||𝟑𝐑𝐃 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍 𝐏𝐎𝐕||

The smell of french toast wafted through the cabin as it sizzled on the frying pan. Hopper glances over his shoulder to see a small figure standing stiff with a white sheet draped over it and two eye holes cut out. The unexpected sight had startled the man.

"Oh, Jesus!"

"Ghost." El stated from under the sheet.

"Yeah, I see that." He said.

Hopper brought the frying pan of french toast over to the counter to serve.

"Halloween."

"Sure is. But now, it's breakfast, okay? Come on, let's eat."

"They wouldn't see me." She said softly, grabbing the man's attention as he brought the food to the table.

"Who wouldn't see you?"

"The bad men."

"What are you talking about?" He said, taking a seat.

"Trick or treat."

He turned to look at her. "You want to go trick-or-treating?"

She stood in silence, confirming his fears.

He frowned and stood up. "You know the rules."

"Yes, but-"

"Yeah, so you know the answer." Hopper softly grabbed her by the shoulders and guided her backwards as he spoke.

"No, but they wouldn't see me." El protested.

"No. Hey. I don't care."

"But they wouldn't see me."

"I don't care, alright?" His voice rose slightly as he bent down to her level. "You go out there, ghost or not, it's a risk. We don't take risks. All right? They're stupid, and..."

"We're not stupid!" She growled.

"Exactly."

"Now, you take that off, sit down and eat. You're food's getting cold."

With a pout on her face, El ripped the sheet off her head, letting it fall to the ground. She let her small body collapse in the chair across from Hopper and she stared at the floor sadly.

Hopper noticed the longing in El, and he felt the remorse and guilt creeping in. He finished pouring syrup on both of their plates and sighed, head leaning against his palm as he rubbed his face.

"All right, look... how about I get off early tonight, and I buy us a bunch of candy, and we can sit around and get fat, and we watch a scary movie together."

"How's that for a compromise?"

The young girl gave him a puzzled look and the foreign word.

"Co-Compromise?"

"C-O-M-promise. Compromise. How about that's your word for the day? Yeah? It's something that's in-between. It's like halfway happy."

"By, 5-1-5?" She asked hopefully.

He nodded his head. "5:15. Yeah, sure."

She looked down at her lap and then back at him. "Promise?"

He leaned forward, looking her in the eye and nodding his head firmly. "Yes. I promise.

She lightly shrugged her shoulders. "Halfway happy."

She grabbed her fork and began eating. Hopper smiled at her softly and leaned forward and ruffled her curly hair, bringing out a light chuckle from El.

The two fell into a comfortable silence for the rest of the morning. El tried desperately to enjoy the company while it lasted, knowing in just a few short hours she would be left alone with her thoughts once more.

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

"Will? Come on, honey, up and at 'em." Joyce Byers stops at the end of the hall and she can feel her stomach plunge as she see finds her youngest son's room empty.

"Will?"

The dreaded sense of dejavu creeps in and she rushes to the end of the hall where Jonathan is making breakfast.

"Jonathan?"

"Yeah?"

"Where's Will?"

"What?"

"Where's Will?"

"He's not in his room?"

"No."

Suddenly there was a small clank that came from the bathroom.

Joyce rushed to the door in a panic, her heart pounding. She threw the door open to find Will standing in front of an open toilet.

"Will?"

"What are you doing?" Her voice came out in a shaky matter as she tried to calm her racing heart.

Will stood there in confusion and he gestured to the toilet. "Peeing?"

"Okay." She breathed out a chuckle and a sigh of relief as she left and closed the door behind her, hearing the sound of the toilet flushing.

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

"Okay..." Joyce had just helped Will into his Ghostbusters jumpsuit.

She reached for the homemade proton pack that rested on his bed, and helped the device onto his back. "Let's get this...on."

"Oh! You need some tape. Hold on." She let go of the loose wire that hung lazily from his pack and walked quickly towards his desk.

Grabbing a piece of tape, she couldn't help but notice a drawing that stuck out to her. It was barely peeking out from under piles of other drawings but she grabbed in and fears began returning.

It was unlike the others. It was extremely detailed, and black white which she noted he almost never did. The landscape was familiar, but she couldn't quite put a finger on it. The most unsettling part of course, was the large looming figure that took center stage. It reminded her of spider the way it stood and everything in it's path was shadowed, although she could tell, it wasn't from the swarm of thunder clouds but the monster itself.

It chilled her. She turned to Will. "What's this?"

Will seemed taken aback, but he quickly recovered.

"Nothing." He started to shift on his feet.

"Did you have another episode?"

"No, it's just, um... a sketch for a story I'm writing."

Joyce sighed, discarding the drawing wanting so badly for that to be true, so did believed it.

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

"Three, two, one..."

"Great. Hold up the proton blaster."

Jonathan snapped another picture of his brother, Will gleaming in his suit as Jonathan continued to instruct him. Their mother was watching giddily as she smiled at her youngest son. The question she'd been dying to ask on the tip of her tongue.

"All right, now turn to light."

Will did just that, aiming his proton blaster towards a spot on the wall across the room.

"So," Joyce drawled. "Y/n's coming over tonight before hand so we can grab some pictures of you two, right?"

Will felt a blush creep up.

"Mom," Will protested, his smile betraying him.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she threw her hands up in surrender but persisted in asking more questions. "So, she is going as...?"

"Janine," Will mumbled, as Jonathan snapped another picture.

"Right, right..." Joyce winced. "And she is...?"

"The receptionist and confidant-"

"Spengler's girlfriend..." Jonathan answered, the mischievous grin of an older brother plastered on his face.

Will felt a blush creep all the way up from his neck, Jonathan took this opportunity to "accidentally" get a picture of his flustered younger brother.

"Jonathan!" Laughed Will.

"What? It's so obvious, and hey, you guys are the ones who chose the costumes."

"It's a coincidence..." He mumbled.

Jonathan and Joyce smirked as Will tried to regain his composure, acting as if the exchange hadn't completely flustered him.

Which it did.

||𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐑'𝐒 𝐏𝐎𝐕||

"Oh! Let me see those pearls! Yeah! Y/n, you almost ready?"

"Coming mom!"

I adjusted the big pair of glasses on my head and slipped on the red sweater vest, completing the outfit. On my way out of my room, I grabbed my first piece of gum out of my pocket stash and popping it in my mouth. The plaid shirt we found worked perfectly for Janine, I was so glad we were able to find everything in time.

I ran back out the hall and my mom greeted me with a squeal.

"Oh! You two look so good, get in there with your brother, honey."

We got a few nice pictures in, Dustin had his ghost trap, it it quite impressive, I must admit.

The last photo consisted of Dustin proudly holding up his ghost trap, while I chose to be in character. I had my back turned to him, my arms folded and in the middle of blowing a bubble as I casually roll my eyes.

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

"Na na na Na na Na"

We had just pulled into school on our bikes, and we all parked them on the bike rack. I silently counted myself lucky that I didn't have to lug a giant proton pack on my shoulders all day.

We all finished the anthem with "Who you gonna call?". It was then that I heard q familiar voice call "Ghostbusters!"

I turned around to see Will in his costume, it looked great.

"Hey, Spengler!"

"Egon! Looking sharp!" I beamed, greeting him with a quick hug.

"Janine! Venkman!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Mike frowned, gesturing to Lucas's name tag.

"What?" Lucas asked.

"Why are you Venkman?"

"Because I'm Venkman." Lucas shrugged.

"No, I'm Venkman."

"Why can't there just be two Venkmans?" Will asked, and I nodded looking to the boys.

"Because there's only one Venkman in real life. We planned this months ago." Mike snapped.

"Mike, calm down. It's alright,"

"I'm Venkman, Dustin's Stantz, Will is Egon, you're obviously Janine, and you're Winston." He finished, pointing at Lucas.

"I specifically didn't agree to Winston." Lucas said.

"Yes, you did!"

"I don't think he did." I said gently.

"No one wants to be Winston, man."

"What's wrong with Winston?"

"What's wrong with Winston? He joined the team super late, he's not funny, and he's not even a scientist!"

"Yeah, but he's still cool." Mike argued.

"If he's cool, then you be Winston."

"I can't!"

"Why not?"

Mike started to stutter, "Because..."

We all fell quiet as the argument got bad quickly.

"Because you're not black?" Lucas finished.

"I didn't say that!"

"You thought it."

I took a deep breath as they continued fighting. However, something clicked in my head as I looked around the school.

"Oh, no."

I nudged Dustin as I continued to look around, dread and regret creeping in.

Dustin looked to me and then around, realizing the same awful fact.

"Guys..." Dustin mumbled.

"Guys!" I finally snapped, grabbing their attention.

The other three fell silent and we all watched in horror as everyone got off the bus. In regular clothes.

"Why is no else wearing costumes?"

"Well, shit."