It was the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, and the Hawkins Community Pool was going to be opening. The kids all planned to go first thing on Saturday morning.
El had just one problem- she didn't own a bathing suit.
When Hopper got home that evening, he immediately unbuttoned his shirt and removed it along with his belt. It was early in the season, but it was already too hot outside. He felt an immediate sense of relief in just his under t-shirt. He went to the fridge, pulling out an ice cold can of beer, looking forward to relaxing on the couch for the rest of the night.
He took a long swig and felt eyes on him. He turned around to see El, staring at him expectantly.
"What…" he sighed, sensing that she wanted something.
"Can we go shopping?"
"Shopping. For what?"
"I need a bathing suit," she explained.
"Yeah, I suppose so," he agreed, sitting down at the kitchen table. It was nearly summer, and he knew she wasn't going to stay in the cabin all year this time.
El excitedly ran off to her bedroom and returned in a minute with shoes on.
"I didn't mean now," Hopper told her.
"But I need it for tomorrow!" El pouted.
"You need a bathing suit for tomorrow," he repeated.
El nodded her head yes, looking sad, knowing it wasn't that hard to manipulate him with just a look.
Hopper groaned and stood back up. So much for a relaxing night.
"Fiiiine," he exaggerated with annoyance.
For a Friday night, the Starcourt Mall was relatively quiet. They arrived at Sears and found the girl's/teen swim section. El must have picked out over 10 bathing suits, handing each "yes" to Hopper. When his arms were full, he suggested she go to the fitting room to try them on.
"I want to see them," he warned, setting all the bathing suits down on the small bench inside the tiny cubicle. He was sure it was frowned upon for a man to be waiting in the women's changing area, but the store was dead, and there was no way he was going to let her buy a bathing suit, sight unseen.
Hopper closed her in the small room and it took El a few minutes to get changed. He could see her feet spinning around, back and forth under the door while she presumably checked the first one out.
It was a simple black one piece, but it still looked very different from what she was used to wearing as a bathing suit in the lab.
El peeked out the door to see if anyone had come in and then stepped out.
"No," Hopper said almost immediately when he turned around to see her.
El frowned. "Why no?"
"Just, try something else, would ya?"
It wasn't El's favorite anyway, so she went back in and dug through the pile to find another one.
The next one was hot pink with black polka dots. It was also one piece, but it had cut outs so that you could see the sides of her stomach. She really liked this one.
"Uh-uh," Hopper immediately objected again.
"But I like this one!" El argued. She spun around so he could see it again.
"Next," Hopper demanded.
The entire rest of the pile went something like this. By the last one, El was upset and frustrated and so was Hopper.
"You said no to all of them!" she complained, throwing her hands up in the air.
Hopper groaned. She was right; he had said no to every single one.
She was standing in a blue and white two piece now. In reality, it was just your basic bathing suit, but to Hopper, the sides on the bottoms were cut way too high, and the top, well it barely covered anything. El was far too young to be wearing something like that, and he wondered how it was even appropriate enough to be placed in the teen section in the first place.
"What about the first one again?" he sighed, knowing she was going to have to get something.
"The black one?" El asked.
"Yeah, I think so." They were all starting to become a blur. "Lemme see it again."
"Ughhhh," El griped, slamming the door.
She came back out in the black one piece. Compared to everything else he saw, he hated this one the least. It wasn't cut too high, nor was the neck line too low; it covered most of her.
"You can get that one," Hopper finally conceded, turning to leave the room.
"But I don't like this one," argued El.
"It's that or nothing," he said with finality.
El looked like she was going to cry. She wanted Mike to like her bathing suit, and this stupid black one was ugly and boring.
"But-"
"El," he warned, cutting her off.
El stormed back to the dressing room, rattling the walls as the door slammed shut.
She took off the stupid bathing suit and threw it to the ground.
Hopper paced out front waiting for her for over 10 minutes, but she didn't come out.
He went back to the fitting room, speaking to her through the door. "El, you need to come out," he told her.
The door abruptly flew open and she stalked past him, throwing all the bathing suits down in a pile on the return cart.
"Hey, I said you could get the black one."
He grabbed her arm to stop her from sulking off.
She yanked it away and turned around. He could see now that her face was wet with angry tears.
"I don't want the black one," she snapped.
"What's wrong with it?"
"It's stupid and ugly," muttered El, looking at the ground.
Hopper pinched the bridge of his nose. He knew at this point, they were going to have to compromise or else there was the potential for a telekinetic tantrum in the middle of the store.
"Which one do you like?" he sighed.
El eyed him suspiciously but dug through the pile until she found the rainbow striped two piece, holding it up.
Of course she liked that one the best.
"Aren't there any that are in one piece that you liked?" he tried again.
El sighed, pulling out the pink and black polka dot one.
It was one piece, though it was missing some fabric on the sides.
Compromise, Hopper remembered.
"Fine," he muttered.
"I can get it?" El asked, her face lighting up.
"Yes," Hopper caved.
El's frown instantly turned into a smile, and she wiped the tears from her cheeks.
They paid for the swim suit and headed for the store's exit with El happily swinging the bag that contained her new bathing suit. Hopper was sure that he was less than halfway happy, but the look on El's face sort of made up for it.
"Can we go to Scoops Ahoy?" she asked sweetly, knowing that she was really pushing her luck now.
The look on his face said it all, and she knew the answer was no. However, just as they were walking past the food court, he turned and headed into the ice cream parlor anyway. It was more for him than her, he told himself.
"Thank you!" El exclaimed excitedly.
Hopper recognized the kid behind the counter, even though his face was free of blood and injuries this time.
"Hi Steve," El smiled to him. Steve made small talk with Hopper while they patiently waited for El to look over all the flavors, ultimately settling for her favorite: two scoops of Blue Moon on a waffle cone.
"So what are you guys doing out tonight?" Steve asked, bending over into the freezer.
"Bathing suit shopping," Hopper replied, his tone clearly conveying how well it had gone.
"I see," chuckled Steve.
"Do you want to see it?" asked El, eagerly reaching inside the bag.
"Yeah, sure," Steve answered.
El pulled the bathing suit out, trying to hold it so that they could see it properly.
"I really like it," the girl, Robin, commented from behind the counter. Robin was a pretty, and definitely cool, older teenage girl, so El knew that she made the right choice.
"Me too," El smiled, shoving it back in the bag so she could grab her ice cream cone.
When they got home, El tried her bathing suit on again and spent the entire night deciding what else she was going to wear to the pool tomorrow. Over the past few months, Hopper noticed that their bathroom exploded with clothes and girly things all over the counter as El became more cultured, so the fact that she spent the night holed up in her bedroom was not a total surprise.
The next morning, Mike was in his room basically doing the same thing. All his swimming trunks were strewn about his room, though none of them really made a difference. He was still too skinny and pale, and it didn't matter what he put on. He hoped that there would be other guys leaving their shirts on so he wouldn't have to take his off either.
When 11 o'clock came, Karen Wheeler burst into his doorway.
"Mom, knock!" Mike yelled, slipping his shirt on quickly.
"Oh sweetie, I'm your mother," she laughed, as if that made a difference. "Dustin is here," she told him, walking out, leaving his door wide open.
Mike grumbled and slammed the door shut, if only to make a point. He looked at his stupid clothes one last time and sighed opening the door again to go downstairs.
"Ready?" Dustin asked, lifting his eyebrows. He was clearly more than excited to be heading to the pool for the day with everyone. "I heard Heather Jenkins is lifeguarding this year. Can't wait to see her in a bathing suit!"
"Uh-huh," Mike agreed absently, wondering why Dustin didn't seem nearly as nervous as he was about all this.
When they got to the pool, Lucas, Will, and Max were already there. The 3 of them had already unclothed and were in the pool. Mike noticed that Joyce was also there, but she promised Will she would stay out of their way, sunbathing on a chair near the shallow end.
Dustin ripped his clothes off and canon balled in, but Mike told them he was going to wait for El.
Mike nervously bounced his legs, sitting on a chair, watching the entrance. He saw Hopper come in first. He made his way over to Joyce and sat down next to her on the edge of a chair. He was in jeans and t-shirt, so it was pretty clear that he hadn't intended to stay for very long.
Still, Mike couldn't take his eyes off the gates. In a few minutes, El finally came out from the changing room, carrying her clothes and a towel in her arms. She saw Mike and smiled, making her way over to his chair.
Suddenly Dustin was next to Mike. "Dammmn," he drawled with a grin. "El grew up!"
"Shut up," Mike warned quietly, instinctively smacking Dustin so hard that he left a red welt on his chest. Dustin laughed and jumped back in. Mike hoped El didn't hear that.
"Hi," El said shyly, setting her things down.
Dustin's head popped back up out of the water. "Come on guys!" he yelled to the two of them.
"In a minute!" Mike yelled. He turned back to El and softened his tone."Um, I like your bathing suit."
"Thank you," El grinned; she knew he would like this one.
El had been so excited about going to the pool that she hadn't even thought about the fact that she didn't know how to swim, well, not properly swim anyway. All the pools she had ever been in allowed her to naturally float, and she never had to worry about breathing in the water.
"So do you want to get in?" Mike asked sheepishly, knowing that he was going to have to take his shirt off sooner or later.
El eyed Dustin jumping in over and over and looked concerned. "You don't have to do it like that," Mike explained sensing her hesitation. "See-" he pointed. "There's steps over there and your feet can touch the bottom. I can help you," he offered.
"Okay," El nodded. Mike took his shirt off and crossed his arms over his chest, until he quickly got all the way in the pool. El cautiously followed him in, holding on to the handles while she made her way down the steps. The freshly filled pool was still a bit cold, and she jumped with a surprised laugh when the cold water hit her stomach.
"You'll get used to it," Max smiled, popping up from under the water.
Max was right. It didn't take long for El to get used to it, and soon, none of them were worried about their bodies or stupid clothes anymore. Hopper only stayed for a few minutes until he saw that El was comfortable in the pool. He told her he would be back at 4 o'clock to pick her up.
El realized that swimming wasn't that hard, and she spent the day jumping off the edge of the pool with everyone else. Though the other kids spent the entire day playing together, El spent some time sitting next to Joyce in the sun. She described her night of shopping with Hopper, though Joyce had already heard his side of the story when he had gotten there earlier.
At 4 o'clock, Hopper arrived to take her home just as he promised. A pink cheeked El said goodbye to her friends and jumped into the car with an exhausted smile. Though she had worn sunscreen like Hopper instructed, she hadn't reapplied often enough, and her sensitive skin burned easily.
"Have a good time?" he asked.
El nodded and laid her head back on the seat; she was suddenly very tired.
He pulled out of the parking lot to head home when she sweetly turned to ask, "Can we stop for ice cream?"