Mike and the party minus El were all gathered around the D&D table in his basement one afternoon a few days after Halloween. They all noticed that Mike kept glancing over to where she usually sat, wanting to ask her what she thought they should do, only to remember that Hopper had taken her to the dentist after school for a checkup.
Mike had just told them the next part of his dramatic story, and had turned to see her
reaction, and now was staring at the empty space longingly. The others let this go on for a few seconds before Lucas got tired of waiting. "Earth to Mike? Hello, can we get back to the game please?" he asked, shaking the boy out of his thoughts.
"Sorry," he said, blushing. "You and your party reach the end of the cliff, finding a dead end. You turn to walk back the way you came but hear a ferocious roar and see 10 Mountain Trolls jump down from above! Your actions?"
The loud chatter of the four others filled the room as they debated on what to do next. "I should look for a hidden doorway!" Will yelled to the agreement of Max and Dustin and disagreement of Lucas.
"No, we need to all gang up on these trolls!" he yelled in response.
"Lucas, why would that old man tell us to come here to save the village if there was nothing her? And, if we do find a doorway, we won't have to fight!" Dustin argured back.
Mike leaned back in his chair and smiled at his group of friends. Even though everyone was yelling and arguing at each other, he knew that it wasn't a bad kind of arguing. He decided he'd give them a few minutes to decide what to do before making the trolls advance.
"Michael? Can you come here?" he heard his mom yell down the steps to him. He sat up from the table and said to his friends that when he got back he expected a decision. Not that they actually heard him. He ran up the steps and saw his mother hold the phone out expectantly to him.
He took it hesitantly. "Hello?"
"Hey kid, it's the Chief," the other person on the line said.
"Oh, hey Hopper. What's up?" he asked, completely unsure as to why the chief would be calling him.
"It's about El," he said, and Mike completely went into panic mode.
"El? Is she okay? Does she need me?"
"Woah woah, calm down, she's fine, although she isn't a big fan of the dentist. Two lights have gone out already when they've cleaned her teeth. We really need to work on getting those powers under control."
"Oh, okay. What's up then?" he asked.
"Well, I have an idea, but I need you and your friends to help make it happen," Hop said.
Mike was immediately intrigued. "What's your idea?" he asked.
"So, El doesn't have an actual birthday, and her mom isn't in any position to tell us, and her aunt doesn't remember the exact date, except that it was in the winter. So, I thought that since you found her on November 7th, maybe we could make that her birthday," he explained.
It was true. Last year they had thrown a party for El in September that was half a birthday and half a welcome to the world party, but Eleven still didn't know about birthdays and she didn't have an official day, until now.
"That's not a bad idea Hop. What do you need us to do," Mike asked.
"Well, I wanna throw her a surprise party. If I distract her on the 7th, do you think you and
friends with Steve maybe can set up the party. Get a cake, presents, decorate the cabin all nice?"
Mike loved the idea, and he knew his friends would too. "Yeah Hop! We can do that for sure. I'll tell the others and we'll get to work planning!"
"Thanks kid. Bye," he said before hanging up the phone.
Mike hung up the phone again and then ran back down the steps to where he found his friends not arguing, meaning they must have found a compromise.
"Mike, we'd like to look for a hidden door," Will said smugly, to which Lucas rolled his eyes.
"Forget about the game, I have something important to tell you all about," Mike said, sitting back down in his chair.
"What?" they all asked in unison.
Mike smiled. "So Hopper was on the phone, and he asked me to plan a surprise birthday party for Eleven since we didn't really have one for her last year."
"Wait, they found out her birthday?" Will asked.
Mike shook his head. "No, but Hopper decided it should be the the 7th, since that's when we found her almost three years ago."
They all nodded. "Makes sense," Dustin said.
"Good," he said, clapping his hands. "Now we just have to plan it."
November 6th
Eleven had had a good day at school. She had gotten an A on her science test, managed to get 1st in a free-for-all dodgeball match (her powers might have helped a little with that) and now she was going to go to the arcade with all of her friends after school. She happily walked through the hallways to her bike, almost skipping with joy.
"Bye Mr. Clarke!" she said as she passed his room. He waved back and smiled at her. She had fallen in love with him, just as they boys said she would, and had almost instantly joined the AV Club at the high school. She ran outside to meet her friends but faltered when she saw Hopper's jeep pulled up to the sidewalk. She glanced around and saw no sign of any of her friends.
He stomped out his cigarette he had been smoking, and greeted her with a hug. "Hey kid, how was your day?" he asked.
Completely ignoring the question, she asked, "Where's my friends?"
"I saw them bike off a few minutes ago, they told me they were all busy. So I thought I'd come pick you up so you wouldn't have to bike home alone," he said gesturing to her bike which was now in the back of his car.
"Oh."
Hopper frowned. The kids had warned him that if they simply disappeared one day after school it might seem odd and upset her, but they had needed time to get decorations and supplies.
"I know you wanted to see your friends, but I was thinking maybe we could go home, relax, have some Eggos, and maybe watch some movies?"
She gave him a small smile at that but remained silent as she got into the car. He clambered in as well and began to drive through town towards their home. El used her powers to flick on the radio and settled on a station playing some punk music. It wasn't Hopper's favorite, but Jonathan had been her primary source of music influence since she had returned.
She stared out the window, watching the storefronts pass by as Hop drove them though the center of town. She liked to watch the people walking their dogs or going about their daily chores. They had stopped a red light when she noticed something peculiar. Across the street were 5 young teens standing around with their bikes. They were standing in front of a bookstore and appeared to be arguing. She sat up and leaned closer, and that was when she saw the trademark red hair of Max, and she realized it was her friends.
She recoiled away from the window as someone had physically punched her. Hopper was talking to someone on the sidewalk so he didn't notice her reaction. She leaned her head against the window so he wouldn't see the tears that were dripping down her face. Her mind was running wild with thoughts. Why were her friends all together? They had told Hop they were busy. Maybe they were tired of her. Maybe they had finally decided they couldn't deal with her questions or nightmares or fears. Her heart froze as she realized something. Maybe Mike can't deal with me anymore. Maybe he doesn't love me anymore.
When they arrived at the cabin she jumped out of the car and quickly opened the locked door, running into her room before Hopper had even made it up the front steps. She locked her door before flopping onto her bed and beginning to cry as hard as she could into her pillow. Hopper walked up to the door and knocked.
"Hey, El? Can I come in so we can talk?" he asked, and only heard muffled sobs in response. "Look, I think I know why you're upset, but you'll see them tomorrow."
She began to cry even harder at that. What if they never want to see me again?
"Well, if you wanna come out, we have plenty of Eggos and movies out here. Come get me if you want to talk. He settled in the kitchen with a beer and read the paper as he waited for her to come out. As the hours ticked by however, he realized that she was most likely not coming out. At 10, he walked back over to her door and pressed his ear to it, and only heard her soft little snores in return.
He debated unlocking the door and talking to her, but decided it was just best to let her sleep and talk to her in the morning. He changed out of his work clothes and settled into bed, falling asleep quickly.
An hour later, El's bladder woke her up. She sat up with a wince, realizing she hadn't gone since around 12 at school. She quietly opened her door and tiptoed over to the bathroom to relieve herself before grabbing a glass of water and a cold Eggo to eat back in her room. She turned on her light and began to read to try to distract herself from her thoughts, to no avail.
She laid back down and glanced at her bulletin board on her wall. It had pictures from the Fourth of July, Halloween, New Years, and several others of her and her friends hanging out. She began to cry again, thinking of all the fun they had had together, and wondering what she had done to upset them.
Several Hours Earlier.
The five of them had managed to run out of the school and wave to Hopper before biking off quickly, heading towards the town to begin their shopping spree. They had spent the past few days deciding what they needed, such as food, decorations, games, and movies. Dustin was the best baker of the group, so he would be in charge of making the cake. They all also planned to get presents for her while they were out shopping.
They biked down towards the bookstore first, as Will wanted to get some coloring books for her and Max wanted to get her some of her favorite books too. While the rest of the group looked at different comic books, the two of them shopped around for about 15 minutes before paying and leaving the store.
"Alright Mike, where to next?" Lucas asked. It hadn't been said out loud, but everyone knew he was in charge, as El was his girlfriend and Hopper had contacted him first.
"Let's go to the general store and see what kind of decorations are there first, and then we can go to the supermarket for cake ingredients," he said.
"Oh, my mom is working today too, so we can all say hi to her!" Will said. They all loved Joyce, as she was a surrogate mother to them all, and they knew she would be happy to see them.
They biked along mainstreet for a while, chatting between themselves. Mike however, was silent. Unknown to the others, he had been thinking about what to get El very hard ever since Hop had told them of the birthday party plans, and the boy still had no clue. It's not like the girl had huge expectations though. She would be ecstatic if he got her something as simple as Eggos. In his mind though, he felt like he had to get her something just perfect for how amazing she was.
They reached the store and parked their bikes outside before walking in. Joyce saw them all and came around the counter to hug her son. "Hi guys! What brings you all here?" she asked them.
"We need decorations for El's party tomorrow. Hop told us to plan it," Mike explained.
She nodded. "He mentioned that her party was tomorrow. Well follow me, I think our party supplies are in the back of the store," she said, waving a hand for them to follow her.
They found a wide variety of party decorations, and spent some time debating over what to get her. They finally settled on pink and purple balloons, streamers, and party plates as those were her favorite colors. They also got a pinata and candy at Dustin's insistence, as he told them everyone has to have at least one birthday pinata once in their life. They agreed. After all, Hopper had given them a good amount of money to buy the supplies.
They paid for their party decorations and left the store and began to go down towards the grocery store, the same one that Eleven had smashed the doors to 3 years earlier. They entered and Dustin immediately had gone towards the baking supplies while Will and Lucas went to get eggs and milk. They all converged near the front and paid for the ingredients.
"Alright guys, I'm going to take this stuff home and begin preparation on the best damn birthday cake I've ever made," Dustin said, hopping onto his bike.
"Can I come too?" Will asked, and the other boy nodded. Will hopped onto his own bike and followed him down the street.
"Since Max and I have our presents already, we're gonna go to the arcade. Wanna come?" Lucas asked Mike, and the boy shook his head no. Lucas and Dustin had gotten her some of their favorite movies besides Star Wars on VHS
"I still haven't found anything for her yet. Thanks though," he said, and the other two kids shrugged and rode off, and Mike was alone. He climbed onto his own bike and left the store's parking lot to head back into town. He planned to roam through the shops, searching for the best gift he could find, no matter what.
However, after he exited the 4th shop, he began to have doubts. He had found some interesting stuff, but nothing he felt was worthy of giving to his girlfriend on her birthday. He groaned and leaned against the wall of the store he had just exited.
"Hey, shithead!" he heard someone yell at him and he opened his eyes. Steve was sitting in his car which he had pulled over to the side of the street. "What're you doing?"
"Uh, nothing," Mike answered, blushing.
"Yeah, that's a good one. You're looking for a present for her, aren't you?" he asked, and Mike nodded in response. "Throw your bike in the back and hop in."
Mike did as he told him and climbed into the passenger seat. Steve drove for a while in silence before glancing at him. "So, what does El like? Besides Eggos," he asked.
"Um, reading, but Max already got her a lot of books, and movies, but Lucas and Dustin got her movies, and coloring, but Will already got her crayons and coloring books. So I don't know what to do," Mike said with a sigh.
Steve drove for another minute contemplating what the boy had said. "Well, what about makeup? She likes that stuff right?" she asked.
"Yeah, but she has so much from Nancy already. Plenty for her punk days or normal days. So that's off the table," he said.
"Well, what about jewelry? She likes girly stuff, and I never see her wearing any of that besides that charm bracelet you got her. I know there is a great jewelry store in the mall in the next town over. I used to go all the time there for… Nancy," he fell silent, as that was still a sore topic for him.
"Oh. Okay, let's go there!" Mike said, obviously excited. Steve drove them in silence for awhile before turning on the radio. After about 30 minutes, they reached the mall and went inside. Steve told him where the jewelry shop was before heading off on an errand of his own, so Mike entered the fancy looking shop alone.
A women at the front desk greeted him. "Hi, how may I help you today?" she asked, smiling brightly.
"Uh, I'm looking for something for my girlfriend. Her birthday is tomorrow," he explained, hoping that would be enough.
"Oh wonderful! Young love is so beautiful. Do have anything in mind?" she asked, motioning him to following her. She led him to the main viewing area, and the sheer number of glass displays began to overwhelm him. There were so many options.
"Well, she already has a bracelet, and her ears aren't pierced," he said, remembering the day Max and Nancy had taken her to get hear ears pierced. She had seen the piercing gun and freaked out, shattering a window before running away. It had taken the two of them an hour to find her hiding in a clothes rack, and even then she didn't speak to either of them. In fact, she had only told Mike why she had freaked out when she had gotten home. In the lab, there had been a machine just like the gun which they had used to inject her with medicines and different drugs.
"Well, we have a fine selection of necklaces right over here. Why don't you take a look and call me over when you find one you like," she said, directing him to three displays full of necklaces. He walked over and began looking through all of the different cases, marveling at some of the prices for the more upscale gold and silver necklaces.
After about ten minutes, he moved on to the last case and saw that it was filled with silver necklaces that had different colored gemstones on the metal chains. He glanced at the case and read the label on the top. "Birthstone necklaces: A beautiful silver plated chain fitted with one of twelve birthstones. A perfect gift for that special someone in your life."
Mike looked around for the november birthstones and found it. It was a beautiful light blue topaz gem. He glanced at the price and winced. It was a little more than he had, but Hopper probably wouldn't notice a few missing dollars. He called over the women and she boxed it up for him and he left the store and met Steve in the food court.
"So," Steve began after swallowing the bite of Pizza he had in his mouth. "Let me see it," he said, referencing the necklace.
Mike pulled the box out of the bag and opened it. Steve winked at him when he saw it. "Oh, she's gonna like that," he said, nodding in approvement.
They finished their pizza and left the mall and headed home. Mike was dropped off by Steve at his house and ran upstairs after saying hi to his mother. He found some wrapping paper in the closest and wrapped it as best as he could before sitting it down on his desk. He fell asleep peacefully, excited for the next day.
November 7th
Eleven woke up and exited her bedroom. She felt awful, as she had been up most of the night crying until her head hurt and she ran out of tears. She had huge bags underneath of her eyes, along with tear tracks that had stained her cheeks. She saw that Hopper wasn't up yet, so she quickly entered the bathroom and cleaned herself up and brushed her teeth. She took a shower and when she got out, she could hear Hopper moving around in the kitchen making breakfast. She took a deep breath and opened the door.
Hopper looked over at her and smiled as she went to sit at the table. He turned towards her and set down one of his now famous Eggo Extravaganzas. "Here you go kiddo, enjoy!" he said.
To his surprise, she halfheartedly picked up the fork he had set down beside the plate and began picking at the tower of waffles. Normally she would have been halfway done devouring it by now, but was instead just looking at it. Maybe she was still upset over her friends yesterday, although it's not like that was the first time they hadn't been able to hang out after school.
"Hey, do you feel alright?" he asked her, feeling her forehead.
"Yeah. I'm fine," she said, although her sad tone told him different, but he decided she might just still be tired.
"Okay kid, if you say so. Anyway, we need to run some errands today, and I was thinking you could come with me, and then I'll take you over to Mike's later. Sound good?" he asked.
She seemed to start a little at the mention of Mike, but nodded otherwise. She reluctantly ate about half of the waffles before getting ready to go out with Hopper. While she was putting on her shoes, he quickly sent a small message to the boy's walkie talkies. G-O-N-E.
Hopper's cabin, Half an hour
The silence of the forest was broken by the sounds of six teens laughing and talking as they made their way through the forest to the cabin, pushing their bikes along. Steve was holding the cake, and the rest of them had their backpacks stuffed with decorations and party supplies. They would be getting pizza for dinner, so no one had to worry about making food, and they had gotten plenty of sodas.
Steve used the key they had gotten from Joyce to open the cabin's door and he stepped inside, putting the cake inside the fridge. The rest of them set their backpacks down on the floor and began discussing different ways they could decorate and began assigning jobs for each of them.
"Okay, so since it's so small, I think we should put streamers up in every room!" Will said, and the rest of them quickly agreed. It was decided that Steve, Lucas, and Mike would take care of that, as they were the tallest of the group.
"I can blow up balloons for you guys to hang," Max said as she began to tear open several bags of them.
"Me and Dustin will set up everything else and fill the pinata!" Will said, and everyone set off to begin their jobs. Dustin set out two stacks of plates and cups, and made sure all of the soda was in the fridge so it would get cold. Will opened the pinata and began to fill it with the two bags of mixed candy before attaching a rope to the top. Dustin had suggested they use Steve's bat, but he had quickly shut that idea down, as it was dangerous and the nails would get stuck inside of the pinata.
Max had blown up about 30 of the 40 balloons before she began to get light headed, and that's when Steve decided that they had enough. Him, Mike, and Lucas had covered almost every wall with streams, and had even crisscrossed them around the ceiling. Now, they began to tape up the balloons Max had blown up while Steve hnug the pinata outside in a tree behind the cabin.
All in all, they were able to do it in about an hour and a half, so they were ahead of schedule by about 30 minutes. They ordered the pizza after about 15 minutes so it would arrive at the Byers right when Joyce would leave to come over here. For safety reasons, Hopper still didn't like to give out his address to strangers. Not to mention that the cabin didn't exactly have an address either. Now all that was left was to wait for El to get home, and Hopper had just signaled that they would return in 10 minutes. They turned off the lights and got into hiding places.
Hopper's Jeep
Hop set down his walkie talkie and glanced at the girl sitting in the seat next to him and bit his lip. She had been uncharacteristically silent all morning, completely mute even as they did some of her favorite activities. He took her for ice cream, they went shopping, and he had even offered to take her bowling, but she had refused and asked to go home. Thankfully, the party had already finished setting it up, so he was hoping that would cheer her up.
They pulled up to the house and he parked the car. El unbuckled herself and slowly trudged up the steps and unlocked the door with her mind and entered. Before she could flip on the lights, they turned on themselves.
"SURPRISE!" everyone shouted. As her eyes adjusted to the lights, she saw Joyce, Steve, and all of her friends standing around smiling at her. She was excited for a few seconds before she remembered what she had seen the other day, and instead her eyes began filling with tears. She ran past everyone and into her room, slamming the door shut with her mind.
Back in the living room, everyone stared at each other, not exactly sure what had just happened. Hopper entered the cabin and saw everyone with surprised looks on their faces. "Where's El?" he asked.
Mike pointed to the now closed door. "In there. We surprised her and she started to cry and ran in there," he said, completely surprised at the turn of events.
"Yeah, it was really sudden. Her face lit up for a seconds and then she started crying," Lucas asked.
Hopper frowned and walked over to the door and gently rapped his fist against it. "El? Honey, can you open to door please?" he asked. All he heard was a stifled sob and a quiet no in response.
Mike walked up beside him. "Can I come in? Please El, I just want to help you," he said.
After a few seconds, the girl responded. "Only Mike," and then the door unlocked and he slipped in before shutting it behind him. His girlfriend's eyes were red-rimmed and she had tear tracks along her face, and it broke his heart to see her like this on what was supposed to be a special and fun day. He moved to sit beside her and wrap his arms around her, but to his surprise she moved away, so he instead sat down on the other side of the bed.
"What's wrong?" he asked after they had looked at each other for a few seconds.
"Nothing," she responded, hiccuping.
"Come on, you can tell me. We're all here for you El, you know that, right?" he asked, and she did, but the memories from yesterday came back to the front of her mind and she let out another small sob.
"Yo-you guys don't like me anymore? D-do you?" she asked in such a small and broken voice it shattered Mike's already broken heart.
"What?!" he exclaimed, seemingly shocking El. "Of course we do! Why would you even ask that?"
"Be-because yesterday. Hop picked me up and told me you all were busy. But then I saw you all together in town. You lied, and friends don't lie."
All the pieces clicked inside his mind and he finally understood what she was feeling. "Oh, El, we weren't hanging out without you. But we did lie a little, and I'm sorry."
"Why did you lie?" she asked, moving next to him, and he wrapped his arms around her before continuing.
"Because we were planning this party for you, and you couldn't be there when we were getting your presents obviously.
"Party?" she asked.
"Yeah El, we were planning a surprise party for your birthday," he said softly.
She had seen the streamers and balloons when she had walked in. "Today's my birthday? But today is-"
"The day we found you 3 years ago, yeah. We thought that since you didn't have a birthday, a real one, this could be it, since it's the day you came into all of our lives," he said, looking into her eyes.
She smiled and gave him a sweet kiss, which he happily returned. "I'm sorry Mike. I was just scared you guys had grown tired of me."
"El, I'm in love with you, everything about you. Nothing will ever change that. I will love you, forever and always. And those guys out there? They all love you too. You make all of our lives better," he said, and she smiled at him before climbing onto his lap and pushing him down onto the bed to kiss him. Her hands roamed in his curly hair while his went onto her lower back.
After a few minutes, Hopper knocked on the door, which in turn separated the two of them. "Are you two okay in there?" he asked.
"Yeah Hop! We're coming out now!" she yelled, unlocking the door. They stepped outside and El explained to the others why she had been acting so weird when she saw them. They all understood completely and had hugged her in apology. Then Steve and Dustin had yelled something about partying, and they all engaged in the festivities.
They ate pizza and talked among themselves before devouring the cake, which they all agreed that it was some of the best cake they had ever had, and that Dustin had some true baking talent. Then it was time for the pinata. El got to go first, and she had loved the concept of beating a lifeless cardboard animal with a abt for candy. They had gone around twice before Steve had managed to hit it squarely in the stomach, splitting it open and spilling the candy onto the ground, where all of the party rushed forward to grab it.
After Hopper and Joyce had cleaned up the broken remains, they all moved back inside for presents. El loved the books Max had gotten her, and had adored the coloring books even more. She had always loved coloring, but since she was an awful artist, she much preferred coloring books over freehand drawing. She got some new movies such as Ghostbusters from Dustin and Lucas, and some clothes and things like that from Steve and Hopper and Joyce.
But her absolute favorite present was obviously Mike's. She had opened it and gasped when she saw the sparkling blue stone on the pendant. Mike had quietly explained the meaning of the stone to her, and that it was her birthstone. She had happy tears in her eyes as she kissed him in thanks and asked him to put it on her.
After this, they continued to play games and mess around for awhile before they had to leave. Steve took Dustin and Max home, and Joyce took Mike, Will, and Lucas home. Hopper and her curled up on the couch to watch her new Ghostbusters VHS, and as they sat there munching on popcorn, Hopper turned to smile at her.
"So sweetie, did you have a good birthday?" he asked.
She smiled back at him. "Yeah, I sure did.
So I am sorry to say this is the second to last chapter. I decided that with the timeline I chose it wouldn't make much sense to do a Thanksgiving chapter, as she surely would have experienced it the previous year, so maybe if anything I will go back and add a chapter for that set in 1985, but let's be honest, Thanksgiving isn't that interesting. Anyway there will be an epilogue chapter, and I might do a one-shot of Mike and El's first time together, set within this timeline but in a different story so this one's rating won't go up. Anyways, sorry for the long wait for this chapter, and stay tuned for the final chapter, hopefully faster than this one!