Chapter 3:Happy Holidays
ONE WEEK LATER
Christmastime was finally here and El could not be more excited. She had woken up at the crack of dawn and was slightly disappointed when Joyce said she had to wait till later to open presents. Joyce made up for it when she said El could help her make Christmas cookies. " Okay now I want you to take the batter and pour it onto this cooking sheet and form it into little balls." Joyce said. El did as she said. "Ok, now what?" El asked. " Now we're gonna put the cookies in the oven and let them bake. And then once they're done we'll decorate them and then eat them." Joyce put the cookies in the oven and then set a 20 minute timer. Just then Will finally woke up and walked into the kitchen. "Mmm smells good. What ya making?" Will asked. "Hey you, me and Joyce are making Christmas cookies. We already put them in the oven but you could help us decorate them if you want." El said as she gave him a quick little kiss. "Sure. Mom, when are we opening Christmas presents?" Will asked. " Geez, I swear both of you are so impatient. You know, this one came into my room at 6 am to ask me the same thing. Be patient you guys, we'll open them when we open them, ok." Joyce said while gesturing at El as she said this, also laughing at the same time. They laughed and talked until the timer finally went off. They took the cookies out of the oven and got to work decorating them. El was staring at Will, just watching him decorate cookies. The sight of him made her heart skip a beat. Oh god, she was in love with him. From the moment she first saw him she knew she was in love with him. "El. El." Will called her name and she snapped out of the trance that she was in."El I've been calling your name for the past 3 minutes."Will said. "Oh, sorry! I was distracted looking at your pretty face." El said "Oh really, you think my face is pretty do you?" Will says teasingly. " Yeah I do." El says back teasingly. They pull their faces closer to each other and begin making out. Meanwhile Joyce chuckles to herself while she watches all of this occur. They make out for about five minutes before Joyce interrupts them. "Hello! Guys! I thought we were decorating cookies not making out." She says half-teasing. El and Will pull away, their faces bright red as they both blushed slightly. "I get it,you guys like each other, but could you try not to make out in my kitchen please. At least not when we're making food,ok." Joyce says "Ok." They both say simultaneously, giggling as they say it. I swear to god these kids frustrate me sometimes. She thinks to herself. El looks at Will,thinking to herself how beautiful he is and how much she loves him. They continue decorating cookies and once they are done they begin to eat some of them. "Alright, Let's go open some presents." Joyce says. Finally we get to open presents. El thinks to herself. "Yayy!" They both say simultaneously, immediately running over to the Christmas tree. "Hey! Wait for me!" Joyce says. Joyce walks over to the Christmas tree. They begin opening Christmas presents and El gets some makeup and nail polish from Joyce, which she absolutely loves. Will gives her a shirt that says world's best also gets a bunch of other gifts. "Thanks you guys" El says. As El is opening her Christmas gifts Will begins to open his he gets D stuff from El and a sweater and toys from his mom. He cannot stop thinking about New Year's Eve and how he can't wait to see his friends again. Between school and other stuff, they barely saw each other over the past month. New Year's Eve will be the first significant time they have spent together since the Snow Ball and even then they barely talked to each other. He also cannot stop thinking about how beautiful El is and how in love with her he is. Oh he is so in love with her. "Thanks for the presents you guys." Will says. As they laugh and talk El thinks to herself how lucky she is to be sitting here celebrating Christmas with the love of her life. Not many people find their soulmate but El has and for that she is truly Grateful.
December 31,1983
El and Will patiently wait for their friends to show up so they can ring in the New Year together. Finally, Dustin,Mike,and Lucas showed up and they could start the festivities. It had taken so long for them to show up however that Will and El had started making out while they were waiting for them. "Mom, can you get the door!" Will shouted before continuing to make out with El. Joyce went and opened the door, and their friends walked into the living room. As they walked into the living room El and Will were still making out in the living room. They stood there for a few minutes before interrupting. "Hello! Guys!, we gonna hang out or are you two just gonna make out all night." Dustin said. "Next time don't take so long then." El replied. "We were bored." Will added. "ok,whatever." Lucas said. "Let's Just get started." As they laugh and banter, all Will can think about is El and how beautiful she is and how much he just wants to kiss her right now. "Alright so I brought Star Wars,E.T, and Indiana Jones. As they all argued over which movie to watch,El couldn't help but stare at Will and all she could think about is how much she wants to kiss him. Eventually they settled on Star Wars so El used her powers to pop it into the VCR player. Hey you, she said to Will through her mind. Hey, he said back. Mike noticed the two of them smiling. "Ok, what is going on here? Why are you two smiling so much." "What can't we just be smiling? Is it illegal for us to smile?"El paused the movie. "No,somethings going on here." Well Mike wasn't giving up,so he might as well just tell him he figured. "El can communicate with me through her mind." Will said. El had figured out that she could communicate with Will a little bit after Christmas. I mean really, she'd always suspected that it was a possibility since they communicated in Will's Mindscape but they'd never properly tested it until then. "WHAT! Since when?" Lucas said, a bit surprised. "Since Christmas, although there was that one time where we communicated through Will's Mindscape on the day he saved me." El said."Huh, interesting. Ok, can we watch the movie now?" Is all Dustin says. "That's all I get, is huh interesting?" El said "I mean it was interesting so what did you want me to say?" "I don't know anything other than, Huh, interesting." El said. They argued back and forth for a few minutes before Lucas interrupted them. "Alright guys can you please stop arguing so we can watch the movie? Please?" "Fine." Both El and Dustin said simultaneously while sticking their tongues out at each other. "Oh real mature, you two." Mike said. El unpaused the movie and they continued watching it. God she really wanted to kiss Will right now. Somehow Will and El managed to go the whole movie without kissing each other and before they knew it the movie was over. "Alright, movie's over, what do you guys want to do?" Will said "Well it's 10:15 pm and we have a little less than 2 hours till Midnight so…" Dustin said. As they argued over what to do next, Will took advantage of the chaos he had created and slipped away to make out with El. Will was all over El and was making out with El like crazy, but none of his friends noticed because they were still too busy arguing to notice what was going on. "We should play Hide and Seek" Dustin said. "No, we should play Truth or Dare." Lucas said. While they were making out El felt like nothing else matters, like this was the only place she wanted to be. "El! Will" Dustin shouted. "What?" They both said simultaneously. "I've been calling both your names for like the past 5 minutes." "Sorry, we were busy." El said, half-joking. "Oh yeah, you were real busy."Mike said, making a kissy face. Will flipped Mike off before asking " So anyways, what did you want Dustin." "I wanted to ask you whether you wanted to play Truth or Dare or Hide and Seek. Since we couldn't agree, I figured we'd take a vote" "We vote Hide and Seek."Will and El said simultaneously. Wanna hide together? El asked. "I vote Hide and Seek as well." Mike said. You know it. Will said back. "Well you already know my answer is gonna be so it looks like you got outvoted Lucas." Dustin said. It had taken them so long to decide what to do that it was almost 11 pm. However they still had time for one or two games of Hide and Seek before Midnight. They had all agreed that Dustin would be seeker first, so Will,El,Mike and Lucas went to go hide while Dustin started counting. El and Will of course hid together and Mike and Lucas were hidden in their own separate hiding spots. El and Will hid in the pantry and started cuddling and quietly making out as not to be found. I wish we could stay like this forever, El said. I know, me too. Will Said. Eventually they stopped making out and started quietly having a conversation "So,Valentine's Day is coming up soon and I was thinking we could go on a date just the two of us." Will said. El had learned what Valentine's Day was from her tutoring sessions with Nancy. So she didn't need to ask what it was. She was actually doing quite good. Nancy said that she might be able to start High School with her friends in the fall if she studied hard enough which motivated her to study harder. "Yeah! I'd love to go on a date with you,Will!" El replied. They resumed making out while Dustin looked for Mike and Lucas. Eventually Mike was found with Lucas being found not long after. Once he found Mike and Lucas he yelled " Alright guys you win. I know you guys hid together so you can come out now cuz you win." "Oh really you're gonna make me come find you guys. Ok, I see how it is." Dustin said. El and Will purposefully start making out louder to annoy Dustin, but the side effect is that it makes them easier to find. Eventually Dustin finds them at which point they're still making out with each other. "Hello! Guys!" Dustin says loudly. El turns around and says "How long have you been standing there?" El asked. "Like 10-15 minutes." Dustin said. "Come on, it's almost midnight." It is currently 11:50 PM as Dustin, Will and El make their way to the living room where Mike and Lucas are gathered. "Ah I see you finally found them." Lucas said. "Have fun you guys?" Mike teased. "Fuck off Mike." Will said, flipping off Mike. "Ah ah ah. Not so fast." Mike said. "You forgot the magic word." "Oh I'm sorry my apologies, how could I forget? Please Fuck off,Mike" Will said."Eh close enough." Mike said. Will and El sat next to each other on the couch and Dustin sat next to Mike and Lucas. By the time they turned on the TV it was 11:55 pm. Will and El were cuddling on the couch staring into each other's eyes. This is nice. El said. It is,isn't it? Will replied. Yeah it is. El agreed. The minutes counted down until it was 11:59 pm. Here it was, they were less than a minute away from 1984. The countdown finally reached 10 seconds and the El and the rest of the Party started counting down. "10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1! Happy New Year's! El and Will shared a passionate kiss as the clock struck Midnight. Ah so this is what heaven feels like,sitting here on New Year's Day kissing the man i love.
February 14,1984
This was it, Valentine's Day was finally here. Ever since Will had asked her on a date back on New Year's, El had been so excited that she could hardly wait. But now it was finally here. In the months since New Year's El has been continuing her tutoring. Nancy says she is learning very quickly and should be ready to start school in the fall with the boys. The idea of going to school with Will excites El. But not just that, the idea of going to school excites her in general as she is eager to learn and just be a normal teenager. "El hurry up you need to get ready or you and Will are gonna be late for your date!" Joyce said. Will had been planning this date since New Year's but refused to tell her what it was, insisting that he wanted it to be a surprise. "Also Will's birthday is coming up soon. Have you figured out what you're going to get him yet?." Joyce asked. "Yeah I was thinking of getting him some D stuff as well as a handwritten birthday card along with some shirts. Nancy says I'm learning very fast." El replied. El vividly remembers the night that they first kissed almost 3 months ago. Will had found her in the forest due to their telepathic connection. He had carried her to his house before she woke up and they went to Will's room. They'd talked for a little while before eventually they kissed. That first kiss with Will was one of the best feelings she had ever had up to that point in her life. And now here they are going on a date on Valentine's, nearly 3 months later. "Come on honey, let's go get ready." Joyce said. They went over to El's room where she had a beautiful red dress that she had picked out with Joyce when she went shopping a couple of weeks ago. She takes off the clothes she is currently wearing and puts on the red dress. Meanwhile Will is getting ready in his room. He is wearing a tuxedo that he borrowed from Jonathan. He combed his hair and he was ready. He walks to the living room and waits for El to be ready. "El, are you almost ready? We've got to leave soon!" Will shouted. "Almost done, just need a few more minutes!" El shouted back. Will had spent months planning this date and he hoped that she would like it. Just then El opened the door to her room and walked out wearing the most beautiful red dress he had ever seen. "Wow, you l-look b-beautiful." Will said. "So do you." El replied. "Come over here so I can take some pictures of you before your date." Joyce said, gesturing to the front door. El and Will shared a quick little kiss before standing in front of the door so Joyce could take some took a couple of pictures before they got into the car to go to their date. They drove for a while before stopping. "Ok, we're here." Will said as they stopped at the bottom of a hill. He pulled a picnic basket as they got out of the car and started hiking up the hill. "I'll be picking you guys up at 9:00,Ok?" Joyce said. "Ok, see you later." Will said. They continued hiking up the hill before they finally reached the top. The hill overlooked all of Hawkins. "Ta-da! What do you think?" Will asked. "The view is amazing!" El replied. Will took the blanket out of the basket and set it up on the grass. He had also packed a portable cassette player and started playing music. This is amazing! It's even better than I could have imagined. El thought to herself.
They started eating the food that Will had packed. While they were eating El said "Thank you Will, this date is Amazing. I love you." Did she really just say those words? She thought to herself. She did love him though, so it wasn't too surprising. Will looked up at her and said " I'm glad you like it, I love you too." Will said. They finished eating their food and they still had a little bit of time before Joyce came to pick them up. They started laughing and talking. "So, what are you getting me for my birthday?" Will asked? " Well- Hey! Nice try, but I'm not telling you. It's a surprise." El said. " Please?" Will said. "Pretty please?" "No!" El said. "No!." El said again, this time laughing at his multiple attempts in trying to get her to tell him what his present was. Eventually he gave up and they started laughing and talking again. "El?" Will said. "Yeah?" She replied. " I love you." At that moment they lunged towards each other and started making out passionately. They continued making out for 20 minutes before they stopped making out and just laid on the grass, holding hands and staring at the stars. "Will this date was Amazing! Thank you!" El said, giving Will a kiss. They laid on the grass for a little while longer before Joyce eventually arrived to pick them up. They packed everything up and began hiking down the hill. They finally reached the bottom of the hill and got into Joyce's car. "Hey kiddos, did you have fun on your date?" Joyce asked. "Yeah!" El replied excitedly. They drove home and while they were heading home, El considered herself lucky that she had been able to find the man that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.