"what kind of complete and utter dickhead does that?"

—

the five kids cut through town to get to the school quicker. it's kind of warm out today, erin notices, and lets the air blow her hair back as they cruise on the street.

they make it to the school pretty quickly on their bikes. when they get to the parking lot, erin walks over to eleven and fixes her wig, which had become windswept and off place in their ride. erin's heart warms as the girl lets erin flit around her, remembering how she had flinched when the rest of them had even looked at her.

they walk through the front doors and mike glances back at his friends. "okay, remember, if anyone sees us, look sad." he tells all of them, looking mainly at eleven.

"attention students," a man on the overspeaker begins. eleven confusedly looks over at the three kids at mike's words. to demonstrate, they all put their hands to their faces and make crying faces. she mimics them and they all nod, turning fowards again.

"-there will be an assembly to honor will byers in the gymnasium now. do not go to fourth period."

as the man finishes, mike collides with the av room door, expecting it to open. he sighs. "it's locked."

"what?" lucas asks, exasperated. he goes over to it and starts rattling the doorknob.

"hey," dustin starts, turning to eleven. "do you think you can open it? with your powers?" he asks. eleven leans forward slightly and erin shakes her head.

"what if somebody sees h-" she's cut off as their favorite teacher rounds the corner.

"boys?" mr. clarke asks. they all quickly turn to him. erin sighs loudly.

"erin." mr. clarke added on affectionately.

"hey." lucas breathes, trying to be nonchalant.

"assembly's about to start." mr. clarke says, looking rather confused about what the kids were doing.

"we know. we're just.. you know.." mike starts, putting on a sad disguise and looking down. lucas tries not to laugh. "..upset." he finishes.

"yeah, definitely upset." dustin stammers.

"i'm really sad." erin adds on. "we all are." they all nod.

"we need some alone time." mike tells their teacher.

"to cry." dustin says lamely.

"yeah," mr. clarke sighs. "listen, i get it. i do. i know how hard this is, but let's just be there for will, huh?"

they all nod, letting him talk. "and then.." mr. clarke reaches into his pocket. he pulls out the keys to the door and quickly tosses them to mike. "-the heathkit is all yours for the rest of the day."

the boys and erin all look around at each other happily, relieved that they could follow through with their plan. "what do you say?"

dustin grins up at him. it's then that mr. clarke notices the additional member with them.

"oh, i don't believe we've met." he turns to eleven. "what's your name?"

eleven's mouth opens and the other kids silently panic. "eleven-"

"eleanor!"

erin turns to mike, pursing her lips. "she's my, uh.." mike trails off.

"cousin." lucas blurts. "second cousin." dustin says, holding up two fingers. mike sighs.

"she's here for will's funeral." mike tells him. mr. clarke sighs sadly. "ah, well, welcome to hawkins middle, eleanor." he tells her, trying to smile. "i wish you were here under better circumstances."

eleven looks over at the other kids, not sure what to do. "thank you." she tells him. mr. clarke's eyebrows scrunch together. "uh, where are you from exactly?"

they all look at her, nervous as to what she's gonna say. "bad place-" eleven mutters, shaking her head.

"sweden!" dustin blurts again. mike follows along easily. "i have a lot of swedish family."

"she hates it there." dustin adds on. "cold." lucas agrees. erin nods from the back vigorously.

"sub-zero." dustin enunciates.

mr. clarke gives them strange looks. "uh, shall we?" he says, gesturing to the hallway. "yep!" lucas immediately says, hopping away from the door to escape the awkwardness.

they all walk down the hall towards the gymnasium. they reach the double doors at one side of the gym, already hearing someone speaking through a microphone on the inside.

dustin yanks open the door, and it bangs against the walls as they all walk inside. dustin slams on his heels as everyone in the room turns to the group. the principal stops talking and dustin looks around, his mouth dropping open.

"abort." he whispers to his friends, and starts to turn around to walk out. erin and lucas catch his arms and twirl him back around, pushing him to the gym bleachers.

"we come together to heal." the principal starts again. "we come together to grieve..."

the kids all walk to the bleachers, getting seats in the middle.

"will byers' death is an unimaginable tragedy." the principal continues once the murmurings all settle down. "will was an exceptional student and a wonderful friend to all of us. it's impossible to express the hole his loss will leave in our community. i'd like to introduce you to sandy sloane. she's a local grief counselor from the church over in jonesboro."

erin and the others start looking around at the other kids. erin blinks as she sees the kids bored expressions. erin feels sad. they don't seem affected. they're disgusting kids who don't even care that a boy just died.

or well, he's not actually dead.

"but before she comes up here, i just want those of you who are having trouble dealing with this tragic loss to.." the principal talks on as erin continues to glance around.

"look at these fakers," erin hears mike whisper. she looks around eleven at the boy. dustin sighed loudly from beside the long-haired girl.

"they probably didn't even know his name until today." lucas says.

erin continues looking around up until a distinct sound of snickering reaches her ears. she stops and looks up. they all glance over and aren't surprised to see troy and james making fun of will.

erin's blood boils as they make stupid noises and chuckle. "oh, he was such a great student." she hears him say. she squeezes her fists and shakes her head, staring him down. "what kind of complete and utter dickhead does that?" she whispers. dustin shakes his head.

"oh, he's going to leave a hole in the community." from beside her, eleven leans forward and stares at the boys.

"mouthbreather." she says. dustin lets out a quiet laugh from next to erin. they all look back and listen for a few more moments before the bell rings and the assembly is over.

they all stomp down the bleachers, still upset over listening to troy make fun of their best friend. mike starts walking forward. erin's eyes widen as she sees him going for troy. "hey!" mike calls out to him. "hey, troy!"

erin shares a look with lucas and they follow after their leader. "hey, troy." he says again. the two boys turn around. "you.. you think this is funny?" he asks them.

"what'd you say, wheeler?" troy replies. the rest of the students start to form around the small group.

"i-i saw you guys laughing over there." he tells them. "and i think that's a real messed up thing to do."

"didn't you listen to the counselor, wheeler? grief shows itself in funny ways." james says. erin bites her lip nervously at his words.

"besides, what's there to be sad about, anyway?" troy adds on. "will's in fairyland now, right? flying around with all the other little fairies. all happy and gay!" he then starts walking away again.

erin's cheeks turn bright red and she self-consciously swallows, eyes flickering all over the ground. her mouth slightly drops open.

troy starts imitating a fairy, floating around making 'la, la, la' noises. lucas crosses his arms from beside erin.

troy and james laugh before they start walking away. erin shakes her head as they do, and feels helpless. they have to do something, they can't let them get away with it!

mike seems to be thinking the same thing, and he stalks forwards after the two boys and shoves troy to the ground.

erin, lucas, dustin, and the rest of the kids in the gym all gasp as troy hits the ground hard. mike stares down at him, angry.

troy looks up at him, baring his teeth. erin's eyes widen as starts to get up. "you're dead, wheeler!" he grunts. "dead!" he starts running at mike.

erin starts to flinch and grab ahold of lucas' shirt sleeve, when troy stops in his tracks.

erin is suddenly beyond confused, wondering what in the world stopped troy. everyone else is too, as they start murmuring.

erin's heart almost stops, when she sees liquid trickling down troy's pant leg. her mouth hangs open in surprise as she realizes it's pee. everyone else does too.

"dude, troy peed himself!" greg mccorkle laughs, pointing at the dark haired boy. everyone starts laughing. erin lets out a joyous laugh, troy finally got what was coming to him.

troy doesn't move, and his cheeks turn bright red as he embarrassedly looks everywhere without moving his head. lucas shoves his elbow at erin, snickering loudly. erin glances at him and they both laugh harder.

it's then right after that that eleven starts walking away, back over to the door. erin glances at her, and then at the principal who's voice booms out, "hey! what's going on here?"

erin panics momentarily, and then slaps at lucas as they exit the gym quickly. lucas runs up to mike, grabs him and they run to the doors, catching up to eleven.

-

mike locked the door behind them once they finally got to the av room. "okay." he says, pulling out the chair for el to sit in at the table.

"now what?" dustin asks. "she'll find him." mike answers, reaching for the heathkit. "right, el?"

he starts turning the radio dials, getting in tune with the frequencies. he stops for a moment to try and get on the same channel el was on. it takes him a minute, and then he finally looks over at eleven, making sure she's ready. she closes her eyes and focuses. small static sounds start to emit from the speakers.

"she's doing it. she's finding him." mike states in amazement. "this is crazy." dustin says.

"calm down. she just closed her eyes." lucas says, annoyed. mike shakes his head.

the light above them suddenly bursts and they all gasp, looking up into the darkness. "holy.." dustin starts.

erin's eyebrows furrow. a loud clanging sound is coming from the radio.

"what is that?" dustin asks shakily. the clanging gets louder and faster.

"mom?"

erin's mouth drops. she can't even believe it. "no way." lucas says.

it's will.

"mom," will continues. he sounds so weak. erin feels tears flood her eyes and she almost begins to cry. "mom!" he wails.

"will!" mike suddenly cries into the microphone. "will, it's us! can you hear us?!" lucas yells.

"can you hear us? we're here!" dustin tries. he has to scream over the louder clanging noise.

"hello? mom?" will says again. his voice is becoming distorted and shaky.

"why can't he hear us?" lucas cries out in frustration. "i don't know!" mike replies.

his voice fades in and out, yelling out for his mom, and then a sudden ripping sound comes from the heathkit and will's voice cries out even louder.

"it's like home, but it's so dark.. it's so dark and empty. and it's cold!" erin feels her heart ache and squeeze. she can't handle it very well, and her heart is suddenly like lead.

"mom? mom!"

a tear slides down erin's cheek, and hits her hand where it's resting on the table. she sniffles.

a growling sound echoes out of the radio and they back up. they jump away quickly when the heathkit suddenly explodes, and sparks fly around, and catches on fire. they all gasp as the lights come flicker back on.

the school's fire alarm is loud, and erin looks up at the one in the av room. they all exclaim and then dustin runs to the corner and picks up the bright red fire extinguisher. it's heavier than he anticipates but he runs to the radio and sprays it quickly. when he's done, mike grabs at eleven's shoulders and turns her to him.

"el, are you okay?" he asks frantically. lucas suddenly gasps when he sees eleven. eleven looks out of it. her veins are more dark and prominent in her face, and the blood from her nose ran down past her lip.

"can you move?" mike asks worriedly. erin bends down beside lucas and looks at the other girl. she just breathes heavily, unable to even move her head.

mike gets up. "here, help her up." erin, mike, and lucas all grab at her arms and help her up, before dragging her to the door.

erin notices a table with wheels on it, one that they had kept for years but strangely never used it, and brings it over to the group. they all hoist the girl onto it and dustin slams open the door.

they quickly wheel her out of there, and down the hall, all but running out the doors.

—

hey guys! how are ya