While Mike and Hopper were at the game, the boys played around outside while El and Joyce stayed inside and watched a Christmas movie before they started decorating the tree. El wanted to wait until Mike and Hopper got back. Half way through the movie, she heard the word girlfriend. She's heard it before, and kind of understood the concept of it, but she wasn't sure so she asked Joyce,

"What is girlfriend? And boyfriend?" Joyce looked at her, an eyebrow raised. "I know a little bit, but it's confusing still."

"Well, being boyfriend and girlfriend is when you go on dates, you remember what a date is, right?" El nodded. "You hold hands and kiss. There are other things for when you're older, but I'll explain it then." El looked kind of confused at that but nodded anyway.

"Like me and Mike?" She asked.

"Well, yes, I guess. Has Mike asked you to be his girlfriend?" She shook her head. "Hm, he's probably just nervous. You know, you could ask him to be your boyfriend." Joyce said, smiling at her when he eyes lit up.

"Really?" Joyce nodded. "I thought boys had to ask girls."

"They usually do, but girls can ask boys too. There's nothing wrong with that." El nodded, a smile on her face. A few minutes went by until El asked,

"Are you and Hopper boyfriend and girlfriend?" Joyce almost spit out her drink when she asked that.

"Uh, no, we're not. We used to be, a long time ago."

"Why not now?"

"Well...we just drifted apart. I met the boys dad and he moved out to the city."

"You drifted back together though, right? Kind of like me and Mike?" Joyce smiled, and nodded.

"We did."

"You should ask him to be your boyfriend." El said, grinning widely. Joyce chuckled.

"We'll see." They continued watching the movie. They got about halfway through another movie when El asked another question.

"Can I call Hopper dad?" Joyce looked down at the girl.

"Well, that's a question you should ask him, but I know he'd love it if you did." El grinned.

"The birth certify thing says he's my dad."

"Birth certificate." Joyce corrected her, but nodded. "Yeah, it does." El smiled. The boys came inside, followed closely by Max, Jonathan and Steve.

"When did you two get here?" Joyce asked Steve and Max.

"A few minutes ago. Dustin called me and told me to pick her up and come over." Steve said. Joyce chuckled. Dustin basically had Steve wrapped around his little finger.

"Ah, okay. Well, I'll go make some hot chocolate while we wait on Mike and Hopper." They all grinned and nodded as she went in the kitchen. Jonathan followed her to help her, knowing she puts way too much sugar in it. The kids joked around with Steve for a few minutes until Hopper and Mike finally walked in with a couple of bags in their hands.

"What do you have there?" Joyce asked, smiling at the two. Hopper explained while Mike joined the others, hugging and giving El a quick not so subtle kiss.

"We went to the store on the way back and got some candy canes for El, since we didn't get any last night, and a couple of ornaments that Mike thought she'd like."

"Awe, that's sweet."

"I also got you these, "He grabbed a bag of chocolate covered raisins and handed them to her. She smiled. They're her favorite.

"Thanks Hop." He grinned back at her. They went in the kitchen to talk while the others began putting ornaments on the tree, Joyce and El having already spread the branches out and put the lights on it. El was amazed by all the different ornaments, and would get frustrated when they didn't want to stay on the branch, so Mike helped her. Considering he could almost reach the top of the tree now, it wasn't that tall of a tree, she was just short, he put the ornaments where she wanted them.

"Did you have fun at the game?" El asked Mike, who looked over at her and nodded, smiling.

"It would have been better if it wasn't so cold. My ass was almost frozen to the seat." Her eyes widened at that. "Not really, El." He chuckled. "It's just a way of saying how cold it was."

"Oh." She smiled back at him. He stared at her for a couple of seconds, as she concentrated, trying to find an empty spot to put an ornament. He started to say something but was interrupted when a giggling, yes, giggling, Hopper and Joyce came into the living room.

"The tree is looking awesome guys!" Joyce exclaimed. El grinned and clapped her hands happily. Joyce winked at her from across the room, and she raised an eyebrow but shrugged.

"How do you think should have the honor of putting the star on the tree?" Jonathan asked.

"El." Mike pretended to cough in his arm. Everyone laughed at that. El grinned at him and then at everyone else. Joyce handed her the star and Hopper picked her up so she could put it on top. Everyone clapped as they admired the tree, and El hugged Hopper.

Around ten o'clock, Steve left, taking Dustin and Max with him to drop them off. Jonathan had gone in his room to work on a project, so Mike, El, Lucas, Will Hopper, and Joyce watched another Christmas movie. During a particularly quiet part of the movie, Mike sneezed loudly, causing the others to jump. He sneezed again, his hair flying wildly.

"Oh God." He sneezed again and Lucas and Will started laughing.

"Bless you." Joyce said, chuckling.

"Thank *sneeze* you."

"Well, this is gonna go on for about ten minutes so we might as well pause the movie." Lucas said. Mike sneezed again as an answer. El just looked at Mike with the most ridiculous look on her face. He would have laughed if he hadn't sneezed again.

"I'm gonna *sneeze* go to the bathroom." He sneezed again and did as he said. He came back a couple minutes later, shaking his head. "I hate when that happens." Lucas snickered.

"I, personally, think it's hilarious."