Meeting Chief Hopper
Shit. He saw me kissing her. Let's get this over with.
He followed El past the front door. She led him to the sofa, her dad was sitting forward on an easy chair his elbows on his knees. In his hands he was holding the hat of the Chief of Police.
Oh, this is great. Her dad is this impossibly large guy who also happens to be the police chief. He was about to be interrogated and he was pretty sure his super spy skills were not up to resisting the torture he was about to get.
From there Mike could see that her dad had a perfect few of the door step. Obviously he'd been waiting for El to get home. Mike was determined not to say anything about El's episode. He wasn't going to volunteer information.
"I'm going to have a shower." El said suddenly and left the room.
Mike could tell that her dad was waiting to hear the shower running, before he spoke.
"Anything interesting happen today?"
"My usual luck sir, we ran into bullies while walking along side of the railroad tracks." Mike said 'alongside' but he was sure the chief knew everyone walked on them.
The chief nodded. "Did any of the bullies happen to have a bad accident?"
Mike was stunned. How could the chief have possibly known that? Without even knowing it Mike could see he was in dangerous territory. He was not sure he'd be clever enough to direct his answers away from El.
Mike was right.
"Did El happen to have an episode?"
There it was. Mike was trapped and he wouldn't lie to El's dad.
"Yes sir." Mike would not look away.
Her dad nodded and looked down at his hat, "did you at least make sure she ate her chocolate bar? I won't ask you to break any promises you made to her."
"I got her to eat the whole thing."
"You probably already know this by now, but El is a very emotional girl. She cries a lot. I didn't want her to hear that in front of you. You have a plan for when she does that?"
"I do sir."
"Oh?"
"I'm going to kiss her tears away." Mike looked down his face burning hot.
The chief laughed. Not at Mike, but in appreciation of the simple solution he thought Mike had come up with. "You my friend are going to be perfect for her."
El came out at that moment, wearing different cover-alls and a different plaid shirt.
"You are laughing and Mike is not bleeding." El was joking of course, but for a split second Mike thought she'd been serious.
She sat down on the sofa close to Mike. It was all he could do not to put is arms around her and squeeze her tight.
Hopper stood up towering over the two of them. "You two are... an item?" Mike could tell her dad was uncomfortable with the idea.
Mike and El looked at each other, smiled, then looked up at Hopper nodded and said "yes" at the exact same time. Hopper noticed that their hands and found each others down by their sides.
He saw that these two were not afraid to show their affection for each other. He knew that El wore her heart on her sleeve, but apparently she'd found a boy who did the same thing. They were probably perfect for each other and there was no way in hell he would do anything to get in the way of his daughter's happiness. Not after the year they'd just had.
"I'm going out for pizza… try not to wear each others lips off ok?" He didn't bother to bask in their embarrassment but turned and left for the front door.
El ran to the window to watch Hopper's truck pull out of the driveway.
She turned to Mike and giggled, "I'm going to wear your lips off now."
El pulled back breathless. Took one look at Mike and laughed. "It looks like I've been m… mauling your lips."
"You have. I've definitely been mauling yours. We have to stop and let them get back to normal before your dad gets back."
"I like kissing you Mike."
"I like you kissing me too." Mike said and El laughed. They heard the truck pull into the driveway.
Hopper came in with more pizza than three people could eat in a week. "I'm a bad parent. I'm not feeding her right."
"Sir, I think you'll find that no kid is going to complain about eating pizza everyday."
"That's the worst part, they don't know any better, bad parenting."
"Um, I can show El how to cook. I've done enough of it myself helping my mom out."
"Then I can cook for you dad." El said looking up at him.
El's dad just looked at them both and nodded, then cleared his throat. "Ok, we'll pick a day next week and go grocery shopping… the three of us."
El beamed a smile at him and then at Mike.
"You'll learn even more when you take your Home Ec class."
El's smile froze and she looked at her dad. Mike thought she was about to cry again. Her face turned a shade of red.
"Um, we're not sure El is quite ready to go to school with you guys yet."
"I'm home schooled, Mike"
Mike understood immediately, she might not be at the same level as the reset of their friends.
"What if we all pitched in to tutor her,? And we'd all help through the school year."
"We'll see."
Oh, that's a 'no'. Mike had heard that enough times from his mom to know what it meant. He felt sorry for El, she needed to go to a real school be with other kids her age, even other girls besides Max. She would be teased about her hair for sure, no way of getting around that, but Mike and the rest of the Party would be there for her.
There were rules about being home schooled, Mike didn't understand why El couldn't go to a regular school. He was about to protest to her dad, but El put a hand his arm.
"It's ok Mike."