Chapter Text
August 23rd, 1986
Soft sunlight streamed through the window of Mike Wheeler’s bedroom on the morning of his 15th birthday. Lucky for him, his birthday fell on a Saturday this year, so there was no alarm or nagging mother to wake him up any earlier than he wanted to get up himself.
Even though the school year didn’t start for another week or so, Mike had had to get up early practically every day since he got a job at the newly renovated Starcourt Mall. Even after all that business with the Russians and interdimensional monsters and whatnot, the people of Hawkins still wanted the mall. So over the last year since the incident, huge renovations had been done to the mall.
Steve had managed to talk the managers of Scoops Ahoy into hiring Mike for the summer, which surprised him, because with all the shit Steve had pulled while working at Scoops Ahoy there was no way he should have any pull in who works there after him. But either way, it had worked. Mike had been working at Scoops Ahoy for just under two months now and hoped that he could continue working there part-time as he started his classes.
Honestly, Mike liked the distraction. With both Will and El gone for the past year, it had been rough on him. He was glad to have something to occupy his summer since the party was practically disbanded at this point.
Dustin had gone to that science camp again, which took him away for an entire month, and Lucas had gone with his family to spend most of the summer with some of their extended family on the East Coast. This left Mike feeling really alone the entire summer. Max was the only party member who had also stayed in Hawkins all summer, and as fun as she was, he still wasn’t completely over her causing his and El’s big breakup last summer. Mike almost felt bad about leaving Max to her own devices all summer. After what happened to Billy last summer, Mr. Hargrove had walked out on Max’s mom and her. He knew that she must be lonely too, but couldn’t bring himself to take the initiative to call her first. So he was glad to at least have a job to keep his mind occupied instead of wallowing in his own lonely feelings.
But now as it was nearing the end of August, Mike had become rather excited for his 15th birthday party. Although he knew Will and El weren’t going to come back to Hawkins for something as small as his birthday, Mike was excited to have a chill day with the remaining party members who were all back together in Hawkins, finally! He had hoped to see Will and El for 4th of July this year, but they had had to cancel their trip last minute because Joyce had to cover for someone at work who had a family emergency or something. Mike had been devastated when Will called him that night, and didn’t even end up going to the yearly festival that Hawkins held.
Mike moved slowly as he got out of bed, not fully awake yet. He ambled down the hall into the bathroom, ready to brush his teeth and take a shower to start the day. Once he was finished in there, Mike felt much more awake. He walked back into his bedroom wearing a towel around his waist, and took care in deciding what he would wear for his small party. Fifteen felt like a big age to Mike, and he wanted to find an outfit that showed how grown up he was.
Even after looking through his closet for nearly ten minutes, Mike couldn’t find anything that felt perfect. He compromised on a simple pair of shorts and a t-shirt, along with a short-sleeved button-up over it, figuring that was probably the best he was going to do. As he was getting dressed, he heard his mother calling up the stairs for him.
“Mike, come downstairs and eat some breakfast!”
“Coming!”
He rushed down the stairs and into the kitchen. His mother was standing at the stove, flipping a pancake in a pan. She turned around and gestured for him to come toward her.
“Happy birthday, sweetie! Fifteen is a big year!” Mrs. Wheeler said as she hugged him.
“Thanks, mom, I know.”
“Are you excited for your party?”
“Not sure having three of my friends over counts as a party, but sure.”
“Of course that counts!” she smiled warmly, “Even one friend can count if that’s what you want.”
“It just sucks Will and El can’t be here,” Mike couldn’t help but frown.
“I know honey, I’m sorry. But Joyce said they would be coming for Christmas.”
“That ages from now, Mom!”
“It’ll be here before you know it, I promise. Here,” Mrs. Wheeler said as she handed Mike a plate with two pancakes, “go eat. I don’t want you being grumpy at your party because you’re hungry.”
Mike took the plate into the dining room and sat at the table where Nancy and Holly were already eating their own breakfast.
“There you are sleepy head, happy birthday!” Nancy said as he sat down next to her. This was her last weekend home before she went back to college, and Mike was glad that she had decided to stay an extra few days she didn’t have to in order to celebrate his birthday. As annoying as she could be sometimes, Mike did love Nancy, especially after all the crazy stuff they had gone through together in the last few years.
“Happy birthday, Mikey!” Holly seemed far more excited about Mike’s birthday than even he did, but he supposed that little kids got excited about just about everything.
“Thanks guys,” he said with a small smile as he started to eat his pancakes.
As he finished, Mrs. Wheeler walked into the dining room and told him that Lucas and Dustin were here. He quickly got up from the table and practically ran into the living room.
“Hey guys! It’s so good to see you again, it feels like it’s been ages!” Mike said excitedly as he hugged his friends.
“Hey man! Happy birthday!” Lucas said as he handed Mike a small gift box.
“Happy birthday Mr. Wheeler, it’s a pleasure to have been invited to such an elegant occasion as this,” Dustin said in a terrible British accent as he also handed Mike a gift.
“Oh God, that science camp has made you too fancy, Dustin,” Mike smiled as he handed the gifts to his mother, “how was the East Coast life, Lucas?”
“It was nuts. People in New Jersey are insane. Never again. Never.”
As the boys caught up on their summer escapades, there was another knock at the door.
“That must be Max, I’ll get it, sweetie.” Mrs. Wheeler told Mike.
“Nah, I got it, Mom. You guys can go ahead and head down the basement if you want,” he said to Dustin and Lucas as he walked to the front door, “I’ll be down there in a sec.”
As Dustin and Lucas made their way downstairs, Mike eagerly went to the front door and threw it open.
“Welcome to the party, Max!” he said as she smiled widely at him.
“Happy birthday, Mike! Your present is a little heavy, can you help me bring it in?” She gestured to her right, past where Mike could see from the other side of the doorway.
“Yeah of course!” he replied as he stepped out onto the porch. He couldn’t help but gasp as he saw what was there.
“Oh my God!” he practically yelled. Both Will and El were standing there, beaming at him.
He couldn’t help but hug them both at the same time, as awkward as the position was. It had been an entire year since he had seen either of them in person, never being able to fully flesh out any plans for visits since they had left. As he pulled away, Mike finally got a good look at his two friends. They looked… very different since he had seen them last. El’s hair had grown a few more inches, and now sat just past her shoulders, and she was now sporting a brightly colored button up and shorts. But with Will, Mike could barely believe he was looking at the same person he had hugged goodbye a year ago. Will had gotten a haircut, shorter on the sides and longer on top, and seemed to have gotten a completely new wardrobe as well. Mike was shocked. Gone was the soft boy he had seen last year, and a confident teen stood in his place.
“Wow, Will, you look… different.”
“You sound disappointed,” Will feigned hurt, but couldn’t hold back his smile as he said this.
“No, no!” Mike corrected, “You look great! You both do! Come in!”
The four of them entered the house, and Mrs. Wheeler smiled as she hugged Will and El, asking them how Joyce was doing. They both handed her small boxes as well before walking with Mike and Max down to the basement. Lucas and Dustin were sitting on the couch talking, but stopped as they saw their friends coming down the stairs.
“Oh, hey guys,” Lucas said nonchalantly as he waved at them.
“‘Hey guys’? That’s it?” Mike questioned.
“We may or may not have known they were coming.” Dustin laughed as he got up and hugged Will and El.
“What? And you guys didn’t tell me? What the hell!”
“Max made us promise not to tell you, she wanted it to be a surprise.” Lucas shrugged.
“I had to! I knew it wouldn’t be as cool if we told you ahead of time. Come on, Mike, you know this is definitely the best present I could have given you. Which is good, because I didn’t get you anything else,” Max lightly punched Mike’s shoulder.
“I’m just so happy you guys could come. How did you manage it?” Mike asked.
“My mom finally cashed in her vacation days, and even managed to get a few more because she had to cover last minute for that guy last month. We’re staying here for a whole week!” Will told him.
“This might be the best birthday ever then. What should we do first? I didn’t really expect all of you guys to come, so I didn’t plan anything extravagant, but I do have some board games,” Mike was unsure what to do now, with all his friend sitting in his basement together for the first time in what felt like forever.
“Board games are cool! Do you have Clue? Will and I managed to start a board game club at our new school, but no one ever wants to play Clue because they say its ‘too hard’. I swear 90% of them are mouth breathers,” El laughed as she started rummaging through Mike’s pile of board games.
“We’re only playing Clue if I get to be Colonel Mustard,” Lucas interjected.
“Dude, no way! Colonel Mustard is the best character!” Dustin argued.
They continued to debate this even as El set up the board on a table in the basement and dealt the cards. She finally decided to end it.
“Jesus, I will be Colonel Mustard! I’m just going to pick all of your pieces so we aren’t here all day, I guess. Mike, you can be Professor Plum,” she said as she started to set the pieces onto the starting point on the board, “Will, you can be Mr. Green. Max, you can be Miss Scarlet. And because you two wouldn’t shut up, Dustin you will be Mrs. Peacock and Lucas will be Mrs. White.”
They started to dispute this, but stopped as El gave them one of her famous “I’m going to kill you” looks.
They played for nearly two hours, before Will finally solved the mystery and won the game. Everyone else groaned as El read the mystery cards, confirming he had figured it out.
“What can I say? The magical senses of a Cleric always stick with you. Will the Wise always wins!” Will cheered.
As they started to clean up the game and put it back into the box, talking amongst themselves, Mrs. Wheeler called down to them from the top of the basement stairs.
“Are you kids having fun down there? I have the cake upstairs if you’re ready to eat.”
All six of them seemed to realize how hungry they were simultaneously, and pushed past each other to try and get upstairs as fast as they could. Mike was in no hurry, though, and couldn’t stop himself from smiling at his friends as they shoved and yelled at each other playfully about who would get the first slice of cake. He was so happy to see everyone together again, and it was like they had never been apart, easily falling back into their old routines.
They all sat at the dining room together, chatting as Mrs. Wheeler brought out the large cake she had purchased for Mike’s birthday. It was plain white with blue accents, “Happy Birthday Mike” was written in blue cursive on top, and sixteen candles were lit up on top. Mrs. Wheeler set it down in front of Mike, and started an animated rendition of “Happy Birthday”, which the five other teens sang with an almost comical tone of enthusiasm. They all clapped for Mike as they finished singing, and he closed his eyes to make a wish.
I wish that this year would be the best year ever.
Mike knew it was a lame wish, but he didn’t really have anything specific he wanted. It was hard to think of something when he was surrounded by his five best friends in the world. It didn’t seem like it could get much better than that. His friends were all smiling as he blew out the candles and Mrs. Wheeler started to cut the cake and hand out pieces around the table.
“This might be the best cake I’ve ever had,” Dustin said with his mouth full.
“Well thank you, Dustin. I’ll have to let the people at the grocery store know.” Mrs. Wheeler laughed before taking the rest of the cake back into the kitchen.
Once they had finished their cake, the party made their way back into the living room to watch Mike open his presents. He sat on the living room couch, as his friends sat around him with Will and Max sitting on either side of him, El sitting in the La-Z-Boy, and Lucas and Dustin sitting on the floor in front of him. Mike reached for Dustin’s gift first, and opened it to find a handful of the newest few X-Men comics.
“Wow, this is awesome! Thanks Dustin.”
“You better let me borrow those when you’re done with them. My mom said I wasn’t allowed to open them before I gave them to you,” Dustin replied with joking anger.
“Of course!” Mike replied as he reached for Lucas’s gift next. It was Super Mario Bros for the NES, and Mike’s eyes widened as he looked at it.
“Dude, this is way too expensive of a gift!” Mike said as he looked at Lucas.
“Eh, don’t sweat it. One of my cousins in New Jersey gave it to me when we were there, but you’re the only person I know with a NES. So I figured I could just give it to you so I can come over and play it whenever I want,” Lucas shrugged.
Mike laughed. “I couldn’t imagine a better Luigi to my Mario.”
“I think you mean the Mario to your Luigi,” Lucas corrected, “I am definitely the Mario in this friendship.”
“In your dreams, Sinclair!”
“Alright children, I’m sure you can take turns at being Mario,” El rebutted, “Open mine next, Mike!”
She handed him her gift, and he opened it to find an Indy 500 mug. He laughed as he admired the mug, impressed that a gift could look so touristy.
“I figured since you’re fifteen now, you’ll probably start drinking coffee and working a nine to five job before coming home to your wife and kids,” El joked as Mike gave her a confused look, “Plus, you’ll always think of Will and me when you use it!”
“It’s great, thank you,” Mike said as he set it down with the other two gifts next to him.
“Here, Mike, you can open mine next,” Will said as he handed him a small rectangle wrapped in brown Kraft paper.
Mike slowly tore the paper open to reveal a cassette tape in a plastic case.
“It’s just a mixtape. I figured if you ever got sick of listening to your other ones, you might want something new to listen to,” Will told him.
“Oh, that’s cool! I’ll definitely listen to this later. Thanks, Will! You guys are the best, I really appreciate you all being here,” Mike said as he looked around at his friends.
“We wouldn’t have missed it for the world, little buddy,” Max ruffled his hair as he swatted her hand away.
After going through all the gifts, the party decided to go back downstairs and watch a couple movies until it started to get dark. As they sat together in the basement, Mrs. Wheeler periodically came down to tell one of them that their parents were here to take them back home. They each hugged Mike before they left, and wished him a happy birthday again, promising to all hang out again ASAP. Eventually, it was just Mike sitting down in the basement alone, finishing the last movie they had turned on.
It was around 7 p.m. when Mrs. Wheeler called Mike upstairs to eat dinner with the rest of the family. Once dinner was over, he took the birthday gifts his friends had given him back up to his room. Mike sat down on his bed, turning the cassette Will had given him over in his hands. In Will’s scrawling print the words “To Mike, From Will, Hope you like it” were written along with a smiley face on a small sheet of paper alongside the tape. He decided to listen to it right away, eager to see what songs his friend had chosen for him. He popped it in his cassette player and hit play before laying down on his bed, wanting to fully experience the tape with no distractions. Mike preferred to listen to music like this, feeling like he could better understand the meanings of songs when he gave them his full attention. He closed his eyes as the first song began to play.