Friday, Feb 1st - Day 2

Nancy poked her head into Mike's room. "Mike, school. You're late… again. We go through this almost every morning Mike."

"I'm up," Mike said throwing off his covers. Saturday. Finally. Wait. Why was Nancy getting him up on Saturday?

"No school on Saturday, Nancy. Why are you getting me up?"

"You're such a smart kid Mike, too bad your sense of time sucks. It's Friday. Why don't you get an alarm, like every other kid your age? Or a calendar?"

Nancy just looked at the ceiling for help and shook her head. Mike was impossible.

They heard a loud thump from Holly's room and then Holly starting to wail. Nancy left quickly to see what happened. Did Holly pull down the shelf again?

Mike went downstairs to the kitchen. Holly had stopped crying by the time Mike sat down. "Michael, you'll have to make Eggos yourself today. You're dad and I are away this weekend with Holly, she needs clean clothes. " his mother said, passing him by with a laundry basket.

Ted was reading the morning paper...Mike noticed it was Friday's paper. Was yesterday really Thursday? Could he have been having that bad of a day he'd just been wishing it was Friday.

Hid dad wasn't likely to read the same paper without complaining the entire time.

Mike had really wanted scrambled eggs like he usually got on Friday mornings. He didn't know how to make them, and relied on his mother's cooking skills.

Nancy came downstair with Holly, looked at Mike and said, "She pulled down her doll shelf and they were all over the place. Crisis averted."

Two days in a row? Well, she was just a kid. It wasn't like Mike hadn't done the same dumb thing two days in a row.

"Can you make me some scrambled eggs, Nancy?"

"Make them yourself Mike."

Mike hadn't really expected any other answer. Ah, wait...maybe Nancy would after all if she knew there were no Eggos left.

"I ate the last two Eggos yesterday morning." Mike went over to the fridge, and opened up the freezer to show Nancy that there was no box of Eggos waiting.

Except there was.

Mike reached in and opened up the box. Two left. Ok, that was really weird. Mike knew he ate the last two yesterday morning.

Mike ate his Eggos. He didn't use syrup, he still preferred it on scrambled eggs.

Mike went down to the basement to brush his teeth. He liked to use the basement bathroom for that. The upstairs bathroom was always busy in the mornings. Mike was sure he spent more time in the basement. He practically lived in it. Mike had to open a tube of toothpaste from a new box.

Mike stopped cold. Ok, he knew he was having a bad day yesterday and may not have been paying total attention to what was going on, but he distinctly remembered opening up a new box of toothpaste.

Yesterday was starting to feel like a bad dream. Well Troy's punch wasn't a dream, he felt his jaw. It didn't feel sore. Mike shrugged, maybe his face was recovering better from Troy's punches.

Lucas was coming up the driveway when Mike stepped out outside. "Hey Mike," Lucas said. He was adjusting the same strap on the new backpack he'd gotten for Christmas. The one that he had a problem with yesterday. It came loose in his hands.

"Ah, shit, it snapped. Why do they even allow pieces of shit like this to be sold in stores?"

"Same one as yesterday? I thought you were going to fix it, you know from the stitching you learned in Home Ec, class."

"What are you talking about Mike?"

Mike sighed, "it's the same strap you had a problem with yesterday."

"Seriously Mike, you need to get more sleep, I wasn't using this one yesterday,"

"The strap didn't snap, Lucas, the stitching just gave way."

Lucas just looked at him and then looked at the strap. "Oh, you're right."

"How would I know that Lucas, if it didn't happen yesterday?"

"Just a good guess that's all."

Without their bikes it always took longer to get to school. Sometimes they had to walk over unplowed streets and sidewalks. Today wasn't too bad but it definitely wasn't as quick as riding their bikes.

Either way the Party always met at the bike rack. Dustin was waiting for them. "Heads up, Troy and James are around somewhere." No sooner had he said that when the two of them rounded the corner of the school and spotted them. Mike could see that El Hopper was farther behind them again. Great she gets to watch them all being humiliated. Again.

Mike's chest tightened when he saw her. Mike had to hold himself steady with one hand on the bike rack. He could not believe how pretty she was. Her locker was right next to his, yesterday day she had actually talked to him. Mike gave a big sigh. Maybe she would again today, after seeing the sight of fresh blood on his face. He'd take a punch for that. Just to to talk her again. He'd take two punches for that.

"What would Friday be without a fresh bruise?" Dustin said, trying to be funny, but it was delivered with a big sigh.

The three of them waited for Troy.

"Hello frogface," Troy said to Mike.

Mike tried a new line, "hello shit for brains."

"What did you say frogface?"

"I'm sorry, did I stutter? I think I compared your brians to shit...although dogshit would have been more accurate."

Troy looked back like he couldn't believe what he'd just heard. Then he punched Mike in the jaw and ran off with James.

"Damn," Dustin said, "that was ballsy and stupid at the same time."

As they walked towards the front doors of the school, Lucas tripped on an untied shoelaces, he fell face first into the grass, inches from there the sidewalk pavement started.

"Whoa, you guys could have had matching jaws," Dustin said, "chick magnets for sure."

"Hey Dustin, feel free to take the next punch from Troy," Mike said.

"Sorry Mike, he usually just insults me, I don't get punched like you do." Dustin looked down.

"I'm just having another bad day, two days in a row he punched me."

Dustin looked confused. "When did he punch you yesterday, I thought he was absent all day?"

"He definitely punched me."

Mike was at his locker when El came up to hers. She always wore a wristband her left wrist. It was a pink one today. But he saw that she had quickly changed it to blue. She looked at him and said, "hi". Mike could have sworn she cringed a bit waiting for his reply.

"Hi, El...I want to apologize again for yesterday...I had a really bad day."

El looked a little confused, but smiled at him, "it's ok Mike, I hope today is better."

"It already is," Mike smiled better at her, blushing a little, El did the same.

Did he just have an actual conversation with El Hopper? Mike believed he did. This day was not going to be a total write off after all.

Mike had to sit beside El twice in a regular school day. Once in home room, and once in Mr. Clarke's Earth class.

Mike could see that she was looking toward the door. It looked like she was waiting for someone. When she saw him, her beautiful eyes got wide and she smiled his way.

Mike almost fainted right then and there. He felt light-headed, not sure of his footing as he walked to their desk.

He sat down beside her. He had no idea why she was talking to him today, halfway through the school year, but he wasn't going to complain.

Mike didn't answer any questions in Math class, but he heard all the answers. He payed attention, enough to know that the exact same questions were being asked today. Ok that was weird. He also noticed that Max Mayfield's was looking at him with a smile . He knew she was El's best friend, and probably didn't like him either so he couldn't figure out why she was smiling at him. He hoped she didn't like him. That way. Max wasn't his type, but it would make it awkward if she was always around El. Mike snorted to himself. Did he just hope a girl didn't like him? How screwed up did your Friday have to be for that to happen?

Well, let's get this class over with. Mike thought. He was looked forward to Mr. Clarke's Earth class, with El as his lab partner. It was painful to be sitting next to her, only talking about the lab work. Not being able to just talk to her. What he wouldn't give to be able to talk to El Hopper. About the weather. Or about grass growing. The history of socks, anything, just to talk to her. He thought that almost everyday.

El was once again seated at their desk before he got there. He wordlessly opened up the shared lab book and then remembered it was her turn to write. "It's um your turn."

El looked at him, nodded, She took out her pencil and started writing the date and lab title. She put too much pressure on the pencil and the tip broke.

"Today is light years better than yesterday was ." El's pencil tip broke again. Mike gave her his pencil.

"You're pencil broke twice yesterday, too, you should probably get new one, you'll end up sharpening that one down to nothing before the next week is out."

El looked at him. She had an odd expression on her face.

"Mike," she said, "why did you let Troy punch you?"

"There's no 'let' involved. None of us 'let' Troy do anything. He just does it and we can't stop it. One of us was going to be punched today. My day was actually looking up before he punched me. Today not the worst day I've had, a little weird but not the worst day."

He looked up at El. Her eyes were big and round, probing his own. Mike thought he would pass out with how pretty she was. He was sure he teetered on his seat a bit. He swallowed.

"Whew," Mike said. He really thought she was going to pass out. He took a couple of deep breaths.

"Mike," he felt like she was looking much deeper into his eyes than he thought was possible, She put her hand on his arm. "You ok? What's wrong?"

"It's nothing." Oh, it was definitely something. Mike just couldn't tell her. Not today.

Mike was first in the lunchroom sitting at the Party table. Dustin and Lucas showed up a few minutes later. Neither one of them spoke to him.

"Um, sorry about this morning guys."

Dustin and Lucas shrugged at the same time. "It happens, Mike. Wouldn't be the first time for you this year." Dustin said "You seemed to be friendly with El Hopper, that's the first time for you this year. What happened."

"I don't know," Mike said.

"Well," Dustin looked like he was lost in thought, "this should cheer you up," he pulled out a bag of red translucent gaming dice. Mike perked up a bit. The dice looked cool.

"You showed me those yesterday, Dustin."

"Impossible. I just got them last night after school. Look, the bag is sealed."

Dustin was right. The dice bag was unopened. Ok this day was starting to get a little weirder as it went on.

"Dragon Magazine, right?" Mike asked.

"Yeah, I saved up all summer."

Dustin opened the bag up. Started rolling the various combinations of dice, calling out the numbers as he rolled, "11, 47, 56, 65"

Somebody dropped a plate at the far end of the cafeteria and it shattered into a million pieces. Everyone in the room laughed.

This had happened yesterday

Mike wondered what the hell was going on.

The end of the school day finally came around, and Mike went to his locker. El was already there. He had caught her changing her wrist band back to pink. He saw that tattoo on her wrist.

"The wrist bands cover it up?" Mike looked at her.

"You weren't supposed to see it. Nobody is."

"Because they ask too many questions?" El nodded.

"Ok, El. I won't mention it again. Promise." She looked at him with those eyes.

Mike had to look away. Those eyes...

He saw Troy coming towards him out of the out of the corner of his eye, he leaned a bit closer to El and said, "I'll try not to bleed on you." He'd told her that yesterday too.

She looked at him curious, but followed his eyes to Troy. And nodded in realization. Troy was being a jackass, and in a bizarre dance of un-coordination, slipped or tripped into an open locker door. His head collided hard with it, breaking his nose, and Mike as sure he saw a tooth flying out of his mouth.

"Geez, if Troy keeps up being that clumsy he's not going to have any teeth left in his head."

Mike saw El's nose was bleeding, and handed her a handkerchief out of his locker. "Looks like I won't be needing this again. You had a nose bleed yesterday too, are you ok, you're not sick or something are you."

"Yesterday?"

"Which I thought was Friday, but turned out my day was bad enough that it was only Thursday...except for the weird stuff that's happened to me today."

El thanked him, closed her locker and said, "see you...tomorrow."

Mike thought tomorrow was Saturday, she'd probably lost track like he apparently had yesterday. He went out to the bike rack, but he knew they Party would not be meeting him there.

El was there. Waiting to be picked up by her dad. Chief Hopper was El's adoptive father. That kept her off limits to everyone. Mike couldn't help it though. His crush wasn't going away anytime soon. He wouldn't even call it a crush, he knew it was way beyond that. It looked like he was going to get to talk to her yet again. This was a new record for him.

"What time is it?" El asked him.

"3:30...is your dad late?"

El looked at him and nodded. "Give him fifteen minutes, if he doesn't show I'll walk you home...or to the police station."

At 3:45 Hopper's truck sped into view. Mike waited with El but they didn't talk much. She gave him an odd look when he told her the time.

The truck stopped a few feet from where they were standing, Mike saw the window roll down, "sorry I'm late, kid," Hopper gave Mike a nod, "thanks for staying with her, Wheeler. Don't get used to it."

"Only two days Sir, not enough times to get used to it."

Hopper gave him look, then rolled up the window, and sped off.

Finally, Mike thought. Friday is finally over.

It was not.