A Day at the Beach

It was the Summer of 1985, the weather was brutal in Hawkins, Indiana. Nobody wanted to do anything but find ways to cool off. Mike was in his basement with a fan blasting in his face, his supercom in his hand. He was communicating with the others about their plan trip to the Beach tomorrow to cool off. Everyone was coming, Lucas and Max are going together, Will and his brother, Jonathan are going together, Dustin and Sev are going together, and El was going to go with Mike. Everything was supposedly perfect.

Except that El is terrified about going to the beach.

El was often submerged underwater in a sensory deprivation tank at Hawkins Lab by Papa and the bad men. This is how she's able access other dimensions, including The Upside Down. Since then, El has been terrified about going into the water. The idea of her going near water so deep makes her have chills all over her back. El only agreed to go to the beach because Mike was going to be there. Anything that involved the name Mike Wheeler was a instant "Yes", regardless of the activity.

The only person who knew about El's fear of the beach was her adopted father, Papa Hopper. He has tried numerous times to help her face her fear leading up to the day they were going to the beach. However, he couldn't successfully do it without getting frustrated.


The next day, Mike and El rode their bikes to the beach together. El confronted her fear with Mike.

"It's ok to be scared of the water El." Mike told her, "We don't have to go near the water at all."

"We don't?" El asked.

"Not at all, we can stay by the sand all day and just talk."

El loved the idea, out of all the things she likes to do with Mike, talking was her favorite. They would talk about anything that comes in their minds, school, family, music, etc.

When they got to the beach, the others were already doing various activities. Will, Jonathan, Max and Lucas were playing a game of volleyball, and Dustin and Sev were on the shoreline talking. Mike set two towels and an umbrella near the volleyball net and sat down. El also sat down on one of the towels.

"Hey guys!" Will called out "do you wanna play?"

"No thanks!" Mike replied, "we're just going to sit here and talk."

"Fine you lazy asses!" Max shouted.


On the shoreline, Sev expressed to Dustin something that's been on her chest recently.

"AP History and English Honors?" Dustin asked, in shock, "That's great Sev! You should be proud of yourself!"

"Dustin, I'm terrified!" Sev told him, "I don't know how I got in and I don't know why I said yes. I'm going to make a huge fool out of myself."

"No you're not! You're a smart girl! One of the smartest girls I know. You can do it. And I'll be with you every step of the way."

"Thanks Dustin."

"You did make one dumb mistake though." Dustin pointed out.

"What's that?" She asked.

"You came to the shoreline with me!"

Dustin playfully pushed Sev into the ocean, Sev went completely under, then she came up and pulled Dustin in. They started to play fight, which a frightened El saw.


"Aww look at Dustin!" Lucas said, mocking him.

"He's head over heels." Will added.

From their spot, Mike and El saw the two play fighting in the water. Which made El terrified.

"SEV!" El yelled.

El couldn't watch as her older sister and one of her friends were "drowning". So she decided to face her fears and ran into the oceans and pulled Sev and Dustin out of the water, When she was done, they were glad that El cared about them, but explained to her that they were in no danger. They were just having some fun. Embarrass, El went back to her spot.

"I'm so stupid!" El said to herself.

"No you're not," Mike told her, "You just were worried that's all. And you wanna know what? You went into the water."

"I did!" El exclaimed.

"I'm so proud of you!"

El gave Mike a huge hug and then they kissed. Which the group saw and laughed at them for kissing.

"Grow up! We're going to be in high school!" Mike told them.

"Never!" They exclaimed.

That's it. I hope you guys enjoyed it. I know it's kind of shorter than my other fanfics and it may not be the best fanfic, but it's the effort I put into it that matters. Love you guys!