Danielle Summers, the queen of Hawkins High gets everything she's ever desired but when her boyfriend breaks up with her and starts dating someone new, her life turns upside down. Especially, when a creature starts roaming around Hawkins.
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I watch as Lucas, Dustin and Andy struggle to open the kiddie pool Joyce has brought with her for Eleven in the middle of Hawkins Middle School gymnasium.
"It's upside down." I shout from the bleachers as they roll out the pool, trying to open it.
"Thanks, Sherlock." Lucas rolls his eyes and they flip the pool the other way around so it was now facing the right side up.
"Of course. That's what I'm here for." I give them a fake smile as they all shake their head and go back to fixing, well, struggle to fix the pool.
"Son of a bitch." Dustin groans as he kicks the empty pool that just simply won't sit up right.
"Can you help us instead of sitting on your fat ass?" Andy exclaims, growing annoyed by the second, the longer him and the boys try to fix the pool without my help.
"You think my ass is fat?" I ask him and stand up from my spot on the bleachers. I turn around to try and get a look at my ass and Dustin immediately covers his eyes whilst Lucas looks anywhere but my direction.
"I hate you." Andy growls and I laugh.
"You're so dramatic." I hop down the steps of the bleachers and walk over to where the pool flops. My heels being the only noise that echoes through the gym.
The boys and I begin to pull the pool apart. We each hold different sides of the plastic.
"Spread out," I order when I notice Andy walking closer to Lucas. Andy freezes like he got caught and then quickly turns the other way around to move away from Lucas. "Perfect!"
The pool is officially now in its perfect circular shape. Just in time, because Nancy and Mike walk in with two set of hoses. They plug one of the hose to a tap that releases cold water in the locker rooms. With the other hose connected to hot water. They throw the rest of the hose into the pool.
"Ready!" Mike shouts as loud as he can to Nancy who is on the other side of the gymnasium. Water squirts out from both end of the hose. We watch as hot and cold water fall out, and land into the pool.
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After 35 minutes of literally just waiting for the pool to fill up, Lucas holds the thermometer into the pool once it's reached an appropriate level. Apparently, the water has to be the perfect condition of temperature for Eleven's bath.
"Colder!" Lucas shouts to Nancy. The hose connected to the cold water releases whilst the hot water stops. Lucas quickly looks at the thermostat that he holds, keeping it dipped in the pool. "Warmer!" Nancy listens to the boy and now the cold water stops and hot water comes out. Once again, Lucas takes a peek at the temperature, "right there!"
The water turns off as Hopper and Jonathan quickly move to use knives to rip open the de-icing salt bags. They first start to pour in 10 bags of salt in the pool.
"Eggs." Dustin orders and Jenny comes rushing from the kitchen of the middle school to Dustin's side. She hands him one carton of eggs. Dustin opens the carton up and grabs one egg. He gently sets the egg into the water but it immediately sinks to the bottom of the pool.
The eggs are supposed to test if the water is floatable for Eleven. These little shitty kids are too smart, it's not fair.
We all let out a groan of disappointment. Hopper and Jonathan grab another set of bags of salt. They rip it open and pour 4 more bags into the pool. Once they were done, Dustin grabs another egg to do another float test.
It sinks.
This sucks.
They rip open more bags, Dustin tells them to stop once they've only cut 3 bags. No one argues with him as they pour in the two bags. Dustin gently sets the egg into the water and it floats for a second before it sinks again.
Okay, not too bad. We're getting closer.
5 more bags are cut and poured inside. Dustin grabs the last egg from the carton. We all watch by the sidelines as he carefully sets the egg into the water. We watch as the egg floats instead of failing like we watched it do so many other times.
Andy cleans up the eggs where some broke inside the pool of water. He carefully makes sure not to make a mess of the eggs so it doesn't cause some disturbance to the tank.
Mike switches his radio on and places it on a chair we grabbed from the classrooms. Beside him, Eleven takes off her white socks she had on. She throws them on the chair next to her and takes the watch she has on her left wrist off. Mike takes the watch off of her and places it on his own wrist.
Joyce hands Eleven the goggles she and Jenny stole from the science lab. The two duct tape the lens that allowed total darkness for Eleven. The small girl puts the goggles on as Joyce helps her into the pool.
Eleven lays down on the water as she opens her arms up. Her pink dress now soaked as she floats in the water. The second she was situated into the pool, the lights in the gym flitter on and off.
I look beside me where Nancy sits beside me. She looks over at me and then up to lights that are now completely switched off. No one says a thing as we look at the floating girl.
It's silent for a couple minutes but then Eleven speaks.
"Barbara?"
We all turn to look at Nancy who stares intently at the young girl. I look at Nancy who's eyes are flashed with worry. I notice her hand pinching lightly at her thighs. I go to grab her hand and give it a small squeeze. She squeezes back but doesn't take her eyes off of Eleven.
From the pool, we hear her breathing get faster. Is she afraid of something or is this how it's supposed to be? Eleven's breathing gets heavier by the second.
"What's going on?" Nancy asks her brother who is sat on the other side of her.
"I don't know..." he answers sincerely.
"Is Barb okay?" Nancy questions the girl in the pool, and grabs a tighter hold of my hand. "Is she okay?"
Eleven continues to float in the water as she speaks, "Gone. Gone. Gone. Gone. Gone!"
I look at Nancy who uses her spare hand to cover her mouth. Her face pulled with a sorrow look and I can't help but feel bad for her. Joyce goes to comfort Eleven who continues to repeat the word, gone.
"It's okay. Hey, it's okay. It's okay, we're right here. We're right here, honey. It's okay. I got you. Don't be afraid. I'm right here with you. It's okay, you're safe." Joyce rubs the soaked kid's shoulder for comfort and it helps because Eleven stops repeating her words and her breathing is now calm.
