Voices- Dustin x Reader

Puppet Master

Phillips POV

Will, Mike, and Lucas dragged me to the empty back half of the schoolyard after we ate lunch. For some reason, they didn't want Dustin or Seven with us. Lucas rummaged through his backpack and pulled out the brace that I thought I lost. It was meant to wrap around my chest and back to keep my back looking flat. I knew Dustin felt it when he hugged me, but I thought my last one was burnt to a crisp in the explosion.

Will looked confused and poked at it, making it sway. Mike had obviously never seen it before, and looked afraid to touch it. I tried to snatch it out of his grasp but he yanked it away, "What is this? I know it's yours... but what is it?"
My shirt shifted and I felt the brace I was wearing start to come loose.

Will gave me an apologetic look and Mike awkwardly side hugged me. "Could we not talk about this here... please?" I begged, trying to shove my brace back into Lucas's bag while he was still holding it. He gave in and zipped his bag back up.

"Do you have any psychic powers like Seven and Eleven?" Mike asked, weakly changing the subject.

I nodded, "I do, but I was never taught to control them..." I trailed off, not knowing what to say. There was some "Ooooh"ing from the other side of the schoolyard and when I turned to look, Dustin was walking away from a guy laying on the ground, with Seven next to him.

Lucas clapped to draw my attention back to the conversation. "So... what can you do?!" Luckily, the bell rang and a teacher called us all inside. Even though I didn't have to talk about it, I had my 'special ed' class with Seven and some other kids.

Dustin's POV

The bell rang and everyone flooded inside. Seven had to go to her special ed class, so I pointed her in the right direction. I looked back down that hall for a second, and Phillip had joined her outside the door. It was almost Halloween, so there were paper bats fluttering in the breeze from the old AC unit above them. The second bell rang, and I booked it up to History. Will was in his usual seat, jotting down the homework in his agenda.

"Whadda you wanna be for Halloween?" I asked, sitting down and pulling out my history folder. He smiled. "Maybe we could be the Ghostbusters!" "That would be cool, but what about the girls and Phil?" He pondered it and looked down at his feet. "Well... if they just did whatever they wanted, no one would really question it, it's Halloween!"

My smile widened and I answered between glances at the whiteboard. "Yeah! And the other kids-" I whispered, "won't really have to hide it either." Will furrowed his eyebrows and spoke after a few seconds, "What do you think ever happened to Hop?" My grip on my pencil tightened, "What if he was in the building when it exploded?" Speaking of, none of it was on the news, and everyone seemed blissfully ignorant to the entire ordeal. It was weird... It IS weird.

Will shook his head as if to knock the thought out, "He's probably just out of town visiting his ex wife or something."

Third Person > Halloween

Dustin hopped down the stairs eagerly, followed by Lucas and Will. In the basement, Mike was standing in the midst of about 25 kids, all squished together, looking like a sheep in a pack of wolves. He shrugged nervously, "I dunno...this just sort of... happened." The boys were in surprisingly accurate Ghost Busters costumes, with Lucas holding one of the traps.

The twins popped their heads out of the crowd and laughed. Philip kept low to the floor when he said, "You did tell us to get our friends." Dustin pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, "I meant in the back yard!"  As if on que, all the kids stood up and shuffled out the back door, murmuring to eachother. Once you could take a step without crushing someone's hand, it was revealed that Phil was wearing at least three hoodies.

Seven gave him a weird look. She was wearing Nancy's old Wood Elf costume that she had worn for a D&D campaign a few years back. Lucas laughed, "Isn't that Nancy's?" Seven nodded and playfully threw a plastic flower at him, hitting Will, instead. Mike sat on the floor and crossed his legs, the others following suit.

"So what's up with your friends?" Mike motioned towards the back door.

Phil smiled, "You said it was the one night a year that anyone could be anything. So we're being ourselves."

"Then how come you're wearing all those jackets?" Will questioned.

His back quivered unnaturally. "I'm waiting."

Seven played with her brown leggings, "I think I want to change my costume."

Dustin smiled, "Then what are you gonna be?"

"I want to be a puppet."

Dustin snorted, "That's pretty ominous!"

Lucas and Will looked like they'd rather be anywhere else, and Mike shot up to rummage through a plastic bin.
Everyone watched him eagerly for a few seconds. He pulled out a black dress with off-white buttons and a white plastic mask, then tossed them at her.

"Just put them on, trust me!"

She shuffled into the bathroom and soon emerged wearing the costume. Everyone gawked at how creepy she looked. Seven curled and uncurled her fingers like she was plucking strings, "I need gloves." Eleven, who apparently, had been hiding in her fort the whole time, tossed her a pair of thin white gloves. No one seemed to question her quietness or shyness.

Seven's eyes were barely visible through the eye holes, which only revealed a thin sliver of an occasional refection from them.

"Are we good, now?" Lucas asked. Phillip shouted "Nope!" and grabbed a pair of scissors from the bathroom counter. With everyone watching him, he scurried to the costume bin and pulled out a white T-Shirt.

He aggressively snipped off the sleeves and poked two huge holes in the back. "One second!" Everyone giggled as he excitedly stumbled into the bathroom, already yanking off one of the hoodies.

Lucas looked Seven up and down, "Why do you wanna be a puppet?"

You couldn't see her smile but it was definitely there. "I'm more of the one who controls the puppets, if you know what I mean." Dustins eyes widened and he yelled "Yup!" to get rid of the subject.

Mike stood half way up and looked through the pane of glass in the back door, "So what are we gonna do about them?" Will cocked his head, "Are they just gonna walk with us?"

Seven nodded, her expressionless mask shifting a bit, "They're probably gonna separate from the group after a while, but we'll definitely play around with our powers." Her creepy outfit didn't help make her words less subjective.