Weather or not Martin is Martin Brenner is completely up to you. I didn't want to restrict myself as to what to write to stay in character. So if he is Martin Brenner or just a different old Martin, you decide.
She woke about five minutes ago to the sound of babies kicking off and her mom shouting her name from the stairway. "EL!" then Terry mumbled beneath her breath "For fuck sake" before shouting up again, "EL, Hurry up!". Rolling her eyes, El continued to comb through her shoulder length curtly hair. Her hair used to reach down to her waist but she got strawberry flavoured bubble gum tangled and caught in it and carelessly tied it into a pony tail and chopped off approximately twenty centre meters. It left El's hair a little uneven but she didn't mind, she wasn't ever one to care much about how she looked anyway. That was her moms' job.
"El what the hell you still doing up here? How many times you going to make me call you girl?" Martin yelled at her.
"I didn't hear you" El lied.
"You didn't hear me? I've been calling you for five minutes, your momma needs your help down there."
"I didn't hear you" El repeated but this time with a little more sass. He hit her arm a little to grab her attention.
"Don't you sass me" He warned. "Don't you dare sass me. What? You think just because you're in seventh grade now your all big or something?!" He grabbed the collar of her small outgrown frilly pink shirt she wore under her overalls that she'd bough two years ago and somehow still managed to fit into. Her parents didn't buy her many new things. Sure, they had the money but most of it was spent on her two-year-old twin siblings.
"You think you can speak to me like that? You are in my house now, I am the boss here do you understand that?!" He continued to grow angrier. El trembled.
"Do you!" He screamed while yanking harder on the collar of her shirt.
"Jesus Martin!" Terry yanked him off of her and began stroking her oldest daughter's hair.
"Terry let me handle this!" He screamed.
"She has to get to school!" She shouted back. "You ready to go sweetheart?" She questioned El.
"Yes momma" El replied quickly, standing up and throwing her backpack over her shoulder and making her way out of the room.
"I swear to god that child's out of control" Martin moaned to his wife in annoyance. Terry shook her head then accompanied El out of the door, telling her to have a good first day back at school.
El didn't hold onto feeling sad for two long, she never had. She always saw being upset because of somebody else was like slitting her wrist and expecting the other person to be hurt by it. Two minutes after skipping down the pavement and making her way to the bus stop, she spotted a squirrel and looked up and observed it happily until she heard some boys heading her way. She looked backwords to see who it was before realising it was Mike Wheeler and his usual group of friends, Dustin, Lucas and Will. She quickly looked down to avoid making eye contact with them. She didn't mean to but the words just seem to slip out as if her mouth has a mind of its own.
"Hey guys!" She greeted them jollily
"Hey…" Mike said bluntly and walked straight passed her.
"Uhm, so we're in seventh grade now, hella cool right?!" El continued giddily.
"Yeah." Dustin replied with a blank, bored expression. Before El could even reply they had already begun crossing the road. 'Rude' she thought to herself before shrugging it off and making her way down to the bus stop.
Once the bus arrived Mike and his friends made their ways to the back of the bus as usual. The same spot they'd sit in since the third grade. The year they rose to popularity. Why? El has no idea. She didn't understand why exactly she wasn't popular too. She was always friendly and always shared her candy. She thought that maybe Mike was popular because he was literally gorgeous, in El's eyes anyway. Then again, she didn't necessarily find herself ugly. Momma told her that she was beautiful, she even heard Martin whisper comment to one of his friends 'she's growing into quite a woman'. She wasn't one hundred percent sure what he meant by that, but she caught him staring at her while she had her back turned and he thought she wouldn't notice. He didn't seem angry, it wasn't an angry stare. El was snapped back into reality when she felt somebody trying to budge past her on the bus.
"For fuck sake kid, move!"
El would recognise that voice anywhere. El hated that voice. Two words, Jessica Hines. More specifically Mikes girlfriend. The other kids laughed and El sat in the closest seat while Jessica made her way to the back of the bus, sitting on Mikes lap and cupping his face with her hands. Kissing him hard. El though she might be trying to swallow him hole. 'little stupid annoying mean barbie doll' El thought to herself, mumbling in her head. El had always envied Jessica. Jess had perfect, straight, blonde locks with blue eyes that would blend into the ocean. She wore beautiful frilly dresses, a different one every day! El didn't even own one.
"Morning cutie!" Jessica shouted, pecking Mike on the lips.
"Hey babe" He played with her hair. El rolled her eyes.
Just before school it had become routine, once exiting the bus, for half the kids to hang around at the park across the street. After crossing the road, El ran straight over to the monkey bars to do some of her best tricks. More specifically, to try grabs Mikes attention. She climbed right on top of the bars then shouted down perkily "Hey Mike! Come on up, the views incredible".
"I'm good" He called up, faking a smile. The other kids laughed.
"Weirdo" Lucas mumbled while shaking this head.
"Oh El, you are in seventh grade now, act your age will you" Jessica sassed while grabbing her boyfriend's arm and wrapping it around herself. She knew that El had a crush on Mike, who didn't know that? Jessica loved to tick El off. El pouted to herself and continued to linger around them while playing on the monkey bars. Will gave her a funny look but El just smiled back, as usual. Mike and his friends started heading back across the road to the school but this time El didn't bother following. She was far too busy listening the birds tweet a song that to El sounded beautiful.
"Ok class, settle down, settle down" Mr Clark yelled out to the students. Everyone began to hush each other and finally settled.
"Ok s- Hello" My Clark spotted the small girl standing at the door frame. She was late to class as usual. She suffered from fugue. (This is where she gets distracted and loses sense of time and awareness). The teachers are very aware of this from her records but it can be frustrating to have to go over the lesson again and some of the teachers shout at her. Mr Clark didn't seem to mind though. El decided she likes Mr Clark.
"Hi" She said in a small voice.
"Well, take a seat" He looked around the room "Oh look, there's a spare seat next to-" he paused "What's your name young man?" The boys hesitantly answered.
"Uh- Lucas sir"
"Nice to meet you Lucas" The man smiled "Go on then, take a seat next to Lucas he won't bite" He chuckled. El kept her head down as she took her seat and Lucas groaned and rolled his eyes as some of his friends laughed at his 'misfortune'. This made El feel insecure. She didn't like it at all. As the class went by, Lucas spoke with two of his friends sitting at the desk behind, laughing at Inside jokes and taking turns to answer a question on the board and share the answers between the three of them. El tried to focus on her work but they were far too many distractions. There was too much noise and too many kids but nobody besides El seemed to mind. El struggled to concentrate unless the class was small and the room was silent. She rested her head into her arms facing downwards and waited until the class was over. That was until-
"Young lady, next to Lucas" Mr Clark called out.
"Her name is El" Lucas mumbled.
"El?" He called out. Lucas then nudged her and shouted.
"El!"
"What!" she shouted back angrily and the class began to laugh.
"Dang girl" Lucas chuckled.
"El could you stand up please" Mr Clark asked her, she obeyed hesitantly.
"Could you read out the first question so we can answer it together as a class" He asked enthusiastically. She cringed a little and grew nervous but again, did as she was told.
"What is the ch-emical s-st-sturc" She struggled.
"Structure" Mr Clark helped her happily. The other kids began to laugh and tease a little. El felt tears prickling in her eyes but decided after taking a deep breath to continue.
"Of hair" She finished then sat down as quick as possible.
"Idiot" Lucas whispered about her to himself.
At lunch El tried to find a seat in the dining hall, it was so big. She planned to sit alone, not because she wanted to but because that's usually how she'd end up. As she found a seat and began to observe her surroundings, a pretty red-headed girl lugging around a backpack and skateboard stood before her. She looked both overly confident but, In a way, actually quite shy.
"I'm new to Hawkins"
I take request for both this story and if you want to check it out, I also write Stranger Things one shots. :)