El stepped out of the car, blinking into the harsh sunlight. She turned back around. Hopper had already laid out the ground rules. She was allowed outside for two hours unsupervised – if you didn't count Steve. If anything went wrong...well, they were hoping nothing would go wrong. Dr. Owen had given her a year, and today she was nearly at the six-month mark. Everyone – everyone meaning Hopper and Joyce, or Hopper after Joyce had convinced him it was all right – had decided she needed to celebrate.

Sure, she might have chosen to celebrate with Mike by going out somewhere, preferably out of Hawkins, maybe into town, maybe to Chicago. Instead, the adults in her life had decided she was celebrating her short-lived freedom with...Steve. Just Steve.

El had met Steve at the Byers' a few months back. The first thing she'd noticed about him was that he had a lot of hair. On that occasion he'd dropped by to drive Dustin back home. "It's fine," he'd waved his hand. "It's on my way anyway. Now come on you shithead." Steve was Jonathan's age, but they didn't look like they were friends. After he and Dustin had left, the others had whispered the explanation. Steve used to date Nancy, Mike's sister, but now Nancy was with Jonathan, Will's brother. Despite that and the age difference, Steve had actually become pretty good friends with The Party. El also knew that if Hopper was letting her spend time with him alone, outside, Hopper must trust him, too. Now it was El's turn to befriend him.

Mike had been upset, as she had been, that they weren't allowed to spend her first two hours outside unsupervised (if you didn't count Steve) without him. "She'll be with Steve," he had argued. "She'll be supervised!"

"That blows," Lucas had commiserated. "But Steve's all right. Just think in a few months we'll be starting high school together. Hopper and Joyce can't breathe down your neck there. Or if they do, it'll be really weird. It's just a little more time."

Dustin hadn't seen the problem. "Can I come?"

The worst part of it was that even though Hopper had told her this was a celebration, of sorts, it was still more tutoring. Just tutoring of a different kind. "It'll be fun," Hopper had said.

From inside the car, Hopper saluted her, and then again, this time to Steve. "I'll be back here in exactly two hours. Be safe," he told them.

"Not stupid!" she chanted back. He cracked a smile and sped off.

El turned around. Steve bounded toward her, balancing an orange ball with black stripes in his hand. They were in some kind of court with long poles at either end, and on the top of the poles were white hoops. The court was green asphalt but drawn along it were white concentric half-circles that seemed to separate the two poles from each other. She frowned. She knew she'd seen this configuration on TV before, but she couldn't place a name to the scene.

"Hey there," Steve said. He was wearing long blue shorts and a green t-shirt. "Ready for some basketball?"

Basketball. That was the word. Her hand went to her vocabulary pile, only to find her pocket empty. Right, she'd left it at the cabin. Hopper had said she'd earned a break.

She saw Steve's face fall slightly. Shoot, she was taking too long to respond. "Yes," she said.

"Great!" he enthused. "Catch." He threw the ball towards her.

"Oh," Steve said. "I see why Hopper wanted you to have some practice."

She frowned at him. "Why are you throwing that at me?"

Steve's eyes were wide.

Staring at the ball frozen in the air between them.

"See that's the thing," he finally said. "People are going to throw balls at you. I mean, figuratively, but also literal balls. In high school, you're going to have to take this class called PE. It stands for physical education. A lot of people don't like it, but," he shrugged modestly. "I'm pretty good at it. Anyway, in PE, you have to do all these physical activities. Running, push ups, basketball, soccer, softball. If you're really good, you can join a team. But before you can do that, you're going to have to play basketball with me for two hours without using your powers. Cuz if you pull a move like this in class you're gonna freak the shit out of everyone in the room. And then...well, we do not want that to happen. Got it?"

She liked that he didn't sugar coat it for her. "Got it."

"And uhh," he gestured in between them. "If you could make that ball drop down or something. It's kinda, you know. Conspicuous. I can hear someone coming."

She could hear it, too. A skateboarder, and it sounded like he was heading in their direction. "Oh." The ball dropped down to the asphalt, bouncing up and down until Steve grabbed it again. In her defense, it had been a while since she'd been outside anywhere besides for the Byers' house or the area immediately outside the cabin. It had been a long time since she'd been around anyone who didn't already know about her abilities.

"Start over?" Steve offered. He threw the ball towards her and this time she caught it in her hands. "Okay," he said. "Progress." Then something caught his eye and he scowled, turning around. "What are you doing here?" he said, sounding less stern and more resigned.

Max Mayfield zoomed closer. When she was right beside them, she somehow jumped right off her skateboard in such a way that it landed tucked right under her arm. "I heard you were playing basketball," she said. She wasn't even out of breath. "Want another player?"

Steve raised his eyebrows. "Did Hop send you?"

"No," Max said pointedly. With her free hand, she brushed the hair from her eyes. "But I want to play."

"Jesus." Steve took a step back and pinched the bridge of his nose. "We're not really playing. We're learning some basics and making sure she doesn't use her powers."

"Well," Max said, not backing down. "I want to help."

Steve let out a long sigh. "Fine. Another person is probably good anyway. Plus he knows you. You're in this mess already."

El had something else on her mind. "Can you teach me how to skateboard?" she said.

"No, no, no. We are doing basketball because that is what your dad, who is also the chief of police, is paying me to teach you."

Max's eyes glittered. "Yeah. I can."

Steve rolled his eyes upwards. It really was a beautiful day in May. Hardly any clouds. Birds chirping, green trees beyond the court, lots of flowers. School was almost over, and then it was just the summer before The Rest of His Adult Life. No one said being a high school senior was easy.

These kids, though. What was he going to do with these little shits?

"Just try it. Just jump."

El stood on the skateboard, feeling very worried. It had looked a lot easier when Max did it.

"Can't be harder than closing that gate." El couldn't tell if Max was encouraging her or goading her. Regardless, she was right. El jumped up...and the board slid out from under her. Before she could fall to the ground, the skateboard zoomed right back securely under her feet. She smiled proudly at her audience.

Max and Steve were frowning. "Did you cheat?" Steve asked.

"It happened so fast I can't tell," Max said. She shook her head and looked back at El. Her face was set. "Again."

"Foot on the nose, just barely," Max directed. El stuck out the her foot to the top of the board. "Now take the tiniest hop. There you go!" The skateboard flipped around, and she was still on it. She hadn't fallen, and she hadn't used her powers. She skated a while farther before kicking the board up, making it stick like Max had showed her, and then leaning her weight on the other side. Using her bottom foot closest to the ground, she started to spin the board again.

Well, she started to. This time, when the skateboard went flying out from under, she went flying too.

"El!" Max and Steve called.

She started picking herself up, aware something was bleeding. Her hands were, for sure. "I did it," she said in triumph. "I didn't make the board go back under me."

Steve offered her a hand, and she grabbed onto it. Her hand stung. "Yeah, but that doesn't mean we want you getting hurt!"

El shrugged, brushing the dirt off from under her chin. Blood never bothered her. "It's like you said," she said plainly. "I'm going to have to learn how to be in class where I can't use my powers."

In many ways, that really was the trade-off. She had two options. She could use her powers relatively freely, keep a small but committed group of friends, but otherwise be forced into hiding and seclusion. (No matter what Kali said, that was the kind of life her sister led.) The other option was learning to control the impulse so that she could attend school, and someday truly venture out into the world. She knew what she was choosing.

"Even when it's hard not to," Max said in understanding. "Like if you get knocked down."

Right. She saw now that if she was playing, say, soccer, and someone kicked her over...well, it would be hard not to retaliate in ways she was sure the ref wouldn't have accounted for.

"Come on, where are you bleeding?" Steve pressed. He reached an arm over her shoulder as though to invite El to lean on him. She just stared at him curiously. "Let's head to my car. I got a first aid kit."

Max had already hopped back on the skateboard. "Seriously? You're such a nerd."

Steve was so used to this shit from Max he barely reacted. If he had actually been a nerd, he might have gotten into college early decision. "No, I've been babysitting you assholes. You learn to be prepared."

They'd almost made it to the curb when they heard a car pull up and turned around. Too late. Hopper got out of the car and made a beeline for the three of them. "What's going on here?" he said. "Why are you bleeding?"

"I was teaching her how to skate," Max owned up immediately.

Hopper crouched down, inspecting his daughter. He stood up, apparently satisfied. To their surprise, he didn't look upset. "How was it?" he asked El.

El grinned broadly. "Bitchin'," she said.

Hopper looked totally unsurprised that Max was there too, and Steve started to relax. Maybe they weren't in trouble. "How's she doing?" he asked them.

Max and Steve looked between each other. "We didn't actually get to basketball," Steve admitted.

"She's pretty good on the board," Max said. "But she could be better."

Hopper studied El's face. Whatever he saw there, he seemed to like it. "Next Wednesday, the courts off of Loch Nora. We'll see you there." To El, he said, his voice softening, "It's almost summer. It's good to be outside, kid."

They sped off, leaving Max and Steve alone. Steve had never spent much time with either El or Max before. It had been kind of fun, even with Max's attitude. El learned fast, and her special abilities definitely made things interesting. She didn't talk much, and she was kind of intense, but she seemed like a sweet kid. This "tutoring" gig wasn't half bad.

Max whipped around. "You have a car?"

"Yeah, I have a car," he said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Well it was. He was Steve Harrington. Of course he had a car.

"Want to...?"

"Oh no."

"Please. My step-dad will kill me."

Steve's eyes moved from her to her skateboard and then back. "How'd you get to these courts anyway?" Hopper had chosen the place because it was far out and generally not a popular hangout.

"Nancy drove me," she shrugged.

"Nancy was here?"

"She cares about El, too."

Well, she didn't care about Steve. She hadn't even stopped to say hi. One year of dating and then nothing. "Get in. Don't make it a habit, Mayfield." She ran around to the passenger side.

A foggy memory...bleeding in the backseat...a small redhead at the wheel, barely reaching the headrest, let alone the gas pedal. "Can't you drive?" he asked.

"Is that an offer?"

"Shut up and sit down." Though he was honor bound to kvetch some more, the truth was, he really didn't mind.