the girl in the lab

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

    Alina had been grounded before, but never for this long. In the past, she'd gotten grounded for petty things; refusing to do her chores, skipping class, or getting into fights with her teachers, but those sentences had been light, at least in Brandon Fairgrieves's eyes. To a younger Alina, a week without her comics felt like years, every day an agonizingly slow trudge to make it through to the next.

Now, however, she was twelve years old and had grown into a small, thin girl, with sharp elbows and big feet. It had been three years since her mother had run away, three years since she had woken up in the hospital (she'd had no other instances of that sort since that day), and three years since she'd been rescued by Lucas Sinclair. Alina had enjoyed those three years; the movie nights with her dad, the adoption of a small white cat (which Linda would've never allowed in her house), and, of course, the trips to the Lab. The most recent trip, however, had been different, and it had been the cause of Alina's grounding.

Even though Alina had hated being grounded in the past, back then she had to admit that her father was justified in grounding her. This time, however, the grounding came out of nowhere, and with no fault of Alina's own.

It had all started a month ago. Alina, as usual, was with her dad at Hawkins Lab, but this trip in particular was getting boring. Alina had seen the portion of the lab she was allowed in many times before, the others being hidden to her eyes on account that they were "classified areas", so on this trip, she found herself reading a comic while her dad and the head of Hawkins Lab, Dr. Brenner, talked about something or other, using adult language Alina didn't understand.

Dr. Brenner was a man a little older than Brandon, with white hair and wrinkles lining his face. Unlike the white coats the other scientists wore, however, whenever Alina saw him, he would be wearing suits. Brenner had a soft voice that sent shivers up her spine but made Alina want to trust him at the same time. Then she would see the malice in his eyes and resolve to keep her guard up around him.

She'd read this comic before, and, eventually, the words started blurring together, and she stood up, figuring she'd head to the bathroom. She'd been there before, so she didn't think she'd need anyone to guide her, and she didn't want to disturb her dad or his boss either, so she slipped out of the room without telling anyone. She'd been in the lab alone before, and she thought it wouldn't be a big deal, especially since the bathroom was so close.

The walls in this section of the lab were yellow, almost like bathroom tiles, and Alina followed her regular path to the bathroom, passing a few scientists on the way. They barely glanced at her, recognizing her, and she nodded at them as she passed by.

Before she reached the bathroom, however, she spotted it, stopping in her tracks. In the hallway beside the one with the bathroom, a small child was being escorted by two scientists to a different room. Alina had never seen this kid before, and was stepping closer, just catching a glimpse of a shaved head, bare feet, and thin wrists, when her father and Dr. Brenner came hurtling down the hallway towards her. Brandon began to haul her away, yelling at her, and Brenner followed, a frown contorting his face.

Just as she was about to be pulled away, the kid, seeming to sense her presence, turned, and Alina looked into a pair of wide brown eyes. The child, who turned out to be a girl, opened her mouth in surprise, trying to call out something to Alina, but before she could say anything both of them were jerked away from each other's sight. But not before they both felt a pull in their stomachs, a strange, invisible force tugging them towards each other.

Alina was led back to the room she was in before, where she was yelled at by both her father and Dr. Brenner. Alina, who hadn't been expecting all of this abuse for nothing, and who still really had to pee, began to cry in confusion as their screams rattled her ears.

Eventually, Brandon realized how traumatic this whole thing must've been for her, and gathered her in his arms, hugging her tightly as she cried. "It's okay," he soothed her. "You have to tell us if you're leaving, okay? You can't just go wandering off by yourself."

He still grounded her, though, taking away her comics and television privileges, and Dr. Brenner had told her that this "was a matter of national security" and forbid her to tell anyone of what she'd seen. Alina had told him that she had no one to tell, anyway, no friends at all, then paused, asking if she had permission to tell her cat.

Brenner had agreed, and modified his terms so she couldn't tell any human. Then he'd knelt down to her level. "I need you to trust me, Alina. Do you trust me?"

Alina had swallowed thickly, glancing from Brenner to her dad. "Y-yes," she'd choked. "Yes, I trust you."

"Good." Brenner had smiled, and it was a terrible thing. He held out a hand, and Alina reluctantly shook it. "I'm your friend, Alina. I'd never do anything to hurt you." He glanced to Brandon and laughed. "Your father would kill me if I did."

Now, a month later, still grounded and bored out of her mind, Alina Fairgrieves sat cross-legged on her bed, tapping her pen against the faux leather cover of her notebook. Her cat, Skywalker, who she'd named after her favourite movie trilogy, sat curled up beside her, purring contentedly as she scratched him behind the ears. He was a white cat with long ears and a long tail, and Alina considered him one of her best friends. Which was pretty pathetic, but he was one of the only ones who'd ever listened to her. The day she'd come home from the Lab, she'd told the whole story to Skywalker, who'd actually meowed as a response. See? Cats could engage in conversation.

Alina had always liked acting like a detective, so after telling Skywalker the whole story, Alina had dug out an old notebook of hers that Linda had given her and wrote down every single thing she remembered about the incident, as well as a thorough description of everything she'd noticed about the girl in those fleeting seconds.

She was around my height, Alina wrote, and really skinny, too. She had pale skin and dark circles around her eyes, and she seemed to be wearing a hospital gown. She had brown eyes, no shoes, and her brown hair was shaved for some reason. There was also dried blood on her nose, and she was being escorted by two scientists, or guards. I don't know.

When I looked at her, I felt a tugging inside of me. When she noticed me, she opened her mouth to call out to me, but Dad pulled me away. He and Doctor Brenner yelled at me for seeing her, and Doctor Brenner told me that I'm not allowed to tell anyone I saw her. It's not like I could tell anyone, anyway.

Whoever she is, she's supposed to be a secret. And I'm going to figure out why.

She tapped her pen against the cover now, thinking. Every day since then, she'd gone over the memory in her mind, trying to remember some obscure detail she'd forgotten to add about this strange girl. Questions she wasn't allowed to ask stayed rooted there, too. Who is she? Why is her head shaved? Why was there blood on her nose? Where were her shoes? Why was she wearing a hospital gown, was she a patient? Why was she being escorted?

And the scariest question of all. Why did she look so afraid?

Alina sighed, closing her notebook. In the past month, she'd grown obsessed with this girl, and having no way to distract herself certainly didn't help. The girl was the first thing on her mind when she woke up, and she dreamed about her wide eyes every night when she fell asleep. It was just so confusing.

Skywalker let out a meow, leaping off Alina's bed just as a knock sounded at her bedroom door. Alina immediately shoved her notebook in her underwear drawer, burying it under a pile of her undergarments, and then opened the door to find her dad, holding a stack of comics in his hands. Her comics.

"Hi, Ally," he said, coming and sitting on her bed. Alina followed, heart thudding with excitement and hope. Brandon Fairgrieves was the only one allowed to call her Ally. Not even her mom had been allowed, when she'd lived here. But Linda had taken everything her daughter ever said with a grain of salt, anyway.

"Hi, Dad," said Alina, trying to keep the anticipation out of her voice. "What do you need?"

Brandon placed Alina's comics on her bed. "You're officially ungrounded," he said. "I know it's a couple of weeks early, but I've been thinking about it and decided that maybe the punishment I gave you was a little too harsh."

Alina scoffed. "A little?! All I was doing was going to the bathroom, Dad! And not only did I get grounded for a month, but both you and Brenner almost made me shit myself by your yelling!"

"Language, Alina," Brandon warned. "Or I can just take these comics back right now." He made as if to grab the comics, and Alina sprung to her feet, startling Skywalker, who bolted out of the room, his tail flying behind him.

"Wait! Please, Dad, I'm sorry! I didn't mean it!"

Brandon sighed. "Look, Ally, I'm sorry you were grounded for so long. I just really had to get the message across that what you did, what you saw, was extremely dangerous. I'm serious. You could've ended up getting me arrested as well as fired."

"But why? What's so dangerous about a little girl?"

"Alina. I had to get special permission from Dr. Brenner to even let you in the Lab. Some things there even I don't understand, but I follow along without question because I know what we're doing is right, even when it seems wrong. And believe me, if I could tell you everything, I would. But I can't. I'm sorry, Alina."

"It's not like I could tell anyone!" argued Alina, flopping onto her bed.

Brandon's face softened, and he reached over to ruffle Alina's dark curls. "Are you still having trouble making friends?"

Alina rolled over so her back faced her father. "It doesn't matter," she said dully, "but yeah. I'm still the freak. If I was going to ever make friends, Dad, I would've made them a long time ago."

Brandon stood up. "I know what will cheer you up," he said. "A Star Wars movie night. How about it, Ally?"

Alina perked up a little. It'd been a long time since she'd had a movie night with her Dad. "Okay," she said eventually. "I'm in. Thanks, Dad."

"One more thing," said Brandon, before he left. "Ally, you have to promise me you won't try to find out about the girl, okay?"

"Okay," said Alina. "I promise."

Brandon smiled at her complacency and headed downstairs. After a couple of minutes, Alina could hear the hiss of a beer can being opened and the low murmur of the TV. When she was sure he wasn't coming back upstairs, she smiled, digging her notebook out of her drawer again.

I'm not going to try anything, she thought to herself. I'm going to find out everything I can about the girl, and I won't let him stop me.

That afternoon, Alina found herself wandering over to Hawkins Middle School. Although it was Saturday, Alina sometimes came here to clear her thoughts, if she wasn't at the treehouse her and her father had built near the Lab a couple of years ago. She wanted a break from the menacing presence of the Lab, for the ever-present mystery of the girl. Sometimes, Alina would be thinking about her, and she'd get the strange tug in her stomach, the way she did the day she saw her for the first time, and would stand up, beginning to walk, before stopping, not knowing where she was going.

She opened up a comic, a new one her father had gotten for her a couple of weeks ago as a treat for when she got ungrounded and lay on the steps leading into up into the middle school. The air was pleasant for November, just cool enough in temperature, and the breeze sent fallen leaves scattering across the schoolyard, the remaining ones waving on their branches in reds, oranges, and golds.

Alina was really getting engrossed in the comic—it was about Spider-Man—when she was interrupted as a shadow crossed her face. "Hey," a voice said, and Alina sat up, putting down her comic, and faced Will Byers, who was, for some reason, standing in front of her, his hands buried in his pockets.

"Uh, hi?" Alina hadn't spoken with Will in ages, so it was strange to see him now in front of her. Behind Will was his bike, neatly placed in its rack, and also Lucas Sinclair, who was looking sheepishly at Will and who averted his eyes when he saw Alina staring at him.

"Lucas and I were biking around when he noticed you here by yourself," said Will, glancing at his friend. "He wanted to drop by and say hello."

"Then why isn't he the one here? Why is he standing back there?" Alina asked, confused. The wind sent her hair flying everywhere, just like the scattered leaves, and she risked a glance at Lucas again. He was sitting on the ground now and held his hand up in a wave when he noticed Alina looking. "Actually, never mind. Why did he want to say hi in the first place? We're not friends."

"He wanted to know why you're alone all the time," Will explained. "Do you—do you have any friends?"

Alina shook her head. "I've never had any," she said. "In case you were wondering. I'm still the town freak."

"You're not a freak," said Will. "Even Lucas thinks so. You know, at first, he didn't want me in the party."

"The party?" Alina repeated.

"Yeah." Will nodded. "Like from Dungeons and Dragons. It's me, Lucas, Dustin, and Mike. We make up the party." He turned back to Lucas, glaring at his friend. "Anyway, it was nice talking to you, Alina. I'll tell Lucas to actually come with me next time, especially when it was his idea." He smiled. "See you around."

"Yeah," said Alina, watching him run back to Lucas and mounting his bike. "Yeah. See you."

As the two boys biked off, Alina sighed, running a hand through her hair. Why did Lucas Sinclair want to talk to her? Why hadn't he even walk up to her then, if it was all his idea? Why did Will say that Lucas didn't think she was a freak? Was that supposed to be a compliment?

Well, at least this was one mystery Alina could solve. Lucas probably felt sorry for her, sorry for the freak with no friends, the freak who read her comics and went biking alone. Well, Alina didn't need his pity. She glared reproachfully at the back of Lucas's retreating figure before opening her comic again.

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

a/n: and so it begins! yes, alina does know about eleven before anyone else does, as i've never read a fic where someone finds out about her before mike, lucas and dustin do. so i decided that, since alina's dad works in the lab, it only makes sense that she'd find out eventually.

also, we've got our second alina/lucas interaction! well, lack of interaction. lucas is honestly me in social situations, lmao. 

i'll be trying to get chapters out every other day, since they're all pre-written for now (im currently on chapter thirty-four at the moment) so yeah! expect frequent updates!

thank you for reading! if you enjoyed, leave a vote or comment because they seriously make me so happy. :) 'till next time!