El yawned as she entered her house. It had been a long day at school. Will had been helpful getting her all caught up, but despite that, she was still a year behind where she should have been, but that wasn't too bad. Will was still at school for AV club, Jonathan and Joyce were at work, so El got to have some time to herself.

She made a quick after-school snack - an Eggo with peanut butter - before she went into her room and threw herself on the bed so she could relax for a bit before she started on her homework. She was especially having trouble with science and history lately. If Will wasn't there to help her, she probably would have already flunked out of her classes. He was a good brother, and she was happy to have brothers now. A bigger family. It was good, but she didn't know if the cost of her new life was worth it.

She had lost her dad. She had lost Mike. Mike wasn't really gone, but he was a two and a half hour drive away. That was ten hours by bike. Thirty-five hours by foot. They talked at least twice a week, but that didn't matter. She still missed seeing him every day. She knew Will missed him too, and Jonathan missed Nancy. It was hard, but they all kept busy, so that made it easier.

El finished her snack and pulled out an essay she needed to work on after turning the radio on when the phone rang. With an annoyed sigh, she got off her bed and went into the living room to get the phone before the ringing stopped. She paused in front of the phone for half a second and held out her hand, willing the phone to spring into her hand. It didn't, and she picked up the phone.

"Hello?" she said.

"Yeah, is this the Byers residence?" a voice asked. The man on the other end of the line asked. He sounded impatient and almost annoyed, like her answering the phone was a hindrance to him.

"Yes," she said.

"Who am I speaking with?" the man demanded.

"Someone in the Byers family, Maurey," El snapped.

Maurey paused, processing the information before continuing, "This is El, isn't it? Sorry, kid, I just wanted to make sure that I had the right number. Is Joyce there?"

"She's at work," El answered. "Won't be back until tonight."

"Right," Maurey said. "Look, just let her know that I called."

"Why?" El asked. "Why did you call?"

"That's between Joyce and me and I would appreciate it if you stayed out of it, understand?" Maurey demanded.

El fixed her lower lip into a scowl, and despite how displeased she was with Maurey's demand, she was reluctant to agree to his terms. After that, he hung up on her. She glared at the phone before she slammed the phone against the receiver and stormed off to do her homework.

"Suzie, come on!" Dustin said, unable to keep the whine out of his voice despite his best efforts.

"I'm sorry, Dusty Bun," Suzie sighed through Cerebro. "You know what I said about my parents. They're grounding me from...well...everything. They're taking my radio, my comics. My life is soon to be confined to school and Young Women's. I wanted to let you know. I just had to explain, so you understood."

"Young Women's?" Dustin asked. "What the hell is Young Women's?"

"Dusty, my parents are just outside. Don't use profanity. The last thing I need is for my parents to lecture me about how vulgar language is degrading and harmful," she chided him.

"Right, sorry," Dustin said. "What's Young Women's?"

"It's a youth group for my church," Suzie sighed. "We aren't supposed to date until we're sixteen so...my parents are pretty upset. I have to go to appointments with my bishop and repent as well."

"Repent?" Dustin asked. "For what?"

"For going against our doctrines, Dusty Bun," Suzie explained. "I've sinned, and if I ever want to be married in the temple, I need to make it right."

"Married in the temple?" Dustin asked slowly. "Why does it matter where you get married? And why are you concerned with getting married right now? You're fifteen, Suzie."

"Well, the temple is where you can get sealed to your family, and they do things like baptisms for the dead and endowment ceremonies. It's a beautiful place, really."

Dustin was at a loss for words. He never really asked Suzie more about her religion because he'd never cared. Now that he was hearing more about it, he was starting to feel uncomfortable. "Your church does baptisms on dead bodies?"

"Of course not," Suzie scoffed. "It's baptisms for people who have died, yes, but it's more a ceremony for their spirit. I'm sure there are missionaries around that would be happy to explain more to you."

"Yeah, I'll look into it," Dustin said, although he had no desire to do anything of the sort.

Suzie must have sensed the lie in his voice because she said, "I'm sure it's strange to you, but our faith is important to our family."

"But I'll talk to you again soon, right?" Dustin asked. "Just because we can't be together it doesn't mean we can't be friends, right?"

"I don't think that would be such a good idea. That would just make this harder," Suzie said. "You still have my heart, Dusty Bun."

The line went dead, and despite Dustin's efforts to get Suzie back on Cerebro, it was no use. He was sad and felt so alone. He wasn't expecting for him and Suzie to break up. It was perhaps for the best. A long distance relationship was hard, and they were still young. Everything would be fine, he didn't doubt that, but he felt like his world was falling apart.

The sound of Mike calling him through their walkies startled him, and it was then that he didn't want to cry. He was crying. He took a moment to collect himself before he answered, "Hey Mike, what's up?"

"Hey Dustin, are you busy? I finished with my homework early, and I was wondering if I could borrow Cerebro for a bit. Maybe we could hit up the comic book store after?"

Dustin bit his lip, fighting the urge to say that love was a lie, and eventually Mike would end up hurt like him. No, Dustin wanted to keep it to himself for a while. Maybe talk to Steve. If any of his friends would understand, then Steve would. He didn't need to bring Mike down with this.

"Sure thing, bud," Dustin replied. "I'll meet you at Cerebro."

Nancy had fought literal monsters, brought down Hawkins lab, and sold the story about the 'rabid rats' from the previous year to the Indianapolis Star, where she and Jonathan both had an internship set up next summer. It would be amazing. A summer with just her and Jonathan in the city.

Not that it would matter if she died before then.

"Mom, please understand why I can't do what you're asking," Nancy pleaded.

Karen Wheeler rolled her eyes and said, "Nancy, it's one Friday night for an hour at the most. I really don't think it'll kill you to drive with Mike."

"I'm not going to be driving, though, mom," Nancy said. "You can't expect me to trust him behind the wheel."

"I said the same thing about you," Karen said. "Look, I'm trusting you and Mike alone, but your dad and I can just call off the trip if it's too much for you."

"Mom, stop," Nancy said. "It's your guy's anniversary, and Nana was so excited to get the week with Holly. You can't cancel your trip. I'll do Mike's stupid driving hours, but if he crashes the car, you'd better kill him and not me."

Karen thanked her daughter before she got back to putting away the leftovers, and Nancy went upstairs to do her homework. After she finished with her math and science, she decided to get back to work on one of her college application essays. Early admission was going to be coming up in the next month.

She lost track of time after her mom had told her to go to sleep and didn't realize how late it was until she looked at the clock, realizing it was almost two in the morning.

Nancy slipped into her pajamas and decided to open her window a crack so there would be a breeze. She paused when she noticed that someone was awake, walking the streets. Curiosity got the better of her and she waited for the person to step into the light, trying to guess who was out so late.

When she saw not who, but what was out there she had to stifle a gasp. Taking care to be quiet, she rushed out of her room and across the hall into Mike's. When she dragged him out of bed he was still half asleep.

"What's your damage, Nancy?" he yawned.

"Look there," Nancy ordered, pointing at the figure, who had passed into the shadows again.

Mike yawned again, but did as she asked. "It's probably just someone looking for his cat or whatever," he grumbled.

She hit him on the back of the head and that was enough to wake Mike up. He was about to retaliate, but then the thing stepped into the light. It was about six and a half feet tall with long arms and legs

"Please tell me you see it too," Nancy asked, staring as the thing sniffed around, looking for something.

"Demogorgon," Mike was all that Mike could manage to say.

so I had plans of doing chapters or episodes like there are in the show...but I'm not doing that so you're just going to get them as they come...kind of. I'm not organized enough for that. Also, I feel like some people might be upset about Dustin losing his first girlfriend like that because long distance relationships are hard AF and having been raised Mormon myself I can assure you that Suzie's parents reacting to her having a boyfriend before she's sixteen AND who isn't Mormon isn't a stretch. Honestly, I feel worse for Suzie than Dustin because I have been there. Anyway, feel free to leave a review or subscribe and let me know if you like where this is going or where you want it to go or whatever. I'd love to hear from you and I will catch you next time!