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Not knowing what else to do, Hopper reluctantly dialed the phone number for Melvald's.
Joyce answered in her cheery customer service voice, "Melvald's General! How can I help you?"
"Hey, Joyce! It's me."
"Hopper? Are you okay?" Her enthusiasm quickly turned to concern.
"Yeah! Yeah! Everything's fine...it's just..." he trailed off, not knowing how to explain the situation.
"Just what?" The panic in her voice became very evident now.
"It's El." His voice lowered significantly. "She got a phone call from Mike about an hour ago, and she stormed into her room, and now she won't come out or even talk to me. I think I heard her crying? I just don't know what to do, so I was hoping you could help me—" he was quickly cut off.
"I'll be there in an hour. My shift ends in twenty." She sounded determined now, as if she were a woman on a mission.
"No, no, no. You don't need to come over or anything, I was just hoping you—" he was cut off yet again.
"Give me an hour. In the meantime, call Max and tell her to come over too. I'll get Nance."
"Nancy? Max? Why do they need to come over—" he didn't get to finish his sentence before Joyce hung up and the line went dead.
Still confused, he dialed Max's number, which El had on a sticky note on the fridge "just in case," and asked if she could come over. After confirming that everything was okay, Max agreed and hung up so she could start the bike ride to the cabin.
Thirty minutes later, Joyce found herself knocking on the door to the Wheeler residence. Karen opened the door and smiled upon seeing Joyce.
“Joyce! What are you doing here?”
“Hey, Karen!” Joyce smiled softly. “Is Nancy home?”
Karen's brows furrowed, and she stared at the woman in front of her quizzically.
“Yeah, I think so. Is everything okay?” Her voice was thick with concern as she opened the door to let Joyce in.
"Yeah! Yeah, everything's fine!" Joyce reassured her. "Could I talk to Nancy?"
Joyce decided to ignore the confusion written across Karen's features. She wanted to get to El as soon as possible, and she already had to explain the situation to Nancy.
"Sure. I think she's in her room, second door on your right."
"Thanks, Karen!" Joyce smiled before hurrying up the stairs.
Joyce knocked on the door to the girls' bedroom twice before Nancy opened it. She softened after seeing Joyce, smiling softly at the woman standing in her doorway.
“Hey, Mrs. Byers!” she beamed.
“Hi, Nancy! Can we talk?” Joyce asked.
Nancy and Joyce had grown closer due to the amount of time Nancy had spent at the Byers house when she visited Jonathan. But Joyce had never come to visit her at her house. That realization caused panic to fill Nancy's mind.
“Yeah, sure!” Nancy responded, shifting her position to allow Joyce to enter and sitting on her bed. “Is everything okay? Is something wrong with Will or Jonathan? Did another gate open—”
“No, no, no! Nothing like that!” Joyce told her, softening when she saw how much she cared for her family. “It's El,” Joyce started as she joined Nancy on the edge of Nancy's bed.
Nancy listened intently as Joyce explained what she knew of the situation, as well as her idea to cheer El up, which Nancy immediately agreed to, but she did have an addition to Joyce's plan.
“I have another idea,” Nancy grinned.
Joyce looked at her, confusion evident. “What?” she wondered.
Nancy shot the woman in front of her a mischievous grin.
Despite Joyce having to finish her shift, pick up Nancy, and pick up a few things for El, she did have a speed advantage over Max—a car. Thankfully, halfway through the drive, Joyce spotted Max and pulled over. Nancy rolled down the passenger-side window so she and Joyce could talk to the younger girl.
"Max! Are you on your way to see El?" Nancy asked.
Max nodded, slightly confused by the interaction.
"Get in. I'll give you a ride," Joyce told the younger girl.
Max loaded her bike onto the bike rack that Joyce had on the back of her car, and Nancy shifted the bags of necessities for El onto the floor of the backseat so Max could sit in between the front seats.
"Did she tell you anything? Do you have any idea what happened?" Joyce asked as she pulled back onto the street, hoping El confided in her. Max was now really confused.
"Tell me anything about what?" Now, Joyce, Nancy, and Max shared the confusion, exchanging puzzled looks.
"Oh my God." Joyce then came to a frustrating realization. "Hop didn't even tell you why he invited you over, did he?" Max shook her head; she had no idea what was happening at this point. Joyce rolled her eyes and Nancy sighed at Hopper's lack of communication with Max.
Joyce and Nancy told Max everything they knew about the situation and explained their plan to cheer El up, to which Max instantly agreed.
When they got to the cabin, the sun was already setting, and the humid Indiana air of early August had faded to a slight breeze. Nancy grabbed one of the bags from the backseat, and Joyce grabbed the other. They didn't bother knocking and just let themselves in. Hopper was standing in the living room, pacing nervously. Before he could greet the girls, Joyce spoke.
"Where is she?" Her voice was full of gentle concern. "She's still in her room. Joyce, you really didn't have to come over—" He stopped talking when Max and Joyce walked right past him and stopped at El's bedroom door while Nancy walked to the kitchen to put the ice cream they'd brought into the small freezer, completely ignoring Hopper's attempt to speak.
Joyce knocked softly, trying not to startle her with any loud noises.
"Hop! I said go away!" she yelled through the door, her voice breaking slightly.
"El? It's me." Joyce spoke gently and tried her best not to sound too concerned.
At the sound of Joyce's voice, El shot up from where she'd been lying for the past two hours, confused.
"Joyce?" The confusion in her tone was evident.
"And me!" Max added happily.
"I'm here too!" Nancy shouted, slightly muffled as she hurried from the kitchen to join the other two girls at El's bedroom door, holding the bag she'd brought, which was now slightly lighter due to the lack of ice cream containers.
At this point, El had absolutely no idea what was happening. She got out of bed and walked to her bedroom door, opening it slowly.
Her face was red and puffy, her hair was a mess, and she was already in her pajamas despite it only being 5:00 PM.
All three girls immediately softened upon seeing El's state. "Oh, honey, are you okay?" Joyce questioned.
El didn't respond; she just hugged her tightly and melted into the embrace, allowing herself to cry.
Joyce hugged her back to the best of her ability, but the bag in her right hand made it difficult. Her free hand rubbed El's back while she cried. After Joyce reassured her that she was okay a few times, El pulled away from her and hugged Max and Nancy in the same way. Max, Nancy, and Joyce exchanged sad looks through the hug. Their similar expressions communicated to one another that they were all equally concerned.
Once El pulled back from the hug, her face appearing puffier than it had been five minutes prior, Joyce broke the sad silence that had fallen over the group. "Can we come in?" She smiled softly as she spoke, trying to make the girl feel as safe and comfortable as possible. El nodded and stepped away from the door so they could join her in the room. She shut the door behind them, totally ignoring the "keep the door open three inches" rule Hopper had in place.
El guided them to her bed, where the four girls quickly made themselves comfortable. Nancy took off her shoes to sit cross-legged at the foot of the bed and placed the bag she brought next to her. Max flopped against the pillows El had positioned along her headboard. Joyce sat at the edge of the bed after dropping her bag on the small wooden dresser next to El's bed, and El lay on her back next to Max, staring at the ceiling.
After a few minutes, the three girls looked at each other again, signaling that one of them should ask what happened.
"What's going on? What happened?" Joyce asked, her voice soft, not pushing her to open up.
El didn't answer immediately, her gaze not leaving the ceiling as hot tears rolled down her cheeks.
"Mike and I...we got in a fight," she responded after several beats of silence.
"Oh, sweetie..." Joyce's expression was one of pure sympathy, her voice becoming impossibly softer. "Do you want to talk about it?" She asked, brushing El's hair with her fingers.
El didn't answer with words, just shook her head and tried to stop the tears that were now flowing freely.
"Okay! Let's do this!" Nancy sat up and clapped her hands enthusiastically.
El sat up at the proposition. "Do what?"
The girls smirked at each other and then at El.
"WE'RE HAVING A GIRLS' NIGHT!" they yelled in perfect unison.
El's eyes widened in disbelief. "Seriously!?"
"And we're staying over! So it's a girls' night and a slumber party all rolled into one!" Max exclaimed.
"Okay, so I brought some essentials!" Joyce mumbled as she started rummaging through one of the bags.
"Chips, candy, cookie dough, music, face masks, there's ice cream in the freezer. I brought some board games, a few comic books I snagged from Will, I even borrowed Jonathan's old Polaroid so we could take pictures, you know, the works." Joyce said, pulling each item out of the bag. "Oh! I also stopped at the video store and picked up some classics." She pulled out a tall stack of VHS tapes. "Just some favorites. So, what do you think?" She asked El, hoping she would approve of the plans she'd made for the night. El just stared at them for a minute. She didn't end up responding to Joyce's question, just pulled all of them into a tight group hug.
But then El pulled back, and confusion spread across her features again, her gaze focused on the bag Joyce had brought inside with her.
"What's in there?" She pointed to the bag that was currently sitting on her dresser.
The trio in front of her smirked mischievously. "Well..." Joyce started. "When I told Nancy what was happening, she realized that there's something every girl should do at least once that you've probably never done…”
El studied the features of the girls in front of her. "What?"
Max reached out to the dresser and handed Nancy the bag so she could do the honors. After a bit of rummaging, she pulled out four small colorful boxes, two pink and two purple.
"You ever wanted to dye your hair?" Nancy asked, eyebrows raised, truly hoping El would enjoy the idea.
The girl's eyes widened in surprise, and she just stared at the hair dye for a second before hugging Nancy as tight as she physically could. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" El said excitedly before pulling away from the embrace.
"But Hopper... he'd never let me—" her voice sounded disappointed, as if she'd just realized the plans for the evening wouldn't be happening anymore.
Joyce didn't give her the chance to finish her thought. "Don't worry about Hopper. I'll deal with him. Besides, it's just semi-permanent. This is your choice, do you want to?" El beamed with excitement as she nodded eagerly. Joyce clapped her hands as she smiled.
"Okay! I know that you like pink, but I also know you like purple, so I grabbed both. You girls can pick what color you want first; I'll take whatever's left over."
She held out the small boxes toward the girls, allowing them to choose whichever color they wanted. El immediately grabbed one of the purple containers, while Max and Nancy gravitated toward the pink dye.
“This is perfect! I wanted purple anyway!” Joyce said as she brought the remaining pink dye to her chest.
“Alright. Here's the deal.” Joyce spoke with a hint of assertiveness in her tone. “Put the dye back in the bag; all the other stuff we'll need is in there too, like gloves and brushes.”
“We have to somehow smuggle the bag past Hopper and into the bathroom. So when we step out, try to act as casual as possible.” Nancy finished Joyce's orders.
Max and El nodded firmly. “Deal,” the girls spoke simultaneously.
After making sure they had all the stuff they'd need, the girls quietly exited the room, finding Hopper sitting on the sofa. Joyce discreetly positioned the bag on her side so if Hopper looked up, he would just see her and not the bag of hair dye.
“You guys okay?” Hopper sounded uneasy, despite his best efforts to mask his concern.
“Yeah! Yeah! Uhh… El's mascara ran a bit while she was crying, so we're just getting her cleaned up.” Joyce maintained her level and calm tone, hoping Hopper wouldn't catch on.
Hopper simply nodded as the girls shuffled into the bathroom.
"Okay. Who wants to go first?" Joyce whispered so Hopper wouldn't be able to eavesdrop, even if he wanted to.
"I will!" El exclaimed, trying her best to match the volume of Joyce's whispers.
"Okay!" Nancy started. "I'm going to go grab the other bag so we have snacks and music!”
Nancy returned with the other plastic bag in one hand and El's pink radio in the other. “I told Hopper that we're doing face masks so we can be as long as we need without him questioning anything,” she explained.
She set the radio on the bathroom counter and rummaged through the bag, pulling out a stack of cassette tapes.
“Pick whatever you want to listen to,” Joyce told the girls, as she and Nancy started laying out all of the materials they would need to dye their hair and began to mix the dye with the developer.
Within a few minutes, the opening harmonies of "Angel" by Madonna filled the small bathroom.
El decided that she didn't just want her ends dyed or streaks; she wanted all of her hair to be purple. After confirming that El was okay with her entire head being dyed, Joyce, Max, and Nancy quickly got to work, covering every inch of her hair with the vibrant purple dye. She sat with her legs crossed on the counter, facing the tiled wall so the girls could have easy access to the back of her head. Even though they'd only just begun their night, El already felt lighter.
The small bathroom was quickly filled with laughter and their off-key singing, completely butchering every song Madonna had ever released. El broke open a tube of cookie dough almost immediately after the girls started applying the dye, the other three girls occasionally stealing bites while they worked.
Once El's shoulder-length hair was covered in the vivid purple, Joyce pulled a plastic shower cap over her hair, as directed on the box. El hopped off the counter, and Max took her place.
Max decided she wanted just her ends dyed, hoping the bright pink would mix well with her copper-colored hair.
While Joyce and Nancy mixed the pink dye with the developer, Max opened a bag of potato chips that was sitting at the top of the bag Joyce had brought, eating several at once.
While the girls used the brush that came with the dye to apply the color to the tips of her hair, their laughter became louder, and their singing somehow became more off-key. They shared chips and cookie dough. For El, this was possibly the best night of her life.
After the girls had evenly applied the pigment to the ends of her hair, Joyce pulled a plastic shower cap over her hair in the same way she did with El. Nancy sat in her place when she slid off the counter. She and Joyce had decided to do very thin strands of color, both painfully aware that they had to work the following week and therefore couldn't go too all out. After Joyce confirmed that Nancy truly wanted to do this, the girls started working.
Due to the small amount of hair they needed to dye, the coloring didn't take very long, and Joyce was soon pulling another shower cap over the girl's hair. When she hopped off the counter, Joyce quickly took her place.
El and Max exchanged an uncertain glance before glancing back at Nancy and then back at Joyce's hair.
"Joyce, are you sure about this?" El questioned.
"Yeah, you don't have to do anything you don't want to do," Nancy added weakly.
"We won't be offended or anything," Max reassured her.
"I know," Joyce began. "I don't feel like I have to; I want to. I trust you girls."
They felt more comfortable hearing her words of encouragement, starting to section out her hair with newfound confidence.
The girls kept giggling, singing, and eating, completely immersed in the fun of the evening.
The teens helped Joyce pull another plastic shower cap over her hair in the same way she'd done for them.
Once Joyce's hair was ready, she hurried off the counter and reached into the bag. She grabbed the Polaroid she'd borrowed from Jonathan and snapped a photo of the four of them. They looked totally ridiculous, with hints of purple and pink dye staining their faces and scalps, and shower caps covering their hair, but they didn't care. They were having fun, and that's all that mattered.
The instructions on the box said to leave the dye for an hour before rinsing so it had a chance to set, so the group decided to start one of the movies Joyce brought while they waited. Before heading to El's bedroom, they put on the face masks so Hopper wouldn't get suspicious, and Joyce and Nancy cleaned up the bathroom, discarding any trash they may have left from their hair dye adventures or the unhealthy amount of snacks they'd consumed in the past two hours. They decided to leave the radio and cassettes in the bathroom so they'd be able to resume the music when they had to rinse the dye.
Once they had the bags in hand and had ensured they didn't leave any evidence of how they'd truly spent their evening, the girls walked out of the bathroom, trying to be as nonchalant as humanly possible.
Nancy slipped away from the group briefly, wanting to retrieve the ice cream she'd stocked in the freezer hours prior before returning to the three other girls who were desperately trying to get to El's room as quickly as possible.
When they reached the living room, they noticed Hopper hadn't moved from his place on the sofa, but he'd turned the TV on, and the girls desperately hoped that he'd be too distracted by whatever he was watching to even acknowledge their presence, but they weren't that lucky.
“What's with the hair?” Hopper asked as he looked up, taking note of the shower caps and vague colorful stains covering the girls' faces.
“Oh…uhm…” Max started nervously.
“Hair masks!” El finished, trying to mask her panic with enthusiasm.
“Ah,” Hopper said, nodding dismissively before returning his attention to the television.
Once the four girls were safe in the solitude of El's bedroom with the door closed, they exchanged mischievous glances before bursting into laughter at Hopper's gullibility.
“At this rate, he might not even notice the color,” Joyce whispered through her giggles.
“Honestly, knowing Hop, I wouldn't even be surprised,” El grinned.
After deciding to start their movie marathon with Sixteen Candles, they each picked their own pint of ice cream from the flavors Joyce brought. El decided on cotton candy, Max picked mint chocolate chip, Nancy chose strawberry, and Joyce grabbed the chocolate chip cookie dough flavored pint. They dug into their ice cream as soon as they chose.
They somehow all managed to lay together on El's single bed, Joyce and Nancy laid against El's headboard, and Max and El laid flat on their stomachs with their ankles crossed in the air.
After a particularly dumb line came from one of the male characters, Max spoke.
“Boys suck.” She said it as a statement rather than a question.
“Agreed,” the other girls said in perfect unison, as they clinked their spoons together in a mock cheersing, which caused giggles to come from each of them.
After a few beats of silence passed between the three girls, Joyce giggled to herself before speaking.
“You know, he'll never admit it, but Hopper was just as bad as Mike when we were teenagers.”
Max and El immediately looked at each other, their expressions partly shocked and partly amused. The pair knew that Hopper never discussed his high school years, and there had never been a good time to ask Joyce about them. Now was their chance.
The two girls almost instinctively sat up from their positions. Max took her and El's now empty cartons of ice cream and set them on El's bedside table while El paused the movie. They turned around to look at Joyce, sitting on their knees and exchanging one final look before speaking in perfect sync.
“Spill.” They weren't asking for more information; they were demanding it, and Joyce knew there was no chance she would be able to get out of this.
She sighed and playfully rolled her eyes before mirroring their actions, placing her ice cream on the small table next to the other two containers and pulling her legs towards her so she could also sit on her knees.
“Joyce, you don't have to…” Nancy reassured her, even though deep down, she was just as curious to hear this.
“No, it's okay. What do you wanna know?” Her tone sounded full of defeat, but her expression looked amused by their insistence on knowing about her high school life.
At this point, El and Max were on the same wavelength, saying the exact same thing at the exact same time repeatedly.
“Everything.” Joyce couldn't help but laugh at their excitement as they stared at her, poorly attempting to hide their impatience.
“Okay, I'm gonna need more information to know where to start,” Joyce said with a loud sigh.
The next thirty minutes felt like a blur to all four girls. Joyce told the teens about how she and Hopper still bickered the same way they did in high school, and about how Hopper was just as stubborn and annoying in 1959 as he was now. She told them about how Melvald's used to be a diner and how Hopper would stop by to see her and always order a chocolate milkshake with extra whipped cream. She even told them how they would spend the time between their fifth and sixth periods. And after a bit of hesitation and the girls desperately asking, Joyce even informed them of the brief period before Hopper left for Vietnam when they'd dated.
By the time Joyce had practically discussed the entirety of her high school career, she realized it was time to rinse their hair out.
When they left the sanctuary of El's bedroom, Hopper was still sitting in the same spot he'd been sitting an hour prior. The group couldn't help but laugh when they saw Hopper, given the information Joyce had just shared.
“What's so funny?” Hopper asked skeptically.
“Nothing,” they said together, which only caused them to laugh harder.
Hop had a strong feeling that the girls were up to no good, but hearing El's laugh after she'd been crying just hours before made him let it go.
They pressed play on the Madonna tape and decided to start by removing the face masks they'd used as a cover-up. They didn't do very much, but it was the thought that counted. Then, El volunteered to have her hair rinsed first.
Their singing and giggles resumed almost immediately as Max and Nancy removed El's shower cap while Joyce dismantled the shower head from the wall and started trying to find the right water temperature. El positioned herself so her neck was on the ledge of the bathtub, her hair in perfect reach of the water stream, and the rest of her body sat on the shower mat so her clothes would remain dry.
Once the water stopped running purple and Joyce told El she was good to go, she immediately sprang up to look at herself in the mirror. Despite the girl's natural hair being a deep shade of brown, the color actually stuck pretty well, leaving her hair a deep purple shade. Her hair was still wet, but the color was obvious, and El loved it.
The teen beamed at herself in the mirror, “I love it!” she exclaimed and ran a hand through her freshly colored hair.
“I'm glad!” Joyce smiled, genuinely happy that the girl liked her new look. “Do you want to go next?” she asked, turning her attention to Max, who simply smiled and nodded.
All four girls' hair turned out exactly how they'd wanted. Max's pink dye blended in with her natural color, making for a subtle ombré effect. Joyce and Nancy's highlights were exactly as they'd pictured them: barely visible.
They decided to blow-dry their hair before returning to El's bedroom, partly to see their newly dyed hair in all its glory and partly to avoid Hopper.
After about an hour of blow-drying, giggling, and singing, they were left staring at their reflection in the bathroom mirror. For a few seconds, none of them said anything, trying to fully take in the change. Then, each of their expressions turned from that of someone in deep thought to one of absolute certainty..
“Well, I love it,” Joyce spoke.
“Me too!” the other girls added in excited agreement.
They stared at themselves for a moment longer, playing with their hair with their hands, before reluctantly coming to the conclusion that they had to face Hopper at some point, and they should just get it over with.
"How exactly are we going to get past Oscar the Grouch out there?" Max asked, and the other girls laughed at the comparison, but their laughter didn't last, as the thought of dealing with Hopper left all of them slightly panicked.
"What if we just..." El started as the clear look of someone with an idea flashed across her features, "acted like nothing happened? We don't mention it, and if he asks, just pretend we have no idea what he's talking about."
They stood there for a few minutes, weighing their options, before deciding that despite everything, El's idea was probably their best bet.
"Okay. Let's do this," Joyce agreed. "But first, we need a photo." She added as she reached across the counter to retrieve the Polaroid she'd brought. She snapped a quick photo before preparing to leave the room.
Joyce grabbed the radio, Max grabbed the cassettes, Nancy took the snacks, and El took the Polaroid camera along with the two photos they'd taken, and they headed for the door. They tried to appear casual, but they lacked the subtlety to hide their nervousness, and Hopper looked up at them almost immediately after the bathroom door clicked shut.
His jaw dropped when he saw his daughter standing in front of him, hair dyed an opaque purple. The girls just stood there like deer in headlights. It took him several attempts to speak, but finally he got his thoughts organized enough to form a coherent sentence, “Please tell me you didn't dye your hair.” He didn't even sound angry; he was truly just shocked.
“What are you talking abou—” Max decided she would be the first to initiate the plan, but El cut her off.
"Compared to what you were doing in high school, this is incredibly tame," she muttered defiantly, clearly forgetting her own idea.
Joyce's and Nancy's eyes widened, and they had to cover their mouths with their hands to avoid audibly laughing. Max, on the other hand, didn't even try to suppress her enthusiasm, shamelessly bursting into laughter.
Hopper looked at El, then at Joyce, then back at El. His jaw hung open and his eyes were wide. He was almost speechless. Almost.
“What?” he asked, knowing exactly what she meant but confused as to how she was aware of that information.
“I'm so sorry,” Joyce almost whispered, her voice slightly muffled by her hand that was still clamped over her mouth to avoid laughing. Her tone was a clear indication that she was not sorry. Not in the slightest.
His head fell back against the couch cushions, and he ran his hands over his face in frustration.
“Joyce!” he yelled with a loud groan.
Joyce put her hands up in silent surrender before speaking.
“They asked! I told them! God forbid!” She sounded very amused by the entire interaction, as if it were the funniest thing she'd ever witnessed.
“You're supposed to resist!” he scolded.
“Easy for you to say! You weren't the one being harassed by three teenage girls!” she yelled through her laughs.
“It's only semi-permanent!” Nancy tried to mediate the situation, although her voice sounded like she, too, could burst into laughter at any moment.
Hopper just sighed. “Okay. It's not the end of the world,” he said, mostly to himself. “Just…enjoy the rest of your night, I guess. And you!” He pointed at Joyce accusingly. “Please don't tell any more tales of our high school years!”
“Okay, okay, okay!” Joyce agreed.
“She basically already told us everything,” El mumbled under her breath, just loud enough for the other three girls to hear but quiet enough that Hopper wouldn't.
They willed themselves not to laugh out loud on the way back to El's bedroom, but the moment the door clicked shut behind them, they erupted into loud cackles.
"Nice one." Joyce beamed proudly as she high-fived El.
"Agreed." Nancy and Max laughed.