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EL AND MAX STOPPED LAUGHING WHEN THE HEARD A CAR APPROACH THE CABIN. Hopper was back after his solo dinner. Max and El had stayed at the Cabin together, El presuming Seb was going to stay around at Dustin's house for the night. He wouldn't normally come back this late. Hopper shut the front door behind him, sighing. He couldn't believe he had just been stood up. How embarrassing. "Sebastian?" The man slurred, drinking all of the wine he had ordered for him and Joyce out of nervousness. When Seb didn't answer, Hopper sighed again, hearing pop music coming from El's room. "Hey!" Hopper's speech was elongated more than usual, given his tipsiness. "Hey!" Hopper yelled louder, believing that Mike had snuck over when he wasn't there.

"When I say three inches, three-" Hopper opened El's door quite roughly, stopping once he saw Max and El laying on the floor, magazines in hand. "Do you knock? Jeez!" Max let out, frightened of the sudden intrusion. "Yeah! Jeez!" El added on, Hopper in a daze. Why was Max here? She was the last person he would've expected to meet eyes with today. "Oh, hey. I'm sorry." Hopper let out, still in shock himself. "I thought that, uh-" "Mike's not here." Max assured, Hopper nodding slowly. "Max wanted to have... a sleepover. Is that... okay?" El asked wearily, Hopper still in a shock glee that Mike wasn't here. "Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Your parents know about it?" Hopper's tone was a lot more gentle, Max nodding. "Yup." She answered, El confused. She was shocked as she's never seen Hopper in this state.

Drunk.

"Uh, yeah. It's cool." Hopper shrugged as he slurred, Max sighing. "That's really cool..." Hopper trailed off, the three in an awkward silence until Max spoke up. "Did you need something?" She asked, Hopper nodding slowly. "Where's your brother?" Hopper asked, El and Max looking to one another before shrugging towards Hopper. "I haven't seen him today." Max spoke, El nodding. "I only saw him this morning." She let out quietly, Hopper nodding. "I'm just gonna make a quick call-" A certain knock played at the door. "There he is." Max spoke, Hopper nodding and closing the door. Max watched as El got up quickly, leaning her head against the side of the door. "He's acting weird." El whispered, Max sighing. "He's drunk. It's fine." Max assured, hearing muffled conversation. "Where have you been all day?" Hopper asked Seb, the boy stopping in his tracks.

Why was Hopper talking like that?

"Why are you talking like that?" Seb asked, Hopper confused. "Talking like what?" He asked back, Seb very confused. "Talking like this?" Seb imitated the slur Hopper had, him trying to take all of the new information in. El and Max are having a sleepover. Not El and Mike. El and Max. "I'm going to bed." Seb spoke, Hopper frozen as he watched Seb click his fingers, his books sorting themselves back into the bookshelf as he shut his door. El leant away from the door, sitting back with Max as Hopper smiled, not bothered by what just happened.

El and Max were having a sleepover!

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THE BOYS HAD HAD A SLEEPOVER LIKE THE GIRLS DID, MINUS DUSTIN AND SEBASTIAN. "Yes!" Will let out as medieval music played, Mike and Lucas springing awake. "What are you doing?" Lucas asked as Mike rubbed his head. Will was dressed up in a purple wizard robe and a pointy hat to add. "Yeah, Will, can you turn down the music?" Mike asked, Will gripping his handmade staff. "Please address me by my full name." He ordered, staying in character. "What?-" "My full name!" Will interrupted Mike, slamming his staff on the ground. "Oh, my God. Okay, Will the Wise, can you please turn down the music?" Mike asked, Lucas sort of in shock. "That is not music. That... is the sound of destiny! I have seen into the future, and I've seen that today is a new day, a day... free of girls!" Will let out happily.

Will the Wise was way too excited for today. He was the only happy boy about El dumping Mike. Seb didn't know yet, making Will the only happy one. He had been waiting all summer, wanting to play D&D with his friends like they used too. But, Mike and Lucas were too caught up with their girlfriends to bother to pay attention to Will, making his summer sort of rubbish. "What is happening right now?" Lucas asked, still in a daze. "Will, come on." Mike whined, Will ignoring them as he bent down to the village he had made up himself. "A tribe of villagers are under threat from an evil force from the swamps of Kuzatan." He let out in his character's voice, Mike not interested. "Will, it's so early." He whined again, Will standing up straight. "Is it? Is it 'early', Michael?" Will said Mike's full name, him and Lucas looking to one another.

"Tell that to the villagers crying for your help, the children are so frightened," Will moved closer to his two friends, "they cannot sleep. Are you truly going to let them perish?" Will asked, trying to guilt trip Mike. This only made the boy stare at him oddly. "Or are you going to come to their rescue and become the heroes you were always meant to be?" Will asked, Lucas slowly raising a hand.

"Can I at least take a shower first?"

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SEBASTIAN WAS BRUSHING HIS TEETH WHEN HOPPER WAS USING THE SHOWER NEXT TO HIM. There was a curtain separating them so it wasn't weird. "We have water." Seb reminded, hearing Hopper drink the shower water for the millionth time. "What?" He asked, shaking his head of wet hair. "We have drinking water. Stop drinking shower water." Seb spoke, spitting his toothpaste out. "Yeah, I know." Hopper let out, overcoming from a big hangover as he drank more last night after the kids went to bed. Another bottle of wine, to be exact. "Good. I'll pour you a glass and then I'm going to see Dustin again." Seb spoke, Hopper nodding. "Whatever, be back earlier than last night." Hopper spoke, sighing as a headache pierced his mind, hearing Seb leave the room.

"El's gone to Max's for a sleepover!" Seb called, Hopper confused. "She left a note." Seb added on, Hopper humming. "Hopper!" A knock sounded, Hopper turning the shower off quickly. It was Joyce. Seb stared at the door terrified. She scared him. Pouring a glass of water, Seb rushed to the door so Joyce didn't leave. "Sebastian, hey!" Joyce let out, Seb grunting once she hugged him. Extra tight, as always. "Hi." Seb let out, Joyce humming. "Good morning." Joyce spoke with a bright smile, Seb doing the same. "Good morning." He spoke, Joyce watching him round the couch to grab his backpack, filled with torches and some food. He needed lunch and he didn't like the ice cream they had at Scoops Ahoy. "Where is-" Joyce stopped once she saw Hopper, a towel wrapped around him. "Oh, look who it is!" Hopper didn't sound happy, Seb standing in silence his bag was already put on.

"We need to talk." Joyce let out, Seb nodding. "That's me leaving." He let out, Hopper patting his back as he shut the door behind the boy. Walking down the long road to his meeting place with Dustin, Seb hummed the song from the tape, quite liking it.

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ROBIN TOOK HER HEADPHONES OFF AFTER LISTENING TO THE TAPE AND TURNED AROUND. A girl had rung the bell, Lucas' younger sister. Erica Sinclair smiled smugly, Robin groaning. The young girl had always taken advantage of the fact that Scoops Ahoy has free sampling so she goes there with her little 'gang' of friends to try all of the flavours. Again. Robin faced Erica, her still pressing the customer bell. Two of her friends gave Robin passive aggressive smiles as her other friend stared wide eyed into the ice cream containers. "I'd like to try the peanut butter chocolate swirl, please." Erica picked her favourite ice cream. "No. No more samples today." Robin spoke politely but still held a smirk as Erica's smile dropped. The friend who had been ogling at the ice cream stared at Robin through the glass as if the girl had murdered her entire family.

"Why not?" Erica shot back, Robin answering as if she were dumb. "Because you're abusing our company policy." She leant her hands back on the counter behind her. "Where's the sailor man?" Erica asked, referring to Steve. "Sorry, he can't help you. He's busy." Robin grinned, Erica outraged. "Busy with what?" She raised her voice, Robin turning around again to face them.

"Spycraft."

"You see anything?" Dustin asked Steve, Seb sat cross legged on the other side of the older teen. The three were in the mall, crouched behind a bush sharing one pair of binoculars as they tried to look for anyone suspicious. "I guess I don't totally know what I'm looking for." Steve admitted, scanning over everyone. "Evil Russians." Dustin spoke as if Steve was stupid, the boy shrugging. "Yeah, exactly. I don't know what an evil Russian looks like." Steve let out, Seb nodding as he looked up. "Tall, blond, not smiling." Dustin just answered Steve's 'question', him nodding. "Also, look for earpieces, camo, duffel bags, that sort of thing." Dustin continued as Seb looked around the mall. You don't really need the binoculars to look. "Oh, you've gotta be kidding me." Steve spoke, both Dustin and Seb looking to him.

"What?" Dustin asked, Seb's eyes wide. Had Steve seen something bad- "Anna Jacobi's talking with that meathead Mark Lewinsky." Steve let out, Dustin sighing. "If you're not gonna focus, gimme the binoculars." He spoke, Seb confused. They were just talking. What's so bad about that? "Aw, Jesus Christ, whatever happened to standards? I mean, Lewinsky never even came off the bench." Steve ignored Dustin, Seb intrigued. "Lewinsky sat on a bench forever?" He asked, Steve nodding. "Yes!-" "Dude, you're literally the worst spy in history, you know that?" Dustin spoke up, stealing the binoculars as Seb looked around for a blonde person with a bag. "I don't get why you're looking at girls. You have the perfect one in front of you." Dustin spoke, Seb rolling his eyes. He doesn't want to talk about girls again, especially Robin.

There was nothing wrong with the girl, just that they were looking for evil Russians right now and trying to see if there was going to be an attack so Seb needed to focus. Dustin said 'Robin' repeatedly on Steve's request not to. In turn, Steve kept repeating 'no'. It was almost comical. "...she's still in school. And she's weird. She did band. That's a bad look." Steve spoke, Seb watching a man with blond hair. His hair seemed to defy gravity as it was bouncing with each step he took, Seb seeing a big bag. Not knowing what a 'duffel bag' was, he kept quiet but still kept his eyes on the man. "...you're technically an adult, don't you think it's time you move on from primitive constructs such as popularity?" Dustin spoke somewhat passive aggressively, Steve not impressed. "Oh, 'primitive constructs'?" "Yeah-" "That some stupid shit you learned at Camp... Know Nothing?"

Steve guessed the camp's name, Seb sighing. "It was 'Camp Know Where'." He let out, Dustin giving Steve a sarcastic smile. "And no, it's shit I learned from life." Dustin let out, out, Steve scoffing. "Instead of dating someone you think's gonna make you look cooler, why not date someone you actually enjoy being around?" Dustin spoke, Seb watching as the blond man went up the escalator. "Like me and Suzie." Dustin gave an example, Steve nodding sarcastically. "Oh, Suzie. Yeah, you mean 'hotter than Phoebe Cates.' Yeah, that Suzie." Steve reminded Dustin of his own words, the teen staring at Steve waiting for another insult. "And, uh, let's think about how exactly did you score that beautiful girlfriend? Oh yeah, with my advice." Seb just rolled his eyes, the blond man stopping for a moment to rearrange his bag,

Seb's eyes widening.

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[2044 words!]

Hope you enjoyed!!

Byeee!