AN: Welcome to the second chapter. I'm glad people seem to be enjoying this story. Please leave a review and tell me some missing moments you would like to see. Alright, so we all know what's coming in this chapter, the dreaded break up. But, I was very curious what El was thinking throughout the majority of the episode. Hope you enjoy!

El looked at the clock again, it was after 9, where was Mike? Becoming restless she went out on the porch to look around. Maybe she would see him coming on his bike through the woods. She paced around and when there was no sign of him, she began to worry.

What if he fell off his bike and got hurt? What if he's sick? She thought to herself. She continued to pace the porch becoming more and more frightened by the minute.

At his house, Mike was also pacing back and forth in his basement. He anxiously waited for the phone to ring. He secretly wished El wouldn't call, and that she wouldn't notice he wasn't there, but he knew that would never happen. Part of him thinks he should have called her first, but he chickened out. He hated having to lie to El, friends don't lie! But he knew he had to because Hop's a maniac who hates joy.

The phone ringing brought him back to reality. He knew his mother would pick up the phone, then he heard her yelling his name. His palms began to sweat as he picked up the phone.

"Hello," He answered.

As soon as El heard his voice she breathed a sigh of relief, he was okay.

"It's nine thirty-two where are you?" She asked.

"Sorry I…I was just about to call," Mike stammered. "I um…can't see you today."

El's heart sank a little. "Why not?"

"It's my Nana," Mike said confident in his lie that technically Hopper thought of. "She's very sick"

"But... Hop said that your Nana was okay," El explained very confused. "That it was a false alarm."

Mike wanted to punch the wall. Of course, Hop would say everything was fine, El would have been worried sick when he returned to the cabin. Why was he so stupid!

"Yeah, that's what we thought it was… at first," Mike stumbled through his lie. "She took a real turn for the worst."

"Oh," El said feeling bad that someone in Mikes family wasn't doing well.

"Yeah," Mike said then thought he would make it sound a little worse. "We think she might….die."

"What!?" A new voice sounded through the phone.

No! This could not get any worse! Mike thought to himself. His mother had been listening to his whole conversation. Mike quickly held his hand over the receiver.

"MOM GET OFF THE PHONE!" He screamed. "HOW MANY TIMES!?"

Even with his hand on the receiver, El could hear Mike and he yelled to Mrs. Wheeler. She was so confused.

"DID NANA CALL!?" Karen yelled both into the phone and downstairs to Mike.

"NO MOM," Mike pleaded desperately. "JUST GET OFF THE PHONE!"

Karen was confused and slightly embarrassed as she hung up the receiver.

Mike wanted to die right then and there. He knew there was no way El was going to believe him now. He was toast.

"Sorry about that," He nervously laughed.

"Was that your mom?" El asked even though she already knew the answer.

Now she was suspicious. If Mikes Nana was really sick, his mom would know about it. He was lying to her.

"Yeah she's so upset she's making so sense," Mike said attempting to gain control of his story. "Because we have to go to the nursing home…to see Nana."

El pondered this for a moment. Maybe Mike was making up an excuse because he had something to do today. She wasn't sure why he didn't just tell her instead of lying.

"You can come over after?" El tried to compromise.

"No!" Mike said too quickly. "I mean…I just think I need to be alone today….with my….feelings?"

Mike was a terrible liar, El didn't know what was happening but she was not pleased.

"Do you lie?" She asked frustrated.

She was giving him a chance to come clean and tell her exactly what was going on.

"What? No!" Mike said trying to sound convincing. "Friends don't lie."

Mike knew that she could see through his lie and decided he had to get off the phone as fast as possible. He put his hand over the receiver again.

"What mom?" He yelled to no one. "My moms calling me, better go, talk to you tomorrow, miss you already bye."

And with that, he hung up the phone.

El stood in her room, phone to her ear, wondering what just happened. Why would Mike lie to her like this?!

Mike hit his head against the phone a few times. That could not have gone any worse. He should have just told El what happened with Hop.

"Ughhhh," Mike groaned as he sat on the sofa, head in his hands.

"Michael!" Mrs. Wheeler called as she walked down the stairs.

"Not now Mom," Mike groaned.

"Why are you lying to that poor girl?" Mrs. Wheeler asked with her hands on her hips. "I taught you better than that."

"Mom you don't understand," Mike said. "It's complicated."

"Well that was very rude of you to lie about Nana like that," She said gently seeing that her son was going through something.

"It's also rude to eavesdrop!" Mike exclaimed.

Karen turned red with embarrassment, "I know and I'm sorry."

Mike still had his head in his hands, Karen could see he was upset but didn't want to push him.

"She's a sweet girl Mike," Karen said gently as she turned to walk up the stairs. "You can fix this."

"I'll try mom," Mike sighed.

Karen headed upstairs to finish packing for the pool. She had met this girl that Mike has become so smitten with a few times. She was pretty, shy and sweet. She hoped her son would come to his senses and fix his mistakes.


Once Hopper had left for work El decided she needed advice and she knew exactly who to go to. She was a little nervous because although she and Max were friends, they had never hung out just the two girls. El walked quickly over to Max's house, still full of anger after her conversation with Mike.

She found Max outside on her skateboard as usual. The board got away from her and began gliding towards El. She stepped on the edge and caught the board the way she had seen Max do it many times.

Max looked at the shy girl with confusion. She looked angry and she hoped El wasn't angry with her.

"Hi," El said softening slightly.

"Hi?" Max said unsure where this conversation was going.

"Can we talk?" El asked shyly.

"Sure," Max said. "Come with me."

She led El silently into her house (no one was home), and into her bedroom. She and El sat on the bed for a moment, neither girl knowing what to say.

"So…" Max said awkwardly. "What's up?"

"I need boyfriend advice," El said biting her lip. "I thought you might be able to help."

"Oh boy," Max laughed. "Trouble in paradise?"

"What?" El looked confused and Max realized she didn't understand her turn of phrase.

"I just mean did you and Mike have a fight?" The redhead asked.

"I'm not sure," El said furrowing her brow.

"Alright," Max said standing up. "Start from the beginning and tell me what happened."

"Well," El said taking a deep breath. "He didn't show up to the cabin this morning. I got worried and called his house. He picked up and said his Nana was sick. I asked if he could come over after and he said he had to be alone with his feelings?"

"Idiot," Max muttered under her breath.

"Then his mom was on the phone and she was confused, and Mike told her to get off the phone," El rambled. "I asked him if he was lying and he said no."

Max paced the length of her room as she listened to El's story.

"And then he said he missed me and then he just hung up," El concluded.

"He's a piece of shit," Max accused.

"What?" El was shocked to hear someone describe Mike like that, unless they were teasing as the boys often do.

"Mike doesn't have jack shit to do today and his Nana obviously isn't sick," Max exclaimed. "I guarantee you him and Lucas are playing Atari right now."

"But friends don't lie," El said.

She hoped if she came and talked with Max, she would reassure El that she misunderstood, and everything was fine. She did not want to believe that Mike and lied to her. One of the first things Mike taught her was that friends don't lie.

"Yeah well boyfriends lie," Max explained. "All….the….time."

El didn't want to believe it. But in her heart, she knew Mike's story didn't make sense. She wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he had a good reason for lying?

"So….what do I do?" El asked sadly.

Max sat on the bed with El, she had a game plan ready. She had done this many times with Lucas.

"You're going to stop calling him, you're going to ignore his called," Max explained. "As far as your concerned he doesn't exist."

"Doesn't exist?" El asked.

El couldn't imagine ignoring Mike this way. But, she was swayed by the fact that Max was more experienced than her when it came to boyfriends.

"He treated you like garbage, you're going to treat him like garbage," Max smiled. "Give him a taste of his own medicine."

"Give him the medicine," El repeated trying to remember all this new information.

"umm hmm," Max nodded approvingly. "And if he doesn't fix this, if he doesn't explain himself, dump his ass."

El looked at Max with wide eyes. She had witnessed Max dump Lucas many times, but they always got back together eventually. She had also seen people "get dumped" on all the tv shows she watched in the cabin.

Max could sense the shy girl's heartbreak. She decided to put a plan in motion.

"Come on," Max said taking El's hands.

"Where are we going?" El asked curiously.

"To have some fun," Max laughed. "There more to life then stupid boys you know."

El gave a small smile and she followed Max down the street towards a bus stop.

"We're going to wait here and the bus will pick us up soon," Max explained as they sat on the bench. "Have you ever been on a bus?"

"Yes," El said simply. Her mind wandered back to when she was in Chicago with her sister Kali. She took a bus home when she realized Hop and her friends were in trouble.

El look warry of getting on the bus but Max patted her on the back.

"It's going to be fun," She smiled. "Trust me."

When they took their seats on the bus Max began getting excited. She had never really had close friends who were girls. She loved the guys but having girl time was important too.

It wasn't a very long trip, the girls got off the bus and El looked up at the giant mall.

"So what do you think?" Max asked excitedly.

El didn't respond she looked around at the crowds of people nervously.

"What's wrong?" Max asked.

"Too many people," El said as her eyes darted around. "Against the rules."

"Seriously?" Max whispered. "You have superpowers, what's the worst that could happen?"

El thought about it for a moment. Hop would say it was too dangerous and someone might recognize her. She looked back at Max, she enjoyed Max's go with the flow attitude. She was the first person to say "whatever" to the rules that people had laid out for Eleven.

She felt herself getting excited with this idea of breaking the rules and having fun. She smirked and nodded her head to Max.

"Let's go," She smiled as Max took her hand and lead her into the mall.

Once inside El couldn't believe her eyes. This place was huge! There were two levels, people everywhere and too many stores for her to count. She had never seen so much, she couldn't stop turning herself to take it all in.

"What should we do first?" Max asked.

El had no idea how to respond, she was too overwhelmed with choice.

"You've never been shopping before have you?" Max asked knowingly.

El just shook her head no. Max felt a little sad that El had such a sheltered life. But she was excited that she was going to be the person to let her experience it for the first time.

"Well I guess we're just going to have to try everything," She laughed. "Ooo come on,"

Max grabbed El's hand again and lead her to the Gap. El loved all the colors and different styles she saw in the store. She had never seen so many items of clothing in one place. She couldn't help but touch everything to see how it felt.

She looked up at a blue polo shirt on one of the displays.

"Do you like that?" Max asked once she caught El's gaze.

El was about to respond when she frowned and turned to her friend.

"How do I know," El started slowly. "What I like?"

"You just try things on," Max shrugged. "Until you find something that feels like you."

"Like me?" El said whipping her head around to Max in disbelief.

No one had ever asked Eleven what she liked when it came to clothes. Ever since she could remember in the lab she wore what was given to her. Then Mike gave her his spare clothes, and then Hopper couldn't exactly take her shopping when she was hiding in the cabin. He tried his best and for that El was grateful.

"Yeah," Max smiled. "Not Hopper, not Mike, you."

El grew excited by the new possibility of choosing anything to wear.

"I want to try," She smiled picking up one of the blue polo shirts.

"Let me see if it's your size," Max said looking closely at the tag. "You'd probably be a small."

El nodded her head as she watched Max show her where the sizes were on the tag.

"We're good," Max smiled showing El the "S" on the tag. "What else?"

Enthused by her newfound freedom El and Max ran around the store gathering a large pile of clothes that El found interesting.

"Ok," Max said leading El over to the changing areas. "Go in here and you can change, once you finished putting on an outfit you can come out and look in the mirror so I can see."

"Ok," El nodded taking her pile of clothes into the dressing room and closing the curtain. Privacy, as Mike taught her on the first night they met.

El decided to start with the blue polo and some yellow pants she found fun. They had these strange elastic things which El wasn't sure what to do with.

She slowly came out of the dressing room, when she spotted Max by the full-length mirror she went over to her.

"Here let me help," Max said helping her to put the suspenders over her shoulders.

El walked closer to the mirror and looked at herself in awe.

"Here I found this to go with it," Max said handing her a flat yellow hat.

El placed it near the top of her forehead and Max laughed.

"No no," She giggled and placed it on the top of El's head. "Here."

"What do you think?" She asked as El stared into the mirror.

"It's fun," El laughed as she pulled the suspenders away from herself. She let them go with a snap and both girls broke out into laughter.

"Okay next outfit," Max smiled as she pushed El back into the dressing room.

El decided to try on a white baggy shirt/ skirt combo. It had fun blue, yellow and red splatter print on it.

Feeling more confident in this game of trying things on, she bounced out from the dressing room to show Max.

"This is fun," El said spinning around in the mirror.

"I like it!" Max said commenting on the outfit. "Here let's try a belt it will accentuate your waist."

She went over to a display and chose both a red and yellow wide belt. She came back and held them up to El in the mirror.

"Which do you like better?" she asked.

"Hmm," El pondered looking into the mirror. "This one."

Max helped her fasten the yellow belt around her waist.

"It looks good!" Max smiled as El continued to spin around in the mirror.

El enjoyed how the skirt moved while she moved.

Max joined in my turning El around by her shoulders until she became too dizzy and fell into Max.

"Alright enough spinning," Max laughed. "what's next?"

El made her way back to the dressing room, she had one outfit left. A black romper with some fun neon designs.

When she came out of the dressing room Max was looking in the mirror while trying on sunglasses. When she saw El behind her she spun around quickly.

"You look amazing!" Max smiled.

El turned to look at herself in the mirror. She saw one of the girls in the store tossing her hair in different ways. She decided to try it. She flipped her hair over so it was parted on the side instead of the middle. It gave her hair some more volume.

"I like," El smiled.

"Perfect!" Max said. "Which sunglasses do you like better I can't decide."

"These," She held up and white and blue pair, then a red pair. "Or these."

"I think the red," El agreed.

"It's settled," Max smiled. "Go get your clothes, you can wear the romper out once we pay for it."

"No," El said. "I don't have any money."

She was having fun trying on the clothes, she didn't need to buy them now. She would ask Hopper another time.

"It's okay," Max said simply. "I have all my holiday money saved up, my gift to you."

"Really?" El asked unsure.

She felt bad that Max wanted to spend her money on her. But she really did like the romper, it was the first piece of clothing that felt like her.

"I want to," Max assured her as they went to the register. "It's what friends are for."

El smiled at the term friends. She liked hanging out with Max, doing girl things and getting to know her better.

Once they paid El became even more excited to explore the rest of the mall. She grabbed Max's arm and the girls made their way out of the store. They walked arm and arm, El practically bouncing with excitement.

"What now?" El asked.

Max looked around trying to think of what to do. Suddenly she caught sight of the photo studio.

"I have an idea," Max laughed talking El's hand and running across the mall.

"What is this place?" El asked.

"It's a photo studio," Max explained. "You dressed up in these over the top outfits and they take your picture."

El was intrigued by all the photos displayed around the room. Mostly girls dressed in shiny clothes, lots of jewelry and fun accessories.

"My aunt gave me a gift certificate for a photo session," Max explained. "I never really wanted to do it but I thought maybe it would be fun to do it together…..you know…if you want."

El turned to look at Max who was unsure of what the response would be.

"Fun," El nodded in agreement.

"Can I help you, ladies?" A man with curly hair and a tie asked at the counter.

"I have this gift certificate for one of the photo sessions," Max said handing it to the man.

"Fantastic," The man said leading the girls over to the set up with all the costumes and backdrops.

"Pick anything you like," The man said getting his camera set up.

"Come on," Max said leading El over to the wardrobe. "What should we wear first?"

El picked up two shiny metallic blouses and handed one to Max. "These?"

"Yes!" Max smiled putting it on over her shirt. "And these!"

She held up two shiny headbands with flowers on them. The girls continued to add accessories until they had white gloves, earrings and a bunch of pearl necklaces.

"You look fabulous," The photographer said.

He had the girls stand in front of a neon splatter backdrop.

Max tried to explain to El how they should pose. El thought back to the girls in the display photos out front, and copied their poses.

The girls giggled their way through the photoshoot. Stopping only to change up the shirts they were wearing.

"We will send the photos to your address when they are ready," The receptionist told Max when they were finished.

"That was fun," El laughed as Max lead her to the next destination.

"In here," Max said as they entered a shoe store.

"Wow," El exclaimed as she looked around at all the different shoes.

"How does anyone walk in these?" Max asked.

El turned to find Max holding a pair of stiletto high heel shoes.

"Don't know," She said with wide eyes.

"Mom tried to put me in a shorter pair once," Max laughed. "It did not go well; I almost rolled my ankle."

El looked over at a small pair of multi-color heels.

"You should try them on," Max smiled. "Have you ever worn heels before?'

El shook her head. She had seen very pretty ladies walk so confidently in them on TV but El couldn't quite figure it out.

"I'll help you," Max said as El put the shoes on over her socked feet.

She stood like a baby deer and began to take a few cautious steps. Max held her arm for support, trying not to laugh as she went along.

Suddenly El caught the toe of the shoe behind her ankle and fell forward. Both girls began a fit of laughter. It wasn't until Max helped El up that they noticed a group of girls staring and rolling their eyes at them.

"Ignore them," Max laughed turning El away. "Those girls are bitches anyway."

"Bitches?" El asked as she put her shoes back on and they left the store.

"They aren't very nice," Max explained. "That's Stacy and her friends. Dustin tried to ask Stacy to dance at the snowball and she was so mean about it."

El remembered Dustin saying how hurt he was by that, but then he got to dance with Nancy. El turned back to look at the girl again.

"Give her the medicine?" El asked with a sly smile.

"What?" Max asked, then understood what El was talking about, she wanted to get revenge on Stacy for Dustin. "But how?"

"Leave it to me," El smiled.

The girls walked around the food court for a while until they saw Stacy and her friends with a cute boy. Max followed El as she hid around the corner from the girls.

"Watch this," El smiled as she focused on Stacy and the drink in her hand. With a flick of her head, Stacy's drink exploded everywhere!

El and Max jumped in surprise. Stacy's face was priceless.

"Let's go!"

"See what did I tell you?" Max giggled as they ran to the ice cream shop. "There's more to life then-"

"Stupid boys," El joined in.

And at this moment she believed it, she was having a great time without the boys. She was getting to do all kinds of things she never had before.

"Want some ice cream before we leave?" Max asked.

"Yes," El nodded eagerly.

When they walked up to the register Steve was working.

"Can I have a scoop of strawberry please?" Max ordered then looked to El.

"Vanilla please," She said.

"With whipped cream," Max added for her.

"And sprinkles," El giggled.

"Coming right up," Steve said as he went over to talk to his co-worker.

"Have a good day?" Max asked El as they waited.

"Yes," She smiled. "Thank you, Max."

"Of course," She smiled shyly. "It's been really fun."

"Here you go," Steve said bringing over two ice cream cones.

"Thanks," The girls replied while taking their first few licks.

"Wait for a second," Steve said looking at El with a confused expression. "Are you even allowed to be here?"

The girls just looked at one another and giggled as they ran out of the store.

"ugh okay," Steve said to himself.

"Okay let's go out and wait for the bus," Max said as they headed for the entrance to the mall. "Want to trade?"

El smiled and gave her ice cream to Max. As she began to enjoy the rich strawberry flavor, she saw a look of disbelief on Max's face.

"Oh, you've got to be shitting me," Max said.

When El turned to look in the same direction her heart sank. It was Lucas, Will, and Mike. Max had been right; his Nana wasn't sick and they had been at the mall all day too. Max began to walk over to the boys and El followed. She could feel the hurt and anger rising and making her face feel hot.

"Well isn't this a nice surprise," Max said as the boys stopped with wide eyes on El.

Mike dropped his bike and stared El dead in the eyes.

"What…are you doing here," He said pointing at his girlfriend.

"Shopping," El said in a sassy voice as if it wasn't obvious.

"This is her new style," Max said with a smirk. "What do you think?"

"What's wrong with you?" Mike said getting frustrated with the redhead in front of him. "You know she's not allowed to be here."

"What is she your little pet?" Max asked.

A pet was something you kept in the house all the time, that's what it felt like everyone was trying to do to El with all their rules.

"Yeah," El agreed. "Am I your pet?"

"What?" Mike exclaimed. "No!"

He had no idea where this was coming from, El never said anything like this before. He knew it was all Max.

"Then why do you treat me like garbage?' She said getting frustrated with all Mikes lies.

"What?" Mike asked confused.

"You said Nana was sick," El said.

"She is! She is….she is sick," He said looking to Lucas for support.

"She's super sick," Lucas agreed. "That's why we're here actually,"

"Yeah yeah were shopping not for us but for her….for Nana," Mike stuttered.

"For Nana!" Lucas cried.

El couldn't believe that Mike was sticking to this lie. She knew it wasn't true and it hurt her that he would treat her this way. Friends don't lie!

"Also we're here to get a gift for you," Mike sighed. "But we couldn't find anything that suited you and I only have like three dollars and fifty cents so it's hard."

"Super hard," Lucas agreed. "It's expensive."

El softened a bit at Mikes the last statement, that she believed. It was the first truthful thing he said all day. She decided to give him one last chance, to tell the truth.

"You lie," She said slowly. "Why do you lie?

Mike looked at El, unsure of what to say. El's heart hurt as he remained silent, determined to stick to his lie. Suddenly El heard the bus stop and she knew that she had to get on it to make it home before Hop.

She turned back to look at Max then at Mike. She could hear Max's words in her head from earlier.

"If he doesn't fix this if he doesn't explain himself… dump his ass."

El took a deep breath and walked closer to Mike. Max was right; he wasn't being nice, treating her like garbage and it was time to give him the medicine.

"I dump your ass," She spat the words out like a bitter taste.

Mike was taken aback by her words, they didn't match the pain in her eyes. He stared down at her confused as if he didn't hear her.

Max couldn't believe her ears; she had taught El well.

And with that El spun on her heels and headed back to the bus, Max following behind her. Mike continued to rack his brain to figure out what just happened.

The girls were silent until they got on the bus and sat down. Max turned to El and gave her a high five as they both giggled.

"That was amazing," Max said. "Way to give him a taste of his own medicine."

On the curb, Mike looked on as the bus pulled away and down the road. He wasn't even listening to Lucas and Will argue about D &D. He felt so stupid. How could he keep his lie going this long, she knew he was lying and now she dumped him. He was sad but angry because he knew it was Max's fault for giving El all these new ideas, and he hated it. What was he supposed to do now?

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Sorry, it took a little while, I've been away. I hope I did the shopping trip justice. Review and let me know what else you'd like to see. Thanks!