don't cry over spilled milk

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Alina stabbed her fork into her meatloaf, feeling like the odd one out. The Wheelers' dining room was nice but cramped, the table supporting Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler, Mike's sisters Nancy and Holly, as well as her. But there weren't enough chairs for everyone, so they'd dragged one in from the living room for Alina, so she sat lower than everyone else, the table just below her chin. Her height didn't help her, either, so it was that Alina felt like a dwarf to everyone else's giant.

Alina was an outcast. She was the odd one out. She also was unwanted, Mike flat-out telling her to leave, to go back to her boring life, as if that was even possible after seeing what Eleven was able to do. As if it was even possible when Alina had figured everything out.

Eleven was an experiment. Subject Eleven, she was called, branded with the number on the inside of her pale wrist. Experimented on at the Lab Alina's own father worked at, tested for her telekinetic abilities that she, against all logic and science, somehow possessed. She'd managed to escape on Sunday night, the same night Will vanished, the two events connected in Alina's mind, somehow. The scientists from the Lab were chasing her, branding her dangerous, Alina's father warning her to run away if she saw her, and to call him, so that she may be recaptured. It explained why Alina had been grounded for seeing her, why Eleven could barely talk. She must've not had a lot in the way of teaching. And now she was at Mike's house, found by an unlikely coincidence.

And now they had to keep her safe, while also finding Will.

The only question in Alina's mind now was why this strange, telekinetic girl, and her, a simple, ordinary one, were connected, the 'magnets' in their stomachs pulling them together. Well, Eleven was a magnet, anyway, Alina a piece of scrap metal that was drawn to her, only satisfied when they were together.

Her mind whirled. Her dad had lied to her for all of these years, taken her on pointless field trips to the Lab while hiding its darker intent. He had expected her to work there when she was older, be completely okay with every single messed up thing the people at the Lab did. He had expected her to follow in his footsteps of experimenting on children and lying about true intents.

Brandon Fairgrieves was a monster, one wearing the skin of her father.

And Alina was his messed-up daughter.

She looked down at her meatloaf, trying not to let any tears fall. She wondered how it was that someone could do such horrible things to an innocent girl while turning around and buying his own daughter cats, taking her to movies, playing pretend together. And Alina wondered how it was that she still loved Brandon Fairgrieves more than anyone else in the world, except possibly Skywalker.

She also wondered how many more scars she had inside than were outside.

"So." It had been a while since anyone spoke, the clinking of silverware all to be heard in the dining room, but Karen seemed to have had enough. She swallowed a bite of meatloaf and turned to Alina, ridiculous tall from where Alina was sitting. "You're Brandon's kid, right? He works at the Department of Energy?"

She might as well have slapped Alina in the face for the amount Alina flinched. She forced down a bite of meatloaf and smiled tightly, picturing her father, who she'd never thought would be a monster. "Yeah," she said. "He... he used to take me there. Thought I would work there someday." Her voice caught. "We don't do that anymore."

"Didn't his wife run off?" Mr. Wheeler asked faintly, more interested in his meatloaf than the conversation but still wanting to add his input. Karen glared at him, smacking him lightly on the shoulder, and he looked up. "What?"

Karen coughed awkwardly, changing the subject. "Brandon's a really nice guy. He's always laughing, always joking. I've seen him around town before, he's helped me out of a few tight spots, before."

Nice wasn't the word Alina would use to describe her father right now. Nice people didn't experiment on children. Nice people would never allow a tattoo on a twelve-year-old, and nice people would never lie to their daughters about the wonders their workplace did or tell them that perfectly docile girls were monsters. Nice people wouldn't make Alina feel so sick at the thought of them.

"Yeah," Alina said dully. "He's... nice."

Karen smiled at Alina, before her attention finally moving off Alina and to the boys, who were picking at their meatloaf, pushing their food around to make it look like they'd eaten more than they had. Alina didn't know if it was because they didn't like meatloaf, or wanted to share it with Eleven, but she suspected it was the first option, although she disagreed with them. She'd already eaten three-quarters of her plate. Linda, and even Brandon, had never made meatloaf this good before.

"Something wrong with the meatloaf?" Karen asked the boys.

"Oh," said Dustin, an excuse quickly forming in his mouth. "no, I had two bologna sandwiches for lunch. I don't know why."

Lucas chuckled a little. "Me, too." Alina caught his eye, and the two of them grinned at each other. It was the first time since coming here that she didn't feel quite as alone.

"It's delicious, mommy," said Nancy. She was Mike's older sister, and, apparently, quite the suck-up to her mother, yet rude to everyone else, including her brother and his friends. Nancy gave her mother a sweet, "I'm-so-innocent-and-nice-compared-to-these-hooligans" face, and Alina rolled her eyes.

"Thank you, sweetie." Apparently, the innocent face worked, as Karen Wheeler now smiled fondly at her daughter, her spirits improved by someone enjoying her meal. Mike, on the other hand, just glared at his sister, looking just as miserable as Alina felt. She rolled her eyes for a second time. He had no reason to be miserable, not when this was his house and he had his friends here and he was sitting on a chair of proper height.

"So..." Nancy started, slicing into her meatloaf. "there's this special assembly thing tonight... for Will, at the school field. Barb's driving."

Alina recognized what Nancy was doing. Lucas had told her that last night, when they'd found El, Mike had technically been on house arrest, which meant that Nancy had been as well. Nancy wanted to go somewhere—probably not to the assembly, if Alina was being honest with herself—so she added an appropriate hesitation to her tone, making it seem like it was no big deal. It was a pretty masterful way of doing it, Alina had to admit, but she didn't really like the fact that Nancy was using Will as an excuse to go to a party, or wherever she was going to.

Karen, surprisingly, seemed unfazed. "Why am I just hearing about this?"

Nancy raised her eyebrows innocently. "I thought you knew."

"I told you," said Karen, "I don't want you out after dark until Will is found."

"I know, I know," said Nancy, "but it'd be super weird if I'm not there. I mean, everyone's going."

Karen sighed, and Alina knew that Nancy had won. "Just... be back by ten," she said, before glancing up at the four kids picking at their food. "Why don't you take the kids, too?"

"No!" all four of them spoke at the same time, glancing around at each other worriedly. Alina knew they couldn't go out to Will's assembly, not when they had a chance tonight, to go out and find him. She knew that Karen wouldn't understand, though, and excuses began formulating in her brain before Karen even asked the next question.

"Don't you think you should be there?" her tone sounded incredulous at the fact that Will's best friends weren't even going to attend the assembly in his honour. "For Will?"

The four of them were spared answering by Mike suddenly taking a sip of milk before spitting it all over himself at the sight of something behind Karen. Alina's eyes widened at the sight of Eleven, making her way down the stairs, oblivious. Just as Karen was about to turn, Dustin slammed his fists on the table, Alina taking it as an excuse to discreetly knock her milk over, the liquid seeping into the polished wood of the table and the brown placemats. The glass clattered, and that, as well as the sound of Dustin's fists hitting the wood, rattling the dishes, was enough to draw Karen's attention back to them.

Holly, who was around three or four, began to whimper in surprise at the noise, and Dustin smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. Spasm."

Alina was already mopping at her spilled drink. "I'm so sorry," she apologized, adopting a flustered attitude and embarrassment over spilling her milk.

"Oh, it's fine," Karen said, her attention more on Holly then on the girl still trying to mop the table up with a handful of crumpled napkins. "It's okay, Holly," she soothed. "It's just a loud noise."

Eleven had made it successfully past the table, and Alina considered that a success. She finished wiping the milk up and slumped in relief, mouthing nice one to Dustin across the table, who grinned at her sheepishly.

The meal finished without any further issues or questions about Alina's father. Karen seemed to have forgotten about the assembly, waving the kids off when they told her they were going downstairs. Once again, Alina stopped on the stairs before going down, smiling at Karen.

"Thank you for the lovely dinner, Mrs. Wheeler," she said politely, wanting to make a good impression.

"Oh, it was no trouble at all." Karen seemed pleased at the compliment, though. "Sorry about the chair. We'll make sure to get another one if you come to have dinner with us again."

Like that's going to happen, Alina thought wryly, but didn't say it out loud. All she said was "thanks again", before beginning to follow the boys down to the basement.

Before reaching the basement door, however, Alina was stopped, this time by Lucas. He pulled her aside, chewing his lip nervously. "So..." he was determinately not making eye contact. "Look, that was a good save back there. With the milk?"

His arms were trembling a little, and Alina raised her eyebrows. "Um, thanks?"

"I just... you're pretty cool." Lucas almost looked physically pained by the words he was saying. "I think that Mike should consider letting you into the party." He looked at his feet. "That's—that's all."

Alina tried not to show Lucas how good those words made her feel, no matter the broken way they had been articulated. Instead, she raised both eyebrows. "So, you... you want me in the party, but not Eleven?"

"It's different," Lucas insisted. "We already know each other, you're in our grade, you go to our school. You also can, you know, talk, and you like the same thing as us. Eleven, on the other hand, is a weirdo who can barely form a full sentence, and I'm still not convinced she didn't escape the looney bin, no matter what you said about Hawkins Lab."

"The weirdo is also going to help you find Will," Alina said. "Better than I could, anyway."

"You found Eleven," said Lucas. "I'm sure you can help us find Will, too."

Alina swallowed, looking into Lucas's dark eyes. He was beautiful, she thought. He'd saved her three years ago. And he was willing to give her a chance now. A smile lit up her face. "I'll certainly try," she said to him. "Now, come on. Mike and Dustin are waiting for you."

She led Lucas downstairs, unaware that the smile she'd given him made him break out into one of his own. For the first time since Will disappeared, he was genuinely smiling. And it all had to do with the spunky, funny personality of Alina Fairgrieves.

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a/n: hope you enjoyed this chapter! i'm excited for you guys to see what comes next with alina and lucas! 

their ship name, by the way, is sinclairgrieves, so :)

'till next time!