The weirdo on Maple Street
Summary: You bring the girl to Mike’s house and try to think of what you’ll do to help her. The next day you go to the library and find some interesting information about the lab… and the girl
After you found the girl in the wounds you went with them back to Mike’s house.
It was pouring when you all stand around the couch in the Wheeler’s basement. The girl sitting in front of you wearing Mike’s jacket.
‘Is there a number we can call for your parents?” Mike breaks the silent by asking the girl but she doesn’t answer.
She hasn’t said anything yet and it looked like she was going to keep it that way.
‘Where is your hair? Do you have cancer?” Dustin asks, obviously not thinking about what was appropriate to ask.
You look down at him and send him a warning look. ‘Dustin! Don’t ask that.’
Lucas reaches his hand to touch a stain he thinks is blood. Before he can come near her Mike slaps his hand away.
‘Stop it! You’re freaking her out!’ Mike screams at him.
‘She’s freaking me out!’ Lucas screams back, his arms flying around him.
‘Boys.’ You catch their attention. You gesture to the girl who is watching you all with a slight furrow in her brow.
‘I bet she’s deaf.’ Dustin slaps his hands together and the girl flinches away from him. ‘Not deaf.’
At this point you’re not trying anymore to get them to listen to you.
‘Stop it! All right? She’s just scared and cold.’ Mike stops his friends from doing anything else and goes to get some fresh clothes.
The thunder outside rumbles and the girl flinches. You squat down to be at her level. “Hey, it’s just the thunder outside. Nothing to worry about.’
‘She’s scared of the weather?’
You turn around to look at Lucas. ‘I remember you wanting to sleep on the couch next to me because you were scared of the leaves touching your window. You thought it was a shadow monster.’
‘You did?’ Dustin chuckles turning to his friend.
‘Here, these are clean.’ Mike comes between the two and hands some sweatpants and a sweater to the girl.
She takes them and stand up to strip off her shirt. You quickly take her hands, stopping her as the boys turn around letting out a series of ‘no’ and ‘oh my gods’.
She looks around, confused at your reactions.
‘See over there?’ Mike points at a door on the other side of the room.
‘Privacy.’ You get up from your position.
The girl nods as Mike asks her if she understands. She grabs the clothes and walks over to the bathroom, Mike following her.
She reaches out as he wants to close the door. ‘You don’t want it closed?’
‘Oh, so you can talk. Well, what if we let it open like this? Good?’ He lets the door for a few inches open.
You cross your arms as you watch Mike walk over to the three of you.
‘This is mental.’ Dustin grins as Mike stands beside him.
‘At least she can talk.’ Mike shrugs.
‘Talk?’ Lucas repeats the word. ‘She said “yes” and “no”. Your three-year-old sister says more.’
‘She tried to get naked.’ Dustin reminds you all.
‘It’s like she didn’t see a problem with it.’ You look at the door where she’s behind. ‘That’s not normal.’
‘Exactly! There’s something seriously wrong with her.’ Lucas agrees with you. ‘Like wrong in the head.’ He gestures to his own.
‘She just went like…’ Dustin pretends as if he throws off his shirt.
‘Dustin.’ The boy looks up at you. ‘We get it.’
‘I bet she escaped from Pennhurst.’
‘What?’ You now look at the boy on your other side.
Lucas turns around to you. ‘Pennhurst. The nuthouse in Kerley County.’
‘She isn’t crazy.’ You sigh, shaking your head but he ignores you.
‘You got a lot of family there?’ Dustin grins.
‘Bite me!’ Lucas snaps back. ‘Think about it. That would explain her shaved head and why she’s so crazy!’
‘Not crazy.’ You repeat. Lucas looks at you and rolls his eyes.
‘That’s why she went like…’ Dustin acts again as if he’s pulling off his shirt.
You give him a little hit against his head. ‘Stop that.’
‘She’s an escape is the point.’
‘Why was she wearing a Benny’s Burgers shirt?’ You ask as you remember the long orange shirt she was wearing.
‘She stole it?’ Lucas suggests. ‘She’s a psycho!’
‘Like Michael Myers.’ Dustin nods along.
‘Exactly, we should’ve never brought her here.’
‘So you just wanted to leave her in the storm?’ Mike speaks up.
‘Yes! We went out to find Will! Not another problem.’
‘Come on, Lucas. She’s just a kid like you.’ You say, shocked at his hard words.
‘Michael Myers was a kid once too.’
Now it is your time to roll your eyes at the boy. ‘With that argument I can also say you are a psycho.’
‘I think we should tell your mother.’ Dustin turns to Mike.
‘No.’ You shake your head.
‘What? Why?’ Lucas waves his arms around in frustration.
‘Wherever she came from was bad. She’s frightened! We’re keeping her safe.’
‘What? You gonna adopt her now?’ You stick your tongue out at Lucas.
‘Here’s the plan. She stays here tonight.’
‘You letting a girl stay over?!’ Dustin gapes at Mike.
‘Just listen! Tomorrow after school we’ll bring her to Hopper and he’ll know what to do.’
‘Best we got.’ Dustin murmurs.
They turn around to you now. You nod. ‘All right.’
Your eyes fall on the watch around your wrist. 11:30pm. ‘Shit! I need to go home!’ You grab your bag from the armchair behind you and throws it around your shoulder.
‘And I think you two too.’ You look at Dustin and Lucas.
Just as they were grabbing their stuff the bathroom door opens and the girl walks out. Mike quickly walks over to her and explains your plan.
‘We do need to go home now.’ You smile at her. ‘But I’ll probably see you tomorrow at the police station.’
The young girl looks up in confusion. ‘She’s the daughter of the chief here.’ Mike explains.
‘Chief?’ She repeats the word, having difficulty to pronounce the first two letters.
‘Yes, he’s like the boss there.’ You tell her.
‘Ah.’ She nods in understanding.
‘Well, good night.’ You say looking around the group. The kids wish you goodbye as you open the door and walk outside.
You begin running back home in the rain. You were already drenched so you didn’t much care about your clothes or hair getting wet. But you already could feel a cold coming.
Your house comes in view and it seems as if all the lights are still off. You open the door and quickly get inside.
You look around but luckily your dad isn’t home yet.
You go to the bathroom and get something comfortable on. As you get ready for bed you think of going to the library tomorrow to look for anything that could be linked to where the girl came from.
You get out of the bathroom, rubbing a towel over your hair, you go to the kitchen to find something to eat. The last time you have eaten something was 6 hours ago. Before you can find anything the front door opens and your dad walks in.
His wet clothes drip on the floor. ‘You’re still awake?’ He questions as he sees you.
‘Couldn’t sleep.’ You lie. You open the cupboard above you and find a crackers.
He walks over to you and ruffles through your hair. ‘Did you go outside?’
‘I took a shower.’ You grab one of the crackers so he doesn’t hear the waver in your voice.
‘You smell like rain not shampoo.’ Hopper narrows his eyes.
‘Fine! I went on the balcony. You know how much I love the rain.’ You beam up at him.
He stares in your eyes for a few seconds before scoffing fondly. ‘You wanna catch a cold?’ He walks to his bedroom.
You let out a sigh of relief as his back is to you. ‘You also went out.’
‘I didn’t have a choice.’
‘Still out.’ You mumble. ‘Did you find anything?’
‘The science teacher of those kids found a piece of clothing. Looked like a hospital gown.’
‘A hospital gown? Where did he find it?’
‘At that lab. I think I might take a look there.’ Your dad returns out of his bedroom wearing his own sleep shirt and shorts. ‘But first we sleep. Come on.’ He waits for you to put away the crackers and go to your bedroom before switching of the lights.
The next morning you were up early. You already had your clothes on and had eaten breakfast when your dad woke up. ‘Early bird?’ He spoke.
‘I have a date with the books at the library.’
He looks at you as he sits next to you on the couch. ‘What you going to look for there? I thought you wanted, and I quote, to buy all the books you read so you could call them yours.’
You ignore his piercing gaze on you. ‘It doesn’t have to do anything with the lab right?’
‘No! It’s for my book that I am writing, remember?’
‘Ah, good.’ He nods lost in his own thoughts for a moment. ‘I wouldn’t want you to go near that place.’
You place a hand on his shoulder. ‘Don’t worry. I would never. But I really should get going if I want to have a look before noon.’
‘Be safe!’ Your dad calls as you grab your jacket and run outside.
‘Always!’ You close the door after you. You sigh, lying to your dad was something you absolutely hated to do. But it was for a purpose.
In a 20 minute walk you arrived at the library. Hopper had tried to get you a driver license but you liked to walk with your music on the loudest in your headphones.
You walk inside the library and see the librarian behind the counter. She looks up from a book as you walk over. ‘Good morning, Y/N. Don’t see you here often.’ She smiles welcoming.
‘Miracles still happen.’ You smile. ‘Uhm, do you have old articles about the lab here in Hawkins?’
Her brow furrows at your question. ‘Why do you need to them?’
‘I’m writing a book, you see. And I need some inspiration.’ You smile as sweetly as you can.
You had luck on your side today. She began asking questions about your book as she brought you to a separate room with old papers and computers.
‘Well, I hope you’ll find something that’ll help you.’
‘Me too. Thank you.’ She walks out of the room and you immediately begin your search. The first few hours were in vain. Only old speculations of UFO’s and weird appearances.
Just as it was noon and you thought about getting something to eat your eyes fell on a photograph. An older man stood in the middle of it. People in their late teens and early twenties stood around them. All in hospital gowns.
In the middle, Doctor Brenner with Alice Cooper, Ken, Terry Ives and Gloria Flowers around him. Guards Tom Henkins and Henry.
You read underneath the picture. Brenner. Doesn’t ring a bell. Nor do the other names.
You’d already forgotten about lunch. You read through all the articles that talk about this man and what his work is or was. Brenner was a scientist. He believed that you could expand the boundaries of the mind.
He let those teens come in to have them take drugs. And apparently he also experimented with kids.
His disappearance had to be linked to the mysterious girl. It’s way too much of a coincidence.
She had to be one of the children that Brenner uses in his experiments. And Will was around there at the wrong time.
You hadn’t noticed it already getting darker as you gathered everything you’ve found. Before you went home you went to the Wheeler’s house to see if Mike’s plan worked to get the girl to the police station.
It was Dustin who opened the basement door for you, and he immediately began to ramble about something that had happened. ‘Y/N, you will never guess what happened! We wanted to call you but you don’t have a walkie talkie and we didn’t know where you were.’
‘I was at the library. I discovered some things myself. But you first.’
The boys all start overlapping each other.
‘She slammed the door close! With.Her.Mind!’
‘Calm down!’ You open your arms to silence them. ‘Her name’s Eleven?’
‘El for short.’ Mike nods.
‘She has this cool tattoo on her wrist.’ Dustin tells excitement twinkling in his eyes.
‘And she has powers?’ You ask turning to Lucas.
‘Yep, slammed the door close without touching it.’
‘Why don’t you look surprised or at least shocked?’ Mike asks you as you just nod along with what they say.
‘Because, as I said, I did some research myself. I went to the library. Yesterday my dad said they found a piece of a hospital gown somewhere near the lab. So I looked for more information on what they do there and guess what I found.’
‘Information on what they do in the lab?’ Lucas asks dryly.
‘Ding ding.’ You mimic his tone. ‘There is this scientist that experiments on people to “expand the boundaries of the mind”.’ You make quotation marks in the air.
‘Papa.’ The girl’s voice is silent but you heard it clearly.
‘Papa?’ You turn to her. ‘That man is still there?’
‘She told us they were after her. They’re bad man.’ Mike comes to stand beside you.
‘I bet they are.’ You look at him for a second before lowering yourself to Eleven’s height. ‘Do you know more about what happened to Will.’ The girl looks up at you.
She doesn’t answer. She just stands up and walks over to the table where the boy’s dnd game lays.
‘What’s she doing?’ Lucas asks as you follow her.
She lays her hands on the board and closes her eyes.
‘El?’ Mike sits down beside her.
She opens her eyes and takes Will’s figure. ‘Will.’
‘Superpowers.’ Dustin says a twinkle in his eyes.
‘Did you see him? Will? On mirkwood?’
El moves her arm over the board and all the other figures fall from the table. She then turns the board around so that the black side is facing upwards.
She places Will’s figure on it. ‘Hiding.’
You go to sit on the chair on her other side. ‘Hiding? From what?’
She looks at you before reaching for another figure. You feel your heart drops as she sets the Demogorgon figure next to Will.
Monsters were not real. But the same went for powers and here you were sitting next to a girl with powers.
You look up at the boys. ‘This is bad.’
Thank you so much for reading!
Leave your thoughts in the comment🫶
Next chapter will be less kids as Nancy joins the party😊
