'So, nothing tomorrow?' Molly asked, shoving her script unceremoniously into her satchel. Mia knew that she should be glad the junior was comfortable enough with the play that she no longer needed it, but part of her still cringed at the disregard for something so important.

'No,' Mia said, hearing the disappointment behind her own voice. 'Between the game and Hellfire...' She heaved a deep breath. 'No rehearsals tomorrow.'

'Can't you just tell them to leave?' Craig asked, forcefully pulling at his laces. He'd been trying to get used to wearing formal shoes before the performance, but he never once forgot to change back into trainers as soon as they were done. 'Freaks don't –'

'Craig,' Mia warned, turning her attention back to her notepad.

'What?' he asked, enough innocence behind the question that a couple of the others sniggered. 'It's our space.'

'And it was Miss Simmonds who said they could use it again this year. It's nothing to do with us.'

Craig grumbled something under his breath, but she shot him a glare and he fell silent.

With a roll of her eyes, Mia stood and surveyed her cast. Some of them she recognised from previous productions, but there were one or two new people who she guessed had joined purely because they thought she'd be easier to deal with than Miss Simmonds as a director.

'Just because we're not here tomorrow doesn't mean you should forget that we've got a play to put on.' She glared at Craig, who had opened his mouth, she guessed, to argue the point. 'You still want to be on Broadway one day?' He nodded ever so slightly, his previous confidence diminishing. 'They rehearse more than this. Trust me, I'm being kind.

'But anyway,' she continued, clapping once, determined not to be a director from hell if she could help it, 'enjoy the game tomorrow.'

'Are you not coming?' Molly asked, her bag slung over her shoulder and car keys in hand. 'I thought Luis –'

'I'm coming. But I'm not going to enjoy it.'

'You might be surprised. We could find you a nice basketball player,' teased Molly, slinging an arm around Mia's middle.

'Na,' teased Craig, 'she's already got Harrington.'

Mia rolled her eyes before pulling herself away from Molly so she could collect her own bag.

'Sorry,' he said, a knowing glint in his eyes that made Mia want nothing more than to assign him all the tongue twisters she could think of over Spring Break, 'I forgot you're just friends.'

Molly obviously spotted something behind Mia's eyes that she hadn't even realised was there because she quickly shifted her friend so he was facing the door. Even in her haste, she made it look almost balletic.

'See you tomorrow, Mia,' she said, waving an absent goodbye over her shoulder as she ushered Craig from the room.

Mia said her goodbyes to everyone, offering reminders of support to those she thought needed it. She reminded Albert that the technical side of things was covered, that he didn't need to worry because she trusted Belle with it all. She assured her leading man that he had the talent for the role, even if Dylan was being a pain as his understudy. By the time she finally left the rehearsal room it was getting late and she could feel the headache beginning behind her eyes.

Steve's car was almost as familiar as her own, and seeing it soothed a little of the tension that had started tightening her chest. She carefully shut the security door behind her before hurrying over to him.

'You didn't have to do this you know,' she reminded him, settling into the ever familiar passenger seat.

Steve drummed his fingers on the steering wheel as he waited for her to put her seatbelt on. 'And leave you to walk home in the dark? No chance.'

'I could've told Luis to leave the car,' she grumbled, feigning a sulk despite how glad she was that she didn't need to drive. She perched her glasses on top of her head and rubbed her eyes wearily.

'You OK?' Steve asked.

'Just a headache,' she assured him, trying to ignore the fact that it was the second of the day. Perhaps she needed to go back and get her eyes tested again.

Steve hummed, a noise that sounded disbelieving. But she was beginning to realise just how easy it was for them to gloss over things. Between the Russians and the monster the year before; the truth of Hawkins and the Upside Down, she had come to learn that lies seemed easy if the truth was hard.

Maybe one day they'd properly talk about everything that had happened, deal with the trauma it had undoubtedly been. But right then, all she cared about was not having to be in charge of the show for a moment. Being able to just be teenagers as her best friend pulled them out of the carpark.

Hawkins was cursed. At least, that was the consensus of people who knew about its recent history. From the outside, it was a town that looked glaringly normal, but something darker lingered beneath the surface, something that no longer shocked the general population as much as it probably should have.

While every street seemed lined with neat gardens, basketball hoops hung above garages, front porches with scattered signs of life, there also seemed to be ghosts lingering. Memories that those living there would rather forget. To put the past behind them simply so they could go about their daily lives without worrying about what the curse might just throw at them next.

Belle Barrow had spent the better part of two years trying to outrun her own ghosts. Not that she'd had much choice in leaving Hawkins. Her parents had made the decision for her; a change of scenery, some professional help. And none of it had worked to dispel the memories. To rid her of the one thing it had all been for.

You came back. Axel's voice in her head was soft, a reminder that he was still there no matter what she'd told people. At best, he was a nuisance, at worst she probably should have called an exorcist the first time she'd heard his voice rather than admitting to her brother that she was hearing things. Doesn't matter how long it took.

Belle barely resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She still hadn't worked out how he knew what exactly was going on in her head, only that she could feel the vague pressure of his presence when he was there. Three years and that was all she'd truly gleaned from him. That, and he wasn't just a disembodied voice. Axel was real.

She let out a long breath and forced her attention onto the house that she'd stopped outside of. Miranda Toussaint's house. Old house. The house where Belle's life had started to unravel. Her grandmother had always been house-proud, always kept the place tidy in a way that set it apart just a little from those with families in around her. Still, all Belle could think about was the blood on the carpet. The hot chocolate and shattered mug that had spread over the floor.

'Joyeaux anniversaire, Mémé,' she whispered, forcing her thoughts away from that night and towards the reason she'd made this stop off. She hadn't been able to come before; nine months since she'd returned to Hawkins, and she'd always avoided the street if she could.

She really should have brought Tey with her, but then she would have had to cancel on Eddie. And Tey needed to sleep. Six hours of driving in one day really had been too much.

Belle took one last look at the house. It was just an ordinary building; somebody else's home now where they could make memories that would hopefully never haunt them. Memories that a small part of her envied them for because they wouldn't have been tainted by the events that had happened there in '83.

With a slightly shaky hand, Belle put the visor of her helmet down and started the motorbike. The purr of the engine vibrated through her as she knocked the kickstand aside and felt Axel's presence receding ever so slightly. Three years and they'd finally come to an actual understanding; well, something like one without him agreeing to fully leave her alone.

Hawkins had an odd sort of beauty to it at night that Belle had missed. The roads were quieter than they had been in the city where her aunt lived in Canada, and the stars easier to spot in the sky. Not that she got to look much as she rode, but simply knowing she could was a comfort she never realised she'd miss until she no longer had it.

She pulled off the main road, swerving around a van that zigzagged across the white line. She glanced briefly in her mirror. The van flashed its lights irritably; Belle mumbled a curse. If she didn't know any better, she could have sworn people were taking more liberties since Chief Hopped had died; pushing the boundaries to see exactly where they were with Chief Powell.

Forest Hill Trailer Park wasn't somewhere Belle previously had reason to go, a fact she was grateful for as she tried to navigate the bumpy driveway that lead to the trailers. Why nobody had thought to maybe resurface the thing, she had no idea. She just hoped Eddie's trailer wasn't too far down it, and that it'd be easy to spot. She was under no illusions about the noise her bike was making.

Eddie had scrawled his address on a note for her in English almost as soon as she'd said she might actually be able to join the next campaign. After all his years asking her to join a game, there was finally nothing else in the way. Other than her severe lack of knowledge on all things D&D.

Belle slowed her bike down as she reached the edge of the trailers, searching for the number on the note. Eddie's handwriting had been awful, but after a few months of going through notes with him for lessons – to help both of them actually graduate with the rest of their class – she'd grown used to it.

The trailer came into view and killed the engine once she was outside. As she removed her helmet, she heard a neighbouring dog barking and felt a small smile form on her lips.

Don't you have anything better to do? she posed to Axel, feeling his presence a little stronger.

Just checking in, he grumbled before she felt him disappear completely.

The trailer door was hauled open to reveal Eddie Munson as she dismounted her bike. He looked far more relaxed than normal; without his usual jackets it was only really his long hair and the chains on his jeans that marked him out as the metalhead he'd made a name for himself as.

'Couldn't think of an excuse this time, Tinkerbell?' he teased as she slowly made her way towards him. The nickname Ximena Moreno had given her was one that seemed to have stuck with both the drama group and Hellfire. Not that she minded.

Somebody yelled at the dog to be quiet.

'I actually came to say I can't stay,' Belle said, absently pointing over her shoulder at her bike. 'It felt rude to just ignore you completely.'

Something shifted ever so slightly behind Eddie's expression, there and gone so quickly she wondered if it had just been a trick of the light.

As she jogged up the steps, he pushed the door open further and moved aside so she could pass.

'An hour,' she told him, stepping into the trailer. 'That's all I have.'

'And then you turn into a pumpkin. I know the drill, Cinderella.'

Belle scoffed, another nickname to add to the list, but her attention was on the living room wall. It was adorned with more mugs than she'd ever seen before, the odd baseball hat dotted between them. She carefully tapped a mug with her nail, wondering if it was plastic or not given the strange shine it had.

'My uncle collects them,' Eddie said, his voice slightly softer than normal as he pulled the door shut.

'They're cute,' she assured him, turning around. 'My Dad collects magnets.'

Eddie chuckled softly, motioning to the little table beside him. 'No metal surface is safe!'

'I actually think most of them are still in the cellophane in a box,' she said, offering him a shrug as she sat down. 'Now, what the hell am I doing?'

Eddie dropped into the seat opposite her, his knee brushing absently against her own. 'Let's start with what I do. I'm the Dungeon Master.'

'Should I be making notes?'

'There is going to be a test,' he teased, leaning back comfortably in his seat.

Belle shifted forwards ever so slightly, eager to learn as much as she could. If she could at least come out of this with a character, then it was one less hurdle preventing her from joining the next campaign; the one that would probably mark the end of their time at Hawkins High together. Perhaps she might finally be able to accept an invitation to Hellfire before they graduated.

Eddie watched as Belle's taillights faded into the distance and rested his shoulder against the doorframe. Part of him was thrilled that there'd finally been nothing to prevent her from accepting an invitation to do something D&D related; another part of him didn't know how to feel about it. With the game at the forefront of their conversation, there'd been no time to talk to her about anything else.

Twenty months. That was how long she'd been gone for. The girl with the warm smile and kind nature that wouldn't hurt a fly. The girl that nobody had seemed to miss other than a scarce few who simply put her going missing down to the curse of Hawkins.

Her older brother, Mathieu, hadn't gone missing though. He'd been at school for those months and acting as though nothing was amiss. It was him that Eddie had corned in the corridor in the first month, he who Eddie had pestered for information because Robin Buckley had looked lost. It was Mathieu who had finally admitted that Belle was fine, that she was staying with family after everything that had happened.

The rumours were part of what had had Eddie worried about her. Her grandmother's death, the speculation that she was a killer – though, that was a vicious rumour spread by Tommy Hagan, and one he doubted anyone gave real credence to.

Then again, Eddie still hadn't really broached her time away since she'd returned to Hawkins. He'd tried to when he spotted her in the summer of '85, but he was so glad to see her again, to see that she was alive and well, that he didn't want to dredge up the past. Didn't want to do anything that might frighten her away from Hawkins again.

The Mayfields' dog started yapping again. Eddie whistled softly, the opening notes of Master of Puppets because it was the only song he'd been listening to recently in the hopes of nailing it, before he finally went back inside the trailer. He closed the door carefully behind him then headed to his room so he wouldn't be in Wayne's way when he finally got home.

If Eddie was being completely honest, he had never been sure why Belle's disappearance had bothered him as much as it did. Barbara Holland going missing had been a shock, but not something that left him questioning it too much. Perhaps it had been the small smiles Belle shot literally everyone, or the fact when he'd first invited her to a Hellfire game she'd looked so ready to accept before remembering she'd agreed to help the drama group with set design.

With a sigh, Eddie picked up his guitar and sat on the edge of his bed. At least Belle now had a character sheet ready for when she could actually join Hellfire. He just hoped it'd be before the end of the year; before they were going to graduate and he'd finally be able to get out of Hawkins himself.

Belle jogged, grateful for the quiet of early morning runs. It didn't matter that heading out this early was cutting it close to being late for school, she just needed to clear her head. Between seeing her grandmother's house, having Tey back, and spending the evening at Eddie's, there was too much noise.

She turned right, a small smile forming on her lips as she heard the opening chords of Smoke on Water through her headphones. And that was when she crashed into someone. There was no time to take note of who it was, only that their hands were suddenly on her arms, preventing her from falling backwards.

It didn't take her long to process who stood before her though. Axel wasn't exactly inconspicuous. While Belle was short, Axel was a towering figure to pretty much everybody. His black hair, usually slicked back and styled, today looked a little mussed.

'What are you doing here?' she asked, pulling her headphones down, trying not to read too much into the change in his appearance. For once, there was a slightly sheepish look on his face rather than the arrogance of somebody who knew more they shared.

He glanced behind her, as if checking that there was nobody else around, before his dark eyes finally locked with hers.

'Have you been hearing things?'

Belle scoffed, motioned towards him with as much sarcasm as she could put into the simple gesture.

Axel, however, was shaking his head. 'Not me, that's different. Like, other things?'

'Different?' Belle echoed. He seemed genuinely worried about something, and that was concerning in itself.

'Please,' he said, moving to put his hands on her shoulders but quickly changed his mind and allowed them to fall by his sides. 'Have you?'

'No,' she admitted, glancing briefly over her shoulder. There was nobody there, but that didn't stop the unsettling feeling of possibility prickling down her spine. 'Axel?'

'You remember those pills you were taking?'

'Which ones?' she asked, hearing the vague bitterness behind her own voice. The medication had done nothing to help prevent his voice from filling her head; it had only eased some of the nightmares of her grandmother, if anything at all.

'There were different ones?' Axel's attention settled on her completely. Fear clouded his eyes, and a panic that she couldn't quite decipher the reason for.

'Axel, what is going on?'

'Just... Take them. Or go see your aunt again. Just... Hawkins isn't a good place.'

Belle scoffed, unable to keep the sound back. 'I'm not leaving again. Not uprooting everything just because you tell me to,' she told him, though her admittance lost some of its conviction as she noticed his brow pinching ever so slightly, as his attention skimmed just behind her once more. 'I – I'm sorry.'

'Then the medication –'

'It's not that simple,' she said, hearing the softness to her own voice. She'd been so used to him being an annoyance, to him having conviction behind everything he said even if it made no sense to her, that seeing him like this was just wrong. 'If anything stranger happens, though. I'll let you know?'

The uncertainty behind her comment seemed to reassure him somewhat. He shot her a fleeting smile. 'Be careful, yeah?'

'You too,' she said, watching as he practically scurried off.

Part of her longed to follow him, to see if she could answer any of her pressing questions by learning where he went, but her watch chirped at her, and Belle mentally cursed. She needed to head home, to get ready for school. She wasn't sure being late would really work in her favour if she wanted to graduate at the end of the year.

Metal. Too much silver. Too bright a light. Too many guards. Steve, immobile on the floor. Robin, slapped for asking a question. Mia, frozen. Hands gripped her upper arms, dragging her towards a chair. Heart thundering against her chest. The whole hearted belief that this was how she would die threatened to overwhelm any logical thought.

'Luis!' The sound of their mother's voice snapped Mia's thoughts away from the snippet of nightmare that her alarm had saved her from. But it wasn't as simple as waking up and forgetting. The summer of '85 had been a blessing and a curse; both parts impossible to think about without the taint of the other. If she hadn't been visiting Steve at Scoops Ahoy, she wouldn't have spent as much time with Robin. But, if she hadn't have been there, she wouldn't have been captured and tortured by Russians. She wouldn't have found out about everything Steve had been hiding from her; the real reason behind him finally showing people what he was really like.

None of them, however, had really spoken about what had happened. The Byers had moved away; the party separated and Steve was too busy looking after everybody else to actually take two seconds for himself. She'd returned home the previous evening feeling guilty that she was another of that number relying on him for things, that she hadn't been able to check in with him, too.

Mia missed having Steve over for the chaos of Moreno family mornings. His blank expression whenever they spoke in rapid Spanish because they were home never failed to bring a smile to her face. Him humming along with her father as he sang off key to the radio. Still, as normal the kitchen was filled with the smell of Spanish omelettes; a recipe her father insisted had been passed down for generations. She knew the truth though: he'd asked their local café's cook back home for the secret to his before they'd made the move to America.

'I'm coming!' Luis called back, before cursing.

The smirk on her face grew.

'Cut your brother some slack, mija,' her father said, cutting off his own singing along with Beggin' to chastise her as he put a cup of coffee in front of her.

'Because of the game? You know it's the reason I don't have rehearsals tonight, right?'

Her father gasped, flipping the omelette in the pan with his spatula. 'Some of your cast have school spirit?'

'Ha, ha,' she complained bitterly, pushing her glasses up onto her head so as to rub her eyes. Another headache was pulsing to life, and she wondered if perhaps she shouldn't state that she was ill, simply bunk the day off school as there was nothing else pressing she needed to do. A week of headaches wasn't exactly normal, and finally they were taking their toll on her.

'Are you OK?' her mother asked, resting a hand on her back as she swooped to place a gentle kiss on her temple.

'Yeah,' Mia assured her; she couldn't bunk. Just because there was no rehearsal, that didn't mean there weren't things she couldn't be getting on with. Sets still needed painting, the technical side of things checked over. Things she usually never had time for. 'Just too much sports talk all this week.' She dropped her glasses back onto her face.

'Beats Shakespeare, Xi,' complained Luis as he rushed into the kitchen. He made a gagging gesture as he slipped into the seat beside Mia.

'It's not even a Shakespeare play,' she countered. 'And at least it's different than playing the same –'

'Dios mío, it's too early for this argument,' their father complained, dropping the omelette onto a plate and offering it to his wife.

'Never too early to prove – Sorry, Mamá,' Luis said, his attention dropping briefly to the table under the unimpressed glare of their mother.

Mia sighed before taking a too hot sip of her coffee. The headache slowly pounded away; not a full blown migraine, but she didn't want it to progress. 'I just need painkillers,' she said, excusing herself from the table. She could feel her mother's questioning gaze on her back.

Rather than going to the downstairs bathroom, Mia dashed up the stairs and went to the medicine cabinet there. She glanced briefly at her reflection; her dark hair fell in loose curls around her shoulders, she'd have to tie them back before school simply so they didn't get too tangled over the course of the day. Resolutely, she avoided looking at her eyes, at the bruises she knew were darkening the skin beneath them.

She pulled the mirrored door open, grabbed some tablets and swallowed them. For a moment, she hovered with putting them back. If she was at school and another headache came on, she didn't really want to go to the nurse about it.

'Is Steve picking you up this morning?' Luis asked, before knocking on the door. She heard him leaning against the wall outside.

'Can you not sing his name?' Mia screwed the lid back on the pills and stuffed them into her pocket.

'But he's always here.'

'You are such a pain,' she complained, pulling open the door to glare at him. 'Anyway, shouldn't you be building your strength for the game tonight?'

Luis shrugged, a teasing smirk on his lips that she knew all too well. 'Mamá wanted to check on you; thought you'd rather not have fussing. But anyway' – he continued speaking as they headed down the stairs – 'I actually want to know. Or should I be worried about other road users?'

'Prick.' Mia pushed his shoulder, but Luis didn't falter. 'For once, I was actually gonna ask if you wanted to drive, but –'

'I'll drive,' Luis said quickly, reaching the bottom of the stairs and turning to face her. His eyes were alight with excitement. Mia hated sharing the car with him, but she wasn't really in the mood for driving either.

'Fine,' she said, spitting the word with mock irritation. 'But I'm taking the car home tonight.'

'Deal,' Luis told her, offering his hand out.

With a roll of her eyes, Mia linked her pinkie finger with his and shook. She just hoped she would live to not regret allowing him to drive so early in the morning.

'Hey, wait up!' Robin called, slamming Steve's car door behind her. While she was grateful for the lifts into school from him, she would rather avoid having to hear him say "Boobies" one more time. Or, have him shift the conversation to if she'd spoken to Mia yet about hanging out.

Belle turned slowly, a small smile creeping onto her lips as Robin hurried over. It was a smile Robin had never questioned before, one she'd always assumed was genuine. But ever since Belle had disappeared, she questioned everything. How many signs had she missed beforehand? Would her having spotted something stopped Belle from disappearing? Robin knew that she'd been staying with family, that she'd needed time away from Hawkins, but it still stung a little that Belle hadn't told her just how badly she was hurting after her grandmother's death.

'Oh how the mighty have fallen,' Belle teased, offering Steve's car a small wave. 'King Steve, now a lowly chauffeur.'

Robin scoffed. 'Don't forget babysitter and Family Video employee.' She knew she was selling her friend short, but Belle hadn't got to know him as well as she had yet. To Belle, Steve was still one of the ringleaders of a gang that called her cursed, that blamed her for what happened to her grandmother, to Will. To Barb. Sure, the two of them were uneasily coming to an understanding while they worked at Family Video, but there was still that tension there that made Robin ramble in the hopes of easing it.

Belle let out a long whistle. 'Three jobs. Kind of impressive.'

'Anyway,' said Robin, eager to move the conversation to safer territories, 'are you looking forward to the pep rally?'

'Yeah,' Belle said, dragging the word out in such a way Robin knew she was lying.

She turned to her sharply. 'You're coming to the pep rally, right?'

'I mean...'

'Claribel!'

'I'm sorry!' Belle said, and Robin knew she was being sincere. 'I just... I'm not really feeling the whole "school spirit" thing. At least, not yet.'

Robin wanted to press the matter, wanted to remind her that she would be playing with the band, but she couldn't. Belle had only come back to school in January, she hadn't even been back a full term and was slowly catching up with things. Nobody could say she was too far behind though, but that didn't stop Belle from worrying she was. If Belle wanted to use the morning to hide out and try catching up, Robin wasn't about to make her feel guilty for it. Even if she was just ducking out because there were too many people, or whatever the reason, Robin found she couldn't blame her. If she wasn't in the band, she wouldn't be going either.

'Let me guess,' teased Robin, deciding a different tact might be in order, 'a certain metalhead offered to help catch you up, given he's been through all this a few times?'

Belle gently nudged her ribs with an elbow. Robin squealed, shifting away from her friend and bumping into someone.

'Sorry,' she said hastily, before realising that it was Mia. That didn't necessarily stop the worry, but it did mean it was paired with a flush of embarrassment. 'It was Belle's fault.'

A smirk tugged at Mia's lips before she hastily schooled her features into a more serious expression. 'Well, that's simply not good enough, Robin. You should watch where you're going, even when Tink causes problems.'

Belle groaned, but Robin's attention was on Mia. There were dark shadows beneath her eyes, and despite the ease with which she was joking with them, there seemed to be something hollow about it. The pretentious voice she was using sounded just a little too false. After everything that had happened last year, Robin wanted to check in with her, but she never felt as though it was her place. Mia and Steve had been friends for years, surely he was the person she'd open up to if there was something bothering her?

'Robin?' Mia's voice was softer, her expression collapsed in on itself ever so slightly. 'Sorry, I was just –'

'It's fine,' Robin said hastily, trying for a smile and awkwardly looking towards Belle. Her best friend was frowning at her ever so slightly, a question behind her eyes that Robin didn't want to address. It was safer having a crush on Vickie than it was Mia. At least there was the unknown with Vickie, no matter what Steve might have said; with Mia, it would be a rejection based on her rather than sexuality, and she wasn't sure she could cope with that. She wasn't even actually sure if she could accept Mia's admittance to liking girls while under the influence of Russian drugs as truth.

Then again, she'd admitted the same and it had been complete honesty.

'Sorry, I was just thinking how it's gonna be a shame you're not the play this year,' Robin said, following the other train of thought that had been gaining traction in her mind. 'You're always great and, like, I know it's going to be awesome because you're in charge, but it won't be the same. You totally should have given yourself a background role at least and –'

'Rob,' Belle said gently, placing a hand on her arm and successfully stopping the words from spilling out of Robin, 'don't you have a pep rally to get ready for?'

'Break a leg,' Mia told her, a smile growing on her face. 'And thanks.'

Robin felt the heat flooding her cheeks and hastily turned away. 'Tell Eddie I say hi,' she said to Belle before hurrying off, really hoping that she hadn't completely shattered any possible relationship – platonic or romantic – that she might have had with Mia by rambling at her.

Belle watched Robin rushing through the crowd for a moment before turning back to Mia. Since the previous year, something had shifted between the two of them. Part of Belle wondered if she wasn't imagining it, if she hadn't simply forgotten how the two of them were, but even Steve seemed to be trying to encourage them to spend more time with each other.

Somehow, the previous year, he'd gotten it out of Robin that she liked girls. Belle still didn't know how that had happened, but with how open her friend was about everything around Steve, there was no denying he knew.

'So,' Mia said, a smirk on her lips as the two of them started towards the school, 'Peter's drawn you back to the dark side. Again.'

'How do you make that sound almost sordid?'

Mia merely shrugged. 'I'm doing nothing.'

Belle hummed a dismissive reply, but didn't say anything. It had been Mia that noted Hellfire was a boys' club. Mia who had likened them to Peter Pan and the Lost Boys when she complained about them using the rehearsal room for their games. But it was also Mia who never once called them freaks, and only ever complained at them for leaving the room a mess after a campaign. Whatever teasing she did was coming from a place of affection, even if she didn't always outwardly show it at school.

'Are you all right?' Belle asked, eager to move the conversation away from the amount of time she was spending with Eddie. Mia usually looked so put together, so calm and in control, that seeing her with dark circles beneath her eyes, and hair slightly messier than normal, was concerning in itself.

Between Mia and Axel, Belle wasn't sure who to be more worried about. At least Mia's problems might be solvable; she wasn't so sure Axel's would be.

Mia heaved a deep breath. 'Luis drove.'

'Oh God,' breathed Belle, a smirk on her lips. Mia was avoiding the question, and Belle didn't like it but she wasn't going to pry too much. She just hoped Mia knew she was there if she needed to talk.

Eddie sat on the bench where he usually did his deals and wondered if perhaps he shouldn't have chosen somewhere else. But the weather had been nice and he hadn't wanted to be cooped up inside in the hellhole that was school; where everybody would be singing the praises of a bunch of jocks who spent their free time making life miserable for the people that didn't agree with their indoctrination of sport being the lifeblood of high school.

Footsteps startled his attention towards the edge of the clearing. Belle's ponytail swayed as she walked, and despite the fact her attention was on the floor as if hoping she might not trip, there was a small smile on her lips.

Eddie was up in an instant, offering her a hand which she took with a soft chuckle.

'My hero,' she said, delicately jumping over a fallen branch.

'My lady.' He offered her a sweeping bow as he gestured for the bench. 'Welcome to the land of knowledge.'

'Oh, that's where this is,' she teased, carefully stepping over the bench and settling herself where he'd been before. Eddie took his seat on the other side of the table as she started unpacking books from her bag.

'Well, it's not exactly Neverland,' he countered, grabbing one of the Chemistry books and flicking through the pages. Ms O'Donnell's was the final he was most concerned about, but Belle had been having trouble with Mr. Olivier's explanation of noble gases. Knowing Belle, she'd try to push his revision first; he didn't want to do that. The upcoming quiz for Olivier was closer, and he'd seen the way her brow furrowed every time their teacher had spoken. The almost panic behind her eyes that it was making no sense.

'But it's not exactly school,' Belle said, tucking a few flyaway strands of hair behind her ears. Her brow furrowed ever so slightly. 'Are you sure you don't want to go over the History notes instead?'

Eddie carefully put the book on the table, flattening it gently in the hopes of not damaging the spine. 'Been over them loads,' he assured her dismissively. 'I could practically teach the class.'

A smirk tugged at her lips, and Eddie leant further forwards on the table.

'I just don't want to show her up.'

'Of course not,' she said earnestly, pulling an exercise book out of her bag as the smirk settled firmly into place. 'Ten minutes. Then we'll move on to History.'

Eddie made a show of rolling his eyes, of shifting so the book was easier for the both of them to read. His knee bumped against hers, but she didn't move away. Just like she hadn't last night.

'Does that include recent history?' Eddie's voice was low, barely more than a whisper, but he'd needed to pose the question to her. Last night his thoughts had been a mess of campaign ideas, of the excitement of her maybe finally joining. Yet afterwards he'd wondered if he shouldn't have tried to talk to her again, tried to learn a little bit more about what had happened. He'd found himself once again wondering what it had been like being away from Hawkins, why she felt she needed to catch up with the rest of them when he guessed she'd been going to school when staying with family.

But then, she had been home schooled before January.

'Eddie...'

'I mean, do you think Starcourt'll come up?' he asked quickly, sensing her unease at the line of questioning.

'I don't think she's going to ask us about anything that's happened in the last five years,' Belle said, and there was something about her tone that assured Eddie he'd been right not to press too much. That assured him she still wasn't going to broach those missing couple of years.

Which was just fine, he could respect that, even if it only made him worry more.

'So, noble gasses,' Eddie said, affecting a posh voice that caused her to laugh. 'The bravest of all the periodic table elements.'