"You can't really blame me for fainting, I mean that thing almost did kill me. Oh, shove off!" Frankie pushed the two thirteen year olds out of her way and sped up ignoring the group. Sulking a few feet away, Frankie felt her cheeks burn. She was embarrassed. Not only did she faint in probably the worst case scenario ever, but, she fainted and landed on top a group of kids four years younger than her. Luckily, she did land on them and not the hard metal of the bottom of the bus, but she would have liked to have not fainted at all in the first place. It was all in all the most embarrassed she's ever felt in her life, even more embarrassed than the time she was learning how to drive and ran over Dustin's bicycle. Thankfully, the then ten year old jumped off the two wheeler before she pulverized the shiny metal. It was a horrific experience and to be quite honest, she never thought she would experience a worse moment. She was wrong.

Stopping as the three children of the group got into a fight, Frankie rolled her eyes as another pointless argument occurred. Those monsters could be back any second, and these kids were arguing about some party. She would never understand Dustin and his friends. Folding her arms, she was about to chew the group out, when Steve started shouting.

"Guys!" Turning to where Steve began running, Frankie's mind began to hurt trying to figure out why all the boys were running towards the sound in the distance. It sounded like groans, like a ghost was in the woods, and she just knew it was the monster dogs causing more trouble. Watching the boys run farther into the woods, she looked up silently begging to not get killed before running after them, Max following.

Running up to a clearing high above more of the forest, the brunette sucked in a large breath trying to maintain her breathing. No one else was troubled by the run which went to show how unfit she was. Grabbing a bottle of water from her backpack, she took down a huge gulp before offering some to the rest of the group. They ignored her so she just threw it back into her bag, waiting for somebody to decide what to do next.

"It's the lab." Lucas whispered looking into his binoculars.

"They were going back home." Narrowing her eyes at the younger boy, Frankie felt that she was missing something.

"Does anybody else feel like they're missing something?" She asked glaring at the group in front of her. Tilting her head to the side, she waited patiently for someone to explain what the heck was going on. Living in Hawkins her entire life, Frankie was used to the guarded up laboratory that was built after World War II. Assuming that the lab was created to control the energy of the surrounding area all her life, she felt that that wasn't the case as she gazed into Dustin's guilty eyes.

"Tell me what the fuck is going on before I drag you back to your house Dustin Elizabeth Henderson!" She forced out menacingly taking powerful steps forward.

"My middle names not Elizabeth."

"Besides the point!"

Chest to chest, the older girl narrowed her eyes, not moving an inch. Dustin who felt his bladder about to explode from how scared he was, tried to back up only to have Frankie continue to tower over him. Caving into her threatening words, he tried to look anywhere except her eyes which were lit with fire.

"Okay, so maybe last year we discovered that the lab wasn't really part of the government, but was creating super weapon children and made a tear in our dimension and let lose a demogorgin which kidnapped Will." He rushed out backing up as the brunette's eyes widened. Blinking a few times, she squeezed her eyes shut trying to comprehend what her neighbor just said to her.

"So," She took a deep breath, "what you're saying is that basically I'm running around the woods trying not to get killed because this laboratory ripped a hole in our dimension?"

"Well more like ripped a tear." Looking to Steve and seeing him nod confirming her fears, her gaze landed on the faraway lab. As she tried to control her breathing, Frankie just looked at each member of the group.

"Just forget I asked."

-

The walk to the lab was pretty silent. After the whole explanation of what happened last year, everyone kept to themselves. Each member of the group felt kind of uncomfortable about Frankie's little outburst. They were mostly guilty, dragging the unknown girl into the mess. Even Max agreed to all the trouble and danger before being told the whole story of what happened last year while Frankie was just thrusted into it with no explanation.

Frankie felt bad for ignoring everyone and for freaking out Dustin. She was scared and felt betrayed. She had thought that everyone was just going along trusting each other trying to help one another out. But, three fourths of the group had experienced what happened while the other one was told what happened. She sort of felt that the group didn't trust her. All those days of trying to figure out what went wrong with Dustin and her's relationship, only to find out that Dustin just didn't trust her enough to confide in her. Well it hurt. And yeah, the others didn't know her as well as Dustin, but she seriously spent the last two days of her life on this rollercoaster of an adventure and no one could tell her what was really going on?

Moping about a yard or two behind the group, Frankie hoped they were getting close to the lab. She wasn't sure why they were walking to the place where the monsters were, but she'd do anything to just sit down, her feet were killing her. Trying her best not to trip on some branches, her brows furrowed at the voice calling through the trees. Emerging from the forest, Frankie raised her brow at the pair that met them.

"Steve?!" They asked in unison completely gobsmacked at the fluffy haired teen leading a group of middle schoolers and one straggler through the forest.

"Nancy"

"Jonathan"

"What are you doing here?" Nancy asked as the two groups walked towards each other. Steve asked the same question, and Frankie blanked out. Eyes drifting to the blacked out lab, they ran across the expanse and landed on the car just outside the gate. Saying a quick thank you, she was relieved to know that she didn't have to walk anymore. Knowing they all couldn't fit she figured being sat on was better than walking all the miles she did today.

Hearing the loud growls from the otherwise dormant building, everyone turned to the lab in fear. It seemed as if Mike, Will, Chief Hopper, and Mrs Byers were all in the building. Rubbing her temples as the group started once again arguing and talking loudly, Frankie failed to notice the power go back up in the building.

"The power's back." Nancy said, running towards the gate entrance with the rest of the group on her tail. Jonathan ran to the guard post pressing the gate button but nothing happened. Dustin, who believed he could do a better job at pressing the button, squeezed into the small space arguing with Jonathan.

"It's just a button Dusty." Frankie said calmly, leaning against the car. Laying down on the hood, the stars seemed to be a lot brighter that night. Connecting them and making shapes, the girl was trying to fill her head with anything other than Chief Hopper, Mrs Byers, and Dustin's friends being ripped to death by the monsters. Morbid, she knew, which is why she concentrated so hard on finding different constellations.

"Son of a bitch!" Dustin yelled out ruining Frankie's concentration. Throwing herself off of the car, she walked to the guard post hip checking her neighbor out of the way.

"Watch and learn." She said, raising an eyebrow smugly at her neighbor before leaning dramatically down to press the red button (which she knew wasn't going to work). Dustin was stressed out and making him laugh was the only way she knew how to get him out of his head. Well, that and playing his little digger game at the arcade. Going back to the task at hand, she cracked her knuckles for show and stretched out her finger. Pressing the small red button, Frankie made a noise of surprise as the gate began to open.

"Oh my god, I did it!" She cheered turning to a shocked Dustin. Running out of the post, the three of them waited for the gate to open to continue their next move. Of course they weren't sure if the Chief and everyone else were actually in the building, but it seemed to be the only plausible place for them to be.

"Okay so me and Jonathan will go inside and see if they're there, you guys wait out here. Keep a look out, got it?" Nancy said quickly before jumping into the passenger seat of Jonathan's car. Before anyone could retaliate, they sped off almost hitting the kids in the process.

"So... how'd you do that thing with the gate?" Steve asked curiously a couple minutes after the pair sped off. Glancing up from her spot on the floor, she met his nonchalant gaze. She stood up before leaning her shoulder against the post. Looking kind of nervous, she glanced back at the kids seeing them minding their own business before turning back and leaning in close to Steve.

"If I tell you, do you promise to keep it a secret?" She whispered. Steve just nodded quickly, entranced with the way she was leaning in closer. He couldn't stop staring at the girl in front of him. Even though her cheeks were red with exhaustion and there were a few twigs in her hair, he had never seen someone look that beautiful. Snapping himself out of it, he listened to the words come through her lips.

"I- I'm Nine." She whispered completely serious. Hearing the boy snort and seeing his unconvinced face, her own face crumbled. "You don't believe me?" She asked, tears starting to form in her eyes. Her reaction made him back pedal and he immediately shook his head.

"No no no no, I believe you." He said comfortingly putting his hands on her shoulders. Giving her a smile, he continued. "Just, prove it."

Making sure the others were busy with something else, the brunette nervously began to lift up the sleeve of her shirt. Steve, transfixed on the skin being shown, scoffed.

"Really Frankie?" He asked, frowning. Seeing the girl's cheeks crunch and her eyes close tightly from laughter, he felt a warmness in his chest. Ignoring the writing on her wrist saying 'gotcha', he focused on the sound of her laugh and the way her shoulders hunched in glee.

"Sorry." She said between her laughs. She wasn't sorry.

Hearing the honking from inside the gate, the teens along with the kids peered inside noticing two racing cars coming full speed ahead at them. Running out of the way before they could get run over, the groups hearts were pounding. A Hawkins police truck came to an abrupt stop in front of them. Chief Hopper who looked worse for wear looked at the group before him.

"Let's go!" He yelled, completely out of breath. They didn't waste a second, everyone piling into the truck. Frankie who was at the end pushed the kids inside trying to make space for herself in the back. They jumped in quickly, and before she could follow, Steve grabbed her and lifted her into the front with him. Blushing at his hands on her, she felt like she was going to explode with half of her body on top of his as Chief Hopper raced out of the area.

"Where are we going?" She cried out as the car went above eighty miles per hour. She was going to be sick at the way Hopper was driving. She didn't even have a seatbelt on, only being held down by Steve's arm around her middle.

"Who's this?" The Chief asked Steve looking towards the brunette girl quickly before going back to the road.

"This is Frankie, she's-" Dustin yelled out from the back gaining everyone's attention. Cutting him off, she said defeatedly.

"I'm the babysitter."

-

an: sorry is all I can say but I made this one longer than usual and I hope you like all the jokes and funny lines I put in here lol anyways thank you guys for getting this story to reach 13k thats so crazy! also didn't really edit just skimmed so if there's mistakes ignore lol