A/N: Hey snowflakes. My friend told me that I should write this, so if it sucks… Don't blame me. Basically this story is about what would happen if El was never captured by the government and was raised perfectly normal, but never met the guys until they were in high school. Also this is set in our time period, so if things start to sound a little too modern… that's why. The event of the show get pushed back until the kids are 16 and 17. Don't shoot me about certain details, because trust me… I know. Anyway R&R.
In the quiet town of Hawkins, Indiana, kids hustled and rushed on their way to school on a chilly, October morning. For one kid, it was a day he had been waiting for since his freshmen year.
"Mike, will you slow down? You're going to cause an accident." Dustin Henderson said from the passenger seat of his best friend's car.
"I'm sorry Dustin but, I really want to get to school. Today is the day I'm gonna ask her." Mike Wheeler said as he slowed down ever so slightly to turn a corner.
"Woah, woah, woah. You're going to ask Jamie Simcotts to Homecoming?" Lucas Sinclair asked from the backseat.
"You seem surprised." Mike said as he turned into the parking lot of the school.
"Yeah, considering you become a bumbling moron whenever you are within ten feet of her." Will Byers said from his place in the back with Lucas, then went back to his book.
"I do not." Mike defended himself as he pulled into a parking spot and turned off his car.
"Yeah you do. Remember the game we had to play against the Greenwood Woodmans. She said that we played great and you couldn't even utter a coherent sentence to her." Lucas pointed out as they got out of the car and started walking toward the school.
"I was just tired and out of breath. They gave us a good run for our money and I just wasn't ready to work that hard." Mike said as he opened his locker.
"Mike, catch." Mike turned at the sound of his name and caught the football that was thrown to him by a fellow teammate.
"Nice pass Ricky." Mike threw it back to him.
"You ready for the game next week?" Ricky asked as he walked up to the boys.
"Hell yeah. I was born ready." Dustin said, getting all pumped up. Ricky and Dustin did a chest bump and started whooping.
"Also, turns out Coach Boomer has a special assignment for the team so we have to meet in the gym instead of going to the field." Ricky said. The other boys, except Will, nodded in understanding. The bell rang to signal that class would be starting in 5 minutes.
"Gotta run, can't be late again." Ricky said as he ran down the hall, knocking over a few freshmen in the process.
"See you boys later." Lucas said as he walked toward his class.
"See ya at lunch." Will said as he went up the stairs and disappeared.
"You ready for a fun filled day in chemistry. It's a lab day." Dustin asked as Mike closed his locker and the two began to walk to class. Mike found it odd that Dustin knew that it was a lab day.
"Of course." Mike said with a large amount of sarcasm laced into his words. "How do you know today is a lab day?" Once they reach their classroom, they take the two seats in the way back of the room.
" I have memorized when it's a lab day so I can be ready to set something on fire." Mike laughed at his pyromaniac of a friend. "Look who it is." Dustin said as he subtly gestures to the door. Jamie Simcotts and two of her friends walked into the room and sat down toward the front of the class. "Now's your chance."
"Dude, relax. I've got a plan." Mike said as he glanced at Jamie and smiled.
"So that's your way of saying you have no idea what to do, when to ask her or how to ask her, right?" Dustin asked as he opened his backpack and pulled out his binder.
"Yeah, pretty much." Mike said as he ran his hand through his hair and sighed.
"You are one hot mess." Dustin responded as the bell rang.
"Good morning class." The chemistry teacher, Mr. Bans, said as he walked into the room and put his stuff on his desk. The announcements came on and at that point no one was listening. "Guys, keep the voices down." Mr. Bans scolded as he opened his bag and pulled out his lesson plan.
"Good luck to our varsity football team as they take on our biggest rivals next week here at home." All of the football guys in the class started cheering. "Congratulations to our varsity girls volleyball team as they compete for the state championship this saturday, come out and support them. Also congratulations to the dance team in taking 1st place in team and 1st place in jazz at the state competition yesterday. They'll be going to nationals in three weeks, good luck ladies." After that no one paid attention. The ticked by slowly for the rest of the day until it was time for practice.
"What do you think this is about?" Dustin asked as the team stood outside the gym waiting for their coach in their practice clothes. Finally after a few minutes of waiting, their coach walked up to them.
"Alright… First I wanna say you guys played great last week but they were easy to beat. Next week we have our game against our biggest rivals and I want you guys to be in the best possible shape. Now we have the muscles but two things we lack are agility and balance… So I have arranged that you guys spend a week with the girls on the dance team." Suddenly all the boys started complaining.
"No way am I going to be dancing around in a tutu." And other comments like that were heard for the mass of boys.
"So you guys don't want to spend a week with a bunch of girls who can dance?" The coach said, hinting at what the guys were missing. "Who knows… Maybe some of you will get girlfriends out of this." At hearing that all of the guys rushed for the door trying to get in. Once all the boys were in the gym and sitting on the bleachers, the girls came for a different set of doors. They were all laughing and smiling with each other, but they stopped when they took notice of the boys. The girl's dance coach came in and smiled.
"Great! You guys are already changed." Coach Fara said as she walked over and shook hands with Coach Boomer.
"What are they doing here?" Max Mayfield asked.
"You didn't tell them?" Coach Boomer asked.
"I was about to but you guys were already sitting in here." Fara tried to save herself. She turned around and faced the confused faces of her girls. "The boys are going to be spending the week with us to increase their agility and balance." All the girls looked at their coach with blank looks, then shrugged their shoulder, dropped their bags on the bleachers and walked to the center of the gym in a big circle.
"How do you want to pair up?" Boomer asked Fara.
"Captains should be together, then the others can pick who they want to be with." Fara explained. "Who's your captain?"
"We didn't really assign one." Boomer admitted.
"Well, assign one. I'll go tell my girls." Fara walked to the large circle of girls and began talking to them.
"Alright boys… Who should be our…" Boomer didn't even get to finish the sentence before almost every boy shouted.
"MIKE!" The girls looked over with confused looks on their faces and the guys started to blush.
"Ok then. Have you guys thought about this before?" Boomer asked.
"We just all agree that Mike is the best option. We've always listened to him and it seems to work for us." Dustin explained.
"He's always known what's the right thing to do." Lucas chimed in.
"You ok with being captain Mike?" He asked.
"Yeah. It's fine." Mike said with a smile on his face. Boomer turned around and was about to talk when Fara cut him off.
"We know." Fara said. "We made a list for everyone else. When I call your name, go over there." Fara pointed to the other side of the gym. "Dustin and Maxine. Ricky and Sarah. Alan and Chelsea. David and Brittney. Chad and Kellie. Brandon and Hailey. Toby and Spencer. Caleb and Bethany. Jason and Marley. And finally Lucas and Alexis."
"What about Mike?" Boomer asked as he gestured to the lone boy.
"Our captain will be here any minute." Fara calmed the burly man down.
"Queen's home!" A shout rang through the gym as the girls ran for the door and crowded a single girl.
"That's our captain." Fara walked over and quickly talked to the girl. Mike couldn't see her very well because of the crowd of girls, but he could tell that she nodded at whatever her coach just told her. The girls parted enough so Mike could get a good look at his partner. She had long, curly brown hair that went down her back. She looked to be about 5'2" and that was pushing it. Mike had to admit, from what he saw, she was beautiful. The girls scattered, grabbed their partners and began to talk with them about everything and anything.
"You must be Mike." The girl said.
"Yeah, that's me." Mike stuttered out, suddenly getting really nervous. 'Woah, where did that come from?'
"I'm El. I'm your partner." El said with a smile on her face. "Let's get started."