December 26, 1984
"Are you sure?" El asked biting her lip worriedly as she looked up at Mike's house, the colorful Christmas lights catching in the gray sunlight.
"It's going to be fine," Mike said his breath fogging up in the air like her own, "It's not the first time you've been to my house after all."
"But it's the first time I'm meeting your parents."
"So?" Mike asked, not understanding why she was so nervous.
"What if they think I'm weird?" El asked.
Mike made a face, "They already think I'm weird so you'll be normal compared to me," Mike said and saw the little smile playing on her lips at his words. "Plus, even if they do it just means your cooler than everyone else," he said and opened the door pulling her into the warmth of his house.
"Mom I have someone for you to meet," Mike called out taking off his jacket and hung it up with the others on the rack before he helped El with her's.
"I'm in the kitchen," they heard her call out.
El followed after Mike as they stepped into the clean kitchen.
"Mike what were you shouting about-" his mom started as she turned away from the stove but cut herself off when she saw El.
"Oh hello," she said, surprise in her voice as she looked down and Mike realized he was still holding her hand.
He quickly pulled away from his hand, his cheeks burning, "Mom this is El. She just moved here to live with Hopper."
"Well, it's nice to meet you El. I hadn't heard of anyone moving in, " his mom said, confused but still put a smile on all the same.
"I'm his niece," El said and quickly told her cover story and Mike's mom's eyes softened.
"I'm sorry to hear about your mother, I'll have to bring a casserole over but I'm happy to hear that you'll be taken care of. Hopper is a good man."
El nodded, a shy smile on her pale face.
"Hey Mike, Dustin is looking for you," Nancy said coming into the kitchen but stopped when she saw El, a little surprised.
"Nancy this is Mike's…Friend?" his mom said unsure.
"It's nice to meet you El," Nancy said hiding her smile as she shook her hand.
"Will you be staying for dinner?" Mike's mom asked.
"No, my curfew is at six," El answered, "Hopper will be picking me up."
"Mike!" Dustin called from downstairs.
"Gotta go," Mike said and without thinking grabbed El's hand and pulled her down the basement stairs.
Mike's mom looked after them a moment with a raised eyebrow.
"Was that a girl?"
Mrs. Wheeler turned to find her husband drinking a cup of coffee looking after his son.
"I'm going to take a bath," she said tiredly rolling her eyes at her husband's bluntness.
"There you are," Dustin said.
"Took you long enough," Max said from where she was sitting next to Will and Lucas.
"Hey it's not my fault my mom talks a lot," Mike said leading El over to a chair and she saw that wrapped gifts sat next to it.
"Sit down," Mike said taking a spot next to the others.
El did as she was told and sat, finding everyone looking at her. "What's going on?" she asked slowly, looking at them.
"What do you mean?" Max asked, "It's Christmas!"
"You do know what Christmas is right?" Lucas asked.
"I know," El said, "It's a day where people give each other gifts and eat too much."
"Well, you're missing some info there but close enough," Dustin said as he got up and grabbed some boxes and handed them to her.
She looked down at them then back at her friends, "I didn't get you guys anything."
"Don't worry about that," Mike said, "It's your first Christmas with us after all."
"Yeah and you can just make up for it next year," Lucas said.
"LUCAS!" Max said and hit him in the arm, giving him a look of death before she shook her head and looked at El, "Here open mine first."
Max reached out and handed her a box wrapped in green.
El unwrapped it and found a small box of something called nail polish.
"What is it?" El asked looking up at her.
"You use it to paint your nails," Max said, "I'll show you later."
"Thanks," El said a little confused as to why someone would want to put paint on their nails, but it was nice all the same.
She opened one gift after another. Dustin gave her a few books that he himself enjoyed. Will gave her art supplies and Lucas gave her some comics about people called the X-Men.
"Thank you all so much," El said.
"Now it's just Mike left," Max said looking at him.
"Don't you guys want to start setting up D&D or something," Mike said and El saw that his cheeks had turned pink.
"We're not missing this for anything," Lucas said.
Mike rolled his eyes but handed her a small box.
She unwrapped it to find a cassette tape marked with "El's mixtape."
"What's a mixtape?" El asked.
"It's a tape with songs I thought you would like," Mike answered.
"What kind of songs?" El asked.
"You'll just have to listen and see," Mike said.
El smiled down at the little tape excited to see what was waiting on it.
"Can we play D&D now? Will asked.
"Yeah," Mike said and got up going over to the table that held they're bored.
"Want me to paint your nails," Max asked.
El nodded still holding on to the tape.
For the next two hours, she listened to the guys play D&D as Max painted her fingernails. El hadn't been about to decide which color she had wanted, they there all so colorful, so Max had told her she could wear all of them if she wanted.
When Max had told her that she was so surprised. "I can really do that?"
Max looked at her a little confused, "Of course you can, it's your nails you can do whatever you want with them."
El watched amazed as Max finished painting the last nail, her hands now a rainbow of color. Neon Blue, Yellow, Pink, Green, and Purple.
"Now for the best part," Max said, grabbing a bottle of silver glitter and a piece of paper.
"What is glitter?" El asked never seeing it herself before now.
"It added a little spark to the look," Max answered, motioning for her to put her hands on the paper.
El did as she was told and watched as Max poured a little onto her nails, the glitter falling like stars in the night. She had never seen anything as pretty as it when it caught in the light.
"There you go," Max said, putting the lid on the bottle. "What do you think?"
El looked at her hands a moment, never having this much color on her hands before now. She looked back up to her. "I love that them. Thank you, Max."
Max looked a little surprised at her words, maybe because they never really talked to one another before, or even hunged out like this before.
"Of course," Max said, putting that nail polish.
"El want to learn to play D&D?" Will asked.
"Sure," El said, Getting up from the floor where she and Max had been sitting.
She started for the table right as the door to the basement opened and saw Mrs. Wheeler standing there.
"El, Hopper is here to pick you up."
"Oh," she and looked over at her friends, "That was fast."
They made their way into the living room, Mikes's hand in her own.
"I'll see you tomorrow okay, I'm having a Christmas movie marathon, there will be popcorn, soda, eggo waffles."
El smiled at his words, it was an amazing feeling to know that she could see her friends every day if she wanted now. No more hiding, no more lying. She wasn't going anywhere ever again.
"I'll see tomorrow," El said haring as Hopper honked the horn.
She made her way and jumped int the waiting truck and a moment later they were off.
She looked back a second and saw her friends waving at her from the window and she couldn't hide her bright smile.
"So you had fun I see," Hopper said.
"Yeah," El said watching the snowy world pass them by, "Max did my nails and tomorrow mike's having a movie marathon."
"That's fun, but I think the games i got you were better."
She smiled at his words, e was always trying to be the best dad ever but what he didn't know is that he didn't have too, he was already the best father figure everyone could have ever wished for.
They pulled into the cabin's driveway and they both made their way through the snow and into the warmth.
"I'll start dinner," Hopper said, "Go put your new gifts up."
El happy did as she was told, she closed the door to her room and went over to her peach pink radio and poped in the tape and hit play.
There was a moment of static before the voice of Neil Diamond. She sat back on her bed as the song played out.
Summer love
They call it summer love
But oh, how it feels
And I don't believe make-believe
But I was a lonely boy
And you were a lonely girl
And we're together tonight
Summer love made it right
Summer love
They called it summer love
But somehow it's real
Could see by that look in your eyes
That you were a lonely girl
And I was a lonely boy
And when the evening was done
Summer love made us one.
El couldn't help but smile, wondering what she would be doing this summer. Most likely spending it with Mike and her friends the whole time. What could there be to do? Nothing else would be better than to be with them before she started school in the fall. But it's not like it matted now, after all, she would have so many summers with them now that everything was normal in the little town of Hawkins.