After they returned from their trip, the rest of summer had passed much too quickly. The night they got back they decided to have an impromptu camp out, as they weren't ready to say goodbye just yet. Joyce had run down to the General Store and gotten whatever fireworks were left. They had made yet another campfire, made even more s'mores, and ran around in the dark for hours. The boys finally got the have their fight with fire sticks, as Joyce and Hopper had had enough of the outdoors and were staying indeise while the kids hung out in and around Castle Byers.

Eleven still shivered against Mike's side as each firework went off, but by the end it was as if she finally had gotten her mind to know that fireworks were supposed to be fun. As Lucas set up the last firework of the night, she suddenly stepped forwards, bringing Mike with her by grabbing his hand. She reached out to Lucas, and he hesitantly handed her the lighter. With Mike guiding her hand, she lit the fireworks quickly before running to safe distance. As it went off in a shower of white and red sparks, she jumped up and down with a squeal of excitement, and everyone had clapped for her as she seemingly got over her fear of fireworks. "Mike, I did it!" she had yelled at him, and he had been so overwhelmed by pride he had swept her up and given her a hard kiss on the lips. Much to his relief, none of his friends said anything, and the moment between them was preserved.

After they stayed up until three in the morning telling stories around the fire before going to bed, they woke up early and enjoyed a breakfast of eggs, bacon, and Eggos. Then, it was finally time to say goodbye to one another, and even though they would most likely see one another in the coming days, the thought of not being with each other made everyone sad, but none more so than El. She had never been with Mike this long before, never been able to see him and sleep with him so many times in a row before. She liked sleeping with Mike, as when she was alone she felt cold and had nightmares, but when she's with him, he warmed her and she slept peacefully. It was part of the reason Hopper had begrudgingly accepted the sleeping arrangements they used anytime they slept over or went on trips.

They spent the 2nd half of the summer doing many of the same things they had done during the 1st half. They went to the arcade, beating each other's high scores and creating new ones before having their own scores beaten by another in the party.

They played countless D&D campaigns, and even had Steve join them on occasion at Dustin's insistence, and they all agreed he made an excellent brute. His weapon of choice? A ginormous spiked club.

They swam in the quarry and even made a discovery there. One day in early August, they had been hiking around, trying to find a way to find a way to the top when they had come across a small path in the woods hidden by overgrown bushes and trees. They had followed the path and found a small overlook in the water, about 15 to 20 feet up. There was even a tree branch hanging over the water, the perfect height for a rope swing. To be safe, El, their best swimmer, swam out to the area around it and checked the depth of the water around it. To their delight, Eleven could not even find the bottom.

They had all hopped onto their bikes and raced over to El's house. Hopper had not been home, and they rummaged around in the crawl space for a few minutes before finding a rope that seemed long enough. They went back to the quarry where Lucas had climbed up in the tree and then she had levitated the rope up to him, where he had securely tied it in place. Now they spent their days doing tricks off the rope, sunbathing, or just swimming around.

Unfortunately, all good things come to an end, and on September 1st, they all entered the doors of Hawkins High School once more, this time as sophomores. They thankfully all had lunch together this year, and they even had science with Mr. Clarke, as he had transferred this year. While they all had that class together, they did not have any more together, although some of them had classes with one or two of their friends.

Not much else had changed. The bullies were still bullies, the popular kids still hung out with the popular kids, and the 6 of them still only had each other to get through the day. Eleven continued to work with a speech therapist at school, and while she still had some troubles with very difficult words and ways of speaking, such as sarcasm, she was quickly getting to a normal speech level.

September passed without much flair, and October began quietly, although everyone in the party was very excited for the end of the month, because El would finally get to go trick or treating with them. While they were going to go last year together, as she had been out of hiding for a few months by then, she had fallen very ill the day before, and Hopper refused to let her go out with a 10 degree fever. Mike, being the excellent boyfriend he was, had opted out of going with his friends and had instead spent the night with her, helping her with her medicine and getting things for her. They had watched movies and she had fallen asleep on his lap around 8 o'clock. As a thanks, Hopper had gone and gotten him a bag of candy for staying with her. All in all, it had been a good Halloween.

This year however would most likely top that. They had debated for a month before what group costumes would fit them best, and they had decided Star Wars would be the most fitting. El would go as Princess Leia, Mike would be Han Solo, Lucas would be Darth Vader, Will would be Luke Skywalker, and Dustin would go as Chewbacca. They had tried very hard to get Max to go as R2, but she had insisted on wearing her Freddy Krueger costume, as she had been a horror movie villain every year since since she was 9.

Of course, no Halloween was without tricks, and Max had helped Eleven plan some very good ones. Normally the boys didn't participate in pranks, so it was just the two of them. Max loved this part of Halloween, and with some help from El's powers, she knew these would be her best pranks yet.

Her first victim was Dustin. The day before Halloween, she and El had snuck over to his house and hid beneath his window and waited for him to enter his room. After a few minutes, they heard him yell something to his mom and shut his door before sitting down on his bed to do homework. Max and El stifled their giggles with their hands before nodding at each other and peering in through the window at him.

"Okay El, move that closet door shut, slowly!" she whisper-shouted into her ear. El nodded and merely flicked a finger at the door, not even getting a nosebleed from her use of her powers. They had all noticed it before and talked about it. The more the girl seemed to use her powers, the less taxing they were for her to do. Now, she could do small things like float a pencil over to herself or open the freezer, get two Eggos out, put them in the toaster, and bring them to her without ever having to miss any of her show. Hopper had more than once had to dodge a flying waffle or soda can as she brought them to herself. He always insisted she shouldn't use her powers so much, but she did anyway.

Back in the moment, Max noticed Dustin stand up to check his closet before shrugging and sitting back down.

"Okay El, now I need you to push that jacket off of his chair, very quickly, and then shut of his light," she said, smiling at the girl beside her. She smiled back and jerked her hand. Dustin looked up at the jacket that had suddenly fell off his chair, but thought nothing of it. He was about to go back to his work but his light shut off and he jumped up and began to walk towards his door.

"Quick El! Lock his door!" Max said, shaking her in excitement.

She did and he began to rattle his doorknob back and forth, trying to get out. "Mom? You there?" he called out, but got no response, as she had gone out to garden.

"Okay El, now for the finishing touch, take a few books off his book shelf and just hover them around a little, and when he starts to get really freaked out I'll run inside and tell him it was a prank!" she said before getting up and going into the house.

Eleven picked a few paperback books and began to hover them towards Dustin, and he put his back against the door and started batting his hands towards the books rotating around him. He let out a scream as he heard a knock on his door behind him, and El quickly unlocked it and Max stumbled in, laughing hysterically. "Damn, Henderson, and I though Lucas screamed like a girl!"

"Wha- what? What're you doing here?!" he asked, completely confused by the turn of events.

"Say hi to El!" she said, pointing towards the window. Eleven waved as he saw her standing in the window. He turned back towards Max.

"I can't believe you two! I thought a Demogorgon was coming for me or some shit like that!" he yelled, but Max just continued to laugh and pulled him into a hug.

"You know we do it out of love," she said before letting him go. "Now, we have more pranks to play! See you tomorrow Dusty!" she said, running out of his room and back to El. They hopped onto their bike and skateboard and went over to Lucas' house next. His prank was much simpler. She was going to get him outside where Eleven would dump several buckets of water onto his head. She had originally planned this prank for Mike, but she should have known that El would refuse to prank him.

They reached his house quickly and got the buckets from where they had stashed them earlier in the week and filled them with water. Eleven hid and began to levitate them. They were doing it in the backyard so no one would be able to see them floating in the air, just in case anyone looked. Max went to the front door and rang the doorbell.

"Hi Mrs. Sinclair, is Lucas around?" she asked

"Hi Maxine! Yes, he's upstairs. I'll call him down for you," she said. A few seconds later Lucas ran down the steps and out onto the front porch.

"Hey," he said, giving her a quick kiss. While they were not as openly affectionate to each other as Mike and El, they still loved each other all the same.

"Hey," she said, smiling at him. "Can you come with me to your backyard? I have a surprise for you!"

While he might have been skeptical if it had been any of the guys, especially Dustin, he agreed to Max without hesitation. He nodded and she took his hand and led him around his house and stood him where she and El had agreed upon.

"So, what's the surprise?" he asked.

She smirked at him. "Happy Halloween Lucas," she said, kissing him quickly before stepping back.

He gave her a quizzical look that was quickly replace by one of shock when the cold water hit his head and soaked him through. Max was bent over with laughter, and El came out of her hiding place to join her.

"Dammit! I should've known better this close to Halloween!" he yelled, throwing up his arms up at the two girls.

"Sorry Lucas, I am the queen of pranks as you know, and with El's help this year they are even better! Love you!" she said before her and Eleven ran off and went to find their next victim.

He stepped back inside and came face to face with his mother. "Halloween prank?" she asked, and he nodded. To his surprise, she began to laugh at him. "Oh baby, I thought you would've known better. That's why you should always think with your head and not your heart."

He groaned and went upstairs to change.

The next day passed with no pranks or incidents at school. Not that many of them even paid that much attention to the topics that were discussed, as they were all too excited for the events later that night. As soon as the bell rang they all raced from their classrooms and met up at the bike rack.

"Are you guys excited to get tons of candy tonight?" Will asked them as they began to go home.

All of them nodded or said murmured words of excitement, except for El, she shouted her excitement and continued talking about it all the way home. They had no complaints though. Since she had spent the first 12 years of her life living in that lab and had missed out on so much, they had no problems letting her be excited about trying new things.

They had all left their costumes at Mike's house so they could get dressed there and not have to worry about going home. But as they had some time to kill, they decided to watch Ghostbusters to pass the time. They sat around the basement TV eating popcorn and candy apples and just enjoying each other's company.

After it was finished, they still had about an hour to kill so they continued a D&D campaign that they had put on pause the previous weekend. They were traveling through the Swamp of Decay when they realized it was only 15 minutes to 7, so they quickly ran upstairs and changed into their costumes wherever there was some privacy. Mike had to admit, while El was cute no matter what, something about her wearing Princess Leia's white gown while her hair was in two buns was a special kind of cute.

His mom took a few polaroids of them all together, Max looking a bit out of place in her scary costume, and then they left to fill their pillowcases with as much candy as they could get. They began in Mike and Lucas' neighborhood before going down the street and making their way to Loch Nora to get all of the full size bars from the rich people. Eleven was having the time of her life, considering it was two of her favorite things (candy and her friends) rolled into one night.

Of course, whether it was the Upside Down or a bully, something always interrupted their fun. As they were going to the next house a little ways down the road, 3 older teen boys jumped out from the bushes wearing some very realistic masks and scaring the hell out of all of them. While Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Max all recovered quickly and flipped them off, telling them to go to hell, Will and Eleven reacted much more strongly, as ever since their time in the Upside Down, they both were very afraid of the dark and enclosed spaces, as well as just being generally jumpy.

El had screamed louder than any of them, and then Will had grabbed her hand and they had run off. Max and Dustin, the best insulters of the group, stayed behind to yell at the teens while Mike and Lucas went off to look for their friends. After a few minutes of searching around in the dark and calling their names, they had found them huddled up together behind a bush. With much coaxing from the both of them, they managed to come out, and they had run into their arms. Mike had calmed El down while Lucas did the same with Will. After a few more minutes they had calmed down enough to rejoin their friends, and they finished up trick or treating and went back to Mike's house.

Since it was a school night, they could only stay until 9:30, but they spent their last 45 minutes organizing their candies and trading them with each other for ones they preferred. Everyone insisted to El that it was the most fun part of the night, and she had to agree that it was, especially when she ended up with more Kit Kats than anyone else, which were her favorite.

Everyone left around 9:25, but Hopper was late to pick up El so his mom said she could stay until he got here. Mike had no problems having some alone time with her, so they hung out in the basement listening to "Monster Mash" and other Halloween classics cuddling, waiting for her dad to get here until Hopper showed up to pick up.

After about 20 minutes he showed up and apologized to Mrs. Wheeler for being late. There had been a small car crash downtown and he had had to stay to direct traffic until the cars had been taken off of the road. She was sad she had to leave, but before they went upstairs Mike grabbed her hand and turned her to face him.

"I'm glad we finally got to go trick or treating together El. I was so sad last year when you got sick and I was worried it would happen again," he said, looking at her face in the dim light in the basement.

"I'm happy I got to come too Mike. I got so much candy!' she said, showing him her extremely full pillowcase, and he laughed.

"Yeah, you sure did," he said.

She looked up at him and suddenly pulled him into a hug. "I'm also glad because I got to spend time with you," she said, her voice muffled by his chest.

"I love you," he said before leaning down to kiss her.

She giggled. "I know."

He truly had found the perfect girl.

Hey guys hope you enjoyed the chapter! I'm going to try to get the next chapter out for my next story by tomorrow, but I'll be away this weekend so it might not be up till next week.