Chapter Text
Hawkins High School wasn’t anything special, much like the town itself. The teachers were fine, mostly parents of kids who had lived in the town forever. The extracurriculars were underfunded, and mostly what the current students involved made them to be: good if the students cared about their club, and not as good when a club was filled primarily with students who only took it on to appease their parents, and the sports teams were mediocre at best, with the singular exception of the varsity basketball team, who had won the state championship by a stroke of luck the previous year.
But as average and boring as Hawkins High School was, it was all Jane Eleanor Hopper had, and it would have to do.
She hadn’t necessarily wanted to go to a real school, Police Chief Jim Hopper, her adoptive father, had been more than fine with her being homeschooled until college, but because Hawkins was such a small town, there was no community theatre troupe. The closest one was in Indianapolis, which was more than an hour drive there and another hour back, and on top of her school work and his work schedule, there was no feasible way for them to make it work, which meant the only way El could be in a real musical would be going to a real school for the first time in her life, so that she could join the drama club.
Yes, she was that passionate about musical theatre that she would rather go to public school than not do theatre at all.
Hopper had warned her that the club wasn’t much, all but saying that most of the drama club kids were either bullied or terribly untalented – most of the time both.
She didn’t care, she already knew. Will, her soon-to-be stepbrother (and the only other person her age that she knew in the entire town due to her acute shyness) had told her outright not to go when she had told him that she was thinking about giving high school a try.
“Don’t,” He had warned her, not a semblance of a joke in his tone, “High school is horrible. I’d be homeschooled if my mom let me, consider yourself lucky.”
He hadn’t elaborated much further than that, but when she pressed about the drama club, he had then told her that of all of the kids in the entire school, they were at the very bottom of the social caste system (and if he had been a 100% honest with her, he would’ve admitted that the only people lower than the drama club were a/v club, which just happened to only consist of him and his friends).
Still, El didn’t care, she just shrugged a shoulder, “Well, you said the musical is going to be Little Shop of Horrors, and Hop can’t drive me back and forth to Indianapolis three times a week to be in a troupe there, so it’s the best I can do.”
Will stared at her blankly, then scoffed, “To each their own, then.” And the two went back to what they had been doing before the topic was broached, neither speaking to the other the rest of the night.
If theatre hadn’t been so important to El, she probably would’ve taken his advice, but there was a time in her life where the showtunes downloaded illegally at the library onto her ipod were all she had. Musical theatre had practically saved her, and she owed this to that part of herself.
But she wasn’t ready to divulge any of this to Will, in fact, even Hopper himself was in the dark about most of the trauma El had endured while she was in foster care, and she had lived with him for four years now.
He had been on his nightly patrol when he practically ran her over as she made a mad dash across the street, having just escaped from her hellscape that had somehow fooled the government into thinking it was a safe place for children to live. Her older brother and sister, although not by blood, had told her to run as soon as she had the opportunity.
But she was twelve years old, and that time still hadn’t come. So she made her opportunity, and then made a run for it.
She didn’t know how long she had been running, barefoot, in nothing but an old t-shirt and a small knapsack with all of her valuables, her head had been shaved not even a week earlier as punishment for disobeying, when Hopper’s headlights stopped her dead in her tracks.
He hadn’t said much to her, but it was clear she was in distress. He simply offered her a ride, letting her know he wasn’t going to hurt her, in fact, he was there to help her. From there, he took her to get a burger, asked her about her life, and when she didn’t, couldn’t, say much, he had decided there in that moment, that this was a sign, and that she would be his now. His to protect, his to love, his second chance at a family.
Hopper had expected rumors to fly through town fast, but on account of how El hardly ever left the house with the exception of the occasional trip into town for dinner or a movie or to the library, the two had managed to keep a pretty low profile.
They hadn’t escaped the rumors completely, though. Because now that El was starting as a junior at the high school, with the last name Hopper, getting dropped off every morning in his cruiser, people were going to talk. Which in his own selfish way, was half the reason he had been okay with letting El do home school for as long as she did.
But there was no way to avoid any of that now, especially because El was standing in front of the school, earlier than she needed to be on the first day, daring herself to go in.
“No one’s forcing you to do this kid.” he reminded her from behind his aviators, possibly even more nervous for her first day than she was.
She turned back to Hopper, giving him a small smile, “I know.”
Hopper nodded, “Well okay then. I mean you know I think you’re doing the right thing, you have a voice that deserves to be heard,” He encouraged, “But I don’t want you to feel forced. So if anything happens, you can call me at the station.”
“I’ll be okay, Hop.” She assured the man, smiling a bit wider.
He gave her a nod, she gave him a wave, and she stepped into the school.
It wasn’t that the school year was going bad, per se, it’s just that Mike Wheeler didn’t really care for school at all in the first place.
It was the same shit every year, the same teachers, the same ones that compared him to Nancy and found themselves torn over loving him for being an academic marvel or hating him for mouthing off and having an attitude problem. It was the same kids every year, the same ones who had looked him in the eye and called “frogface” just four years prior, now asking if he’d be willing to tutor them in chemistry. And the school was discussing completely cutting what little funding they already gave to the a/v club, as technology was advancing too far ahead for there to really be a need for it anymore.
And to make matters completely worse, Dustin had just cancelled on the first a/v meeting of the year, as it was the same night as auditions for the school musical.
“You’re kidding, right?” Mike had asked him in disbelief when Dustin had broken the news to him that he wouldn’t be able to make it. He had been going on about how the musical was important to him, and this was his chance to finally get a leading role, and that it was just one meeting out of the year.
Mike didn’t care.
“You’re the secretary, we kinda need you there.”
“Okay and? Will is the vice president and Lucas is the treasurer and that’s it. We’re the only members of the club, Mike. The same people who eat lunch together and hang out after school, you don’t even need me there to take the minutes when we all know the club is just us hanging out on school property for an hour, it’s a fucking resume booster at this point. You’ll survive without me.” Dustin replied pointedly, before turning away from Mike, ending the conversation before Mike could argue back.
Mike audibly scoffed, slamming his locker shut. All of this drama, bailing on his friends, and all this for stupid auditions for the school play that Mike had begged him not to go to.
In fact, the whole group had begged him not to. Every year they begged him not to. Having a member of their group in the drama club majorly brought down their popularity stock for the group as a whole. Lucas had done his part to raise it by being on the basketball team, joining when they were actually good. Max being a mysterious loner with a mean streak helped in its own way too. Even Mike tutoring some of the more popular kids had brought up their stock in the slightest. But Dustin being in drama was going to make that all come crashing down.
And it wasn’t that Mike particularly cared about popularity, but high school was certainly way more survivable when you didn’t have to worry about getting slammed into the lockers while just trying to get to third period on time.
Last year, it thankfully hadn’t affected them much, as Dustin had been basically unrecognizable in the ensemble, but this year, Dustin had made it very clear that he was gunning for the lead. He had even spent all summer at a theatre camp instead of his regular science camp, which meant he was serious about this, and wouldn’t be talked down no matter how many times they tried or how many times Max had warned him that he would be the school’s biggest loser.
Which was probably not completely true, but the fact that it hadn’t even scared Dustin in the slightest had said something about his determination.
And now, to top it all off, this stupid school play endeavor was affecting the one thing Mike cared about in this whole god-forsaken school, which was the a/v club.
Mike trudged down the hall, dragging his feet on the way to his car where Will would surely be waiting for him, as Mike typically gave him a ride home. He didn’t want to talk about his argument with Dustin, he just wanted to go home and hope that this shitty start to junior year wasn't a precursor for the rest of the year.
But he stopped, halfway down the main hallway, right outside of the choir room.
It wasn’t unusual for other students to be in the school after hours, but it was the first week, most club meetings didn't start until the following week, save for the sports teams. The other unusual thing about this was the singing coming from the classroom. It was good, really good, actually.
Part of the reason the drama club kids were so low in the Hawkins High School pecking order was because most of them thought they were Broadway's next biggest star, when in reality, most of them were borderline tone-deaf.
But this girl… Mike had never heard anything like it in his life. He looked over his left shoulder to see the door of the choir room cracked slightly open. His feet were taking him there before his mind could tell him to keep walking. He peered in, and there was a girl, facing away from him and towards the piano. Curly, chestnut locks cascaded down her back, her head moving slightly to the rhythm of the song she was singing, a song Mike had surely never heard before. He felt wrong for watching her, this was clearly a private moment, but he couldn’t seem to pull his eyes, or ears, away. He had never heard anyone, especially not in Hawkins, sing so beautifully, and he was immediately drawn to her for a reason he didn’t know.
It’s not that Mike was never drawn to girls, but more so that he never let himself get too close. He knew who he was and how they saw him. He was a nerd, a total wasteoid and, save for Lucas, girls had never found him or any of his friends interesting, so he just thought it’d be easier not to be interested either. You can’t get rejected over a crush you never had in the first place, but he’d be damned if this wasn’t the prettiest girl he had ever seen in his life, and he had only seen the back of her head.
He watched her in awestruck, and while he certainly was not done staring, she had finished singing, hitting a big note at the end. Her voice and his heart soared.
She immediately reached down to pick up her bag, and her purple converse squeaked against the floor as she got up from the piano bench. She headed towards the door, not yet noticing that she was being watched.
Mike needed to move, and fast, before he was caught, but he was having the adverse reaction as he had earlier, his feet weren't moving but his mind was telling him to go.
He had barely managed to move out of the doorway as she made her exit. But just as he had gone to exhale, narrowly escaping certain embarrassment, she turned around to look at him.
“Excuse me?” She asked timidly. “Can you- um, point me in the direction of the auditorium?”
He couldn’t speak, he couldn’t think, he just stood there with his mouth wide open, for the most beautiful girl he had ever seen in his, albeit short, life was talking to him, looking up at him with big brown eyes and talking to him.
He must've looked crazy, standing there slack jawed, because she immediately averted her gaze to the floor, hugging her books to her chest as she waited for him to respond. But when he said nothing, his brain refusing to form coherent sentences that didn’t start and end with the word “pretty”, she looked back up at him, raising her eyebrows, almost as if to ask if everything was okay.
“It’s, sorry, it’s uh down the hall and across from the gym.” he finally said, his eyes blinking as he found himself back in reality, he had barely heard her murmur back a “thank you”, as she ducked her head and raced down the hall, away from him.
Mike was frozen in place, what just happened?
She had to be new to Hawkins, because he would’ve remembered her face and not just at the school.
He would’ve noticed her anywhere.
It was then that the interaction between them came washing back over him, and Mike audibly groaned, closing his eyes. God, he really was a loser. He mentally beat himself up for the way he just stood there, looking at her, but his brain had totally short circuited, and that had never happened with anyone – let alone with a girl before.
His eye caught the clock in the hallway, and he checked his watch on his wrist to ensure he had seen the correct time, “Shit!” he audibly said, tripping over his own feet as he swiftly made his way to the student parking lot.
High school wasn’t exactly what El had pictured, not that she had really pictured anything at all. She knew whatever was shown in movies had to be an over-dramatization, and when she had asked Will about it, during one of their forced hang-outs, he hadn’t said much, just that it was boring and he mostly went for his art classes and his clubs, because in order to be a participating member of a club, you had to be attending at least half-days of school.
El hadn’t pried further than that, after over a year of seeing each other consistently every Sunday night, she had come to know that he didn’t like it when she asked too many questions about his life, and especially about his friends. He hardly ever brought them up, and never once talked about introducing her to them despite the multiple hints Joyce had thrown his way suggesting that he do so.
But it didn’t matter, because by the second week, she had already met two of the party members.
The first being Mike, of course, because of their run-in in the hall. El had thought nothing of it at the time, the moment occurring minutes before the audition, which is what had been on her mind in that moment. If anything, she had thought the awkwardness of the exchange had been because of her. Still, it hadn't lasted more than a minute in her mind.
Now, she was sitting by the window in her homeroom classroom, looking out at the leaves that were already starting to turn.
The auditions for the musical had been the evening prior, and to El’s understanding, because they didn’t have much of a troupe to begin with, callbacks wouldn’t be necessary. The list was to be posted some time that day on the bulletin board outside of the auditorium. She had already stopped by on her way to homeroom to see if it was up, but she assumed it would be a bit too early, and wasn’t disappointed to see that her assumption had been right.
El wasn't sure that she was even nervous, something in her gut had told her she had gotten it, but of course there was no way to be sure until it was posted. She didn’t know what to expect, there weren’t enough rewatches of High School Musical or A Chorus Line that would help her understand what directors were actually looking for, especially because despite her many years of singing in her room and reciting scenes from plays and movies to herself in the mirror, she was truly new to this.
Just as her thoughts began to shift towards her schoolwork, and wondering about how many minutes were left in the morning before the bell rang, a mop of brown curls fell into the seat next to her. “Hey!” He immediately greeted, a wide smile showcasing a full mouth of braces. El recognized him from the auditions the evening before. “You’re new here, right?”
She pulled her earbuds out of her ears, looking the boy up and down, trying to place where else she knew his face from. Yes, she had seen him at auditions the day before, but there was something else about his face that she couldn’t place, something familiar about him. She tried not to spend too long puzzling over this, so she nodded, giving the boy a shy smile.
“Uh well, I’m Dustin… Henderson. Dustin Henderson.” He blushed, seeming to be thrown off guard by something El wasn’t aware of.
“Sorry.” She immediately replied, not exactly knowing what she was apologizing for, the words just slipping out, “I’m Eleanor, Jane Eleanor Hopper.”
“Hopper? Like the police chief?” Dustin then asked, really taking a moment to study her.
El, finding that her incredible shyness hadn’t magically disappeared with starting high school, just nodded in reply.
“Damn, I had no idea he had a daughter.”
El didn’t quite know how to respond to that, so she shrugged.
Dustin took that in stride, and kept talking. “Well it’s nice to meet you, I saw you sitting here alone and remembered you from auditions yesterday, and I wanted to introduce myself. You were great, we don’t normally get kids as good as you in the drama club.”
El blinked at him, “Oh,” she wasn’t used to being complimented like this, in fact, if you had told her she was tone deaf, she would have had no idea until that moment. She believed that Hopper would’ve been honest with her while he listened to her practice her audition songs, but there was no way to know you were talented until somebody else told you that you were. So she smiled, “Thank you, I thought you did a great job too. I remember seeing you there, too.”
Dustin grinned, a wide grin, it hadn’t quite left his face the time they had been talking, “Thanks, good enough to get Seymour, you think?”
El shrugged, chiding herself for not just talking, Dustin seemed nice enough, there was no reason to be shy. “I mean, I’m not sure. This is my first time ever doing something like this.” She answered honestly, “But if you want my opinion, I thought you were great, and you definitely have a shot.”
“Thanks! And hey, if it makes you feel any better, I would've had no idea you've never done a show before, you sounded like you knew exactly what you were doing, I definitely think you got Audrey, but, just my honest opinion.”
El blushed, and she wasn't entirely sure of the source. She nodded again, and before she could thank Dustin, or before he could ask her any further questions, the bell rang. The two faced forward, and sometime after the teacher had began to ramble off the morning announcements, El caught Dustin staring at her through the corner of her eye.
Taking a leap of faith, she turned to him, smiling too.
Then, she noticed his eyes dart down to her desk and back up to hers, and what had appeared before her was a small slip of paper. She acknowledged Dustin with another look, and he raised his eyebrows and nodded his head, prompting her to open the paper.
would u like to run lines sometime?
El furrowed her eyebrows, scribbling back "we don't even know if we got the part yet!"
Dustin just shrugged, leaning over and whispering, "Okay, then we can get milkshake, something, anything!"
El studied him for a moment, it totally going over her head that he was sort-of, indirectly, asking her out. She nodded, mouthing, "Okay."
Dustin sat back up in his seat, "Cool." he said under his breath, not looking over at her.
She smiled, proud of herself that she had kind-of just made her first friend.
By lunch, El was sure that the list had to be posted.
Butterflies swirled in her stomach as she approached the auditorium bulletin board, seeing from halfway down the hall a bright green paper that hadn't been there this morning, posted up with a red pushpin. A small group of students were gathered around, most of them El had recognized from the auditions.
She shouldered through the group, hands gripping the straps of her backpack tightly as she did so, and she could hear someone whisper "I think that's her," to the girl next to her.
El approached the list, and blinked hard as she read the first name, she smiled to herself upon seeing that Dustin, her new friend from homeroom, was at the top of the list, meaning that had indeed gotten Seymour. The, not wanting to waste another minute, her eyes trailed down to look for what she had initially come here to see.
Audrey... Jane Eleanor Hopper
She stared at the list for longer than necessary, her smile wide as she took in this moment. Then, when it had been far too long, and the other students that had been waiting around earlier had dispersed, El dug for a pen in her backpack, and signed her name next to her printed one, officially accepting her role.
She took one look back as she finally turned to walk away, making sure the first rehearsal date was correctly marked in her planner for the fourth time.
She made her way to the library, the place she had been eating lunch since the start of the school year, finding the cafeteria too overwhelming and not wanting to have to suffer through the borderline humiliation ritual of trying to find a place to sit when everyone was already divided and filed into their respective groups.
Will had been right about one thing -- Hawkins High School was extremely cliquey, that was a fact El didn't need even need one day in the school to realize.
While small part of her hoped that by joining the musical and therefore the drama club, she would become friends with the drama kids, because it would be nice, after all, to have someone other than Hopper to talk to. Even with the occasional reprieve from him with Joyce or Will, sometimes even Jonathan, she still found that sometimes the two were running out of things to talk about, just preferring to put on a rerun of Miami Vice or Blue Bloods to fill the silence. Yet, if the club didn't bring her any friends, it didn't matter too much to her, because she had gotten the thing that she had cared about most, the thing she had wanted her whole life, a role in a real musical (and she was the goddamn female lead, which was just the cherry on top). Even if none of the other girls talked to her because they were jealous she had swooped in from nowhere and gotten the role, and even if Dustin never made good on his promise of inviting her to hang out, it wouldn't matter, because she had the thing she had always wanted.
The library was quiet, and she liked quiet. She had found a table in the back where few students tended to pass by, and she had been setting up camp there ever since. Earbuds in, she cued up "Somewhere That's Green", planning to spend the rest of her lunch in solitude, fantasizing about the first rehearsal.
She wondered what Dustin would say, what Will would say when she told him on Sunday at their dinner. She had yet to really see him at all at school, just once in the hall, he was walking with a girl with bright red hair and when she waved to him, he didn't wave back. She had thought that maybe he just hadn't seen her.
But most importantly, she thought about Audrey. She didn't have her script yet, she wouldn't be getting that until the first rehearsal, taking place the following evening, so all she could do was listen and think.
Think about the role, and how much it would means to her to be playing a character like Audrey after everything she's been through. She thought about how she would get to die onstage dramatic and bloody, she thought of the costume and the makeup and the lights and -- the kiss!
Even though El was completely alone the back of the library, she flushed deeply at the thought, and it dawned on her how many firsts this show was about to bring her.
Her first real friend, her first musical, her first leading role, and her first kiss.
“Guys, I did it!”
The party heard Dustin Henderson before they even saw him. All of them looking up to see him rushing towards their regular lunch table with a look of pure glee on his face. When he got to their table at the back corner of the lunchroom, he slammed down a bright green piece of paper, out of breath. Everyone leaned over to see what he had presented.
“What am I looking at?” Lucas asked first, the paper facing away from him, so if he even had tried to read it all of the writing was upside down.
“I got the lead!" He stated, proudly, which immediately earned a groan from most of the party.
“I thought we had successfully talked him out of that?” Max asked, taking a sip of her milk, looking between the boys, elbowing Lucas in the ribs.
Lucas rolled his eyes, “I forgot, you totally missed it but Dustin ditched the first a/v meeting for this and Mike got all pissy.”
“I did not!” Mike immediately defended himself, although it was true, and he was grateful that Max had not been there to witness the verbal altercation that had gone down between the two that fateful afternoon in the hallway.
“Look, see right there,” Dustin pointed to the top of the paper, “Dustin Henderson as Seymour Krelborne.” He sat down in the open seat at the lunch table, pulling his chair in and opening up his brown paper bag lunch.
“What the hell is a Seymour Krelborne?” Lucas snorted, half mocking and half genuinely curious.
Dustin rolled his eyes, mouth full of a bite from his sandwich, “The leading role in Little Shop of Horrors you asshat, which I am playing in the fall musical.”
Max picked up the paper and examined it, “Well it’s official, Mike Wheeler is no longer the biggest loser in this school because you officially are.”
Mike shot her a scowl, abstaining from commenting back as Lucas and Max burst into laughter.
Dustin flipped them off.
“Ignore them, I think it’s cool.” Will said, “Besides, I’m helping with the set painting and design so we’ll get to spend more time together.” Will smiled, small. “Who’s playing Audrey?” He asked.
Max, still holding the paper, set it back down on the table for all to see. “Jane Eleanor Hopper. Who is that, is she new?”
“Wait- Hopper as in Chief Hopper?” Lucas questioned.
“She’s in my homeroom. Super nice and super hot, and I get to kiss her in the show.” He bragged, completely ignoring Lucas’s question.
“Gross.” Max interjected, and Dustin just shrugged, as if what he was saying was a fact, which, it was.
Mike, who had been nearly silent this whole time due to his annoyance at Dustin over the whole musical thing, suddenly had his interest piqued. He hadn’t mentioned anything to the party about his run-in with the mystery girl on the first week.
He hated to admit it, but he hadn’t stopped thinking about her since, mostly because he was pretty sure she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen in his life. But girls never ever found him attractive, not in the slightest, so any hope of even trying to talk to her again had been immediately dismissed from his mind. Still, he picked up the bright green paper, scanning it over, wondering if it could be her, when Will revealed something shocking.
“Oh I know Jane Eleanor, she actually just goes by El. She’s Chief Hopper’s daughter.” Will said, suddenly, taking the paper back from Mike and looking it over.
“Chief Hopper has a daughter?” Mike asked, and his voice came out rough and sharp, and he immediately regretted opening his mouth at all after the side-eye Lucas shot him.
Will nodded “Yeah. He adopted her a few years ago. Like Dustin said, she’s super nice but really shy.”
“No one who auditions for the lead in the musical is ‘really shy’, she’s probably just stuck up.” Max couldn't help but reply.
Will shrugged, “I don’t think so, I hang out with her sometimes and I would say she seems genuine, although joining the school musical is the only reason she actually came to a real school. ” Will continued, passing along the information as if it was nothing, and Mike couldn't help but feel a bit jealous that Will had been getting to know the mystery girl this whole time – right under his nose.
“That’s crazy!” Max commented, eyes wide.
“That’s what I told her – why anyone would choose to go to public school is beyond me!” Will rambled as he picked at his lunch, not paying any attention to the wide eyes on him as he prodded.
Max rolled her eyes, “I’m not talking about that–”
“She’s talking about you being a traitor!” Dustin exclaimed, completely cutting Max off, “You knew this whole time that Chief Hopper had a hot daughter who’s our age and never said anything?!”
“I didn’t think it was my place!” Will said not so defensively, almost nonchalantly, as if it wasn’t a big deal, “I guess I just didn’t think it was important.”
“How did you even know that Hopper had a daughter?” Max asked, verbalizing what everyone else was wondering.
“Well you know how my mom and Hopper are… like… dating.” Will swallowed, clearly embarrassed, “So he’s been bringing her around so we can get to know each other, it’s why I haven’t been able to hang out on Sunday’s for like, the last year!” Will had finished his thought, but everyone was looking at him expectantly. “What?” He said to no avail. Then, shrugging, “It’s not my fault none of you ever pay attention to what I have going on. Besides, when do we get new kids here? I’m actually shocked it’s taken any of you this long to notice.”
“Oh I noticed.” Dustin smirked, which earned him a groan from everyone at the table.
Mike almost said that he did too, that he noticed first, but he doesn’t. He didn't want to make it seem like he had this huge crush on a girl he just found out the name of, even if she was really pretty.
So he stays quiet, looking down at his sandwich that isn’t going to eat itself.
And then he remembers something Dustin said.
“I get to kiss her in the show!”
Fuck.
On Friday, after their first music rehearsal, Dustin made good on his promise and asked El if she was free to get a milkshake with him at Benny’s Burgers that Saturday.
El was more than excited to go, and had woken up early on Saturday just to make sure she was ready in time, despite the fact that they weren’t planning to meet until one.
It wasn’t that she was necessarily even excited to be hanging out with Dustin specifically, she was just excited to be hanging out with someone her age that wasn’t Will.
“Have fun kiddo, and be safe!" Hoper had called out after her, dropping her off in the cruiser, only keen to let her go when she had assured him that this was friendly and definitely not a date.
At least not to her it wasn’t.
Dustin was waiting outside for her when she arrived, and he waved her over “Hey!” he called out from the door, and El smiled, waving back.
Only when the cruiser was far out of the parking lot did Dustin pull her in for a big hug, and although El wasn’t sure if it was normal for people to hug on their first time hanging out, she accepted and squeezed him back. “I’m so happy you made it!” he told her, smiling wide, as wide as he had been when she saw him the morning after the list came out, the two talking about how excited they were for the first rehearsal.
“Why wouldn’t I have made it?” She asked, eyebrows furrowed.
“No reason,” Dustin immediately replied, and El didn’t let the thought linger.
He held the door for her as they walked in, and waited for her to pick which side of the booth she wanted first, before shuffling in across from her.
The two sat in awkward silence for a moment, El scanning the menu. She had been to Benny’s with Hopper multiple times before, in fact, it was the place he had taken her when he first found her in the road, and again when he proposed the idea of adopting her. It was kind of their spot. So really, she didn’t need to look at the menu, but she found it was a good buffer for the silence, and Dustin nervously fiddled with his menu across from her.
“Know what kind of milkshake you want?” he asked, and she nodded, immediately slipping into her shy, non-verbal tendencies, and silently cursing herself for doing so. “Cool, I think I’m gonna go chocolate this time.”
El smiled, “Strawberry for me, my usual.”
Dustin laughed, “You seem like a strawberry milkshake kind of person.”
El furrowed her eyebrows, “What does that mean?”
Dustin shrugged, “Thoughts on dipping fries into your shake?”
El just shrugged, “Never tried it before,” She replied honestly, because honestly, she never had, and was certain Hopper would have made fun of her if she did.
Dustin’s eyes went wide, “You have to try it, I’m definitely going to order us some fries to share!” he said eagerly, but when El just nodded, and her eyes began to wander, his eagerness scaled back, “Or if that seems cool with you.”
El nodded, “No, yeah, that would be great! I think it’ll be fun to try.”
The waitress came by to save them from awkwardness not even a minute later, Dustin ordering for the both of them. When she had left, another moment of silence passed over them, and then, like a break in the dam, the two began talking at length about the show.
First they started with rehearsals, Dustin reassuring El that she was the best person that the Hawkins Drama department had seen by far, and he told her all about Tammy Thompson, who had graduated when he was a freshman and always used to get the lead despite being horribly tone deaf.
El giggled, “Why did they always give her the lead if she was so bad?”
Dustin was laughing too, "I don't know, maybe it was all they had. I can promise you though, you are infinitely better than her. I know we’ve only been in rehearsals for a week, but I can just tell that the show is going to be good.”
They were halfway through their milkshakes now, and midway through talking about what songs they were most excited for, when the door jingled behind El, and she noticed Dustin’s face light up.
Because Dustin had bailed on their regularly scheduled Saturday campaign, Lucas, Max, Will and Mike had all made the plans to get milkshakes at Benny's that Saturday instead.
So Mike was surprised when he walked in to see Dustin sitting there upon walking into Benny's, waving at him like he hadn’t totally just shot the party in the foot by bailing basically at the last minute.
But even more shocking to Mike, was who Dustin was with.
The girl from the choir room, Mike’s not so mystery girl.
It hadn’t been shocking to him when it was confirmed that Will’s soon to be stepsister and the new girl who had snagged the lead in the musical had turned out to be the same girl he had heard singing that day in the choir room, but it was shocking that she was here with Dustin alone.
Dustin had made it very clear that day at lunch that was interested in El, but Mike had held onto the hope that she maybe wouldn’t feel the same way. Not that it mattered, though, because it’s not like he had a chance with her anyways.
He hadn’t even spoken to her besides that small interaction in the hallway, and while he wasn't totally sure if she knew who he was or not, that didn’t change the fact that he still secretly hoped that she wouldn’t fall for Dustin’s lame attempts at charming her, in favor his lame attempts at trying to charm her, should he ever work up the courage to make that attempt.
But seeing her sitting across from him in the booth, sharing an order of french fries, his hope drastically dwindled.
As if his Saturday couldn’t get any worse.
“El, Dustin, what are you guys doing here?" Will asked first, leading the charge over to their booth where Dustin was waving him over. “I didn’t know you two were friends.” he said, and Mike didn’t miss the sharpness in his tone.
“We’re in the musical together, Will, of course we’re friends! We’re playing the gaddamn leads after all!”
El just nodded, looking at Dustin, then back at Will, her gaze hadn’t even fallen over to Mike yet. “I didn’t know you and Dustin were friends.” She said softly.
“Oh yeah, we’ve been friends since fourth grade!” Dustin said, a little taken aback that El didn’t know this.
“Oh, I had no idea,” She just said, then she looked over at the rest of the group, her gaze stopping on Mike a little longer, as if she was trying to place him, before looking away and back at Will.
Then there was silence, and suddenly, Max spoke up, “Wait, do you like, not talk about us or something?” she wondered aloud, turning towards Will.
Then Lucas let out a thoughtful chuckle, “Yeah wait, didn’t you say the other day that you and-” Then he looked at El, “El, right?”
She nodded, then, “El’s fine,” quietly.
Lucas smiled at her, turning back to look at Will, but before he could finish his sentence, “Wait! Why didn’t you tell me you preferred to go by El, you said your name was Eleanor!” Dustin asked El, feigning annoyance.
El just shrugged, “It’s just a nickname, not important.” She tried to brush it off.
“Well is that what you liked to be called?” Max asked her, no longer addressing Will.
“I mean, it’s what everyone at home calls me,” She replied, looking down at the table, not liking all of the attention that was on her.
“Then you’re El to us!” Max said, and took a seat next to her, “This is Lucas, my boyfriend, and that one’s Mike.” She pointed to him, and El looked over at Mike again, turning away from him and blushing.
The only thing Mike could think, still standing in the aisle of Benny’s was holy shit, she totally remembers the hallway and she totally thinks I’m a loser and wants nothing to do with me.
But really, what she had been thinking was that he was really cute, which was why she had blushed.
“Seriously, Max, are you hijacking me and El’s–” Dustin paused before finishing his immediate thought, “Hang out?” He finished awkwardly.
“Yes, because William over there has kept El a secret from us for too long, so we have to investigate what’s up and why he clearly wants me to suffer as the only girl in the group.” Max stole a fry, smirking at Dustin as he rolled his eyes, glaring at her.
“I don’t want you to suffer Max, it’s just–” he started, not making any effort to finish his thought.
El squished up against the wall as Lucas sat on the end, next to Max, and Will and Mike shuffled in on the other side. Dustin shot El a reassuring smile from across the table.
Then she looked at Will, who was trying to avoid her gaze, clearly embarrassed that this was the way El was meeting his friends.
She then looked over at Mike again, who was purposely trying not to look at her, and it dawned on her, only then, that she had met Mike before.
Well, met was a strong word for their exchange, he had been the one to give her directions to the auditorium, but based on how he was acting, she thought that maybe he didn’t remember that she was that girl, so she didn’t bring it up.
“El,” Max asked when everyone was settled and had ordered their milkshakes, “Is it true that you only came to hawkins high because you wanted to be in the musical, because that’s what Will said.”
El blinked at Max, her cheeks tingling pink, “Yeah, it was kind of my only option.” She admitted.
Max just shrugged “Well to each their own I guess!”
The group began to prod at El further, El answering with short answers, trying her best to think of questions to ask back but coming up blank.
Mike hadn’t asked her a single question, barely even looked at her, and El would go to bed that night wondering if she had done something wrong.
Mike, on the other hand, would go to bed thinking about how royally screwed he was, that it was safe to say after spending those few hours today, hearing her laugh and talk, that he definitely had a crush on her, and it nearly frightened him how fast it had come on. He went from having no interest in anyone to having a full blown crush in less than a week, on someone he had just met, too, no less. The worst part of it all? Dustin definitely had a crush on her too. After all, he had bailed on his friends to invite El for a milkshake instead, and had stopped himself just shy of saying the word “date” when chiding Max for interrupting them.
Mike knew he needed to find some way to put some distance between him and El and Dustin, and that night he lay awake thinking of the perfect way – because it was one thing to have an unattainable crush, but it was another to watch your friend get the girl that you wanted.
“Hey, El, can we talk?” Will said, standing like a child next to El’s chair at dinner the next night.
Joyce had spent the whole dinner absolutely gushing over El and the musical, asking her to let her know if they needed help with costumes, makeup– anything.
“I actually wrote a play that got performed there when I was your age, I used to be the president of the drama club, so I’d say I know my way around backstage pretty well!” Joyce had told her, and El assured her that should they need her help, she would let her know right away.
El had stayed at the table by herself when Hopper and Joyce excused themselves from the table to watch a movie in the living room. This was usually when Will and El had their forced hangout-homework time in his room, but after the run-in with his friends yesterday, El was really starting to let the feeling sink in that Will didn't want her a part of his world at all.
So she was surprised when he had approached her, having already excused himself from the table even sooner than Hopper and Joyce had.
El looked up at him, nodding, and following him to his room down the hall.
“What did you want to talk about?” She asked, sitting in the chair at his desk, where she usually sat on Sundays.
“Look- I just wanted to say I’m sorry for not introducing you to my friends earlier. I definitely should’ve, and I shouldn’t have gotten defensive either when you asked about them. They’re just… a lot, and you’re so shy and I don’t know, I was scared it was going to be a bad mix or like, change things.”
El, appreciative that he had acknowledged this, and never one to hold a grudge, gave him a nod, “It’s okay,” She told him, meaning it.
He shook his head, “It’s really not, I’ve been totally avoiding you at school too, which is super shitty of me considering you could probably use a few friends. So starting Monday, consider me your new best friend. You can sit with us at lunch, if you want, and I can even see if Mike can start giving you a ride back here after school and–”
“No! It’s okay!” El interjected at the mention of Mike, “I’ll be having rehearsal almost everyday now, so no need!”
“Right, well…”
“I appreciate your apology, though Will, and I forgive you. I really liked your friends.” She smiled.
Will smiled back, “Good, because they really liked you, I mean especially Dustin and Max. Mike was kind of acting a bit off though, he’s usually way more talkative so I don’t know what’s going on there, but nothing to do with you, I promise. I’ll make sure he's normal next time.” Will assured her.
El immediately was curious as to why Mike had been acting weird, but she didn’t pry, not wanting to make anything obvious.
After all she had just met him, and though she thought that he was really cute, handsome, even, he hadn’t seemed very interested in her back, whereas Dustin was. It was clear by the way he had hugged at the end of their milkshake hang-out, it finally dawned on El that in a way, he had intended that to be a date– one that got horribly hijacked. Still, he was nice, cute, and funny, and eventually would become El’s first kiss because of the show, so maybe sticking it out with Dustin, even if the initial butterflies weren’t there, was the way to go. A showmance turned romance, like Troy and Gabriella - in a way.
The rest of the night, Will didn’t say much else about his friends, and El didn’t ask.
Mike spent all of Monday thinking, he hadn’t quite formulated a plan on how he was going to avoid El without being obvious that he was avoiding her.
But on Tuesday, the day the first official meeting of the a/v club was set to occur, he had completely forgotten about that, because that morning Mike had been called into the office where he was informed by Principal Higgins and a few other staff members that if he couldn’t find an actual reason the a/v club was still useful to the school, they would cut funding and the club would be formally disbanded, no longer even eligible to be put on a college resume.
It had completely soured his entire day, and he couldn’t stop thinking about how the only thing he had in school that he actually looked forward to was about to be ripped away from him.
And to make matters worse, he had to make the announcement today in the club, the first official meeting of the year since the first one had been cancelled due to Dustin’s absence, and again, Dustin was yet to be there. It was going on fifteen minutes of Lucas, Will, and Mike all just staring at one another, Will and Lucas trying to figure out what had put Mike so on edge.
Dustin finally came barreling into the room.
“You’re late.” Mike barked immediately.
“Sorry – early costume fitting.” Dustin replied, completely missing Mike’s annoyed tone.
“You promised me that you wouldn’t be late on a/v club days, you said you talked to Ms. David about it and everything.” Mike snapped back.
“I know, it was a one time thing Mike, I-”
“Well it isn’t a one-time thing, because you already missed for the auditions and now this? It’s only the third week of school, Dustin, and you’re already putting this stupid play over everything!”
“I’m not! Why are you getting so upset about this, it’s one time Mike-”
“Because they’re going to disband the club, Dustin, if we can’t find a valid reason to keep it running!” Mike yelled, and everyone stared at him blankly.
Will blinked, “What?”
“Yup, that’s why I would appreciate a bit more dedication from everyone so that way we can find a way to stop this from happening.” Mike said as he paced around the room.
Dustin sighed, taking a seat, “I am dedicated, Mike, but I have to prioritize the musical as well, I know you don’t understand, but it’s really important to me, and not to mention El-”
“Enough!” Mike finally snapped, “I hereby ban any mention of the musical or of anything or anyone to do with the musical while a/v club is in session!” Mike then shouted, clearly angry about so many things, there wasn’t even a good place for them to start and unpack all of this.
“You’re serious?” Dustin asked in disbelief, standing.
“Dead serious, I don’t want to hear about it anymore, at least not in these four walls.” Dustin and Mike stared at each other for a long while, and Lucas nor Will dared to say anything.
And in a rare moment of humbleness, Dustin conceded, just nodding, taking a seat again.
Then, not taking his eyes off of Dustin, “Now, does anyone have any suggestions for ways to save the club?” Mike asked, voice still rough.
He looked at Lucas, who sighed, then shrugged, then at Will, who just shook his head, then, “Fine, meeting adjourned.” And he picked up his bag and stormed out of the room.
As he marched down the hall, he didn’t couldn’t figure out why he had gotten so angry, he wanted to believe it was just the threat of the club being shut down, and the annoyance of Dustin’s tardiness combined, but even he knew that this was something else, something he wasn’t ready to address.