Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was all Troy’s fault.

Mike Wheeler was sitting in after school detention all because of Troy.

Since probably fifth grade, Troy had been picking on Mike and his friends. Pushing them in the hallways, calling them names, knocking their lunch trays out of their hands ( didn’t he have anything better to do? ), and basically making he and his friend’s life a living hell.

And today, Mike had snapped.

They’d been in gym class, definitely not Mike’s favorite class, when it’d happened. The teacher, Coach Johnson, made the class run laps in the gym. Mike and his friend Will were jogging around, when Troy had run up behind them, muttered “Oops!” and shoved into Will, making him fall on his face.

Mike had sworn up and down that Troy did it on purpose, but Coach Johnson had just sent Will to the nurse.

In the locker room, when the boys were changing, Troy had walked past Mike and said “Tell your little friend to be careful next time, Frog Face.”

And Mike had turned around, and shoved Troy hard into the lockers behind him.

There weren’t any fists thrown, just a lot of pushing and shoving for all of thirty seconds until Coach Johnson came in and separated them, giving both boys detention.

So that’s why Mike sat, at 3:30, in room 23C with a class of delinquents.

There was Troy, the reason he was here in the first place.

A boy he didn’t recognize, probably in one of the upper grades, who was using his textbook as a shield to hide the fact he was dozing.

A girl, Andrea, who he recognized from his lit class.

And then there was Mike.

He was glad they hadn’t called his mom. With any luck, he could tell her he had A/V Club after school, if she asked anything. Now all he had to do was ride out this hour.

For the first five minutes he just sat, not knowing what to do. Were they going to be given an assignment or something? He’d never had detention, and didn’t know how it worked. After nothing happened, he decided he should at least do something. So he opened his backpack, and took out his notebook where he wrote his D & D campaigns. He’d just zipped his bag shut when he glanced up, seeing another student enter the room.

It was a girl that everyone in the school knew, El Hopper. Everyone knew her because her dad was the town’s chief of police. What was she doing here? he wondered.

*

El was almost certain her dad was going to kill her.

She had never had detention before, or anything close to it. She was “the good girl.” Still, thanks to her friend Max and a misunderstanding, she was here in room 23C. The teacher (Mr. Bauman?) at the desk seemed bored, as he graded papers. El walked to his desk, and he eventually looked up.

“I’m sorry I’m late,” she said. “I went to the wrong room.”

He didn’t really seem to care, looking back at the papers before him and waving a hand as he said, “Take a seat.”

She looked at the few students scattered around the room. An older student who appeared to be sleeping, his head against the wall. A brown haired boy sat a few seats in front of the sleeper. A blonde girl sat on the other side of the room, drawing. And then there was a dark haired boy who sat almost in the middle of the room. Their eyes met, and she looked away, going to sit a row over and a seat behind him.

She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do; homework? Write an essay about why they were here? Part of her wanted to ask, but the teacher (she was almost certain it was Mr. Bauman, the Latin teacher) didn’t look like he wanted to be bothered.

Besides the sleeping boy and the girl drawing, the other two boys appeared to be just sitting, waiting out the time.

Sighing, she reached into her backpack and took out The Outsiders , the book she’d been assigned in her AP English class. She tried to concentrate on the story, but her mind kept wandering to what’d gotten her here in the first place. It’d happened in science, where they’d had a test today. She was sitting next to her best friend, Max. During the test Max had whispered to her, asking which question she was on, which got both of them a stern warning from Mrs. Thomas. But then Robert, a boy who sat two chairs down, was trying to pass a note to the girl on the other side of Max. The note had landed on El’s desk, and before she could pass it or get rid of it, Mrs. Thomas had noticed it, and had sentenced El to detention.

Even after her explaining, Mrs. Thomas wouldn’t budge. So here she sat.

*

Mike glanced over at El, seeing the worried look on her face as she looked at the book she was holding. Probably sensing he was watching her, she glanced up and their eyes met for a second time before he looked away.

Her worried look got him thinking what she could’ve possibly done to get in here. El Hopper was known as the quiet teacher’s pet type kid. Then again, people had similar thoughts about him, and look where he was…

Turning his attention back to his D & D notebook, he’d jotted down a few notes when all of a sudden something hit the side of his head. He looked up, just as a wad of paper was falling to the floor. A muffled snort of laughter told him it was Troy.

Mike glanced at the teacher, who was grading papers, then back at Troy, giving him a Really? look. Troy responded by giving him the finger.

He went back to his notebook, when a second later, another wadded up piece of paper fell onto his desk.

“Mr. Bauman,” Mike said, trying to get the teacher’s attention. “Troy’s…”

“There’s no talking in detention,” the teacher said, not looking up.

“But he’s throwing stuff at me!”

Mr. Bauman finally looked up, and over at Troy. He then looked to Mike, and saw the balled up papers on his desk and on the floor. Looking back at Troy, he asked, “Mr. Miller?”

“It’s not me!” Troy said, feigning ignorance.

“Bull,” Mike said quietly.

“He’s lying,” said Andrea from the back of the room. Mike turned to look at her, as did Troy and the teacher.

“Him,” Andrea continued, pointing her pencil at Troy. “He’s lying. He’s been throwing stuff.”

Mr. Bauman sighed, then said “Keep it up, Mr. Miller, and you’ll be here next week too, okay?”

“Fine,” Troy huffed.

When Mr. Bauman went back to his grading, Troy gave both Mike and Andrea a mean look.

With a small grin, Mike went back to his notebook. It was quiet for a few minutes until there was a knock at the door. All eyes looked up as they saw another teacher, Mr. Holland, standing in the doorway.

“Murray?” he asked. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

Mr. Bauman sighed and stood up, giving a look to the students before he stepped out into the hallway. From where Mike sat he could see Mr. Bauman’s right shoulder as he talked to Mr. Holland just outside his view.

“You’re dead Wheeler,” Troy hissed from the wall.

“Try it and you’ll be back here next week,” Mike retorted, not bothering to look up from his notebook.

“Just because your fairy friend fell down…”

“Don’t call him that,” Mike said, finally looking up.

“Whatever, Frog Face,” Troy said back with a grin.

“And don’t call me that,” Mike said in return.

“Or what? What’re you gonna do, Frog? Hop around?” he chuckled, looking for someone to join in with his laughter, but no one did.

“Actually, frogs are kind of cute,” came a voice from behind Mike. He and Troy turned to see El Hopper looking up from her book. Seeing she had their attention, she continued, saying “The Lemur leaf frog, for example, is really cute. And the Harlequin frog? Adorable.”

Troy made a face; Mike began to grin.

“Whatever,” Troy eventually said, turning back around. Mike smiled at El, who gave him a small smile back before she returned to her book.

A moment later Mr. Bauman came back, letting out a groan as he sat in his chair, with a quick glance at his watch.

*

El smiled to herself. She hadn’t had any intention of getting involved with whatever was going on with the two boys-Troy and... Wheeler? -but Troy had seemed like such an idiot she felt compelled to help the other boy out.

She’d seen both boys around school before, but had never talked with either of them. From what she’d heard, Troy was a bit of a jerk, while this other guy...Max would know his name...was kind of quiet (much like Jane herself).

She didn’t know why Troy called him a frog, he didn’t look like one. He was kind of cute, to be honest.

At that thought she immediately felt heat come to her cheeks, and she looked down, trying to wish it away. You only met the guy, El. Don’t go getting crazy thoughts in your head .

Returning to her book as she felt her face go back to it’s ordinary hue, she began to wonder how long detention was supposed to last. An hour? She’d only been in here for about ten minutes, maybe fifteen. Was she going to be able to make it a whole hour?

“Thanks,” she heard a quiet voice say to her. She looked up, and saw that the boy she’d just been daydreaming about was whispering to her.

“Don’t mention it,” she responded.

The rest of the hour passed, and soon the assembled students were packing up their things. Mike left the room, more than happy to be done sharing a room with Troy. He went to his locker to grab a few last minute items, and in his head reran the story he was going to tell his mother. Once he had what he needed, he turned to go out, and nearly bumped into El.

“Sorry-”

“Excuse me-”

They righted themselves, then both smiled awkwardly. “Sorry,” he repeated. “I should’ve looked where I was going.”

“It’s okay,” she said. She gave him one more smile, then continued on her way-the same way he was going. Mike stayed a few paces behind her at first, then decided to say something.

“How’re you liking that book?”

She looked over her shoulder. “Excuse me?”

“The Outsiders. I, uh...I saw you reading it in there.”

“Oh.” She shrugged her shoulders. “It’s okay, I guess. I’ve only read the first two chapters.”

“It gets better,” he said, catching up.

“You read it?”

“No, but my, uh...my sister, she had to read it a few years ago, and she always said it was one of her favorite books.”

El nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

They arrived outside and Mike, knowing he had to go get his bike, decided to say goodbye. “Well...I’ll see you around,” he told her.

“Bye,” she said, giving him a small smile.

He gave her a nod, then walked to the side of the school to get his bike. Finding it, he suddenly remembered that he’d forgotten his D & D notebook inside. So he walked his bike to the front of the school and darted inside. He grabbed it from his locker and got back outside quickly, and started pedaling back home.

He’d biked a small distance away from the school when he saw a familiar green backpack walking down the side of the road: El Hopper.

“Hey!” he called out. She turned, and looked surprised to see him.

“Hi.”

“Hi. You walk home?”

“Sometimes,” she answered. “When my dad can’t get me, or I can’t catch the bus.”

“Oh.”

“It’s not that far,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s only about fifteen minutes away.”

“Oh. Well...okay. I’ll see you.”

“See you,” she said back.

He started to pedal away, but stopped himself after a moment. A few feet ahead of her, he turned and asked “Do you want a ride?”

“What?”

“You could hop on my bike,” he explained. “It’d be just a little bit faster than walking.”

She looked hesitant.

“Besides, I owe you after your help with Troy.”

She still looked reluctant, but seemed to have loosened up a little. Finally, she nodded her head. “Okay.”

Mike scooted up on his seat some, and El climbed on the back. When he sensed she was on, he pushed off, which elicited a yelp from El, causing Mike to stop. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I just...I almost fell off,” she said, blushing and gasping. “Maybe I should just walk.”

“No, it’s okay,” Mike said. “Just...hold onto my backpack so you won’t fall.”

El nodded, and hesitantly did so. Mike checked over his shoulder to make sure she was secure then pushed off again, sans yelp this time.

“Everything okay?” he asked after a minute.

“Yeah!” she answered. “It’s right on Curley.” Pausing for a moment, she then said “I never got your name.”

He nodded. “I’m Mike.”

Mike , she thought to herself. “I’m El.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Oh.”

Mike made the right, and El gave him the next set of directions. They rode silently for a few minutes until the two arrived on her street. El smiled, enjoying the ride, thanking the stars that this boy- Mike -had given her a ride home. Her dad would be mad if he found out she’d accepted a ride home from a boy she hardly knew, but for some reason she felt safe with this freckled boy.

“My house is at the end,” she said into his ear. Mike nodded, and a moment later they were in her driveway.

“Thanks,” she said when he came to a stop.

“You’re welcome,” he said as she climbed off.

“Um...well,” she said, nervously rubbing her arm. “I guess I’ll see you.”

“Okay. Oh, hey,” he said, causing her to pause before she turned to go.

“Yeah?”

“Can I ask...why were you in detention? You don’t seem like the kind to get it.”

“Oh. My teacher thought I was talking during a test. What about you?”

“That mouth-breather, Troy. He picked on a friend of mine.”

“What’d you do?”

“Nothing, really. I pushed him.”

“Oh. Well, your friend is lucky to have you.”

“Thanks. Um..I guess I’ll see you around, El.”

“See you around, Mike.”

They smiled once more at each other, then Mike turned his bike, and rode off down the street. El smiled as she watched him go, wondering if she’d see him again.

Chapter Text

El went inside her house, glad to see that her father hadn’t come home yet. Almost as soon as she closed the door, the phone began to ring.

“Hello?” she answered, putting the receiver to her ear.

“Hey,” her friend Max said. “I’m so, so, sorry. I tried to talk to Mrs. Thomas, but she…”

“It’s okay, Max,” El said into the phone. “It actually…” she paused, thinking about the events of the last hour. “It actually wasn’t that bad.”

On her end, Max huffed a laugh. “Detention wasn’t that bad? Are you serious?”

“Yeah, I mean...I would’ve liked to have been home, obviously, but it wasn’t as scary as you think it’d be.”

“Well, still,” Max said. “I feel awful. What did your dad say?”

As if on cue, El heard a car door slam outside, signaling that her father had just arrived home. “He doesn’t know,” she told her friend. “And I’m going to keep it that way.” She heard the front door being unlocked. “He’s here. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay. Bye.”

They hung up, just as Hawkins’ chief of police, Jim Hopper, entered the house.

“Hey,” he said when he saw his daughter. “Help me out, I’ve got some groceries in the car.”

“Sure, dad,” she answered. She helped him bring the few bags inside, then started to unload the food.

“How was school?” her dad asked.

“It was fine.”

“Anything happen?”

“Not really, no.”

“Hm. How was the test?”

“Oh. It was, uh...it went alright, I guess. We find out on Monday how we did.”

Her dad nodded as he glanced at the table. Seeing her bag, he asked “Are you just getting home?”

“Y-yeah. I had something I had to take care of after school.”

“Well next time call me, in case I get home before you, okay?”

“Okay,” she answered.

Her dad sighed. “I’m gonna go hop in the shower. I’ll let you know when dinner’s ready.” Ruffling her hair on the way out, he then went down the hall.

El let out a breath when he’d left. She hated lying to her dad, but she was afraid of how he might react if he found out she had detention (even if it wasn’t her fault).

Taking a seat at the table, she decided she’d get started on her homework. But a few minutes in and she found she couldn’t concentrate, as she kept replaying the events of the day. Yes, detention had sucked, but there was one positive thing about it-Mike.

She had seen him around school, but the two had never talked. She wondered, if she saw him tomorrow, would they speak to one another? He seemed nice, she wanted to get to know him a little more.

*

A couple of miles away, Mike Wheeler ended up not being as lucky as El was. He’d just parked his bike in the garage and had made his way inside his house.

“Michael, is that you?” he heard his mom’s voice call as he closed the door behind him

“It’s me,” he called back, locking the door. He made his way into the kitchen where his mom was working on dinner.

“Where were you?” she asked, glancing at the clock. “I thought you’d be home an hour ago.”

“Yeah, um, there was A/V club after school,” he said as he shrugged off his backpack. “I forgot all about it.”

“Hm,” she said, nodding her head. The way she said “hm,” though, let Mike know something was wrong. “So,” she continued, “Were your other friends there, too?”

“Yeah…”

“Well that’s funny,” she said as she put down the wooden spoon, “Because Joyce Byers called an hour ago and told me you got detention.”

Mike frowned, upset he’d been caught. “Mom…”

“You were fighting , Michael?”

“It wasn’t really a fight,” he explained. “This guy was being a jerk to Will, and he wouldn’t stop.”

“So why didn’t you explain that to your teacher?”

“Because he didn’t care. He just saw me and Troy pushing each other and punished both of us.”

His mom shook her head. “Then why’d you lie about it?”

“Because...because I knew you’d be mad.”

She huffed, and picked the wooden spoon back up. “You still lied, Michael. So you’re grounded.”

“What? That’s not fair!”

“Next time you’ll tell the truth.”

“This is such bull,” he muttered under his breath, turning to go to his room.

“What was that?”

“Nothing,” he called, grabbing his backpack and heading upstairs.

Once in his room he tried to slam his door without actually slamming it, settling for a hard push before it clicked shut.

This was so stupid , he said to himself. Why should he be grounded for helping his friend? Yeah he lied, but it was only because he didn’t know how his mom would react.

And she would tell his dad when he got home. Mike didn’t know how he’d react. It’s not fair , he repeated in his head. He already had to sit in stupid detention, now he was grounded? He bet Troy wasn’t grounded.

Troy. It was his fault Mike was in this situation to begin with. It was Troy’s fault he’d just wasted an hour after school, sitting in detention.

Well, he thought to himself, it hadn’t been a total waste.

He suddenly found himself thinking of El Hopper, wondering if she was grounded as well. For some reason he didn’t think so. She was nice; he’d seen her around school, and never had any reason to talk to her-until now, that is. They didn’t travel in the same social circles, though she seemed less likely to be picked on than he was. He replayed her retort to Troy about frogs, that’d been ballsy of her; she hadn’t even known Mike and she’d stuck up for him. And yes, she was cute, but Mike was trying not to think of her like that . He knew she’d never be attracted to a loser like him.

“Mike?”

The voice startled him, until he realized where it was coming from-his walkie talkie. He reached under his bed, where it hid beneath a pile of clothes. He pushed down the button to respond. “Yeah?”

He heard the crackle of static before he heard a voice say “Did my mom call your mom?”

Mike recognized the voice-his friend, Will. “Yeah, she called her.”

A groan, then “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. She was gonna find out anyway.”

“My mom wanted to know why I had the bruise on my face, and…”

“Will, it’s okay,” Mike said, cutting him off. “It’s fine.”

“How was detention?”

“Boring. But I guess it wasn’t too bad,” Mike admitted.

“Really? But you had to sit in there with Troy.”

“Yeah, well, there was that, but…” He paused, debating whether or not to tell him about El.

“But what?”

“Nothing. Just...there was this girl in there. She was pretty cool.”

“What girl?”

“Uh...El Hopper.”

“El Hopper? The police chief’s daughter?”

“Yeah.”

“What was she doing in detention?”

“She said her teacher thought she was talking in class.”

“Huh.” There was a noise in the background, then Will came back, saying “I’ve got to go, Mike. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

*

The next day at school his friends were waiting for him at the bike rack. Lucas and Dustin peppered him with questions, asking him to detail the horrors of detention. They were disappointed when Mike just shrugged, answering “It was boring. You just sit there.”

“That’s it?” Lucas asked.

“That’s it,” Mike confirmed.

The foursome began to walk towards the middle school building. “I’m sorry, Mike,” Will said.

“Will you stop saying that?” Mike asked.

“It’s my fault you got detention,” he answered.

Mike shook his head. “I’m the one who pushed Troy, not you.”

“Yeah, I know, but still...sorry.”

Mike nodded, accepting the unnecessary apology.

“So you guys want to hit up the arcade after school?” Lucas asked.

“No,” Mike responded as they entered the building, “I got grounded.”

“You what?” his friends collectively asked.

“My parents grounded me.”

Will winced, knowing the reason.

“But you didn’t do anything wrong,” Dustin said.

“I lied to my mom about it,” Mike said. “She was more mad about that, really.”

“What about your dad?”

Mike shrugged. “He just goes along with whatever my mom says.”

“That sucks,” Lucas said. “How long’re you grounded for?”

“Two weeks.”

“Two weeks ? Holy crap,” Dustin said.

“I know.”

“Mike,” Will began, “I’m…”

“Don’t worry about it,” Mike said, waving it off.

They arrived at the boy’s cluster of lockers, and the group began to load up their backpacks for the day. Mike was exchanging his math book for his science when he looked up and saw El Hopper coming down the hallway. Their eyes met for a brief moment, with El giving him a small smile as she walked by; Mike gave her a small wave in return.

His friends noticed.

“What’s that about?” Lucas asked.

“Nothing,” Mike said as he closed his locker. “She was in detention, too.”

“El Hopper was in detention?” Dustin asked, incredulously.

“Not so loud,” Mike said. “Yeah, she was there.”

“For what?” asked Lucas.

Mike shook his head. “Something stupid.”

“Jeez, a lot happens in detention.”

“I gave her a ride home when it was over.”

“Wait,” Dustin began, “You what?”

“I gave her a bike ride home.” Mike shrugged it off, as if he did things like that all the time. “It’s no big deal.”

“Why don’t you go say hi?” Lucas suggested.

“And say what?”

“I don’t know, maybe tell her how much detention sucked or something.”

“Or ask her if she needs another ride home,” Will spoke up.

“And get embarrassed? Why would I do that?” Still, Mike thought as he glanced at her, it would be nice to talk to her again.

*

El must’ve gone this way into school a thousand times, and she’d never noticed Mike or his locker before today. She debated going over and talking to him-but what would she say? She’d be lying if she said she hadn’t thought about running into him again.What she hadn’t thought of was what to say. So when he turned and started talking to his friends, she decided to keep on going and let the moment pass.

Before she could get a step in the other direction, though, she heard a familiar voice call her name.

“El, wait up!”

She did, and watched her friend Max coming down the hallway. “Hey Max,” she said as her redheaded friend caught up to her.

“Hey. You okay?”

“Yeah,” El said, nodding. “Why?”

“Your dad, did he…”

“He doesn’t know,” El said, shaking her head.

Max grinned. “Look at you, lying like a pro.”

“Don’t say that,” El said with a frown.

“Why?”

“Because I don’t like lying to my dad.” She shrugged. “I’m going to tell him, eventually.”

“It’s your funeral.” Max suddenly looked over El’s shoulder, and raised an eyebrow at what she saw.

“What’s wrong?” El asked.

“Those boys are staring at us,” she said.

El turned, and sure enough, Mike and his friends were looking at the two girls. She felt herself begin to smile as Mike made his way over.

*

“Hey,” Mike said as he approached El and her friend.

“Hi,” El said back quietly, a slight smile coming to her lips.

Mike felt himself smile, too, as he put his hands in his pockets. “So, uh...how’s it going?”

“Good,” she said, then suddenly realized she wasn’t alone. “This is my friend. Max.”

Mike said hello, and Max smirked, grinning as if she knew something Mike didn’t. “I’m going to get my books,” Max said to her friend. To Mike, she said “See you around.”

“Bye,” Mike said to her. Then, looking back to El, he said “She seems nice.”

“She is,” El responded. “She’s my best friend.” Glancing behind Mike, she asked “Are those your friends?”

“Yeah,” Mike said, turning around quickly. His friends, who’d been staring, suddenly looked away. “That’s Dustin, Lucas, and Will.”

El nodded. “They seem nice, too.”

Mike shrugged. “They’re okay. So, um...what class are you headed to?”

“Algebra,” she said, shrugging. “What about you?”

“Biology.”

EL nodded, and the two looked at each other for a moment, neither knowing what to say next. The bell rang, warning them that classes would begin soon.

“Well...I’ve got to go to my locker,” El said.

“Yeah. Well, um...it was good seeing you again.”

“You, too,” she said, smiling shyly as she turned. “Bye.”

“Bye.”

Mike watched her go, and when he turned back around he found his friends looking at him goofily.

“What?” Mike asked.

“Nothing,” Lucas said, grinning.

“Yeah, real smooth,” Dustin said.

Mike felt himself blush slightly as he picked up his backpack. “Whatever. Let’s go to class.” And as the boys began their way to math, Mike couldn’t help but wonder-and hope-if he’d get the chance to talk to El Hopper again.

Chapter Text

When lunch came around, Mike walked with Dustin from their history class to the lunchroom.

“Everything okay?” Dustin asked his friend on the way.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Mike answered. “Why?”

“You’re quieter than usual.”

“Oh. I guess I’m just tired.”

Dustin nodded, accepting the answer. Mike, however, knew the real reason he was quiet was because he was wondering if he’d see El Hopper at lunch. Granted, he’d never seen her in there before, but then again he’d never really been looking for her, either. And she had to eat lunch, right?

When they arrived in the cafeteria, the two boys made their way to the group’s table by the window, where Will and Lucas already sat.

“So I was thinking,” Lucas said as the boys sat down, “We could go to The Palace after school today?”

“I thought you had a dentist’s appointment or something,” Will said.

“No, it got cancelled. Anyway, what do you say? I’ve got to maintain my score in Dragon’s Lair.”

“I’m in,” Dustin said, taking his lunch out from his backpack. “I still need to get the high score in Dig Dug.”

“Just admit defeat,” Lucas told him, “There’s no way you’re breaking that score.”

Dustin huffed. “I don’t know who that ‘Mad Max’ is, but he’s got another thing coming if he thinks he can dethrone me from the high score.”

“It’s probably some high schooler who skips school and plays all day,” Will said.

“Like your brother?” Dustin asked, jokingly.

Will frowned. “Jonathan doesn’t skip.”

“ Anyway ,” Lucas continued, “Will, you in?”

“Sure,” Will said. “I’ve got to go home first, but I can meet you guys there.”

Lucas turned to his last friend. “Mike?”

“Huh? What?” Mike had been looking at the crowded cafeteria, searching for a certain someone.

“The Palace.”

“Oh. No,” he said, shaking his head. “Grounded, remember?”

“Damn, I forgot.” Lucas shrugged. “Maybe we can go in two weeks, then?”

“No,” Dustin said, “Mad Max is going down!”

“You don’t even know who he is!”

“It doesn’t matter,” Dustin said. “It’s the principle of the matter.”

While their friends argued, Will turned to Mike. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” Mike said, giving up on his search.

School seemed to go by slowly that day (Friday), and when the bell mercifully rang at the end of the day, Mike was more than ready to go home.

“Can’t you just tell your mom we had A/V today?” Dustin asked him as the boys headed towards the bike rack. Since lunch they’d been trying to come up with ways to get Mike to cheat his grounding.

“What, and put one lie on top of another? That’s stupid,” Mike responded.

“We can all back you up,” Will offered, no doubt still feeling bad about his role in this situation.

But Mike shook his head. “And then you guys will get in trouble, too. Really, it’s okay. I’ll be alright. Go have fun.”

Once at the bike rack, Lucas, Dustin, and Will got on their bikes, and said another goodbye to Mike before they were off. “Won’t be the same without you,” Lucas called over his shoulder as the trio left.

Mike unlocked his bike, and glanced once more at the school. He hadn’t seen El Hopper again after seeing her in the hallway this morning. Maybe on Monday?

He hopped onto his bike, then paused, remembering that, once again, he’d left his D & D notebook in his locker. He’d have to start tying it to his wrist or something, this was two days in a row now.

Putting his bike back, he rushed back into the school to grab his notebook.

fifteen minutes earlier

The bell rang, and El couldn’t have been happier that the school day was over. She liked school, but today she’d just felt scattered, as if she couldn’t focus.

“I know why,” Max said as the two girls left their civics class, headed towards their lockers.

“Why?”

“That boy you were talking to.”

“What? No ,” El responded.

“Come on, El. He definitely likes you, so why can’t you just admit you like him?”

El paused as the girls arrived at their lockers. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Opening her locker, she asked “You think he likes me?”

“Well, duh ,” Max said back. Her own locker was right next to El’s, and she pulled out her skateboard. “He was looking at you all... ooh, El, you’re so purty .”

El giggled. “He was not.”

“He was so. I’m telling you, El, you might have a stalker on your hands.”

El tisked. “Stalker,” she muttered to herself.

Their things gathered, the girls made their way outside of the school. Max dropped her skateboard and turned to her friend. “Sure you don’t want a ride home?”

El shook her head. Max usually rode her skateboard next door to Hawkins High School and got a ride home with her brother Billy; El wasn’t the biggest fan of his.

“No, I’ll be fine.” She shrugged her shoulders. “I like walking.”

Max nodded, and the two girls said goodbye, promising to meet up in a few hours. Max then went left, while El went right.

She did like Mike, she thought as she began the trek home. She wasn’t sure if she liked him like that , but she definitely liked him. But the last time she’d told Max she liked a boy, her friend hadn’t left her alone about it. So she had decided that if this were in fact a crush, she’d keep it to herself for now.

Mike had just left school and was on his way home. His mind drifted to how he’d get through the next two weeks. Not being able to go out places was going to suck, but he’d get through it. He figured he would take this time to make the next Dungeons & Dragons campaign a fun one, and surprise his friends with it when he was a free man again.

He gave a quick glance at his watch, checking the time. Going back for the notebook had cost him some minutes, but he was still, for the most part, on schedule. One of the stipulations of this two week punishment was being home by a certain time, and he was hoping he’d be able to stick to it; maybe show his mom that she could loosen the reins.

All of that was thrown out the window, though, when he saw the green backpack a few feet ahead of him, walking along the side of the road.

He slowed down a little, and squinted at the person walking. Really? Two days in a row? He didn’t think it was her at first (no way he was that lucky), but he recognized the white Converse sneakers she’d had on yesterday, and the way her hair bounced ever so lightly as she walked: El Hopper.

He rode a little faster to catch up, and she instinctively looked over her shoulder at the sound of his bike. She did a double take, probably not believing it was him, either. “Hey,” she said, stopping.

“Hey,” he said back. He stopped pedaling, planting a foot down to steady himself. They smiled at each other goofily for a second, both taken aback by this coincidence.

“How was your day?” he finally asked.

“Good,” she said with a nod. “How was….” she paused, thinking, then asked “biology?”

“It was pretty cool,” he answered. Looking down the street, he asked “Walking home again?”

“Yeah.”

“Did you want another ride?”

“No thank you,” she answered. “I’m fine.”

“I don’t mind,” he explained. “I mean, it’s no big deal.”

“I know, but...I don’t mind walking.”

“Oh. Okay,” he shrugged.

He began to pedal away when El spoke up, saying “We can walk together, if you want to.”

“Oh,” he said, surprised. “Sure.” Mike climbed off his bike, and the two started to walk alongside the road. It was quiet for the first minute, as they both thought of what to say as they walked. After a moment, though, Mike spoke up, asking “This morning I meant to ask, did you get in trouble?”

“For what?”

“You know, for getting detention.”

“Oh.” She looked away as she shook her head. “No. I, uh...I didn’t tell my dad.”

Mike grinned. “He’s a cop, though, right? Won’t he, like...detect it?”

Now El smiled. “I hope not.” Looking over at Mike, she asked “What about you? Were you in trouble?”

He nodded. “I got grounded for two weeks.”

“Ugh. That sucks.”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “But I’m hoping my mom will let up some. She usually does.”

“Do you get grounded for detention often?”

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I had actually never had detention before yesterday. But, I mean, trouble, I’ve gotten in trouble with my mom before.”

“Oh.” They walked silently for a minute until El asked “So who was that boy yesterday? The one who...called you a frog.”

“Troy,” Mike answered. The way he responded, El could tell there was a history there. “He’s just...a jerk. He’s been picking on me and my friends since probably the third grade. My friend Will gets it the most.”

“Why?”

Mike shrugged. “Beats me. I guess, maybe he’s easier to pick on. He’s smaller than the rest of us, and doesn’t really stand up for himself.”

El nodded, understanding. “Well, he’s lucky to have a friend like you.”

“Thanks.”

It was quiet for a beat, until Mike decided to ask “So why were you in there again? Girls like you don’t…”

“Don’t what?” El asked, stopping.

“Nothing,” Mike responded, hoping he hadn’t upset her. “I was just...surprised, is all, that you were in detention.”

El began to walk again, and Mike mentally kicked himself, hoping he hadn’t just blown whatever chance he had with this girl.

“My friend Max,” El explained, “She was talking to me during a test, and the teacher caught me talking back to her.”

“And you’re the one that got in trouble?”

“Yep,” she nodded.

“That sucks.”

El nodded, and the two walked quietly for another minute. “So what happens when you’re grounded?” she finally asked.

“Well...I can’t hang out with my friends, which really sucks, because I had this big D & D campaign planned…” He paused, wincing, as he thought did I seriously just admit to playing Dungeons & Dragons?

El frowned. “D and D?”

“Yeah, it’s, uh...it’s this game we play.”

El shook her head. “I’ve never heard of it.”

“It’s, um, actually called Dungeons and Dragons. My friends and I call it D & D for short.”

“Oh. That I’ve heard of,” she said, smiling.

“Have you ever played?”

“No.”

“Oh.”

She hesitated, then asked “Is it hard to play?”

“Not really,” he answered. “Except for me, I’m the DM.” Stop talking stop talking , he said to himself.

“DM?”

“Yeah, it’s...it’s stupid.”

El smiled at him. “Is it some big secret?”

“Not really,” he answered. “Just embarrassing.”

“Well, now I have to know.”

Mike felt his cheeks turn pink, but he dodged answering, instead saying “So what do you do for fun?”

El grinned, remembering to come back to this “DM” thing later. “I like to do things with my best friend, Max.”

Mike nodded. “The one from this morning?”

“Yeah. We usually go to the movies, or go to the mall. She likes the arcade, too.”

“Oh, yeah? I do, too. My friends and I go there on the weekends a lot.” He frowned. “They were going there today, actually.”

El nodded. “Sorry you couldn’t go.”

He shrugged. “It’s not your fault.” A pause, then “What games do you guys play there?”

“I don’t really play,” El admitted. “But Max likes Dig Dug.”

Mike stopped. “Wait, is she Mad Max?”

“Yeah…?”

He grinned. “My friend Dustin plays Dig Dug, too. He’s, like, ob sessed with beating her high score.” He chuckled. “I can’t wait to tell him who she is.” They continued walking, and Mike added “Maybe we can all go there some time.”

“Yeah, maybe,” El said.

It got quiet again, until Mike asked, “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“What do you like to do?”

“Oh. Um, well...I like to read,” she said, thinking.

“Yeah, how’s The Outsiders going?”

“It’s okay. Still waiting for it to get better.”

Mike smiled. “What else?”

“I like to draw,” she admitted. “I’m not very good at it, but...I like it."

“My friend Will draws,” he commented.

“I like to watch…” She stopped, and Mike looked over to see her cheeks had turned a light shade of pink, which he thought was so cute .

“Watch what?” he asked, curious.

“Nothing.”

He grinned. “What do you like to watch?”

“It’s a secret.”

“I won’t tell anyone, I promise.”

“Good. I won’t tell anyone, either,” she said.

“Come on,” he said.

El smiled smugly. “Tell you what. You tell me what a DM is, and I’ll tell you what I like to watch.”

Mike chuckled. “Okay, okay.” Letting out a breath, he said “So in Dungeons & Dragons, a DM is a dungeon master. I, like, tell the story of what’s going on in the game.”

She nodded. “That’s kind of cool.”

“Thanks. I guess that’s why I like to write, you know? It’s fun, I like coming up with stories and stuff.”

Nodding, El told him “I like to watch soap operas.”

Mike stifled a laugh. “Really?”

“Yes,” she admitted. “I had the flu really bad when I was in the fifth grade, and I had to stay home for a week. I turned on the TV one day after a nap, and the Young and the Restless was on.” She shrugged. “I’ve been watching it since then.”

“That’s not too embarrassing,” he said. “My sister likes soap operas, too.”

El smiled, happy that he hadn’t made fun of her. Mike smiled for the same reason.

Soon they’d arrived at El’s street, and could see El’s home coming up, just a few houses down. Mike frowned slightly, not ready for this walk to be over; would he see her again, he wondered? “So,” he asked, “Any big plans this weekend?”

“Not really,” she answered. “Me and my friend Max will probably do something, maybe see a movie. What about you?”

“I’m still grounded, so I’ll probably be babysitting my little sister or something.”

“Or writing your DM stuff?”

He grinned. “They’re called campaigns. But...yeah, that too. If I’m bored, I could do my Rubix cube again.”

El stopped. “You solved a Rubik’s cube?”

“Yeah,” he answered. “It isn’t that hard. Why?”

She shook her head. “I don’t believe you.”

“Um…”

“I’ve been trying to solve mine for weeks now, and I can’t get it.”

“I can show you, if you want,” he offered.

El nodded, and the two walked to her house. Walking to the door, Mike started to wait on the porch as El unlocked the door and went inside. He was surprised, a moment later, when she came back, saying “You can come in, if you want.”

“Oh. Uh...alright,” he said, cautiously coming inside. He walked in, closing the door behind him.

“I’ll be right back,” El said, disappearing down the hallway.

Mike nodded as he made his way into the home, eventually taking a seat on the couch. So this is El Hopper’s house , he thought to himself. When he’d woken up this morning he definitely hadn’t thought that he’d be sitting here, in her living room. He thought he’d be…

Crap! He suddenly realized he was supposed to be home. Glancing at his calculator watch, he saw the time-nearly 4:30. He was supposed to have been home nearly a half hour ago.

Mike thought about telling El he needed to go, but that thought faded away when she came back into the room, smiling ever-so-slightly at him as she held out her Rubik’s cube.

“I’ve got to see this,” she said as he took the cube and she sat next to him.

“It might take me a minute,” he admitted, turning it in his hands. He slid the top row then frowned, seeing how it’d moved something he hadn’t intended. “Um…hold on.”

Next to him, El smiled as she watched Mike fiddle with the toy, and she wondered if he’d really ever solved the Rubik’s cube before. Mike, meanwhile, was beginning to feel his ears turn red from embarrassment that he hadn’t solved this yet.

“I thought it wasn’t hard?” she joked.

“It, um...it’s not,” he answered, inwardly cursing as he messed up another row. “I guess I, uh...should’ve been honest before.”

“You’ve never solved it?”

“No, I have, I just...it took me a while.”

“How long?”

“Um...about two months.”

El suppressed a laugh, making Mike definitely aware that he was blushing. “I’m sorry,” El said, putting a hand on his shoulder as she sensed his embarrassment.

“It’s okay,” Mike muttered.

“No, it’s not,” she continued. “I shouldn’t have laughed. I’m sorry.”

Mike nodded, but was still in awe that her hand remained on his shoulder. “You have a nice house,” he commented.

“Thanks,” she said, removing her hand. In the process of offering comfort, she’d moved closer to Mike.

“Have you guys…” Mike was cut off as they heard a key slide into the front door. Both teens got wide eyed as the door opened and Hawkin’s chief of police, Jim Hopper, strode in.

“El, why’s the door unlocked? You’ve got to remember…” Hopper paused as he saw the two kids in front of him, sitting close to one another. “Huh.”

“Um….” El said, putting a gap between she and the boy next to her, “Dad, this is my, um…..a friend from school. Mike.”

“Hi, Mike,” the chief said, eyes going from his daughter to the deer-in-headlights-looking kid next to her. “I guess that’s your bike in the driveway?”

“Uh...yes, sir.”

The chief nodded. “Sorry if I’m interrupting, but El ,” he said, his eyes going to his daughter, “didn’t tell me she was inviting somebody over.”

El shrugged. “It kind of just...happened.”

Mike glanced between father and daughter before he mumbled “Um...it’s okay. I was about to leave, anyway.”

El felt herself frown as he stood, not ready for her time with Mike to be over just yet.

“You can stay, if you want,” the chief said, though both Mike and El knew the offer wasn’t sincere.

“No, I, uh, I’ve got to get home anyway, so…” Mike glanced down at El. “I’ll see you on Monday.”

“Okay,” she said, giving him a smile. El watched as he maneuvered around her father before getting to the door. Before he left, his eyes met hers and he gave her a friendly smile before leaving.

“Well he seems nice,” her dad said after the door closed, the statement laced with sarcasm.

“We weren’t doing anything,” El told him.

“I don’t care, you can’t have a boy over when I’m not home.”

“I know, we just...we walked home together and he wanted to show me something.”

“How come I’ve never heard of him before?”

“We just met yesterday,” she admitted.

“Uh-huh. You met yesterday and he’s a friend that you invite inside?”

“We were just talking,” El explained.

Jim sighed. He didn’t like the situation, but El had never given him any reason to believe she’d be up to something she shouldn’t be. “I believe you,” he said after a moment. “Just...don’t let it happen again, okay?”

“Okay,” she said, nodding.

Jim nodded as well, before adding “He really did seem nice.”

El smirked as the house phone rang. Getting up, she went to the kitchen to answer it, knowing it would be Max.

“I can’t do anything tonight,” Max said after the two girls greeted one another. “My mom wants us all to go out to dinner. How about tomorrow? We could go to the mall, or the arcade?” Before El could respond, though, Max said “Never mind. I know you think it’s boring.”

El almost said Mike was just talking about that before she stopped herself, and instead said “I’ll go.”

“What? But you don’t really play video games.”

She was right. Though Max usually liked going to the arcade on her own, sometimes El would tag along with her. She’d never gotten into the whole video game craze like most kids her age; and besides, the Palace smelled like grease and it was too noisy sometimes. But she’d like to be able to talk to Mike about it, maybe give it a try and see if there were any games she liked.

“I know,” she finally told Max. “But it’s never too late to try, right?”

“Right,” Max agreed. “What made you change your mind?”

“I don’t know,” El said. “I just wanted to try something different.” The girls continued their conversation; but in the back of El’s head, she started to wonder: do I like Mike Wheeler?

Chapter Text

Once he left the Hopper’s house, Mike pedaled like crazy to get to his home. How could I be so stupid? He asked himself. Yes, she’s pretty and yes I wanted to talk to her but I’m grounded, you goof!

In record time he arrived at the house at the end of the cul-de-sac, and after jumping off his bike, walked it into the garage. His dad wasn’t home yet, which was kind of good; though his mother was the disciplinarian, his dad always backed her up. With any luck, he could sneak into the basement and play it off like he’d been home for a while, asleep on the couch, or working on his campaign quietly.

After going around the house, he made his way to the basement door and carefully opened it, sneaking a peek inside; no sign of his mom. Letting out a sigh of relief he walked in, softly clicking the door shut behind him. Quietly tossing his backpack onto the couch, he took a seat next to it as he took a moment to think of a plan.

That’s when he heard a door open.

It was the upstairs door, the one that led into the kitchen. And a second later he heard the familiar clicking of his mother’s shoes as she made her way down the stairs.

“Uh...hi, mom,” he uttered as she reached the bottom step.

Putting her hands on her hips, Karen Wheeler asked “Where were you?”

“Um...I...what do you mean?”

“I mean it’s 4:45 and if I remember correctly, you were supposed to be home by four at the latest. So where were you?”

He sighed. “I was walking a friend home.”

“You’re grounded , Michael. Will or Dustin or Lucas can walk home by themselves, you were supposed to be home at four.”

“It wasn’t one of them, it was...someone else.”

That got Karen to pause for a second, no doubt surprised that her son had a new friend. “I don’t care who it was, you didn’t follow the rules.”

“So...am I...more grounded?”

“You will be if this happens again,” she answered, unfolding her arms.

Mike nodded his head, understanding. “Thanks.”

“Don’t thank me, just don’t do it again,” she responded. “Dinner’ll be in an hour.”

Mike went to get his notebook out when his mom turned, right before going upstairs. “Who’d you walk home?”

Mike looked up. “Huh?”

“Who’s the friend you walked home?”

“Oh. It was, uh...somebody I met in detention.” When his mom began to say something, Mike continued with “I didn’t want her to walk by herself. That’s all, promise.”

Karen sighed, but then said “Okay. But next time tell me, so I don’t think you’re just out disobeying me.”

“Okay,” he said, nodding.

Karen nodded too, and went upstairs, smiling at something her son had said: I didn’t want her to walk by herself.

Since Max couldn’t go out, El spent the evening hanging out with her father. The two ordered pizza and found a movie to watch on TV.

“So tell me about this boy,” Jim asked El when a commercial came up.

“What boy?” El asked, knowing very well who he meant.

Her dad made a face, knowing she was stalling. “You know what boy.”

El swallowed the pizza she was eating before answering. “There’s not much to tell, dad. His name’s Mike. He’s nice.”

“Mm-hm,” Jim said, reaching for a napkin. “You two have a class together or something?”

“No, we, um...just met.”

Jim looked skeptically at his daughter, knowing she was keeping something to herself but not wanting to pry too much. “Uh-huh. Does he have a girlfriend?”

“ Dad ,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“What? I’m just asking.”

El smirked. “Sure.”

Jim grinned himself. His daughter didn’t really talk to him about boys, but even he could see the telltale signs of a crush developing. “You want to have him over again sometime, you can. Just...let me know, okay?”

El nodded. “Okay.”

There was a lull for a while, as the movie came back on. At the next commercial break, Jim got up to get a beer. When he sat back down, though, he asked “So did you just run into him in the hallway or something?”

“What?”

“Mike.”

“Why are you so interested in Mike?”

“If there’s some boy flirting with my daughter…”

“It’s not like that,” she said. “We met in detention and…” She paused, eyes going wide as she realized her slip.

Jim, the beer at his lips, paused. “You met where ?”

El sighed, not knowing how to talk her way out of this. “We met in detention.”

Jim put his beer down. “And why were you in detention?”

El told him about the incident with Max and her science teacher. When she finished, Jim leaned back on the couch, rubbing his face. “So you had detention yesterday and didn’t tell me?”

“Yes,” she answered.

“And that’s where you and this Mike kid met.”

“Yes.”

“What was he in for?”

“Somebody was picking on his friend, and Mike, he...pushed him or something.”

“Hm.” There was another lull, and El began to worry; she’d rather her dad yell at her (something he rarely did) than give her the silent treatment. Finally, he asked “Why didn’t you tell me?”

She shrugged her shoulders. “I was afraid of how you’d react.”

Jim sighed. “Well I’m glad you told me what was going on, but…”

“But what?”

“You’re gonna have to be grounded, El. For lying, and for having the boy over.”

“Okay.”

“So…” Jim thought for a minute; he’d honestly never had to ground her before. “No Max tomorrow.”

“Okay,” she repeated.

The movie came back on, and they both settled back into the couch. El wasn’t thrilled about having to stay home tomorrow, but was glad she hadn’t gotten two weeks like Mike.

On Saturday Mike’s parents went out, forcing him to have to watch his little sister, Holly. He spent his time doing homework and wrapping up the campaign as Holly played with her Barbies in front of the television. As he worked he thought about El Hopper, and everything that’d happened yesterday. From walking her home, to going into her house…

To her dad nearly scaring the literal crap out of him.

Despite that last detail, he was happy he’d walked her home, even if it did mean he got in trouble with his mother. It’d been nice getting to know El, learning what she liked to do. He was hoping he’d get the chance to walk with her again, or at least see her, when school picked up on Monday.

He felt himself starting to like her.

A few days ago he’d tried not to think of El like that , as he knew that she would never go for a nerd like him. But they’d seen each other a few times now, and it genuinely seemed like she didn’t mind talking to him. Most girls were grossed out by he and his friends (what with them being losers and all), but El Hopper seemed different. Mike Wheeler was by no means an expert with girls, but he hoped that if they got to know each other more, maybe they’d be friends; or with any luck, something else.

About an hour into watching his sister the phone rang, and Mike got up to get it. “Hello?”

“Jeez, where’ve you been?” Lucas’s voice asked. “I’ve been calling you on the walkie for the past ten minutes.”

“Oh. I don’t know where my walkie is,” Mike admitted.

“Are you still grounded?”

“Yeah,” Mike reminded his friend. “It’s only been, like, two days.” Changing the subject, he asked “How was it at the Palace yesterday?”

“Pretty cool,” Lucas admitted. Chuckling, he said “Dustin still can’t beat Mad Max’s score-whoever that is.”

“Oh!” Mike said, smiling. “I know who Mad Max is.”

“You do? Who is it?”

“Remember that redheaded girl from yesterday?”

“No.”

“The one El Hopper was talking to. In the hallway.”

“Uh...yeah! What about her? Wait...that was Mad Max?”

“Yeah.”

A pause, then Lucas asked “Mad Max is a girl?”

Mike laughed. “That’s what I thought.”

“How do you know?”

“El told me.”

“When were you talking to El?”

“Uh...I, um...yesterday after school.”

“Didn’t you just go home?”

“Kind of.”

“What’s that mean?”

“We, uh...we kind of walked home together.”

Another pause, then Lucas asked “You mean you walked her home?”

“No...we just...sort of...walked the same way, and talked. She’s pretty cool.”

“So you like El Hopper now?”

“ No ,” Mike said, though even he wasn’t sure if he was telling the truth or lying. “She’s...we’re friends, I guess.”

“Uh-huh. Friends. And that’s why you gave her a ride home one day, walk ed her home the next, and had that awkward conversation before school yesterday.”

“It wasn’t awkward.”

Lucas chuckled. “Yes it was.”

Mike thought for a moment, recalling the conversation he’d had with El on Friday morning. It wasn’t that bad , he thought.

But just as he was about to tell his friend so, his little sister called his name from the other room. “I’ve got to go,” he told Lucas. “I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

“Keep your walkie on you,” he heard Lucas say as he hung up the phone. He then went to go see what Holly needed.

At the Hopper’s house, Jim Hopper was getting ready to head out to work. He and El had just had a late breakfast before he had to go in.

“I’ll be back around 8,” the chief said as he fastened his holster. “Think you can hold down the fort until then?”

“Yes,” she said. El sat at the table, finishing off her plate. She’d been glum since she’d woken up, knowing she would have to stay home all day.

Sensing this, Jim said “It’s only one day, El, you’ll be fine.”

She nodded, just as there was a knock at the front door. “I’ve got it,” her father said. El, done eating, picked up her plate and dropped it off in the sink just as she heard her father’s voice, talking. When he heard a certain name-“Max”-she made her way over.

Her friend stood in the doorway, skateboard under her arm as she looked at the chief. Seeing El, she cast a confused look at her friend. “You’re groun ded?”

“Yes,” El said quietly.

“For what?”

Chief Hopper sighed. “I’ll give you two a minute,” he told them.

“Why didn’t you call?” El whispered as she traded spots with her dad.

“I didn’t know I needed to,” Max said. “Is this because of the thing in science?”

El nodded.

“Then let me tell your dad it was my fault, so you won’t be grounded.”

But El shook her head. “It won’t matter. It’s because I lied.”

Max frowned. “Well that sucks.” Peeking over El’s shoulder, she saw Jim Hopper in the kitchen. She whispered to El “He’s going to work, right? Just sneak out when he leaves.”

“ Max ,” El whispered back, “You know I’m not going to do that.”

Max sighed, defeated. “Fine.” A little louder, she said “I’ll see you tomorrow, then, El.” She winked at her friend, then turned to leave. At the end of the sidewalk, she put her skateboard down and rolled away.

El, not sure what that wink was about, closed the door.

“You two good?” her dad asked.

“I guess.”

“Okay. See you later, kid.” Kissing the top of her head, he went out the front door.

When he left, El sat in front of the TV, doodling in the notebook where she kept her sketches. She’d been drawing for about fifteen minutes when she heard a tapping at the back door of the house.

Getting up from the couch, El peeked into the kitchen, where the backdoor was. A curtain covered the window part of the door, so she couldn’t see if there was someone there.The tapping resumed, followed by a familiar voice saying “El! El, it’s me, open up!”

Max.

Rolling her eyes, El walked to the door and pulled up the curtain, revealing her friend.

“Hey.”

“Max,” El told her, “I’m not going to sneak out.”

“Why not?”

“I’m grounded, Max; come on.”

“You’re for real?”

“Yes, I’m for real. My dad said I have to stay home, so I’m staying home.”

Deflated, Max asked “So I have to go to the arcade by myself?”

“You go by yourself all the time anyway, it shouldn’t matter.”

Max nodded. A fly flew on the glass between the two girls, and she swatted it away. “I know, I was just looking forward to hanging out with you.”

El shrugged. “I can go tomorrow.”

“I can’t believe you got grounded just for telling a little lie.”

“It wasn’t just that,” El said before she had a second to think. “Mike came over and he…”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Max said, interrupting. “You had a boy over? When?”

“Yesterday, after school.”

“Why would you get in trouble for that?”

“Because my dad wasn’t home.”

“Oh.” Taking a moment to think, Max asked “Who’d you have over?”

El felt herself blush a little, a tell she hoped Max didn’t see. “Um...no one.”

“It was that boy that was ogling you, wasn’t it?”

“Mike wasn’t ogling me,” El retorted.

“So it was him?”

Sighing, El answered “Yes.”

Max grinned. “Why was he over?”

Reluctantly, El gave Max a quick rundown of what’d happened between leaving school yesterday and eating with her dad last night. When she finished, Max was smiling.

“You like him, don’t you?”

“I never said that,” El responded.

“But you didn’t deny it, either.”

“I don’t…” El stopped, because she didn’t want to lie to Max, but she also still needed to gauge her own feelings about Mike. “He’s nice,” she clarified. “And funny. And...we’re friends, I guess.” When Max began to say something, El said “ Just friends.”

Still, Max was smiling. “You are such a bad liar, El. You like him.”

“Max,” El said, folding her arms, “Please stop.”

Max looked like she had more to say, but she let it go. “Alright. I’ll see you tomorrow, then, I guess.”

El nodded. “Fine. Bye.”

Giving a wave, Max skated off, with El closing the curtain once she was gone. Going back to the couch, her mind wandered to Mike Wheeler. She was beginning to think that Max was right, that she did have a crush on him. She’d told Max the truth-he was nice, and he was funny. What she hadn’t told her friend was that she thought he was cute, too, and she wished she could spend more time with him. El had never really thought about dating any of the boys at school-she was only in eighth grade, plus most of the boys seemed like morons. Having a dad who carried a gun played a part, too. She’d had a few crushes-there was Luke Smith in fifth grade, Jacob Wallace in last year’s Spanish class-but nothing ever came of it. Would something come of she and Mike?

That thought stayed with her as she sat back on the couch and continued to draw.

Chapter Text

When Sunday came, El was thrilled that her twenty-four hours of grounding was finally up. Saturday seemed to take forever to pass, and now that it was over she was looking forward to getting out of the house. She’d spent most of her day in doodling and reading The Outsiders in an attempt to jump ahead on her assignment. She’d watched a little television and yes , had thought about Mike Wheeler. She’d wondered how Mike had spent his Saturday. She knew he was grounded for two weeks and couldn’t really do much, but still, she was curious. The D & D campaign, probably, she figured.

Sunday morning typically consisted of she and her dad (who usually had the day off) making breakfast together before sitting down and eating. They alternated doing dishes each week, and luckily for El, this happened to be a dad dishes week. So after cleaning up her dishes, she made a phone call to Max and the girls agreed to meet up.

El met her friend outside of the arcade a half an hour later. El’s dad had dropped her off before returning home, and she’d been waiting ten minutes before she heard the roar of Max’s stepbrother’s car coming down the road. El watched as the car came to a stop near where she stood, and Max got out, arguing with Billy about what time he was supposed to come back. Max yelled two hours, while Billy said something else that El couldn’t tell. Max slammed the door shut right as Billy peeled out of the parking lot.

Shaking her head, Max made her way over to El. “Hate him,” she said under her breath.

“My dad can give you a ride home, if you want,” El offered.

Max sighed, then smiled a little at El. “So how was your first official grounding?”

“I don’t even know if I can call it grounding; it was only one day.”

“Uh-huh. I still can’t believe you had a boy over without your dad knowing.”

“We just talked,” El said, shrugging her shoulders.

“Right. What was his name again?”

“Mike.”

“Yeah. Mike. I’m telling you, El, he’s got a crush on you.”

“Max, no he doesn’t,” she said. But I may have a crush on him , El thought to herself.

Max grinned. “So, you ready to play some games? Do you have any quarters?”

El jiggled her pockets, the change inside making a shh shh sound.

“Awesome. I gotta play Dig Dug first, make sure my high score’s intact.”

The two girls walked inside. El was reminded, right away, why she wasn’t the biggest fan of The Palace. It was so loud, what with the noises coming from the machines as well as the kids yelling to or at one another. The smell of pizza grease and unwashed carpets wafted up to her nose, too.

They made their way to Dig Dug, and El watched as Max put in a quarter and began playing. El always found this part funny. Max was one of the least serious people she knew, but she took her video gaming extremely serious. She watched as Max spent the next five minutes in full gaming mode, eyes glued to the screen as she pounded away on the buttons in front of her. Besides the occasional swear word, she didn’t say much.

Finally, after a few minutes, Max sighed and turned away. “Alright. I’ve still got the high score.” Looking to El, she asked “What do you want to play?”

“Um…” She looked around, unsure. “I don’t know. Is there anything...easy?”

Max smiled. “Oh El, you’re so adorable. Come on, I think Mrs. Pac-Man’s open.”

El had played Mrs. Pac-Man before, but for some reason she seemed to struggle with it today. After El went through almost two dollars playing the game, the girls found an air hockey game to play.

“So why’d you want to come here, anyway?” Max asked as the girls played.

“I wanted to make up for yesterday,” El said. Which was partially true. She also wanted to have something to talk about with Mike. “What did you end up doing, anyway?”

“I went home,” Max said, slapping the puck hard; El managed to block it, but barely. Max always played rough. “Just skated around my neighborhood and watched TV.”

“Hm.” El put the puck down and hit it towards Max, who easily blocked it.

“If you want, we can still see a movie,” Max suggested.

“We could,” El said. “I want to play another game first.”

When their air hockey game came to an end-with El pulling out a surprising upset-the girls debated what to do next. Eventually they walked back to where Dig Dug was, and saw a group of three boys surrounding the machine.

One of the boys, a curly haired male with a trucker cap on, was pounding on the buttons, swearing and yelling at the screen.

“Dustin, jeez, calm down,” the boy on the right side said.

“Yeah, you’re never gonna beat that score,” the boy on the left, smaller than the other two, said.

The boy in the middle, Dustin, swore again before saying “I had the stupid high score before this stupid Mad Max stole it.”

Next to El, Max snickered.

“I still can’t believe Mad Max is a girl,” the boy, Dustin, said.

“That’s what Mike said,” the boy on the right stated.

“Girls don’t even play video games,” the smaller boy said.

Max, apparently, decided now was the time to make her presence felt. “I can hear you, you know,” she said, causing the other boys to turn around.

The one with the hat-Dustin-squinted at Max. “Who’re you?”

One of the boys hit Dustin’s shoulder. “Dude. That’s her .”

Dustin looked back at Max, befuddled. “Wait... you’re Mad Max?”

“Yeah,” Max responded, giving the boys a “duh” face.

“How did you get that score?” one of the other boys asked her.

“It’s not that hard,” she said, shrugging it off as if it were no big deal.

“Yeah,” the smaller boy said, “But it’s…” He glanced at the screen. “751 thousand, three hundred .”

“That’s impossible,” Dustin said. “No one can get that.”

Max shook her head and eased between the boys. “Watch and learn, losers.” She deposited quarters into the console, and El watched again as her friend entered “the zone.” El-and the boys-was so caught up in watching Max attack the buttons that she almost didn’t notice when one of the boys quietly said El’s name.

“You’re El Hopper, right?” he asked.

El stole her eyes from Max. “Y-yeah.”

“I’m Lucas,” he told her.

“Um...okay.”

He smiled. “You’ve been talking to my friend? Mike?”

At the mention of Mike’s name, El felt all of her attention turn to Lucas. “Yes?”

“He told me you guys have been walking home together.”

“Oh. Sort of,” she said.

“He thinks you’re cool.”

El felt herself blush slightly. “I...think he’s cool, too.” They continued to watch Max play for a moment, before El spoke up, saying “It’s too bad he was grounded. I kind of wanted to see him play.”

“Well, he sucks at Dig Dug,” Lucas said, which got El to crack a smile. “But he’s not too bad at Pole Position and Centipede. I totally kick his ass at Dungeon’s Lair, though.”

In front of them, Max muttered “Dammit” as she lost her life.

“See? Told you it wasn’t possible,” Dustin said to her.

“Screw you, it’s still higher than yours,” Max said, pointing at the screen.

“Yeah? Just watch?” Dustin began to dig into his pockets but paused, after not finding what he was looking for. He looked to his friends. “Will?”

“I told you, I only had a dollar,” Will said.

Dustin turned to the boy next to El. “Lucas?”

“Just give it up, man,” Lucas said, shaking his head. “She’s obviously much better than you.”

“Thank you,” Max said, smiling at him. Lucas smiled back.

Dustin rolled his eyes. “You guys suck.”

A horn honked from outside, and Max glanced at her watch. “Already?” she muttered. Looking to El, she said “I’ve gotta go.”

The two girls began to leave. El paused, though, and turned back to Lucas, saying “Tell Mike I said hi.”

He nodded as she went to catch up with her friend.

*

At the Wheeler home, Mike sat on his bed, currently staring at the ceiling of his bedroom, and bored out of his mind. He had, since he’d woken up this morning: finished his D & D campaign, completed his homework, washed the dishes, and cleaned his room.

Looking at the clock on his nightstand, he sighed when he saw the time; only seven more hours before he had to go to sleep.

He hated this. There was no way he’d be able to make it through two weeks. He was still holding out hope that his mom would reverse his grounding, but things weren’t looking good so far. Not only did he want to see his friends, but he wanted to see El Hopper as well. He’d only known her for a short amount of time, but he was beginning to really like her. He was curious if she’d gotten into trouble about him being over on Friday; her dad hadn’t seemed too happy to see Mike sitting on the couch. 

Maybe, he hoped, he’d see her tomorrow. Maybe walk her home again? That reminded him of something.

Getting up, Mike left his room and went next door to his sister, Nancy’s, room. The door was open a crack, but he knocked anyway.

“What, Mike?” he heard his sister say. He entered and saw his sister sitting cross-legged on her bed, music playing as she flipped through a magazine.

“Nancy, do you still have that book? The, uh...The Outsiders?”

Nancy looked skeptically at her brother. “I thought you weren’t taking Mr. Finley’s class.”

“I’m not,” he said. “But, uh…” He shrugged. “I’m bored, being grounded. And you said you liked it, so I thought maybe I’d read it.”

She shrugged her shoulders as she began climbing off the bed. Going to her bookshelf, she scanned the titles on the shelf before pulling out the desired book. Handing it to her brother, she said “Let me know what you think.”

“Thanks,” he said, taking it and returning to his room. Closing the door, he looked at the cover, then flipped it and skimmed the summary on the back. In truth, he had no desire to read the story; but he knew that El Hopper was reading it as an assignment, and it would give them something to talk about. So, somewhat reluctantly, he sat on his bed and opened the book.

*

By the next morning he’d read most of the book, and remembered a few talking points in case he saw El today. Before he left for school, Mike told his mom he would be walking his new friend home (if the opportunity arose).

“Michael, what’s this friend’s name?” his mother asked him on his way out.

“Um...El,” he said as rushed out the door.

After getting his bike from the garage, he walked it into the driveway-and was surprised to see his friend Lucas waiting for him.

“What’re you doing here?” Mike asked.

Lucas grinned. “Yeah, it’s good to see you, too, Mike.”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” Mike responded. “I didn’t know you were coming over, is all.”

The two boys got onto their bikes and began the ride to school. 

“So, did I miss anything?” Mike asked once they’d exited the cul-de-sac.

“We went to the arcade yesterday.”

“Again? I thought you guys were there on Friday.”

“We were, but Dustin wanted to get his high score back on Dig Dug.”

Mike nodded. “Did you tell him about Mad Max?”

“Yeah,” Lucas answered. “She was there, too.”

Mike laughed. “Really?”

“She and Dustin kind of got into it.” Lucas waited a beat before continuing, saying “And, uh, El Hopper was there, too.”

Mike nearly fell off his bike, but was able to regain his composure quickly. “She...she was?”

“Yep,” Lucas said, nodding. “She says hi, by the way.”

Mike felt himself grin, cutting it off before Lucas said something about it. “That’s weird. She told me she doesn’t really like The Palace.”

“Oh. She said she wanted to see you play a game.”

“She did?” Mike felt himself in the early stages of blushing. He shook his head before saying “That’s strange.”

“I think she likes you,” Lucas said as Hawkins Middle came into view.

“What? No ,” Mike said, but he felt his heartbeat pick up after Lucas said that. “We’re just friends, that’s all.”

“Uh-huh. You gonna walk her home today?”

“Maybe,” Mike answered before thinking. He then added “Shut up.”

Lucas grinned.

They arrived at school and parked their bikes at the bike rack, where they found Dustin and Will waiting. The four boys then made their way into the building.

“How was your weekend, Mike?” Will asked as they got inside.

Before Mike could answer, though, Dustin cut him off, saying “We met Mad Max!”

“I already told him,” Lucas said.

“It was that girl from the other day, the one with El Hopper?”

“Yeah, Dustin, I know,” Mike replied as they arrived at the boys lockers. “I’m the one who told Lucas.”

“I’m gonna beat her score,” Dustin exclaimed.

“No you’re not,” Will said.

“Uh-huh. Just you wait, Byers.”

The boys finished getting their books for the morning, and were about to head to their first class of the day. As Mike closed his locker, though, he saw El walking his way.

“Guys,” he said, calling softly to his friends. The other boys turned and followed Mike’s gaze.

“Hey,” El said when she made her way over.

“Hey,” Mike said back. “How are you?”

“Good.” El saw the other boys watching, and gave them a small wave hello.

“I heard you went to The Palace yesterday,” Mike said to El.

“Yeah,” she said, blushing a little. “Max wanted to go, so I went with her.” She frowned before asking “How was your weekend?”

“It was okay, I guess,” he responded. “It just sucks, being grounded, you know?”

“Yeah, I bet,” she said, squeezing her backpack straps.

“Hey El,” another voice said, and the two turned to see Max coming over. The redhead stopped by the two and looked at Mike. “Did she tell you how you got her grounded?”

“ Max ,” El said, blushing from embarrassment.

“You got grounded?” Mike asked, surprised.

“It wasn’t really being grounded,” El said, glaring at Max. Max seemed to get the hint, and said “Um...I’ll see you in algebra.” She walked off.

“Was it because of me?” Mike asked El.

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “My dad, he found out about detention.”

“Oh.”

“And I couldn’t leave the house on Saturday.”

The bell rang, signaling that classes would begin soon.

“Um...I’ve got to go,” she told him. “Algebra.”

“Right,” Mike said. He still wanted to talk to her, though, so before she turned to leave, he said “Um...if you want, you and Max can eat with us at lunch.”

El looked surprised. “Oh. Okay.”

“I mean...you don’t have to, just...if you wanted, I mean.”

El nodded. “Where do you sit?”

“We’re usually at one of the back tables,” Mike explained. “By the outside doors?”

“Okay,” she said, nodding and smiling. She called out “bye” before turning to leave.

Mike was unable to focus during his next few classes, as he was so excited about eating with El. When lunchtime finally arrived, he was a bundle of nerves as his leg nervously danced under the table.

He’d told his friends about the girls joining them today; they’d all seemed fine with it, with Lucas saying “I knew you had a crush on her.”

“No, I don’t ,” Mike had retorted. But the way he’d spent his weekend reading a book so he could talk to her, plus the butterflies currently taking up residence in his stomach made him know that that probably wasn’t the case anymore.

A minute later he saw El and her friend Max navigating their way to their table. Mike felt himself beginning to smile at seeing her, but stopped it so his friends wouldn’t make fun of him.

“Hi,” El said when the two girls arrived.

The boys said hi, and the two girls took a seat at the table, with El across from Mike. Max sat on El’s right, next to Dustin and across from Lucas.

The conversation began as communal, with the girls telling the boys where they usually sat, and griping about classes. After about five minutes, though, the talk began to splinter out, with Max, Dustin, Lucas, and Will talking about Dig Dug, and El and Mike having a conversation of their own.

“So you really got grounded?” Mike asked her.

Her cheeks pinkened a little before she answered, saying “Yeah.”

“What happened?”

El sighed. She wanted to tell him, but she knew that if she did then she’d reveal it was because she’d been talking about Mike. So instead she answered with “We were talking about school, and it just sort of slipped out.”

“Oh. I’m sorry.”

El shook her head. “I should’ve told him in the first place.” Smiling at Mike, she added “It was my first time ever being grounded.”

He returned the smile. “At least you only got a day. Your dad’s cool.” Even if he *does* scare me , Mike thought.

El frowned. “Your mom still hasn’t come around?”

“No, not yet.”

“Give her some time,” El suggested. “She will.”

“I hope so.” They ate their food for a moment before Mike asked “So how’d you like The Palace?”

“It was okay. I played a couple of games.”

“Oh, yeah? Which ones?”

“Well...okay, just one , but...I really liked it. Mrs. Pac-Man.”

Mike nodded.

“Your friend Lucas, he, um, said you like playing Pole Position? And, uh, Dragon’s Lair?”

“Yeah. I suck at Dragon’s Lair, though.”

She smiled.

“Maybe sometime we can go together,” he suggested. Realizing his wording, he added “I mean, like...all of us.”

“Sure.”

Mike let out a mental phew and was about to ask her about The Outsiders when the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. The conversations ended as the group gathered their trash, with Mike wondering whether or not he should ask El to meet after school for another walk home.

He was surprised when, after putting on her backpack, she’d turned to him and said “I’ll see you after school?”

The surprise must’ve shown on his face, because she began to backpedal with “Um...if you want to, I mean. I could always just catch a ride with Max, or…”

“No,” Mike said, interrupting her. “I’ll see you after school.”

“Okay,” she said, smiling shyly.

“Okay,” he said back.

“Mike! Class!” Dustin called from a few feet away.

Mike and El said goodbye, then the group headed off to their next classes.

*

When school was over for the day, Mike went to his locker to get what he’d need for the night’s homework. He’d just closed his locker when his friends arrived, their classes done for the day, too.

“You ready to go, Mike?” Dustin asked.

“Uh...no,” Mike answered. “You guys can go ahead.”

Lucas grinned, knowingly. “Let me guess: you’re walking home with El Hopper?”

“Well, yeah,” Mike said, trying to play it off as no big deal. “We go the same way.”

“We all do,” Lucas said.

“You can walk with us,” Mike offered, though he was both doubtful they’d come along, and also somewhat hoping they wouldn’t.

“No,” Dustin said. “We’ll let you lovebirds go on your date.”

“It’s not a date,” Mike said.

“Are you going to at least come to A/V Club tomorrow?” Lucas asked.

“Yeah, I’ll be there,” Mike confirmed. “See you tomorrow?”

The boys said goodbye, and Mike made his way outside to the bike rack, all the while thinking about this “thing” he had with El Hopper. Obviously, walking home together didn’t mean they were dating; but the fact that she’d been the one to ask that they meet, and his quickness to do so made him wonder where this was going. Did she like him?

He knew that he liked her; whether or not he’d officially call this a crush was something he had to think about (though everything told him things were leaning that way). But how did she feel about him? Guys like Mike “Frog Face” Wheeler didn’t usually end up with girls like El Hopper; it just didn’t happen.

Still, he had hope.

After walking his bike between students exiting for the day, he found El waiting near the steps, talking to her friend Max. Max glanced at Mike as he walked over, and whispered something to El. She swatted her friend, then the two girls came down the steps.

“Hey,” Mike said.

“Hi,” El responded.

“I gotta go,” Max said to her friend. “Call me when you get home.”

El nodded as Max walked off.

“Does she take the bus?” Mike asked, as he and El began to walk.

“No, she has a brother in high school. He drives her.”

“Oh. That’s cool.” They walked quietly, putting a few feet between them and the school, when Mike asked “Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

“No,” she answered. “Just me. You have a...sister, right?”

“Two,” he said. “A big one and a little one.”

They got alongside the road, and Mike offered to give her a ride on his bike, but she turned it down once more, wanting to walk. So they continued on.

“Can I ask you a question?” Mike asked.

“Okay…”

“This morning, your friend Max, she said you got grounded because of me.”

Oh, no , El thought to herself. “My dad,” she admitted, “He was asking about you.”

“Oh.”

“Just...how I knew you, and stuff like that. And I accidentally said we met in detention.”

“Oh. I’m sorry.”

“It isn’t your fault,” she said, shaking her head. “I should have told him to begin with.”

Again, it was quiet for a moment before Mike asked “Hey, uh, how’s your book going?”

El shrugged her shoulders. “It’s alright. It’s starting to get better, like you said.”

“Who’s your favorite character?”

She stopped, surprised. “Did you read it?”

“Some of it,” he said shyly. “I was kind of bored, you know, being grounded. And I thought maybe I’d see what the big deal was.”

She smiled, as the two continued their walk. “I like Johnny,” she said.

“Really? Not Ponyboy?”

“He’s okay, but Johnny just seems like a good friend.” Looking to Mike, she asked “Where are you at in the book?”

“Um...Ponyboy was going to see Johnny in the hospital, but he…”

“He what?”

“Nothing. I don’t want to ruin it. Where are you?”

She smiled. “The same spot. I was just thinking not to ruin it for you.”

They both laughed as they continued their walk.

As they turned a corner, Mike asked “What did you think…” But was interrupted as they passed a gate. A rottweiler dog came rushing at them from the other side, barking. The sudden noise surprised both of them, causing Mike to drop his bike as he and El backed away from the fence.

“Jeez,” Mike said, catching his breath. Looking to El, he asked “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” she said, gasping as well. “It just...scared me for a second.”

The dog had stopped barking, but was watching the two curiously. That’s when both Mike and El realized that in the suddenness of the situation, they had grabbed each other’s hands. Both of them looked down at their entwined hands, then quickly let go, with Mike picking up his bike as El looked away shyly.

“Um...are you ready?” he asked her.

“Yeah,” she said, nodding. The two continued on, both thinking about what’d just happened.

Chapter Text

As the school week passed, Mike and El began to see each other more regularly. Whether it was walking home, talking at lunch, or passing each other in the hallway, their socializing definitely kicked up a gear.

From time to time, though, both of them would think about the incident with the dog, which resulted in them holding hands. Mike kept thinking about how soft El’s hand felt in his own, while El was just amazed at how quick she’d been to take Mike’s hand into hers. By this point, both of them were all but sure that they had somewhat of a crush on the other, though neither knew whether or not they should-or how -to act on it.

Their friends began noticing things as well: stolen glances when the other wasn’t looking, the smiles that tended to linger when they saw each other in the hallway, or the new routine of walking home together (which was quickly becoming the highlight of both of their days). Thankfully for Mike and El, their friends didn’t tease them too much about it.

When Friday finally came and the school day ended, the two found themselves walking side by side on their usual route as they headed towards the Hopper house. They talked mostly of school; but after a while, El asked Mike how he was spending his weekend.

The freckled boy shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe get a head start on my history assignment. Or watch a movie.”

“At least it’s almost over,” El offered. “The two weeks is up pretty soon, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” he said, nodding his head. “Next week it’ll be over. Finally .”

El smiled.

“What about you, what’re your big plans this weekend?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I might start my paper on my paper on The Outsiders ; it’s due Wednesday.”

Mike nodded. Turning a corner, they passed a familiar spot-where, a few days ago, a dog had come barking at them. It was now a routine spot they’d passed, but ever since that day, both of them would grow silent as they walked by, reimagining the touch of the other’s hand in theirs.

They continued on their path, both scrambling for a way to quell the silence, when El asked “What’re you going to do on your first day of freedom?”

“Huh?”

“When your grounding ends. What’s your big plans?”

This wasn’t the first time she’d asked this week, but Mike still hadn’t given her an answer. Taking a moment to think, he finally said, “Well, there is the D & D campaign I’ve been writing. Maybe have my friends over and play?”

El nodded, satisfied.

“Maybe, um...sometime you could play with us?” Mike asked, before realizing what he’d said. “I mean...you don’t have to, it’s...it can be boring sometimes, I just thought that…”

But El smiled, saying “To be honest, I am kind of curious about it. You’ve told me some things, but it might be interesting to watch you...and your friends...play it.”

Mike nodded, inwardly smiling at the fact that his crush-yes, crush -was interested in Dungeons & Dragons. It didn’t get any better than that.

El’s house came into view, and they both silently sighed, not ready to part yet. They knew the next time they’d see each other wouldn’t be until Monday, which was two days too long to them both.

“Cool,” Mike said, referring back to D & D. “I can put you in the game, if you want. Or you could just watch, I mean it’s up to you.”

“Maybe I’ll watch,” El said. “And the next time, maybe I could play.”

Next time? Mike thought to himself.

They arrived at her house, and they paused at the end of the driveway.

“Well…” El said. “See you on Monday?”

Mike nodded. “Talk to you on Monday.”

With a final smile to one another, they both turned and went their separate ways.

Mike hopped on his bike and rode off, heading to his own home just a few blocks away. He really wanted this grounding to be over. Yes, he’d lied to his mom, but it was for a good reason (sort of). He wanted to spend this weekend doing stuff, and not stuck babysitting little Holly, or rewatching his collection of movies to the point where he could nearly recite them line for line. What he wanted was to hang out with his friends, riding their bikes around town, reading comic books together, and hanging out at the arcade.

Of course, he wanted to spend time with El Hopper.

Over the past week the two had gotten to know each other better, sure, but he wanted to know her even more. She was one of the coolest people he’d ever met. It was funny to think that this never would’ve happened if Mike hadn’t shoved Troy in the locker room.

But he had, and he’d met El, and here they were; at the point where he knew he had a crush, but didn’t want to tell anyone about it. And a part of him-it was small, but it was there-thought that she might like him, too. She seemed to enjoy his company as much as he liked hers. Mike didn’t have that much experience with girls, but most wanted nothing to do with him; not El Hopper.

When he finally got home, he parked his bike in the garage before making his way inside. His mom was in the kitchen, her back to him as she washed dishes. His little sister Holly sat in the next room, plopped in front of the TV as a cartoon played.

“Hey mom,” he called as he got to the stairs.

“Hi Michael,” she said, looking over her shoulder. “How was school?”

“Fine,” he answered. “I’m going to be up in my room.”

“Actually, I need you for a moment,” she called.

Mike frowned, wondering if he was in trouble. He replayed the last couple of days, trying to wonder if he’d said or done anything he wasn’t supposed to; nothing came to mind. Nevertheless, he put his backpack down and made his way into the kitchen. His mother was drying her hands off as he entered.

“Yeah?” he asked.

Karen smiled slightly as she turned around. “How’s your friend?”

“What friend?”

“ El ,” she said, with a hint of a tease in her voice.

“ Mom ,” he responded. 

“I’m just curious,” Karen explained.

“She’s fine, mom, gosh.”

“Okay, okay. Well . I’ve been thinking.”

“Alright,” Mike said, wondering where this was going.

“Maybe...maybe one week is enough.”

Mike didn’t get it. “What do you mean?”

“Your grounding,” she clarified. “I didn’t like the fact that you lied to me, Michael, but you’ve been so good since last week, I…”

“So...it’s over? I’m not grounded anymore?” he asked, hope returning to his voice.

His mom shook her head. “No. But ,” she said, as he rushed over and hugged her, “I need you for tonight.”

He looked up at her, confused. “What do you mean?”

“Well, your father and I are going out to dinner. I need you to stay here and watch Holly.”

“Again?” he whined. “Why can’t Nancy watch her?”

“Nancy’s staying over at a friend’s.” His mom stood up straight. “Why, is there a problem?”

Not wanting to be re-grounded, he shook his head glumly. “No.”

“Thank you. Anyway, I’m ordering you two a pizza. We should be back by ten, but in case we’re not…”

“I know, Holly needs to be in bed by eight-thirty.”

“I promise, tomorrow you can see your friends all you want,” she told him.

“Thanks, mom!” he called as he dashed out of the kitchen, rushing to get upstairs to his room and find his walkie. After he closed his door, he paused for a second. He was eager to call his friends, and possibly do the Dungeons & Dragons campaign he’d been writing.

But, of course, another part of him wanted to talk to El Hopper first.

Unfortunately, though, he didn’t have her phone number. During all of the time they’d been spending together, he’d want ed to ask her for her phone number, but he didn’t know how to go about it without it being weird.

Maybe , he thought to himself, I can go see her tomorrow morning before the guys come over. See if she wants to come watch us play .

He still couldn’t believe he’d met a girl that was slightly interested in D & D.

Pressing the “talk” button on his walkie, he said “Lucas? Lucas, you there? Over.”

There was static for a second before his friend’s voice said “Mike? What’s going on?”

“I’m not grounded anymore,” he said, a smile coming to his face as he said it.

“What? Really? That’s awesome!”

“I know. But...I can’t do anything tonight.” Mike went on to explain his babysitting job for the night.

“That sucks. Okay, then, what about tomorrow, do you have to babysit again?”

“No. Ask Will, ask Dustin. I thought we could do the D & D campaign?”

“Cool! Okay, I’ll call them.”

Mike started to say something about El possibly joining them, but kept it to himself, not quite ready to say it. He knew that Lucas would, more than likely, tease him about it. “Alright. Call me back after you talk to them.”

“Okay. Over and out.”

Mike clicked off, and set his walkie down on his nightstand. He was so glad that his grounding was finally over. He was all set to see his friends again and get out of the house.

He also had to decide what exactly he wanted with El Hopper.

They were friends now, that much was true. And he’d claimed to his friends that that was all they were. But Mike knew he had a crush, and if he was honest with himself, he’d like it if the two were more than friends.

But was that what El wanted? Honestly, he had no idea. A part of him wanted to tell her how he felt, to see where she stood, but he was also afraid of ruining the good thing they had going.

Still, the next morning after downing his breakfast, Mike was on his bike, pedaling over to her house. Lucas had called him back last night, saying that Will and Dustin were a go, and they had a meet-up time of noon to begin their Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Mike was on his way to El’s to see if she still had any interest in joining them. He hadn’t told Lucas yet; still wary of the taunts that were sure to follow. First he needed to see if she’d come.

He arrived at her house, and placed his bike down gently on the sidewalk. El’s dad, police chief Jim Hopper, had his car in the driveway so Mike knew she wasn’t alone. When he got to the front door, he knocked, then waited patiently for a response.

It came a moment later when the door slowly opened, and El was looking back at him, a look of surprise on her face. “Mike?”

He gave a small wave. “Hey, El.”

“I thought...aren’t you grounded?”

He grinned. “Actually, that’s, uh...why I came to see you. My mom, she lifted the ban. I’m free.”

El smiled. “That’s great. But, um…why are you here?”

“Oh! Well, I...me and my friends are gonna play our D & D campaign in about two hours. I wanted to know if you still wanted to come watch or something.”

“Oh. Um…”

“El, who’s there?” a booming voice called from inside the house. El looked over her shoulder as her father came into the doorway. Hawkins chief of police looked down at the boy standing outside. “Hey. Mike , right?”

“Y-yeah,” Mike stammered. “Hi, chief.”

“Do you wanna come in?”

“No, I, uh..I just needed to ask El something real quick.”

“Oh, okay,” the chief nodded. He looked to his daughter, and nodded his head before walking off.

“Sorry,” El said.

Mike shrugged. “It’s okay.”

“No,” El said, shaking her head. “I’m sorry, I can’t...I can’t make it. My dad and I, we’re going to see a movie.”

“Oh.”

“It’s one of the few times he has a whole weekend off, so we’re...we’re kind of hanging out.”

“Okay,” Mike said, nodding and forcing a smile, even though he was disappointed. “That’s cool.”

She frowned slightly, but then said “Maybe next time?”

“Sure,” Mike nodded. “Well...have fun.”

She smiled at him. “You, too.”

The two said goodbye, and as Mike returned to his bike, he missed the look of regret on El’s face as she shut the door.

El let out a sigh as the door clicked shut,. She walked back into the kitchen, where her dad was looking at the paper.

“Everything okay?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she said, nodding her head.

“What’d Mike want?”

“Oh. He, um...he isn’t grounded anymore, and asked if I wanted to hang out.”

“He did, did he?” Jim asked, and El could sense the teasing in his voice.

“With his friends , dad,” she added.

“Okay. You want to cancel the movie?”

“No,” she answered.

“You sure?”

El paused for a second before answering. In truth, she kind of did want to cancel the movie, but she liked spending time with her dad. And it was so rare that he got a weekend off, she didn’t want to lose the chance to spend time with him.

At the same time, though, the boy she had a crush on wanted to spend time with her. He’d actually came to her house.

There was always tomorrow, she told herself.

“I’m sure,” she told her dad.

“Alright,” he said. “I’ll look up times.”

El nodded, and made her way to her room. She’d been surprised, definitely, when Mike had shown up at her doorstep. He wasn’t grounded anymore? He wanted to see *her*?

The fact that he’d wanted to spend time with her-regardless if it was with his friends or not-made her feel warm inside. Truth be told, Dungeons & Dragons did sound kind of boring, but Mike was so passionate about it that she wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Plus, sitting in on the game would mean more time with him, which she didn’t have a problem with.

For half a second there, when El had first opened the door, she’d thought he was going to ask her on a date.

That thought had soon left her mind, but she was now asking herself, what would she have said if he had?

Yes, she thought. Without a doubt, yes.

She knew she had a crush on Mike Wheeler. He was funny, cute, and one of the nicest boys she’d ever met. She still couldn’t believe he’d gotten detention for fighting. Yes, Max was her best and, really, only friend, but Mike appeared to be a second-place best friend, even though she’d only known him for a short amount of time. She worried if they dated-or if she revealed how she felt about him-things would get messed up, and she didn’t want that. She was curious how he felt about her . A part of her wanted to tell him how she felt, to see where he stood, but she was afraid of ruining the good thing they had going.

A few hours later, the boys sat around the game table in the Wheeler basement, immersed in Mike’s current campaign. So far they’d come across a herd of orcs, a Frost Giant, and saved a village from a Demogorgon’ attack. It felt good to be playing again.

After playing through three hours and two-thirds of the campaign, the group took a short break to use the bathroom and refuel with pizza and sodas. 

Mike was reading over his campaign notes when Lucas plopped into the chair across the table from him.

“You’re so lucky your mom let you off the hook,” Lucas told his friend.

“She didn’t let me off the hook,” Mike commented. “I was still grounded for a week.”

“Yeah,” Dustin, sitting on the couch, said. “But if I lied to my mom like that, about getting in a fight, I’d be grounded until, like, the tenth grade.”

Will, seated next to Dustin, didn’t say anything. He still felt semi-responsible for Mike’s punishment. “At least you got a new friend out of it,” he said to Mike, attempting to lighten the mood.

Mike looked up. “What do you mean?”

Will shrugged. “El Hopper. You guys are friends now, right?”

Mike felt his cheeks begin to heat up at Will’s point. “I guess,” he said quietly. A little louder, he said “She is pretty cool.”

Lucas scoffed. “Well if you love her so much, why don’t you marry her?” he teased.

Mike sighed, knowing this was coming. “What’re you talking about?”

“Seriously, Mike? You look at her all like...hi El. El! El! El! I love you so much! Will you marry me?”

“Shut up, Lucas,” Mike said. “We’re just friends, that’s all.”

“Yeah, right,” Dustin said, taking his chair at the table. “That’s why you walk her home literally every day?”

“Admit it,” Lucas said. “You’re a sucker for this girl. All she has to do is bat her eyes, and you’ll do whatever she wants.”

“ No , I won’t,” Mike responded, beginning to get angry.

“Guys, stop,” Will said, speaking up. “He’s just being nice. And besides,” he said, taking his seat between Lucas and Dustin. “El’s pretty cool.”

Mike smiled, thankful for Will saving him.

Lucas and Dustin nodded in agreement before Lucas added “Her friend Max is definitely cool.”

Dustin made a face. “What?”

“Max. I think she likes me,” Lucas said confidently.

“So you seriously just teased me about liking…” Mike paused, rethinking of what he was going to say, “About being friends with El and now you’re talking about having a crush on Max?”

“It’s not a crush,” Lucas explained. “It’s just a fact. Max thinks I’m cute.”

“Oh, brother,” Dustin said.

“Can we play D & D now?” Will asked.

“Yes, please ,” Mike agreed. Standing his journal back up, he continued the campaign.

A few miles away, El and her father had just came out of The Hawk, after spending the past two hours watching a movie.

“Did you like it?” Jim asked his daughter. They’d watched a re-release of one of Jim’s favorite films.

“I’ve seen it before,” El answered. Nodding her head, she said “Yeah, I liked it.”

“Hm.” Hopper stopped, sighing. Jim was hungry, and wanted to ask El if she wanted to grab some food before they headed home. But he’d noticed El become a tad quieter since Mike Wheeler had stopped by the house; he was almost a hundred percent he’d been right about this whole crush thing. “So...where’s Mike and his buddies playing their game?”

“His house,” she answered. “Why?”

“Do you know where he lives?” She still looked confused, so he asked “You want me to drop you off?”

“But...I thought we were hanging out?”

“You can ditch me for a few hours,” he told her. “I can drop you off, get a drink. Besides, I wouldn’t want to keep you from your boyfriend.”

His daughter turned beet red before she said “ Dad …”

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Come on.”

“But I don’t know where he lives.” El couldn’t help it, but she began to feel herself smiling.

“Yeah, well, there’s perks to being the chief of police.” Jim put on his sunglasses. “Let’s go.”

The boys, meanwhile, continued their campaign, as it headed towards the end. The group was eager to see what would happen next. As Mike began to describe the next scene, the doorbell rang upstairs.

Mike figured his dad would answer it-his mother was out-and he continued on with the game. But when the bell rang a second time, and he heard the faint sound of someone knocking, he sighed, knowing his dad had more than likely fallen asleep in front of the TV again. 

“Be right back,” Mike said, turning his notebook over and pushing up from his chair. He went up the stairs two at a time, and opened the door as he heard the knocking again. When he saw who was there, Mike stopped dead in his tracks.

It was El. El Hopper was here. At his house .

“Wh-how-El?” he stammered.

“Hi,” she said shyly.

“What’re you doing here?”

“Oh,” she said, frowning slightly. “I thought...were you still playing Dungeons & Dragons?”

“Well yeah, but…” He finally seemed to get why she was here. “Oh! Yeah, we are. Um...I thought you were seeing a movie with your dad?”

“I did,” she told him. “But it was shorter than we thought, so...I came. Is...is that okay?”

“Yeah,” he said, feeling himself begin to smile. “Yeah, that’s...that’s great. Um...we’re downstairs in the basement. Do you...do you want to come in?”

El nodded, and Mike moved aside as she came in. 

“How’d you know where I lived?” he asked. Behind him, his father snored quietly.

“Oh. Well, my dad is the chief of police,” she said, shrugging.

“Oh, yeah.”

“He dropped me off. Do you think you could give me a ride home?”

“Yeah, sure,” Mike said, eagerly nodding his head. “Come on.”

He led her to the basement, as it began to dawn on him that his friends were going to have a field day with their taunts.

Still, the two headed downstairs, Mike’s heart beating in his chest as they descended.

“Who was it?” Lucas asked. Then, seeing who was behind Mike, he said “Oh.”

“Hi,” El said, waving at the boys.

“I, uh...I asked El if she wanted to see the game.”

El looked at the seated group. “Is that alright?”

Dustin nodded and grabbed a chair, putting it next to Mike’s spot. “Have a seat,” he said.

El blushed. “Thank you.”

She sat, and Dustin and Mike returned to their seats as well. As Mike picked up his notebook, his eyes met Lucas’s. His friend gave him a smug smile. “You continue on the path,” Mike said, continuing the story’s narrative, “When suddenly a pack of troglodytes surround you. Will, your action!”

The game went on, and Mike found himself relaxing as time passed. He’d been worried at first, worried what El would think, seeing him in his “nerd element.” But she seemed genuinely interested with the game, so eventually things were back to normal.

For her part, El was more interested in the game than she thought she’d be. She didn’t get the mechanics of it, but the story piqued her interest as did Mike’s storytelling; he was a natural. It was also fun (for both of them) to see Will, Dustin, and Lucas react with glee when the story reached its end.

“That was awesome,” Dustin said as the boys gathered their things. 

“If the campaign is that good every time you get grounded, maybe you should do that more often,” Lucas joked.

“Yeah, I’ll do that,” Mike quipped. Looking at El, he asked “What’d you think?”

She smiled as she nodded her head. “I liked it.”

Mike returned the smile, feeling pride that he’d impressed her.

The group then made their way up to the Wheelers garage, where Lucas, Will, and Dustin hopped on their bikes to head home. El climbed onto the back of Mike’s, and the party began their rides down Maple Street.

Arriving at Lucas’s house first, he called “See you tomorrow,” before heading up his driveway.

Dustin’s home came up next, and he said a similar farewell before turning towards his front door.

Will rode next to Mike and El for a few minutes. Before he got to his turn-a street the group called Mirkwood-he paused and said to El, “It was cool of you to come over. Maybe next time you can play with us?”

She smiled, and said “Yeah, maybe.”

Will nodded. “Well...see you guys later.” And with that, he headed home.

Mike stopped pedaling his own bike, and asked over his shoulder “Do you want to walk?”

El shook her head. “No. Riding’s fine.”

Mike continued on, and it got quiet between the two of them for a few minutes until El asked “Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.”

“How long does it take you to come up with those stories?”

“The campaigns? Um...it depends. Sometimes I can be done in a week, sometimes longer.”

“How long did this one take?” El asked as Mike made a turn.

“Um, probably two weeks.”

They rode quietly for a minute, until El said “It was really good.”

Mike grinned. “Thanks.”

“You should be a writer when you grow up.”

Mike blushed. “I’m not that good.”

“I think you are,” she told him.

“Thanks.” Mike slowed down as they came to El’s street. They both got off the bike, deciding to walk the rest of the way. “I do like it, though; it’s fun. But I don’t know if I want to do it full time when I’m older.”

El nodded.

“What about you? What do you like? For a job, I mean.”

She smiled. “A doctor.”

“Really?”

“Yes,” she said, nodding. “Ever since I was, like, five, I wanted to be one.”

“I think you’d be an awesome doctor,” he said.

El blushed slightly. “Thank you.”

“No, really. I think you’d have good...what’s it called? Bedside manner.”

“Thanks,” she said again. “It’s kind of hard, though. You have to go to school for a long time.”

“It’d be worth it, though, wouldn’t it? If you really wanted it.”

“I guess,” she agreed. They’d arrived at her house, and they walked up the driveway together. Jim Hopper’s jeep was missing from the front of the house.

“Thanks for the walk,” El told Mike, turning to face him as they arrived at the front door.

“You’re welcome,” he said. “So I’ll see you on Monday?”

She smiled, nodding her head.

Mike nodded back, and began to leave. He stopped, though, and turned back to her. “El?”

El looked back at him. “Yes?”

“Um...I’m happy you came over.”

El grinned, and nodded again. “Me too.”

And suddenly, El felt herself moving closer to Mike; to do what, she wasn’t sure of-to kiss him? To hug him? He seemed to be following her lead, his eyes meeting hers as they got closer-

Until Hopper’s jeep pulled into the driveway, and the two teens jumped apart. Mike nervously picked up his bike as El fought the blush making its way towards her face.

“Hey,” Jim Hopper said, climbing out of his car. He held a pizza box in his hand. His eyes going from El to Mike, he sensed that he may have just walked in on something. “Everything alright?”

“Yes,” El said, nervously fidgeting with her hands. “Everything’s fine.”

Jim nodded, but the way she wouldn’t look at him told him all he needed to know. “I got pizza,” he said, holding up the box. “Mike, you want to stay for a slice?”

“Uh, no,” he said. “My mom is, uh, cooking dinner. I’ve gotta go.” He glanced over at El, and muttered a “Bye” before he jumped on his bike.

“Bye,” she said back, right before he rode past her dad and headed home.

Jim looked at his daughter. “You’re sure you’re okay?”

She nodded as he walked over, unlocking the door so they could go inside. Following her dad in, El thought Was I about to kiss Mike?

Chapter Text

Mike pedaled quickly, his bike rapidly swinging right to left as he headed home, only one thought on his mind.

Was it real? Had he and El been about to kiss?

He kept replaying it in his head; she...no, both of them, really...leaning in towards each other; their eyes meeting...

Holy crap. He’d almost kissed El Hopper.

It was insane to think that a week ago he’d barely known this girl, and now...now he may actually have a chance.

Besides being in disbelief that he may have been seconds away from kissing El, the other thought in his head was that she may actually like him , too. After all, she’d been the one to lean in first. Could it be true? Could El Hopper really like measly Mike Wheeler, King of the Nerds?

He thought to himself she had come to watch the boys play D & D. She did think it was cool, and she had complimented him on his storytelling abilities.

What might have happened if her father hadn’t arrived?

Mike had been aware of his crush on El for a while, now. But never did he think that the feelings may be reciprocated. Despite the teasing from his friends, he knew it was less than likely that El would like a loser like him.

The past ten minutes, though, would beg to differ.

Finally arriving home, he ditched his bike in the garage before rushing into the house. His mom was at the stove, and she glanced over her shoulder at him. “Dinner’s in an hour,” she called.

“Okay, thanks, mom,” he said before going up the stairs.

Once in his room, he found his walkie, turned it on, and talked. “Lucas? Lucas, you there?”

He got static in return, but a moment later he was met with “Mike?”

“Hey. I...can you come over?”

“I literally just left your house,” his friend replied. “And my mom’s about to make dinner. What do you want?”

Mike’s fingers tapped nervously against the walkie before saying “Something happened with El.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean...we kind of...almost...kissed.”

There was a pause, before Lucas returned, saying, “I’ll be right there.”

At the Hopper house, Jim and El sat at the dinner table, the half-eaten pizza between them. El had just finished telling her dad about her time with Mike, while Jim talked about what he’d been up to since dropping her off at the Wheeler’s. El heard him, but her mind was elsewhere, thinking of the encounter between she and Mike just a little while ago.

Had she been about kiss him?

She still wasn’t sure what her end goal had been, but once she’d started to lean in, she didn’t want to stop. If her dad hadn’t arrived home, she didn’t know what would’ve happened. Thinking back on it now, she knew what she wanted-she’d wanted to kiss him.

She could no longer deny she had a crush on Mike. But now what? If they talked about it, things would get weird between them, she knew. But if they didn’t talk about it, that might be even worse.

El debated what to do in her mind. She was so lost in thought that she barely registered that her dad was trying to get her attention.

“Earth to El,” he said, waving a hand. She stepped away from her thoughts, and looked to her dad, smiling.

“Sorry,” she finally spoke. “I was just thinking about something.”

“I bet. Anything you feel like talking about?”

“No,” she answered, picking up her paper plate and walking it to the trash.

“El,” he said, giving her a look.

“What?”

“Seriously; what’s going on? Did something happen with you and Mike?”

“No,” she answered, shaking her head. “Why do you think something happened?”

“Well….” He paused, not wanting to think about the scene in front of the house when he’d arrived-his daughter and this Mike kid moving their faces closer. “It’s just you’ve been quieter since you came in. Did he do something?”

“No,” she repeated. “Nothing happened. We’re just...friends.”

“Yeah, I know. But still...boys are weird sometimes, so...just let me know, if you ever want to talk, alright?”

She gave him a smile. “Okay, dad.”

As she made her way to her bedroom, El thought about taking her dad up on the offer. She and Hopper were close, and they confided most things to each other. Even so, she didn’t want to discuss her feelings towards a boy with her dad just yet. He seemed to genuinely like Mike, but she still felt weird talking about crushes and kisses and boys with him.

She decided instead to call Max to get her best friend’s opinion. Which would mean, unfortunately, that she’d have to admit her feelings for Mike to Max. That should be fun , she thought sarcastically. After a week of Max’s playful teasing about a possible romance between El and Mike, she’d finally get the verification. It was a tough pill to swallow, but she had to talk to some one.

So deciding to bite the bullet, she picked up the phone.

Meanwhile, Mike let Lucas in via the basement door, and closed the door as his friend took a seat on the couch.

“So, tell me what happened?” Lucas asked.

Mike sighed as he took a seat at the game table. “I gave her a ride home on my bike. And we were saying goodbye, and...things got weird.”

Lucas motioned for him to continue.

“She kind of...leaned in, like she was gonna kiss me.” Mike shrugged. “Then I did, too.”

His friend chuckled.

“What?”

“Nothing. What happened next?”

“Nothing happened,” Mike answered. “Her dad came home, and we both sort of...freaked out. And then I got out of there.”

“Why?”

“I mean...what else could I have done?”

“You could’ve kissed her, it sounds like. I told you, Mike, she likes you.”

Mike felt his cheeks pinken, but he shook his head. “No she doesn’t.”

“Then how do you explain what happened?”

“What do you mean?”

Lucas rolled his eyes. “Mike, you are beyond helpless. She almost kissed you, man. Why do you think she did that?”

Mike sighed. To tell the truth, he was afraid that if he said it aloud, it may not be true. “I don’t know.”

Lucas’s eyes rolled once more. “Will you stop saying that? I’m telling you, she likes you, Mike. And you need to stop denying it and do something about it.”

“Do something? Like what?”

“Tell her you like her back. I mean you do, don’t you?”

Mike sighed. “Yeah,” he admitted.

“ Finally ,” Lucas said. “We’re making some progress.”

“But what do I do now? I don’t even know what to say, the next time I see her.”

“Just act normal,” Lucas said. “And when you get a chance, tell her how you feel and stuff.”

“And stuff?”

“You know what I mean.” Lucas said. “Are you nervous?”

Mike shook his head. “Nervous isn’t even the word.”

The next day, after breakfast with her dad, El phoned her friend Max and asked her to come over. El waited anxiously on the couch, as her father watched football and tried not to notice El’s tapping foot. When the doorbell finally rang, El all but leapt from the couch, rushing to get the door.

She let her friend in, then turned to her dad. “We’re going to be in my room.”

Jim Hopper nodded, eyes glued to the TV.

When the two girls got to El’s room, she shut the door as Max took a seat on the bed. “What’s going on?” the redhead asked. “You sounded... weird on the phone.”

“What do you mean weird?” El asked, frowning.

“I don’t know. Just...different. What’s the big secret?”

El sighed. “Mike and I...almost kissed.”

A smile slowly made its way across Max’s face. When it reached its full capacity, she cried “I knew it! I knew you liked him! I knew it!” She did a little dance, shimmying to and fro.

“Cut it out,” El hissed, but she couldn’t help but grin at her friend’s goofy actions.

“What was it like?” Max asked. “Was he all like ‘Oh, El, I love you so much!’ And were you like ‘Mike’,” she continued, in a high pitched sing song voice,  “Your freckles are so adorable! I just want to kiss them off your face!” Max fell onto her side, giggling.

El let out a snicker before composing herself, saying “Will you stop? It wasn’t like that.”

It took a minute before Max was done laughing, but when she was, she sat up. “So you do like him?” she finally asked.

Reluctantly, El answered “Yes, I do.”

Max chuckled before asking “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because of this ,” El said, motioning to her friend. “I knew this would be how you’d react.”

“Well, I’m sorry,” Max said. “But you two have been so obvious about it. The way you look at him, the way he stares at you…”

“He stares at me?”

“Yeah,” Max answered, as if it were an obvious fact. “I told you from day one he was a stalker, El.”

“Max…”

“Okay, he’s a nice stalker.” Shrugging, she said “I guess you could do worse.” She grinned, looking El over. “So? What’re you going to do now?”

“I don’t know. I mean...what if it’s too weird when we hang out? I like being his friend, but…”

“You want to be his girlfriend?”

El blushed a little as she ducked her head shyly. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

Max pulled her legs up. “Well, tomorrow’s going to be really interesting.”

Monday came, and both Mike and El were nervous about attending school. Neither knew how to act when they’d inevitably see the other. El got her usual ride to school from her dad, while Mike took his normal route to school, riding bikes with Lucas. Dustin met up with them as they passed his house.

“You know, I’ve been thinking,” Dustin began as he caught up to his friends.

“About what?” Lucas asked.

“Saturday, in the campaign, the Demogorgon should’ve gotten Will.”

“He cast a protection spell,” Lucas said back.

“No, he rolled a six. It should’ve killed him.”

“It was two days ago, Dustin. Let it go.”

“Mike, what did Will roll?”

Mike, lost in his thoughts about the upcoming day, didn’t respond right away.

Glancing at Lucas and noticing Mike’s nervous expression, Dustin asked “What’s crawled up his butt?”

“He almost ki…”

“Shut up, Lucas,” Mike interrupted. His friend smiled.

“You almost what?” asked Dustin, curious.

“Nothing,” Mike said. “Let’s just go to school.”

A little bit later, the boys arrived at school and made their way to their lockers. Outside of the building, El had just been dropped off, and was on her way to her locker. As she did the combination to open it up, Max came up beside her.

“Hey. How’re you?”

El shrugged. “Okay, I guess.”

“Did you run into what’s his name?”

“It’s Mike . And no, I haven’t seen him yet.”

“Hm. What’re you going to say when you do?”

“I don’t know,” El answered, switching out her books. “I’m hoping by lunchtime I can think of something. Or maybe I won’t say anything at all, and just pretend it didn’t happen.”

“That’s the spirit,” Max said, sarcastically.

El gave her a look as she closed her locker. “Okay, Max, since you’re clearly the expert, what do you think I should tell him?”

“Just tell him you like him, El. I doubt he’s going to, like, reject you or anything. But if he did, at least you got it off your chest.”

El sighed as the two girls began walking to class. Despite the fun her friend was clearly having at her expense, El knew she was right, that she should just be honest with Mike. And, despite her fear, part of her thought it was possible Mike felt the same way; he had leaned in, too.

EIther way, things would be awkward at first, she knew. But maybe telling the truth would be the right thing to do.

The two girls made it to their first class before they branched off and went their separate ways for awhile. When her next two classes finished and lunch had arrived, El was still unsure of what she’d say to Mike.

As luck would have it, Mike still didn’t know how to act, either. After spending his whole morning so preoccupied with what to say to El that he’d accidentally gone into the girls bathroom, he now sat at their lunch table, running ideas in his brain. When the girls finally did arrive in the cafeteria, Mike looked up and caught a glimpse of El and Max walking in their direction. The two were talking to each other, with El looking towards the floor as she walked; Max, meanwhile, was grinning towards Mike as they walked over.

Did Max know? Mike thought. Probably. Mike had told Lucas, after all.

“Hey guys,” Max said as the girls sat at the table. Both took their usual spots-El next to Mike, and Max next to her. El shifted a little as she sat, putting a small gap between she and Mike.

“Hey,” she said quietly.

“Hi.”

The group ate, with Dustin and Lucas trying to convince Max that Dungeons & Dragons was, in fact, a cool game. Will chimed in from time to time while Max shot down every argument the boys had. El and Mike chatted quietly, talking about their classes and what they’d done on Sunday. For a few minutes, things were almost normal.

Lunch ended, and neither had brought up what had (almost) happened. Both decided to table the conversation for now, and maybe discuss it on the walk home.

It wasn’t until fifth period, his gym class with Will, that Mike remembered the AV Club meeting he had after school.

“I may skip out on AV today,” Mike told his friend as they changed after class.

“But we’re supposed to get the new Heathkit today,” Will said. “Don’t you want to see how far it goes?”

Mike sighed. He did want to talk to El, but the temptation of a new radio was attractive, too. “I guess,” he admitted.

“Are you two nerds talking about that stupid AC Club?” a familiar voice asked as it came around the corner. Both Mike and Will looked up to see Troy making his way over with one of his friends.

“It’s AV Club,” Mike said back. “And go away.”

“Or what, Frog Face? What’re you going to do?” Troy asked.

Will zipped up his bag. “Let’s just go,” he told Mike.

Mike picked up his own backpack, and the two began to leave the locker room. They’d only made it a few steps when Troy stuck his foot out, causing Mike to trip, and fall onto the floor, bumping his chin.

“That’s for getting me detention, numbnuts,” Troy said, high-fiving his friend.

Mike clamored off the ground and, without taking time to think, pushed Troy, hard, into a group of lockers. Troy turned around, mad. “You’re dead, Wheeler.”

Will and Mike didn’t give the bully a chance to act, as they dashed out of the locker room. Troy and his friend weren’t too far behind as the boys ran down a hallway. As they turned a corner, a bell rang, and classrooms began to empty. Mike and Will stopped running, taking a moment to catch their breath.

“I think we lost him,” Mike said, panting.

Will nodded. “I think so, too.”

As both boys turned, they saw their friends Dustin and Lucas coming their way.

“What happened to you?” Lucas asked.

“Troy,” Mike said, rubbing his chin.

“What’d he do to you?” Dustin asked.

Mike shook his head. “Nothing. He just…”

“Mike?” another voice asked.

He turned and saw El walking over. Looking concerned, she asked “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” he answered. “I’m fine.”

“Mike…” Dustin said.

“I was just...on my way to my next class,” Mike said to El.

“ Mike! ” Lucas said.

Mike turned just in time to see Troy making his way over. Before he could get too close, though, a teacher, Mr. Bauman, emerged from his classroom near the group. Troy stopped in his tracks, gave Mike a glare, then reluctantly turned and walked away.

“Holy crap,” Dustin exclaimed. “That was close.”

Mike breathed a sigh of relief as El looked at his chin. “Come on,” she said, taking his hand.

“What’re you...where?”

“To get you cleaned up,” she told him.

She led him to a nearby empty classroom, which Mike recognized as Mr. Clarke’s.

“I’m such a loser,” Mike said as he sat down at one of the desks..

“You’re not a loser,” El said, finding the first aid kit. “You were standing up to a bully.”

“Yeah, and look where that got me,” Mike said.

El grinned as she took a seat across from him. Taking out an alcohol swab, she warned “This is going to sting.”

When she touched the soft pad to his scar, Mike winced, sucking in a breath of air. “ Ow .”

“Sorry,” El said.

“How do you know how to do this?”

“It’s not hard,” she explained. “But my dad is clumsy. I’ve had to clean him up once or twice.”

Mike let out a sigh. “You’re so…”

El paused, pulling the swab away. “So what?”

“So... good , is what I was going to say.”

El shook her head. “No I’m not.”

“Yeah you are. You’re so nice, and kind, and caring. You’re going to make a great doctor someday.”

She blushed as she traded the alcohol swab for a bandage. “Thank you.” Sticking it over the scab, she pushed down on it, sealing it over his small wound. “Better?”

“Yeah,” he said.

“Good.”

Mike smiled as El cleaned up the kit. “Thank you.”

She glanced up for a second. “You’re welcome.”

He watched her finish, and he thought, this is the moment, do it now! He opened his mouth to say something, but she cut him off. She glanced down and saw his hand. “Jeez,” she said, “Your hand is cut, too.” She took his hand into hers, and looked at his fingers.

“I must’ve scraped it when I fell,” he said. “I’ll live. Again...thank you.”

El nodded, slowly letting go of his hand. “Don’t mention it,” she said with a smile.

She had inched closer to get a look at his hand, and hadn’t moved away yet. And Mike, not knowing where this sudden burst of bravery was coming from, closed the distance, placing his lips softly against hers.

The kiss lasted all of five seconds before both pulled away, Mike lost in how soft El’s lips were and the taste of her cherry chapstick.

Their eyes met before they both looked away nervously, El’s cheeks turning pink.

“Sorry,” Mike said.

“Don’t be,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s just…”

“What?”

“I’ve been...trying all day to talk to you about...Saturday, and then this happened, and…” She chuckled. “That was my first kiss,” she admitted.

“Oh.” Realizing something, Mike said “Me, too. I’ve been trying to talk to you, and...it was my first kiss, too.” Shaking his head, he added “Sorry.”

El smiled. “Stop apologizing, Mike. I...I liked it,” she said, her eyes meeting his for a fleeting second.

“You did?”

She nodded.

Mike grinned goofily. “Me too.”

They smiled at each other, then proceeded to lean in towards one another again. Just before their lips touched, however, they heard a door open and a voice say “Mike!”

Mike and El pulled away, their heads turning towards the door where Dustin stood. Apparently realizing what had been going on, he looked away.

“What, Dustin?” Mike asked with more than a hint of annoyance in his voice.

“Mister Clarke,” Dustin said, “He’s, um...I think he’s on his way down here.”

Mike and El stood, their hands finding each other’s as they walked to catch up with Dustin.

Dustin led the two down the hallway and past Mr. Clarke, who gave them a nod, oblivious that his classroom had just been used as a nurse’s station. The group met up with Lucas and Will.

“Are you guys okay?” Will asked.

“We’re fine,” Mike said. Catching sight of Lucas’s grin, Mike noticed that he and El were still holding hands. Despite his friend’s looks, he was in no rush to let go of it.

“Sixth period started two minutes ago,” Lucas said. “We should probably…”

Mike nodded, understanding.

“I’ll see you after school?” El asked him, as they finally let go of each other’s hand.

“Sure,” Mike said, turning to her.

She smiled at him before she walked away, off to her last class.

Mike didn’t think his own smile could get any bigger. Beside him, Lucas nudged his shoulder, saying “Come on, lover boy. We’re late.”

Mike turned and followed his friends, more than looking forward to seeing El again.

Chapter Text

Needless to say, Mike’s smile stayed with him through his last class of the day. When the dismissal bell rang, he all but floated to his locker, still in disbelief that he’d kissed El and more than ready to walk home with her.

He came down to Earth, though, when he saw his friends waiting next to his locker. Pausing, he asked “What?”

“AV Club?” Dustin asked.

“Yeah, the new Heathkit,” Lucas reminded.

Mike sighed. “Dammit.”

“What?”

“Nothing,” Mike said. As much as he wanted to walk home with El (and he really wanted to walk home with El), he knew he needed to uphold his duties as the AV Club president.

That didn’t make it any easier as he closed his locker, and saw El make her way over, a smile on her face similar to the one he’d had just minutes ago.

“Hi,” she said, sidling up close to him.

“Hi,” he said, turning towards her.

“Um...are you ready to walk home?”

Mike shook his head. “I can’t. I have AV Club.”

“Oh,” she said, frowning a little. “Okay.”

“But...um...maybe we can talk later? I could…” He lowered his voice a little, so his friends couldn’t hear, “I could call you when I get home?”

“Okay,” she nodded, a small smile coming to her lips. She reached into her backpack and ripped off a piece of notebook paper, scribbling her phone number on it before handing it to him.

“Thanks,” Mike said, slightly blushing; he’d actually gotten a girl’s phone number .

They stared at each other for a second; Mike wishing his friends weren’t here so he could kiss her again. Instead, he took her hand in his. “Bye,” he said, gently squeezing her hand.

“Bye,” she said, squeezing back before letting go.

Mike watched her leave before turning back to his friends, and rolled his eyes when he saw the grins on their faces. “Cut it out,” he told them.

“Still holding hands, huh?” Lucas asked as the boys walked down the hall.

“It’s not a big deal,” Mike said, though to him it was.

“All that making out earlier wasn’t enough?” Dustin asked, teasing.

“When were they making out?” Will asked.

“We were not making out, Dustin,” Mike retorted.

“What’re you talking about?” Lucas asked.

“When I found them in Mr. Clarke’s room, they were…”

“Shut up, Dustin, jeez ,” Mike said, glaring at his friend.

Dustin grinned teasingly, but didn’t out his friend. To be honest, Mike was surprised his friend hadn’t ratted him out yet. He’d practically walked in on he and El kissing in Mr. Clarke’s room; how he’d kept it to himself this long was a mystery to Mike.

He knew Lucas and Will had to know something was going on; they weren’t clueless. Lucas had seen Mike and El holding hands an hour ago, and Will had obviously seen it happen just now. Should he just tell them? he wondered. Honestly, he wanted to get things square with El first. What did the kiss mean to her? He pondered this last thought as they arrived at the AV room.

El made her way through the halls, a little less pep in her step as she headed towards the exit. She’d really been looking forward to the walk home with Mike; despite how happy she was about what had happened, she knew they still needed to talk things out.

Still…

He’d kissed her!

She hadn’t imagined her first kiss would be in the school science lab, but she honestly couldn’t care less about that. It’d been perfect; she liked Mike, and he liked her.

But now what?

That’s what she had intended to find out on their walk home; she guess they’d have to talk about it later.

As El got closer to the exit, she saw Max standing outside, probably waiting for her brother. As she stepped out, her friend looked up and spotted her.

“Hey,” she said, grinning. “Where’s your boyfriend?”

El stopped herself from smiling at the “b” word her friend had mentioned. “He’s not my boyfriend,” she said quickly. Brushing a strand of hair behind her ear, she added “And Mike has AV Club today.”

“Nerds,” Max said, shaking her head.

“Don’t call him that,” El said. Then, wanting to change the subject, she asked “Are you waiting for Billy?”

Max rolled her eyes. “ Yes . I’m on my way over there now.”

“Can I get a ride?”

Max shrugged as she began to walk. “Sure. If you can tolerate him being a jerk.”

El followed Max, wondering if she should tell the redhead what’d happened in the science room. On the one hand, she was her best friend. On the other hand, El knew her too well; she knew her friend would have a field day with that juicy piece of gossip.

She was still debating as they arrived at Billy’s Camaro, the high schooler leaning against his car, smoking a cigarette.

“What’s this?” he asked, looking from one girl to the other.

“It’s my friend,” Max said. “El.”

“Yeah, I know who she is; why is she here?”

“She needs a ride home,” Max said.

Billy chuckled, flicking his cigarette away in the process. “I’m not running a taxi service, Max.”

“Billy,” Max said. “Come on.”

The boy rolled his eyes. “Fine. Whatever. Just get in.”

Max smiled at El, and the two girls got into the car, climbing into the backseat to sit together. Once Billy got in, he revved his engine before taking off, speeding out of the school parking lot. 

“Did you take a look at our civics homework?” Max asked El as they left the parking lot. “It’s like Mrs. Holland’s trying to drown us in paper.” In the front seat, Billy turned on his music.

“I haven’t looked at it yet,” El answered.

Max sighed. “So you didn’t get to talk to Mike?”

“Not exactly,” El said. Deciding to just tell her friend, she softly said “But something happened.”

Max frowned. “What do…”

In the front seat Billy turned the volume up louder, filling the car with his rock music and effectively drowning out the girl’s conversation.

Max huffed and leaned forward, shouting “Can you turn it down!?”

Her step-brother looked at her in the mirror, smirked, and kept driving.

Max sat back in the seat, sighing. “He’s such an ass,” she said, barely audible to El. “So what happened with Mike?” Max asked, trying again.

“We went to the science room,” El began; but the combination of her naturally quiet voice and Billy’s music blasting kept the girls from hearing each other. Max shook her head in frustration as Billy turned a corner too fast, causing the two girls to bump into each other.

“Just tell me when we get to your house,” Max called over the noise.

El nodded as the ride continued.

With Billy’s quick driving, the Camaro arrived on El’s street quickly. He braked hard in front of her house, and El was glad to see that her dad wasn’t home yet; the chief would have tore Billy a new one.

The music still blasting, El climbed out of the car and turned to say goodbye to Max; she was surprised to see her friend getting out of the car, too. Apparently, Billy was, too.

Turning the music down, he asked “What do you think you’re doing?”

“I’m going to El’s,” Max answered, grabbing her backpack and closing the door.

“Well, then you have to tell Susan that…”

“I’ll call her,” Max said, cutting him off.

Billy turned the volume back off, giving his step-sister a look before peeling away.

Max gave the fading car the middle finger as it disappeared. “Idiot,” Max said. Then, turning back to El, asked “So what happened with you and Mike?”

Feeling color coming to her cheeks, El shyly answered “He kissed me.”

Max’s face dropped in surprise. “He what ?”

Full-on blushing, El explained seeing Mike in the hallway running from bullies, going to the science room to clean him up, and Mike leaning over and kissing her.

“Holy crap, El!” Max said as the two girls made their way inside. “Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?”

“Because I knew you’d be like this,” El responded.

Max laughed. “How was it? Is he a good kisser?”

El shrugged. “I don’t know. It was…” She paused, trying to think of a word to describe it (besides “perfect”). “It was really nice.”

Max snorted. “Nice. Well, is he like your boyfriend, now?”

“No. We just…” El shrugged. “I don’t know.”

And the truth was, she didn’t know, which is why she’d been looking forward (even more so) to her walk home with Mike. She had a feeling that this kiss hadn’t been a spur-of-the-moment thing, especially after she’d nearly kissed him on Saturday. What did Mike want? What was going through his mind?

Back at Hawkins Middle, the boys of the AV Club had just finished experimenting with the new Heathkit radio. After Mister Clarke told them how far it’s reach was, the boys had attempted to call Australia, to no avail. They had talked a few minutes with a middle school in Michigan, but besides that, hadn’t done much else.

When Mr. Clarke left to get something from his classroom, the boys took turns fiddling with the Heathkit knobs as they waited. Lucas, sensing this opportunity, decided to say something to Mike.

“So what’s going on with you and El?” he finally asked.

Mike, the one currently sitting in front of the radio, shook his head. “Nothing’s going on.”

“Then where did you guys go after you ran from Troy? And why’d you come back holding hands?”

Out of the corner of his eye, Mike saw the grin on Dustin’s face; but his curly-haired friend didn’t say anything. Knowing neither he nor Dustin would be able to keep it a secret for much longer, Mike decided to just tell his other friends.

“We went to Mr. Clarke’s room,” Mike began, sitting back in the chair. “And she cleaned up this scrape I had,” he said, motioning towards his bandaged chin. “And then...I kissed her.”

Both Will and Lucas froze, shocked to hear Mike admit it. Dustin’s grin grew bigger.

“You kissed her?” Lucas asked, bewildered.

Mike shrugged. “Yeah…”

Will smiled, happy for him, while Lucas laughed.

“What?” Mike asked.

“You can’t say you don’t like her anymore,” Lucas explained.

“I never said that,” Mike said.

“Yes, you did. All this time I’ve been telling you she liked you and you didn’t believe me, or you said ‘we’re just friends’. I told you she liked you.”

Mike felt himself turning red. “Will you stop?”

Lucas grinned. “So when’s the wedding? Can I be your best man?”

“Cut it out,” Dustin said, speaking up. All eyes turned to him, surprised. “He’s got a chance with a girl and you’re gonna tease him about it?”

“I’m just messing with him,” Lucas replied, shrugging it off.

“That’s why you wanted to walk home with her, isn’t it?” Will asked.

“Yeah,” Mike answered, surprised his friends-at least Dustin and Will-were taking it easy on him.

The door opened, and Mr. Clarke stuck his head in. “Boys? Can I get you to help me get some microphones from Mrs. Fisk’s classroom?”

“Yeah, sure, Mr. Clarke,” Will said. He tapped Lucas on his way, saying “Come on.” The two boys followed the teacher out, leaving Mike with Dustin.

“Thanks,” Mike told his friend.

Dustin shrugged his shoulders. “No problem.”

“Why’d you say anything?”

“I don’t know...you’re, like...happy with El. And she looks like she really likes you.” Dustin shrugged. “I wish I had a girl that really liked me.”

Mike frowned, feeling bad. “You will,” he said.

“Yeah, well, maybe,” Dustin replied. Perking up, he asked, “So are you guys dating now?”

“I don’t know,” Mike answered. “I was gonna kind of ask her out when we walked home.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

Mike chuckled. “S’okay. I don’t know if I’d have done it anyway.”

Despite Mike telling this to his friend, he knew he would have asked her on a date if he’d had the chance. El was all he thought about lately; why wouldn’t he want her to be his girlfriend? The slip of paper with El’s phone number was burning a hole in his pocket; part of him wanted to forgo the phone call and just go to her house when he left school.

Whether he called or saw her in person, he knew he had to do something. Mike wanted to take care of whatever this was between he and El as soon as possible. He’d waited this long to make a move, he didn’t want to wait anymore.

When AV Club was over, Mike hightailed it out of school, eager to get home. He’d decided, after some internal debate and talking to his friends, that a phone call might be the better way to go. He knew he’d be nervous, and he was afraid El’s father would be home which would double his nervousness. And besides, she had given him her phone number.

So after saying goodbye to his friends (who wished him luck), Mike rode his bike home quickly, rehearsing in his head what he would say to El.

Once he got home, he made his way into the basement, drying off his sweaty palms before picking up the phone. Reading over the phone number one more time, he punched the digits into the phone. It rang twice before it was picked up.

“Hello?” a man’s gruff voice asked.

Mike was thrown off for a second, forgetting that El, like him, lived with her dad. “Uh...hi. Can I talk to El, please?”

“Yeah. Um, who is this?”

“It’s Mike.”

There was some grunt of acknowledgement before Mike heard the phone placed down, and the sound of El being called. Mike then heard the phone being picked up, then El’s voice, asking “Mike?”

He felt himself smile. “Hey, El.”

“Hi,” she breathed into the phone. “How’re you...hold on.” Mike heard the phone leave her mouth before she called “Dad, I’ve got it!”

After a moment, El came back on. “Hi.”

“Hi,” Mike chuckled. “How are you?”

“Good,” she said back. “Um...how was AV Club?”

“Pretty good,” Mike responded. “We got a new Heathkit, and we talked to a school in Michigan.”

“What’s a Heathkit?”

“Oh! It’s a, um...it’s a transceiver radio.”

“Oh. Cool.” On the other side, Mike could hear someone talking quietly. He began to ask about it, when El said “I forgot you had AV Club today.”

“Yeah,” Mike said. “Me, too. I...I wanted to walk home with you.”

“Me, too,” she said, and Mike could’ve sworn she was smiling. 

There was the background noise again, and this time Mike asked “What’s that sound?”

“Oh! It’s...it’s Max.”

Dammit , Mike thought. “Oh. Well...okay. I can...call you back, or…”

“No, we can talk,” El said. Mike heard her saying something to Max before she came back, saying “She’s leaving. Aren’t you, Max?”

Mike heard Max say something to El before saying a little louder “Bye, lover boy!”

Mike grimaced; lover boy?

“Sorry,” El said, and Mike could hear the embarrassment in her voice.

“It’s okay,” he said back. “Did you tell her what happened?”

“Well, yeah,” El said. “She’s my best friend.”

“Oh. Okay.” Part of Mike was hoping she hadn’t told anyone, but to be fair, he’d told his friends. 

As if reading his mind, El asked him if he’d told his friends about it.

“Yeah,” Mike admitted. Deciding to cut to the chase, he began “Um...I wanted…”

“Mike!” he heard his sister, Nancy call from the top of the stairs.

Mike rolled his eyes as he covered the phone. “ What? ”

“How long are you going to be on the phone?”

“I don’t know, just a few minutes!” he called, wishing his sister would go away. He heard the basement door close, and he let out a breath. “Hello?” he asked into the phone.

“I’m here.”

He smiled. “Sorry about that. My sister...nevermind.” Taking a deep breath, he continued, with “El, look. Um...I wanted to tell you something.”

“Okay.”

“When we were in Mr. Clarke’s room. And I, uh…”

“Mike?” This time it was his mother’s voice; even worse, it was his mother’s voice on the phone.

“Mom?!” he asked. He realized she must’ve picked up the phone in the kitchen.

“Nancy says you’re hogging up the phone. I don’t know who you’re calling, but…”

Covering the receiver, he yelled “Mom, please! I’m trying to talk to someone!”

He heard an exasperated sigh before the click of the phone being hung up. This is getting ridiculous , he thought to himself. Speaking into the phone again, he asked “El?”

“Yes?”

“I am so, so, sorry. My family...it’s like everybody needs the phone all of a sudden.”

He heard her chuckle. “It’s okay.”

Mike let out a breath again. “Anyway...what I was trying to say was, when we were in…”

“Mr. Clarke’s room.”

“Right. Um...I….” Before he could continue, he heard something on El’s end.

“Hold on,” she told Mike. He heard voices away from the phone before she came back, saying “I’m sorry, I have to eat dinner.”

Mike closed his eyes, frustrated. It was almost as if they weren’t meant to do this.

“Um...do you just want to talk tomorrow?” El asked.

Mike inwardly groaned. “Sure, okay,” he answered. “Bye, El.”

“Bye, Mike.”

With that they both hung up, Mike beyond annoyed with how his first phone call had gone with El.

For her part, El was just as annoyed, wondering why she and Mike couldn’t catch a break. All through dinner with her dad, as well as the time spent after washing dishes and doing homework, she wondered if the two of them would ever get a moment to talk about both Saturday and what had transpired in Mr. Clarke’s room.
She was still thinking about it in the morning when her dad dropped her off at school. Making her way to her locker, she thought about what she’d say at lunch when they inevitably ran into each other.
El was so lost in her thoughts that she would’ve walked right past her locker if Max hadn’t grabbed her arm.
“Hey,” Max said, getting El’s attention. “You okay?”
“No,” El said, going to open the locker. Max moved to the side so she could get in.
“Why, what’s wrong?”
“Mike and I didn’t really get to talk.”
“What? Why not?”
El recounted the events that’d happened on the failed phone call. When she was done, Max laughed, saying “Well, that sucks.”
“And you weren’t much help,” El said, frowning at her friend.
“I know, and I’m sorry,” Max said truthfully. “If you want, I can eat lunch in the French room? Give you and Mike some space.”
“No,” El said, shaking her head. “I don’t want you to do that.”
Max nodded. “Okay. So what do you want?”
I want to talk to Mike , she thought as she finished exchanging her books for the morning. She began to tell Max as much but she suddenly saw someone coming down the hallway towards her-Mike.

Mike had rushed to school this morning in hopes of talking to El before classes started, but he apparently hadn’t arrived soon enough, as the first bell would be ringing within minutes. Still, he made his way to El’s locker and was happy to see she was, in fact, there.
“Hey,” he said when he got to her locker.
“Hi,” she said, smiling shyly.
“I’m sorry about last night. My family never wants to use the phone like that, I don’t know what was wrong with them.”
She shook her head. “It’s okay. Just...bad timing, I guess.”
Mike chuckled. “Yeah.”
It suddenly dawned on the two of them that they weren’t alone, as Max stood between them, waiting awkwardly. Realizing she was currently a third wheel, the redhead said “Um...I’m going to head to class. See you in algebra,” she told El.
After watching Max go, El asked “Um...do you have AV Club today?”
“No,” he answered, shaking his head. “Do you want to walk home after school?”
El nodded, her cheeks pinkening slightly. “Okay.”
“Okay,” Mike repeated. Their eyes met, and for half a second they started to lean in towards each other. The bell for Hawkins Middle’s first class of the day, though, stopped whatever they had in mind.
“Um...I’ll see you at lunch?” Mike asked.
El nodded. “Lunch.”
With one more smile at each other, they went off to their classes.

Thankfully for the two of them, the school day seemed to go by quickly. They saw each other at lunch but with their friends present, didn’t talk about what they were both eager to talk about. When the last class of the day was over, Mike, after getting a “good luck” from his friends, met El at her locker.
“Ready?” he asked.
“Ready,” she said, nodding.The two walked out of the school, their hands occasionally brushing the other’s as they walked. After a quick stop by the bike rack, they were on their way.
It was quiet for the first minute; despite wanting to talk to each other all day, neither of them were sure how to broach the subject.
“How were your classes today?” El finally asked, breaking the silence.
“Good,” Mike answered. “We had a pop quiz in English that I wasn’t really ready for. What about you, how were your classes?”
“Not bad,” El said. “We have this big project coming up in civics; Max and I get to be partners.”
“That’s cool,” Mike said.
They walked quietly and nervously for a moment before El decided to go for it.
“Mike?” she asked, stopping.
“Yeah?” He paused as well.
“What were you going to say yesterday? On the phone?”
“Oh,” he began, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. “Um...just that, uh…” He sighed. “When we were in Mr. Clarke’s room. And...and you helped me out…”
“Yeah?”
“Well...I’d wanted to tell you, for a long time, that...that I like you.”
El smiled, flattered. “You did?”
“Yeah,” he said, nodding nervously. “You’re...you’re cool, and smart. You’re…” His cheeks turned a little red before he said, “Pretty.”
El felt herself blush, too.
“And I just...really like being with you.”
El couldn’t help but smile at his fumbling adorableness. Placing a hand on his cheek, she moved closer and pressed her lips to his for a quick kiss. When she pulled away, they both looked down in shyness.
“I...I like you, too,” she said after a moment.
“Really?”
El nodded. “You’re smart and funny; and nice. And...walking home with you is...one of the things I look forward to every day.”
“Me, too,” Mike admitted. After a moment, he added “I’m kind of glad I got detention.”
El laughed, as the two continued their walk. “I am, too.”
They soon arrived at El’s house, disappointing both of them; they didn’t want to say goodbye just yet. Despite the kiss a few minutes ago and the declarations of liking each other, El still wanted to know where they stood; were they dating now?
Stopping at the end of the driveway, El turned to Mike. “So…”
“I…” He began at the same time, and the two laughed.
“Go ahead,” Mike said.
“No, you go,” El said.
“Well...I was wondering if, um...you wanted to see a movie with me on Saturday? Like...a date?”
El smiled, getting her answer. “Okay,” she said, nodding.
Mike returned the smile. “Okay. Um...I’ll see you tomorrow?” El nodded, right before Mike kissed her cheek. “Bye,” he told her.
“Bye,” she said. Watching him go, the thought from yesterday popped into her head; perfect .

Chapter Text

Unlocking her front door, El found that she couldn’t stop smiling. She and Mike were going on a date! After spending the past few weeks going back and forth about what her feelings were for him, they now had everything out in the open.
And she couldn’t be happier.
All at once, El felt a rush of questions for their date on Saturday- what should she wear? What movie would they see? Would he kiss her again? Did this mean he was her boyfriend now?
And to think, this all started with being in detention together. If Mrs. Thomas hadn’t (incorrectly) thought she’d been up to something in science class all those days ago, she and Mike might never have met. But they had met, and now they were going on their first date.
El had thought he was cute when she first saw him in room 23C. But it had never crossed her mind that they’d become good friends, let alone begin dating.
She wanted to call Max to tell her best friend all about what’d happened (El knew she was curious), but she remembered Max saying something about an appointment after school today. So in the meantime, she sat on the couch and gave in to her guilty pleasure-soap operas. As she got caught up in the latest drama on her show, the smile on her face remained as her mind raced with possibilities for Saturday.

On his bike ride home, Mike was so excited that he was afraid he’d ride right into a tree. He did it! He had a date with El! What he’d thought would be an impossibility a week ago was now a reality.
And not only did he have a date- but she’d kissed him . Mike never thought a girl as pretty and cool as El Hopper would like him, let alone kiss him of her own free will.
As he arrived on Maple Street, his mind was racing with ways to make this date perfect. Granted, he’d never been on a date, but from the little he knew about girls and dating, his brain was trying to formulate a plan. For half a second, he considered asking his sister Nancy for advice, but he decided against it, at least for now. Of course, there were his parents.
Oh God, his parents .
Mike was nervous about bringing this up to his mom and dad. His dad, he figured, wouldn’t have much of a reaction (he rarely did). His mom, though, was a different story.
How many times had his mother stopped him on big days-Halloween, first days of school, birthdays, Christmases-to fawn over him and take a million pictures? He could already imagine his mom posing him and El in front of the stairs for a half-hour, blinding them with the flash of her camera as she had to get just the right picture.
He knew he had to tell them, but he wasn’t ready yet . Maybe after their first date.
His mind occupied with Saturday, Mike almost missed his friends waiting in his driveway when he got home. Slowing to a stop, he asked, “What’re you guys doing here?”
“What do you think?” Dustin asked.
“How’d it go with El?” Will said.
“Oh, um…” Mike began, unable to hide the smile that was slowly taking over his face. “We, uh...we’re going to see a movie this weekend.”
His friends hooted, hollered, and cheered as Mike got off his bike.
“Cut it out,” Mike said, trying to be nonchalant. “It’s not a big deal.”
“Yes it is,” Lucas clarified. “You’ve got a date, man.”
“Yeah, that’s awesome,” Dustin said.
“Congrats, Mike,” Will told him.
“Thanks,” Mike replied as the boys headed into his house and into the basement. When they got to the bottom of the stairs, though, the group saw Mike’s mom down there, taking clothes from the dryer. “Hi boys,” she said. “How was school?”
“Good, mom,” Mike answered, eager for her to go.
“Anything fun happen today?”
“Mike got a…” Dustin began, but Mike elbowed him in the arm.
Karen Wheeler frowned. “Got a what?”
“I got a good grade on an assignment,” Mike lied. “History.”
“Good for you,” Karen Wheeler said with a smile. “I’ll let you guys get started on your homework.” The laundry basket full of clean clothes, she made her way back upstairs, closing the door behind her.
“Ow,” Dustin said, rubbing his arm. “What was that for?”
“I’m not ready to tell her yet,” Mike admitted.
“Why not?” Lucas asked.
“Because she wouldn’t leave me alone about it,” Mike answered. “I’ll tell her later.”
The next two hours were spent alternating between homework and the other boys pressing Mike for more information about his big walk home with El. He gave them the gist of it, wanting to keep some things private. By the time the two hours were up, Dustin and Will had gone home, with Lucas being the last to pack up as both he and Mike had dinner with their families soon.
“So what movie are you and El going to see?” Lucas asked as he loaded his backpack up with his work.
“I don’t know yet,” Mike answered, shrugging his shoulders. “I might ask her, and see what she wants.” He chuckled. “I honestly don’t know what kind of movies she likes.”
Lucas huffed a laugh, then quietly zipped up his backpack. Mike could sense something was on his friend’s mind, and he started to ask what it was, but Lucas beat him to it.
“Hey, um...I’m sorry about before.”
“Before? I don’t follow,” Mike said.
“When I was teasing you about El. I was being stupid.”
“Oh. Um...thanks, I guess.”
Lucas nodded. “Just don’t mess this up, man. El’s, she’s...cool.”
Now Mike nodded. “She is.”
“And besides,” Lucas said as he walked to the door. “Maybe you could hook me up with her friend.”
“Who, Max?”
“Yeah! I’m telling you, she likes me.”
Mike grinned. “Okay, whatever. See you tomorrow.”
Lucas left, and Mike headed upstairs, thinking about Lucas’s words: don’t mess this up .
God, he hoped not.

A few miles away, it was also dinner at the Hopper home. Jim and El had just sat down to eat their plates of chicken and share the stories of their day.
“Anything good today?” El asked her dad.
The police chief chuckled as he uncapped his beer bottle. “So there’s this call,” he began. “About an animal attacking a woman.”
El looked up, concerned. “An animal attacked somebody?”
Chief Hopper nodded, a smile on his face as he took a swig of his beer. “Guess what animal it was.”
El shook her head. “I don’t know,” she answered. “A bear?” Her dad shook her head. “A possum?”
Jim Hopper shook his head again. “An owl ,” he told her.
El scrunched her face. “An owl ?”
“Eleanor Gillespie,” he finally answered. “An owl attacked her head.”
“Why?”
“Apparently,” he said, smiling as he cut into his chicken, “It thought her hair was a nest or something.”
“What’d you do?”
Her dad took another drink. “We shooed it off, it flew away.”
“Was she ok?”
“She was fine. Just shook up, is all.”
El smiled and allowed herself a soft laugh at the poor woman’s predicament.
“What about you? Anything big happen in school?”
She paused, debating whether or not to tell her dad about her upcoming date. “Um...today was okay, I guess,” she answered. “Max and I get to be partners on a project.”
“That’s good,” her dad said. “You two always do great work together. You gonna start it this weekend?”
“Um...probably not,” she said, feeling herself get nervous. “I’ve got...something else going on this weekend.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah. Mike, he, uh...he asked me to see a movie. Like...a date.”
Jim, his beer raised to his lips, put the bottle back down. “Mike.”
“Yes.”
“He asked you out on a date ?”
“Y...yes.” She couldn’t read his reaction; was he mad? Impressed? Disappointed?
“Wh…”  Jim paused, flustered; his daughter had a date?? “When did this happen?”
“Today,” she answered. “On the way home.”
Hopper sighed, and finally took a sip of his beer. “O kay . I’m driving you.”
“Dad…”
“And I need to talk to his parents, he…”
“Dad, please ,” she said.
“What?”
“We don’t...we don’t need a chaperone.”
Hopper sighed again. From what he’d seen of Mike so far, he seemed like a genuinely good kid. And he could tell that his daughter was smitten with the freckled boy. And his daughter had good taste, so if she liked him, he had to be worth a damn.
But still…
“Fine,” Jim conceded. “But I’m still meeting his parents.”
El nodded. “Okay.” Immediately, El wondered how Mike would respond to this bit of news.

The next morning, rain clouds covered the town of Hawkins as residents made their way to their destinations. Mike tried not to let it hamper his mood; he was trying to get to school early to see El before first period began. El had similar hopes of seeing Mike before the first bell rang as her dad brought her to school.
“I’ll pick you up after school,” her dad said as he pulled into the school parking lot. “I don’t want you walking home today, in case it rains.”
“Thanks, dad,” she said as he pulled to a stop near the school doors. As El scooped up her backpack, Jim spotted a familiar figure standing outside, waiting for her friend. “Max is here,” he told her.
Her backpack in hand, El smiled at Max before saying bye to her dad and exiting the jeep.
“I’m sorry,” Max said as the chief pulled away. “I had a stupid dentist appointment after school, then my mom wanted to go out and eat, which, if she’d paid attention to the health of my teeth, she maybe would’ve realized that was a bad idea, so…” The redhead sighed. “What happened?”
El grinned slyly. “What do you mean?” she asked as the two entered the building.
“Are you really going to do this to me?” Max asked.
El smiled. “He asked me to the movies.”
“Oh my gosh, El,” Max said. “You’ve got a boyfriend!”
“No I don’t,” El said, feeling herself blush. “He’s not my boyfriend. It’s just one date, it’s not a big deal.”
To be honest, though, it was a big deal to El. She really liked Mike, and in the back of her mind she was wondering if they would, in fact, become boyfriend and girlfriend.
“Yeah, right,” Max said. “ ‘No big deal’.” She snorted. “Did you tell your dad?”
El made a face as they arrived at her locker. “Uh, yeah, I told him.”
“How’d he react?”
“Like a dad,” she answered, and both girls laughed. “He wants to meet Mike’s parents.”
“Ugh,” Max said. “Have you met Mike’s parents?”
“No,” El responded. “Well...I saw his dad when I went to his house. He was asleep, though.”
“Oh. Well,” Max said, nodding down the hallway. “ This will be interesting.”
El looked where her friend was gesturing, and saw her friend/crush/possible boyfriend coming their way. Immediately she felt her blush return.
“Hey,” Mike said as he came over.
“Hi,” El replied, giving him a smile.
Max rolled her eyes. “See you in algebra,” she told El.
The two watched her leave for a second before Mike spoke, asking “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah,” El said, “Everything’s fine. Um...I told my dad. About Saturday.”
“Oh,” Mike replied.
“And he wants to meet your parents,” she told him, closing her locker.
Mike’s eyes widened. “He...he does?”
“Yeah. Um...he actually wanted to, you know, come with us on our...date,” she said, blushing slightly at the word. Seeing Mike begin to panic, she added “But he’s not. I talked him out of it.”
Mike let out an inner sigh; he already knew he’d be nervous for the date, he didn’t need the chief adding another reason. “Cool.”
El smiled; he was cute when he was nervous. “Cool,” she repeated. Then, curious, she asked, “Did you tell your parents?”
“Not yet,” Mike said. “It’s...it’s a long story.”
Above them, the school bell rang, reminding Mike that he still had to go to his locker. “I’ve gotta go,” he told her. “Um...see you at lunch?”
She nodded and Mike, wanting some thing, squeezed her hand before going down the hall, already looking forward to lunch.

When lunch came, the two were happy to see each other after only half-paying attention during their morning classes. They endured some light teasing from their friends, but were able to tune them out once they sat together. The group talked, mostly about their morning classes as well as what they had to look forward to in the afternoon. Once Dustin began telling Max about his lunchroom pudding conspiracy theory-a tale that Mike knew now by heart-he turned to El to ask her a question.
“So...the movie on Saturday,” he told her.
“Yeah?”
“I never asked you, what kind of movies do you like?”
“Oh! Um…” El shrugged. “I like most stuff. Nothing really scary, though.”
Mike nodded, and his mind ran through the movies currently playing at the town’s theater. He suggested a few to El, and she agreed on a romantic comedy.
“Is that okay with you?” she asked, curious. “It’s not too girly, is it?”
“No,” he answered with a smile. “As long as I can pick the next one.”
El returned the smile. The next one . “Deal.”

On the way home from school, Mike decided he’d tell his mom everything: about El, about Saturday, and about Jim Hopper wanting to meet her. He figured he’d do it like ripping off a bandage and do it in one fell swoop.
Only, when he got home, no one else was in the house.
His mom eventually returned home a little more than an hour after he did, and try as he might, Mike couldn’t find a minute to talk to her.
Everything finally came out at dinner.
The Wheelers were sitting around the table, eating leftover meatloaf when Karen said “Nancy, I need you to watch Holly on Saturday. My aerobics class was rescheduled, and your father’s golfing with some of his work friends.”
Mike’s older sister raised her eyebrow. “Mom, I can’t. Barb and I are spending all day at the library, remember? Mr. Kaminsky’s test on Monday.”
“Oh, right,” their mom nodded, remembering. Turning to her son, she said “Mike, what about you?”
“When?”
“Around five. I can pick up a pizza on the way home,” she added.
Mike nervously looked down at his food. “I, um...I can’t. I have...plans.”
“Plans? What plans?”
“I’m going to the movies,” he explained. “With a...friend.”
“Can’t you and Lucas see a later movie?” Karen asked.
“It’s not Lucas.”
“Okay, then Dustin, or Will.”
“It’s not them, either,” Mike said. He sighed. “I have a...date.”
Mike’s dad coughed on his food, surprised. Nancy’s other eyebrow raised, and Karen’s eyes widened. “A date?” his mother asked.
“ What? ” Nancy asked.
Mike sighed. “There’s this girl at school, El Hopper. We’re going to see a movie.”
“That’s wonderful,” his mother said. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I was going to, I just...hadn’t gotten around to it yet.”
“Is she coming over here?” his mom asked.
“Well, yeah. And…”
“Wait,” Ted Wheeler began, speaking up. “Hopper?”
All eyes on him, Mike said “Yeah. Um...she’s chief Hopper’s daughter. And he wants to meet you guys on Saturday.”
“Of course,” Karen said, smiling, happy for her son. “I can skip my aerobics class.” She shook her head. “Mike, I’m so proud of you!”
“Thanks,” Mike said.

The next two days seemed to fly by, and before either El or Mike was truly ready, Saturday had arrived. They both woke up nervous, eager to see each other but slightly scared as well.
El spent the time before the date getting ready; mainly choosing what she would wear, and talking her dad into letting her wear very (very) light makeup for the occasion.
At the same time, Mike was getting last minute advice from his friends, trying to make some sense of his unruly hair, and attempting to calm his nerves. Eventually, he settled on one of his nicer striped shirts and jeans.
The day prior they’d agreed that El would come over at 4 pm, meet Mike’s parents, then he would bike them to the movies.
Just a few minutes before 4 o’clock, the doorbell rang at the Wheeler home.
“I’ve got it!” Mike called. Sprinting from his bedroom, he dashed down the stairs two at a time in order to make sure he got there before his parents. Taking a deep breath, he pulled open the door. Sure enough, there was police chief Hopper filling the doorway. El was beside him, and Mike was taken aback by what he saw.
She was dressed nicely; nicer than school, but not too over the top. El wore a short-sleeved shirt and skirt, her hair parted with two barrettes.
“Mike,” Hopper said, stopping him from staring.
“Oh. Hi, Chief,” he answered, snapping out of it.
“Your parents here?”
“Yeah, they’re…” he turned, and as he did his mom and dad entered the room.
Introductions were made, and the group moved to the family’s living room to talk for a few minutes. Mike sat next to El as both teens quietly listened to their parents get to know one another.
“You look beautiful,” Mike whispered to her.
El blushed, ducking her head slightly. “Thanks. You look really handsome.”
Now Mike blushed, smiling as he gazed at the floor nervously.
The parents finished, and Hopper said he’d return at 8 to pick El up.

The ride downtown felt different to both Mike and El. Although they had shared a bike and walked next to each other for a few weeks now, there was something about this, about knowing it was just the two of them on an actual date, that made it feel different.
And although they wouldn’t say it aloud, both knew it was a good kind of different. They each felt a combination of butterflies, nervous energy, and hesitant excitement.
“Your parents are nice,” El told Mike once they’d biked for a minute.
“They are,” he admitted. After a pause, he said, “I thought your dad was gonna kill me.”
El smiled. “He’s a big teddy bear; he likes you.”
“Thanks.”
They arrived downtown, and Mike parked his bike near the theater. The two walked to the ticket booth, where Mike paid for their tickets.
“I’ll get the popcorn,” El said. Pausing, she asked, “Do you like popcorn?”
“Yeah,” Mike said. “I love it.”
She smiled. “Did you want to share one? Or…”
“We can share,” he answered.
El nodded, and she led the way to the concession stand. Hopper had given her a few dollars when she’d asked; it hadn’t felt right for Mike to pay for everything ( even if Hopper said that’s the way a date works ). She bought the two a big popcorn to share, and Mike got them a pair of Cokes as well.
Next, they made their way into the theater, finding a pair of seats in the back of the semi-full room.
“I never asked you,” El said softly, “What kind of movies do you like?”
Mike shrugged. “Uh...science fiction stuff, and horror movies.”
El shook her head. “Horror movies creep me out. Max likes them, though.”
“Hm. Lucas will be glad to hear that,” Mike said. When El looked at him quizzically, he winced before he clarified with “Lucas thinks...Max likes him. Please don’t tell her.”
“I won’t,” she said, offering him the popcorn. “I just...wow.”
“I know.”
After a moment, El said “I’d be willing to see a science fiction movie, though. Maybe next time?”
Mike nodded. “It’s a date.”
She smiled as the theater darkened and the movie began.
The film reminded Mike of a lot of the movies his mom or Nancy would watch, and El seemed to enjoy it, which was all that really mattered to him. Mike found himself liking it too, even though it wasn’t the kind of movie he typically watched.
For her part, El did find that she liked the movie, but honestly, the fact that she was seeing it with Mike made the experience even better. She found herself laughing whenever Mike would lean over and whisper a joke about the plot, or when there was a surprise moment and she found herself grabbing his hand in the dark. Or when the popcorn was nearly empty and they both reached for a handful and their hands touched, causing them both to look up and smile at each other.
When the movie finished, the two walked a few doors down to get a few slices of pizza, and they talked about the scenes they liked and other movies they loved. When their meal was done, they found they still had some time to kill.
“Do you want to go for a walk?” Mike suggested.
El smiled. “It is kind of our thing,” she joked as she nodded her head.
There was a park across the street, and they made their way over to it. They walked along a path, side by side, hands brushing one another’s every so often before El folded her hands as they walked.
“It’s pretty,” she said, looking up at the setting sun and red sky. Mike agreed, it felt special; the setting sun, the street lights turning on, and of course the pretty girl next to him that made his heart flutter. Once again, it amazed him that he was here, on his first date, with a girl as cool as El. Which reminded him of a question he had.
“Can I ask you something?”
El glanced at him, curious. “Yes?”
“Um...that time, at your house. When I dropped you off after you came over for D & D?”
El looked down with a smile, knowing what he was going to ask.
“Were you...going to kiss me?”
She didn’t answer for a moment, and Mike began to regret asking. But then she spoke up, with “I...I honestly don’t know. But...probably.” She looked back at him. “When you’d left, I kept thinking about it, and...I’d wanted to kiss you. Is that...is that bad?”
“No! It’s...it’s good,” he answered. “I...wanted to kiss you, too.”
She grinned. “Took you long enough.”
Mike smiled, as the two kept walking. “I wasn’t sure if you liked me.”
“Why?” she asked, turning to him.
“Well, because...because you’re you, and I’m me.”
El stopped walking. “What does that mean?”
“Well, I mean...you’re El Hopper. You’re, you know, you , and…”
“I’m me ?”
He was slowly getting worried he was offending her. “I guess I mean...you’re out of my league.” He chuckled. “I’m such a loser, and…”
She took his hand in hers, stopping him. “Don’t say that.”
He glanced at their hands before looking at her. “Don’t say what?”
“You’re not a loser, Mike,” she told him. “I’ve gotten to know you over the last few weeks. You’re kind, and funny, and smart. You’re a good friend. Trust me: you are not a loser.”
He smiled at her. “Thanks,” he mumbled. “Can you tell Troy that?” he joked.
El shook her head. “ He’s a loser. You shouldn’t care what he thinks.”
“I don’t,” he admitted, shrugging. “But I care what you think, so...thanks.”
“Why do you care what I think?” she asked, curious.
“Because...I mean, even if we weren’t...dating, you’re still one of my best friends.”
“You’re one of my best friends, too,” she told him.
They continued their walk, both aware that they were slowly running out of time. “What do your parents do?” El asked, curious.
“My dad...I honestly don’t know what he does,” Mike answered. “Something with finances, I think. My mom, she stays at home and takes care of my sister.” He smiled, remembering something.
“What?” El asked.
“She...my mom kind of makes a big deal out of things. Like first days of school, birthdays…”
“First dates?” El asked.
“Yeah. She wanted a bunch of pictures of us, but I was able to get her to wait until, you know...next time.”
“I’ll make sure to look pretty,” El said with a grin.
“You always look pretty,” Mike told her. Her eyes met his, and she squeezed his hand.
They walked for a few more minutes, the sun getting lower in the sky, until El said “I think it’s time.”
“Yeah,” Mike said, stopping. “I know.” Sighing, he led the way back to his bike.
“I had a really nice time,” she told him.
“So did I.”
They got to his bike, and let go of each other’s hands. Mike was about to get on, but El stopped him. “What?” he asked.
Smiling, she stepped closer and, after putting her hands on his shoulders, brought her lips to his. Mike was surprised at first, but didn’t hesitate to kiss her back, hands on her hips as he pressed his lips against hers.
After a few seconds, the two slowly pulled away, eyes meeting. Unlike their first kiss, neither looked away this time. Smiling, Mike hopped on his bike, then offered his hand to help El climb aboard before he biked them back to Maple Street.

They got back with ten minutes to spare, and neither was surprised to see Chief Hopper’s cruiser parked across the street from Mike’s house.
Mike biked to a stop and helped El get off before he stepped off his bike as well.
“I had a really good time,” Mike said, repeating El’s comment from earlier.
“Me, too.”
“Um...I’ll see you on Monday?”
“Okay,” she said, nodding.
Despite knowing Chief Hopper (and Mike’s parents) were more than likely watching them, the two moved close and shared a quick kiss.
Both said goodbye to each other before El walked quickly to her waiting dad. She gave Mike a quick wave goodbye before the Chief drove them away.
Mike watched from his driveway as the Hoppers disappeared into the night. He already couldn’t wait to see her again.