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-

Twenty minutes later the bell, announcing that break is over, rings. Valerie embraces me in a short goodbye hug as she heads off to her next class, which is a few minutes away due to the school's massive size.

I walk back down the hallway, kids nudging me on either side of me.

I hate being alone in school. I always try to keep Will by my side the whole time or now, Valerie.  Seeing endless faces pass me, still afraid of them coming up to me, seeing my weakness and targeting me for it.

Alone, I feel unsafe and exposed, my powers used to protect and shield me from all the terrible things in life. However, now they're gone, and I feel powerless and empty inside without them. I used to be tough, strong, and brave, and now when some stupid kid comes up to me, I fall apart and crumble down to the floor.

I see a hand, belonging to Will, wave towards me, I smile as I see Mike and him emerge from within the crowd of bustling people. I look over at Mike, his eyes going soft as they meet mine. We run up to each other, sharing a tight hug.

"I know it sounds stupid," he mumbles into my hair. "But I missed you."

I smile to myself.

"I missed you too," I mumble against his sweater.

"You guys were apart for like twenty minutes," Will moans, looking down at his Watch.

We laugh, releasing each other from our hug.

"So guys..", I begin as we head down the hallway to our next class, which we have all together. "Valerie invited us to go with her to a house party tonight."

Will eyes go wide, a smile growing simultaneously on his face. "Oh yes, that would be so much fun! Could Andrew come too?"

I furrow my eyebrows in confusion as I look directly at Will. "Who's Andrew?"

His face turns a deep shade of red, as he stares down onto the floor. "Oh, no one.."

Will darts ahead of us, as if trying to escape my questioning.

I look over at Mike who's still walking next to me, worry plastered over his face.

"Are you sure, El?", he whispers to me. "I've never been to one, but from what Nancy has told me, House parties can get pretty, crazy."

I shrug my shoulders carelessly. "Oh come on, it's your last night here so we might as well have some fun."

"Besides," I begin playfully as I grab onto his arm. "I wanna show my boyfriend off."

He grins cheekily, looking over at me and I smile back in return. I hook my arm into his, locking myself close to him.

It was true; sure I was saying it to convince him that it would be fine for us to go. But I really, want to have him as mine and let that be known. I want to be like all the other teenage girls with their boyfriends, even if it is for just one night.

Just thinking about the fact that he leaves tomorrow makes my whole body tremble, I'm not sure how I am going to act, but I'm pretty sure I'll lose it. He makes me feel powerful and fully protected as I once did.

Nevertheless , I need to enjoy the little time we do have and make every moment count.

Suddenly, it clicks in my head; I begin to walk faster, dragging Mike with me.

"Andrew! is that the guy you were talking to at break?", I ask eagerly, in attempts of breaking the saddening state inside of me.

Mike laughs as he nudges Will, forcing him to explain.

"Yeah, but we are just friends, okay!" Will says, a pink blush arising on his face once again, however now he isn't laughing, he's frustrated.

Mike looks over at me, looking as if he were ready to elaborate on what was going on.

However, I nod at him understandingly.

I know exactly what's going on, I didn't need to hear him say it.

"It's alright Will," I say, comfortingly placing my hand on his shoulder. "And of course Andrew can come with us."

-

As we got home, Will and I went and told Joyce about our plans for tonight, practically begging for allowance. She finally obliged, saying however that Nancy and Jonathan would be going with us to watch over us. Not wanting to argue or risk not being able to go at all, we both agreed.

-

It's currently 5:30 pm. Mike is in Wills room, playing their DnD game. Once in a while, I can hear their loud bellowing.

They invited me to play. However, I denied, knowing they needed their own time to do something just as best, friends, and not have Will be the third wheel.

"Ding dong "

I prop myself up on the couch, hearing the doorbell ring over the blaring sound of Miami vice playing on the TV. I did promise Hop never to watch it without him; however, when I do, it reminds me of him and puts me at ease whenever I miss him.

I stand up and run towards the door, just then remembering that Valerie had said she would come over before the party since Jonathan is driving us. I asked her to come a little earlier so that we could hang out.

"Hey!", she exclaims as she sees me squeezing me in a tight hug.

"Hi!" I stifle against her shoulder.

As she releases me from her tight grasp, I examine her outfit.

She's wearing a black leather skirt with small black boots. Her top is a dark red, tucked into the skirt.

"You're so dressed up," I say in a perplexed tone, not knowing that I needed to dress up.

"Its what you do when going to a house party," she explains softly, noticing my worry. "I can help you pick an outfit."

I smile at her. "Okay, let's go!"

I grab her arm, pulling her after me.

---{Mike's POV}-----

"Will, your action!" I yell out, gripping onto my stood up book, with all the campaign notes infront of me.

"I- I dont know" , he groans gripping onto his hair.

"Your action," I assert once more.

"Fireball!" Will yells out in response throwing his dice out onto the floor. He winces, to nervous to see the numbers determining his fate in.

He looks down at them and jumps up off the floor "Oh yeah 13 baby I won!"

I laugh applauding him as he runs around the room, hollering through the air. 

He sits back down on the floor, panting and gasping for air.

"Hey, thank you again. For planning this it means a lot", he says after regaining his breath.

"Yeah, of course, no problem," I respond. "But you need to plan the next one for when we each other again."

He groans, rolling his eyes. "It's so much work!"

"It's only fair," I say shrugging my shoulders simply.

"Fine," he mutters as I reach over to shake his hand. He looks at me, squinting at me mischievously before shaking my hand.

I chuckle, as I start to close my book and put away the gameboard.

"Mike..", Will starts in a nervous.

I stop looking up at him. "Yeah?"

"When do you think I should tell El... you know... about the whole... Andrew thing."

I smile at him, trying to comfort his angst. "Whenever you feel ready, but a little hint, I think she knows."

His eyes bulge "What! Did you tell her?!"

"No," I say, laughingly. "But it's pretty obvious. "Will looks down not saying anything.

"Whenever you're ready okay," I say slowly.

He nods as I nudge him playfully forcing a laugh out of him.

-

"This could go perfectly with this!" Valerie exclaims as she places a simple white shirt on my bed, laying a red denim skirt that Max had bought me at the Mall.

"Oh, and these," she adds, grabbing the boots Joyce bought me a few days ago.

I scan the outfit, worried that it won't look as good as she is envisioning.

"Go try it on, it'll look great to trust me.", she says, signaling for me to go to the bathroom.

-

I walk back into the room slowly, apprehensive about seeing how Valerie will react.

As soon as she sees me, she raises her eyebrows and smiles.

"Girl you look hot!"

I walk further into the room and glance at her, furrowing my eyebrows. "Hot?" El knows what the word hit means as in the temperature. However, she's never heard some one associate her with that word.

"Yes hot, that means you look really really good," she continues, not trying to sound stunned by my lack of knowledge once again.

I walk over to the mirror to view myself. The white long sleeve v-neck is tucked into the front of the red denim skirt, which perfectly sinches my waist. The boots elongate my legs, making me seem taller than I really am. I smile at myself in the mirror, ruffling my loosely hanging hair with my hands. I have to admit I look pretty good. I look, as Valerie would say, hot.

The thought of Mike seeing me awakens the butterflies in my stomach. I'm excited to look good for him.

"Okay, you did good," I admit, smirking at Valerie.

She shrugs her shoulder smirkingly, "Told you."

I sit down next to her on my bed.

"So how long have you and Mike been together?", she starts to ask me.

"Well, kind of right before I left, so not that long," I say slowly.

"NO WAY!", she yells out in disbelief.

"What?!" I laugh, nervously.

She looks at me; her eyebrows arched upwards. "You're trying to tell me that you've only been dating for a few months? Your guy's bond is so strong there no way it's only been a few months!"

My heart begins to race. Not knowing how to respond.

I can't really tell her that he found me in the woods three years ago and kept me safe. And that then I vanished into thin air, leaving us separated for a year, oh yeah and that some crazy dimensional monster wanted to kill me. And through all of this, Mike and I fell in love.
It's not your typical love story to say the least.

"Well..."

I go back to when I first got here, remembering what I had told myself. I want to be more open, and throughout the past few days, I've really grown to trust Valerie. And I think I can trust her, with my secret, my life.

"Okay," I take a shaky breath in. "I need to tell you something."

"But before I do, you need to promise not to tell anyone," I continue slowly.

"Oh, were you guys secretly hooking up or something?" she responds playfully.

"Valerie!" I say sternly. "I'm serious."

She looks at me, her smile melting away. Understanding that this is serious, she nods slowly, starting to look nervous.

"Okay well, first of all, my name isn't Jane. Its El, short for Eleven."

And then I told her everything. Everything with the upsidedown, me being used as a lab rat, saving Hawkins. About Hopper, and about how Mike and I first met, in the wet and rainy woods, in 1983. All leading to why we moved here.

"And yeah so that's the story of my life," I finish taking a deep breath in.

For a few seconds, she just stares at me, clearly at a loss for words.

But I didn't expect much else.

"Wow," she manages to say. "Wow"

"Yep," I say.

"That's crazy, what you've been through," she tells me bewilderedly.

I nod in agreement. "I'm surprised you even believe me."

"It does sound crazy believe me, but for some reason it makes sense."

"I believe you El. You're secret is safe with me."

I smile at her gratefully; she smiles back before pulling me in for a short hug.

Suddenly I hear what sounds like a heard of elephants running down the Hallway.

"Its Andrew!" I hear a voice, which I assume belongs to Will due to its high pitch, yell down the hallway

I go over to open the door, seeing Will pass by me quickly, Mike follows him, however, he looks over at me and stops in his tracks, almost tripping over his own feet.

I grin to myself, knowing he is surprised by my appearance.

"Hey, Mike," I say seductively, placing my hands on my hips.

He says nothing, his eyes bolt back and forth, examining my body.

"You okay?" I ask him jokingly.

"Uh yeah," he starts, shaking himself out of his trance. "You just look really- "

"Hot?" I say, cutting him off.

"Yeah," he smirks at my sudden forwardness. "You look pretty hot."

I see him move closer to me, placing his hands on my hips. He leans in close so that I can feel his breath against my cheek.

"Guys we gotta go now," Will bellows from the other end of the hallway.

We stop in our tracks; our eyes meet before releasing each other awkwardly.

"Later..." he whispers into my ear playfully.

Mike smiles at me cheekily, making me blush grinningly in response.

He winks at me before heading down the hallway to meet up with Will and Andrew.

I stand there for a few seconds, beaming down at the ground. It felt weird for me to be so direct with him. However, the outfit Valerie put me in gave me a boost of confidence, which I didn't know I needed. Mike is usually really shy, when being like that with me, probably because he still has the instinct always to protect me. Nevertheless, tonight he's different, more confident in himself, and I like it.

"Oh my God," I hear Valerie walk up to me. "That was literally the cutest thing ever."

I roll my eyes laughingly as we leave my room to meet the boys in the living room.

I see Mike, Will and the same tall curly-headed boy I saw them with at lunch.

I walk up to him, smiling. "Hey, I'm Jane, you must be Andrew."

He smiles at me. "Yes, I am nice to meet you."

We continue to talk amongst each other, Will laughing at every joke that Andrew makes. At one point, Valerie talks to Mike quietly, making me nervous, anxious to know what she is telling him.

Suddenly we hear a loud honk come from outside. I walk over to the window, seeing Jonathan and Nancy pulling up in our driveway. He waves towards me, signaling for us to come.

"Guys they're here let's go."

Will, Andrew, and Valerie rush out the door still conversing. 

I start to head towards the door but am pulled back by my arm. I look up to see Mike facing me. Before I have the chance to say anything, he presses his lips against mine forcefully.

"That's for earlier," he mumbles against my lips, before intertwining our hands and starting to head for the door.

"Did Valerie tell you to do that," I exasperate.

"What no!" he yells out defensively, causing me to chuckle.

-

The car stops infront of a huge house, almost three times as big as our house.

"Alright guys, here we are," Jonathan starts, turning himself towards us sitting in the back. "Be careful and be back by 10:30 on the dot!"

"You guys go ahead, we will come in after, have fun and be safe."

We all nod and step out of the car.

We stand infront of the house, admiring it. The house is illuminated with red and purple lights; the blaring sound of the music can be heard even from out here. I see dark figures walking around the house, leaning against the walls with cups in their hands and talking to fellow people.

"Alright, let's go," Valerie says, waving us to follow her.

As the door opens, the pounding sound of the music becomes even louder, and all I can see is hundreds of heads jumping up and down next to each other. Valerie reaches for my hand and instructs us all to do so.

We create a human chain, starting with Valerie and ending with Andrew holding on to Wills's arm. She starts to walk through the heard of people, squeezing us through the tiny gaps between them. I look back at Mike nervously, and him knowing that I dont like crowds of people, squeezes my hand tightly signaling me that it will be ok. I smile back at him in response, thanking him, and then continuing to push through the crowd after Valerie.

After what it feels like hours of pushing against people, the crowd disperses revealing an open room with a group of kids our age sitting in a circle. In the middle of them, lays a bottle.

A tan girl with brown curly hair spots us and stands up from the circle.

"Hey Valerie," she says, walking towards us.

"Hey Sarah, these are my friends," Valerie answers, introducing us.

We all smile at her warmly, and she smiles back. "Nice to meet you guys!"

"Is this your house?!," Will questions in disbelief, making Andrew chuckle at his frankness.

"Yes," she chuckles. "It's pretty full in there, do you guys wanna play with us?", she finishes pointing at the now half-open circle, the people sitting smile invitingly over at us.

"Oh yes that would be so much fun!" Valerie exclaims.

"Great," Sarah says, clapping her hands together. "Come on, let's go!"

She signals us to follow her to the circle.

"What are we playing?" I ask Will and Andrew nervously.

"Spin the bottle. Its where you spin the bottle and whoever it lands on- ", Will starts to explain.

"You have to kiss," Andrew finishes making Will blush involuntarily.

I look over at Mike, "What!"

He laughs, "it's fine, it's just a game."

"But I dont wanna kiss anyone else," I whisper to him.

He blushes as he looks back up at me. "Me either, but if you're okay with it, then I'm fine".

I look over at the circle we are now standing in front an open spot.

"It's just a game.", I say trying to convince myself.

We sit down, cross-legged next to each other, Andrew and Will follow sitting next to each other.

I smile at everyone in the circle, greeting them.

"Okay," Sarah says, picking up the glass coca-cola bottle. "Who wants to go first?"

"I'll go!" Valerie says, taking the bottle from Sarah's hands.

She places it on the floor and spins it. The bottle turns around in circles; at least ten other people are sitting here, so the chances of it being Mike are pretty slim.

Why am I even thinking about that? It's just a game, am I seriously jealous.

I chuckle to myself, about how foolish I'm being and shake it off, however deep down I know that I so desperately don't want it to land on him.

The bottle stops infront of a boy with brown hair and emerald green eyes, just like Valerie's.

"Come here," she says simply, signaling him to come to her.

He furrows his eyebrows and nervously walks over to her. They share a small kiss, and just like that, her turn was over.

"See easy peasy," Valerie says, nudging me.

"Okay it's my turn now", Will says, spinning the bottle.

"You sure about that Byers," Andrew says mockingly, knowing that this will be his first kiss.

"Oh, please, how bad could it be."

I watch as the bottle continues to spin, and start to slow down, it almost stops on me, then Mike, then Valerie and then, it stopped.

My eyes go wide as I look over at Mike and then at Will.

Will needs to kiss Andrew.

They look at each other, completely speechless.

"Alright then come on we dont have all day," some guy yells out from within the circle.

Will nervously leans into Andrew, connecting their lips.

After the kiss, Will doesnt say anything, but I can see a small smirk tug on the corners of his mouth.

I laugh lightly, but Will catches it "Ok Jane, your turn."

"Wh - What?" I stutter.

He raises his eyebrows at me, handing me the bottle.

I look at him, knowing this is payback for me laughing.

Not wanting to look childish, I take the bottle and set it on the floor.

I spin the bottle, my heart beating faster with every passing second. It starts to slow, slower, slower.

Wait. Is this actually happening

The bottle slowly approaches Mike, awakening Butterflies in my stomach. But then it turns a little further and stops on me.

I let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding in.

"That doesnt count! You can't kiss your self", a girl with long brown hair shouts out.

"Yeah, spin again," Will says agreeing.

I look over at him, with a harsh glance.

Mike puts his hand on my arm. "Dont worry, just spin again."

I sigh, taking a deep breath in and spinning it again. This time it spins quickly around itself, however, soon enough, it starts to slow once again, passing Mike slowly making my heart skip a beat.

It is now facing Sarah, yet it keeps on turning. I notice a small hole in the circle which the bottle is turning towards.

The bottle continues to turn, coming to a halt on the open spot in the circle. However, now, the spot isn't free anymore. Instead, it is taken up by two large feet.

I start to look up scanning the person standing there.

No-

No Way.

"Oh hey there Ellie."

-

Ahh! Ik kind of a cliffhanger but this chapter was getting too long so I had to cut it in half.

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