JANUARY 3 1985

It was another day with El… in her room… with the door opened at least three inches...

Mike had arrived late, but better than never as it was 6:21 PM now. Hopper was sitting in his recliner; he could basically hear anything important that they might be doing.

They were cuddling, with El resting her head on his shoulder as he held his arm around her. Mike was tired from helping his parents clean out the garage. He had to visit El to get that bubbly feeling on a terrible day.

"Mike…"

"Yeah?"

"I want to learn more about your body part. What is it called again? Penus?"

Mike's eyes widened as he looked at the door, hoping Hopper didn't hear her.

"We really can't talk about this right now, El. Jesus. Hopper could hear us!" Mike whispered.

"Is penis bad?" El casually asked.

"El, please shut up!" Mike whispered again, getting more and more irritated the more she says the P word.

"I didn't know it was bad to say that word!" El felt bad about irritating Mike. He never told her to shut up before.

"I'm sorry, El. I… My body part and your body parts are not important right now. That's grown up stuff. So we really shouldn't talk about that. Plus, if Hopper hears that I've been talking to you about my penis, he might actually kill me," Mike whispered, hoping El would get the message.

"OK. I'm sorry too," El nodded her head and smiled.

They enjoyed the silence, knowing they couldn't talk about much without Hopper hearing them. Mike was the bad boy a couple days ago, but actually having someone potentially listening in on personal conversations is hard to get used to.

"El."

"Yeah?"

"Maybe some time I can bring a tennis ball over. We can go outside and throw it against the cabin and try to catch it when it comes back to us. No cheating with your powers though," Mike said, making El laugh.

"I miss the outside. I miss our friends," El said, getting sadder by the moment.

"I know…"

"No, Mike….. I don't think you do know," El kissed Mike's neck, trying to balance her sadness.

"For over a year, most of my time has been spent sitting in this cabin, thinking about what I'm gonna do in the real world if I can get out of here. I'm scared, Mike. The more I think, the more terrifying the idea becomes. What if I'm not meant for the real world? What if… I'm just a freak experiment gone wrong that should stay away from everyone?" El said as she started to cry.

Mike embraced her with a hug, wanting the crying to stop immediately or else he would start crying.

"No…. El….. You're not a freak. You're awesome. You've saved the world. Not many people can say that?" Mike replied, but it was not enough to stop El from crying.

"I don't want to save the world. I want to be a normal kid," El was bawling her eyes out now.

The crying got so loud that Hopper could hear it over the TV playing. He walked to her door and opened it all the way to find the scene.

"What's going on? What did you do to El?" Hopper asked Mike, thinking Mike must of said something that crossed the line.

"What did I do? More like look at what you're doing!" Mike fired back with uncontrollable anger.

Still crying, El decided to jump in to the conversation.

"Mike, please don't…"

Mike took her words to heart. He couldn't yell at Hopper in front of her, knowing it would only make things worse.

"Let's go outside," Mike said to Hopper.

Hopper nodded his head and they both walked outside, getting a good distance away from the cabin so El couldn't hear. They stood face to face. Well, Mike had to look up at him but he wasn't intimidated at the moment. He was fighting for El's freedom.

"Look, man, you and I both know this isn't gonna work," Mike said.

"Is that how you talk to your elders? Look, man? So disrespectful!"

"Maybe I am being disrespectful, but the fact is you and I both know she doesn't deserve this. The more she stays in this cabin, the worse her depression will get. Let her go outside and talk to her friends!" Mike demanded.

"You know that's impossible, Mike!" Hopper said, understandably not wanting to risk her safety.

"Bullshit! She's mentally breaking down from living in a tiny wooden house in the middle of nowhere all day! She doesn't deserve this!" Mike sounded hurt the more he talked about her pain.

"YOU THINK I WANT HER TO BE SAD?!" Hopper snapped, his face turning red.

Mike initially jumped back when hearing Hopper abruptly yell.

"I FUCKING LOVE THAT KID! I LOVE HER SO MUCH, AND IT PAINS ME TO SEE HER LIKE THAT! BUT SOMEONE HAS TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR HER AND TRUST ME WHEN I SAY, IT'S NOT EASY!"

Mike was stunned. He was speechless.

"YOU THINK YOU KNOW WHAT'S BEST FOR HER CAUSE YOU'RE HER LITTLE BOYFRIEND?! WELL COME ON. TELL ME. WHAT SHOULD SHE DO?!" Hopper challenged Mike to come up with a solution.

Initially being speechless, Mike was put on the spot and started thinking about anything that she could do that wouldn't put her in jeopardy.

"OK…...Just…….. Just……… Just let her get out. We won't take her to any public places with a lot of people. Hawkins is usually empty in a lot of areas anyway. Just please, let her feel what it's like to be a normal kid. Because it hurts me to see her cry like that…"

Hopper had both hands on his hips, contemplating whether or not Mike just came up with a good plan.

He did.

Hopper sighed, shaking his head and rubbing his face.

"OK. It's a deal," Hopper agreed.

"Really?!" Mike replied in a shocked tone.

"Yes. But you're not taking her to the arcade, not in any restaurants or businesses, not anywhere near that new mall that they're building, and you better not keep her in the middle of the town for too long so everyone can get a good look at her. You got that?"

"Yeah," Mike said, scratching the back of his head.

"Yeah what?"

Mike huffed, not wanting to treat Hopper with much respect.

"Yeeah… sirrrr," Mike said, almost sounding sarcastic.

"Damn, right. Now let's get back inside before El thinks I killed ya," Hopper joked.

"Yeah, like you could kill me," Mike mumbled.

Hopper turned around immediately.

"What was that?" Hopper asked with a grin.

"Nothing…"

"That's what I thought."

Once they got back inside, El was in her bed looking at her feet. Mike walked back into the room with a big smile and lied down beside her.

"Hey! Got some good news!" Mike said.

El magically started smiling when she looked at Mike.

"I heard," El giggled.

"How did you- ….. Oh. that's right. Powers! How could I forget!" Mike said, slapping his forehead.

"Mike."

"What is it?"

"I'm glad I have you."

"Believe me, I don't know what you would do just having Hopper around!" Mike joked.

"So. When can I go out?" El asked.

"Well, I go back to school tomorrow. Maybe next weekend? Would that be cool?"

"That seems like a long time!" El replied, not knowing if she could make it that far.

"It'll be here before you know it. You better not be a bad girl until then!" Mike teased.

El giggled as she started to lean in and make out with him. Mike felt like he really accomplished something. Making Hopper listen to him was something he thought would never happen. El held on to Mike's cheeks for dear life as she constantly kept smooching his lips. He was smooching back but he couldn't help but think about her actually being outside with the gang again.

Not realizing what he was doing, he moved his hand down her back and instinctively grabbed one of her buttocks.

El stopped engaging in the kissing but still had her lips connected to Mike's. Her eyes opened wide and she began to feel more weird about what he was doing. He was rubbing his hand on her buttocks. He noticed El wasn't kissing back anymore. He broke off the kiss and opened his eyes to find El frozen in a state of shock.

He wondered why she was acting like this, until he looked down and noticed where he had his hand. He quickly removed it from her area and got up, afraid that she might hate him now.

"Oh Geez. Geez, I'm sorry, that wasn't supposed to happen!"

"It's fine, Mike," El said.

"No. That was very inappropriate and it won't happen again!" Mike exclaimed.

El stood up and put her hands on his shoulders.

"I didn't mind. It was… different. But if you don't feel… com-for-ta-ble, then you don't have to do it anymore," El said, then proceeded to kiss Mike's nose.

The kiss on his nose left him stuck with a goofy smile on his face.

"I…. I overreact sometimes. I'm new to this whole relationship thing… and I don't want to seem like I wanna do something that I don't wanna do? Understand maybe?"

"Not really, but you're cute when you're nervous," El laughed, making Mike blush.

Hopper entered the room, causing both of them to turn their heads to him.

"Alright, it's getting late, Mike. Time to go back home. And El, you're doing great with your english but you need to get better at your math," Hopper said.

"I'm trying... "

"I can help her!" Mike insisted with a huge grin.

"Maybe you can but not right now. Alright. Come on. Get moving," Hopper ordered.

"Goodbye, Mike."

"Bye, El," Mike embraced her in a goodbye hug.

"See you this weekend, yeah?" Mike said.

"Yeah. Can't wait," El replied, giving one of those weird looks to Mike that made him go crazy.