The age old story of two best friends falling in love...
... Only, one's a lab experiment with an entire Upside Down hunting her down, and the other won't leave her side, no matter how hard she tries.
steve harrington x fem oc / season 2 o...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
chapter five eleven eleven
🖤
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.
