Stranger Things: Rebuilding
Chapter 10 of my Stranger Things story, enjoy.
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Now onto the story.
Disclaimer: I don't own Stranger Things or its characters.
Lost
"Miss Hopper."
El started and bit her lip, looking up at the teacher's disapproving face.
'Oh shit, um, what class is this…?' She thought frantically.
She tried to ignore the eyes on her, not all of them friendly, a few only amused because truly, who wasn't amused by someone getting called out in class for not paying attention. The boys and Max gave her anxious looks though.
'Uh, Miss Edwards…' El noted. 'We're all in class, so, this is Maths.'
"Glad to see you've decided to rejoin us." Miss Edwards said dryly. "May I ask why you're the only one who hasn't started working?"
El grimaced, looking down at her still closed textbook and seeing everybody else had their book open.
"S-sorry Miss Edwards." She said, praying she wasn't blushing.
To her relief Miss Edwards merely sighed and shook her head.
"Do please try to concentrate Miss Hopper, we don't want you falling behind." She said gently before repeating her instructions for El's benefit.
El quickly got her book open to the right page and began to work. But it wasn't easy as the reason for her distraction threatened to bring said distraction back to the forefront of her mind. The reason for her distraction was of course that dream, that sweet, wonderful, jarringly confusing dream.
'The weird thing is...Eric being replaced by Mike isn't even...it doesn't feel all that weird.' She thought to herself. 'Although it did make things awkward this morning.'
That morning had been tricky, as she couldn't even say hello to Mike without blushing. Luckily nothing seemed to come of it.
As the class ended that day, Mike couldn't help himself, he glanced over at El and bit his lip, wondering what she was thinking about right now.
'C'mon, don't be stupid, you know what she's thinking...She's thinking about Eric Gibson.' He told himself harshly. 'Now stop dwelling on it and being such a masochist...but why did she, why was she…?'
Despite telling himself otherwise, he couldn't not think about it, mainly, about how El reacted around him that morning. The way she'd blushed but still tried to act so calm and normal. He suppressed a groan as he left the class, spotting El heading to her next class.
"Mike."
He started and turned to see Dustin, Lucas and Will watching him, all with sympathetic gazes.
"Guys…"
Lucas spoke up. "Look, we're just trying to help you. We get that you're...upset."
"I'm not upset, just, tired." Mike protested.
Dustin sighed. "Mike c'mon, you can be honest with us man. It's because El was daydreaming wasn't it. Thinking about, that other guy."
"We know you like her, Mike." Will added. "It's written all over your face."
Mike froze at that, dread filling him. He immediately began to fear, was his crush that obvious, could everyone see it, could El? He didn't even want to consider what might happen if that was the case, didn't want to imagine what she'd think. The thought of potentially losing her friendship over this terrified him.
He swallowed nervously.
"I...it is?" He asked anxiously.
Will quickly added. "Don't worry. El hasn't noticed…"
"Because she's too busy thinking about Eric Gibson." Mike finished glumly.
"Dude, we told you, go talk to her, tell you how you feel. You might be surprised." Dustin interjected.
Mike shook his head and sighed. "It's...it's not that simple, besides, I-"
He cut himself off, trying to stifle a yawn, which the others noticed.
"Mike?"
He quickly recovered. "I told you, I'm tired, that's it, that's all."
He didn't want to have to admit the dark truth to them. They already had an inkling that his parents were in a tense spot with their marriage, whenever they came over to play DnD his parents were civil to each other, but it was impossibly to miss the underlying tension. He didn't want them to know just how bad it was, or worse, find out that he felt it was his fault.
Instead he tried to change the subject. "So um...you guys still up for coming over on Saturday?"
He saw the dubious looks they shared, but to his relief they just nodded.
"Sure." Will agreed. "We'll be there."
Lucas then added. "Maybe we should invite Max and El?"
Mike pondered for a moment, worried there might be some ulterior motive behind Lucas' words. But the way he said it didn't seem to hint at it.
"If they're free, sure, we can ask them." Mike said at last.
"Cool." Dustin chimed in. "Just remember though, plans might change."
They all agreed to that and made their way to their next class, Mike's mind still full of the awkwardness of what he had just learned.
Meanwhile El was making her way to her own class, really the only class she had without any of her friends in it. She tried to stay focus, she didn't want to embarrass herself again by wandering into another daydream.
'Especially when that dream was so confusing, but...focus on that first part, what was I doing there, dressed like that, was it...oh but that's ridiculous.' She chided herself for getting her hopes up.
She readjusted the strap of her backpack and continued to make her way down the corridor. That was when it happened, she felt the eyes on her and then heard the annoying voice.
"Aww, if it isn't little Jane, all alone, huh?"
She rolled her eyes and barely even glanced at Stacey as she passed her.
Stacey smirked. "What's the matter, don't have your little friends to talk for you?"
El simply continued to ignore her and walked on, that turned out to be her best move as it served to frustrate Stacey and get her worked up, making her look foolish in comparison to El.
"Hey, don't you dare ignore me you bitch." Stacey snapped.
"You're pathetic and desperate." El casually replied. "Without Jessica and the rest of your group to back you up, you're a pathetic airhead who can't do anything right."
With that she didn't wait for Stacey to even attempt to reply and simply walked off. Well, at least it stopped her obsessing over her dream for a while, she took that as a good thing and prepared for the rest of the day.
End of chapter, hope you enjoyed it, read and review please.