sleepovers and spies

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

The day had faded into night, but Max, El, and Alina were still together, in the bowels of the woods where Hopper's cabin lay. As the trio had picked their way through the brush hours earlier, Max had noticed the telltale signs of Alina's lessons—the targets still hanging by the trees, of the blackened trunks, the demolished rocks and figurines Alina had blasted through—and found herself begrudgingly impressed. Alina didn't really have much cause to use her powers these days, other than annoying her friends, so Max didn't really see the full extent of them. But the truth was, Alina was definitely a force to be reckoned with.

Right now, though, she was just a girl, dancing around the room with a hairbrush as a microphone, singing along to the music pumping out of the stereo on El's dresser. Max was doing the same thing, while El sat on her bed, flipping through magazines. Thunder rumbled in the distance, a warning of a storm approaching, and it felt surprisingly comfortable in El's room. And Alina was still smiling.

One fact about Alina Fairgrieves-Byers: she did not sing. After being forced through three years of singing lessons as a child, she'd locked up her vocal cords, determined not to even sing happy birthday. For the longest time, every time she even started humming a tune from a commercial or the radio, she'd immediately stop herself, eyes wild, looking around to make sure nobody had heard her. But she was different now, and, for possibly the first time, Alina was actually singing.

El looked up from her magazine-flipping at the sound of Alina's high, clear voice, rich with emotion, and Max stopped dancing for a moment, stunned. "I didn't know you were so good at singing," she said, raking a lock of red hair out of her eyes. Alina stopped, too, her face flushed, her heart automatically twinging with guilt and embarrassment before realizing Linda wasn't here. Then she shrugged.

"I didn't know either. I guess those three years of lessons paid off."

Max let out a giggle, and the two high-fived, singing in unison to the next song that came on. "You must be an angel... I can see it in your eyes... full of wonder and surprise." Laughing, they stopped at El's bed, where the girl was eyeing an incredibly attractive boy in the magazine.

"Oh, you found Ralph Macchio," said Max, sitting down on the bed as well. El looked up.

"Macchio?"

"Yeah, he's the karate kid. Hai-yah!" Max slammed her hand down on the bed in a karate chop, causing El to jump. "He's so hot, right? I bet he's an amazing kisser, too."

"Definitely," said Alina.

Max moved further onto the bed. "Hey, uh..." she looked to El. "Is Mike a good kisser?"

"I don't know," said El. "He's my first boyfriend."

"Ex-boyfriend," Max corrected, and, at El's downcast look, jumped to reassure her. "Hey, don't worry about it. Okay? He'll come crawling back to you in no time, begging for forgiveness. I guarantee you, him and Lucas are, like, totally wallowing in self-pity and misery right now. They're like—" she pitched her voice and screwed up her face, "'Oh, I hope they take us back.'"

"Hey, I didn't break up with Lucas," Alina pointed out. She thought back to the arcade, and Han, and how nice he'd been lately. She wasn't going to let one mistake like this ruin their relationship. He'd definitely come back and apologize, she just knew it. Well... maybe he didn't have to even do that. He was just sticking up for his friend. Either way, they'd definitely stick together.

"I know," said Max. "I'm just saying. You two have been going strong for a while now, haven't you?"

"Ever since the Snow Ball," said Alina. Now that had been a perfect night. "Look, I'm not going to break up with Lucas, because although he did mess up and take Mike's side, he's still a good guy. And besides, don't most guys have a weird code when it comes to relationships? He was probably just following that."

"Okay, Alina," said Max, shaking her head. But she was grinning. "But, God, what I wouldn't give to see their stupid faces."

At that, Alina noticed El's eyes widen a little, and it looked like she'd gotten an idea. Max seemed to notice, too, because she asked, "What is it?"

"We can see them," El explained, standing up. She moved towards her dresser, where she kept the blindfolds she often used to transport herself into the void-like place where she was able to spy on people, and Alina realized then what was happening.

Immediately, protests sparked through her head. "No. No way. We are not spying on Mike and the others. That's... wrong. In so many ways."

Max, who didn't seem to have realized before now, stood up. "Oh! You're going to do your thing?"

"Come on, Al," El said slowly, picking up two of her blindfolds. "You can do it with me."

"Okay, even if I was okay with spying on my boyfriend and your ex-boyfriend, not to mention Gabe and Will, who have also been dragged into this, how do you know I can even... do that thing you can do? I mean, I don't have the same powers you have."

"You can," said El matter-of-factly, sliding to sit on the floor against her dresser. "I talked to you before, remember?"

"That was in a dream," said Alina. Then she remembered another time she'd visited that void, that wasn't. She'd been perfectly awake at home, thinking about Will, when suddenly, she was standing right in front of him, watching as her brother—who was barely himself at the time—thrash around in his bonds. She remembered the blackened lips of Barbara Holland and the slug oozing its way out of her mouth a year before that, and looked around, her mind whirring with this new revelation.

Could she really do it, too? Visit people miles away?

El seemed to sense this. Maybe it was because of the magnet, that, although it wasn't nearly as present as it had been before, given that the two of them saw each other nearly every day, still faintly tugged at Alina's naval sometimes, but the two girls had always been able to practically read each other's minds. Could tell by their facial expressions when they'd figured something out. It was quite creepy sometimes.

She took Alina's hand. "I know you can do it," she said. "But if you don't want to, you can sit out. I'll do it by myself."

"Okay." Alina nodded, still a little breathless, and moved to turn the radio dial, flipping through the channels until it was just static. She didn't really feel comfortable with this, but she knew that El was going to do it anyway, so she just sat down and watched as the girl tied her blindfold around her head.

Unlike Alina, Max was quivering with excitement. She sat down on El's bed beside Alina, her face lit up with anticipation. "Is this really gonna work?" she asked. El nodded, and Max grinned. "Holy shit, this is insane."

"Max," said El sharply, trying to quiet her friend down.

"Yeah, quiet. I'm sorry."

It was a moment of silence as Alina and Max stared at El, who, Alina knew, was now being transported into the watery void. She remembered seeing El last year, her curly mop of hair and her tearful brown eyes, remembered trying to embrace her only to have the girl dissolve into smoke in her arms. That seemed to be the limitation when it came to this ability—you couldn't touch anyone. And, of course, they couldn't see you.

Then El said, "I see them."

Max slid off the bed, moving to sit beside her, and Alina did the same. Even though this was something the girls probably shouldn't have been doing, she couldn't help but feel curious now. What did Lucas say about her when she wasn't around? What did the boys do when there were no girls to moderate their crudeness? It was admittedly a fascinating concept that Alina had never even thought to explore. Because it was immoral. But still.

"What are they doing?" Max asked.

"Eating."

"Speaking of..." Alina clutched her stomach, "Can we grab some chips or something after this?"

"Shh!" Max and El said at the same time, and Alina shrunk back.

"Right, sorry."

El went quiet again for what was probably only about thirty seconds, but what felt to Alina like hours. A slow trickle of blood oozed from her nose. Then she spoke. "They say we are species." She seemed confused at the term. Alina definitely wasn't.

"What?" she and Max asked.

"Emotion, not logic."

Max and Alina's eyebrows shot up at that. "What?!"

"Who said that?" Alina asked, feeling her hands curled into fists. She knew her friends could be casually sexist sometimes—and she or Max would always end up putting them in their place—but she didn't think the boys thought that low of them. She just had to know. "Was it Lucas? Please tell me it wasn't Lucas."

"It was Mike," said El, and Alina exhaled for a moment before, "But Lucas agreed."

"You still want to stay with him?" Max asked, and Alina shoved her arm.

"Shut up."

Alina's heart was sinking slightly. The absolute last thing she wanted to do right now was break up with Lucas, but she couldn't believe he thought girls had 'emotion, not logic.' It was complete bullshit, given that right now, she assumed they were complaining about El and Mike's breakup, while she had already moved on. It was the other way around—the boys were being emotional, while El knew, logically, that things would get better. Alina couldn't wait to tell them off the next time she saw them.

Except, she realized, she couldn't. She couldn't tell Lucas and Mike she'd spied on them, because that would betray their trust. But still... it was messed up. Or maybe she was taking things too seriously. Maybe it was just a passing remark, even though it was sexist. Well, perhaps Gabe had told them off. He, at least, seemed to appreciate that women weren't some alien species. It probably had to do with his grandma, who wouldn't take any of that sexist nonsense.

A couple more minutes, and then, without notice, El ripped her blindfold off. She blinked, taking in her surroundings, and Max leaned forward, concerned. "What? What happened?"

El's response was to break into laughter. Her giggles were so strong that she collapsed onto the floor, kicking her legs, having apparently seen something so hilarious that she couldn't speak. And even though Alina had been fuming just a couple minutes ago, she had to admit El's laugh was contagious, and she found herself breaking into fits of cackles as well. Soon, all three girls were laughing, and Alina's bad mood had been wiped away.

Their fits of laughter, however, were soon interrupted by the sound of an approaching car that meant that Hopper had gotten home. Quickly, with wide eyes, El wiped her nose, Max returned the blindfold to its original position, and Alina turned the radio back to normal, all three of them knowing that Hopper probably wouldn't approve of what they were doing. Max passed out random magazines from El's bed, and the girls began to immerse themselves in the reading, aware of Hopper pulling open the door.

"Hey!" came his voice from the other room. "Hey!" his footsteps came closer to the room, his voice getting louder, "When I say three inches, three—"

The door flew open to reveal a very sweaty, very red-faced Hopper, wearing a very terrible shirt. He looked like he'd obviously tried to dress himself up, perhaps for a date, but it had not gone well. Alina took a moment to wonder if it was her mom. The two of them had always been close, and Hopper seemed to be spending a lot of time with her lately—Joyce had told her about the fact that he visited the store nearly every day. It was a lot more than just friends would do.

But then—how could their date have been messed up?

Hopper blinked at the scene in front of him now—he'd obviously expected to find Mike and El, making out as usual. Max bristled, her voice cutting out, "Do you knock? Jeez!"

"Yeah," said El. "Jeez!"

"Oh, hey." There was a bottle of wine in Hopper's hand. He was quite possibly drunk. "I'm sorry. I thought that, uh—"

"Mike's not here," said Max.

"Max and Al wanted to have a sleepover," El explained. "Is that... okay?"

"Yeah," said Hopper. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Your parents know about it?" his eyes flicked to Alina when he said that.

Detective Fairgrieves-Byers has returned, she thought, noting the glum look in his eyes. This definitely had something to do with her mom.

She and Max both nodded as a response to Hopper (they'd phoned their parents upon arriving, and, although Joyce hadn't been home, Jonathan had promised to relay the message). "Yup," said Max.

"Uh, yeah," said Hopper, "it's cool. Yeah. That's—that's really cool." Then he just stood in the doorway, staring at them, and Alina wondered how it was possible this man could be the chief of police. It was almost amusing to remember how she'd been so intimidated by him two years ago, when he'd summoned her to the office to interrogate her about Will.

"Did you need something?" Max asked, which seemed to snap Hopper out of his reverie.

"No, no," he said. "Uh, I'll leave. I'll just let you... I'll leave you..." he backed out of the room as he spoke, before shutting the door behind him. Alina, Max, and El, all exchanged a glance.

"Is Hopper okay?" Max asked.

"He's probably happy," Alina said. "He hates it when El and Mike are kissing in here." She still was thinking about her theory, though.

"Keep the door open three inches!" El mocked, making Alina and Max laugh again. Because it wasn't like any of them ended up knowing what would soon come to pass. Because, despite all of Alina and El's superpowers, neither of them could see the future.

And so they laughed, none the wiser.

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

a/n: yeah so basically i'm cliche and alina can go into the void (although when i wrote the first draft, i didn't know that). which you've seen, but it does become more prevalent in this book for a plot point that i'm low-key kind of proud of. i love writing about the void and alina's journeys in it, and i do promise that she won't end up taking el's scenes. 

anyways, i haven't really been into posting lately, but i think my passion for this book has come back. i'm struggling with writing right now, and i think i might start another stranger things book to help me with it (not the other one i was planning-- i got a new idea). so yeah! i'm honestly really excited for the chapters going forward, because i think i made them pretty unique?? i think adding gabe's perspective (because he's with the boys) really helped, along with my descriptions. at least i hope they are lol.

'till next time!