❝ hello, ladies. ❞

         THE SECOND THE final bell rang later that day, Nancy and Evelyn drove to the Wheeler residence. Evelyn was going to stay for dinner while Nancy convinces her mom to let them go out and then Barb was going to pick them up. That's only if Barb decides to go. It worked out for Evelyn because it meant she could still check up on the girl in Mike's basement. Dustin and Lucas were already biking to the house. When the two girls finally made it, they both went up to Nancy's room to call Barb.

         Evelyn made an excuse to see Dustin and she wounded up walking to Mike's bedroom. She quietly opened the door and shut it, just in time to see Lucas with his hands on the girl's shoulders. Mike yelled, "Stop it, you're scaring her!"

         "She should be scared!" Lucas argued.

           "Whoa! Why are you guys yelling?" Evelyn questioned the boys.

          Lucas answered, "Mike says she knows where Will is and that bad people are after her." His tone indicated that he obviously doesn't believe him. It was like every time Evelyn saw these boys, they always had information that would mess with her brain.

          "That's because she does and they are!" Nancy's little brother argued.

          Lucas rolled his eyes and shook his head. Evelyn approached the girl on Mike's bed and crouched down to her level. The friendliness in her voice came back again, "Hi, do you know where Will is? If you do, you gotta tell us so he can come back home safe, okay?"

         The girl just stared at her and didn't answer.

"The bad people won't be after you if you tell us." Evelyn assured. But still, nothing. She didn't say a single word. Evelyn stood back up and sighed. Lucas turned to Mike and said, "This is nuts. We have to take her to your mom."

"No! Eleven said telling any adult would put us in danger." Mike explained.

Evelyn quirked her eyebrows and blinked, "Her name's Eleven? Did she tell you that?"

"What kind of danger?" Dustin asked with a face full of worry.

"El for short." Mike slightly smiled at the Prince girl. "And she showed me her wrist, which has the number 11 on it."

He turned to Dustin to answer his question as both Evelyn and Lucas looked at each other with confusion plastered on their faces. "And danger-danger, Dustin." Mike made a gun with his hand and pointed it at Dustin's forehead then turned to point it at Lucas'. Lucas smacked his hand away.

"No, no, no!" Lucas exclaimed. "We're going back to plan A. We're telling your mom." He stormed off and went to go open the door.

When he did, it was like a strange force immediately slammed it shut and made the room shake. When he went to go open the door again, it slammed by itself once more. This time, however, it was more powerful. Pieces from Mike's game fell off the table. The boys and Evelyn watched as the lock on Mike's door locked by itself. With widened eyes, they all looked back at Eleven.

She was stood up now and she was staring at them. A trail of blood ran down from her nose as she simply stated, "No."

"Holy shit." Dustin muttered.

"You did that?" Mike asked her.

She nodded at him. Evelyn thought it was pretty cool, but she was still wildly confused. How did that girl do that? What bad people want her? Why and how does she have powers? Her mind was racked with a billion questions — questions thats would only stress her out if she tried to figure out an answer. It's been a day and a half and she's already in so much distress.

"Ev!" Nancy called from her room.

Evelyn instructed the boys to stay in the room with Eleven, or El as Mike had mentioned, while she goes to Nancy. Nancy called her back to her room to help her convince Barb to go with them to Steve's party. The two girls took turns on the phone with her. And by the time she agreed, Mrs. Wheeler had announced that dinner was ready.

The dinner was quite awkward and silent. Evelyn sat between Nancy and Mike at the dinner table. Given the recent information, Evelyn wasn't eating as much. The boys weren't either. Mrs. Wheeler noticed the lack of appetite they had and asked, "Something wrong with the meatloaf?"

The boys looked at her worriedly and anxiously. Dustin gave her a sweet smile, "Oh, no, Evelyn and I had two bologna sandwiches for lunch." Evelyn smiled and nodded as Dustin followed up his previous statement with, "I don't know why."

"Me too." Lucas smiled.

Nancy spoke up and looked at her mother, "It's delicious, Mommy." She thanked her and Nancy transitioned the conversation. "So, there's this. . . special assembly thing tonight. . . for Will at the school field. Barb's driving us."

"Why am I just hearing about this?" Karen asked, cutting a piece of the meatloaf that was on her plate. Nancy lied, "I thought you knew."

"I told you I don't want you out after dark until Will is found. I'm sorry, guys, but it's just not safe." She told both Nancy and Evelyn.

"I know, I know, but it'd be super weird if we're not there. I mean, everyone's going." Nancy explained.

Karen sighed and gave in to her daughter's pleads, "Just be back by 10:00. Even you, Ev. I don't want your mom worrying." The two girls nodded understandingly. Karen added, "Why don't you take the boys too?"

Simultaneously, the boys replied, "No!"

"Don't you think you should be there? For Will?" Karen asked.

From behind Nancy and Mike's mother, Evelyn could see the little girl walk down the stairs. She nearly choked on her own spit upon seeing Eleven. However, Mike did actually choke on the milk he was drinking. He wiped the milk that spilled on his face as Dustin banged his fists on the table. Karen glared at him and he apologized, blaming it on a spasm.

Evelyn exchanged glances with the boys, all being worried once again. They got through the dinner and the boys assured Evelyn that they'd get the girl from wandering around the house. Evelyn and Nancy had left almost right after dinner finished.

Nancy sat in the passenger's seat next to Barb and Evelyn sat in the back. When they were nearing the Harrington residence, Nancy told Barb to pull over. "What are we doing here?" She asked the Wheeler girl. "His house is three blocks away."

"We can't park in the driveway." Nancy insisted.

"Are you serious?" Evelyn inquired.

"Yeah, the neighbors might see." She replied, looking at the rear view mirror and applying lipstick. Evelyn chuckled to herself at Nancy's antics. Barb commented, "This is so stupid. I'm just gonna drop both of you off."

Nancy stopped her, "Calm down, Barb. You promised that you'd go. You're coming. We're gonna have a great time."

"He just wants to get in your pants." Barb told.

"No he doesn't." Nancy slightly grinned, which didn't help her case.

"Yes, he does." Evelyn protested.

Barb nodded in agreement with Evelyn, "He invited you to his house. His parents aren't home. Come on, you are not this stupid."

"Tommy H. and Carol are gonna be there." Nancy defended.

"The worst people alive? Yeah, those two have been having sex since, like, the 7th grade." Evelyn informed.

Nancy started to change out of her sweater in the passenger's seat, "Alright, well. . . you can be, like, my guardian, okay? Both of you. Make sure I don't get drunk and do anything stupid."

Once Nancy had finished changing and touching up her makeup, the three girls got out of the car and walked the remaining three blocks. Evelyn was dreading this moment with each step. She'd much rather be with Joshua who's currently auditing his father's place of work. Or she'd rather be with her cousin and his friends, getting to know more about Eleven.

The girls had eventually made it to the house. Nancy rang the doorbell and they patiently waited for someone to answer. Evelyn stood next to Nancy and she had her arms crossed. She looked over at Barb to see her anxiously bouncing. Nancy told her to calm down and immediately after, the two red doors that were in front of the girls were opened wide. Steve appeared in the middle and scanned the women in front of him. With a sly grin, he welcomed them, "Hello, ladies."

ANGIE'S NOTES☺︎
i don't even wanna talk about volume 2
i am so distraught
the duffer brothers need to pay for my
therapy bills after this cause what the
actual fuck happened😧