Chapter Text
June 1986
El was practically buzzing with excitement. Today was a very important day. Her fifteenth birthday. And the first time she would ever go to an amusement park.
Mike had asked her a month ago what she wanted for her birthday, and she had thought back to the time that Will had mentioned a feeling she hadn’t understood: the feeling you get on a rollercoaster. El told Mike that she wanted to ride one, so they planned for a whole day of amusement park fun for her birthday.
El was especially excited because this was the first time ever that she and Mike would be going anywhere alone. In a way, it was their first real date, even though they’d been together for a year and a half already. El was bouncing off the walls as she got ready, still getting used to having her own bathroom at the new house.
She loved all her friends, and hanging out with everyone as the whole Party was great, but sometimes it felt like El couldn’t get two minutes alone with her boyfriend. Plus, their friends loved to tease them mercilessly, especially if they caught them kissing.
Things had certainly gotten better with Mike after last July. Mike was honest about things, and always made sure El knew he trusted her. El worked on communicating her problems with Mike instead of just breaking up, as Max continued to do with Lucas.
El heard the sounds of Mike and Hopper greeting each other downstairs, and she quickly grabbed her backpack, running down the stairs.
Mike smiled brightly at El when she came flying towards him, throwing her arms around him.
“I missed you,” she said.
“I missed you, too,” Mike answered, hugging her back.
“Jesus, you saw each other yesterday,” Hopper groaned from a few feet away.
El rolled her eyes at him, and released Mike, but kept hold of one of his hands.
“Okay, you two. You know the rules…” Hopper began.
“Don’t talk to strangers, stay together, be home by nine,” Mike recited in a somewhat annoyed voice.
“And,” Hopper added. “No running off and making out, got it?”
Mike rolled his eyes.
“Hands to yourself, Wheeler,” Hopper said, giving him a stern look.
“Yeah, yeah, I know.”
A car outside beeped, alerting them that their ride was ready to go.
They ran out hand-in-hand, jumping into the back of Steve’s car. Hopper gave Steve a wave and nod, then went back into the house, smoking a cigarette. He’d been trying to cut back on the smoking, but he was 100% sure that Mike and El would break at least one of the rules, so he thought he should give himself a break today.
……..
Steve dropped Mike and El off at the main gates of the amusement park, leaving the two completely alone until he would pick them up later that evening.
El stayed quiet, still getting nervous around large crowds, as they went through the process of buying their tickets and going through security. She held onto Mike’s hand tightly.
Finally, they had made it into the actual park. El looked around, taking in her surroundings. She could see the tops of lots of rides and one particularly large rollercoaster.
“Where did you want to go first?” Mike asked her.
“Well, I don’t know… that one looks scary,” she said, pointing to the tall rollercoaster.
“We should probably start out with something smaller, and then, if you like it, we can go on bigger rides,” Mike told her.
El smiled, “okay.”
Mike led her towards a ride that had a bunch of little horses on it.
“This is a carousel, or a merry-go-round if you like that better. It’s pretty much every person in the world’s first amusement park ride,” he said.
“Not scary?” El asked.
“Not at all,” Mike smiled down at her.
El loved the ride. It was fun, and she especially loved that Mike had been there with her the whole time. They moved onto other rides, getting progressively more and more thrilling. El held in a laugh when Mike nearly vomited from riding the teacups. They took a little break to let him regain his bearings.
A few hours had gone by, and El was starting to get hungry. Almost as if on cue, Mike suggested, “Wanna get lunch?”
El grinned and nodded. They ate pizza from a little stand in the park, and they each had a cookie that El had packed for dessert.
After lunch, they made their way around to more of the rides. Then, they finally reached the first rollercoaster of the day.
“It’s really fun,” Mike promised her. “And this one is so mild, you probably won’t even scream.”
El smiled and nodded, but she was still a little nervous.
It was after she was all strapped into the seat, and she could feel the coaster begin to move, that she felt the most afraid. But, she held onto Mike’s hand, and built up her courage. She could kill monsters, for God’s sake, this was just a little rollercoaster.
A few moments later, El discovered the feeling Will had described. The feeling of riding a rollercoaster.
And it was incredible.
El did scream, but not because she was afraid, because she was having so much fun.
Once off the ride, Mike turned to her grinning, “Did you like that?”
“Hell yes!” El said, throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him. (This action caused the pair to get a dirty look from a couple of parents, not that they noticed of course.) She pulled him towards the next ride.
A few hours later, they had nearly been to every ride in the park, except for the biggest rollercoaster. Getting in line, El felt excited. She had loved every ride she had ridden. As for Mike, he didn’t like the rides that were spinning, but he didn’t want her to miss out on anything, so he rode them anyways.
Just as they were about to get on the ride, however, the employees shut down the ride.
“Sorry, everyone,” someone spoke over a loudspeaker. “There’s a big storm coming, so we’re going to have to close early today.”
El felt her heart sink, and Mike looked disappointed that she hadn’t gotten to ride every little thing.
An hour later, they were in the car with Steve, who was driving them back to Hawkins.
……..
It was about 5:00pm when Mike and El returned to the Hopper residence, waving Steve goodbye and thanking him for the ride. Mike could tell that El was disappointed, so what if they could get away with sneaking off for a little while longer? After all, they weren’t expected home for another four hours.
“Wanna go get dinner at Benny’s?” Mike asked El.
She smiled, grateful for his quick thinking. She had been dreading having to come home early. “Yes.”
They had a very nice evening, eating at Benny’s and taking a long walk. Eventually though, they ended up at Mike’s house. They went through the door to the basement, not really wanting to have to talk to Mike’s mother, who was a little overwhelming for El to talk to .
El walked directly to the blanket fort, that had been altered to accommodate them as they had both grown several inches since it was first built, and Mike had wanted for there to be plenty of room for both of them. She sat down, leaving a space beside her for Mike to sit.
“I had a great time today,” El told Mike, smiling at him lovingly.
“Me too, I just wish we could have rode that last ride,” he said.
“It’s okay, Mike. Maybe we could go back someday,” she suggested.
“Yeah,” Mike smiled. “Happy birthday, El.”
Then, Mike leaned in, kissing El deeply. She snaked her arms around his neck, pulling them closer together as their mouths connected over and over again.
As they continued their little make-out session, El lied down, so that Mike was practically lying on top of her.
Sometimes it felt like it wasn’t enough, kissing like this. She wanted more, and by now, she knew that there was more. El could imagine taking the next steps with Mike, but she knew that they were still very young. She knew they would get there someday though, and that made her happy. And for now, Mike’s hands stayed right where they were on her sides, and she was content.
……..
Later, Mike would walk El back to her house, holding hands and talking the whole way. This was everything she needed. This was her life. And maybe, just maybe, she could be a normal teenager. She still had her powers, but she didn’t really need them.
They said goodbye for the night, and El watched as the love of her life walked away.
She walked into the house at exactly 8:58pm, just shy of curfew, and fell asleep a few minutes later in her bed, unable to control the smile on her face.