Chapter 2: September 1, 1985 First Day of Hawkins Middle

El's eyes shot open that morning at 7am. She rushed out of her room and into the kitchen where Hopper was groggily cooking eggs and bacon, a cigarette clenched between his lips humming along to the Jim Crow vinyl he had playing softly in the background.

El bounded into the kitchen and whipped open the freezer grabbing a box of eggos. It should be noted that the majority of the freezer was filled, overflowing rather, with boxes of eggos and a few TV dinners. She pulled two frozen eggos from the open box and popped them into the toaster, staring into the slots as they glowed red and orange.

"Hey kid, I was making—," Hopper protested before the eggos popped up from the toaster and El juggled them hotly between her hands.

At the Wheeler's, Mike was hovering over the toaster too, plate ready as Mrs. Wheeler packed his lunch chirping about how exciting the first day of 8th grade was going to be, how she couldn't believe, and how she was so proud, so proud! Mike tapped his fingers impatiently. He wanted to bike to school early so he would for sure be there when El arrived. He wasn't taking any chances with Hopper's new school rules. Who knows what he would do if he didn't see any of the party there waiting to receive El. He might just take El back home and lock her away until January.

Once the eggos popped, he yanked them from the toaster, swearing a little too loudly.

"Michael!" Mrs. Wheeler closed her eyes as if in pain from the shock of those words.

"Sorry! It's just hot, jeez." He walked the plate to the kitchen table and proceeded to eat as fast as humanly possible and downed his orange juice in three hefty gulps.

"Slow down son, you don't want to call the play before it's even started," Mr. Wheeler droned unenthusiastically. Mike rolled his eyes and rushed his plate and cup to the sink.

"I promised I'd meet the party early before school started. We're hammering out details for the AV club schedule." It was almost too easy to lie to his parents now, but for some reason it didn't ever make him feel that bad.

"Okay! But just let me get a picture before you go!" Mrs. Wheeler begged as she dug in the kitchen drawer for their camera.

"Mom NO!" Mike scurried to the front door cramming his feet into his sneakers and slinging his backpack over his blue and red striped t-shirt. The summer heat wouldn't wear off until late October.

"Michael Wheeler, WAIT!" He could hear her clicking down the hallway. He ripped open the front door and crashed into the garage pulling his bike free and throwing a leg over just as she reached the front door.

"Sorry Mom I have to go!" He shot off down the street. Mrs. Wheeler, exacerbated, lifted the camera and snapped a shot of his retreating figure down the street. Her eyes suddenly went wide: "Michael! Your lunch!" But he was already around the bend and out of their cul-de-sac.

"Okay you ready? One, two, three—cheeeee-eese!" Hopper hunched over, awkwardly holding the camera between his thick fingers, the shutter closing with a crash over El's glittering grin.

"Cheeese!" she was positively oozing happiness and excitement.

After breakfast, she spent most of her morning packing and then repacking her backpack. She chose her favorite outfit: tattered bell-bottomed jeans, her new white converse (a special splurge from Hopper), a light green t-shirt with white lining along the sleeves and neckline, with a black, long-sleeve plaid tied around her waist. She'd carefully combed through her curls, making sure not to pull them apart too much and make them frizzy. She tied the orange and yellow friendship bracelet Max had made her that summer next to the blue hair band from Hopper. On her opposite wrist, she carefully tied the bracelet Mike had made her: dark blue, light grey, forest green with a heart charm embedded at the center. Lucas had suggested that she bring a picture to hang in her locker to help decorate it, so she chose her favorites from her amassed pile of film laying scattered in her desk drawer: A group picture of the whole party standing in front of the arcade, arms slung lazily over each others shoulders, mouths open and laughing; Max and El sitting on the sidewalk in shorts and sandals, too-big sunglasses eclipsing their face as they distractedly sucked on bright red popsicles; and lastly, she and Mike caught with bright smiles, faces so close together that their cheeks were touching, their curls mingling with one another's.

She zipped her backpack after carefully placing the photos inside of a notebook.

Now, face close to the window in Hopper's truck, she bounced with excitement as the school came into view. "Here we go." Hopper whispered under his breath. She glanced over and gave him a reassuring smile.

Buses had started arriving with children pouring from them and crowding the green space in front of the school. Kids were embracing and shouting at friends across the lawn, re-animating friendships forgotten from the summer. El scanned the open area for the bike racks where Mike told her they'd meet her. Sure enough, most of the party had parked their bikes and were laughing and prodding one another, waiting just for her. Mike's face surveyed the drop-off line for a sign of Hopper's truck. Finally he spotted it and waved frantically.

"She's here!" he yelled over his shoulder to everyone. El was practically leaping from the front seat, grabbing her lunch box and being pulled back to lean over the seat for some last parting words from Hopper: "Remember the rules." He warned her. She nodded and shut the door halfway through a chide of "Be SAFE!" Pulling the straps across her shoulders she started walking down the path toward the bike racks, making a beeline for Mike. She was buffeted by the crowd of distracted, excited children. Girls and boys bumped into and shouldered her making direct paths to friends. A boy unexpectedly yelled across her face, startling her, as he tried to hail a friend. Mike pursed his lips and jogged forward to meet her halfway. He linked his arm through hers and pulled her along, navigating and dodging through the throng of middle schoolers.

"You okay?" he asked checking for signs of concern on her face. El recovered quickly, smiling enjoying the feeling of Mike's arm looped through hers. She tightened her grip a little and Mike smiled reassuringly.

"El! You made it! Welcome to Hawkins Middle, or as I like to affectionately title it 'The Hellscape that is my Current existence.' Assholes. As far as the eye can see!" Dustin held out an arm and waved it across him indicating the lawn of kids. Rule #4 already broken. Lucas hissed and punched Dustin:

"It's JANE, dumbASS," he reminded, putting extra emphasis on the 'ass'. Dustin cursed an apology and looked around to make sure no one had heard.

"It's not that bad." Max retorted, just arriving and kicking her skateboard up into her hand.

"Speak for yourself," Will lamented as a group of boys walked past throwing out a new variety of insults they had perfected over the summer months.

"Come on, let's get to our lockers. You all have English first period with Sanders, yeah?" Mike reached for El's lunch box and started guiding the party toward the main double doors leading down the main drag of Hawkins Middle, flanked on either side with lockers muted in color.

Mike had scoped out the location and proximity of his locker to El's one summer day when the boys had snuck into Hawkin's middle to use the Heathkit. He walked her to her locker and showed her how to unlock it with the combination. She watched intently and then when the locker popped open she could hardly contain her squeal of delight. Mike let out a soft laugh, so happy to see her getting to just be a kid like the rest of them and experiencing all of it for the first time with him. He put her lunch box in the empty space.

"You can put notebooks that you don't need right away for your next class in there and your text books and stuff."

"Oh! I brought these. Mike hold this." She yanked off her backpack and placed it in Mike's extended palms, unzipping and pulling out the pictures. She gently shoved each one into the metal sides of the locker door, Mike reaching just over her head to secure them a little more in place when they slipped some. She stood back and smiled.

"Looks nice!" Mike beamed, his eyes resting on the picture of the two of them. El turned back to him and proceeded to unload some of the contents of her backpack. When the first bell rang, El jumped at the sound. She slammed her locker door shut and Mike helped her to get her backpack on. The rest of the party scurried over.

"Wait here, I'm just going to run to my locker really quick." His hand left El's arm and slid down across her hand as he took off jogging down the length of the hall. She could just see him over the crowd of bobbing heads, quickly fumbling with his locker—he was taller than most of the middle schoolers she noticed. Lucas wasn't far behind him in height though.

"Mike HURRY UP WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE AND I'M NOT GOING TO GET A TARDY BECAUSE YOU HAVE AWFUL TIME MANAGEMENT" Dustin screamed over the crowd. They gave him cringing looks as they walked past. He followed a couple of aghast passing faces with a grin saying, "Hi, Nice to see yah, welcome back, this is my hell."

Mike rushed back, sliding to a halt into El's side and wrapping an arm expertly around her waist.

"K. Let's jet." He pulled her along through the crowd. The party walked in front, forming almost a shield that forced the other kids to walk around the couple behind them. El glanced up a couple of times at Mike's face as he volleyed in and out of conversation with the party ahead of them. She didn't want to mention the rising butterflies in her stomach that she could only expect as nervousness. Mike's hand felt nice though, lightly gripping her waist, his thumb moving up and down sporadically, almost in a response to her nervous energy.

They crossed the threshold into their English class as Mr. Sanders wrote the class title and his name on the blackboard. Piling into an array of desks surrounding one another—Max sitting on El's left, Mike in front of her, Lucas behind, Will to her right and Dustin in front of Max—they pulled out notebooks and chattered until the final bell rang and Mr. Sanders turned on cue:

"Alright, alright! Settle down. Settle down. And welcome back. I hope your summers were exceptionally literary. I'm sure you spent it reading and pondering the meaning of life amongst the pages of such visionaries like Thoreau, Shelley, and my personal favorite, Mr. Steven King. Now this is…" As he continued his opening speech, El stared expectantly at the blackboard, eyes trained to Mr. Sanders, attempting to catch anything meaningful. She hastily jotted down the names of authors he named just to be writing something. Her whole body tensed, pulled over her desk, at the ready. Just as Mr. Sanders was beginning to write the syllabus on the board for their first assignment, a small folded piece of paper fell onto her desk.

Mike had dropped it quickly over his shoulder. The front of the folded paper was scrawled with a messy 'El' on it. She glanced up at the blackboard, quietly unfolding it and reading the contents:

'Hi. Just wanted to say, you look great today. And you're going to do great. Love Mike'

The 'love' was hastily scratched out though, but not erased. She smiled and tucked the note into her notebook and started to quickly take notes from the blackboard, letting her muscles relax a little bit and ease back into her chair, releasing her sharp grip on her pencil.