While he walked down the stairs and was headed towards the kitchen to get himself some breakfast, Matthew could hear the sound of the television repeatedly changing channels.

And due to his own assumption that his father or at least Mike was home for whatever reason either of them would have, he didn't think much of it and only continued to walk into the kitchen, which left him unaware of the fact that a young girl with a shaved head was staring at him with her head tilted to the side.

After grabbing some bread and eggs out of the fridge and getting some waffles out of the freezer and making himself some breakfast with what little he'd seen his own mother do for the past fifteen years of his life, Matthew grabbed his plate of scrambled eggs, waffles and his toast and put one of the toasts in his mouth.

As he started to walk out of the kitchen with the plate in his hand and went to take a bite out of his toast, he suddenly stopped when he found himself staring at a looking girl that seemed to have a shaved head and was currently staring at him.

For several seconds, everything was silent as the two of them stared at each other.

It wasn't until after he chewed and swallowed the bite of the toast that was in his mouth that he simply blinked before he asked, "Hey, do you want some breakfast since you're here?" When she didn't respond, he asked her, "Are you one of Mike's friends or something?"

It was only when he said Mike's name that she nodded her head and said to him, "Yes. Mike. Friend."

While choosing to ignore the fact that she was speaking rather weirdly for a girl her age, he said with a shrug of his shoulders, "Okay. Well, come on, then. I'll see if there's something in here that I could get for you to eat." When she only stared at him with furrowed eyebrows, he said to her, "Don't get me wrong, girl with shaved head, I would normally be wondering why the hell you're not at school with Mike and how you got into the house without me or anyone noticing really, but I'm bored and still suspended from school. So, what better way to pass the time than to get to know one of Mike's friends that has a shaved head for whatever reason?"

As he nodded his head towards the kitchen, he said, "Now, c'mon. It's time for you to have something to eat in the meantime."

While he walked back into the kitchen with the plate in hand, the girl silently stared after him and was hesitant to walk after him, only to stop when he peeked his head out of the kitchen and asked her, "Are you coming or not?"

With a nod of her head, she said to him, "Yes."

His eyebrows merely furrowed at her response before he shrugged to himself and went back to looking through the fridge for something that she could eat.

As he went to put a plate full of bacon, eggs, waffles and toast in front of the girl, Matthew said to her, "Hopefully this'll taste okay." While the girl stared up at him, he said, "I don't really know for sure. I only know how to cook stuff from the little bit I've seen my mom do over the years. So would you, uh, do me a favor and tell me if they taste okay?"

The girl only stared up at him before she started to eat the food that he cooked for her.

And while she ate the food, Matthew only stared down at the girl as he wondered just why the hell his little brother was friends with a girl that had a shaved head and where she even came from.

Because the last time he checked, the only friends Mike had were Dustin Henderson, Lucas Sinclair and Will Byers.

He'd never even see this girl with Mike before.

With a shake of his head, he sighed to himself before he went to walk back out of the kitchen, only to stop when the girl had suddenly grabbed him by his arm.

With furrowed eyebrows, Matthew looked between the girl's hand and the girl herself before he told her, "Hey, I'm not leaving to tell anyone you're here, if that's what you're thinking. I'm just going to get one of my notebooks from my room. That's all."

With a tilt of her head, she asked him, "Your room?"

With a nod of his head, he said to her, "Yeah, my room. You know, the place where I sleep at night?" When she only stared up at him, he said with a sigh, "Come on. You can hang out in my room, if you want. I've got some drawings to work on, anyway.""

She asked him, "Drawings?"

With yet another nod of his head, he said to her, "Yeah, drawings. You'll love 'em."

Then he carefully removed her hand from his arm and quickly walked out of the kitchen and up the stairs as he muttered to himself, "Jesus Christ. Where the hell did Mike even find this girl?"

While the girl looked around the inside of his room and at all of the metal posters he had hanging on the walls of his room, Matthew was working on yet another one of his drawings.

This time, though, he was drawing the girl so that he could ask Mike about her later.

And while he did that, the girl started to look through his things.

From what Mike had told her, Matthew wasn't a nice person.

This alone confused the girl, since Matthew had been nothing but nice to her since he saw her downstairs.

Then she happened to come across one of his notebooks that was filled to the brim with his drawings.

She opened the one notebook she grabbed and looked at each of the drawings he made.

It was just full of people that she'd never seen before.

It wasn't until she saw a page with a lot of faded marks that were erased that the girl stopped looking through his notebook and stared down at the drawing of a teenager that looked like he had long messy hair and the top half of his body that was drawn showed a couple of tattoos on at least one of his arms.

She tilted her head and stared down at the drawing with furrowed eyebrows.

And while she stared down at the drawing, Matthew turned his attention over towards her and watched as she stared at a page in one of his notebooks.

With a tilt of his own head, he asked her, "Hey, what are you looking at over there?"

Instead of telling him what he was looking at, she simply raised the notebook and turned it around, which allowed him to see just what drawing she was looking at.

With his eyes wide as ever, he said, "Oh, shit."

While the girl only stared at him with a tilted head, he quickly made his way over to her and took the notebook as gently out of her hands as he possibly could and said to her, "Here's an idea. How-How about you look at any notebook that isn't this one? Okay?" When she only stared up at him with furrowed eyebrows, he crouched down in front of her and said to her, "Look, I'm sorry if I scared you or something, okay? But this particular drawing is very, very personal to me and I just don't want it to be messed up or anything. Okay?"

Despite how confused she was at just how quickly his mood had changed the second he saw the drawing she was looking at, the only thing the girl did was nod her head and say to him, "Okay."

With a nod of his head, he said to her, "That's good. Now, just-just look at one of the other notebooks, while I get back to working on this drawing of mine. Okay?"

When she only nodded her head, he let out a sigh before he quickly looked down at the drawing she was looking at.

Despite how different the teenage boy in this particular photo looked when Matthew was in the fifth grade— compared to how the teenager looked as a senior in high school with his hair a crazed mess and the tattoos he could see on one of his arms and the watch that was on his other arm— there was just always something about the teenage boy that had caught Matthew's interest since he first saw him at a talent show performing with his band.

Granted, Matthew himself didn't even go to Hawkins Middle School at the time, but he did watch it after his sister Nancy had forced him to attend it, since her friend Barbara was apparently out sick that day.

But that didn't change the fact that that one moment in which he'd seen that very same teenager in Hawkins Middle School when Matthew was only a fifth grader at the time had gotten him rather curious and interested in the boy.

And then of course after seeing him again when he was a freshman and the teenager was a senior, his interest in the boy seemed to change into something else entirely.

Something that he would never admit out loud, because of just how close-minded he knew the people of Hawkins, Indiana were in regard to things that just didn't fit in their own society.

So, he kept quiet on the matter and only watched the boy from a distance, while the boy seemed to not even notice him, unless Matthew got into a fight with yet another person at their high school.

After letting out a sigh, he turned to bring his attention back over to the girl, who was staring up at him with her head tilted to the side and her eyebrows furrowed.

It was only then that he realized that he never did get her name.

After crouching down in front of her yet again, he asked her, "Hey, what's your name?"

After a couple seconds of silence, she said, "El."

With a nod of his head, he said to her, "Right. Well, I don't know if Mike ever told you about me, but just in case he didn't, I'm Matt."

With her head tilted to the side some more, she said, "Matt?"

With a nod of his head, he replied, "Yeah, Matt. I mean, my full name is Matthew, but I just go by Matt. The only people that really call me Matthew are my parents and the teachers and the principal at school. So, if you want, you could call me Matt, too."

With a nod of her own head, she said, "Matt." After a couple seconds of silence, she said to him, "Matt. Nice. Why?"

With his eyebrows furrowed, he asked her, "You're asking why I'm nice?" When she nodded her head, he chuckled to himself before he told her, "Believe it or not, El, but you're the first person to actually think that I'm nice."

With a tilt of her head, she asked him, "Why?"

With a sigh, he replied, "I don't know. But for as long as I can remember, just about everyone I've met has called me an a—" After seeing the look on her face, he said to her, "No one's ever called me nice before. If anything, everyone sees me as this really mean person that gets into fights all the time and doesn't care about anyone but himself."

When she only stared at him, he straightened his back and stood up and sighed to himself before he said, "You know what? Never mind. You just get back to looking at whatever you want in my room. I'll get back to working on this drawing."

Just when he went to turn his back on her, he suddenly came to a halt when El had grabbed his arm yet again.

He turned to look down at her and saw her pointing at the drawing of the teenager he'd been interested in for about four years now.

With a sigh, he told her, "You wouldn't know him. He's at least three years older than me. And if you're friends with Mike, then he's five years older than you." When she only tilted her head, he said to her, "It's just some guy I've seen in my school. That's all. Okay?"

With a nod of her head, she said to him, "Okay."

Then she watched as he lightly removed her hand from his arm before he made his way back over towards his bed with the notebook of the drawing of the teenager in his other hand.

And despite just how confused she was from the way he was acting, she said nothing on the matter and only focused on the two letters that were written on the bottom right corner of the page.

And as he went back to working on his current drawing of her, El started to wonder who EM was and why Matthew acted the way he did when he saw that she was looking at the drawing of this EM.

After tilting his head at his own drawing of El, Matthew turned his head to look over at her, only for his eyebrows to furrow when he saw that she was quickly walking out of his room.

After shoving the one notebook that had the drawing of the teenage boy underneath his pillow, he quickly ran after her and said, "Hey, hey, hey." After putting a hand on her shoulder and forcing her to come to a halt, he asked her, "Where are you heading off to in such a hurry?"

The only thing she said to him was, "Three-one-five."

With his eyebrows furrowed, he said, "Three-one-five?" When she nodded her head, he asked her, "What the hell is three-one-five?"

She raised one of her arms and pointed at the watch she was wearing before she said, "Three-one-five."

In turn, he said, "Oh. Well, why do you have to be gone by 3:15?"

The only thing she said to him was, "Mike."

He asked her, "Oh, are you meeting up with Mike?" When she nodded her head, he sighed before he said to her, "Well, just wait until I get a jacket and my shoes on."

When she only stared up at him with her head tilted to the side, he said to her, "Look, just wait here. Okay?"

She asked him, "Why?"

He told her, "Because you're Mike's friend and the last thing that kid needs is for another one of his friends to just go missing like Byers did."

With her head still tilted to the side, El watched as Matthew quickly made his way down the stairs and over towards where his jacket was hung up and where his shoes were lying over by the front door.

And while he did that, El started to yet again wonder why Mike told her that Matthew was mean when he'd been anything but mean since he first saw her a couple of hours ago.

While he and his two friends quickly walked their bikes over towards El, Mike yelled, "El!"

El turned to look over at Mike, Dustin and Lucas.

It wasn't until the three of them had reached her that Mike asked her, "You okay?" When she only nodded her head, he said to her, "Hop on. We only have a few hours."

Instead of going straight to his bike, she said, "Matt."

With his eyebrows furrowed, Mike said, "Matt?" When she nodded her head, he asked her, "Why are you talking about my brother?"

It was then that Mike heard a voice say from behind him, "I think the better question here is why the hell El— a girl with a shaved head— was inside of our house this morning."

While Lucas slightly jumped in place and Dustin had a hand pressed against his own chest because of Matthew's unexpected arrival, Mike asked him, "What the hell are you doing here?" When Matthew only raised an eyebrow at him, Mike said with a shake of his head, "You know what? I don't care. Just go back home and get back to whatever shit you were doing earlier."

When El had quickly grabbed onto Matthew's arm, Matthew said to him, "Yeah, I don't think El wants me to leave."

With a scoff, Mike asked him, "What the hell did you do to her?"

Matthew replied, "Nothing. I just made her some breakfast and let her look at all the shit I have in my room."

Just when Mike was about to respond, he suddenly stopped when Dustin asked Matthew, "You cooked for her?" When Matthew only raised his eyebrows at him, Dustin asked him, "Why don't you ever cook for the rest of us?"

With a nod of his head, Matthew replied, "Well, Dustin Henderson, maybe it's because I just don't like you, Sinclair or Byers. You ever thought of that?"

While Dustin's mouth only fell open in response to his words, Mike said, "You know what? Whatever. Just-Just grab your old bike or something."

With a scoff, Lucas asked Mike, "Does he even remember how to ride his old bike?"

With his eyes narrowed, Matthew stared directly at Lucas as he said, "Say shit like that about me again, and I'll take your fucking bike and leave your ass behind, Sinclair."

The most Lucas did was raise his hands before the three middle-schoolers and El watched as Matthew quickly made his way over towards Lucas and told him to move up on his bike.

When Lucas didn't do as he said, Matthew asked him, "Are you fucking deaf, Sinclair?"

After seeing the look that Matthew had on his face, Lucas quickly moved up a bit on his bike.

Not long after that, El got onto the back of Mike's bike and the three middle-schoolers started to quickly ride their bikes away from there and over towards the woods.

While Dustin and Lucas did their best to keep their distance from Matthew, who didn't understand just what the hell they were doing in the first place, El turned to Mike and asked him, "Why did they hurt you?"

In turn, Mike said, "What?" When El pointed at the wound on the bottom of his chin, he said, "Oh, that. Uh... I just fell at recess."

El said to him, "Mike..."

Mike replied, "Yeah?"

El said to him, "Friends tell the truth."

After letting out a sigh, Mike told her, "I was tripped by this mouth breather, Troy, okay?"

With her eyebrows furrowed, El said, "Mouth breather?"

Mike replied, "Yeah, you know... a dumb person. A knucklehead."

In turn, El said, "Knucklehead?"

Mike said to her, "I don't know why I just didn't tell you. Everyone at school knows. I just didn't want you to think I was such a wastoid, you know?"

El said to him, "Mike..."

Mike replied, "Yeah?"

With a nod of her head, she told him, "I understand."

In turn, he said, "Oh. Okay, cool." After she had also said 'cool', he said to her, "Just do me a favor and don't tell Matt."

When her eyebrows furrowed, he told her, "Look, Matt can be a total asshole pretty much all the time, but when it comes down to it, he's super protective. So, if he found out about what Troy did, I'm pretty sure that Matt would kill him." When she only tilted her head, he said to her, "Matt has a bit of an anger problem. When he gets really mad and someone he cares about gets hurt, he kind of goes postal. I mean, the last time he got super mad when he saw someone push me into the middle of the street, he kind of lost control of himself and the guy that pushed me ended up in the hospital because of just how angry my brother was. If he found out about what Troy did to me, I'm pretty sure that he would literally kill Troy. So, can you keep this between us? You know, that way Mom doesn't have to end up bailing him out of jail or something?"

With her eyebrows still furrowed, she asked him, "Matt? Not mean?"

He replied, "Sometimes. I guess it just depends on the person. But he's mostly known as an asshole by anyone that's met him both in and out of school." When she started to frown, he told her, "Oh, it's fine. Being called an asshole doesn't really bother him. He kind of accepted that label back when he was in elementary school."

Then El turned her head to look over at Matthew, who was telling Dustin and Lucas to keep their distance from him and to quit invading his personal space, despite the two middle-schoolers insisting that they weren't even that close to him.

After turning to look at the one high-schooler and the three middle-schoolers, El said, "Here."

Mike replied, "Yeah, this is where Will lives."