Author's Note: Hope y'all enjoy this chapter, and please review/follow/favorite if you do! XOXO and on with the story!
El and Hopper drove to the Wheeler's house an hour later because Hopper insisted on going after the boys' school day was over so he wouldn't have to be forced to consider arresting the other boys for truancy. El was fidgeting, nervous, wanting to just be there already. She wanted to hurry up and investigate this dance, and then be able to see Mike. Hopper tapped on the steering wheel, trying to release his excess energy as they pulled up to the Wheeler's house.
El reached to unbuckle her seatbelt, but Hopper cleared his throat. "Um, El?"
"Yes?" She asked.
"Uh… be safe." Hopper said.
El's eyebrows drew together in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"Just… uh…" Hopper searched for words to voice what he met but he came back empty-handed. "Never-nevermind. Just don't do anything you aren't comfortable with."
El, still confused, responded. "Okay…" She said. She unbuckled her seatbelt and made her way to the front door, pulling Mike's jacket tighter around herself to fend off the cold. She knocked on the front door, and she was surprised to see it was Jonathan, clothes rumpled and looking pleased, who opened the door.
At the sight of his sister, Jonathan's eyes went wide. "El?"
"Jonathan? What are you doing here?" El asked.
"Uh…" Jonathan was turning red. "I came to see Nancy."
El smiled at Jonathan. "Me too!" She stepped forward and Jonathan let her in reluctantly. She went past him and headed up the stairs, Jonathan trailing behind her and gradually turning redder and redder. As Eleven went to open Nancy's door, Jonathan squeaked and jumped in front of it. El's eyebrows furrowed. "What… what are you doing, Jonathan?"
Jonathan swallowed, his eyes avoiding El's. Slowly red was creeping up his next and overtook his face, he was blushing to his roots. "You should, uh… you should knock first. She may not be… all ready…"
El stepped forward a bit, and Jonathan flinched back, hitting his head on the door.
"Jonathan?" Nancy asked from inside her room. "Is that you?"
Before Jonathan could respond, Nancy opened the door and Jonathan, suddenly off-balance due to the lack of the door he was leaning on, tripped backwards into Nancy. They collided and Nancy stumbled backwards into her bed. She was wearing only a bathrobe and her hair was a disaster.
"What the-" Nancy began, only to be cut off by Jonathan, who was stringing apologies together like beads on a necklace.
"I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry, Nancy!" Jonathan said.
"Oh, it's fine, Jonathan. I'm okay, really." Nancy said, then she caught sight of Eleven smiling in the door. "Hi, El!" Nancy said. "What are you doing here?" She asked.
"I wanted to ask you about the Snow Ball." said Eleven.
Jonathan looked confused. "The Snow Ball? The middle school dance? Why would you want to know about that?"
Nancy snorted. "Because my brother obviously got the guts to ask her properly, didn't he?"
Eleven blushed and nodded, looking down at her shoes. "Yes…"
"Wait, what? He did what?" Jonathan asked, flabbergasted.
Nancy raised an eyebrow at Jonathan. "You… didn't know? Jonathan, they like each other. There is a dance on Friday. And people who like each other go on dates, like to a dance. Therefore my brother asked your sister to the dance."
Jonathan sat next to Nancy on her bed, leaning his head on her shoulder and pouting like a petulant child. "I don't like this."
Nancy leaned over and pecked Jonathan on the cheek, and he turned pink. "I think it's cute. Now, leave please."
Jonathan looked up at Nancy in confusion. "What?"
"El and I have to talk about girl things, and we can't do that with a boy here. So, shoo." Nancy explained.
"But, Nancy-" Jonathan complained.
"Don't worry, I'll make it up to you later." Nancy kissed Jonathan sweetly for a moment, and El grinned knowingly. "Go play downstairs with the rest of the boys."
Jonathan grumbled and started walked out of the room, closing the door with a soft click behind him.
Nancy patted a soft on the bed beside her. "Come here, El." Nancy smiled. El padded up to her and sat beside her, tucking her feet underneath her to sit criss-cross applesauce. "So you want to know about the dance?"
"Yes," said El. "Will you tell me?"
"Of course," Nancy smiled. "I'm your resident girl, I'm here for you to ask questions to. What do you want to know?"
"What's it… what's it like?" El asked.
"Do you want to know the whole thing? Every aspect of it? Or just the general idea?" Nancy asked.
"The whole thing." El said.
"Well, getting ready for the dance is a process. You'd want to wear a dress, right?" Nancy asked. El nodded vigorously. "Then we'd buy you a dress, and we'd get you all nice and pretty. And Mike would wear a suit-"
"A what?" El asked.
"A suit. It's fancy clothes for a boy." Nancy explained. "Then you and Mike will go to the gym, and there will be streamers and music, and it will probably be dark with some sparkly lights. You and Mike will probably dance and have some food or something, and then you'll come back home. Dances are really fun, especially if you like the person you go with."
"Are you going to the dance?" El asked.
Nancy responded, confused. "What?"
"With Jonathan? Are you going to the Snow Ball with Jonathan?" El asked.
"Oh, no." Nancy smiled.
"Why not?" El asked. "Don't you like Jonathan?"
Nancy blushed. "Well, yes. But we can't go to a middle school dance because we're in high school."
"Oh." El said. "So, I get to wear a dress?"
"Yeah!" Nancy smiled, grateful to be off the topic of her relationship with El's brother. "We can buy you one of your own this time, not just one of my old ones."
"When?" El asked.
"Oh, well… it's Monday, and the dance is on Friday? We should go shopping on Wednesday!" Nancy said.
El clapped excitedly. Shopping was something she was very new at, but she liked her new clothes the Joyce had gotten her, and getting a pretty dress that she chose sounded wonderful to her. "Wednesday!" El confirmed.
"Yeah, Wednesday." Nancy said. "Oh, you must be so excited for your date!"
El's eyebrows drew together. "Date? What's a date?"
"Why don't you ask Mike?" Nancy giggled conspiratorially. She pulled her bathrobe tighter around her like she was cold, then attempted to smooth her hair a bit. "Do you want to go say hi to Mike and the rest of the boys?"
El nodded. "Yes."
"Why don't you go downstairs and say hi?" Nancy suggested. "If you have anymore questions, you can talk to me."
"Okay." El said. She stood up and walked to the door, but Nancy's voice made her hand still on the door handle.
"Um… El?" Nancy asked. "Could you send Jonathan up too?"
El nodded and left the room, heading downstairs with a knowing smile on her face.
Author's Note: My computer made my have to split this in two, but the second half will be coming out soon!