Joyce looked up from the papers in front of her to see Will and El walk into the house, El slamming the front door as she rushed to her room. As expected, though, Joyce never heard her own door shut. But something was off about her. In the quick second Joyce got to see her, her face was flushed red, and her hands shook as she wiped hair from her face. Was something wrong? Or was Joyce just seeing things?

Will watched El go, clearly concerned, but made his way to the kitchen table, where he sat patiently but nervously. Joyce knew that something was going on, El never went to her room like that, rarely ever looked like that, and she rushed to finish the call, saying a short goodbye to the customer on the line. Will played with the pencil on the table as she sighed sympathetically, catching his eye and holding onto his hand.

"Is everything okay? What happened? I've never seen El so…"

"Angry? Upset?" Will asked, and she nodded. "It's the bully's again."

Joyce closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. "I tell you, I'm going to find their parents and tell them exactly what they are doing to her. This has gone on long enough." She grabbed the phone book and began flipping through the names, anxious to find one of the bully's names that Will revealed to her.

"Mom! Can you deal with that later? El needs you."

Joyce's fingers hovered over the pages at the words. She looked back at him, setting the phone book down.

"Okay. Right, what happened?"

Will looked around the room, as if finding the right words to explain it.

"You know how we had to choose a hero and make a presentation?"

She nodded. "Yeah, didn't El choose Hopper?" Her voice broke at the name, but Will didn't comment on it.

"She did. But…it all went wrong. Everyone laughed at her. She was crying and I didn't know what to do. Apparently she did the assignment wrong, too, which I couldn't believe."

"Is that why she's so upset?"

"No." Will's jaw began to shake with pent up emotion, and he couldn't stop thinking about El on the ground, watching them laugh and destroy the thing she poured her heart into. About the pain and sadness on her face as she could do nothing to stop them.

Joyce waited for his response, so he pushed the thoughts away.

"They destroyed her diorama. All of it. They tripped her and broke it, stomping on it, too… I told her that she could fix it, but…" He shook his head. "I've never seen her so upset."

Joyce's breath hitched. "Oh, no…"

"Hopper's figurine was snapped in half. She was so…I just wish I would've been there for her." He finally broke, and tears started to slide down his cheeks. He quickly brushed them away, but Joyce saw every one.

Joyce got up and kissed his forehead, shushing him. "It's going to be okay, Will, I promise. Do you want a hug?"

"No…just go help her. Please."

She nodded. "Alright. I'll do my best."

With that said, she made her way to the young girl's room, heart heavy. El didn't deserve this. She had already gone through so much, had to face hundreds of difficulties, monsters, experimentation, losing her dad… and yet she had another struggle to face. Joyce had a feeling that these bullies would be hard to beat, but she would sure try. She would do everything she could to make them stop, and comfort El.

She may not be very good at beating monsters, but she was the best at being a mom.

El felt tears fall down onto her cheeks as she clutched the wooden Hopper in her hand, the top half of his body held on tightly by her paling fingers. She tried to suppress her sobs as she rocked back and forth on her bed, the laughs and jeers of her classmates echoing in her ears, over and over again. The sight of the F on her exam flashing in front of her eyes, and closing them never helped. Nothing ever helped.

The destroyed diorama sat on her desk, the small cabin unrecognizable. The walls weren't there, the tripwire was off of its tree, and El could barely breathe. She couldn't even find Mr. Fibley.

Everything was ruined. And it was all her fault.

If she was normal she wouldn't have to deal with she was normal she would be treated like everyone else and not someone who didn't belong. If she was normal they wouldn't have had to have moved to California. If she was normal, Hopper would still be here. Hawkins would have never been in as much danger if she would have just stayed in the lab. If she wasn't in the lab at all. If she didn't exist.

Maybe she should have died when she was born. It would've been easier for everyone.

A soft knock broke her out of her mind, and she opened her eyes. When did she close them? Did she really hurt that much?

Her heart clenched as she saw the destroyed Hopper in her hands.

It did.

"Honey? Are you okay?"

Joyce stood by the door, her smile clearly fake and sad. Her eyes looked at her with understanding. El cried even more at the woman standing before her. She would hate her. She ruined everything, why couldn't she just be normal?

"Oh, baby, it's going to be fine." Joyce said, coming in and sitting on the bed beside her, wrapping her in a side hug. El melted into the embrace, sobbing into her shoulder. Joyce rubbed her back comfortingly, hoping to help her heal.

"I'm sorry." El whispered through her sobs, "I'm not normal. It's all my fault they hate me, I deserve it."

"Shh, honey, it's not your fault. You don't deserve any of this. Those people are bullies, it has nothing to do with you."

"How do you know that? I'm a freak! They all know it! Of course they hate me!" El screamed, pulling away from the embrace. Her eyes were red and full of tears, her fists were clenched as she got up, the wooden Hopper falling to the floor.

"Honeyー"

"No! Friends don't lie!"

"El, they don't like you because you're new. They've known all of their friends and classmates since they were born, and you just got here." Joyce tried to explain, speaking gently. "They don't know about Brenner or the lab. They couldn't."

"But, they don't hate Will. And he's new! They know that it's my fault."

"What's your fault, honey? The bullying?"

"Everything! Hawkins, the Upside Down, the bullying, everything!"

El collapsed against the bed, clinging to the bedsheets desperately, leaning against it as if she didn't have the strength to stand.

"Hopper…he's dead because of me, too." El muttered, into the sheets, tears running onto the blankets.

Joyce didn't know what to say to that. How long had she been thinking like this? Blaming herself for everything that went wrong, for Hopper's death? How long had she been suffering with this?

The young girl was sobbing, and Joyce came down to her level, resting her hand on El's shoulder.

"None of that was your fault. I don't care that you opened the gates, or that you were raised in a lab, or that you had superpowers. It wasn't your fault. It was Brenner's. Hopper wouldn't want you to think like this. He would never, ever blame you. Trust me, I know."

El looked at her through tear-filled eyes, her body shaking with suppressed sobs. "Really?"

She nodded. "Really. And I know he would be so, so sorry that you're being bullied. He would do everything in his power to get them to stop, so I'm going to do the same, okay?"

"Okay."

Joyce pulled her into another hug, holding on until El's cries slowed and her breathing became steady. As they embraced, Joyce looked at the destroyed diorama on the desk and the Hopper figurine on the floor with sadness, knowing how El poured her heart into the project.

As they parted, Joyce gave her a sad smile. "How about I take a day off tomorrow and we can fix your diorama together? You and Will can stay home from school and we can watch some television, too."

El nodded with a small smile. "That would be nice. Thank you."

"Of course, sweety. Do you want to help me with supper? Maybe have an Eggo to keep you full until it's ready?"

"Okay."

"Okay. Let's go." Joyce helped El get to her feet and led her into the kitchen, where she took a couple of Eggos out of the freezer and into the toaster. El sat at the table, rubbing away the tears on her cheeks.

Will soon came to sit beside her, and his silent presence helped ground her, keep her from the disastrous thoughts that she knew would come.

But, for now, they stayed away. Joyce's bustling in the kitchen, the burnt smell as she managed to burn the treat, and Will's constant steadiness reminded her that she wasn't alone, and that she was loved.

The people at school may have hated her, but despite everything she had done, or what she was, she had people who cared for her.

The diorama may have been broken, but it could be fixed and get better. And El found it in herself to believe that maybe, with Joyce and Will's help, everything could get better, too.

It's what Hopper would've wanted. And her dad always wanted what was best for her.