Grace entered her home quietly. She knew her mom wouldn't give her into trouble because she knew she was going to be out but she refrained from telling her about looking for Will. Her little sister would be in bed by now and soon she'd have to get ready for bed too.

"Hey kid!" Delancey greeted unexpectedly, giving her a fright. She jumped from the unexpected voice and turned to smile at her elder sister. "Geez, are you ok?" "Yeah, I'm just worked up about everything that's going on I guess." Her sister smiled sympathetically at her. "Listen, kid, if you ever need anyone to talk to I'm here alright?" Grace nodded and started walking up the stairway.

"Wait, Grace?" Grace turned around to face her sister again.

"Please stay safe. With Will going missing, I'm freaking out of my mind about another person vanishing. I miss that little dude already." Lance always had a soft spot for Will and the boys. She usually would dismiss other kids their age as annoying but something way different about them. They were good kids, they didn't have a bad bone in their body. "You're worried about me?" Grace asked (header gif), not that she was surprised but still, she'd expect them to be more worried over Will. "Of course Gracey. G'night." And with that Delancey disappeared into her room, which was downstairs. Only a few people called her Gracey. Her sisters, her parents, Jonathan, Joyce and Will. She thought about Joyce and Jonathan. God, they must be losing their minds. She could hear her mother on the phone with Joyce, calming her down about something and promising to visit her soon.

The young girl headed upstairs, she could hear her dad reading Tabby a bedtime story. After quietly going into her room, she changed into her nightgown and went to sleep.

She couldn't stop thinking about Mike. It was so corny, but she really liked him. She might even have a-

No.

He'd never like her in 10 million years. He probably just liked her as a friend and nothing else.

Her dream was interrupted by her alarm clock screeching. She remembered that she said she would stay off school to help Mike deal with El. Instead of getting up, Grace stayed in her bed and waited for her mom to notice. Her dad was working today so he had left early, she wasn't sure when he'd be off next - his holidays were odd.

Soon after, her mother entered her room. "Hey baby, you up?" She sat on her daughter's bed and pet her forehead. "Mom, I don't feel so good." Her mum grew a concerned look on her face. "Really?" "Yeah. I have a sore stomach and I feel really weird." That wasn't a lie. Everytime she thought about Mike her stomach felt like it was home to a hundred butterflies and her face felt warm. Her mom quickly changed her expression. "You don't have to pretend with me Grace." The girl was confused. "Wait, what?" Her mom put her hand to her cheek. "You're in grief. You're best friend just went missing and you don't know how to deal with it. I understand how it is." Grace's face softened. "I feel like I just want to be alone, the only people I want to be around are the gang. I miss him so much and he's only been missing for a day." The older woman kissed her forehead. "Hey, don't worry. I'll keep you off school today, you're clearly too down to go and besides, you do have a bit of a temperature." That temperature wasn't from sadness or illness.

It was from a giant crush.

Grace cringed at the thought, but she really needed to at least admit it. She smiled at her parent as she left the room.

Grace discreetly put her clothes on. She wore a simple shirt with a pinafore over it. Of course her look wouldn't be complete without her signature choker. Usually when she was off school, her mom would ask Mrs Livingstone, the old woman who lived next door, to babysit.

She had curly grey hair and big eyes. Grace thought she was hilarious- when she was awake. Mrs Livingstone usually fell into a deep sleep that lasted the entire time she was 'babysitting' Grace. Grace couldn't remember Mr Livingstone, but the older lady was independent enough so she doubted she even needed a husband anyway. She used to babysit Tabitha (where she was always alert and never slept) but now she was growing older and Tabby was in pre-school, she went to an after school care club until Lizzy could pick her up after work (unless her dad was off)and Delancey and Grace could already make their own way home from school.

Grace heard the old woman enter the house by her loud voice. She had an extravagant English accent that boomed everytime she spoke.

After hearing her mother leave, she checked her clock. 8:40.

Her mom never worked on Mondays or Fridays (and obviously the weekend) so this was her first working day of the week. She waited for a while

After waiting for about 10 minutes she got her super comm and contacted Mike on channel 5.
"Mike?  Come in Mike, this is Grace, do you copy?", after a few seconds of  silence his voice replied, "Hey. Can you stay off? Over." "Yeah, can you? Over." She hated taking advantage of her mom but it was for a good cause. They had to help this girl. "I haven't told my mom yet. There's been a change of plans about Eleven,"

The original plan was that Eleven would go around to the main door and Mike's mom, Karen -  who was a lovely woman -, would answer it and get the proper help Eleven needed. Grace was confused. How could that plan go wrong?

"I'll explain the change of plans when you get here, but come to my house at 9:30. My mom will be gone by then and we can have the house to ourselves. Over." "Ok, will do. Over and out."

She crept downstairs. Her mom had probably left her breakfast lying out so she could have it when she got up. Mrs Livingstone was watching the morning news. "Hello dearie!" The old woman called from the livingroom. "Hello, Mrs Livingstone!" "How are you? Your mother told me about the poor Byers boy. I know you two were close." Grace didn't know how she felt. She felt tired. She felt sad. She felt weird. Those feelings were constantly pulling at her. She'd been so wrapped up in Will, her crush on Mike and now this new girl - Eleven.

"I'm fine."

"Well ok, breakfast is on the table, I'm going to finish the news and nap for a while. Wake me up if you need anything dearie!"

Her mother had left out waffles for her - her favourite. She finished them and walked up to her room, trying not to disturb the sleeping woman in the livingroom.

Her alarm clock read 9:10. She got her stuff ready and leave. Before she left, she went back into the kitchen to take some snacks out of the cupboard.

She knew by the time she got ready to go it was 9:25. 5 minutes should be enough to get to Mike's house. She jumped on her bike and sped there, to avoid detection. Mike greeted her in quickly and made sure no one was watching them. He looked as if he'd just arrived home too.

"First things first, what's the change of plan?" Grace questioned. She'd been curious to know since Mike told her.

"I told El about the plan but she refused to do it. She says bad people are after her!" He exclaimed. Grace wasn't really shocked. The poor girl looked terrified when they first met her, as if she'd been on the run from someone. "She did this," he went on to hold a gun to his head and point it at Grace's head too. "Oh my god." "Exactly." They shared a concerned look.

They both headed downstairs and as they walked down the stairs together their hands brushed.

They immediately both jumped at the contact and silently elected to ignore it ever happened. It felt like electricity sparked when she touched his hand.

Mike went to El's blanket fort and pulled off one up the front cover. Grace bent down to greet her, "hey El!" She smiled. The girl did the same back, "hi Grace." "Hey do you guys wanna go upstairs? We can show El around." Grace nodded as Mike helped her up. Just as before, she felt a weird sense of electricity when their hands connected. She let go and looked into his eyes. They were chocolate brown, like hers. She smiled. All she ever did was smile when she saw him. He loved her smile. It was so honest and always made his day better. Grace broke from her weird trance to help up Eleven.

"Want anything to drink? We have O.J, skimmed milk, what else, uh-" He was cut off by noticing that Grace had taken Eleven into the living room. "This is my living room, it's mostly just for watching TV." Eleven started checking out the previously mentioned TV. "Nice, right? It's a 22-inch," "Yeah, it's like 10 times bigger than Dustin's one right?" He nodded in response. Eleven had already lost interest in the TV and walked over to the pictures. She looked at Nancy's picture and smiled. "Pretty."

Mike pulled a face. "I guess. That's my sister Nancy," she moved to the next picture, "that's baby Holly," and the next, "and that's my parents, what are your parents like? Do they live close?" Her gazed was fixed upon the recliner in the middle of the room.

"That's the La-Z-Boy. It's really comfy." Grace laughed, she remembered sitting down on it once, she didn't think she would've gotten back up. "That's where my dad sleeps, you can try it if you want." El sat on it and Mike pulled the switch, sending her backwards. She started smiling, "it's fun, right?" asked Grace as El nodded at her. Mike fixed the chair up again, "now you try." She copied what the boy had done seconds before as her smile grew wilder.

They continued to show Eleven around all the rooms in Mike's house. Eventually, they got to Mike's bedroom. "Hey, do you want me to show you my toys?" Eleven was confused by this, but nodded nonetheless. He pulled out a Yoda action figure and started to play with it. "Ready are you? What knows you of ready?" Grace giggled at his Yoda impression. El seemed uninterested. "His name's Yoda, he can use the force to move things with his mind! Like this," he proceeded to push a bunch of his toys off the table. "Princess Leia's still better." "Y'know, she kinda reminds me of you." "D'aw thanks Wheeler!" Grace joked. Eleven was starting to step towards Mike's trophies. "Oh! This is my dinosaur Rory, he has a speaker in his mouth so he can roar!" He tried to show the dinosaur toy to his new friend but she was transfixed on his trophies. "Those are Mike's science fair trophies, well they really belong to the whole team but we all agreed it'd be better if Mike had them. We got first place almost every year, the only year we haven't came first was last year but Mr Clarke said it was purely political," Grace rambled on about the award but stopped when she realised El was looking at a picture of the group - including Will.

Mike was observing her as she started to point to Will. "Wait. Do you know him? Do you know where he is? Have you seen him?" Grace questioned. She could sense this girl knew him or perhaps even where he was. "Did you see him on the road where we found you last night?" Mike added.

Before she could answer, they heard the sound of a car pulling into the driveway. It could only mean one thing.

Mike's mom was home.

      →Introducing←

         Miriam Margolyes as Mrs Livingstone

A/N:
I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Sorry it took so long to get it, I've been preparing to go back to school and I saw Suicide Squad yesterday with my best friends so I couldn't update because we were out quite late. I have no idea when the next chapter will be out(hopefully tomorrow)

Mike and Grace are becoming closer omg
I'm still building up Grace x Eleven's friendship, but by the end they gon be best bros I stg.

I love Miriam Margolyes so so much, she is truly wonderful and you all need to watch her interviews on Graham Norton. I literally made the character of Mrs Livingstone with her in mind.

Thanks for reading! Vote if you liked it, add to library for updates and comment suggestions/feedback - it really helps me out!