Neighbors - Strangerthingsau

Chapter 10

What's El short for?

Ring! Ring! Ring! The bell rang signaling that it was the end of the school day. El sighed and got up from her desk in the back of the room. She collected her stuff and walked out the door heading to her locker when she saw the party facing away from her talking to someone.

"You freaks are seriously hilarious if you think that girl is actually wanting to be your friend. She probably hanging out with you guys because she doesn't have anyone better to hangout with. I'm calling it right now, if she gets the chance to have different friends she'll take it." El recognized that voice. Even though she couldn't see him, she knew it was Troy messing with them. "Aww. What's wrong frogface, did the realization just hit you that she's only using you?"

"Hey!" El said harshly, making all the boys jump at the sudden raise in her voice. She pushed through the party staring daggers at Troy. If looks could kill, he would already be on the floor, dead as a door nail. "You leave my friends alone." She said making her voice go into a low, threatening growl.

"Oh yeah! What are you, a girl, going to do about it?" Troy smirked.

El had enough of his hotheadedness and kicked him, hard, where the sun don't shine. Making him fall on the ground, whimpering. El took a deep breath in and turned around to face the boys who looked at her in awe. Smiled her sweetest smile and said, "let's go."

The group walked with her down the hall and when they turned the corner, they basically burst out with excitement. They all talked to El at the same time.

"Holy shit that was insane!"

"That was so awesome!"

"Not awesome, amazing! But also a little frightening."

"Badass!"

"Hey guys!" Max said strolling up to the party.

"Max! You will not believe what just happened!" Dustin said excitedly.

"What?"

"As much as I would love to hear the story, I'm sorry, but Mike and I have to go to the library to study." El said grabbing Mike and started walking down the hallway along with him.

"Thanks. For standing up for us back there. No one has ever really thought to stand up to Troy before." Mike said looking down at his hands

"No problem. I will always do anything for my friends." El shrugged. "I do actually want to be apart of the party, you know that, right?"

"Yeah! Yeah, totally."

"Good, because I couldn't have asked for a better friend group." El said as they entered the school library sitting down at a free table and got all of their school supplies out.

"Alright," Mike sighed. "So the quadratic formula, is something you need work on, correct?"

"Correct." El said grabbing a piece of paper and writing down El on top. Mike looked over at her paper to see what she was writing and furrowed his brows.

"You spell your name E-L?" Mike questioned.

"Yeah." El said looking up at the confused boy. "How did you think it was spelt?"

"The normal way E-L-L-E."

"Well that's a full name."

"So... El is short for something."

"Yeah." El sighed.

"What's it short for?"

"Nothing."

"No, El tell me." Mike said leaning closer to the girl with eyes full of interest.

"I'm good."

"Oh come on. Ellie?"

"No."

"Ella."

"No. Worse than those names."

"Eleanor?"

"No."

"Elaine?"

"Worse."

"Well shit!" Mike said throwing his hands in the air in defeat.

"Mike!" El laughed at the boys sudden outburst, both earning a dirty look from the librarian at her desk.

"Come on, just tell me. I promise I won't laugh."

"No, I'm good with you not knowing."

"Well, I guess the next time I see Will I will have to ask him."

"Jokes on you, because he doesn't know either."

"What?" Mike asked surprised.

"No one does. Well, other than me and Hopper."

"Then, the next time I see him I will ask."

"He won't answer it either."

"What! Why?" Mike asked getting annoyed.

"Because my name is a secret."

"But friends don't lie!"

"I'm not lying, when I say I don't want to say the truth." El giggled. God, that was like music to Mike's ears.

"Fine." He blushed and started to looked over the homework he had laid out in front of him.

I'm going to figure it out one day. Mike thought to himself.