✵

After the boys had explained to Ringo they legitimately had found a young girl in the woods, dressed as such, she was once again pacing the floor, trying to decide what to do.

While she did this, the boys were busy nosily asking her about every little thing that came to their head.

"Where's your hair? Do you have cancer?" Dustin asked, causing the eldest of the group to whirl around with wide eyes.

"What the hell, Dustin! Shut up!" She scolded him, which he recoiled sheepishly at.

"Did you run away?" Lucas interjected, her eyes darting between the three boys each time one asked a question.

"We can't tell your mom, because then she'll know you were out of the house," Ringo muttered to herself, wringing her hands. "But on the other hand, she could probably get her some help."

"Are you in some kind of trouble?" Mike ignored his cousins rambling.

"Is that blood?" Lucas gasped.

"Blood?!" Ringo shouted, turning and shoving the boys aside to look at her. "Oh my god blood, what if she's a fugitive? You can't trust kids these days you know? I read in the news about this boy who killed his family. Oh my god, what if we're harbouring a murderer?!"

"Stop it!" Mike hit Ringo's bicep, "you're freaking her out!"

"But I'm freaked out!" Ringo hit him back, half as hard as he hit her.

"I bet she's deaf!" Dustin called, leaning forward to prove his theory and smack his hands. When she recoiled, he leaned back and looked to the rest of the group, "okay, not deaf."

"Okay, that's enough, all right?" Mike cut everyone off, taking over as leader of the group. "She's just scared, and cold."

Mike rushed over to the laundry basket next to the washing machine, while Ringo felt guilty for her freak out.

"Oh my god, you're probably hungry, I'll go get something!" She gushed, running off towards the stairs and taking two at a time.

"She's not a stray cat, Ringo!" Mike called to her, carrying over a handful of clothes towards the girl left on the couch. "These are clean clothes."

Ringo half-ran into the kitchen, bumping into Karen who just rounded the corner to leave. They met head on, Ringo gasping in shock.

"Sorry! I'm so sorry!" She gushed hurriedly, rounding around her and heading straight for the cupboards.

"Why are you in such a rush?" She asked, full of suspicion as the teenager pulled out a bag of chips.

"A bet with Mike!" She shot out, running back past her and hoping she bought the excuse.

When she was in the basement again, she was out of breath from how quickly she moved, handing the bag of chips towards Mike.

"I thought you were going to get real food," he huffed, Dustin taking the bag and ripping it open, grabbing a handful for himself.

"You know I can't cook, Mike," she narrowed her eyes at him in a glare, noting the absence of a certain someone in the room. "Hey, where is she?"

"In the bathroom, getting changed."

"Can't cook, can't drive, Jesus Ringo what can you do?" Dustin joked, directing her glare to him.

"I can hang you by your feet until the blood rushes to your head and you get an aneurysm and die," she smiled sweetly, tilting her head to the side. His eyes were suddenly wide with fright.

"...don't forget she hasn't got a job or a boyfriend either," Lucas chimed in, prompting Ringo to lift the cushion from the couch and whack him with it until he cried out for her to stop.

"As I was saying, there's something clearly wrong with her, she tried to get naked in front of us," Lucas' tone dropped to a serious one.

"Yes, there's something clearly wrong if a girl wanted to get naked in front of you," Ringo joked, chuckling to herself until Mike's facial expression made her stop abruptly.

"Ringo, she went like this," Dustin mimicked her pulling a shirt over his head.

"Maybe she escaped from Pennhurst," Lucas suggested, "the nuthouse in Kerley county."

"Got a lot of family there?" Dustin asked.

"Bite me. Seriously though, think about it. That would explain her shaved hair and why she's so crazy."

"Stop calling her crazy," Ringo rolled her eyes, "maybe she grew up with nudists and that was normal for her."

"And the shaved head?"

"Maybe she... had lice?"

"She's an escapee, that's the point," Lucas continued, "she's probably a psycho, like Ringo said. We should've never brought her here!"

"That I agree with," Ringo sighed, "you should have taken her to a doctor, she could have came from the hospital. Or at least to the police station."

"I think we should tell Mrs Wheeler," Dustin suggested, feeling nervous all of a sudden.

"I second that," Lucas added.

"I third that." Ringo's statement caused Mike to look at her with an agape mouth, clearly feeling somewhat betrayed.

"Ringo! We weren't supposed to be out tonight, remember?"

"Then, I'll say that I found her. I'll say that I wanted to help so I snuck out to join the search party and found her," Ringo sighed at the thought of the impending punishment.

"No, Ringo, we can't let you do that," Mike refused. "Besides, even if you did, our house would become Alcatraz for all of us. Then we'll never find Will."

"Alright, how about this," Ringo scraped her hand through her hair, thinking deeply about her next words. "We let her stay here tonight, and in the morning she'll sneak around outside and ring the doorbell. I'll answer it, and get Karen and she'll know what to do."

"I agree," Mike nodded his head, "and tomorrow night, we go back out and this time we find Will."

"And I'll help you. Make sure you don't bring back another strange kid."

After Dustin and Lucas left, Ringo and Mike helped the girl settle into the pillow fort in the basement, making sure she had a sleeping bag, water and plenty of blankets.

"Hey," Mike started suddenly, "We never asked your name."

The girl, instead of answering, held her arm out and pulled up her sleeve to reveal a number tattooed into her arm.

"What the fuck?" Ringo swore, inspecting it closely.

"Is that real?" Mike joined in, he moved to touch it, but she snatched her arm back before he could.

"Oh my god," Ringo whispered to Mike, "what if she's from a concentration camp?"

Mike reared around to look at his cousin with dead eyes, "a concentration camp, Ringo? In the 80s? In America?"

"I know it's stupid but like what if there's some kind of revamped one over here! Like she's got the hair, she's scared and frightened and clearly escaped from somewhere, and now she's got a number tattooed on her skin!"

Her theory didn't sound as ludicrous as it first did, but Mike still brushed it off. After all, this was Hawkins, Indiana. Nothing ever happened here, they were completely safe. Well, that was, before Will disappeared anyway.

After Mike and Ringo had sussed out of her that her name was in fact the number on her arm - Eleven, Ringo yawned tiredly and stood up, ready to return to her bed.

"Goodnight sweetheart," she smiled warmly at her, Eleven nodding softly as the elder girl retreated back to her room, having had enough for one night.

✵

At breakfast the next morning, as Mike tried to subtly slip two of his Eggos into his pockets for the girl in the basement, Ringo slipped over to murmur quietly.

"After breakfast, go downstairs and tell her what to do so I can be here to answer the door," Ringo whispered to him, Mike nodding eagerly.

After breakfast though however, twenty minutes had passed, and Ringo could no longer stall Mrs Wheeler before she had to go to school. Mike was nowhere to be seen, and there was no small, lost girl at the door.

"Ringo, it's time to go, come on," Karen called, as the teenager slowly trudged downstairs, expecting the door bell to be rang at any minute.

"Oh, you know I think I forgot to brush my teeth!" She called out, slapping her head dumbly before turning back to run upstairs.

"No you didn't, I was in the bathroom with you," Nancy replied, confused by her cousins strange behaviour.

"Right," Ringo responded dumbly, giving up and finally trailing back downstairs, towards the front door. "Why isn't Mike coming?"

"He wanted to ride his bike to school today," Karen responded, ushering the two girls out of the door before they were completely late, Nancy getting anxious with the approaching time.

✵

"So Justin Kercher comes up to me the other day, right," Jessica was explaining as the two walked down the hallway, Ringo nodding her head to show that she was listening. "And he asks me, 'so, where are you from?' So I said 'Falls Street', and he says 'no, where are you from?' I'm confused as heck at this point, I tell him 'Hawkins, I've always lived here', and I shit you not, Ringo, he says 'I mean where are you from, originally?'"

"Oh for god's sake," Ringo rolled her eyes at the stupidity of it.

"Right! He thinks that because my skin tone is darker that I'm clearly not from America, like, hello! Your skin tone is white you're clearly not from America either!"

Ringo laughed at her statement, agreeing completely. She was well aware of the racial undercurrent in the small town, and in the time she had known Jessica, had witnessed it take form in different ways. A lot of the time, it was plain stupidity. Ringo had wanted to fight them on her behalf every time, but Jessica had always held her back, responded with a cool, yet informative and directed insult, and walked along.

"Oh god, that's depressing," she heard a voice from the group they were about to pass by say, for a moment, Jessica and Ringo thought they were talking to them. But upon turning, she saw that it was Steve Harrington and his Breakfast Club-esque group.

She followed their eye line, and noticed it was directed at Jonathan Byers, who was pinning up posters displaying Will's face. Ringo's heart broke at the sight, she hadn't seen the teenager since the day before Will had disappeared.

"Should we say something?" She heard Nancy's sweet voice suggest.

"I don't think he speaks," Carol jibed.

"How much do you want to bet he killed him?" Tommy sneered, Ringo and Jessica shared a look, a look that showed they were ready to fight.

"Shut up," Steve cut them off, hitting his arm.

Without further pause, Ringo shoved through the two boys roughly, able to push Tommy against the wall from the shove and Steve sideways as they had been taken off guard.

"Wow, Tommy," she turned around with narrowed eyes. "Might wanna lay off the steroids, shoulders are getting a bit big. Some of us are trying to walk here."

"This bitch again?" Carol joined in, leaning off the wall and giving her a once over, eyes filled with judgement as they perpetually did.

"Yeah, this bitch, got a problem, toots?" Jessica replied and stepped up, coming to Ringo's side and her aid. They stood aside each other, staring Carol down. Both of them were about a head taller than the small ginger, and she knew it. Almost instantly, she backed down with a roll of her eyes and moved to be by her boyfriend.

"We're going to go offer to help Jonathan, because we aren't cliché assholes who think our looks are going to get us anywhere further in life than peaking in high school," Ringo eyed them all, daring one of them to speak back to her. "Nancy, are you coming?"

Nancy stuttered, looking back and forth between her cousin and the group she had so desperately wanted to be friends with since the start of her high school experience. Each person she looked at was seething in anger - Jessica and Ringo out of empathy and Carol, Tommy and Steve out of insult.

"I-I don't want to crowd him, you two go ahead, I'll talk to him later," Nancy had settled on, receiving a disappointed look from her cousin.

"Wow, I guess Mike was right," she scoffed. "He really is changing you."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Steve cut in, stepping forward.

Ringo ignored him, turning around and marching towards Jonathan. Jessica looked around at the faces of the remaining group with a small smile, completely proud of her best friend, before she turned to join her.

Jessica hung back a little, she had never spoken to Jonathan in her life and didn't want to intrude.

"Hey," Ringo greeted with a soft voice, completely contradicting her stance from minutes ago towards the other group.

Jonathan looked up as he stuck a thumbtack through the hand-made posters of Will, forcing a smile that was completely overshadowed by his sad eyes.

"Hey," he replied back, voice low.

"I don't really know what to say at a time like this, but I want you to know that if you need anything at all," she reached out and squeezed his arm gently for reassurance, "I have hiking boots and a flashlight, if you need help looking. And a group of really upset pre-teens who would be more than happy to help find their friend."

"Thanks, Ringo," he nodded his head, eyes falling to the floor before his gaze lifted again, focusing on something behind her. She followed his eyes to see that he was staring towards Nancy, who stood looking extremely guilty, next to the rest of the group who openly watched him like a hawk.

"Nancy would have come over too," Ringo tried to lie for her cousin, even though she hated her at that moment. "She just didn't want to seem intrusive or like she was prying."

"She wouldn't have been, but it's okay," he replied, embarrassed that he had been caught looking. The bell rang suddenly, catching them both off guard and signalling the end of the conversation.

"Call the house if you need to talk or need anything, okay?" She urged, starting to walk backwards. He settled for a nod of his head, waving goodbye and looking back to the poster once more.

While everyone had began to filter out of the hallway, Nancy had remained, ignoring the encouragements of her boyfriend to move along to class. As Ringo walked past, she shook her head in disappointment at her.

Nancy waited for a moment, fiddling fearfully with her bag straps before sighing and moving forward, ready to speak to Jonathan now that the hallway was empty and she was alone. But just as she moved, he had turned and eagerly rushed out of the school exit, leaving her in the hallway completely alone.

✵

Dinner had been an awkward debacle, with Nancy desperate to talk to Ringo but being completely avoided, and Ringo desperate to talk to Mike, but being completely avoided.

She was wedged in between Lucas and Dustin at the dinner table, the room too quiet for her to ask what happened the girl in the basement.

"So," Nancy started, Ringo rolled her eyes already, knowing this would be yet another lie so she could sneak out with Steve. "There's this special assembly thing tonight for Will at the school field. Barb's driving."

"Why am I only hearing about this now?" Karen asked suspiciously.

"I thought you knew!"

"I told you I don't want you going out after dark until Will is found-"

"I know, I know, but it'd be super weird if I'm not there," Nancy sweet talked. Ringo shook her head in disgust once again, she couldn't believe that her cousin would use Will's disappearance to her advantage.

"Wow," she couldn't help herself but say, catching the attention of all at the table. Nancy looked at her with desperate eyes, silently pleading with her not to tell.

"What, Ringo?" Karen turned to her.

"This is just such great meatloaf!" She played off, dangling a piece on her fork into the air with a grin on her face.

"Just be back by ten, okay?" She sighed, giving in to the whims of her eldest daughter, Nancy nodding eagerly. "Take Ringo and the boys too."

"No!" All four of them - Mike, Ringo, Lucas and Dustin rang out at the exact same time.

"Don't you think you should be there? For Will?" She asked in confusion, "And Ringo, do you have a problem with Barb? You never want to hang out with Nancy when she's there."

Ringo sighed, wracking her brains for an excuse when all of a sudden, Mike had choked on his milk, spitting a gulp of it back into the glass. At the sound of a creak behind them, Nancy, Karen and Ringo turned to look, but were distracted by the sound of Dustin banging his fists on the table.

"Sorry, spasm," he explained.

After dinner, while drying the dishes, Ringo had finally rounded Mike into the corner to ask about Eleven.

"What the hell, Mike? What happened this morning? I checked the basement earlier and she's gone!" She whisper-shouted at him, while he looked around anxiously for his listening mother or sister.

"Calm down! I took the day off and took her to the police station. Turns out... she lives in an orphanage," he lied through his teeth, hating himself for it. He knew that Ringo wanted to help, but the truth was, as immature as she could be - she was still mature enough to try to get help for Eleven, which is exactly what she didn't want or need.

Ringo would try to take her to a hospital or to the police, and then they'd never see her again.

"Oh," she murmured, sadly, wishing she could have said goodbye, "well I hope she's okay."

After another period of avoiding Nancy completely, just like she had cornered Mike, her cousin cornered her in their bedroom.

"Can you stop avoiding me, Ringo?!" Nancy ranted, shutting the door behind her to stop her mother from hearing.

"Jesus Christ, you're so desperate for attention that you actually give a shit if I talk to you or not," Ringo threw her hands up in the air in frustration, Nancy's mouth falling in offence.

"That is not fair! I wanted to talk to Jonathan, but I didn't know what to say to him!"

"Oh, bullshit! You and I both know you didn't because you're cool now, and didn't want your bitch friends and asshole boyfriend to see you talking to someone they deem unimportant!"

"Can you get over your hatred of Steve for five seconds? He's not like Tommy and Carol, if you weren't so self obsessed you'd see that!" Nancy was beginning to shout back now, the angriest the two had ever been at each other.

"If he's friends with them, he's just as bad as them, kiddo! Self obsessed? I'm the only one in that asshole school who actually cares about people other than myself!" Nancy rolled her eyes at this response, turning away and balling her hands into fists so she could calm down.

The room was silent for a few minutes, until Nancy had turned around and let out a soft sigh.

"I'm sorry, okay? The truth is, I was too scared to approach Jonathan," she revealed, sitting down on the cot, next to Ringo. "I really like Steve, I don't want him to leave me."