chapter five
eleven eleven

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IN SPITE OF EVERYTHING, RUBY CANNOT get Eleven out of her head. And she's tried — she has. She had a meeting with the newspaper's supervisor (the cool new History teacher who looks suspiciously like Magnum P.I.) and ideally, she should've been clear-minded, but no. Eleven Eleven Eleven was all she could think. Mr Magnum P.I. asked about sports articles, reviews on the winter play, and the only time Ruby was fully with it, was when he mentioned Hawkins Lab.

"I—what?" she goes. Her body does the thing it always does when the lab's brought up; her heart stops and her stomach drops.

"I think we could write a gripping feature about the experiments in the lab," he says. Ruby wasn't looking, but she could see the trees outside moving from a sudden breeze. Calm down Rubes. "Maybe someone could interview the Wheelers? I heard they were involved in it... Do you know anything?"

Ruby frowns. "Anything about what?"

"About the Wheelers' involvement with the girl?"

See, this is the issue. Ruby knows she should be polite to teachers, to people of authority, but the second the lab is mentioned, she gets protective. Of herself, not the lab. She shouldn't be rude to teachers, she'll get told off, but people know about Dr Brenner, don't they? The thought alone of Papa makes her want to vomit.

"It's insensitive," says Ruby, and she gets up.

She knows he said something about having more to talk about, but she walks out. You know what? If people are so intrigued about the lab, they should be interested enough to know that her grandpa was involved. Her reaction is valid for that, let alone the stuff no one knows.

But anyway. Her mind keeps on wandering back to El. She sat in English and thought about El. She walked to gym and thought about El. By the time it reached lunch, Ruby had a plan.

She has gym then study hall before lunch, which is perfect, because she's ready to go when the bell rings. She stands around as everyone else gets dressed, quietly slipping out of the changing rooms with her gym clothes on still. These can get wet, and she can change into her normal clothes, so no one will suspect a thing. (Also, could you imagine sitting in class with wet Levi's? She'd rather die.)

Ruby walks the outside route to the pool, so less people will notice her. They're only allowed to use it in the summer — apparently one guy got pneumonia when they used it in November — so she knows no one will find her there, anyway. She doesn't like using pools, but she worries if she uses her bathtub again, she'll be reminded too much of Harrington, and she'll see him again. But she needs to see El. She needs to know where she is...

For a while, she had accepted Eleven was lost. She was upset, of course, she saw her as a baby sister, but she knew she couldn't change things. But yesterday, she was so convinced El was near, it was unreal. Her mind doesn't lie about those things. So Eleven must be somewhere. She must be alive. And Ruby will be able to find her.

She walks to the end of the track field, and past the equipment shed, where the pool is located. The place is freezing in the winter, but she always brings a towel to gym (she doesn't know why — the boys use the showers but the girls don't) so she hopes she'll be OK. If not, she'll catch a cold. She'll live.

She re-ties her hair, this time into a bun. She grabs the salt from the cupboard — thankfully the school store the spare salt for gritting in here — and tears open the first bag, filling the pool. In blind optimism, she decides the salt will filter out by March.

One bag, two bags — three, four, five, six. The air smells of salt by the time she's finished, but she places another bag in for good measure.

She thinks back to seeing Harrington instead of Eleven last night. It's bizarre, her mind is so good at sticking to what she needs to see — why would she need to see something about her ex-best friend apologising to his ex-girlfriend? That has nothing to do with her?

Harrington isn't important here. It's Eleven that is. Ruby would give the entire world up to know Eleven's OK... Hm, well, maybe not the entire world, but she'd, like, burn a building down for her. She feels like that constitutes as love, right?

She climbs down the pool ladder, the cold water making her flinch. Maybe that'll motivate her to do this faster.

She feels herself floating already, so the salt's definitely working. Ruby closes her eyes, having forgotten to bring a tie along with her. She tries to visualise Eleven; her face, the dress of Nancy's she wore, her confused expression. She focuses on the image of Eleven, and she thinks, please let me see El... Please please please...

And everything shifts.

No longer is she surrounded by water, but instead, she's in the dark space. There's silence for a moment, and Ruby says aloud, "Let me see Eleven!"

Come on. Come on! She knows it'll happen eventually, but the wait is agonising — all she wants us to see Eleven. She must be out there somewhere, Ruby can feel it. She wouldn't have felt so sure, the other day, about thinking El was nearby.

"Mama," she hears a voice say faintly.

Ruby jumps, her brows furrowing. For a second she thinks the voice is addressing her, which would be, like, a major problem. Instead, when she turns, she sees a short figure with curly brown hair, and a massive coat hanging from their shoulders.

Eleven?

Ruby steps closer to get a better look. She can't believe she didn't recognise her — she looks so different. But, Ruby supposed that if Eleven hasn't been in the lab for a year, her hair would grow out. Ruby thinks her little curls are pretty. She looks like she's coming into herself, Ruby thinks, which makes her happy.

But where is she? Ruby can get her, and she can live with her. She knows her aunt won't mind. Eleven's practically her sister!

Ruby pictures Eleven living with her. They'd go shopping together, Ruby would help her pick outfits for school. She'd be able to help El with her powers in the real world, too. It'd be perfect...

"Eleven!" she calls out, but there's no response, not even an indication El heard. Ruby tries again.

"Eleven!"

She tries again, and again, but there's no use. Ruby stands still for a moment, to try and figure where Eleven might be. But the surroundings make no sense to her — there's some weird woman in an armchair next to her, and an ugly patchwork quilt, and that's all. Ugly 70s furniture? That could be, like, any house in Indiana! What is Ruby going to do?

"Ruby?"

It's someone else's voice — a man's. Ruby spins around, and she can see Harrington. Her eyes widen. How is he here? Unless—

Ruby's thrown back into reality, the pool water splashing around her. She shakes her head, realising someone's hand is keeping her floating — she was floating anyway, did you see the amount of salt she put in here? She's fine, who stuck their annoying nose into—

It takes her a minute to come to, but then, she sees Harrington.

Holding her up, clinging to the side of the pool to keep them both up, looking at her with complete panic.

"What were you doing?"

"You ruined it!" she exclaims, and, irritated, hits her palm against the water, splashing him in the face.

Harrington looks so confused.

"Did you want to drown?"

"I was not drowning!"

"OK, smartass, then what were you doing?"

Ruby grimaces. She pulls herself out of the pool, and walks over to the towel she brought. She doesn't have to reply. He ruined her plan.

Harrington follows her out, giving her a look. "You know, you can't just ignore me and think it'll work—"

"It's part of my, uh, shit," says Ruby. She tosses her towel into the air and keeps it still with her mind, floating just above her hands. Truthfully, she doesn't know why she's saying this, but she thinks because it's Harrington, her guard's dropped completely

She lets the towel drop as she continues, "I can see what people are up to. But I need to be in water to do it."

Harrington still looks unconvinced. "Seeing... what?"

"A girl from the lab," says Ruby. "I think she's still out there... Why were you here, anyway? Shouldn't you be, like, looking for Nancy, or something?"

He frowns. "Why?"

"I saw you making that apology to her yesterday," says Ruby with a grimace. "You appeared instead of El."

"Apology to Nancy...?"

"Why are you here, then?" she says.

He pauses for a second, before admitting, "I saw you walk this way..."

Ruby snorts. "Stalker."

"Didn't you spy on me?" says Harrington.

"Spy means intention," says Ruby. "I wouldn't do that." She's briefly reminded of Jonathan at that party last year, and cringes. "Are we done, now, then?"

"Well, no — I saw you walking this way, and I thought it was weird, but I wanted to talk to you anyway so—"

The bell rings, signalling the start of lunch.

Harrington sighs. "I've got basketball, but I still wanna talk—"

"About what?" she says. If this is for advice on getting back Nancy, she's going to erupt into flames.

"I'll tell you later," he says. "Library, after school?"

Library didn't actually mean library. Library was a spot around the Hawkins lake where they used to go smoke pot. It was an old junkyard that no one's touched in years, so there was no chance of getting caught. There was an old school bus, too, which was perfect in the winter. They started calling it the library to divert their parents' attention — they're being good kids, they're going to the library! It was foolproof, and quickly, the library became their secret spot to be alone. (Not in that way, gross! It was just nice to escape Hawkins for a while.)

Ruby accepts defeat, because she doesn't think he's going to drop this. Whatever this is.

"Fine."

"OK," says Harrington, like he didn't think she'd allow it. "OK, cool..."

Ruby raises an eyebrow. "Loser."

She doesn't get him. She thought he hated her — he called her Brenner — and yet, he wants to talk to her about something? This is so weird.

Ruby gets herself sorted, changing in the pool house's changing rooms (thank God the showers still work), and walks back out into school. She tries to clean the salt out of her hair, but as it starts to dry in it's ponytail, it still feels gross.

As she steps out of the pool house, she sees the history teacher outside, smoking a cigarette.

"Uh..."

"I'm not meant to do this on the property," he says with a stiff shrug. Something seems off. "Health and safety, or something."

"Right," says Ruby.

He stares at her, with a very intense look in his eye. "Go catch up to Harrington for lunch, hey? Don't want you two getting into any trouble..."

Ruby looks at him weirdly. Does he... does he think she and Harrington, like, fucked in there? Her relationship with Billy aside, how would those logistics work? There's a singular metal bench? Not to mention how cold? It would feel like an icicle—oh my God, she thinks, stop thinking about his dick!

She tries to shake it off, and walks away. So her teacher thinks she's a cheat... She is, she reminds herself. She did kiss Harrington. She did cheat on Billy. She is as awful as Mr Magnum P.I. thinks she is.

It's fine. It's fine. It's not like he's going to tell anyone, right? He's the one smoking there without permission. But then... Ruby always thought the teachers' lounge stank of smoke, since when was it banned...?

She sighs. She needs to find Eleven. She needs to deal with whatever Harrington wants to say. The rest is just whatever.

happy new years everyone!! wishing u all the best year <3

(i forgot to post this on new years but i still wish u all the best xx)