Alice the Amazing ⇒ STRANGER THINGS

[7] The Search is On

{Holly, Jolly, Part II}

They made it to the power lines and saw Eleven staring at a feral cat.

"El!" Mike called. "You okay?"

She nodded.

"Hop on," he said, gesturing to his bike. "We only have a few hours."

Eleven climbed on after him, and they were off.

🚲 🚲 🚲 

They walked along the railroad tracks in the woods, keeping their eyes peeled for Will. Mike pushed his bike and Eleven walked next to him. Dustin, Lucas, and Alice pulled their bikes along, listening to their conversation.

"Why did they hurt you?" she asked quietly, pointing to a scab on Mike's chin.

"What? Oh, that. Uh, I just fell at recess," Mike said, blushing.

"Mike?"

"Yeah?"

"Friends tell the truth."

Mike sighed.

"I was tripped by this mouth breather, Troy, okay?"

"Mouth breather?" Alice asked, the same time Eleven did.

"Yeah, you know, a dumb person. A knucklehead."

"Knucklehead?" Eleven asked.

"What he means to say is," Alice cut in, "Troy is a major asshole."

"Al!" Mike hissed. "Don't teach her bad words!"

"Oh, come on," Alice scoffed. "Like you guys don't say all the same stuff I do."

"I don't know why I didn't tell you," Mike said to Eleven, still glaring at Alice for being a bad influence. "Everyone at school knows. I just didn't want you to think I was such a wastoid, you know?"

"Mike?" El said softly.

"Yeah?"

"I understand."

Mike nodded and smiled softly.

"Oh. Okay, cool."

They continued through the forest, mostly walking in silence. Alice tried to ignore the thoughts creeping into her head, ranging from worrying about Will to wondering why she had been given up by her birth mom in the first place. She tried not to let Tommy and Carol's insults bother her, but they really did. They hurt a lot. And Nancy wasn't stopping them, either. At least Steve would tell them to stop. But he wasn't some hero or knight, he was King Steve, kind of a jerk.

The longer they walked, the darker it got. Alice was so distracted with her thinking, she didn't even realize how late it was getting. She was surprised when Eleven said, "Here."

They were standing in front of the Byers house.

"Yeah, this is where Will lives," Mike explained to Eleven.

"Hiding."

Mike frowned. "No, no, this is where he lives. He's missing from here. Understand?"

Lucas huffed.

"What are we doing here?" he said, scrunching his eyebrows.

"She said he's hiding here," Mike said, sounding curious.

"I swear," Alice said with a groan, "if we walked all the way out here for nothing—"

"That's exactly what we did!" Lucas said with a groan. "I told you she didn't know what the hell she was talking about!"