Chapter 7: The Club and Party

Eleven backs into the wooded area. The boy who was not Mike did seem funny enough to make her smile, a lot like the way Dustin jokes around, but she wanted to find the real Mike, her boyfriend. She walks through the trees away from the boy and goes to where the group usually sits.

Sure enough, Jane recognizes Will's signature bob of hair as he sits against the fence, searching through his lunch for his sandwich. She quietly goes up to the fence and taps Will on the shoulder.

The poor boy jumps in fright but then relaxes a bit when he realizes who it is.

"El?" he says. "What are you doing here?"

"I was bored so I came to see Mike," she explains.

"But don't you remember Hopper's rules," the shier boy asks.

"Yes, don't be stupid and I'm not," she says confidently.

"Well, Mike will be here in a minute. I think Hopper just doesn't want you to get caught by someone,"

"I'm not afraid," she says confidently.

"Famous last words," Will mutters to himself as he digs out his sandwich and begins to eat. Peanut butter with banana slices on top is a new favourite of his. He chews a couple of bites and then he doesn't feel hungry anymore. He forces himself to swallow the bites he'd already taken but then puts them away. His stomach seems to protest the new favourite type of sandwich. He shoves the rest of it back in the bag and then goes for the apple. He's taking a few bites when Lucas, Dustin, and Mike arrive.

Mike's eyes go wide as soon as he sees who's behind the fence.

"El?!" he gasps suddenly. He rushes to the fence to get a closer look. He also checks behind him to make sure no one else can see her.

"Hi Mike," she says with a grin, her eyes lighting up at seeing her boyfriend again.

"I thought Hopper said you couldn't be around the school,"

"I want to see you," she admits. She reaches through the fence and grabs his hand. Both of them enjoy the warmth of joining hands together.

"That's really sweet, but you have to be careful that you don't get caught,"

"I'm not afraid," she insists, giving a smile of confidence.

"She'll be fine Mike," Lucas says. "As long as she doesn't come onto the property, she won't get in trouble. Besides, we all know El can take care of herself."

The girl smiles confidently, glad that Lucas is on her side. Mike just smiles, happy to see his girlfriend.

Will chews a few more bites of his apple but then frowns again. For some reason, it tastes bitter all of a sudden, even sour. Maybe the apple has gone bad, but that doesn't make much sense. He tosses the half-eaten thing into the dirt by the baseball diamond storage shed.

"What's wrong Will?" Lucas asks.

"Not hungry I guess," he shrugs.

"Do have anything with sugar in it?" Dustin asks. "I will trade you for it."

Will just tosses his paper bag lunch to his friend. "Help yourself."

As Dustin searches through Will's lunch, Max rides up on her board.

"What up nerds?" she teases, as she hops off her board and drags it across the grass towards the group. Her eyes go wide when she's Eleven on the other side of the fence. "What's going on El? Why are you here?"

"I want to see Mike," she explains as Mike sits next to the fence and she sits parallel to him on the opposite side of the chain-link. He offers her some goldfish crackers from his lunch, considering she didn't bring one, obviously not thinking ahead about eating something.

"So, did you guys have any more of the Derry kids in your classes?" Dustin asks, digging into his pudding cup, and licking the chocolate from the side of his face. "I didn't get the kid with asthma in my gym class, which is kind of a bummer, but the kid who I think is Jewish is in my math class with Mr. Troller."

"I've got the bigger nerdy kid in History," Lucas says, chewing on some celery sticks. "I have never seen someone raise their hand so much in one period. He wanted to know everything about Hawkins, even though we're learning about the Civil War."

"I've got the ginger girl in English," Max snorts, not wanting to elaborate any further. The girl was too pretty for her own good.

"You mean Beverly Marsh?" Dustin says. "Man is she hot..."

"Dream on, Dust," Mike says. "She's not interested."

"I don't think redheads like you, Dustin," Will smirks and Max has to smile as well.

"Shut up Will," Dustin says. "You guys will see. She won't be able to resist my charms or my pearls." He then purrs again, making the whole group roll their eyes.

"Don't you have a girlfriend?" Max asks.

"Did you guys notice that the kid with big glasses looks a lot like Mike?" Will asks. "He was in my English class."

"Your brother from another mother," Dustin teases, digging out the chips from his lunch bag.

"He's much more dweebish looking than you are," Max continues with the mocking of Mike Wheeler, and he flips her the bird.

Suddenly, a familiar voice calls out.

"Well if it isn't Frog Face and looks like he got lenses,"

Mike winces recognizing Troy's stupid nickname for him. Honestly, they thought that Troy and James would have moved on from their bullying now that they're in high school, find their group of mouth-breathing losers and leave them alone. The entire group looks around, looking for the aggressor, but they don't see him. They're about ready to stand up and move due to his obnoxious taunts, but part of them are hoping the sight of El would scare him away. After all, she had broken his arm the last time he'd bullied them. One would think that he would have learned his lesson. Except... Mike didn't wear lenses.

Then the group hears James' voice.

"Don't play dumb Wheeler,"

"Are we hallucinating or have Troy and James become ghosts?" Dustin asks in confusion, still looking around.

Lucas is the first to get up and peers around the shed of baseball supplies. He sees a bunch of kids going toward the far side of the fence. The entire group gets up to follow him and looks down towards the soccer field where the voices are coming from. Eleven investigates from the other side and notices that the jerks are picking on Not-Mike.

"Mouth breathers," she says.

"Shit, Troy and James are picking on the Derry kids," Dustin says.

They can see the red-headed girl standing firmly against the bullies. They watch as Troy bounces a soccer ball off the kid who looks like Mike's face, breaking his glasses in the process.

"Should we help them?" Will asks.

"Let's not and say we did," Dustin swallows, not wanting to face off with Troy, especially after he'd threatened to cut out his baby teeth unless Mike jumped off a cliff at the quarry.

Just then, the Beverly girl punches Troy in the face.

"Oh man," Dustin laughs, loving that things are about to get interesting. "I think they've got this..."

"Guess again man," Lucas says, looking to see a bunch of other kids, likely James and Troy's new lackeys have formed behind the group. Looks like they had found a new group of friends. There are only six Derry kids versus the nine jerks.

Mike looks over at Eleven, he can tell she's ready to fight. He knows he has to protect her cover or face the wrath of Hopper. The two of them lock eyes for a moment and he suddenly realizes that she won't have to fight. He signals for her to follow him. He then goes towards the coming fight.

"Mike, what the hell are you...?" Dustin gasps. "He's going to get his ass kicked!"

"Well, then let's go help him," Max says with determination, she's faced bullies much bigger and more violent than these guys.

"Max what...?" Dustin says, not liking where this is going.

Lucas is panicking slightly, he impulsively follows Max, wanting to talk her out of fighting. Will reluctantly goes too, deciding to do the right thing and stand up for the Derry kids, leaving Dustin still peering at the scene from behind the shed.

"Damn it, you guys!" he mutters and goes to join them.

More students are beginning to gather around, circling the group in anticipation of an epic-looking fight.

Mike is using all his courage to go toward the jerks he has to call classmates. He hears James taunting the Derry group.

"This will be so easy," he says. "There are nine of us and six of you losers. This should be over fast. Just so you know, I'm not above hitting girls."

"You should be," Mike says, finally having caught up to the group. He sucks in a deep breath, trying to sound tougher. The redheaded girl looks at Mike and then at the kid who is exactly like him, the resemblance is uncanny. The bigger kid and the skinny one with a stutter stand with their fists raised for the fight. "Although it's clear there are more girls a lot tougher than you."

"Okay, Losers, bring it on," James says, his hands up, ready to twist Wheeler's scrawny neck.

"Look who's come to join the pummelling, the real Frog Face," Troy says, wiping any sweat from his face. His eye is beginning to swell where Beverly had punched him, but this was just getting interesting. He then notices the rest of the nerd group coming over. "And it's the ginger coming in second, Zombie Boy, Midnight and Toothless bringing up the rear, can this get any better?" The kid laughs happily, knowing he's going to enjoy every minute of this. "Where's your weirdo girlfriend? Go back to the freak show where she belongs."

Mike swallows his anger by biting his lip to the point that it could bleed, wanting to blacken Troy's other eye for that comment, but he clenches his fists and turns up to face the mouth breather.

"You want to know the answer to that question," he challenges. "After what happened the last time?"

The colour drains from Troy's face, knowing exactly what Mike is talking about. There is a quiver in his stance, unsure of how to proceed.

Mike turns to look on the other side of the fence, sure enough, El is standing there at a distance, a dark menacing glare on them. He gives her a slight nod, she takes another step back and then concentrates.

Just then, the fence begins to rattle violently, as if some violent creature wants to get through. The trees in the wooded area also begin to shake erratically, even though there is no wind blowing. The sound of the metal and the tree shaking catches everyone's attention and Troy and James lookup for the source of it. Both of their eyes go wide after who they see just beyond the tree line. Mike, Dustin, Will, Lucas, and Max all smile knowing exactly what this meant, and they know this will be over very soon.

Leaves and dust begin to pick up beyond the school's boundaries, confusing the students as they look in different directions, but do not notice Eleven behind the tree in the shadows. However, Bill, Beverly, Stan, Ben, Eddie, and Richie also look towards the source of the sound, or in Richie's case squints. They can see the girl peering out from behind the tree, and she does look angry. Bill recognizes her from the night before, she no longer looks shy or scared she looks extremely tough and angry. The fence continues to rattle, the metallic jangling as if to taunt the group of mouth breathers. The girl stares daggers at the leaders and then wipes away the blood from her nose. Troy and James lose all their nerve and run off in the direction of the school. James drops Eddie's inhaler as they go. The shortest of the Loser's club immediately dives down into the grass to get it The other lackeys that were hanging out with the bullies look at each other in confusion, but now that the Derry kids and this new group have seemingly banded together, they are outnumbered. With a deep sigh and some glares at the meek-looking pack, they walk away too.

Several of the students who had gathered to watch the fight try to catch a glimpse of whatever scared the bullies away, but it has seemingly vanished by then. Confused, they begin to disperse and whisper amongst each other about what the hell just happened. Once the audience is gone, everyone relaxes just enough, and Beverly lowers her fists. Ben, Eddie, and Stan go to help Richie find any remains of his glasses. Bill swallows hard, slightly afraid of what just happened. He swore he saw that girl... Jane, he thinks that's what her name was and she looked like she was causing everything. He ventures a glance at Bev and she nods, knowing she saw the same thing. Mike and the rest of the party smile at each other and get ready to go back to their lunches.

Beverly turns to Mike.

"Uh, thanks for the help,"

"No problem," he shrugs, trying to act like it was no big deal.

"Did anyone just see what happened?" Richie asks. "How the fuck did that happen?"

"Just... just shut up Richie," Eddie snaps, his voice cracking slightly. He too had seen the girl and he is now very afraid about what she might do next.

"Anything for you, Doll," Dustin grins, showing off his teeth to her. "That was awesome the way you punched Troy like that!"

Beverly smiles and shrugs, again acting like it was not a tough move, she'd fought a hell of a lot worse than a couple of jerks who thought they were tough.

"T-Thanks for having our backs," Bill says, looking at all the kids' faces.

"It's no big deal," Lucas says. "We know what it's like to get picked on by James and Troy,"

"They're nothing but a couple of assholes... they should know when they're beaten," Ben mutters.

The instigator of the attack listens from behind a nearby tree, wishing she could get closer and meet the others but knows the kind of risk that was involved with showing her powers.

"Mouth breathers," she mutters to herself quietly.