A/N: I had a slightly different AU in mind. A few days ago heard this really old song called "Young Love" (google turned up two people who do the song Sonny James, Connie Francis there are a few others). Anyway, while listening to the lyrics I thought: "This is Mike and El." That's what inspired the title and this story.

The First Day of School

The first day of school was not going to be the worst day of the year for Mike Wheeler.

The worst day of the year might have been when he found out the Byer's had to move to out of Hawkins for Will's medical treatment. That was the same day that Dustin said a new student was transferring to Hawkins middle "and get this, she's Chief Hopper's adopted daughter."

"Oh great, a double whammy" Mike said.

"How's that a double whammy?" Dustin said.

"First, it'll be another girl who won't talk to us...ever. So nothing new there. Second, even if she did, Hopper's never gonna let her hang out with us. I kinda feel sorry for her, as the Chief's daughter she's never going to make any friends, except for maybe us...except for the double whammy...it's the bad paradox that is our life."

Ten minutes after Dustin had told him that news, he said said that he and his Mom had to move out of state.

That could have been the worst day of the year. Two best friends moving out of Hawkins in the same week.

The worst day of the year could have been when Lucas met Max Mayfield. The two hit if off right away. Mike would have been mostly ok with it if Dustin and Will were still going to be around. But he was bitter, and didn't talk to Max. Lucas wanted Max to hang out with them all the time, Mike said he didn't want to be in the way of Lucas actually getting a girlfriend. At least one member of the Party would have rolled a 20.

None of those days were the worst day of the year...all contenders, of course, but they all came out in last place.

No, the worst day of the year was going to be reserved for the first time Troy beat him up. And it would be compounded by the fact that he would have no friends with him for moral support. That day was truly going to suck.

The one saving grace was that Lucas, his last remaining best friend in Hawkins was in all his classes. But so was Max.

The Hawkins middle teachers were doing something new this year with desks by pairing them up. Max and Lucas took one set...everybody else seemed to have done the same…

Mike was sitting on one set, three rows from the front with the empty seat on his right. Nobody had chosen to sit beside him. Yup, not the worst day of the year, but gearing up to be a frontrunner. Just as he was thinking of this a quiet voice said, "is this seat taken?"

Mike looked up. It was a girl. They both looked at each other wide eyed, surprised at the sight of each other. His heart started thumping. Wow. She was... "Pretty." Mike blurted out and looked down quickly, his cheeks turning a deep crimson. He forced himself to look back at her.

She had really pretty eyes, big round, clear and almost a golden brown.

He could see her own cheeks were red also and a small unsure smile on her face. "Uh, It's not taken, um go ahead," he nodded to the seat, "just be warned that you'll be sitting with Mike Wheeler The Nerd, so any chance you had at a social life just disappeared."

"I'm El Hopper...thank you.." She continued to smile at him, if not a little confused.

Mike snorted. Could the day get any more perfect? Of course it could. Sit next to a girl who would never talk to him again in a million years. Who knew she'd be pretty? Not just pretty. Really pretty. The kind of pretty that makes your heart ache. That made it even worse. He'd just met the new girl, the double whammy. Mike was sure the universe hated him. He was sure of it.

Now that he'd seen her, he really did feel sorry for her. She had her own double whammy to deal with. She was Hopper's daughter, and she had that really short hair.

The day dragged on until the bell rang...the bell for lunch. Great. Only half of the miserable day left. He went to his locker to get rid of his morning books and grab his lunch the books he needed for the afternoon.

When he turned around he heard, "might as well start the year off on a good note frogface." Troy was winding back to punch him a good one. Shit, this was going to hurt. Troy let go what should have been a haymaker but landed beside his head full force into the hard steel frame between his locker and the next. Mike heard a crunch, it had to be a few fingers and some hand bones. Troy must have put everything he had into it. But he missed.

Troy howled in pain and ran off holding his hand.

Mike stood there dumbfounded for a few seconds. Having a hard time believing his luck. No doubt he'd pay for it later, but that wouldn't be until Troy's punching hand healed. He'd have to go to the library and look up a book on broken bones, to see how long he had.

The person who used the locker next to him opened it. To his surprise he saw that it was El Hopper. It looked like she had a nose bleed. She must have been getting a tissue or something to clean it up.

"Why is he mean to you?" El asked him softly.

"He's a mouthbreather, he doesn't know any better. I think he wanted to break my nose today. He was winding up to pitch a strike three."

"He should aim better if he wants to break your nose." El said, turning back towards her locker a half smile on her face.

"Yeah that was a little weird, he, um, doesn't usually miss my face. I'm sure he'll make up for it when his hand heals. That day is gonna be a lot of fun."

"Thank you for the seat...I'm new here. It's nice to have someone to talk to the first day. Even if you've ruined my social life." El said smiling at him and waited.

"Uh, sure no problem." Mike said smiling.. She hadn't moved.

"Um, what are you waiting for?"

"You. Do you want to eat lunch together? You're still the only person I know here.."

Mike was floored. She was still talking to him. She basically asked him for a lunch date. Ok that might be pushing it calling it a lunch date. Still eating lunch together was eating lunch together.

"Oh, uh, sure, let's go find my friend Lucas, we can all sit together.

El was scared. Today was going to be her first day at a real school. She had worked really hard for the last year to prepare. Her hair hadn't started to grow longer yet. She was worried that maybe it wouldn't ever grow long again. No boys would be interested in her, at least according to all the TV shows she watched.

She was prepared for a bad first day, but her dad said even if the first day didn't go well, it would get better. He told her she was bound to make new friends. New kids in school always had it tough but they pull through. She was fidgeting the entire ride to the school.

"You will be here at 3-1-5?" El asked Hopper looking up at him.

"3:15, yeah. If I don't see you outside I'll go to the principal's office, ok?"

He got out of the truck to see her go into the school. El ran around the truck and hugged his middle, the side of her head pressed against him. "I love you dad"

"Love you too kid, you'll do great, don't worry. You're a smart girl."

She had a bad moment when she couldn't find her home room and knew she was going to be a little bit late. Everyone would stare at her if she was that last person to walk in.

She finally found her class, but could tell with noise coming from it that it was already full of kids. When she walked in nobody paid her any attention, she was relieved. She noticed that there didn't seem to be any seats left.

She looked around and finally saw an empty seat beside a boy who was looking out the window. She went over to the seat and asked it it was taken. He turned to look at her. They both stared at each other...oh...she didn't expect him to be that cute, his gorgeous hair was a complete mess, his eyes were liquid pools of dreamy. Then he blurted out something that sounded a lot like, "pretty." He looked down his cheeks flaming red.

Did he just call her pretty? With this hair? Her heart skipped a beat and she felt flushed. If a boy who looked like this one did thought she looked ok, maybe there was hope for her yet.

He nodded towards the seat, and told her to go ahead, then gave her his name and said he'd probably just ruined her social life. Two things occurred to her right away, first she had no social life to ruin. Second, she was going to get to sit next to this boy, Mike Wheeler for the whole year! If nothing good happened for the rest of the year she had this moment to remember forever.

This was turning out to be one of the best days of the year.

Maybe, just maybe, she'd get to sit with him during lunch. When the bell rang she made her way to her locker...only to find Mike up against a locker and about to be punched by a larger boy.

El had an intense dislike for bullies. She knew they probably couldn't help it and had their own issues, but they didn't need to take it out on others.

So she gave his fist two little pushes. One so that it would land harmlessly away from Mike's head into the locker frame. There was no way she wanted to see that perfect face with any mark on it. The second push was so the punch landed much harder than the bully originally intended. Much harder. She could hear the crunching from where she stood.

It was worth the trickle she felt in her nose. She calmly went to her locker to get her lunch. She desperately wanted to talk to Mike again, "Why is he mean to you?"

Mike answered her but used a word she was unfamiliar with, "mouthbreather"

El told Mike the bully needed to aim better. She felt a little sad when Mike told her that the bully doesn't miss his face when he punches him.

El wanted to change the subject so said, "Thank you for the seat...I'm new here. It's nice to have someone to talk to the first day. Even if you've ruined my social life." She smiled at him but didn't move. She made a quick decision to take matters into her own hands and ask to sit with him.

She was terrified when he asked her what she was waiting for. She asked and also said, "You're still the only person I know here."

When Mike looked...shocked. El's heart sank when she thought she'd overdone it.

But then he'd invited her to sit with his friends. El didn't follow behind Mike, she floated behind Mike.

Max and Lucas were already at the Party table. He didn't even care of Max was there, he'd spend his time talking to Lucas and El.

"Hey, " Mike said, Lucas nodded. Max just frowned at him.

El sat right beside him across from Max, "you going to introduce me to your girlfriend Wheeler?"

"She's not my girlfriend." El's face fell at the words. Well, it was true, but Mike made it sound so final. Mike didn't seem to notice that El and slid a few inches away from him.

"I'm El Hopper," she said to Max. Not smiling staring straight ahead at her.

Max practically snorted her drink through her nose, "hah Wheeler, you're sunk. No way the Chief's gonna let her hang around with you."

"My dad doesn't pick my friends." El said. Max shrugged.

"Leave her alone Max, she's just new, she doesn't have a lot of friends. Right now she just has one. Me. If you don't want to be her friend, you don't need to be mine either."

"Come on, Mike, Max didn't mean anything by it." Lucas said defending her.

"She's ruining what used to be the best time of the day."

"Come on Max," Lucas got up to leave. "When you don't want to be little asshole anymore, let me know."

El smiled inwardly, Mike said he was her friend, and was standing up for her. Even at the cost of having a fight with his friends. She felt a little floaty again.

"Thank you Mike," El said.

"Max doesn't have any right to talk to you like that."

"That goes both ways Mike, you were rude to Max."

Mike sighed, "yeah I know. I'm going to have to apologize to her...and then to Lucas. At least you're still talking to me."

"Until my dad says we can't hang out," El smiled at first but Mike looked almost heartbroken, "I'm joking Mike. We can hang out. My next class is gym class, with Max...maybe I can help?"

"You don't have to El, nice of you to offer, but it's my fault, I have to fix it."

When the first day of school was finally over Mike could not believe how well it went. He mentally checked off items in his mind.

He didn't get beat up by Troy, as a matter of fact through a bizarre miscalculation on Troy's part he broke the hell out of his hand. So he was going to be safe for a little bit.

Probably the prettiest girl in the school sat beside him in every single class. Not by accident, because she wanted to.

Not only that, even though she was a little on the quiet side, when she did talk it was a bunch of times through the entire day and only to him.

And she asked him to sit with him during lunch. Well that didn't go quite as smooth as he would have liked it. Why did Max have to say things like that? Lucas didn't seem to be a big influence on her.

Mike was going to ask Mr. Clarke about AV club again this year. He didn't find him in his class. He went to his locker hoping to run into El. She wasn't there. She must have already left.

He left the school and headed for the bike rack, and remembered that his bike needed repairs. He'd walked to school that morning. Sitting on a bench near the bike rack was El, his heart racing he went over to sit with her.

"Hey El, are you being picked up by your dad?"

"At 3-1-5".

"3:15, ok that's still twenty minutes away, I'll sit with you..um, if you don't mind."

El smiled up at him, "ok"

Mike sat down beside her a little closer than he intended, but El didn't seem to mind and didn't move away. "You don't have a watch?"

"I can't tell time very well."

"Mine is a digital watch, you just need to read the numbers, here," he took his watch off.

"You can't give me your watch Mike."

"I'm not, you're just borrowing it...for a really long time. I have another one anyway. Let put it on you, he went to hold her wrist and she suddenly pulled her arm not before he saw the tattoo.

011

"Is that a tattoo?"

El hesitated and then nodded. She held out her wrist and he put his watch on her. "You don't like your tattoo...it's ok El, the watch will cover it up."

"Oh, El is short for Eleven isn't it?"

El nodded again looking at him with those big round eyes.

"Eleven is definitely different, um, I think it's a pretty name….if you don't like people asking questions, I can see why you shortened it." Mike said nothing more about it.

Mike wasn't going to bug her about the tattoo, parents did some crazy shit sometimes when it came to their kids. That could be why El was now adopted.

"3-2-0" El said. "He's late"

"I'll stay with you until he shows up. I like talking with you anyway."

"I like talking with you too Mike"

Mike saw a speeding truck heading towards the school.

"Must be your dad."

El got up and walked toward the parking lot. She stopped after a few steps and turned around, "thank you for the watch Mike."

"You're welcome….Eleven." Mike didn't know how she would take it when he used her full name, she looked at the ground first but then back at him she just blasted a smile at him.

The truck stopped and El got into the passenger side. The wheels spun and the The Chief took off with his daughter.

Mike watched the receding truck. When he turned around Lucas was staring at him with his arms crossed. Max standing close to him.

"Why do you hate me?" Max said.

"How can I hate you? I don't know you"

"But you don't want to."

"I guess I should get to know you if you're going to be Lucas's girlfriend."

Lucas rolled his eyes and threw up his arms, "seriously Mike?"

"Well it's true isn't it?"

Max said to Lucas, "you're going to have man up and ask me then aren't you." She had a smirk on her face.

"Fine," Lucas said exasperated, "Max Mayfield will you be my girlfriend."

Max grabbed Lucas around the back of the neck, pulled him in and kissed him, "about time Sinclair, I was almost forced to ask Wheeler over here to help. That was a yes by the way."

"Now that you two have made a Love Connection" Mike held his hand out to Max, "sorry I was rude." Max shook it, then Mike held out his hand to Lucas. Lucas shook also.

They started walking home.

"El likes you, you know" Max said.