to stay in an alternate dimension. Doesn't really mean so much coming from you."

Elizabeth narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms across her chest. "You're never gonna let that go, are you?"

"Never," he agreed with a nod. "Now will you please tell me what's going on with you? The truth."

Elizabeth tugged her hat down tighter against her head, subconsciously trying to make herself less visible. "Really, I'm fine. I mean, I will be, I guess. It's just… I don't know, Steve," she sighed. "You don't really just go through what I did and then it's over. I can't stop thinking about it. The things I saw, and heard, and smelled… Sometimes it's like I never left. Like I'm gonna turn around and see that thing right behind me and I can't just go to sleep because then I won't know it's coming and I won't be —"

"Calm down," he cut her off for the second time that day, placing his hands back on her shoulders. "Lizzie, just breathe, okay? It's over. You're home, and you never have to go back there."

"But how do you know that?" she insisted. "You didn't see it, Steve. It wasn't just one monster. It was a whole world over there. Do you really think that the Demogorgon was the only thing there? Doesn't it make more sense to assume that there could be more of them? And how do we know they can't come back?"

"I don't know! Look, I get it, it was —"

"No you don't, Steve. You don't get it, nobody does! None of you get it. I went to hell and back and now I'm supposed to just write an essay about why Daisy Buchanan was the real villain of the Great Gatsby like I wasn't swatted around like a fly by a monster that was killed by a 12 year old girl with superpowers? I mean, what the hell am I even doing here?"

Steve sighed through his nose, running his hand back through his hair as he took a step back. Honestly, he didn't really have an answer for that. "Listen, I know that… that I don't really understand. But what's important is that you're still here, right? I know everything just going back to normal is weird, it's weird for all of us. I want to help you, I just don't know what to do."

Elizabeth wrapped her arms tighter around her middle and shrugged. "I don't know either."

The two stood in silence for only a moment longer before they heard the bell ring outside the closet, signaling they only had a few minutes before the start of their first class of the day.

"Look," Steve said. "I know it isn't gonna be easy, but we have to try to just be regular teenagers. I think it would be easier for us to do that together. I'm having lunch with Nancy today, why don't you sit with us?"

"You want me to third wheel with you and your girlfriend? That won't be weird at all."

"See? You're making jokes already," Steve smiled reassuringly. "I knew I could cheer you up."

"Yeah," Elizabeth scoffed, though the slow-growing grin on her face showed that she didn't mean any malice. "I'm basically cured. Thanks, Steve."

"Just think about lunch," he said as he opened the closet door to make his way out.

Elizabeth watched him leave, waiting for a minute to make sure she wasn't seen leaving at the same time before following. If she was actually going to take him up on his offer for lunch, she didn't need any other reason for people to stare.

—

Elizabeth walked out of the lunch line, her tray squeezed so tightly between her hands it was starting to shake, doing a sweep of the cafeteria to see where Steve was sitting. She figured people were going to stare and gossip anyway, she might as well be with a friend while they did so. When she finally spotted him, she saw him sitting next to Nancy at a table in the back corner of the cafeteria. Normally she would have seen Tommy and Carol with the pair, but she had been told that the trio had finally split after the whole spray painting incident.

Steve spotted her staring and waved her over, offering a small smile. Nancy did the same when she realized who he was waving at. Elizabeth made her way between the lunch tables, careful not to trip over any feet sticking out as she walked.

"Hey, Liz," Steve greeted as she sat, his mouth full of food. "Glad you came."

Nancy smacked his shoulder. "That's gross, Steve. Swallow before you speak."

"You still haven't learned that?" Elizabeth laughed as she started picking at a bread roll on her plate. She wasn't really hungry. "Steve always used to talk with his mouth full when we were kids. Our parents hated it."

"If I have something to say, I'm gonna say it," Steve argued with a small shrug.

"So, you guys were close as kids?" Nancy asked. "I hope it doesn't sound mean, but I just can't picture it."

"Oh, yeah," Steve nodded. "It was pretty funny how we met."

"Ugh, please do not tell Nancy that story."

"Come on! It's funny!"

"She's gonna think I'm a lunatic."

"As she should," Steve said before turning to Nancy. "Okay, so basically Liz was really good friends with this girl, Rachel. Rachel goes up and tells her one day that Steve had pushed her off the monkey bars at recess."

"I was just trying to be a good friend," Elizabeth explained.

"So Lizzie comes up to me the next day at school, 6 years old and stomping right up to me when I was on top of the playground fortress, you know the castle thing?"

"It was barely four feet off the ground."

"It was a lot taller at the time."

"It has never changed height."

"Fine, it seemed a lot taller at the time. Anyway, she comes right up to me and says, 'Are you Steve?'"

"You could have said no."

"But I am Steve! So as soon I said that yeah, I'm Steve, she grabs me by the shirt and just pushes me! Right off the playground!"

"Again, it was like a four foot drop."

"You could have killed me."

"Wait," Nancy finally cut in. "So you pushed a girl off the monkey bars?"

"No!" Steve insisted. "Turns out, Rachel was talking about Steven Dobbins, not me. Which Lizzie should have known, that Steve was an asshole."

"So were you," Elizabeth said.

"I'm sorry, aren't you the one who pushed me off the playground?"

"I apologized," Elizabeth explained, mostly to Nancy. "And not just because my parents told me I had to. I even used my allowance to buy Steve a Hershey's bar."

"She bribed me so my parents wouldn't sue her," Steve said in a fake whisper to Nancy.

"Whatever," Elizabeth laughed.

"Anyway, that's how we became friends."

"Wow," Nancy chuckled. "You're right that is a good story. What made you guys grow apart?"

Elizabeth looked briefly to Steve before suddenly finding the food on her plate very interesting. Thankfully Steve spoke up so she wouldn't have to. "Oh, just different life courses, you know? Normal kid stuff, nothing crazy."

Nancy seemed to accept the answer, though it was fairly plain on her face that she suspected there was more to the story. Elizabeth was grateful when she didn't press the issue.

"Speaking of," Elizabeth chimed in towards Steve. "I know your parents are normally gone for Christmas, so I was wondering if you wanted to come to my place? I know my dad isn't really the most fun to be around, but you used to come over all the time for holidays, and at least you wouldn't be alone."

Nancy and Steve shared a look before Steve said, "Oh, uh, I appreciate the offer. But I was actually gonna spend Christmas with Nancy's family."

"You're welcome to join us," Nancy added quickly. "My family loves having people over, I'm sure they would be happy to have you."

Elizabeth tried her best not to appear awkward as she laughed it off. "Oh no, that's okay. I, uh, wouldn't wanna leave my dad by himself, and he doesn't do well around… anybody, really. Thanks, though."

"I could come by after?" Steve offered.

"Don't be silly," Elizabeth waved her hand dismissively. "Seriously, it's fine. Spend Christmas with your girlfriend. I was just trying to be nice. I'll be good."

"If you change your mind," Nancy said, "you're welcome at my place. Honestly, all of Mike's friends are coming over, so it'll be a full house anyway. Even Jonathon will be there with Will for a while."

"Yeah, okay," Elizabeth relented with a small smile. "I'll uh, I'll think about it."

An uncomfortable silence settled over the group. Elizabeth had little to no interest in the food on her plate, but found herself eating just to have an excuse to not talk for a while. Truthfully, she hadn't even considered that Steve would be with Nancy for Christmas. It was easy to forget that when she and Steve's friendship had been put on pause, that he hadn't just sat around for 5 years waiting for her to come back to him. He had actually gone off and still lived a normal life while she had all but become a hermit. He had other people in his life. They didn't do everything together anymore. She had been okay with that for a long time, so why did it suck so much now?

It wasn't much longer after that when the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. Elizabeth practically shot out of her seat. "Thanks for inviting me to lunch," Elizabeth said to the pair in front of her with a quick flash of a smile before grabbing her tray and darting off. It had been a long time since she'd had to socialize with people and she could tell it was definitely going to be a learning experience.

—

Elizabeth didn't go straight home after school. After her lunch with Steve and Nancy, she thought it would be a good idea to have backup next time. So instead of going home, she drove herself towards the Byers' house. She hadn't seen the family since the last time she visited Will in the hospital, so it had been a few days. When she pulled into the driveway, she was glad to see that the house looked much better on this side of the gate.

It didn't take long for someone to answer the door after she knocked. Joyce held the door open with a bright smile, immediately waving Elizabeth inside. "Hi, Elizabeth! What a nice surprise! The boys are in their rooms, but I can go get them for you."

"I hope I'm not intruding," Elizabeth said. "I probably should have called before showing up, but it was faster to just come straight here after school."

"You're never intruding, honey. You're always welcome here. Why don't you take a seat, and I'll get the boys."

"No need, I can go back to see them. I appreciate it, Miss Byers."

"I told you before," Joyce teased. "Just call me Joyce, honey. Are you staying for dinner? I was just about to start making something."

"Oh no, thank you. I honestly just wanted to check on Will, and I have a question for Jonathon." Joyce seemed to pause for a moment, and it caught Elizabeth's attention. "Is there something wrong?"

"No, not… well…" Joyce lifted a hand to her cheek, suddenly appearing uncomfortable. "It's just, we started taking Will to see a, uh, a doctor? Sort of a therapist? But we're trying to help Will realize that he's okay, and that everything is normal and okay again. Does that make sense?"

"I think so," Elizabeth said, hesitating slightly. "I promise I'm not talking to him about anything that happened. Trust me, it's not my favorite subject. It just… it helps when I see him. That he's okay. I'm sorry, I can stop checking on him if it's making things harder for him."

"No! No, not at all, honey. Like I said, you're always welcome here. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything."

"You don't have to apologize," Elizabeth assured her. "You're his mom. I know that you're doing everything you can to help him, and that he's safe here with you. It's, um, kind of for my own benefit, I guess. When I see that he's okay, that's he's home and he's happy, it reminds me that I'm home too."

Joyce smiled sadly. "Of course. Please, I always want you to feel safe here. Come by any time. Really."

Elizabeth nodded her thanks before moving through the hallway, knowing this house like the back of her hand after the amount of time she had spent in the alternate version. She went to Will's room first, knocking on the door to announce her presence before opening the door a few inches. "You in here, kid?"

Will yanked the door the rest of the way open, throwing himself against Lizzie's chest and wrapping his arms around her middle. "I've missed you," he mumbled against her sweater.

"I missed you too, kid." Elizabeth ran her hand over Will's head, smiling at him when he pulled away. "I just wanted to check in, see how you're doing. Have you gone back to school yet?"

Will shook his head, walking to sit down on his bed. Elizabeth took a few steps into the room, angling herself to be between him and the door without even realizing she was doing it. "Not yet. I'm supposed to go back tomorrow."

"You caught up on all the work you missed?"

"They excused a lot of it," he explained. "They said since I already had good grades that it was okay. I have to take the tests, but I don't have to do any of the quizzes or homework."

"Lucky," she laughed. "No such luck for me. I got a stack of papers as tall as you waiting for me."

"That doesn't seem fair," Will frowned.

"It's not so bad. I don't have to have it turned in until the end of the semester, so I have some time."

Will still didn't look impressed, but dropped the subject. "Are you staying for dinner?"

"Nah, like I told your mom, I just dropped in for a quick visit. I had a question for Jonathon and figured I would say hi while I was here."

"Oh," Will said, trying not to sound disappointed. He perked up quickly though when he had another idea. "Hey, remember that game I talked about playing with my friends?"

"Uh, I think so? The one with the dragons?"

"Dungeons and Dragons," he corrected. "We're playing another campaign soon! Maybe you could come? We play it at Mike's house."

"You sure your friends want some boring teenager at one of their games?" Elizabeth laughed. "Especially a girl teenager? I'm pretty sure your party is a boys only club."

"Oh, yeah," Will mumbled.

Elizabeth could tell the kid was just trying to come up with something they could do together. It was sweet, honestly. "Tell you what," she offered. "How about this weekend I pick up you and your friends and take all of you to the arcade? You said you guys like going there, right?"

"Yeah! That would be fun!"

"Then it's a deal. Talk to your mom about it, and your friends. Here." She walked towards the small desk in his room where his backpack was, finding a piece of scrap paper and a pencil. "This is my phone number. Call me Saturday morning, and tell me what time to pick you up. Sound good?"

Will ran from the bed to the desk, grabbing the paper from her hands as soon as she finished writing and held it close. "Yeah. Sounds good. Thanks, Lizzie."

"You're welcome. I gotta go, but I'll see you then, okay?"

"Okay."

Elizabeth tousled Will's hair one more time before waving goodbye, stepping out of his room and towards Jonathon's. She could hear music playing quietly through the door as she got closer, and smiled when she realized she recognized it. Pushing the door open quietly, she spotted Jonathon sitting at his desk with his back to her bent over and scribbling away in the paper in front of him. His head moved in time with the music, and if she strained her ears she could hear him quietly singing along.

"So, Will introduced you to Journey, huh?"

Jonathon nearly jumped out of his chair, spinning around to see who had joined him in the room. When he saw it was just Elizabeth he huffed and brushed his mussed hair away from his forehead. "Jesus, a little warning next time?"

"Sorry," she chuckled. "I couldn't resist."

Jonathon turned the music down until it was just background noise. "So, what's up?"

Elizabeth glanced around the room, ignoring the itchy feeling at the back of her neck that told her to close the curtains and hide in the closet. The last time she had been in this room she was hiding from the Demogorgon, Will tucked behind her back as she wielded nothing but a flimsy lamp as a weapon. She could hear it growling, scratching at the walls, trying to get in. It was going to take her, take Will, it was going to get to them eventually, it was —

"Are you okay?"

Elizabeth's attention snapped back to Jonathon and she forced a smile. "Yeah. Sorry, just, um. I was going to ask you for a favor." Jonathon nodded to show he was listening and she continued. "I don't know what you normally do at lunch, but I was gonna ask if you wanted to sit with me tomorrow?"

"Um." Jonathon rubbed the back of his neck shyly. "I guess so?"

Elizabeth felt compelled to explain herself. "It's just that, I always sat by myself at lunch, you know, before? But Steve and Nancy asked me to sit with them today, and it was fine, but they're a couple and I kind of felt like a third wheel and I think it would just be better if someone else was there and you're kind of the only other person I know so… yeah."

"You ramble a lot."

"Yeah," she chuckled. "I know."

Jonathon sighed, rubbing his arms now. She assumed it was a nervous tic he had. "Yeah, sure. I'll be there."

"Thanks. That, uh. That was it. Bye."

Elizabeth left the room quickly after that, waving at Joyce in the kitchen on her way out of the house. She didn't breathe again until she was back in her car, resting her forehead against the steering wheel. She didn't realize how much it would affect her being back in that place. Logically, she knew it was different. She wasn't really back there, just this dimension's version of it. It had just felt so familiar, she could have sworn she actually heard the monster just outside the window.

"This fucking blows," she whispered to herself, sitting up with a sigh and starting the ignition. She needed something to help her calm down. She just couldn't go through like like this, constantly terrified of whatever might be around the corner.

Her mind drifted to her dad's not-so-secret stash of liquor he kept in the kitchen cabinet beneath the sink. Shaking her head to clear the thought, she finally pulled out of the Byers' driveway and started the drive home. She didn't want to turn into her dad.