"this tainted love you've given,
I give you all a boy could give you,
take my tears and that's not nearly all,
oh, tainted love,
tainted love."
Hawkins was a place where nothing happened. Everything was routine. High school football ga...
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MALLORY GRUNTED WITH the effort it took to drag the heavy bag of salt across the slippery gymnasium floors towards the centre of the room, where an out-of-place inflatable swimming pool was being filled. Lucas was shouting to Nancy in the bathroom, telling her to make the water colder or warmer. Mallory dumped the heavy bag beside the pool with a sigh before she stood up straight, hands on her hips as she stared impatiently at the three young boys.
"I doubt Lucas needs both of you to help him use a thermometer," she told Dustin and Mike, raising an eyebrow at them. "Those noodle arms can help Jonathon and me with the salt bags."
"No need!" Jonathon's voice cheered from across the empty hall.
Mallory spun to see Jonathon and Hopper heading towards them, each pushing a trolley stacked with bags of salt. Mallory's shoulders deflated and she shook her head.
"Were there trolleys the whole time?" Mallory snapped, but Jonathon merely smirked at her.
Mallory's eyebrows shot upwards when Hopper thrust a small pocket knife towards her but she quickly accepted it, being careful not to cut her palm and she moved to cut open the bags. The three of them quickly began pouring the contents into the full swimming pool. Mallory watched as Alice emerged from the bathroom with Nancy and walked towards the centre of the room, twirling the fraying hem of Mallory's old sweater sleeve as she walked. Mallory noticed the way her dark eyes darted around the room, lingering in its unusually dark corners. Mallory had to admit she didn't enjoy being at the school with it so dark and quiet. It was creepy without the usual crowd of hormonal, loud teenagers.
"This is a school?" Alice asked unsurely as she stopped in front of Mallory, who nodded in response as she hoisted another bag of salt into her arms and cut it open. "Cool," she remarked.
Mallory screwed up her nose, not bothering to point out the lingering stench of sweat that hung in the air and how that definitely was not cool.
Finally, when Dustin placed an egg on the top of the water and it floated perfectly, earning a triumphant smile from the boy, they stopped emptying the salt and stepped away, all eyes now watching Eleven with heavy anticipation. Mike set up the walkie talkie, flicking it to a frequency that caused white noise to echo through the dim gymnasium. Eleven unrolled her socks, kicking them to the floor and passed her watch to Mike before accepting the poorly-made blindfold from Joyce, which was just a pair of stolen protective eyewear from the science classroom, covered in duct tape. Eleven pulled them over her eyes before allowing Alice and Joyce to guide her into the pool.
The cool water hit her knees as she waded into it before she took a deep breath and sunk further into it, causing the pink skirt of her stolen dress to float around her. Mallory shared a nervous, uncertain glance with Jonathon across the pool as El drifted onto her back, allowing herself to float effortlessly on the water. She then glanced at Alice, who was watching intently but not with worry. Either she didn't understand the risks, or she knew El could do it.
