"El! We missed you so much!"

Lucas and Dustin went right at her. Will, however, stayed behind. He didn't know her except what Mike had said about her, that she had killed people.

"Uh, hi Eleven. My name's Will. Thanks for… uh.. saving my life."

"Will… Byers?"

"Yep, that's me."

"Will."

"...Yup..."

Eleven stuck out her hand.

"Greetings."

Hopper nearly died laughing. He'd explained how to greet someone earlier. Stick out your hand and say "Hello". Seemed she'd forgotten the "Hello" part. It needed work. Will held out his hand and they shook hands.

"Well that was awkward."

There went Dustin again making everyone laugh out loud.

They'd caught up with all that happened in the past few weeks and were sprawled out on Hop's floor chatting and watching TV together. El fit in perfectly as the 5th member of their party. Hopper smiled, looking at them all there. Laughing, having fun, spilling the bag of chips Dustin had brought all over the carpet. Hopper thought I'm never having kids again. Wait. I do have one. He had to figure out what to do with her. She needed safety from the Lab, education, a place to sleep that wasn't the sofa, and a way to just be a normal kid. She'd been wearing the same outfit for a month for crying out loud! Safety was #1, so he'd be setting up some ground rules. For the living situation he'd have to sacrifice and sleep on the sofa himself. So far so good. Education. He knew there was no way she could survive a real school, so she'd need a tutor. Someone OK with teaching a fugitive.

"Hey guys?"

5 heads turned around.

"Is there a teacher that could tutor Eleven that's completely OK working with a fugitive?"

4 heads all said in unison:

"Mr. Clark!"

And that's how he ended up here, at Hawkins Middle. He hadn't been here since Will had gone missing. AV room. AV room. Here it is. Opening the door, he saw the 4 boys and Mr. Clark messing with a radio.

"Can I talk to you for a second?"

"Yeah, Hop, what's up?"

"Alone." pointing to the 4 boys.

"Can I trust you to secretly tutor a kid, I'll pay you well. She's the boys' friend. I'm going to be looking after her for the next few months, possibly longer, and she's not up to an 8th grade level. I need to trust you to do this in secret. Can you?"

"Absolutely! I'm always encouraging the boys to learn and not taking this opportunity would severely undermine my influence in their lives."

Hopper huffed an "Oh boy."

"So you'll do it? Say 2 hours every Saturday starting Christmas Eve?"

"Yup. I guess I'll see her then."

They shook hands and parted ways. Hopper got back into his truck and tapped 3 times the steering wheel. Pat. Pat. Pat. Eleven sprung up from hiding.

"Will I learn?"

"Yup. A guy named Mr. Clark is going to be visiting every Saturday to help you learn."

"Where are friends?"

"They'll be out later. Let's get you some new clothes, that dress looks filthy."

"Filthy?"

"Like not clean. Mud. Stains. Stuff like that."

"Stains?"

Saturday could not come soon enough.

"This looks good."

Hopper held out a pair of overalls towards Eleven. Thrift stores were always deserted, so he thought it was OK to take Eleven inside, as long as she stuck close. She desperately needed new clothes, anyway.

"Yes."

"How about this?"

"Yes."

"You're only interested in that gumball machine, aren't you?"

Hopper knew she was really bored and wasn't listening to him. Maybe it would be OK to let her pick something out. She needed some level of freedom, right?

"How about you go over to the toy section and pick out a nice stuffed animal."

"For me?"

"Yeah."

And she was off. Running through the lines of clothes in a mud-caked dress and checkered hat that concealed her still short hair. Which one would it be? The Whale? Or the Rhino? Or maybe the mighty Elephant. Hopper glanced over to see her smiling, which made him smile too. He loved seeing her happy. She ran back over and plopped her choice into the basket.

"A rhino!"

"Yeah, kid. What are you going to name it?"

"Rhino."

Hopper saw another toy he knew she'd love, but she would have to wait until Christmas to open it. He plopped that into the basket and threw some new bedding on top of it. He then spotted something he'd have to return alone for.

"That'll be 16.76."

The zit-faced cashier didn't seem to mind at all that there was a girl caked in mud in front of him. Before long they were flying down the road back to Hopper's trailer. Mike and the gang would want to come over today, so he'd have to get her changed and clean up the spilled chips from yesterday.

"Change into these, and take a shower in there, OK?"

"Shower?"

"You know, get clean?" Throwing her a soap.

"Just turn the handle and you'll figure the rest out."

Hopper watched her enter the bathroom and he waited to hear the water go on before cleaning up Dustin's mess. Man, this kid eats a lot of chips. A few minutes later and Eleven was sitting, reading a book in a clean room. The doorbell rang.

"Chief? It's me, Steve!"