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El wiped her mouth after finishing her latest slice of cake. She already felt the inevitable stomachache forming, but she couldn’t help herself from grabbing another piece from the kitchen. It was her first ever birthday cake. Joyce had made it that morning just for her. It was yellow with purple piped flowers on the top, decorated by Will. Jonathan had snapped a photo of her holding it before they dug in.
El was grateful that her birthday fell in the Summer, meaning that most of her friends were able to be there. Dustin, Mike and Lucas had all come to visit for a few days. Jonathan and Argyle had brought them around the town to do various activities. El had initially been overwhelmed by the agenda and thought it was funny that Jonathan seemed so insistent on doing anything and everything but let herself get lost in the excitement. She was glad to be getting out of the house for a bit. Max had sent along a card and a present with Lucas to bring her and was going to call El later that day to wish her a happy birthday. Max hadn’t been able to scrounge up the money to buy a plane ticket herself, but El understood. She was happy that she had any party at all. It was her first ever birthday party.
El hadn’t known what day her Birthday was until Joyce had gotten hold of her birth certificate. Hopper had opted not to hold a party for her the year prior as a safety precaution but had sworn to make it up to her the following year. Hopper was never able to keep his promise. Now it had been in Joyce’s hands, and she had made the day lovely for El.
Joyce and Will had put up streamers for El all over the living room. She had scrounged up some party games for them to play. Jonathan had made a party mixtape for her. El had eaten more candy that day than ever before. El was delighted by just about everything.
Which was confusing, when she found herself crouched next to her bed, breathing heavily through her nose. She had her knees pulled up to her chest, gripping her legs tightly. She hadn’t told anyone where she had gone, though she knew it was only a matter of time before Mike or Will went looking for her. She hoped that they were too distracted by the cake to notice her absence.
Why was she feeling so bad, all of a sudden? Wasn’t this everything she had ever wished for? Friends, family, cake, presents? Well, she had only discovered those were things she could want within the last few years. The lab had been an entirely different world. The most she could hope for was a piece of candy after she had performed well for the doctors or occasionally a new stuffed animal if Papa was feeling particularly kind, which wasn’t often. She remembered once receiving a new box of crayons, just twelve in a box, and not even knowing what to do with them. Now, she had two hundred different coloured crayons, five brand new stuffed animals and a stomach full of cake. Still, it all felt so bittersweet.
She heard a knock on her door. El wanted to somehow shrink herself down even more, but if she became any more ball shaped it would be uncomfortable. Slowly, the door opened to the soft footsteps of Jonathan.
“Hey, El,” He said, gently. “Feeling a little overwhelmed?”
That was the word she was looking for! El nodded, letting out a sigh of relief.
“That’s okay,” Jonathan said, closing the door and moving to sit at the edge of her bed. He smiled down at her, patting the space next to him. El reluctantly got up and moved beside him. “I thought I’d give you my gift away from everyone else, anyway.”
“Gift?” El asked, with just a dash of excitement. She wasn’t above presents.
“Yeah,” Jonathan said, handing her a gift-wrapped box. “Go ahead.”
El got right to tearing off the gift paper, letting it fall onto the floor. Inside was a yellow book, engraved with the name El Hopper-Byers on the front. She looked up at Jonathan, unsure.
“A diary?” El asked.
“Not exactly. Look inside,” Jonathan encouraged.
The first page she opened to had a picture of herself and Mike sitting on the couch in Hopper’s cabin. Mike was looking down at a book he was reading and El was looked perplexed by the camera flash. That had been a long time ago. Her hair had still been short back then, just passed her ear. It was probably two weeks after she had closed the gate. El looked up, in surprise.
“Keep going,” Jonathan said.
The second picture was of her and Dustin with their pants rolled up to their knees standing in the pond outside of the cabin. They had been searching for frogs after Dustin discovered she had never seen one before. They had ended up catching one. It had been slimy and gross and had struggled to get out of El’s hands. She hadn’t liked it much, but Dustin had. He had laughed and laughed at her reaction. She had almost forgotten about that, too. She laughed at her expression in the picture, a displeased grimace.
The next picture was of her and Mike at the Snow Ball. El hadn’t really known where to look in the picture, so her eyes were unfocused, unlike Mike’s. She had learned recently the best way to smile and pose for pictures after she and the Byers had gotten their photo taken. She remembered that Nancy’s old dress had been too big for her, but she had still felt like a Princess that night. The next picture was with herself and the rest of the Party at the Snow Ball. Lucas and Dustin were making funny faces. Mike hadn’t caught the memo and had an arm around El, looking slightly humiliated to be there but still having fun. Max and Will appeared to have been chatting when the camera shutter went off, and El was staring at Lucas and Dustin in bewilderment. It was the first photo that all six of them had taken together. El smiled, her hand moving on its own to touch the page.
The next picture was of herself and Max sitting in the Wheeler’s basement. El was lying on the couch with Max sitting upright, her mouth open, saying something to the camera man. El had never seen that photo, she didn’t even remember the context, but it made her heart swell to see her best friend.
After that was a picture of herself and Lucas wearing matching bandanas after he had rented Karate Kid on VHS and made her watch it. El was grinning in the photo, attempting to copy one of Lucas’s karate moves and failing. El laughed. Lucas had been doing tricks all through the movie, making herself and Max laugh the whole time. El thought he was trying to impress Max, but both girls had thought he looked a little silly. She missed her movie nights with them.
El was flipping through more quickly now, excited to see all of them. She had forgotten so many moments.
There was a photo of the party standing outside the Byers house from the night they moved to California. El could still see the redness in her eyes in the photo. Her arms were around Dustin, who she never realized had teared up as well, with Max, her head resting against El’s shoulder. El vividly remembered taking that photo. Will had insisted on it.
Next was a photo of El and Will both asleep on the couch in their home in California. Will’s head was rested on El’s shoulder while her head was lulled back against the cushion. There was an unopened cardboard box beside them, so it must have been when they were moving it.
There was a picture of El eating dinner while staring at the TV. A picture of herself and Joyce grinning from ear to ear after her new haircut, when Joyce had jokingly called her her twin. A picture at one of Joyce’s work events when El had been given a brand-new dress to wear. A picture of herself and Will at Rink-o-mania from the same work event. A picture of El on her first day of school looking nervous as ever. A picture of the Byers family all together.
Then there were photos from the last few days. Herself and the Party playing golf at the junkyard. A photo of them sitting at a booth at surfer boy pizza. A photo of the party at the arcade, walking in the park, up near the mountains for a hike – all recent memories.
El hadn’t realized her eyes had welled up. Jonathan put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it.
“You took these?” El asked, looking up at him. Jonathan nodded. “I never realized.”
“I figured you’ve never had a photo album before,” Jonathan shrugged. “I mean, we didn’t even know your birthday until earlier this year.”
“Is that why you wanted to take us all around town this week?” El asked.
“You caught me,” Jonathan said, with a small smile. “I figured that you deserved a photo album, as well. Nancy found the album and got it engraved and sent it up with Mike, and I just finished putting the pictures in. I wanted you to be able to have some happy memories you could look back on. That’s why photos are so important, a snapshot of a moment so you don’t forget the things you’ve been through. Happy times, too.”
“Happy times,” El repeated. She wrapped her arms around Jonathan’s middle and nuzzled her face into his shoulder.
“It was a bit of a challenge to get all of these developed in time, but I made it work. I had a lot of these photos developed already, so it was just about putting it together. But I was glad to do it.”
“Thank you.”
“Of course,” Jonathan said, kissing the top of her head.
El still often thought of herself as someone who didn’t belong, whose only place was in a lab. Even if that wasn’t what she wanted anymore, she feared it was what she was. The image of herself in her head was hard to contend with the new person in the mirror, grasping at this ideal normalcy that El tried to force. But nothing about these photos were unnatural. They were her, who she had become, and pictures didn't lie. And it was just a normal little girl playing with her friends and spending time with her family. It was the best birthday present she could have asked for.