Author's note: 3 days between chapters is not to bad, right?
You might notice that I'm inventing all those birth dates. Shhh!
April
This is how she ended up here: because, according to Jonathan, she was a sucker for pleasing the guys. More specifically, Dustin. But you've got to understand that he had put things so plain and factual that she had no way to say no.
"You have to help me, El, you have to!" Dustin had pleaded, practically kneeling in front of her. To be honest, she didn't 'have to' do anything, she was aware, but she chose to hear him out. "Do you have any idea how much it sucks to be born on April Fool's Day?" She hadn't. "Last year, the guys kept talking behind my back for weeks, or stop talking when I arrived and I thought they were planning a surprise party, but when my birthday came? Nothing. That was their prank. Not even a card. And then, on the 2nd, they were like 'Oh, it was your birthday yesterday, right?' Those assholes."
El had no idea what he meant, but she nodded, smiled and frowned at the right moments. She was getting good at figuring out which faces to make instead of being just amazed, confused or shocked most of the time. In part, it was because being around them more was improving her social skills a lot, but in part it was because Jim, who wasn't much of a 'people person' had been teaching her a lot of tricks.
"Now, this is my clap back chance, El," continued Dustin. He sounded very dramatic. "And you are my asset. Please say yes."
El thought about it for a few seconds.
"How come you need my help?" she asked, trying to understand his point, and he widened his eyes as if it was an absurd question.
"Because you can move shit with your mind!" he explained, gestures and all, and she chuckled. Dustin was funny. "Look, I know what you mean, a lot of steps in my plan are things that I can do alone-"
"More like all of them," she corrected, and he waved it off.
"Yeah, whatever," Dustin dismissed. "But if you help me, it will cut the preparation in half, the chance of me getting caught will drop to zero, and we'll get out of it dry. So? What do you say?"
"You are…" El started, struggling to find the right word. "Ambitious," she completed thoughtfully. "I like it."
So technically, that was how she ended up here, soaking wet outside the principal's office with the boys, even thought she wasn't enrolled and the school couldn't punish her in any way. Because Dustin had decided that it would be neat to create a lazy river in the school's corridors, and for that they needed the fire hoses, and to ring an alarm to lure everyone out of classes, and then she had to lock the doors and somehow Dustin managed to stack gallons of water and she'd made that water flow.
"This is awesome!" he had exclaimed as water ran around them and they could hear people shouting and cheering all around. El mirrored his smile.
The water was running knee high, but with the waves it went above their waist. Except for El and Dustin, who were in their own dry bubble, not being touched by a drop. Eleven needed a lot of concentration to have all those things going on at the same time – the locked doors, the map of the school's corridors, the control of the water - but it was good practice, and it was fun, just like Dustin promised.
"El, you are awesome!" exclaimed the boy, turning to see the movement around them. There were notebooks and shoes going with the flow.
"I know, you guys say that all the time!" replied El with some pride. "Hey, Dustin?" she called, and he looked at her. Her smile grew wider. "Happy birthday."
"Oh, thank-NO! EL!" he shouted, because with a mischievous grin, she pushed him in the water. "TRAITOR!"
Dustin slipped, and on his way down he used the momentum to grab El's arm and bring her down with him, which broke her concentration and sent a wave through the whole school. Both of them were submitted to the fury of their own flood and dragged several feet from their starting point, the water going down as they laughed on the floor.
"Well, that was neat," Dustin said sprawled on the floor. El's head was resting on his stomach, and she was still laughing.
"Best birthday so far?" she asked, and he smiled.
"Definitely."
There were shouts and laughing echoing, and they heard the squeaks of footsteps approaching so they sat up, both analyzing their wet state. The floor looked disgusting, and there still was water rolling because they left the hoses open. Luckily, it was the rest of the gang that arrived.
"I knew you were here!" exclaimed Will, wet from head to toe. They all were, even Lucas, who was taller than everyone already.
"How could you know?" El asked as Mike helped her to her feet. He used his thumb to wipe a little bit of blood from her nose.
"Who else would be able to do something like that?" Lucas said crossing his arms. He had a point.
"Besides," added Mike. "Dustin was dying to recruit you to some of his epic pranks since we met you. We figured it was about time."
El looked back to Dustin, who shrugged unapologetically.
"The bad news, though," continued Lucas. "Is that the water probably destroyed your birthday present."
Dustin's eyed widened. That was probably the worst news for him.
"You're joking," he said at the same time El said "No, it didn't."
Everyone looked at her then, so she said it again.
"It didn't."
Too bad that the next thing that happened was the inspector arriving with Mr. Clarke and a couple of other teachers looking for the source of the water and finding five teenagers at the crime scene. And then, they were waiting in front of the principal's office. Mike was extremely nervous, bouncing his leg and biting his nails, Will and Lucas were talking about someone called Lexi who had tripped and grabbed Lucas for dear life, and Dustin was calmly seated across from El, not even worried.
And if Dustin, who had idealized the whole thing, was this chill, Eleven had no reason to feel nervous, so she gently reached and put a hand on Mike's knee.
"Relax," she said. When he looked at her, he stopped biting his nail too.
"El, you don't get it, they can stop us from coming to the Spring Ball," he fake-hushed, catching the others' attention.
"They can't do that!" She protested. She was not going to lose another ball with Mike over this, even though she had no idea how balls were supposed to be, or if she'd even like it.
"Except that they can, if they decide to," Mike insisted, and Dustin disagreed.
"Uh, no, they can't," said the birthday boy. "Think about it, guys, they have nothing on us. We were in the wrong place at the wrong time. How on earth would we, five teenagers, be able to create that river thing?"
They all looked at Eleven, who looked at them too, and then it started to hit them... Hopper and Joyce Byers were the only adults in the whole Hawkins city who knew that El was capable of doing such things. It didn't matter that it was obvious in their head that El was all the incredible things that she was, who with a straight head would guess that a 5' tall girl could do such things?
"Believe me," Dustin said, his voice hoarse. "We're clean. For all they know, we're victims here."
Lucas smiled and nodded in agreement, and he and Will went back to talking about Lexi.
"Okay, makes sense," Mike agreed, holding El's hand and lacing his fingers with hers. "But how do we explain you being here?"
She shrugged.
"I came to my friend's surprise party," she looked at Dustin, who raised an eyebrow, and the other guys protested.
"OH, COME ON, EL!" and "I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU RUINED IT" among their loud complaints, and she only laughed.
El rested her head on Mike's shoulder. The secretary had told her that she'd have to contact her legal guardian to come get her, and she was waiting to see what Hopper would have to say about their little prank. But for now, she could just enjoy holding Mike's hand and being close, even though they still were so wet and her cardigan was heavy on her shoulders.
He had stopped bouncing his leg, and now he was tracing circles on the back of her hand with his thumb, his eyes on their laced fingers. The gesture lulled her like nothing else.
"Mike," El said, looking up at him, and he looked at her too. "Pranks are cool."
It wasn't what he expected her to say, but made him smile.
"When they are harmless, yes," he said. "But I can explain it better to you later. Okay?"
She nodded, and they just kept looking at each other for a while, and a while longer, even after Dustin scoffed -
"You two are ridiculous."
And they just stopped when Hopper and Mrs. Sinclair came in running to see what the hell was going on and why their kids were being held without proof of anything.
A/N: They set up a smol surprise party in the AV room, with cake, sodas and a rare version of Monty Python waiting for Dustin.