It was a warm summer night in Hawkins, and the whole gang were sitting outside in front of Mike's house, watching the stars.
Eleven and Mike laid in the grass, while Will, Dustin, and Lucas rode their bikes around in the road, and Max rode around them on her skateboard.
Eleven stared up at all the shining stars in the sky while Mike taught her all the constellations.
He pointed to a cluster of lights in the sky. "That's called the big dipper. Can you see it?"
El narrowed her eyes, but all she could were a jumble of shiny dots.
"Um, no." She said.
"Come on, look," He kept pointing. "See, those four stars are the bowl, and the three coming off it are the handle."
El looked closer. Suddenly, she could see it. It was like a pot in the kitchen people would use for cooking. "Oh, I see." She said. Then, as she kept looking, a new star appeared. At first she was surprised, stars don't usually show up randomly. She was even more surprised when the star disappeared and showed up somewhere else.
She sat up. Mike sat up with her.
"What's up?" He asked.
"Did you see that?" El asked.
"See what?"
"That star." She said. "It moved." She looked around and found it. "There." But it couldn't be a star, it was closer, but still in the air. Plus, it was moving away.
"Oh," Mike said. "That isn't a star, it's a firefly."
She looked at him. "Firefly?"
"Yeah. It's like a bug."
"Like a bug?"
"Well, it is a bug."
Dustin called from his bike. "El, you've never seen a firefly before?"
Eleven shook her head. "No."
"Hang on." Mike got up and ran into his house. El wondered where he was going.
She stood up and followed the little bug that occasionally disappeared and showed up somewhere else.
Finally, Mike came out of his house holding a glass jar.
"Now," He said. "Try to catch the firefly in your hands."
Eleven turned to the bug and reached her hands out. Easily, she caught it. Then she opened her hands and peeked in to get a closer look. Sure enough, it was just a little bug, but it's little butt glowed on and off. It crawled around in her hands, but she closed them right before it tried to fly out.
"Now what?" She asked.
Mike pulled the cap off the glass jar. "Put it in."
El went over to him and released the firefly into the jar. Mike put the cap back on and held it up for Eleven to look. All of a sudden, she started to feel bad.
She hated seeing beautiful things trapped. Even if it was just a bug.
"What when do we let it go?" She asked.
Mike shrugged. "Whenever we want. Want to catch some more?"
Eleven frowned. Behind her, Max jumped off her skateboard.
"I want to catch some." Max said, running over to them.
El took a deep breath. "No thanks."
"We're going to let them go." Mike told her. "But it's really cool when there's a bunch together."
"Promise we'll let them go right after." El said.
Mike nodded. "Promise."
El turned and started looking for more.
When she found a small group, she held her hand out. The fireflies all landed on her hand and glowed at the same time. El smiled as they crawled around. Then, she let them fly off into the sky.
They were like stars. Little, flying stars.
A few more minutes passed, and it was starting to get late.
Soon, Will, Dustin, Lucas, and Max all went home.
Max ended up catching some more fireflies, so the jar was full of the little bugs.
"I know I said I would release them." Mike told El. "But I want to show you something first. Follow me."
Eleven and Mike went into the house and down to the basement.
"Go sit down in the blanket fort." Mike said.
Eleven sat down in the fort, then Mike turned the lights off.
El could barely see anything but the glow of the fireflies. Mike came over and sat down in front of her.
"Ready?" He asked.
"Yeah," El said.
Mike opened the jar, and all the fireflies flew out. They scattered around in the fort. They provided just enough light to let El see Mike's face.
"Isn't it beautiful?" Mike said.
El nodded. "Yeah." Then she put her hands out, and again, all the bugs sat down on her hands. Mike put his hands over her's, careful not to crush the fireflies. The fireflies flew out to the side and formed into a heart shape, all glowing.
Mike turned to El. "Are you doing that?"
El giggled. "Uh huh. Can we let them go now?"
Mike nodded. He picked up the jar, but El stopped him. She stood and took Mike's hand, pulling him up. They walked out of the house, while Eleven led the fireflies out with them.
When the were outside, El faced Mike, taking his other hand. Then she led the fireflies into a heart in between her and Mike. She gave him a small smile.
"That's for me showing me the stars." She said. "But you're my firefly. My star on Earth."
Even though it was dark, El could feel Mike blushing.
She leaned forward and gave him a soft kiss. As she did, all the fireflies flew up into the air. El and Mike looked up and watched as they all scattered.
Suddenly, a bright light shined on them.
They both turned as Hopper's car pulled up.
"I should go." El said, letting go of Mike's hands. She ran up to the car and got into the passenger seat. El looked out the window as Mike waved goodbye. "Goodbye, Firefly." She whispered.