Author's note: Hey guys, howdy?
I'm sorry it took a little longer for this chapter to come, it's just that my internet still isn't working properly. I have bad news, though. I've two exams this week, so it'll take a little longer for the last couple of chapters to be written/published. I won't abandon the fic, though! I'm writing every time I can, but please understand that I really need to study. I know, it sucks, but obligations, man. :(
But look, it's October, so here it is, an October chapter! You know I couldn't let this be plain, so here's an unexpectedly long chapter. I've no idea how long the next couple of chapters will be, so enjoy!
And, you know, leave me a review at the end to help me make through this awful week :(
Have a nice chapter! x
October
It was Mrs. Wheeler's idea. She thought that maybe Ellie would like to spend the evening around the city getting candy, since Mike was responsible for taking Holly this year anyway. With Nancy in Maine, the trick or treat duty was all on him. El had been out of the cast and with this orthopedic boot for two weeks now, and even though her leg still hurt a little, she actually liked the idea.
"Well, I was planning to go to the Seniors' Halloween party," Will said when they were still deciding what to do. "They will have this haunted tour, and a costume contest and everything."
"I heard that the house they rented was part of an asylum," said Dustin, and Jennifer rolled her eyes.
It was lunch time, and their table was packed. In part it was because of Lexi, who did make it onto the cheerleadering squad, and in part it was because of El. Her excellence in sports got her a few admirers who could not WAIT for her to recover, so she could play again, and the whole Ps situation turned her into a bit of a heroine. Now, everyone greeted her in corridors and she hardly had space with her friends.
Much like the boys, Eleven had no idea how to handle attention. No one taught her that part of high school life. Damn, she never thought she would be noticed in the first place. So with her sort of popularity they kept looking for a quiet place where they could sit and eat in peace, but there was always someone passing by and saying hello.
"It wasn't," Jennifer replied. Two years ago, when Will disappeared and then came back from the dead, the only contact the boys had with her was through the rare times Lexi had something to tell Lucas. Will had developed this quiet crush on her since 4th grade, but once he was back, they started to talk more. Now, with her and Lexi befriending El, and El and the boys being inseparable, they were all constantly together, even if the boys still were four big nerds, like Lexi liked to call them.
Dustin ignored her.
"It's a Senior Halloween party at a haunted house with gorgeous older girls in small costumes, Mike," he continued. "When would we ever have the chance to go to one of those? I mean, we just got invited this time because Lexi's cousin is helping organize the whole thing."
As if he had a chance at anything, but who was judging?
"Oh, don't be like that," Lexi pouted leaning back. "I'm a cheerleader now, I won't forget you guys."
Lucas just raised an eyebrow at her. El guessed that they knew each other really well, they didn't even need to use words, like she and Mike.
"Okay, I might only remember El and Jen," she admitted. "But they can pass down the word."
The boys shook their heads and El chuckled. Most of the time she couldn't comprehend why Lexi and Jenny did things the way they did, like when they had a fight over Will and didn't talk for over a month, but in general they were really good friends.
"We can do both," Mike said. "Holly has to be home before 8, so we can take her, and then El and I go meet you guys for the party. It doesn't start before 10 anyway."
"Yeah, but Elle can't stand for too long," observed Jen. "How is she going to enjoy the party if her leg is tired?"
"Oh, I'll be fine," assured Eleven. She'd felt worse for the almost two months of itching casts and sort-of-showers. With the physiotherapy, she could actually walk now, and the doctor said that she was recovering miraculously fast, wasn't it great?
"So we are going?" asked Lexi just to make sure. They all nodded. "Okay, I will get the tickets with my cousin, then. When are we picking up the costumes? There will be a contest, remember?"
"We can go this Saturday," suggested Will.
"Count us out of the costumes plans," said Mike, and he quickly answered as soon as someone asked 'WHY?' "We're trick or treating with Holly! You know how she gets on Halloween; she has everything figured out since June."
"Mike," reasoned Will. "Your sister is five. You will let a five year old pick your Halloween costume? And El's? For the Seniors' party?"
Mike nodded.
"You know Holly, we don't want another 1984," he said. El chuckled again.
"Holly is great," she said. The little girl was great.
Holly had made plans for Halloween a while ago, before Nancy left, and when the Wheelers told their little daughter that her big sis wouldn't come home for the holiday, at first she got sad, but then she saw Elle right across the table. Elle would have to do. So now there was a drawing on their fridge with all the specifications of this year's holiday, and Elle's name under one of the characters.
"How come you didn't pick me to be Wilma, Hol?" asked Mrs. Wheeler as she did the teen's hair. Holly was on El's lap.
"Because you already are my mom," she explained, checking the fake bone in her hair in the mirror. "And the whole point of Halloween is the make believe."
El was really enjoying that wave Mrs. Wheeler was doing with her bangs, and the white dress was cute too, with the white stone necklace and all. Holly had put a lot of thought into everything, and that was adorable. El herself had watched the cartoon only a few times, but she found it funny.
"Besides," continued Holly. "You're not the one who's taking me, they are. And we need to match."
"We don't 'need to' anything," Mike said from the door, and they all turned to him. Eleven tried not to laugh. "You owe me for life Holly, I swear to God."
The little girl had the biggest of the smiles, and she jumped from El's lap. Holly was wearing a green top and blue booty shorts, her blonde hair was in a high ponytail secured by the fake bone. She looked cute. But Mike had an orange costume with this blue sort-of-tie, and it was in character, but really funny.
"You look great!" his baby sister exclaimed, and he rolled his eyes.
"You look just the part, Mike," agreed Mrs. Wheeler, which did not mean that he looked great. He looked at El, and she crossed her legs.
"Will you do it?" she asked, and he frowned.
"No!"
"Oh, come on, Mike!" protested El, and Holly was looking from her to Mike.
"No!"
"But Mike!" interfered Holly with those puppy blue eyes of hers.
"I said no," he repeated.
"Come on, Mike, just once?" asked Mrs. Wheeler, and he looked at her completely betrayed.
"Traitor," he whispered, and for several seconds the girls waited until he sighed. "Yabba-dabba-doo!" he exclaimed with a total of zero excitement, and Holly clapped her hands super satisfied while El laughed really hard.
"See?" said his mom, offering a hand to help El stand. "Not very hard to make people happy."
Despite himself, Mike smiled. When he looked at El again, she was waiting for him to say something, but somehow he was always at a loss for words with her. In that drawing that was on the fridge, Holly had even made El's cast, and she looked just like it, with the short white dress and the Wilma hairstyle, except she was a thousand times better.
"Hol, where's your bucket?" asked Mrs. Wheeler before Mike had a chance to say anything.
"Downstairs," she answered.
"Well, then go get it! It's almost time to go."
Holly ran out of the room and Mrs. Wheeler followed her, not without looking at the teens one more time. She looked pretty with her blue dress and blue bow, and Mr. Wheeler, in the living room, was looking funny with the brown costume of Barney Rubble.
El had never had Halloween before, not even in movies. Not until she came back and the boys bombed her with pop culture almost overwhelmingly. However, it had been baby Holly who taught her more about the holiday. Where to get the best candies, which costumes would be better, which houses to avoid, even if she was probably too old to go trick or treat anymore.
"What were you last year?" asked El. She had heard the story of how Hol had decided that Halloween was the best holiday ever, and how she protested until everyone in her family agreed to follow her program, but they never told her the final result.
"The Muppets," Mike answered, and he offered her his arm. El took it gladly, and they headed downstairs. "I was Gonzo." El chuckled, and he just shook his head amused.
"Is that because of the…" she pointed to his face, making a circular gesture.
"The nose, yeah, that little savage. Are you sure you're okay to walk? You've never been trick or treating with Holly, she's intense."
El shrugged.
"I'm fine," she guaranteed. "I took a lot of painkillers."
But Eleven had no idea.
Mrs. Wheeler dropped them off in the furthest and richest neighborhood, and they started their crusade to get candy. Mike and Holly explained that there was no point in going to the houses with closed doors, because those people wouldn't give out candy anyway. In Hawkins, if you were giving candy, you'd stay out on the porch greeting the kids.
They hardly had any closed doors in that neighborhood. Holly had a lot to say about the candies in her pumpkin bucket, she had her own system when it came to organizing them – by how crunchy, or with more chocolate, and if they were sour or sugary. El was paying so much attention to that chat that she didn't even realize whose house was next.
"Uh, Hol…" Mike tried to stop his sister, but she was on her way up the front stairs.
"Oh, it's Pebbles!" a lady exclaimed. Her dark hair had white strikes all over, and she looked very elegant. She was wearing a loose pullover over a black collant and red high heels. "Look, Preston, isn't she lovely?"
"Hair color is wrong," Preston replied, looking bored and annoyed. "So is Wilma's."
Mike and El exchanged a look, and then looked at Preston again.
"We don't have any candy, Wheeler," she said. "Go back to the hole you came from."
"Preston!" protested the woman stepping ahead, and the P gestured to make her stop.
"I've got this, mom," she said, eyes on El. "I can't believe you had the nerve to come here, Hopper."
El raised an eyebrow watching Preston come down the porch slow and dramatically. She was wearing khaki pants, a buttoned shirt, a tiger jacket over everything and had a camera hanging on her neck. El didn't know what Preston was supposed to be, and she failed to see how she was to blame for being there. All she wanted was some candy for Hol.
"Why so?"
"You ruined my car," she spit out. "It was the most valuable thing I had, and you ruined it."
Eleven tilted her head.
"Me? Your car was swallowed by a sinkhole, from what I heard."
Preston stepped closer. She was holding a box of candies.
"You think you can fool me, Ellie? Troy told me about you, you freak. And I know that you're responsible for destroying my car. If you try something like that again-"
"What?" El stepped closer too. "What are you going to do? Break my other leg?" she tried really hard to stand tall like Nancy told her she should do, even being so small. "Lemme get this straight. If you really think I 'ruined' your car, and that I'm a 'freak' the way Troy says, then you know better than to try and cross me again. Quick tip: don't. Or I will really destroy you. Now," El fished one of the candy bars from Preston's box. "My boyfriend's sister came to get some candy, and according to her map you've got some of the best."
There was a moment of silence, except for the noise of El's candy wrapper being opened. Holly stood by her side.
"Besides," said the little girl. "I don't care I'm not a redhead like Pebbles. Last year, Mike's friend Lucas dressed as the Doctor, and it was the best costume ever! So he told me that it doesn't matter how you look like, you can be whoever you want."
"Yeah, whatever," said Preston dropping some candy in Holly's basket. "Get out of my face."
"Come on, El," said Mike, taking El's hand, and Holly's too. "We have a schedule to keep."
El let him guide her out of the Telles's lawn, enjoying her candy bar way too much.
"You're such a bad-butt, Elle!" Holly exclaimed, full of energy.
"And you know you'll have to lay low until she backs off, right?" added Mike, always looking out for her.
She held his hand a little tighter, and smiled at him, that El smile of hers.
"Yeah, I know," El said, a whole different attitude from just two minutes ago.
"How are you such a pro at this school bullshit, though?" he asked. Even during that week in 1983, when they had to sneak her into school, her level of sass and badassery was incredible.
"Nancy," El answered. "She sat with me before she left for college and said 'You know what's the only thing you gotta know about school? Take shit from no one.' So I don't. Didn't she tell you that?"
"Oh, she did," Mike said remembering. "It just doesn't work with me, but it's okay. You can be badass for both of us."
El liked his words very much. Mike was the nicest person she ever met. He let go of her hand and put his arm around her shoulders instead, and it felt good.
"I don't understand their costumes, though," she said, changing the subject completely.
"Oh," Mike smiled after the few seconds that took him to understand what she was talking about. "Preston's mom was the protagonist of Flashdance, and she… is a scream queen. I don't know which, but that's what Lexi said the Ps would go as."
"Scream queen?" echoed El. That was new.
"Yeah, it's a horror movie thing, sort of," he proceeded to explain, telling not only Eleven, but also an attentive Holly about those trash horror movies Lucas loved so much, and the ladies that made them so entertaining.
None of that was enough to distract El from the fact that they were walking A LOT. As they reached the neighborhoods around downtown, the number of closed doors increased, but soon they were walking among kids and parents again in the suburban area that indicated that the Wheelers' house was nearby. When they arrived at the Hendersons, Dustin was helping his mom hand out candy, and El found that the porch bench was way too inviting. She simply walked there and sat down, hardly greeting anyone.
"Uh, hi El," Dustin greeted, his attention divided between her and the bunch of kids asking for all that chocolate in his hands. "Everything okay?"
El forced a smile, but then she flinched when she moved her leg.
"Ellie?" called Holly, getting closer.
"I can't walk anymore, Hol," she admitted rubbing her right knee.
"But we are almost home, mom cooked dinner!" Holly said.
"I know, I know," El looked at Mike. "You guys go, I will stay here."
"But the food!" argued Holly.
"There's food here," interrupted Dustin. "She'll be fed."
"El," called Mike, and she looked at him. He wanted to convince her to walk a few blocks more, so they could all have dinner together and do all that they planned, but damn, he couldn't do that. "I'll be back soon, okay? And I'll bring some of my mom's pumpkin pie for you."
"Bring some for me too," said Dustin, but he was ignored.
Mike kneeled down in front of El, his hands held hers.
"I told you she was intense." He really did. El looked over at Holly, who was digging in her candy bucket. "I'll be back soon, okay? And I will bring some food and painkillers for you. How does that sound?"
El smiled, and then she leaned forward to kiss him.
"Good," she said.
Holly got closer, sort of breaking the moment, and then she dropped a lot of candies on Eleven's lap.
"One of each, because you're so cool," she said.
"Oh, thank you, Hol!" El exclaimed, picking a random candy. "Now I know I won't starve."
"I will see you later, right?" she asked, and El nodded.
"She's just going to rest a bit, Hol," Mike answered for her, getting up and resting a hand on the little girl's shoulder. Holly looked at El and up at her brother, and then she nodded.
"Okay then," she lamented. "Bye Ellie. Bye Dustin."
Baby Holly was guided by her brother back to the sidewalk and El observed them as she popped the candy that was in her hand into her mouth. Apple. Little bit sour. She wasn't sure she liked sour candies.
"Hey, I think we have some aspirin inside, you want some?" suggested Dustin, and El nodded. That would do for now.
He smiled, and offered her the box of candies he was handing over in case more kids showed up while he was inside. El eyed him up and down.
"Marty McFly," she said. "Nice."
Dustin shrugged, satisfied with himself.
"Oh, El," he said at the door, one hand on his chest. "You make me so proud."
Mike came back almost two hours later, and El was feeling a lot better, though she didn't trust her leg yet to stand for too long. He brought half a pumpkin pie, caramel apples, chocolate and almond brownies, and even though the Hendersons already had offered El a lot of food (that she obviously accepted), she still ate a few bites of everything.
"Where does all of that go?" wondered Jennifer, watching El eat.
"High metabolism," answered El with her mouth full.
"No wonder you're one of the boys," said Lexi, even though she was eating her own massive slice of brownie. Jennifer looked at her, eyebrows raised. "What? I burn a lot of calories too!"
"Guys, we need to figure this out," said Will, bringing everyone back to the matter that had them in Dustin's room in the first place. "Are we going or not?"
"I can't walk anymore, guys, sorry," said Eleven leaning to her left against Mike. "Never underestimate Holly Wheeler."
"We can go to your house and get your crutches," offered Lucas, and El shook her head.
"Hop declared it 'date night', since I wouldn't be home until tomorrow," Will said a loud ew, just for emphasis. "And if he sees that I need the crutches he sure as hell will call the night off."
They made faces and whined unhappily.
"Why is your room on the first floor?" Jenny asked Dustin looking out the window.
"We can still go, but I can't make the haunted tour," said Eleven.
"But that's the best part!" exclaimed Lucas.
"I don't mind," El guaranteed.
"It was the only room available when I was born," Dustin answered Jennifer, and she looked at him. "Try having three older brothers, and then you'll know."
"Your brothers left for college a decade ago," she replied. "Only Grant came back."
"Why is it bothering you, Jenny?" he inquired. "I like my downstairs room."
"Okay!" she replied, and then turned to everyone else. "How are we going to get there?"
Lexi shrugged.
"We take the bus," she said.
"The bus is on the road," interrupted Mike. "And to get to the road-"
"We have to walk," they all said at the same time. That broken leg was proving to be a great pain in the ass.
"I can drive you losers," someone said at the door. Grant, Dustin's brother.
Grant was 24, the second youngest of the Henderson brothers, and Hawkins Middle's newest art teacher. Dustin always said that he was born two decades too late, and El heard Lexi's cousin call him 'the definition of hot'. She guessed it was true, with his curly blonde hair and the green eyes. Mostly, El thought that Dustin looked a lot like him.
"At least as many of you that fit in my car," he continued. He had a Chevy. El was pretty sure that everyone would fit in its trunk.
"And you would do it because…" questioned Dustin all suspicious.
"Because, little brother, your friend here already lost the Homecoming because of her leg, now she's almost losing another classic party because of it, how awful is that? I, the sympathetic and selfless person that I am, want to help."
"Paula is underage," said Dustin.
"Who?"
"Paula Solaris, Lexi's cousin," he repeated. "Underage."
Grant was silent for what felt like a long time, and then-
"You want the ride or not?"
They did. El and Will rode in the front, everyone else was in the back. They arrived a little after ten. The party was being held in one of those lonely mansions at the rim of Hawkins, standing eerie and tall down the road. There were spider webs and fake pumpkins in the trail that led to the front door, where Lexi handed them the seven tickets she had gotten. They got skeleton wristbands and were allowed to go inside, all the while with El leaning against Mike. The place already was packed, loud music on the first floor; the orange, purple and green adornments against the black walls were charming.
They moved past the crowd. Without a ticket, Grant couldn't go in, but he said he'd be back around 1 a.m. to get them.
In the back of the house, it was like a completely different party going on. Way darker and spookier, the empty pool had both Will and El stepping back. It looked an awful lot like the Upside-down. They looked at each other with frightened eyes, but then El felt Mike's arm around her waist, and Lucas put an arm on Will's shoulder reminding them that they were fine, and they weren't alone.
There was a bar inside the empty pool, and beach chairs all around, and beyond it started the haunted tour through tall grass and foggy trees.
"Do we do this now or do we do this after a couple of Bloody Marys?" asked Dustin. Jennifer scoffed.
"You think you can handle two Bloody Marys, Henderson?" she exclaimed. "Your nerd ass couldn't finish one cup of beer at Lexi's party."
The boys, all but Dustin, laughed. Lexi looked at El and it seemed like she was saying something, but El couldn't decipher what.
"I say we go now," said Lucas, before that discussion started.
"I guess I will see you, then," El said, waving a sort-of-goodbye.
"No, no, El, you're coming," insisted Will. "We'll help you."
"Mike can carry you, right?" suggested Lexi. "Piggyback ride?"
"Mike can't carry shit," answered Eleven, and Mike sighed.
"I really can't, though, not for long," he admitted.
"Not at all," corrected Lucas. "You are such a weakling, Mike, it's shameful."
"Jesus, okay!" exclaimed Dustin. "Come on, Hopper. I'll carry you."
Lexi scoffed.
"Maybe you should date Dustin instead, Ellie," she suggested.
"…No," the three of them – El, Mike and Dustin – said at the same time, not a desperate awkward answer, but more of an attested fact. Their synchronization was impressive.
They walked to the beginning of the tour, and only then El hopped on Dustin's back. He had always been the strongest of the boys, and funny thing was: he sucked at sports. Out of their group of nerds, only El and Lucas could be trusted to practice anything.
"Just don't drop me, okay?" El asked, and Dustin scoffed. "I heard that this tour would be really spooky."
"Please," he said. "I don't scare easy."
Literally three steps later someone jumped from a bush, making Dustin jump back and let out a scream that was way too embarrassing for them to ever forget. He didn't drop El, but he did make everyone laugh, no one harder than Jennifer.
"It's not that funny," he mumbled composing himself.
"It really is," El disagreed.
What wasn't all that much was the haunted tour. After that first scare, the whole air changed and the group of friends couldn't take anything seriously anymore, and when they circled back towards the house, one of the "monsters" had crutches. Lexi saw an opportunity and took it.
"Hey, my friend could really use those!" she said, when the monster showed up.
'Monster' was a hell of an overstatement to the person dressed as some sort of zombie. The whole tour was very cheesy, actually, considering that most of those teens had faced a demogorgon.
In less than a minute, Lexi had convinced him to lend the crutches to El and she finally had some independence. Now walking between Mike and Lexi, El could enjoy the view and the feeling of that party. As cheesy as it might be, and even though the pool looked really creepy, Halloween was as fun as baby Holly told her it would be.
"Look at them," said Lexi, pointing to Dustin and Jennifer, who were walking ahead of them. The bickering between them was as intense as those between Dustin and Lucas. "They are totally going to bang."
"EW!" exclaimed Lucas at the same time Will said, "Wow, thanks for the visual."
Lexi raised her hands in surrender.
"I'm not saying it will be today, I'm just saying that it's gonna happen for sure."
"How do you always know everything, Lexi?" asked Mike, and she smiled.
"I guess that's my special talent," she shrugged.
They reached the end of the tour and were back at the pool. By the time they sat on its border, Dustin and Jennifer were coming with Paula, Lexi's cousin, all carrying red drinks for everyone.
"…around 1 a.m., is that right?" Paula was asking, and Dustin looked kind of bored as he confirmed.
"This one tastes better than the drinks at Lexi's," El confided to Mike, one of her hands on his shoulder in a half embrace. She noticed that he kept his hand on her waist whenever he could.
"Sweet," he said, and she agreed before she sipped again. Mike smiled when some of the drink trickled down her bottom lip. "There's some here," he pointed, and then managed to steal a kiss, making her giggle.
El looked at him with those big brown eyes of hers, cheeks flushed, happy smile. Her hair had came out of the bun, and the pretty wave was gone, her bangs falling back on her forehead, while Mike's hair, that he'd been styling up (Nancy called it 'the Mel Gibson hair'), was down too, much like when they met two years ago.
He was beautiful. She felt it. It didn't matter that he couldn't carry her, or that he couldn't kick a ball to save his life, or that the only reason they had girl friends now was because people wanted to know her, and the boys were a package deal. It didn't matter that he was a big nerd whose eyes lit up the first time they entered the biology lab. Mike Wheeler was beautiful. She would die for him.
"I'd die for you," she decided to say out loud, and he nodded. They didn't see the glance of the other girls when they heard what she said, and they didn't care.
"I know," he replied. After all, she did kill for him more than once, and they only knew each other for a week at the time. And she did almost die to save him. Them. Were they too young to say that they loved each other?
She held him by his blue tie, pulling him closer for another kiss. Some of their drinks spilled on her white dress.
Maybe what they had was stronger, even. It certainly felt that way.