Chapter 017: The Teacher

As I had spent the last half hour listening to three eleven-year-olds explain how the portal to the Upside Down emitted an electromagnetic pull that made their compasses useless, I started thinking about what exactly that could mean. I started thinking about all of the times I hadn't been able to control myself, from the lights flickering the night that Jonathan and I had slept together to all the warning lights I had set off in his car mid-panic attack. I was starting to think that some part of me had this strange connection with the portal. I mean, I was the only person I knew that could phase to the other side and back. That had to mean something. All of this had to mean something, but I was still so clueless. It felt like I was searching for an answer in the middle of a swamp.

I knew one thing for certain though: Jack had been keeping something from me. Eleven and I had seen three different versions of him all interacting with each other. That doesn't just happen, even in a magical world with a telekinetic child and whatever the hell I am. I had also came to the conclusion that he was not the one to make the phone call to the police station. Even with his expert intuition, there's no way he would've known I was there, not without somebody telling him and, last I checked, nobody had seen him since the day he disappeared. Then I started wondering. Why had she shown me that?

As the boys' talking started to die down, the bus began to get very quiet. I couldn't help but cast a gaze towards the girl next to me, who was already doing the same thing. "Did you know him," I asked her.

She knew immediately who I was talking about, giving me a hesitant head nod. "Jack," she spoke, her voice clear but still hushed.

I nodded back at her as my eyes started to water. Of course she had met him. It was impossible for him to even leave a room without speaking to everyone in it. El gave me a sympathetic look, her eyes wide and glossy. I kept holding the tears back, afraid that I would cause something to happen that would give away our hiding spot. She held her hand out to me, her fingers grazing them as she closed her eyes. I hesitated for a moment but decided to follow suit.

What I saw next was an even smaller El, the same shaved head but with palms that were only half the size of mine. She was alone, and she was crying. There were no windows, not even one on the door, and it looked like she had been locked in. I wanted to help her, to bust her right out of that place, but it was useless. The memory was just that—a memory. It had already happened, and there was no changing it.

A knock then came from the other side of the door. Her head snapped towards the sound, her eyes growing wide in fear. I slowly panned over, unsure of what I was going to see entering the room. This girl was being trained as a weapon against a literal military, and she was scared.

Then I saw him. Jack. He tiptoed in with a smile on his face, a pile of waffles stacked onto a plate he had been holding. He spoke in a hushed voice. "Shh, this'll be our little secret, okay?"

Her tears stopped, though she was still lightly gasping between breaths. "Our secret," she repeated.

Jack gave her another look over before taking a seat at the edge of her thin, empty bed. He offered her the waffles, which were drenched in syrup and chocolate drizzle. She grabbed them immediately, starting to devour them the second her fork touched the plate. Jack chuckled to himself. "I would've brought you something a little healthier, but I'm not much of a chef. Actually, I think frozen waffles might be the only thing I've never burnt." Eleven looked at him and smiled. I felt my chest flutter as he just sat there, contently watching her tear through the waffles. "You know, you remind me a lot of my niece." My ears chimed at the word 'niece'. "She's got a gift too, just like you. Well, not just like you, but you're both very special girls."

"Powers," Eleven asked.

"Yeah," Jack replied, nodding his head, "powers."

He then reached for his back pocket, pulling out his beat-up leather wallet that looked much better than it did now. My heartbeat sped up when he pulled a single polaroid picture out of it. It was me. It was a school photo I had gotten done in kindergarten. I looked so young, my skin pale with light freckles and my hair thrown up in uneven pigtails that he had convinced me were perfectly even. I had the biggest smile on my face. It looked a little goofy since I had just lost my two front teeth, but it was bright nonetheless. Behind that one was a bratty child, not much older than Eleven. It was the summer that my uncle had taken us back to Colorado. I was sitting in the back of the car, a pillow leaning against the window and a blanket wrapped around my shoulders. There was a makeshift travel desk that he had made for me, and I was using it to draw stick figures with a hand full of crayons.

"Her name's Daisy," Jack said. "I've pretty much raised her since she was born." He looked back down at the photos. "People ask me sometimes if I ever want kids. I don't think they realize I already have one, whether she's half of me or not."

I was so entranced in the memory that I didn't even notice the light coming from my fingertips until I felt a small hand graze my arm, causing me to jump. I had completely forgotten about the present day Eleven standing right next to me. She was looking up at me with big eyes, concerned about my glowing hands. That was the connection. I didn't know her, but she knew me. She knew that we were both different, and she knew Jack had been protecting me as best as he could, just as he did her.

"I'm sorry," I said to the girl next to me, wiping my cheeks with my free arm, my fingertips still glowing. "He went missing a couple days ago." She stayed quiet, her eyes dropping down to my hands. "I'm sorry. I—I don't really know how to control it."

She gave me a sideways look. "I can help," she said, motioning towards the space behind me.

As I turned my head, the memory started to disappear, Jack's face fading back into the darkness around us. The next thing I saw was a slightly older Eleven sat perfectly still in front of a desk. A wire cap was placed on top of her head, the exact one that Dr. Owens had hooked me up to. She looked nervous, fidgeting with her fingers, tapping them lightly against the edge of the metal chair she was sitting in. There was a man sitting at the other end of the desk, the same man that I had seen chasing us, the same white hair and a fancy black vest on. He was looking at some kind of data that the EEG machine was tracking.

"Focus, Eleven," he said. It was the first time I had heard his voice, and it sounded exactly how I had imagined, firm and condescending. "Delve deep into your mind. Create a connection."

Create a connection? Alright, let me just 'create a connection' with your face.

I scoffed at him as he placed an aluminum can in front of her. What was he trying to do? She started to scrunch her face as he looked between her and EEG machine. The lines were moving at a steady rhythm, up and down over and over again. "Imagine this can crumbling. Focus on your own strength and capabilities. Believe."

If the whole world domination thing didn't work out for him, he would make a great motivational speaker.

Young Eleven cast a quick glance at him with what looked to be a sorry face. But why was she sorry? She then focused back in on the can, staring so intensely that I was surprised it hadn't caught on fire or something. Then it finally happened. The can caved in on itself, making a pop sound as it did. A drop of blood ran down her chin as the man stood up, pulling a handkerchief out of his breast pocket and using it to wipe her face. "I knew you could do it," he said, the shadow of a smile appearing. He sat back down with the same smile, beaming at her. His little war machine, I thought sarcastically. "Sometimes fear can get the best of us," he started to say, "but you can also use it to your advantage. Emotions are what make us human, and you'll learn a lot about them as you get older. If you can feel an intense emotion, there are times that it can strength you. It will give you a will, a boost, a reason to accomplish something. But handling them incorrectly will cause you to lash out…"

As I listened to his words, I couldn't help but look down at my hands, which were still giving off a dull glow. Present day Eleven was still holding on to my arm, and I now understood what she was trying to tell me. I needed to focus, to harness my emotions and believe in my abilities. This time, I didn't need to close my eyes or think of some childhood memory. Instead, I focused in on my hands, letting go of both my sympathy for El and my disdain for this man that she called 'Papa'. I needed to handle them to gain control of myself. I took a deep breath, feeling my heartbeat slow back down to a steady pace. When the light from my hands started to fade, I looked back to present day El, who was now giving me the proudest look.

"Thank you," I said to her.

She reached out to me once again, saying nothing as she took my hand in hers. A cool wave washed across my mind as I closed my eyes. When I opened them again, I could smell the sweaty socks of eleven-year-old boys once again. They were all staring at us, Lucas opening his mouth to say something, but the sound of Mike's walkie talkie washed it out.

"Mike, are you there" a voice had sounded through the static.

"Is that Nancy," I asked, incredibly surprised.

"Mike," she called again. "Mike, it's me, Nancy."

Mike immediately started scrambling towards his backpack, all of the kids rushing over on their hands and knees as I stayed put at the edge of the bus. She continued calling for him as Lucas asked him once again if it was her.

"This is an emergency, Mike. Do you copy?"

"Okay, this is really weird," Dustin said.

Lucas reached for the walkie talkie almost as quickly as Mike had ripped it back out of his hands. "Don't answer," he panicked.

"She said it was an emergency," Lucas started to argue.

"What if it's a trick?"

"It's your sister!"

"What if the bad people kidnapped her? What if they're forcing her to say all this?

"It's like Lando Calrissian," Dustin suddenly said. "Don't answer!"

I raised a brow at him. "Who?"

"Lando Calrissian," he answered in a matter-of-fact tone. "He tricked Han Solo so Darth Vader could freeze him in carbonite."

"Wait, Star Wars?"

"We need to know that you're there, Mike," Nancy said again, cutting me off.

Another voice started to come through a second later. Hopper. I knew that voice anywhere. "Listen, kid. This is the Chief. If you're there, pick up. We know you're in trouble. We know about the girl, and we know about Daisy."

"Pick up," I immediately said.

"How the hell does he know about her," Dustin asked.

"We can protect you," Hopper continued. "We can help you, but you gotta pick up. Are you there? Do you copy? Over."

The bus fell silent as the four looked back and forth at each other, which I knew wasn't going to accomplish anything. If someone was going to get us out of this, it apparently had to be me. "Mike, if you don't answer, I will."

He hesitated for a moment. I tilted my chin towards him, giving him the best authority figure look that I could until he grabbed the walkie talkie. "Yes," he said into it, "I copy. It's Mike. I'm here. We're here."

Oh, thank God.

"Where are you," Hopper asked with relief.

Mike tried as best as he could to describe where we were hiding out, even giving him directions and details of the surrounding area.

"Alright, I need you to stay put. We're going to come get you out of there. Is Daisy with you?"

"Locked and loaded, Chief," I said sarcastically, my voice echoing against the metal walls.

"You have to stay hidden, okay? Don't do anything unless you have to. Stay—"

"Stay in the bus, I know. I've been hearing that a lot lately."

A beat passed before he spoke again. "I'm coming to get you guys."

Dustin had been pacing back and forth from one end of the bus to the other. He had been doing it ever since Mike had put down that walkie talkie. I didn't think much of it. I was probably just as nervous about this as he was. Obviously I trusted Hopper, but I also knew how much hell that lab was willing to go through to get their hands back on Eleven.

"Will you stop pacing," Mike suddenly asked from the back of the bus.

Dustin started shaking his head, continuing to walk in a circle. "It's been way too long," he said. "You know what? Maybe you're right, and maybe this is all a trap, and the bad men are coming to get us right now!"

"It's not a trap," Lucas interjected. "Why would the Chief set us up? Nancy, maybe. But the Chief?"

I chuckled when he mentioned Nancy, forgetting for a moment that I was supposed to like her now. "I'm telling you we're fine. Hopper's on his way."

Dustin stopped walking for a split second, just long enough to turn towards me and flick a finger. "Lando Calrissian," he said like some conspiracy theorist.

"I don't know how many times I have to tell you I've never seen Star Wars."

"Would you just shut up about Lando," Lucas shouted.

"I don't feel good about this," Dustin repeated over and over.

"When do you feel good about anything?!"

Dustin kept pacing, Lucas continuing to argue with him. I had just barely been able to hear anything over them, but what I did hear sounded like a car pulling up next to us. I sat up, looking over at the front windshield. "Guys, shut up," I whisper shouted.

"But La—"

"I said shut up," I repeated as I scurried over to the front. "Someone's coming."

The kids followed right behind me as soon as they had heard what I did. The first car came from the clearing right in front of us, mud splattering the tires. As soon as it came to a stop, another one appeared from the next clearing. Both cars had looked the exact same, but it was impossible to see through the tinted windows. Wait. The tinted windows! That was the same type of car that had followed Hopper and I when we tracked down the man at the bar.

This is bad. This is really, really bad.

"Hide," I shouted at the other four.

"Lando," Dustin panted just as I dived down behind them.

The four of them stayed put at the edge of the bus as I started to crawl a little closer to the doors. Stay in the bus, Hopper's voice echoed in my thoughts. I was going to try my best to listen to him, but I felt like a sitting duck just hoping these people wouldn't find us before he did. I panned over to the kids. Mike and Eleven were huddled next to each other. El looked absolutely terrified while Mike had put on a brave face, though I could still see right through it. Lucas was curled up underneath one of the side windows, his breathing rapid and staggered as Dustin sat wide eyed on the other end. I wasn't going to just let them get kidnapped without a fight.

I peeked out one of the windows on the door just in time to make out three men stepping out of the cars. All three were in a different colored suit, but each of them had one thing in common: a gun in their hand. The middle one, with a suit that had a slightly blue tone to it, started walking right towards the bus. Shit. I stumbled back from the window and prayed that he hadn't seen me. It was quiet for a moment, and I could only assume it was a matter of time until one of them found the bikes hidden under the bus. I looked back over at the little fugitives one more time, the three boys staring at me like I was insane. I took in a deep breath and turned back around, propping myself up so I was now squatting next to the steps.

There were footsteps coming from outside. I knew one of them had figured us out when they started getting closer and closer to where I was sitting. My chest rose and fell at a steady pace. I was determined not to run away anymore. Create a connection, that vile voice reminded me. So I did, connecting my mind with all of the power floating around somewhere inside me. The electricity flowed through my fingertips as I put my hands up, ready to buy some time if one of them came in. The steps were now right outside the door, the sound changing from muddy sloshes to a thick silence. I could just barely see a hand creeping over the edge of the door. I flicked my fingers, lighting them up like glowsticks, preparing for whatever was about to happen. I started to stand up and then—BOOM!

The man's head slammed into the open doors, and he fell to the ground with a loud grunt. Following that was even more grunting and banging sounds, a couple of the men shouting. It sounded like a full-blown wrestling match out there, but with just the blink of an eye, silence fell again. Everyone held their breaths as the door started to creak. I was the first one to see Hopper step foot onto the bus, and boy was he a sight for sore eyes. I could feel the relief as soon as he had climbed in.

He looked at me, with my arms up and ready for a tussle. I immediately dropped them back to my sides, shaking off the electricity swarming inside. "Alright, let's go," he said simply. I jumped right up, whereas the kids were too stunned to move. Hopper repeated himself, his voice much sterner, and they finally jumped up to scramble after him.