Friday, Feb 1st - Day 13

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. Friday. Oh, and his 13th day. Mike wasn't really a superstitious person, but there was that nagging doubt in the back of his mind.

Mike looked up at the universe, "You're already screwing me over with this, and you want to add the 13th day too?" He shook his head.

"Are you not getting enough sleep, Mike, and now you're talking to yourself? Why don't you get an alarm, like every other kid your age?"

"An alarm wouldn't help, besides, I have you waking me up every morning. It's perfect." Mike got up and kissed his sister on the cheek.

"Thanks Nance."

Nancy just looked at the ceiling for help and shook her head. She was never going to understand her nerdy kid brother.

Mike quickly ran to Holly's room and adjusted her dolls, and the shelf. He kissed the top of Holly's head. That got him a big smile.

"Crisis averted." He said smiling back at her.

Mike went downstairs to the kitchen.. "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.

He took a look back at the kitchen table. Friday's paper. Check. Oblivious Ted. Check.

He ate the Eggos in record time, and ran to the basement to brush his teeth. He wanted to he wanted to keep the promise he'd made to El and get and early start today.

He was out of the house soon enough that Lucas hadn't even left his own house yet.

He felt a little sorry that Dustin and Lucas might have to deal with Troy, but there was a good possibility that they would be only be insulted and not punched. Still not cool, but at least they wouldn't be punched.

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 Mike was careful to make sure he didn't slip while running to school.

Dustin was not waiting at the bike rack this time. It was a little too early. Mike headed for the front doors of the school.

Mike went to his locker. El was already at hers. She must really get here early, Mike thought again.

El still had on her blue wristband. "Hi" She said surprised to see him this early.

"First day I've talked to you, so this will be a bit of a surprise."

Mike put his hands on her shoulders. She looked at him, with those big round eyes. "Mike?"

Mike was a little unsteady on his feet, he said, "You made me promise to do this… Eleven." He leaned in and kissed her. Again he waited for the possibility of her being offended and pulling away, but instead, she leaned into his kiss.

"Mike." She breathed. "We have something to talk about, don't we? Are we… together?"

"Only for the day, El, I keep repeating my Friday, this Friday. I know about... " Mike tapped her nose."

El adjusted her wristband, "Do you know about this?"

"Yeah"

"I've been sharing the best days of my life with you. That's only been my last two days. Both Fridays, both today…. I've… never asked you out"

"Why not? You just kissed me… I really made you promise… yesterday?"

Mike nodded again and said, "My yesterday. Even if I asked you El, and even if you said 'yes'-"

"Yes" she said smiling.

Mike's eyes went wide, "Oh! Um, ok.. Uh, even so, it's only for my day today. And I have to do this every morning."

"Then ask me every morning Mike. I will say yes every morning.. I will always say yes. I promise." El could see Mike's eyes brimming with tears.

"What is it, Mike?"

"You're so easy to talk to El. I've been scared to death and way too shy to talk to you before… but you make this… whole thing easier. This is only day 13 for me… I don't know how long I have to do this."

"If it's easier to get through this with me Mike, then we get through it together. On one of your… yesterdays, I trusted you with my name… and my ability. So you can trust me, I'll do everything I can to help. "

"Thanks, El. Forgot to tell you one other important thing."

"What is it Mike?"

"You're really pretty." El blushed.

"I can't believe you're my girlfriend. This Friday thing might not be so bad after all. I think of all the time people waste over stupid stuff, if they knew they had to fit into one day, we'd all be better off."

Mike held her hand on the way to home room. "Make sure you bring Max to our table for lunch."


Max came up to him after math class, "seriously Wheeler, you want me to sit at the nerd table."

"That will be the easiest way to talk to Lucas. You can tell him you really like him by shouting across the lunchroom, but sitting beside him will be much better."

Max looked away, "thanks, Mike."


Mr. Clarke's lab was going to special for Mike. He had prepared and given El a box of pencils when her tip broke the second time.

"Ok, I've done this before. " El smiled him "You know girlfriends, even oneday girlfriends expect jewelry for the first gift."

Mike laughed. "You said that yesterday too. I um, had no time to go shopping, it being Friday both yesterday and today, so…" Mike handed her a piece of folder paper.

El read: I.O.U. One Promise Ring.

She held the slip of paper to her heart closed her eyes and breathed "Mike… "

"I told you my yesterday, I would fix the gift thing." He leaned over and kissed her. He didn't really care who was watching.


When Dustin and Lucas, got to the Party table, El was sitting close to Mike, Max across from Mike.

"This is new," Dustin maneuvered himself so that Lucas had to sit beside Max.

"Max, I want you to meet by best friend and fellow nerd, Lucas Sinclair, Lucas, this is Max Mayfield. You two have crushes on each other, this day is really short, you should go find a private spot and at least kiss a few times. You will thank me later."

Max and Lucas wouldn't look at each other. They weren't used to this Mike, or to the current situation he'd put them in.

Dustin laughed, El smiled at Mike and nodded.

"Well, fellow nerds… and nerdettes" Dustin looked like he was lost in thought, "these, are state of the art." he pulled out a bag of red translucent gaming dice. Mike perked up a bit. The dice looked cool.

Dusting started his rolls. Mike ignored the 11, but quicky called out, "47, 56, and 65."

"Practising for Vegas, Wheeler." Max smirked.

And the smirk disappeared when she saw, 47, 56, 65.

"Ok, no way, Dustin could have faked that." Lucas said. "What's going on Mike?"

"I'm repeating this Friday. This is day 13 for me."

Dustin said. "That's hard to believe Mike. We know you wouldn't lie, but…"

"Is a plate dropping hard to believe?"

"What?" Both Dustin and Lucas said, a split second before the plate splintered on the lunchroom floor and laughter erupted.

"I'm convinced, Wheeler." Max said. "Must be a pain in the ass to go through this everyday."

"Not everyday is the same. I've managed to change a few things, but some things stay the same. I don't try and convince you guys every day. Two days ago, well two days ago for me, El and I just went out and walked down the tracks."

"That's been the best thing, it forced me to talk to El." Mike looked at El, she nodded in agreement.

"Breaking the ice every morning with someone who's never given you the time of day. That's got to be tough Mike," Lucas said.

"I kiss El every morning. Turns out she's ok with it." El was nodding.

"I would give him more than the time of day if he had asked." El said.

Max held up her hands, "don't wanna know El."

El turned a deep shade of red, "I meant kissing, Max." Mike clued in and turned red also.

"Well shit, Mike, " Dustin said, "welcome to Friday."


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

"How was your day, Mike?"

"Best day of my life… thanks to you. I can't believe how nice you are…. and how pretty your eyes are-you are. I was lucky to have this day with you. I wasted the whole year not even trying to talk to you or get to know you."

"You need to make up for lost time," El leaned in and kissed him.

"That's hard to do when we have school everyday. That's every day. Remember I don't get weekends now."

"Every five days, we should skip school… the tracks?… we can't really go out in public, people know we should be at school." El said.

"We should… I need alone time with you." Mike said, he looked around, "this doesn't really count. I don't really need Troy to… wait, where is he today?"

"He had an accident earlier today, called me a name, he lost some teeth. It was very sad." El didn't look sad though, she was giving Mike a mischievous smile.

"Remind me not to make you mad, El."

"You could never make me mad, I l- like you too much." El looked down.

They went outside to wait. They stood in comfortable silence till 3:45, when Hoppers truck pulled into view, El put her hand on the back of Mike's head and pulled him into a soft kiss.

"Thank you, Mike. Thank you for just being you." El's incredible eyes bored into his own.

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. Are you going to be kissing my daughter everyday now?"

"She kissed me, Sir. But don't worry, I was ok with it."

Hopper looked at his daughter, then at Mike again. He rolled his eyes. Then he rolled up the window, and sped off.