Chapter Text
January 3, 1985
Hopper had always regarded her as an incredible kid, so he was taken aback when he realized she didn't think of herself the same way.
He was still absolutely not allowing El outside of the house, but after being reunited with the Wheeler kid and her friends, he realized that if they weren't allowed to come to the cabin, El would come to them.
So Hopper had been tolerant of the group of teenagers that regularly took up space in his once-quiet abode. Even if he didn't like it, he knew that interacting with other kids was healthy for El's development. And it made her happy. For the vast majority, it made her happy.
But not always.
At first, when her friends started visiting, she would bounce around the house after they left, excitedly telling Hopper all they had done together, even though he had been watching over his newspaper the whole time. After two months, she was still excited to see them. God, was she excited to see them. Especially that damn Wheeler kid who watched her with the goo-goo eyes. But Hopper noticed that El was getting gradually quieter and quieter after her friends left. She acted the same around them, and she always anxiously watched out the window for them before they were supposed to come. Perhaps this is why it took El's classic bluntness to make Hopper aware that something was wrong.
The pair was eating their tv dinners of meatloaf, peas, and mashed potatoes as they sat parked together on the sofa. Some soap that Hopper vehemently denied being interested in was playing. (Only because El liked it, of course. Not because he did. Because he didn't.)
Characteristic of El, she gave no warning before hitting him with something he would have preferred to have had a pre-thought-out response to.
"I'm not very smart," she whispered. She didn't say it as though it was a bad thing or like she was ashamed. El stated it as a fact. As though she was stating that the sun was hot or Hopper was old.
Hopper choked momentarily on the mouthful of peas he had in his mouth before slowly lowering his fork to rest on top of his meatloaf. El wasn't looking at him; she was still looking at the husband and wife bickering on the television, possibly having already moved on from what she just said.
He shook his head slightly. "Why in the world would you say that?" Hopper asked, perplexed. El looked up at her surrogate dad, something almost like confusion glistening in her eyes. Perhaps she hadn't expected him to disagree with her. The thought alone put a hole in his heart.
"Because I don't know many things. They all know so many things," she stated, referencing her friends.
Hopper's hands instinctively balled into fists at his side. "Who said that you don't know many things? Was it Mike? Because I will-"
"No," El shook her head. "I just know."
El put down her mostly uneaten dinner and retreated to her room for the rest of the night. Hopper put his head in his hands when he realized she didn't even ask for dessert.
January 4, 1985
Hopper knew that this child wasn't his. He knew that he only had one daughter, and she was gone. But he could not deny the paternal instincts that kicked in when he saw El in distress, so he took a quick trip to the nearest office supply store.
Plastic shopping bag in hand, Hopper knocked on the door to El's room. "Kid? Kid, come out. I got something for you."
After a moment, El emerged slowly in the threshold, Magic Tree House book in one hand and dictionary in the other. Hopper felt his body shrink in on itself - she was trying so hard. And she was smart. She just didn't know it.
He had no idea what he was doing, so he coughed and just went for it. "Kid, I don't like what you said yesterday about not being smart. You are smart." He knelt down on one knee to be eye level with El. "In some ways, you're the smartest kid I've ever known. I really mean that."
El said nothing but continued to stare at Hopper, eyebrows slightly furrowed, likely either confused about what Hopper was saying or wondering why he was struggling so badly so talk.
Hopper cleared his throat again. "I got you a word book." He reached into his back and pulled out a purple binder full of loose-leave lined paper. There were rainbow tabs that went through the letters of the alphabet with several blank pages between the tabs.
El put down her book and the dictionary and took the binder, perplexed. "What is a word book?" she asked. Hopper realized he should have explained right away - yet another thing she didn't understand and had to ask about.
He closed his eyes and took El's free hand in his. At first, he thought the girl was shaking, but quickly realized with a jolt that it was him. "I thought you might like having a place to put the words you've learned. It'll be sorta different than your dictionary because it will be only words you know, and you can write what the words mean in your own way. I thought you might like it, but if you don't, it's not a big deal, kid, because I can take it-"
"I like it," El cut him off, and put the binder down to wrap her arms around Hopper. Surprised but relieved, Hopper gently put one hand on her back and ruffled her hair with the other.
When El let him go and picked up the book, presumably to return to her room, Hopper stopped her by putting a hand on her shoulder. His knees were starting to hurt from crouching. "Go grab your crayons and a pencil and come back out here. I got you some stickers to help decorate your cover."
Hopper watched the girl's eyes light up. She knew what stickers were, and she adored them. Her walls displayed some stars and hearts, and Hopper certainly didn't have the heart to tell her it would mess up the paint. But her eyes soon gleamed that familiar look that came before she asked a question. "What's a cover?" she inquired, and Hopper's heart melted when he realized how excited she was to learn the answer.
He smiled. "A cover is the front of something, like a book. See your Magic Tree House book there?" he pointed to the forgotten text on the floor. "That front with the pictures and title on it is the cover. You're gonna make one for your Word Book now. If you'd like to." El nodded and beamed.
Hopper grabbed himself a coffee and went to join the girl who had sat herself down at the table with crayons, stickers from the bag, and her new binder splayed out in front of her. He went to grab his newspaper, when El caught his arm. "No," she said. "You do the cover too."
Well, he had never been much for arts and crafts, but the beam on her face was irresistible, so the pair sat together, El's careful hand printing out "El Jane's Word Book".
"This is the title," she explained. Hopper nodded and smiled weakly at the addition of her second name. The kid had taken a liking to using both of them when describing herself.
Once the cover was thoroughly covered in rainbows, stickers, and doodles, El slid it into the plastic compartment at the front of the binder. "We might as well start now," Hopper decided. "Did you learn any new words today? Maybe when reading Magic Tree House?"
He watched as El sat quietly for a moment, and then flipped to the tab with the letter C on it.
Chewing her lip in concentration, she slowly took care in writing out each letter and practicing her skills at full sentences.
Cover: It is the front of a book. It has a title and maybe pictures. Hop and I made my cover today.
Hopper's heart soared.