Although there was much about school life that seemed strange to El, within a week she began to settle into a new routine. She always woke up excited, looking forward to chatting with Sylvia in the hallway and sharing notes with Mike. She even enjoyed spending time with John, despite his odd quirks like winking and calling her "Ella."
On Friday El came to school a little early and joined the boys for lunch. When Sylvia spotted her across the cafeteria, she brought Kate and Melissa over to join them. Lucas was a little annoyed by how crowded their table was getting, Will felt shyer than usual with all the noise, and Dustin was too nervous to even touch his PB&J with Sylvia sitting next to him, but nobody complained.
"How is your English project going?" Sylvia asked Mike. He swallowed a bite of sandwich and grimaced.
"It's taking longer than I thought. But at least I got to pick an interesting writer this time. My English teacher last year said science fiction didn't count as literature," Mike complained, rolling his eyes.
Sylvia shrugged. "I don't really like science fiction much, personally."
The boys stared at her like she had personally insulted one of their mothers. "What do you mean, you don't like sci-fi?" Dustin said, crumbs falling from his mouth. "What's this, then?" He pointed at her Star Wars lunch box.
"Oh, that doesn't count," Sylvia objected. "Star wars isn't really sci-fi."
"You've got to be kidding me!" Dustin exclaimed, beginning a heated debate that could have gone on for several hours if lunch period had been long enough to accommodate it.
"Ahem," came a voice from them. El turned around and saw John smiling at her. "Hey, Ella!" he said. "How's it going?"
She grinned. "It's going awesome!" she said. It was a word she had learned recently and she felt like using it all the time now.
"Good, good," he said, scratching behind his ear. "So, um, I was wondering… I'm having a party tomorrow, and I thought maybe, if you're not busy or anything, maybe you want to come?"
El's eyes went wide. She glanced at Sylvia, who looked equally surprised, and Mike, who was avoiding her gaze for some reason.
"I don't know," she said. "I don't know if I like parties."
John nodded, expecting her to be intimidated by the idea. "You can bring your friends, if you want," he told her, gesturing at Sylvia, Kate, and Melissa.
"Can I bring all my friends?" she asked, biting her lip and subtly tilting her head towards Mike.
John chuckled and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Well, I guess so, if that's the only way you'll come."
She nodded. Then she remembered a phrase Joyce had taught her. "The more… the merry… merrier… right?" she said, smiling.
John guffawed. "Sure." He walked away, saying over his shoulder, "56 North Oakland, 8 o'clock."
El grinned, looking satisfied with herself, while the rest of them just stared at her. "Did she just get us invited to a cool-kid party?" Melissa asked, flabbergasted.
"Seems that way," Kate said, giggling.
"Do we have to go?" Lucas said. "They're just going to laugh at us, anyway."
"I think it'll be fun," Sylvia said. She linked arms with El. "We can get dressed up and maybe there'll be dancing!"
"Dancing?" El said, glancing at Mike under her lashes and feeling a fluttery sensation in her stomach. She gave him a little shove and he finally looked at her. He seemed uncertain.
"Do you really want me to go with you?" he whispered to her.
She nodded, her big eyes staring at him hopefully. "Please?"
He grinned and grabbed her hand under the table, swinging it back and forth. "Okay. Then we're going."
The girls all gathered at Sylvia's house on Saturday afternoon to get ready for the party together. El brought her new dress and Kate brought her seemingly endless supply of makeup. El sat on a chair in Sylvia's bedroom while Kate gave her a makeover.
"Your eyes are so pretty, El," Kate said, brushing sparkly eyeshadow over her eyelids.
El blushed. "Thank you…" she started to say, but Kate shushed her.
"Stay still!" she warned gently. "Now, look up at the ceiling so I can do your mascara," she said, brandishing a small stick covered in what looked like black paint.
The mascara made El's eyes water, but she didn't complain, too fascinated by this strange process and enjoying the attention, even though it made her feel shy. It reminded her of the makeover Mike had given her last fall, but where Mike had been hesitant and clumsy, Kate's movements were sure and obviously well-practiced. Kate brushed pink blush on the apples of El's cheeks and applied waxy red lipstick to El's mouth.
When El saw herself in the mirror, she caught her breath. She didn't know what kind of magic powers Kate possessed, but somehow she had been utterly transformed.
"You look like a movie star!" Melissa enthused.
Sylvia grinned. "Mike is gonna lose his mind."
Kate giggled and whispered in Sylvia's ear. "John, too."
El just stared at her reflection. Pretty wasn't a strong enough word to describe how she felt.
Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Will arrived at John's house a little before eight, and immediately felt so uncomfortable that they almost turned right around to go back home. They didn't know a single person there - well, they knew their names, but not much else - and they sat on the living room sofa trying to ignore all the stares and whispers of the so-called 'cool kids.' If it had been up to Will and Lucas, they would have bailed immediately, but Dustin was looking forward to seeing Sylvia, and Mike had no intention of leaving El alone at John Hampton's house party.
"Um, thanks for coming, guys…" John said to them, trying to hide his discomfort. "Can I get you anything? Beers, maybe?"
"We don't drink!" Will blurted out loudly, and the others cringed in embarrassment.
"Okay, well, that's cool… um, sorry, I have to go say hi to someone…" John said, making up an excuse to get away from the awkwardness.
"Will, can you try to not embarrass us for like two seconds," whispered Lucas harshly.
"What, were you seriously going to start drinking beer with John Hampton?" Will asked, incredulous. "Your mom would kill you."
"No! I was just going to take some and then pretend to drink it," Lucas explained. "Beer tastes nasty anyway."
At that moment the door opened and the girls - El, Sylvia, Melissa, and Kate - entered the house. They looked almost as nervous as the boys felt, but there was excitement in their faces all the same as they looked around at the crowd.
Both Mike and Dustin were stunned into silence. El was wearing her new off-the-shoulder dress, the purple fabric contrasting with her pale, creamy skin and dark hair so that she seemed to glow in the dim light of the party. The sight of her bare shoulders made Mike feel uncomfortably protective and nervous. He suddenly didn't know what to do with his hands.
Dustin was going through a similar crisis, although his experience was more one of despair. Sylvia was wearing a black dress that gave her an air of almost unbearable cool. He picked at a string on his khakis nervously. He didn't see any way for him to ever even begin to measure up.
Luckily for Mike and Dustin, their two friends were far from tongue-tied. "El! Over here!" Will called out, waving at the girls.
El grinned and pulled Sylvia over to the couch with her. She slid in next to Mike, gazing curiously at his flushed face while he stared straight ahead.
Pretty? she asked Mike silently.
Mike had to bite back a laugh. The idea that this girl, of all people, should still need to ask that question was absolutely absurd.
He turned and met her gaze, and El blushed at the intense, searching expression on his face. He nodded slightly and she felt warm all the way down to her toes.
"Ella!" John said, approaching from the side of the room. He grabbed her hand casually and pulled her off the couch. She followed him, smiling amicably, while Mike held onto the sofa cushion with all the force he had, grinding his teeth.
With the boundless confidence that came from being the tallest and most popular boy in the school, John threw an arm over her shoulder and escorted her to the kitchen. "You look beautiful, by the way," he told her, and she stared at him, not sure how to respond. She glanced back at Mike and the look in his eyes now almost frightened her, it was so unfamiliar. She didn't know how to process it.
"Do you want something to drink?" John asked. She nodded and he handed her a cup filled with dark brown liquid. It looked like Pepsi, but when she took a sip it was incredibly bitter. She immediately spit it back into the cup, gagging.
John looked amused. "I guess you don't like beer, huh?"
She shook her head, grimacing.
"Sorry about that, I should have warned you," he said. He pulled a can of 7-Up from the fridge and handed it to her. She took a cautious sip, but then she smiled at the sweet taste.
"Better?" he asked, and she nodded.
He smiled. "Good."
Sylvia ran over and grabbed El by the hand. "Oh my god, you have to come dance with me, El! I love this song!" she squealed, pulling El over to the impromptu dance floor in John's living room.
The phone rings in the middle of the night,
My father yells, "Whatcha gonna do with your life?"
Oh daddy dear, you know you're still number one,
but girls, they wanna have fun…
Sylvia knew all the words and sang along with abandon, twirling El around as they danced. By the third chorus, El had caught on to the gist of the lyrics, mouthing the words quietly as she swayed back and forth.
When the working day is done
Girls just wanna have fun
They just wanna, they just wanna…
By the time the final instrumentals faded out, El and Sylvia were out of breath, panting and giggling hysterically. El felt a peculiar kind of joy bubbling up from her heart and she knew she never wanted to forget this moment, as ordinary as it might have seemed to most.
A new song came on, slower and softer, and Sylvia looked down at the ground, her face turning pink. "This song is so romantic," she sighed to no one in particular. "I wish I had someone to slow-dance with."
Slow-dance. El remembered that word. Quickly, she sent a message to Mike. Dustin should slow-dance with Sylvia, she told him.
Mike nudged Dustin. "Hey man, El says you should go dance with Sylvia."
Dustin blanched. "No way."
Mike rolled his eyes. "You spent all that effort convincing El to help you out, and now you aren't even going to take her advice?"
"I'll take her advice when it isn't insane," Dustin objected. "I can't just go up to Sylvia and ask her…"
"Hey Dustin," a voice from behind them called. Dustin turned around, immediately blushing red. Sylvia was smiling at him, her hand extended. "Do you want to dance?" she asked.
"O… okay," he managed to stutter, following behind her with an expression like he'd been struck by lightning.
Mike watched with a grin as Sylvia swayed with Dustin on the dance floor, putting her arms around his neck. Dustin stood there awkwardly for a moment or two before finally placing his hands hesitantly on her waist.
Good for them, Mike thought. He noticed El hanging to the side of the dance floor, now without a partner. He began to make his way towards her, trying to ignore the rush of nerves he felt when they locked eyes.
Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one headed towards El. John Hampton got to her first, and the sight of him whispering in El's ear made Mike's blood boil. He stood stock-still as he watched John pull El towards him and begin to slow dance.
Mike didn't know what to do. He thought El looked a little uncomfortable, but he couldn't be sure, and as much as he wanted to go over and demand that John take his hands off El right that moment, he didn't want to make a fool of himself if it turned out this was what El wanted.
Was this what El wanted? Mike felt like throwing up.
Meanwhile, El was trying to understand why her friend John was trying to slow dance with her. Slow dances were for crushes, not just-friends, right? That was what she had assumed. But it wouldn't make any sense for John to have a crush on her. So why was he slow-dancing?
She looked around the room, wondering if Mike could help explain, but when she finally spotted him he was putting on his coat and walking out the door, his head down. Quickly she pulled away from John and rushed through the crowd to follow him.
"Mike, wait!" she called when they were both outside. "Where are you going?"
Mike looked at her in surprise, then he frowned. "I'm going home," he muttered.
"Why?" she asked, bewildered.
"I'm just… tired," he lied. "This party is boring."
"Oh," she said, disappointed. "I like it."
He smiled sadly at her. "I'm glad, El. You should stay. Don't worry about me - I'll be fine."
"Okay…" she said, surprised.
"Hey Ella!" John called out the front door. "We're gonna play a game in the basement, come on!"
"Bye, El," Mike murmured as he hopped on his bike and pedaled away. El stared at his receding form for several minutes before turning to rejoin the party.
