Veronica Harrington and her best friends go on an adventure of a lifetime when one of their friends turns up missing. While on their search for their friend they meet a mysterious girl with and even more mysterious background who helps them find the...
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A few hours later and the party eats dinner with the Wheeler's. They sat at the dinner table, moving their food around on the plate. It was completely, almost uncomfortably silent. Mrs. Wheeler notices.
"Something wrong with the meatloaf?" She asked.
"Oh, no, I had two bologna sandwiches for lunch," Dustin explained. Roni internally face palmed. "I don't know why." He smiles.
Lucas chuckles and smiles at the woman, "Me too," He adds sheepishly. Mike gives Roni a look and she shakes her head at the two.
"Idiots," Roni muttered.
"What was that, Veronica?" Mrs. Wheeler looked at the young girl, subtly narrowing her eyes at her.
"Nothing, Mrs. Wheeler. The food is great, it's been a long time since my mom has cooked meatloaf," She takes a bite out of the meatloaf, slowly chewing the somehow rubbery food. Mrs. Wheeler raises her eyebrow.
"It's delicious, Mommy," Nancy compliments sweetly. Roni could plainly see that Nancy wanted something from her mother. She should know, Roni uses the same method on her own mother.
Mrs. Wheeler smiles at her daughter. "Thank you, sweetie," Roni rolls her eyes silently.
"So, there's this..." Here it comes. "special assembly thing tonight for Will at the school field. Barb's driving." Nancy explains.
"Why am I just hearing about this?" Mrs. Wheeler asks, cutting her piece of food.
Nancy's eyes widen in a fake surprise, "I thought you knew."
"I told you, I don't want you out after dark until Will is found," Mrs. Wheeler states firmly. Nancy continues to goad her mother to allow her out at night. Roni doesn't know where she's trying to go, but it's definitely not for Will's assembly.
"Just... be back by ten o'clock," Mrs. Wheeler concedes. "Why don't you take the kids, too?"
"No!" They all chorus, including Nancy.
"Don't you think you should be there? For Will?" She asks. Roni takes yet another bite of the meatloaf. But she notices El walk down the stairs. Dustin bangs his fist on the table, making her choke. She begins coughing loudly. "Veronica, are you okay?" Mrs. Wheeler asked worriedly, about to jump from her chair.
Roni nods and continues to cough, taking a large gulp of milk. "I'm okay, just...uh, went down the wrong pipe," Dustin pats her back. Mrs. Wheeler calms down and sits in her seat.
It was quiet, slightly awkward dinner after that. Nancy went out and the Party went down into the basement. Mike lays a tray of the dinner on the ground in front of El. She sat in the fort, fiddling with Mike's Walkie-Talkie.
"Don't worry. They won't tell anyone about you," Mike reassures. Dustin and Lucas stare at her. Their eyes read nervous.
Roni crosses her arms and leans on her right side. "I definitely won't tell. I'm not a snitch."
"Sure..." Dustin spoke. Roni nudges him.
"They promise. Right?" Mikes asks them, turning around to look at them.
"We never would've upset you if we knew you had superpowers," Mike hits Dustin's leg. He yells out in pain.
"What Dustin is trying to say is that they were just scared...earlier. That's all," Mike explains. Roni shifts on her feet.
"We just wanted to find out friend," Lucas speaks softly. It was the first time he's actually had a conversation with El that didn't involve yelling. It was quite a feat.
El furrows her eyebrows. "Friend?"
"Yeah, friend. Will?" Lucas states like it was obvious.
"What is friend?" El wonders. Roni thinks about it for a moment, it was somewhat hard to describe, she just knew who were her friends and who weren't.
"Um, a friend-" Lucas starts.
"Is someone that you'd do anything for," Mike interrupts.
"You lend them your cool stuff, like comic books and trading cards," Dustin adds.
Roni throws her arms around Lucas and Dustin's necks, pulling them close. "You can make fun of them all the time, but you'll be there for them, no matter what."
"And they never break a promise," Mike finishes. El nods in understanding. Roni was confused as to why Eleven didn't know what a friend is. Didn't they have friends where she came from?
"Especially when there's spit," Lucas points out. That makes Eleven look at him in confusion. Roni quickly releases her hold on the two and backs away, already knowing what's coming next.
"Spit?" El asks.
"A spit swear means," Lucas spits in his hand, making Roni turn up her nose at him. "you never break your word. It's a bond." He takes Dustin's hand and shakes it firmly. Once he lets go, Dustin looks at his hand in disgust. Roni shakes her head at them.
"Don't worry. We," Roni gestures to herself and Eleven. "don't do that. It's gross." She watches Dustin wipe his hand on his shirt.
"That's super important, because friends... they tell each other things. Things that parents don't know," Mike looks at her with a serious expression. El looks down, thinking about what Mike said, but she doesn't speak.
But a minute later, El stands up and walks to the D n' D board the boys have set up from a few nights before. When Will was playing with them. She sits at the table, her palms laid on the board and closes her eyes.
She opens her eyes and picks up the piece Will always uses. Roni raises her eyebrows at the girls curious movements. Eleven stares at the plastic figure and says, "Will." No one told her that was Will's piece.
"Superpowers," Dustin gapes at her.
Roni nods along with him saying, "Totally." Lucas eyes widen slightly. Mike slides into the seat next to her.
"Did you see him? On Mirkwood? Do you know where he is?" He asked hopefully. But she doesn't answer, instead she wipes away the remaining pieces off the board and flips it over. She slams Will character piece right in the middle of the upside down board.
"I don't understand," Mike says. Roni whispers 'What?'.
El looks intently at the board. "Hiding."
"Will is hiding?" Mike asks. Fear rises up in Roni, she squeezes her fist. Eleven simply nods. "From the bad men?" El shakes her head slowly.
"Then from who?"
Eleven picks up a piece that Roni couldn't see yet, and places it in front of Will's piece. It was the Demogorgon figure. Mike looks at his friends with an ominous look. Lucas gazes at Dustin worriedly. And Dustin puts his hand on his head in stress. Roni began wringing her hands out nervously.
They were all thinking about many things at once, how is a character from a game in real life? Why did it take Will? How is any of this real? But they all fall onto one question that they can't seem to answer.
