𝐭𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐬, 𝐦𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐫. ►

CHAPTER TWO: THE WEIRDO ON MAPLE STREET

The girl was settled in, the one with the buzz cut. Mike was practically hovering her wherever she went, asking her questions and helping her out.

Which was sweet, though River watched from afar, with a look of slight confusion in her eyes, as she
stepped up the stairs along with Dustin and Lucas.

But she just waved everything off. Like said earlier, they're 12, not everything between them has to happen so fast.

"You really think she's psycho?" Dustin asked in a whisper as he, Lucas, and River continued to watch  Mike and the girl talk.

"Wouldn't want her in my house." Lucas shook his head, with a uneasy look on his face before turning, and continuing to walk up with Dustin.

River stayed for a slight second, and she gulped before giving a shrug to herself. She needed to keep her mind on what really mattered, Will.

˗ˏˋ✦ ✦ ✦'ˎ˗

The next day at school, River plopped down in her seat quickly behind Lucas to see Mike's seat empty, causing her to sigh and lean forward, whispering to the boys.

"I'm sorry did he seriously just not come today? Mikes always here." She placed her hands against her desk while she spoke, and Dustin furrowed his eyebrows as Lucas Nodded.

"Right, his stupid plan failed, and now it's gonna be in the way of us finding Will." Lucas had an annoyed look on his face as he spoke, and glanced at Dustin who was opening his mouth to speak as well.

"I don't know, maybe she'll help." he shrugged, causing River to avert her eyes towards him.

"Shouldn't we be focused on Will right now?" River shrugged, speaking truthfully as Dustin nodded slowly in agreement. Will was their main priority, they can't get it mixed up.

"Look, obviously it was stupid, or he'd be here." Lucas muttered, earning a few looks from his two friends, that showed they knew that already.

"Maybe Mike's helping her out right now. We help her, we get her somewhere safe soon, and then we get back to finding Will." River stated, glancing between the two young boys as Lucas only gave a stubborn look and Dustin gave an uneasy shrug, like always.

Though after school had ended that day, the three of them biked extremely quickly, and hoped to see everything settled and taken care of.

Only they all entered his room to see the girl still in there, sitting on his bed, while Mike stood by the door as he held it open.

River did a double take, as she looked at the girl. Apparently her name was Eleven. She shot Mike an uneasy and slightly disappointed look as she tilted her head.

"Mike-" River spoke out, along with a sigh making him hold his hands up and signal for her to listen.

"Just listen to me." He argued, looking at the three frantically as they all kept their eyes on Eleven, who stared at them with no expression. It was slightly unsettling. 

"Are you out of your mind?" Lucas said, a little louder than usual, grabbing everyone's attention.

"She knows about Will!" He said as Dustins eyes widened and River stopped in her tracks, quickly looking back to Mike.

"What-?" She questioned, with one word only, in shock as she watched Mike sigh in annoyance, making her step backwards slightly in confusion.

"She pointed at him, she knew he was missing I could tell." He went on to explain as Lucas shook his head, and Dustin exchanged an uneasy look with River.

"You could tell?" Lucas questioned, growing more angry as he spoke with each word. Could you really blame him, though?

"Just think about it." Mike stopped him, holding his hands up with hope in his eyes. "Don't you think it's a coincidence that we found her on Mirkwood? The same place Will Went missing, isn't that weird?" He asked causing Dustin to nod slowly as River kept her attention on El, who was clearly staring back at her.

"That is weird." Dustin spoke in agreement, making Mike nod, happily.

"And she said bad people were after her. I think those are the people that took Will. I think she knows what happened to Will." Connecting the dots, Mike gave a hopeful look to his three friends that were now looking at him.

"Then why won't she tell us." Lucas asked as he looked at Eleven, and stepped forward, starting to walk over.

Obviously from the start, it was easy to tell that this would be a huge mess, they all called it, but some handled it differently causing everything to go worse.

"Do you know where he is?" Lucas spoke, in a worried tone as he studied Eleven closely.

"Do you know where he is?!" He repeated, aggressively grabbing her, which was too far. As much as River didn't like this, and as much as she agreed with Lucas she didn't feel that they needed to lay any hands on her.

"Lucas!" River muttered angrily as she pushed him off, "Leave her alone." She kneeled down, glancing at the scared girl, a look of sympathy in her eyes, causing Lucas to furrow his eyebrows and shake his head in reaction.

"I thought you were on my side!" He argued, causing River to sigh and slowly look back at the three boys, who were all staring at her.

"Lucas, stop. All I asked was for you to leave her alone." She said looking back at El. She felt sorry for her. She was a girl, surrounded by boys who were pressing her about everything, and even laying their hands on her, and it scared her.

She wanted to find Will, and that was still her main concern but if she knows about Will, if she knew the smallest thing about Will, River would hear her out.

"Wait, you were on his side?" Mike added in as River sighed once again, as she turned around again and stood up.

"I'm not anyone's side! This isn't about being on someone's side, this is about Finding Will, but obviously there are some distractions, alright? I'm worried about Will, I could care less about picking sides." She explained as Mike seemed to get mad, for no apparent reason other than River calling out the fact that things were getting in the way.

It's only been a few days with this Will situation, and already, it's going terrible, but the 12 year olds could definitely not expect it to be easy, or fun.

"She knows about will!" He started to yell, "She can help! I can't believe you'd say that." He shook his head stepping forward.

This outburst completely confused River. In what way was she saying anything against El? El was obviously a distraction, whether Mike wanted her to be or not.

"Stop!" Dustin yelled, making the two look away from each other, and River felt a sense of hurt, since Mike was so quick to stand up for a random girl instead of hearing River out, who he's known for years.

The party was already being divided.

"No! No! No! We're going back to Plan A, we're telling your mom." Lucas yelled out, going to open the door. And as he did, it aggressively shut right away, and as he tried again and again, it continued to do the same thing.

Though the last time he tried to open the door, growing angry that it wasn't simply opening, it shut again, and this time it locked.

And with that, the four young kids all slowly turned to Eleven, who's nose happened to be bleeding.

"No." She simply spoke up, causing everyone's stomach to lurch.

And after everything, it was very safe to say River wouldn't be staying for dinner, as the boys would.

A.S

Uhhh sorry this took so long to get out