Mouthbreather Hopper. He thinks he can control me? No happy drink, no Mike? I'll show him. Eleven opened the window of her bedroom and ran out, into the night.
"El?"
Hopper knocked on her door.
"I'm sorry for last night. Being a little mean to Mike and you. It's just, I don't want anything to happen. OK, kid?"
There was silence on the other side of the door.
"Kid?"
Hopper opened the door to an empty room with an open window. All he could think about was someone taking her. He ran around to the outside of the window. One set of tracks. She'd just run away herself. Hopper grabbed his and Eleven's jackets and followed the tracks in the snow.
The Supercomm crackled to life beside Mike.
"Hey Mike, now that Eleven's back are you still coming to the Snowball tomorrow night?"
"I don't know. Hopper seemed pretty pissed that I was there with just Eleven last night."
"You promised her, Mike.!"
"Shut up, Dustin!"
He retracted his antenna and got out of bed. Ahhh. First day of winter break. Nothing's on the agenda today. He quickly got dressed and flew down into the basement. He started cleaning up from the D&D game a few days back and glanced over to the Blanket fort out of habit. In it was Eleven.
"Eleven? Why are you here?"
"Mad at Hopper."
"Yeah, and he'll be pissed off even more if he finds out you're missing!"
Eleven knew she was in trouble now.
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be sorry to me, I'd be sorry to Hopper."
"What do I do now?"
"I guess go back to Hop's trailer."
"OK. Goodbye Mike."
"How about just 'see ya'?"
"See ya."
Eleven opened the basement door and started following her tracks in the snow back to the trailer. Mike didn't want her going back alone so he grabbed a coat and caught up to her.
"Hey, remember that promise I made about going to the Snowball?"
"Yes."
"Do you want to come with me to it tomorrow night?"
"OK."
"Really? Great, cool."
"Cool."
They could see Hopper following her same tracks in the distance. Eleven halted, but Mike grabbed her hand and walked towards him.
"Geez, Eleven. I was worried sick! You could've been caught or worse."
"See ya, Mike."
"Thanks for bringing her back, but I'll talk to you later."
Hopper grabbed hold of Eleven's arm, practically dragging her, and led her back to the trailer.
"Let me go!"
"No. You ran away and when we get back, I'm going to write up some rules while you think about what you did."
They got inside and he threw Eleven in her room before shutting the door. He then started drawing up some rules for Eleven to follow.
Mike went back to his house and jumped on his Supercomm.
"Lucas, do you copy?"
"Yeah, what is it Mike?"
"I think I'm not going to the Snowball tomorrow."
"What? Will already asked Jennifer Hayes and they're going! What happened to you and Eleven?"
"She ran away from Hopper last night and I'm pretty sure I can't visit her anymore."
"Crap."
"I know, right?"
"Wait, can anyone else visit her?"
"I doubt it."
"I gotta go, Mike, good luck."
Hopper half-smiled at his rules. He knew he had to tell Eleven them.
"Eleven!"
"Go away."
"Get out here now!"
"No."
"Do you want me to take Eggos away?"
A puffy-eyed Eleven sulked out of her room. Hopper could tell she'd been crying.
"Have a seat."
She sat down.
"Rule #1: No leaving the trailer without me.
Rule #2: Friends are only allowed over if me, Steve, or Mr. Clark are present.
And you can't see Mike for 2 days because of what you pulled today. Understand?"
"No. I'm going to Snowball with him."
"No, you're not."
"You can't do this to me!"
"Yes I can. You're not going to that dance. You could get caught."
"I'll go as Eleanor."
"No, you won't. End of discussion. Now give me your dirty clothes so I can wash them."
She got up and ran back to her room, throwing her laundry in his face before slamming the door.
I'm going to the Snowball one way or another.
Author's Note: Did you like this chapter? Any changes you'd like made? Let me know in a review!