✓ | Happiness Is A Butterfly ~ Lucas Sinclair

|4| the pieces

"What the hell?"
"Hes hiding from it"

Leah's pov

After we bring the girl inside, we all start questioning her. "Is there a number we can call? For your parents?" Mike asks. "Wheres your hair? Do you have cancer?" Dustin asks. "Did you run away?" Lucas asks. "Are you in trouble?" Mike questions. "Is that blood?" Lucas asks while reaching for her.

I slap his hand away from her. "Stop it! Shes gonna run away again" I say. "I'm gonna run away soon!" Lucas says. "I bet shes deaf" dustin says. "But she heard me yell after her earlier!" I say. Dustin claps towards her and she flinches. "Whatd I tell you?" I say.

"All right that's enough! Shes scared and cold" mike says while going to grab a blanket. Thunder continues rumbling and the girl flinches. Me and lucas look at each other with confusion. Mike hands her clothes and says "all right these are clean"

She grabs the clothes and stands up, starting to pull her shirt up. "No! No!" We all yell. "See over there? That's the bathroom" mike says pointing to the wooden door. She walks into it and mike closes the door.

"I don't think shes mentally stable" dustin says while flopping on the couch. I see that the door is creaked open. "Mike why didnt you shut the door?" I ask. "She didnt want me to" mike replies. "Yep I'm sure she said that"  I say sarcastically. "She talked to me. Well, kind of. She said yes and no" Mike tells us.

I wonder why she didnt want the door closed. If I was changing in a room full of these 3 boys I would want privacy. I mean if Lucas walked in on me changing? That would kill me. "Dude, your three your old sister says more than her" lucas says.

"She tried to get naked" Dustin says. "Theres something seriously wrong with her" lucas says. "She looks like she was in a mental hospital. Maybe she's a child killer" I say. "I bet she escaped from Pennhurst" Lucas says.

"Pennhurst?" I ask. "Its a mental hospital just outside of town" dustin says. "Seriosly though, the short hair, why shes crazy, why shes out in the woods stalking us" I say. "Shes an escapee. A psycho" lucas says.

"Shes like micheal Myers" dustin says. "We shouldve never brought her here!" Lucas says. "We shouldve packed our shit and ran" I say. "So we were supposed to just leave her out in that storm?" Mike questions. "Yes! We went out to find Will, not another problem" lucas says.

"I think we should tell your mom" dustin says. "I second that" lucas agrees. "I third that" I say. "Who's crazy now?" Mike asks. "How is that crazy? We're probably saving all of our asses!" I say. "Cause we weren't supposed to be out tonight remember?" Mike says.

"So?" Lucas questions. "So if I tell my mom and shes tells your mom, and your mom, and your mom" mike says. "Our houses become Alcatraz" Lucas says. "Dammit hopper" I whisper. "All right, heres the plan. She sleeps here tonight" mike says.

"You're letting a girl-" Dustin says. I look at him. "You're letting a girl besides leah stay here?" Dustin asks. "Just listen" mike says. "In the morning, she sneaks around my house, goes to the front door and rings my doorbell. My mom will answer and know exactly what to do" mike says.

"She'll send her back to the nuthouse" I say. We grab our stuff and start going up the stairs. "When you're sliced up in the morning dont blame us!" I yell down to mike. "Goodbye leah!" Mike says annoyed.

The next day after school we have dinner at the Wheeler's. I'm in between lucas and Mike's dad. Its completely silent as we all pick at our food. "Something wrong with the meatloaf?" Karen asks us. "Oh no, I had to bologna sandwiches for lunch. Uh I don't know why" dustin says. "Me too" lucas says.

"Its delicious, mommy" nancy says. "Thank you sweetie" Karen replies. "So theres this, special assembly thing tonight, for Will at the school field. Barb's driving" Nancy says. "Why am I just hearing about this?" Karen questions.

"I thought you knew" nancy said. "I told you, I dont want you out after dark until Will is found" karen says. "I know, I know, but it would be super weird if I'm not there. I mean, everyone's going" Nancy said.

"Just, be back by 10. Why dont you take them too?" karen asks signaling to us. We all start saying no. "Dont you think you should be there for Will?" Karen asks. Mike chokes on his milk as he looks past his mom. I look over and see El walking down the stairs.

Dustin bangs twice on the table as karen looks behind her. She jolts her head as holly starts crying. "Sorry. Spasms" dustin says. Lucas, not knowing what was going on looks around confused. I'll have to tell him later.

"Its okay holly it's just a loud noise" Karen says. "Nice" nancy says sarcastically to us. I glare at her. I doubt shes going to Wills assembly. We finish eating and go downstairs. "It was el" I whisper to lucas when I'm washing off my plate. "What?" He asks. "El walked down the stairs. That's why mike choked on his milk and why dustin had his 'spasm'" I say while using air quotes for spasm.

"Oh" he says. We walk downstairs. "El?" Mike calls out. "No adults. Just us and some meatloaf" Mike says. El looks at us. "Dont worry. They wont tell anyone. Right guys?" Mike ask. I laugh nervously and say "yeah".

"We never would've upset you if we knew you had super powers" dustin says. "What?" I ask. "Oh I forgot to tell you, el can lift stuff with her mind" mike says. "Geez thanks for telling me earlier" I say sarcastically.

"What dustin is trying to say, is that we were just scared earlier" mike says. "We just wanted to find our friend" lucas says. "Friend?" El questions. "Yeah, friend. Will?" Lucas says.  "What is friend?" El asks. "Is she serious?" Lucas asks annoyed. I elbow him. "A friend is someone that you would do anything for" mike says.

"Like me and dustin. And theres best friends, like lucas and leah" mike says. I feel my face get red. Wait... why is my face getting red? Its not like I like lucas right?.... right?

"You lend them your cool stuff, like comic books and trading cards" dustin says. "And they never break a promise" mike says. "Especially when theres spit" lucas says. "Spit?" El asks. "A spit swear means you never break your word" lucas says while he spits into his hand.

He turns toward me and grabs my hand and shakes it. "Its a bond" lucas says looking at me. "That's super important, because friends, they tell each other things. Things that parents dont know" mike says. El gives him a confused look. She might not have understood a thing we just said.

We start talking in the corner when el gets up and sits down at the table. "What's the weirdo doing?" Lucas asks. "Dont call her that" I say. "You were freaked out by her yesterday too leah" he says. "I think that something bad happened to her" I say.

El grabs a piece and holds it up. "Will" she says. "Superpowers" dustin says. Me and lucas roll our eyes at him. "Did you see him? On mirkwood?" Mike asks while sitting down. "Do you know where he is?" I ask.

El swipes clean the board and flips it over. She puts the 'Will' piece on it. "I dont understand" Mike says. "What is he doing?" I whisper. "Hiding" el says. "Will is hiding?" Mike asks. She nods. "From the bad men?" Mike asks. She shakes her head. "Well than what is he hiding from?" I ask.

She grabs the demogorgon and puts it by Will. We all look at each other. "What the hell?" I say. El looks at me. "Hes hiding from it" she says.

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