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Everybody Talks | Chapter 13: Into the Woods

Fandom: Stranger Things Pairings: Mileven, Lumax Rating: K WC: 13,562 😵 Summary: When Will invites the group on a weekend camping trip, everyone gets a lot more surprises than they bargained for.

[AO3] Chapter Selection: [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]-13-[14][15][Epilogue]

El is crowded with her friends in the A.V. Club room when Will brings up the idea.

“Are you guys busy this weekend?” He begins, glancing at everyone curiously.

Mike is crouched in front of the TV, trying to get it to turn on. Dustin is hovering beside him, snacking on a 3 Musketeers bar, and trying his best to instruct Mike on what to do, even though Mike claims he already knows what to do. Max and Lucas are seated in two of the desks, with Max’s legs draped across Lucas’ lap.

It’s Monday after school, and they’re all in here to see the boys’ final cut of their Homecoming video. El is seated on top of the third desk, near the back of the group. She finds herself torn between eyeing Mike (because he looks really cute whenever he’s focused), or eyeing Max and Lucas (because she can’t help but wonder: are they dating now? It’s kinda unclear. El’s pretty sure that Max would tell her if they were, so they’re probably not, but first it was holding hands during movie night, and now Max is totally acting even weirder than usual around him).

Despite all the clamor, when Will poses his question, everyone stops what they’re doing to turn and look at him.

“I dunno,” Dustin shrugs, “I mean, whatever we do, we’re probably going to be together anyway.”

“Why?” El asks Will, intrigued.

Will, seated in the fourth desk, hesitates before continuing. “Well, I was just wondering if you guys wanted to go camping?”

“Camping?” Lucas frowns, confused.

“That’s kinda random, Byers,” Max nods, eyeing him.

“I know,” Will blushingly admits, “It’s just…I don’t know, it’s kinda dumb.”

“No, what is it?” Mike asks concernedly, “You can tell us.”

Will gives Mike a grateful smile before turning to look back at the rest of the group. “Well,” he begins, “Jonathan and I kind of have this tradition. On the last weekend of October, we take a camping trip to the woods, you know the big forest out by the Quarry? And we like, set up sleeping bags and build a campfire and roast marshmallows and…I dunno, it’s just always a lot of fun.”

“And you want us to do that with you?” Mike offers.

Will nods.

“Let me get this straight,” Max cuts in, removing her legs from Lucas’ lap and sitting up straighter, “You want us, a group of teenagers, to go spend a night in the forest, alone?”

“Yes?” Will hesitates.

“You realize that that’s like, the set-up for every slasher movie ever?” Max points out, “Friday the 13th? Madman? Sleepaway Camp? You’re basically asking to get murdered.”

“Those are just movies,” El frowns.

“I dunno, Max has a point,” Dustin shrugs, “It sounds kinda risky; we’d basically be tempting the horror fates.”

“I know,” Will patiently replies, “But…I mean, we’ve been doing it every October since our dad left, and this is the first year that Jonathan’s not going to be here since he’s at NYU now.”

Everyone falls silent at that, looking a little guilty.

“I dunno, it was a dumb idea,” Will hastily continues, slumping back in his desk, “Just forget I said anything.”

“No!” Mike frowns, “Let’s do it!”

“Really?” Will asks hopefully.

“Yeah,” Max nods, looking a little embarrassed, “It could be fun, I guess. And if a serial killer does come after us, we could always use Dustin as bait.”

“Why me!?” Dustin protests, looking offended.

“My dad has a lot of old camping stuff,” El offers, ignoring Dustin and Max’s bickering, “If we need anything.”

“Okay!” Will replies, starting to look more excited. “I mean, if you guys really want to.”

“We really do,” Mike assures Will before turning back to fiddle with the TV.

“But wait,” Lucas suddenly pipes up, looking concerned, “Isn’t the homecoming dance this weekend?”

“No, that’s the football game, you dweeb,” Max huffs with an eye roll, “The game is this weekend, the dance is next weekend.”

“Why do you know that?” Dustin snorts.

“Why don’t you?” Max snaps back defensively, “You’re the ones who made a whole video for it!”

“But do we care about going to the football game?” Will points out, looking puzzled.

“No,” Dustin snorts again.

“Speaking of,” Mike segues, “I finally got the TV to turn on, so we can watch our video.”

“Finally,” Max sighs, “Let’s see this thing.”

“Full disclaimer,” Dustin prefaces, “It’s kinda super boring, because it’s about football, but in our defense, we did the best we could.”

“It’s not boring,” Lucas counters, “I mean...it kind of is, but it could be worse.”

“I think it’s fine!” Mike insists, “Let’s just watch it and see.”

“Have you guys not watched it or something?” Max asks skeptically.

“This is our first time watching the final cut,” Will explains, “We just finished it today.”

“It’ll be good,” El assures them, “I know it. You guys are all really talented.”

Mike glances over his shoulder to smile at El thankfully, and El feels her heart flutter in response. It’s not fair how he manages to look insanely cute even when his face is still a little bruised and he’s wearing the most basic of hoodies.

El watches Mike as he inserts the tape into the VHS player under the TV, hurries to the back of the room, and turns off the lights. As the tape clicks into place and begins to whirr inside the player, Mike comes to sit beside El on the top of the desk.

This, of course, causes El to blush like mad. It’s a pretty small desktop as is, so having Mike squeeze in beside her means that they’re seated rather close to each other. It’s not like she minds this, or anything, but she’s still adjusting to being this up close and personal with Mike on a regular basis.

Ever since they spent Saturday afternoon eating waffles and watching cheesy soap operas at her house, things have felt a little different. El’s not quite sure what it is, but something has definitely changed. They’re more comfortable around each other (for the most part), and El notices that Mike’s been casually gazing at her more often, like before school, during lunch, during Biology, right now...

“Aren’t you supposed to be watching the video?” El whispers, giving him a teasing smile.

Mike flinches and nods, looking flustered. “Uh, yeah,” he admits, turning to look back at the TV.

El has to bite down on her lower lip to stop herself from giggling. As she turns to look toward the screen, she does her best to pay attention to the video, and not the fact that Mike currently smells like Ivory soap (a fact that, while albeit slightly strange to point out, is nevertheless pretty distracting).

El doesn’t know too much about sports, but from what she can tell, the video is constructed well. There’s plenty of footage from the games, the transitions are nice, and she can tell that the boys must have worked really hard on it.

When the video ends, Mike leaves El’s side, turns on the lights, and goes to retrieve the tape from the VHS player. “And that’s pretty much it,” he summarizes, glancing at all the members of the group as he stands before them.

“So, what do you think?” Dustin asks, turning to look at Max and El, “Did that not just like, blow your mind?”

“Oh, it did,” Max nods, “But not in the way you probably wanted.”

“What do you mean?” Lucas frowns.

“Isn’t this supposed to be a video supporting our school?” Max asks incredulously.

“Obviously,” Dustin scoffs.

“Then why did you dweebs put in so many shots of the other teams scoring on us?”

The boys pale and turn to look at each other worriedly.

“We did!?” Mike exclaims, looking panicked.

“But the crowd was cheering!” Will pouts, “Doesn’t that mean we scored?”

“That means that the other team’s crowd was cheering,” Max replies, “Not ours.”

The guys exchange collective groans of defeat.

“It’s a small mistake!” El offers encouragingly, “I didn’t notice!”

“Still,” Mike sighs, “We’re gonna have to fix it.”

“But Mr. Coleman wants it turned in by Wednesday!” Lucas laments. “That gives us less than two days!”

“I’ll help you geeks fix it,” Max huffs.

Dustin eyes her. “You know about video editing?”

“No,” Max admits, “But I know how to tell the difference between winning or losing, which you guys obviously don’t.”

The guys nod reluctantly, all unwilling to argue with that.

“Let’s meet after school and work on it tomorrow,” Mike instructs, “It’s already getting late. We’ll work on it tomorrow, finish it up on Wednesday, and then we can start planning for the camping trip.”

Everyone else nods in agreement before rising out of their seats.

“I can’t believe I’m gonna have to help you nerds,” Max gripes as she grabs her backpack and skateboard.

“If you’re helping them make the video,” El nonchalantly responds, “Does that mean you’re in the A.V. Club now?”

Max pauses to crinkle her nose in disdain. “Please, no,” she groans.

“Too late!” Lucas smirks, giving her a light nudge, “You’re one of us now, Mad Max.”

Dustin bursts out laughing at this, which only causes Max to look more annoyed (though, to be fair, El is certain that Max’s annoyance falls under the “pretending like she hates something even though she secretly likes it” category).

Max exits the classroom while bickering with Lucas and Dustin on whether or not she’s a nerd like them (according to Dustin, since she has the highest scores at the arcade and she’s seen 2/3 Star Wars movies she is; according to Max, Dustin can shut up).

Will grabs his backpack and moves to follow them, but first stops to look at Mike and El.

“Thanks for agreeing to go on the camping trip with me,” he says, smiling shyly, “I know it sounds dumb, but...it really means a lot.”

“It’s not dumb,” El assures him.

“El’s right!” Mike nods, “If it’s something important to you, then it’s important to all of us.”

“Still,” Will insists, “I just wanted to say ‘thanks’.”

El and Mike both give Will reassuring smiles before he continues to head out the door.

“See you tomorrow!” Will cheerily calls back over his shoulder.

“‘Bye, Will!” Mike calls back.

And just like that, they’re alone.

There’s an awkward beat of silence as Mike and El exchange nervous smiles. Even though they’ve been more comfortable with each other since Saturday, this current newfound privacy came quickly and by surprise.

Thankfully, Mike, as usual, has something to talk about.

“Did you see that Troy was back in school today?” He asks. He moves closer, sits on top of the desk that Max was previously seated in, and positions himself so that he’s facing El.

“Yes,” El nods, “We have Biology with him.”

“Right!” Mike blushes, looking embarrassed.

It was true, Troy had returned to school that day. He was sporting an arm cast and a surly glare, but other than that, he’d kept to himself. El caught him looking her way during Biology class, but all it’d taken was one cold glare from her to get him to snap back in the other direction.

“I don’t think he’s going to bother us,” El remarks.

“Yeah, all thanks to you!” Mike beams.

“And you,” El reminds him.

“I guess,” Mike shrugs, “But it was mostly you.”

El doesn’t feel like turning this into a debate (mostly because she knows that Mike would never give it up), so she chooses to give him a soft smile instead.

“Speaking of all that,” Mike continues, “I kind of have an idea.”

“An idea?” El frowns.

Even though they’re completely alone, Mike still glances around the A.V. Club room before leaning in a little closer. “I think the camping trip might be a good time to tell everyone,” he says, voice low, “About your...you know.”

Her powers.

El glances down at her hands before looking back up at Mike. “Why?”

“Well, just think about it,” Mike explains, “We’re gonna be completely alone in the woods, so you don’t have to worry about anyone overhearing you. Plus, both Max and I will be there to help you explain everything.”

“That’s a good point,” El nods, though with slight reluctance.

While they watched soap operas and ate waffles on Saturday, they’d also discussed ways that El could reveal her powers to the rest of their friends. It had to be just right, Mike pointed out, so that their reaction wouldn’t be like his reaction. But after finishing off two boxes of Eggos and learning that Jessica’s sister, who was thought to be dead, is really alive and having an affair with Robert, her long-lost half-brother, Mike and El still hadn’t come up with any plan. The subject was eventually dropped in favor of discussing how “totally insane” soap operas were (Mike’s words, not hers).

El knew that she was going to have to tell her friends, she just didn’t think it was going to be as soon as this weekend.

“Do you think you’re ready?” Mike asks concernedly.

El sighs and shrugs her shoulders. “I don’t know, but...I think I should get it over with.”

“Yeah,” Mike nods, “I think so too.”

“You’ll help me?” El asks, glancing up at him.

“Yeah, totally!” Mike assures her, “I promised you! I’ll make sure that they don’t freak out like I did.”

El gives him a small, relieved smile as she feels herself relax. “Thank you,” she murmurs.

Mike smiles back, nods, and leans forward in his seat to give her a quick little hug.

Before he can move away, El grasps him tighter and holds the hug longer, not wanting to leave his arms. She nuzzles her face into his shoulder, taking in both the scent of his Ivory soap and of the fabric softener that lingers on his hoodie.

Safe.

On Tuesday, everyone stays late after school to finish the video. The time is mostly comprised of Max teasing the guys, Dustin getting offended, Lucas not-so-subtly drooling over Max, and Will and Mike trying to keep them all on task. Even though El doesn’t know much about film editing, she still hangs around to give moral support (and to pass out lots of caffeine-filled sodas for stamina). They finish the video around 8 pm, and when they’re done, they’re all pleased with the final product.

“If this doesn’t get on the news,” Max says after they drop off the finished tape at the main office, “I’m gonna torch Mr. Coleman’s car again.”

“Because that’s a reasonable reaction,” Dustin replies dryly.

Since they finish editing the video early, they get to spend Wednesday solely focused on planning their upcoming camping trip. Though El’s excited, she can’t help but worry. While everyone else already got their parents’ permission to go on the trip, El has yet to ask Hopper for his, mainly because she’s almost 100% certain that he’s going to say no. He’d just met Mike, and while Hopper had admittedly treated him well, El can’t help but feel like she’s asking for too much too soon.

When she confides these concerns to Max after school, Max offers to help El ask Hopper, a proposition that El readily accepts.

Since Hopper is still on duty, the girls decide to visit him at the police station. While El doesn’t spend a lot of time there, the secretary, Flo, is always super nice, and Max always gets a kick out of messing around with the handcuffs, badges, and other police equipment that Hopper now says are ‘Off Limits.’

As the two girls walk down the sidewalk with their skateboards under their arms, El shares the details of her planned confession.

“So, you’re going to tell all of them?” Max summarizes.

El nods.

“And this is all Wheeler’s idea?”

“Sort of,” El frowns, “But...I want to do it. I don’t want to lie to my friends.”

Max nods. “Yeah, that makes sense.”

They walk in silence for a moment before Max speaks up again. “Well, I got your back, okay?” She assures El.

“Thank you,” El smiles gratefully, before reluctantly adding, “But it won’t matter if I don’t get my Dad’s permission.”

“Why wouldn’t he give it to you?”

El gives Max a wary look. “He made me keep the door open when Mike was in my room. I know he won’t be happy about us going to the woods, alone.”

“But you won’t be alone,” Max points out, “The rest of us will all be there.”

“That’s true,” El admits.

“Plus, if your Dad wants, I’ll make sure that you and Mike are never alone together. I’ll be your personal third wheel.”

“But then Lucas will be lonely,” El teases.

The late-afternoon air is rather chilly, so when Max gives off an exaggerated, indignant huff, her breath fogs into a wispy mist. “What?!”

El holds back a smirk, instead keeping her expression innocently inquisitive. “I thought you liked him?”

“No!” Max fervently exclaims.

“You were holding his hand during the movie. You sat by him on Monday.”

“So?! That doesn’t mean anything.”

El can’t hold back her smile any longer. Max likes Lucas so much, it’s completely obvious. She can try to deny it all she likes, but El sees right through it.

“Are you dating him?” El asks, studying Max’s reaction closely.

“No,” Max answers, rolling her eyes dismissively.

“Do you want to?” El smiles, giving her a light nudge.

In a rather out-of-character reaction, Max actually blushes and seems a little flustered. “Maybe,” she mutters.

El opens her mouth to gasp excitedly, but Max quickly moves in and clamps her hand over it.

“Don’t!” Max hisses, “You can’t tell him, or anyone!”

El nods, still smiling elatedly.

Max likes Lucas and Lucas likes Max and they’re probably going to date and everything is perfect!

She’s about to voice these elated thoughts to Max, but then she realizes they’ve finally arrived at the station. Her thought process shifts to the main task at hand: convincing her Dad that allowing her to spend a night in the woods with her friends is a good idea.

Flo greets the girls when they enter and cheerily guides them back to Hopper’s office.

“Hey, Hop!” Flo calls out as she knocks on the closed door, “Your 3 o’clock is here.”

“I don’t have anyone at 3 o’clock,” Hopper grumpily replies from inside.

El and Max have to bite down on their bottom lips to keep from giggling out loud.

“Well, I got two people here who really need to talk to you,” Flo continues, smiling at the girls.

“Send them in,” Hopper sighs.

Flo gives the girls a wink before walking off. El and Max give her appreciative waves before El moves forward, turns the doorknob, and steps inside.

Hopper is seated behind his desk, surrounded by empty white mugs, miscellaneous documents, and a couple untouched apples (El doesn’t know why Flo insists on giving Hopper apples every morning — he never eats them and El just winds up throwing them away after they start to rot). When Hopper sees the two girls walk in, he’s surprised at first, but his expression quickly relaxes into a warm smile.

“Hey, kids,” he greets, putting his feet up on his desk.

“Hi, Dad!” El smiles, trying to stay calm. Her dad is so much more intimidating when he’s in full uniform, and as she and Max sit in the two chairs in front of his desk, she can’t help but feel like one of the suspects in his cases.

“What are you two doing here?” Hopper asks, glancing at them, “Is something wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” Max shrugs. She slumps back in her chair and puts her feet up on the desk, mimicking Hopper’s pose.

“Really?” Hopper asks flatly.

El forces herself to smile, though she feels like crumbling. What if she’s the only one who can’t go on the trip? Would they go without her?

“I…uh…have to ask you something,” El states, trying to sound as confident as possible.

“Okay,” Hopper replies, eyeing her cautiously.

“I want...I want to go camping.”

“Camping?!”

“...With my friends.”

Hopper blinks at her, confused.

El takes a deep breath and without further hesitation, proceeds to spill out the entire plan, from where she’d be going (the woods near the quarry), how she’d get there (she would skate to Will’s house Saturday morning, or Hopper could drive her, if he really wanted), how long she’d be gone (they’d hike Saturday afternoon, camp in the evening, come back Sunday morning), and who would be coming with her (Max, Mike — yes, that Mike — Dustin, Lucas, and Will).

When she finally finishes, she’s slightly breathless from talking so much. As she stops to catch her breath, she crosses her fingers under her seat, hoping that her dad will be understanding.

There’s a minute of silence has Hopper processes all this information. As it starts to settle in, he takes his feet off his desk and furrows his brow.

“Let me get this straight,” Hopper finally says, leaning forward, “You want to spend a night in the woods, alone, with a bunch of teenage boys?”

“Not just teenage boys,” Max pipes up, “I’m gonna be there.”

Hopper eyes Max, most likely dwelling on the fact that that’s not the most comforting news.

“It’s for Will!” El pleadingly continues.

“Byers?”

“Yes. He used to take the trip with his brother, but now he left for college.”

Hopper nods. “Yeah, I know. I know the Byers. I…I went to high school with their mother. We were pretty close.”

Max snorts. “What, did you like her?”

Hopper and El both turn to look at Max indignantly, Hopper especially.

“Max!” El hisses, hoping that her chances of getting her dad’s approval weren’t about to be thrown away like one of Flo’s daily apples.

“I did not like her,” Hopper huffs, though he looks slightly flustered, “I’m just saying I know her, so I know her boys. Will’s a good kid.”

“He’s Mike’s best friend,” El adds quickly, “Well, one of them.”

“Is that so?” Hopper remarks. He keeps studying El, but El can’t read his expression.

“If it makes you feel better, I can be your eyes and ears the entire time, Chief,” Max offers, “I’ll make sure that El doesn’t get into any Mike-related shenanigans.”

El, cheeks burning, throws Max a dirty look. She’s not sure if that statement is going to help or hurt her chances of getting permission, and with the stoic look on Hopper’s face, there’s no way for her to tell.

It seems to work though, if the way Hopper proceeds to smile is any indication.

“I’m not that worried about Mike,” Hopper admits.

“Why not?” El frowns, not liking his tone.

Hopper hesitates. “Well, you know, he just seems kinda...”

“Like, the biggest nerd ever?” Max finishes.

Hopper hesitates again, but then nods and shrugs. “Yeah.”

Even though this is pretty much true, El can’t help but feel offended on behalf of Mike. “He is not!” She insists.

Hopper and Max only exchange knowing looks.

“He’s not!” El huffs, slumping back in her chair.

“He seems like a nice kid,” Hopper amends, sounding like he’s trying not to laugh.

“He is,” El grumbles.

Hopper gives her a small smile before stopping to think.

He’s deciding.

Another minute passes, though it feels more like an hour. El keeps her fingers crossed as her heart pounds in her chest.

Please, please, please, please!

Finally, Hopper gives a sigh and replies, grudgingly saying, “I guess you can go.”

“Really?” El replies, breath hitching.

“Only,” Hopper warms, holding up a finger, “If you promise to behave.”

He turns his finger to point it at Max. “You’ll keep an eye on Wheeler?”

“Totally!” Max nods.

“Okay.”

El leaps out of her chair and leans across the desk to give him a hug. “Thank you!” She beams, heart soaring.

Hopper returns the hug, patting El on the back. “Don’t do anything stupid, okay?”

“I won’t, I promise.”

Hopper nods and relinquishes the hug. “Alright, kid,” he replies, “You better get going, I got a lot of work to catch up with.”

“Okay!” El nods.

She and Max both prepare to exit the room, but just as El reaches the doorway, she remembers that she almost forgot one of the most important parts.

“Dad?” She asks nervously, turning to face the desk again.

Hopper glances up at her. “Yeah?”

El swallows. She’s probably asking for too much at once, but if she doesn’t do it now, she’ll miss her chance.

And so, tone mild and hesitant, she voices her next request.

“Can I have $5?”

It’s Thursday afternoon and El is standing in the parking lot of Bradley’s Big Buy with the rest of her friends.

“Alright, did everyone get the five dollars?” Mike asks, standing in front of the group.

Everyone nods, digs into their pockets, and retrieves a bill to show him.

As El shows off the $5 she was able to get from Hopper, she can’t help but smile. Now that she’s been given the all-clear from her dad, she feels as if she can finally allow herself to be excited.

While they were planning the trip on Wednesday, Dustin pointed out that they were going to need food for their travels. Will wholeheartedly agreed, mentioning that he and Jonathan always had a great time making s’mores. Lucas worried that they wouldn’t have enough money to afford food, so Mike proposed that they all ask their parents for just $5, that way when they all put their money together, they’d have a lot.

Mike’s so smart like that, El dreamily muses, smiling at Mike as he continues to say something. What he’s saying — she’s not sure, but he looks really cute saying it. He’s wearing a blue collared sweater under his windbreaker, and El is probably enjoying the sight more than she should. As she continues to gaze at him, she takes note that his wounds from the fight have finally started to heal. While he still has scars and a few bruises, he doesn’t have to wear the band-aids anymore, and his face looks less discolored overall.

She snaps out of her lovesick daze when she realizes that Mike is now yelling at someone. She flinches, startled, and glances over her shoulder to see that Dustin and Lucas have climbed inside a shopping cart, and Max is pushing said shopping cart in figure-8’s around the parking lot.

“Holy shit!” Dustin and Lucas gleefully exclaim as Max zooms around.

“Stop! We’re gonna get kicked out!” Mike exclaims, irritated. “What are you guys even doing?!”

“We wanted to see how fast I could push them!” Max calls back as Lucas and Dustin cheer her on.

Mike sighs and frowns, but El and Will both give him comforting smiles.

“I’m sorry,” El smiles sheepishly, even though she knows that she really has nothing to do with their friends’ antics.

“It’s not your fault,” Mike grumbles.

“Don’t worry,” Will reassures them, “I know what will get them over here.” He turns and cups his hands around his mouth, but even when he proceeds to call out to the others, his voice still isn’t very loud. “If you guys don’t stop, we’re gonna get sugar-free marshmallows and whole-grain graham crackers!”

The shopping cart comes to a screeching halt.

“What?!” Dustin and Max snap, sounding disgusted.

Sure enough, that does the trick.

Five minutes later, they’re hurrying down the aisles of the grocery store together. Will pushes the cart, reading off a shopping list that he composed, while the rest of the group darts around, listening to his instructions.

They get a little bit of everything: cereal, juice boxes, water bottles, hot dogs, trail mix, potato chips, cookies, and, perhaps most importantly, plenty of supplies to make s’mores.

When the time comes to check out, they all step up towards the register and place their $5 bill into the hand of the slightly confused-looking cashier.

The money they have left over, while not much, is given to Mike. The group, despite Mike’s humble protests, insists that he should keep it so that he can start saving up for a new bike.

“Thanks, guys,” Mike blushes as everyone grabs a shopping bag and heads out the door.

“This is gonna be the best trip ever!” Dustin exclaims.

“You know, I’ve actually never been camping,” Max admits.

“How?!” Lucas gapes.

Max shrugs. “I dunno. It’s just not really something my family does.”

“Well, I’ll have to teach you then,” Lucas states, gently nudging his arm against hers.

“Fine, whatever,” Max replies with an eye roll.

El has to clamp her mouth shut in order to not giggle out loud. They like each other and it’s so obvious and—

“Are they like, dating?” Someone mumbles into her ear.

El is startled, but when she looks over her shoulder, she sees that it’s just Mike.

“Not yet,” El whispers back, eyes shining with mischief.

Mike smirks back with a small shake of his head, as if he can’t believe they aren’t together yet.

As El smiles at him, heart fluttering, she can’t help but feel the same.

El and Max both decide in advance to dress down for the camping trip. They agree to ditch the eyeshadow, hairspray, and leather jackets in exchange for softer, more comfortable attire.

When Saturday morning comes, El borrows one of her dad’s flannel jackets, which is more than enough to keep her warm, even if it is really large on her. She also decides to keep her hair natural. While she’s slightly worried about getting teased by the other guys, the whole point of this trip, at least from her standpoint, is revealing her true self to them.

Plus, it had felt amazing when Mike ran his fingers through her curly hair, so maybe, he’d like, do that again.

Hopper offers to drive her to the Byers’, which is a little surprising, since El knows he has a lot of tough case files that he’s supposed to be working on. Nevertheless, she accepts the offer gratefully. Skateboarding while also lugging a sleeping bag and heavy backpack was not a feat that she was looking forward to.

When they pull up at Will’s house, everyone else is waiting outside in the front yard. There’s an older, pretty woman with mussed brown hair talking to Will, her hands on his shoulders. She’s short, Mike’s taller than her, but she still stands out amongst the clamor of jabbering teenagers.

“Is that Will’s Mom?” El asks, turning to glance at Hopper as he pulls the car to a stop.

El’s never seen her dad look anything close to shy, but that’s the only word she can think of to describe the way he’s glancing over at Ms. Byers.

“Yeah, that’s Joyce,” he nods, hastily averting his gaze back towards El.

El eyes him. He’s acting so weird. “Do you want to talk to her?”

Hopper gives a gruff, indifferent sort of huff.

El rolls her eyes. “C’mon,” she says, stepping out of the car.

Hopper composes himself and follows El. As they approach the group, her friends turn to greet them excitedly.

“You’re here!” Mike beams.

“Finally!” Max grins.

“HOLY SHIT! Your hair!” Dustin squawks. “What happened?!”

“Dude!” Lucas snaps, punching Dustin in the arm, “Shut up!”

“I think it looks nice,” Will states, giving Dustin a disapproving frown.

El feels her cheeks start to burn as she shyly tucks a curl behind her ear. “Thank you.”

“Yeah, it does,” Dustin quickly adds, rubbing his arm, “You look great!”

Joyce steps forward to give El a warm hug. “You must be Eleanor,” she says, pulling back to examine El’s face.

El nods shyly. “Yes.”

“Will’s told me so much about you,” she continues, “More than your dad has, anyway.”

Hopper, who’s been hovering on the sidelines this whole time, flushes pink at this. “‘Hello’ to you too,” he grumbles.

Joyce gently pulls away from El and moves to stand in front of Hopper. Her smallness compared to Hopper’s largeness makes for an interesting contrast, to say the least. Will’s Mom has to crane her neck way back to even make eye contact with Hopper.

“Hopp,” she smiles.

“Joyce,” Hopper smiles back.

Will’s Mom steps forward to give Hopper a hug, though her face only meets his upper torso.

El frowns, still a little confused as to how weird they’re acting. She turns to glance at Will, hoping for an explanation, but he looks just as puzzled as she does.

As Hopper and Joyce begin exchanging pleasantries, El steps closer to her friends. Everyone’s sporting bulging backpacks, bundled in warm coats, and carrying a sleeping bag under their arm.

Max is wearing a beanie with a large pom-pom on the top. The pom-pom bounces around as Max tilts her head to the side, and El has to force herself to not laugh at how funny it looks. “I’m pretty sure your dad likes Will’s mom,” she comments, eyeing Hopper and Joyce.

Will’s brow furrows in confusion, but he shakes it off, instead turning his attention back to El. “Is that a camera?” He asks, motioning to El’s torso.

El glances down where indeed, she has her Polaroid camera hanging around her neck. It’s kind of a bulky thing, but she loves using it to take photos of her and Max whenever they hang out. “Yes,” she nods, smiling at Will, “I wanted to take pictures.”

“Me too!” Will enthuses, pointing to the camera hanging around his own neck.

El’s eyes widen curiously as she leans in to look at Will’s camera. It’s different from hers; it has a bigger lens and more buttons to work with.

“It’s a 35 millimeter Pentax MX,” Will says proudly, “It’s Jonathan’s old camera; he let me have it when he got a newer one.”

“Where does the picture come out?” El frowns.

“It doesn’t, you have to develop it,” Will explains, “I can show you sometime, we have a dark room in the school for it!”

“We should get a picture of all of us,” Mike smiles, “Before we leave.”

“El could use an updated one,” Max mutters wryly.

El gives her a warning look, but thankfully, no one else seems to have noticed her comment.

“Good idea!” Will nods. He walks over to his mom, gently tugs on her arm, and asks her to take their picture.

As Will walks her through how to use the camera, El and the others drop their things and huddle together. El and Max stand in the middle with Mike and Lucas at their sides, respectively. Dustin crouches in front of them, and as soon as Will hands the camera to Joyce, he runs over to crouch beside Dustin.

As Mike wraps his arm around El’s back, she shivers, and not just because the morning is a little cold.

“Alright,” Joyce announces happily, peering into the viewfinder as she aims the camera at the group, “Smile!”

Everyone smiles, leans closer together, and the camera flashes. The flare leaves El’s vision dotted with colorful splotches for a moment, and she has to blink several times to get them to go away.

“You all look so cute!” Joyce gushes, causing Will to blush.

“Mom!” He bashfully whines. As he runs over to get his camera back, everyone else picks up their backpacks and sleeping bags again.

“We should probably get going,” Lucas reminds them, glancing at his watch, “It’s already after 11 o’clock.”

“Yeah, and I wanna eat the snacks,” Dustin chimes in.

“You already did!” Max snaps.

“Uh, no!?”

“Uh, yeah? Someone opened the box of Fruit Loops!”

“Oh, yeah,” Mike hesitates, “That was me.”

“What?!” Max exclaims.

“I got hungry!” Mike defends.

“El,” Max gripes, “Tell your boyfriend to stop digging into all our food like a weirdo.”

“He’s not my boyfriend!” El insists at the same time that Mike stammers, “I-I’m not her boyfriend!”

Max, Lucas, and Dustin all exchange doubtful stares just as Will rejoins the group.

“What’d I miss?” Will asks, glancing at everyone.

“Nothing new,” Dustin snickers, “We’re just ready to go.”

Hopper and Joyce step forward to wish the kids goodbye. As Joyce fretfully lists off a series of reminders for Will (all of to which Will replies, “Yeah, I know Mom”), El moves in to hug her dad goodbye.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Hopper mumbles, patting the back of her head.

“Tomorrow,” El agrees.

They pull away, Hopper gives her one last smile, and El waves goodbye.

“Let’s go!” Lucas says eagerly.

“Hopefully we won’t get murdered,” Max jokes.

As they enter the forest that surrounds Will’s house, their feet crunch against the fallen leaves and their backpacks brush against protruding tree branches. Even though the morning is cold, the sky is a clear, vibrant blue.

“We won’t get murdered; there’s no serial killers out here,” Will sighs as he takes the lead.

“Other than Mike,” Dustin snorts, “He totally killed all those Fruit Loops.”

Everyone but Mike gets a good laugh out of that, Max especially.

“Wheeler’s a cereal killer!” Max cackles, shaking from how hard she’s laughing.

“Yeah, I got that,” Mike replies flatly.

The camping site isn’t too far from Will’s house — it only takes a little over an hour until they’re there. Will leads them to a small, secluded clearing. Trees stretch on for miles, their branches curving over the clearing, almost protecting the stop. Sunlight filters through the branches, causing the ground of the clearing to look like a mosaic of light and leaves. In the distance, El can make out the rocky bluffs of the Quarry’s edge. The air is tinged with the faint scent of clean, crisp freshwater, musky oak trees, and sticky sap.

“Well, here we are!” Will announces, motioning around the clearing, “This is the spot Jonathan and I always come to. It’s right by the Quarry, and there’s plenty of firewood, and—“

“Isn’t this place right by the kissing rock?” Max interrupts, looking around the forest skeptically.

Will pauses and frowns. “The what?”

“I think she’s right,” Dustin nods, “I mean, I’ve never been there, but I heard it’s in the woods right next to the Quarry.”

“It is!” Max nods, “I’m pretty sure it’s like…a 5-minute walk from here.”

“What’s a kissing rock?” El asks, brow furrowing in confusion.

“It’s this big boulder by the edge of the quarry where all the kids at school go to like…kiss,” Lucas explains, blushing.

“Where all the lame kids go,” Max corrects.

“I mean, I guess we’re by it then?” Will pouts, “I dunno.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Mike huffs, setting down his things, “It’s not like any of us are gonna—“

His voice trails off, and El suddenly realizes that he’s glancing at her. When El sees that he’s doing this, and Mike sees that El sees that he’s doing this, they both look away from each other quickly, cheeks crimson.

“Whatever,” Max sighs, shrugging the entire conversation off, “Let’s just unpack.”

Everyone else nods and proceeds to do so.

It takes the entire first half of the afternoon to set up camp. Will designates that they leave the center of the clearing for building the fire, so everyone else sets up their sleeping bags in a radial formation around it (first Lucas, then Max, then El, then Mike, then Will, and finally Dustin). After the sleeping bags are rolled out, the group proceeds to hike into the woods in search of sticks and stones for the fire pit.

The forest floor is covered with a thick layer of dead leaves, and El has to kick them all out of the way to find the stray twigs and sticks hidden beneath. As she bundles sticks into her arms, she tries to formulate a way to reveal her powers. She wants to tell them at just the right time and place, but there doesn’t seem to be any organic way to work it into the conversation.

By the time they finish gathering enough supplies to make the fire, it’s already late afternoon, and El’s mind is still as blank as ever.

“Okay,” Will says as soon as they return to the clearing, “We should probably get the fire going.”

“Already?” Lucas questions.

Will nods. “It’ll keep us warm, and it’s kind of hard to start one once it’s really dark out.”

El’s pretty sure that they’re all eager for a heat source right now, so Will doesn’t need to tell them twice to help him build a fire pit. They follow his instructions eagerly, setting up a circle of stones in the middle of their clearing and placing a pile of sticks and dead leaves inside.

“Great, so, how do we get it started?” Mike asks once they’re done.

“We’ll just use some matches,” Will shrugs. He gets up, goes to kneel beside his backpack, and starts digging through it.

“Can we make s’mores?” Dustin asks, “I’m really hungry.”

“Those are for after dinner!” Lucas disputes.

“Says who?”

“Says…I don’t know! Rational people!”

“We could have s’mores for lunch,” El points out, “And then again after dinner.”

“Yes!” Dustin beams at El, “That sounds like the best idea ever.”

“You guys are gonna get a stomach ache,” Mike smiles wryly.

“It’d be worth it,” Dustin insists, “I wanna eat nothing but s’mores for the rest of my life.”

“What about baloney sandwiches?” Max counters dryly.

“Those too.”

“Hey, guys?” Will calls out, still rummaging through his backpack, “Did you guys take the matches?”

“No,” Mike frowns, “Why?”

“I can’t find them!” Will says worriedly, turning to look back at the group.

“Are you serious?” Lucas groans.

“I’m sorry!” Will frets, starting to shake a little. “I think I forgot them!”

“Hey, it’s okay!” Mike insists. He rushes over to Will’s side and gently places his hand on Will’s shoulder. “It was an accident!”

“An accident that’s gonna leave us cold and hungry,” Lucas mutters under his breath.

“What should we do?” El asks, trying to remain calm.

“We could try to start one without matches!” Dustin offers, “You just gotta rub two sticks together! I saw someone do it on TV once!”

“If we wait for that to happen, we’ll all freeze to death,” Max snorts.

“Well, do you have a better idea?” Dustin snaps crossly.

“Uh, yeah? It’s going back to Will’s house and getting the matches!”

“But that’s like, an hour long walk!” Mike points out, “Plus another hour back! That’s two hours!”

“I know,” Max huffs, “I’ll do it.” She walks over to where she’d set her things down, picks up her backpack, and slings it over her shoulders.

“But it’s dangerous to go alone!” Lucas hesitates.

“Then come with me,” Max shrugs.

“Me?”

“Didn’t you go to karate camp?”

“Karate camp?” Lucas echoes, confused.

“Remember?” Max raises an eyebrow. “Jennifer’s party? Dustin told me you spent all of last summer at karate camp.”

Dustin and Lucas exchange quick glances. “Right!” They both exclaim, nodding quickly.

El doesn’t remember any of this, but she’s pretty sure the boys are lying. Either way, the whole situation is pretty amusing, and she can’t help but snort into her palm.

“Then let’s go,” Max orders, already starting to walk off, “I wanna get back before it gets dark.”

“Okay!” Lucas nods, grabbing his backpack before hurrying after her.

“You better not die!” Dustin calls out after them, “If this really is a horror movie, one of you probably isn’t going to make it back!”

“Dustin!” Mike scolds.

“What!? I’m just stating the facts!”

“You’re being dramatic.”

“I’m sorry,” Will mumbles woefully, “This is all my fault.”

“You make a mistake,” El reassures him, “It’s not that bad.”

Will only pouts in response, still seeming pretty resentful of both the situation and himself.

Mike turns to glance at El, looking pretty helpless.

El racks her mind, trying to think of a way to cheer Will up. “Why don’t we take some pictures?” She offers, motioning to both of their cameras.

“Of what?” Will asks curiously.

El shrugs as she glances around their surroundings. “Everything.”

Will hesitates, seemingly unsure, but then El raises her camera. “Like you!” She smiles, snapping a picture of Will and Mike.

“El!” Mike exclaims, looking frantic, “I wasn’t even ready!”

El catches the polaroid as it slowly prints out of her camera. “I know,” she smiles teasingly, slipping the photo into her pocket.

Will smiles back, looking more excited. “Okay!” He nods, rising to his feet.

Time passes by quickly as Will and El explore the clearing together, snapping pictures of everything. The weirdly-shaped knot on a tree trunk, the dandelion peeking out amongst the dead leaves, the squirrel sitting on a tree branch. Mike and Dustin follow them around as they work, pointing out all the potential subjects of interest (including themselves).

Before long, the two hours has nearly passed. The sun is a little lower in the sky and the air has grown colder, but they’re having too much fun to notice.

At least, they are until they’re abruptly interrupted by the sound of a high-pitched, terrified scream. It echoes through the trees, causing some birds to fly off with a frightened squawk.

“Shit!” Dustin hisses, eyes wide, “What the hell was that?”

“Someone screamed,” Mike replies, balling his fists.

“Was that Max?” Will asks worriedly.

“I’m not sure,” El frowns, “It didn’t sound like her.”

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god! We’re gonna die!” Dustin exclaims, clutching the sides of his head, “I knew this would happen! I told you, we’re tempting the horror fates and now we’re all gonna get picked off one by one and—“

Dustin’s interrupted by the sound of twigs snapping.

There’s a collective gasp as they all jolt in both surprise and fear.

Someone’s coming closer.

El takes a deep breath and prepares to raise her hand. This isn’t how she planned on revealing her powers, but she’s more than willing to do so if it means keeping her friends safe.

As it turns out, her determined gallantry is for naught. Moments later, Lucas marches into the clearing and everyone breathes a sigh of relief.

“Son of a bitch, Lucas, you scared the shit out of us,” Dustin says, slumping his shoulders.

Lucas doesn’t reply. Instead he looks annoyed. Really annoyed. He drops his backpack onto the ground with a grumpy huff, not really making eye contact with anyone.

“Did you get the matches?” Will asks hesitantly.

“Yes!” Lucas snaps, sounding just as irritated as he looks.

El doesn’t know why Lucas is so upset, but moments later she gets her answer when Max rushes into the clearing. She’s holding a box of matches in one hand and a metallic, sharp-looking object in the other.

“C’mon, Lucas!” Max laughs, “Are you still pissed off at me?”

“Yes!” Lucas scowls, crossing his arms.

“Wait, what happened?” Mike questions, glancing at both of them.

“When we were walking back, Max thought it’d be funny to hide behind some bushes and jump out at me!” Lucas snaps bitterly. “She snuck off, and I thought she was hurt or something, but no! She just wanted to scare me! With a knife!”

“It was funny!” Max counters, “You screamed like a girl!”

“You had a knife?” El frowns.

“It’s not even a real knife!” Max defends, “It’s from my old Michael Myers costume.”

“Why did you bring it?”

“Just in case,” Max shrugs.

“It doesn’t matter!” Lucas replies brusquely, “It wasn’t funny!”

“I thought it was!”

“Well, you thought wrong!” Lucas dismisses.

With that, he storms off again, disappearing amongst the countless trees that surround the clearing. He leaves both a tangibly awkward silence and a worried-looking Max in his wake.

“Here,” Max mutters surly, tossing the box of matches to the guys.

Mike, Dustin, and Will exchange uncomfortable glances, but ultimately decide to turn their attention back to the main task at hand: starting the fire.

El, on the other hand, walks over to Max, not wanting to leave her feeling upset. “Are you okay?” She asks gently.

“Not really,” Max grumbles.

“It’s ok,” El murmurs, placing a comforting hand on Max’s shoulder. “It was just a prank.”

“I didn’t think he’d get so mad,” Max mutters, not looking directly at El.

El pauses. Even though she doesn’t want to hurt Max’s feelings, she ultimately decides that it’d be best to tell her the truth.

“You pretend to not like things, even though you do,” El states, making sure to keep her voice low.

“That’s not true!” Max protests.

“It is,” El nods, not bothering to waste time further arguing this fact, “I know it. But Lucas doesn’t. He doesn’t know that you teasing him so much is good. You tease him because you like him, but I think…he might think you’re doing it to be mean to him.”

Max’s head droops as she silently considers this.

“I think you should be honest with him,” El advises.

“Be honest?”

“Tell him how you feel.”

“Like…that I like him?” Max gulps, looking terrified.

“That you don’t hate him.”

“Oh.”

El watches as Max shuffles in place, contemplating what to do.

“I guess you’re right,” Max finally admits. She drops her backpack, tosses her prop knife onto her sleeping bag, and turns to smile gratefully at El. “I’ll go talk to him.”

“Good luck,” El smiles back, giving Max a reassuring hug.

Max nods before darting off, running off in the same direction that Lucas had.

El’s smile falters as an uneasy feeling starts to churn in her gut. As she turns to rejoin the others, she can’t help but feel incredibly guilty. Here she is, telling Max that she needs to be honest with Lucas, and yet, she still hasn’t managed to tell her friends about her powers. She’s a giant hypocrite.

Will has the beginnings of a small fire going. There’s a faint trail of smoke streaming from the fire pit, and the sound of crackling leaves fills the air.

“Wouldn’t it be awesome if we didn’t even need matches?” Dustin comments as Will gently blows into the glowing embers.

“What do you mean?” Mike frowns, eyeing Dustin.

“Like, if I had superpowers,” Dustin elaborates, “Like Pyro.”

“Pyro?” El blanches, wondering if that’s some kind of codename. Does Dustin know? How did he figure it out? Did Mike or Max tell him? No, they wouldn’t, not without telling her that they’d told him—

“From the X-Men comics?” Dustin offers.

“Oh,” El flushes. Even though she feels slightly dumb for rushing to judgment, she’s still left rattled. She just doesn’t know how to tell them. It has to be as normal as possible, with seems highly improbable. She almost wishes that it was a serial killer that’d walked out of the trees, and not Lucas. At least then she wouldn’t have to use any words.

Even though El’s trying to remain outwardly calm, Mike seems to notice how anxious she looks, because he suddenly gets up and walks over to her.

“Do you wanna talk?” He whispers.

El meets his eye and nods gratefully. “Please.”

“Okay,” Mike murmurs before turning back to Will and Dustin to announce, “We’re gonna be right back!”

“Sure you are,” Dustin snorts.

Mike rolls his eyes indifferent and doesn’t reply, instead grasping El’s hand and leading her off down a forest trail.

El blushes as their fingers intertwine, but she accepts the comforting gesture gratefully. “I’m sorry,” she mumbles as soon as Dustin and Will are out of earshot.

“For what?” Mike asks concernedly.

“For being so nervous,” El answers, “I just..I don’t know how to tell them. I don’t want to just blurt it out.”

“You don’t have to be sorry for being nervous,” Mike reminds her, “I would be nervous, too.”

El nods, grasping Mike’s hand a little tighter. She remembers how shocked Dustin had been upon seeing her hair this morning. If curly hair had been enough to make him shout HOLY SHIT, she could only imagine how learning she had powers would make him react.

“Well, there’s no pressure to do it right now,” Mike points out, “We can wait until the night, that way you’ll have more time to think about what you want to say.”

El glances upwards, towards the sky. The blue sky is already beginning to fade. The days feel so much shorter as November draws closer. Waiting until the night still doesn’t give her much time.

“It’ll be okay, I promise,” Mike assures her, giving her hand a squeeze.

“Okay,” El murmurs.

It’s not until El pauses and looks around that she realizes they’ve walked a pretty good distance away from the camp. They’ve exited the wooded area and are now standing on the rocky terrain that surrounds the top of the quarry. There are large boulders scattered about, and El realizes that one of them is probably the kissing rock.

Oh.

El feels herself flush pink as she cautiously turns to glance at Mike. He seems to be thinking the same thing, if the way he’s flushing bright red is any indignation.

El bites her lip shyly, and Mike turns to meet her gaze. “Maybe we should—“ He begins.

“Yes?” El asks hopefully.

Mike swallows, still blushing like crazy, but then his gaze moves to something just beyond El’s shoulder. “Holy shit!” He whispers, eyes widening.

El pales. “What?”

“Look!” Mike says, still whispering. He uses the hand that’s not intertwined with hers to point behind her, and El cautiously turns around to look.

She spots two figures sitting on a large rock about 20 or so feet away. At first she can’t tell who it is, but then she spots that silly pom-pom hat and the long, vibrant red hair tucked underneath it.

Max. Talking to…Lucas. Their heads are ducked low together, deep in conversation. Since they’re so far away, El can’t make out what they’re saying.

“What are they doing?” Mike murmurs.

“She was going to say sorry,” El murmurs back, “For scaring him.”

“Oh.”

El hesitates, unsure of whether or not she and Mike should leave. She can’t help but feel like they’ve walked in on something, even if Max and Lucas are just talking.

She’s just about to voice this concern to Mike when suddenly, without any hesitation, Max shakes her head, cups Lucas’ cheeks in her hands, pulls him towards her, and presses her lips to his in a firm kiss.

El hears a gasp, and she’s not quite sure if it’s from her or Mike. Maybe both of them. Either way, her brain seems to have stopped working, because she’s instantly overwhelmed with surprise, happiness, and excitement all at the same time.

“She kissed him!” El whispers gleefully, turning to beam at Mike.

“I can see that,” Mike replies bashfully, averting his eyes away from the still lip-locked couple.

El bounces in place excitedly, squeezing Mike’s hand in order to keep herself steady. “On the kissing rock!”

“Where all the ‘lame’ kids go,” Mike jokes, pitching his voice higher in what is apparently his best Max impression.

El giggles as she gives Mike a gentle, chiding nudge.

A beat of silence passes as they both turn to steal one more glance at Max and Lucas.

“We should probably go,” Mike whispers, motioning his head in their direction.

“Yes,” El nods, still beaming.

Mike, still clutching her hand, pulls her back into the woods. As they hurry back to camp, El just can’t stop giggling. She’s just so happy for her best friend that there aren’t even enough words to express it.

By the time she and Mike reach the clearing, the sky is a rich ochre and a few crickets have begun to chirp. Dustin and Will have successfully gotten a fire going, and the flickering flames cast dancing shadows against the surrounding trees.

El and Mike release each other’s hands and come to sit beside the fire, both grinning from ear-to-ear.

“What’s so funny?” Will asks, eyeing them suspiciously.

“Nothing!” El smiles.

“Ugh, ew, I don’t even wanna know what you guys just did,” Dustin frowns, wrinkling his nose. “It’s probably going to ruin my s’mores appetite.”

“It’s not like that,” Mike insists, throwing Dustin a look.

“Uh, huh. Whatever you say, Mike.”

Thankfully, neither Dustin or Will presses them for any further information, and instead focus on setting up the fire for hot dog roasting.

15 minutes later, Max and Lucas rejoin the group. As they step into the clearing, El studies them carefully. If she hadn’t seen them kissing with her own eyes, she never would have guessed that they had. Their expressions are neutral and they’re not holding hands or anything. Lucas’ cheeks look a little more flushed than usual, but that’s about it.

“What took you guys so long?” Dustin asks as Max and Lucas come to sit with everyone else.

“We just talked for awhile,” Max shrugs, grabbing a roasting stick and a hot dog. She comes to sit beside El, face completely unreadable.

“How did your talk go?” El quietly asks, making sure to keep her tone nonchalant.

“Fine,” Max breezily murmurs back. “He’s not mad anymore.”

“That’s not surprising,” El mutters under her breath.

“What?” Max asks, sounding confused.

“Nothing!” El quickly amends, “I’m glad you talked.”

Max eyes her warily but ultimately turns her attention back to the fire pit. “Me too,” she says, and even though El knows Max’s trying to hide it, there’s no missing the faint smile pulling at the corners of her lips.

“—And with that, the creature gave off a final screech, dragging his last victim into the night,” Dustin concludes dramatically.

“How the hell is that a scary story?” Max snaps.

“Because the dog turned into a giant, killer lizard!” Dustin defends.

It’s long after nightfall. The forest is pitch black and the only light comes from the crackling fire.

After the hot dog roast and the seemingly endless, completely delicious s’mores feast, Max suggested that they all tell scary stories. They all gathered around the campfire, seated atop their sleeping bags, faces illuminated by the glow of the warm flames. Max had kicked things off with a story about a deranged killer with a hook for a hand that stalked the forests of Hawkins. After that, any story would have really paled in comparison, but Dustin’s tale of a boy adopting a dog that secretly turned out to be a lizard seemed especially weak.

“Lizards aren’t scary,” Max snorts.

“They can be!” Dustin insists. He turns to glance at the rest of the group for validation. “Right?”

“Not really,” Will yawns, looking a little sleepy.

“Well, it was a killer lizard,” Dustin reminds them.

El is trying to focus on the stories, she really is, but her mind is still elsewhere. She feels like she’s not actively engaging with her friends, but rather, waiting on the sidelines, praying for a way to work her confession into the conversation.

“Killer lizards are still just lizards,” Lucas says, shaking his head, “They’re not scary.”

“What about Godzilla?” Dustin points out.

“You didn’t say it turned into Godzilla,” Lucas counters.

“What do you think, Mike?” Dustin asks.

“Honestly?” Mike shrugs, “When you said killer lizard, all I could picture is that newt Mr. Clarke had in the terrarium back in 8th grade. With like…little fangs.”

The conversation is going nowhere. Nowhere near telekinesis, at least. El realizes that she probably gave up her perfect chance when Dustin had mentioned the X-men, and instantly hates herself for it. She had her opportunity practically handed to her, but she’d freaked out and given it up. She could be such a knucklehead…

“El?” Dustin pleads, turning to her, “Please tell me that you think my story was scary. You’re my only hope!”

“Now you’re quoting Star Wars?” Max smirks.

“Now you’re recognizing Star Wars?” Dustin smirks back.

“I am not!” Max insists.

“You literally just did!”

“Are you even gonna let El answer?” Mike huffs.

They’re all growing a little louder, and little more heated, and all the commotion is making El’s head hurt.

“Does El need to answer?” Max snorts, “Literally nobody thought that story was scary.”

“And your hook-hand story was?” Dustin glowers.

“Uh, yeah!”

“Uh, no! Having a hook for a hand isn’t scary!”

“Yes, it is!”

“Captain Hook has a hook for a hand!” Dustin points out, “And he’s from a kids’ movie!”

“Can you guys please stop fighting?” Will pleads, “It’s getting kind of late.”

“Dustin is the one who keeps on arguing!” Max insists.

“Am not!” Dustin argues, “It’s not my fault her opinions are wrong!”

“Your opinions aren’t facts, Dustin!” Lucas retorts.

El doesn’t know what comes over her. She just wants everyone to stop arguing over their dumb stories, and her head hurts, and she’s just so frustrated and tired of trying to wait for the perfect moment that’s probably never going to come. And so, before she can’t stop to second-guess herself, she just blurts it out.

“I’m a telekinetic!” She bursts.

That shuts everyone up quickly.

Mike and Max’s heads snap over to El, looking startled. Will sits up a little straighter, suddenly looking less tired. Lucas and Dustin both freeze, eyes wide.

“Wait, what’d you say?” Dustin asks, cautiously.

“El?!” Mike hisses, sounding confused. Since his sleeping bag is located next to hers, he’s able to reach out and grab her arm in a protective manner.

El gently shrugs him off with a shake of her head. Even though she’d initially pleaded for Mike’s help, she now knows that she needs to do this on her own. She needs to come to term with her abilities once and for all, no more hiding, no more secrets.

“I’m a telekinetic,” she repeats, keeping her gaze locked on her friends, “I have superpowers.”

Lucas, Will, and Dustin exchange confused glances. They look at Max and Mike for some sort of explanation, but Mike and Max only have eyes for El. They both give her encouraging nods, silently showing their support.

“Wait, are you being serious?” Lucas questions, looking hesitant.

El nods solemnly.

“A telekinetic?” Will asks slowly, “Like…you can move stuff with your mind?”

El hesitates. The easiest way to get them to understand is going to be by showing them. Taking a deep breath, she raises her hand, points it at the fire pit, and uses her powers to raise one of the burning sticks into the air. As it hovers before their eyes, spinning slowly, flickering embers crackle off the stick and drift off into the cold night air, extinguishing with a faint whisper.

After several seconds, she relinquishes her hold on the stick and allows it to fall back into the flames.

“Holy shit,” Lucas breathes, looking floored.

“That’s so cool,” Will whispers, eyes wide with wonder.

Dustin, shockingly, still hasn’t talked. He seems to be responding in the same way that Mike did: stupefied, unadulterated shock. His jaw is hanging open, his eyes are nearly bugging out of his head, and for a moment El worries that she might have broken him.

“H-how?” He finally manages to stammer.

El proceeds to give them an abridged version of her history, starting from growing up in the lab, escaping with Hopper, becoming his legal daughter, and finally joining their class in the 6th grade. She explains how her powers work, how she was the one who saved them at Jennifer’s party, how she broke Troy’s arm. By the time she’s finished, she’s left emotionally exhausted and slightly out-of-breath, but satisfied all the same.

“Oh my god,” Dustin whispers, still frozen in place.

“That’s so COOL!” Lucas exclaims, “Like, holy shit!”

“Right!?” Mike beams, “El’s amazing!”

“Wait, you knew?” Will asks, looking surprised.

“She told me last week,” Mike nods.

“And you didn’t tell us?” Lucas exclaims, sounding a little offended.

“I told him not to,” El cuts in.

“Why didn’t you tell us sooner?” Will asks curiously.

“Because,” El mumbles, suddenly feeling a little sheepish, “I…I didn’t like being different. I wanted to be normal, like you guys.”

“Us? Normal?” Lucas jokes.

“You know what I mean,” El smiles wryly, “I didn’t want to be a freak.”

“Well, you’re definitely not a freak,” Dustin beams. It appears that his mouth has finally started working again, as he proceeds to ramble quickly and excitedly. “You’re so awesome! Like, the coolest person ever! You’re like a wizard, or a superhero, or Yoda!”

“Or a mage,” Mike adds affectionately, giving El a playful nudge.

“Yeah!” Dustin gushes, before pausing and adding, “Oh my god, I’m so sorry I that ever called you our enemy, and a murderer, and a Drow!”

“What?” El frowns.

“Nothing!” Dustin hastily backtracks. “I just…uh..I’m really happy you’re our friend.”

“Me too,” Will nods, “And not just because of your powers. You were always nice to us, even when we judged you at first.”

El flushes pink, unsure of how to react to the unexpected slew of compliments. “I’m happy we’re friends too,” she murmurs, ducking her head shyly.

“Just so you guys know, we can’t tell anyone else about El’s powers,” Mike pipes up, “We have to keep it a secret, just between all of us.”

“Of course!” Will nods.

“I’ll never tell anyone!” Lucas agrees.

“Never!” Dustin insists.

El feels her heart swell with happiness. The feeling of finally feeling accepted not only by her friends, but by herself, radiates within her, leaving her warm and bubbly inside.

She reaches out to grasp Max’s hand. Max smiles and blushingly grabs Lucas’ hand. Then Lucas grabs Dustin’s, Dustin grabs Will’s, Will grabs Mike’s, and Mike finally closes the circle by grasping El’s free hand.

As they all grasp each other’s hands tightly, huddled around the warm light of the fire, no further words need to be said. They’re friends, but their bond isn’t like everyone else’s. Their friendship isn’t the kind that’ll just dissipate after high school or over a silly argument. It’s the kind that’ll keep them all connected for years to come, through good times and bad times, through whatever toils they’ll have to face.

El isn’t sure how she knows all this, since she can’t see into the future, or anything, but as she smiles at each of them, she knows that it’s true. She can hear it in her heart like a whisper, like a promise, reminding her that this moment is one she’ll remember.

It’s the start of the rest of her life.

The night is calm and the forest is still. Off in the distance, the reverberating hoot of an owl echoes through the trees.

El’s not sure what time it is, but she knows it’s late. Everyone else is nestled inside their sleeping bags and the fire has died down to its last glowing coals. Consequently, it’s cold. Very cold. Despite her sleeping bag, flannel jacket, and thick sweater, El feels the chill settle into every pore. It makes it hard to sleep, and while El definitely doesn’t regret coming on this camping trip, she’d be lying if she said she didn’t miss her warm bed and soft quilt.

She flips onto her side, hoping that maybe if she moves around a little, she’ll be able to keep warm.

It doesn’t work.

El sighs and flips onto her other side. She’s now facing Mike, who’s bundled up inside his sleeping bag less than a foot away from her. Since he’s situated so close to her, she’s able to make out his features in the faded silvery light of the moon. As she shuffles around, she sees his eyes flutter open.

“Mike? Are you awake?” El whispers, even though it’s pretty obvious that he is.

“Yeah,” Mike whispers back, locking eyes with her.

“What time is it?”

Mike shuffles a bit around before he manages to pull his arm out of his sleeping bag. “Like, 3 am?” He whispers, eyeing his watch.

“Oh.”

“Can’t sleep?”

El shakes her head.

“Me neither.”

“It’s just...it’s pretty cold,” El murmurs, shivering slightly.

“Yeah,” Mike agrees with a quirked smile, “I guess that’s what happens when you go camping in the fall.”

El nods and wraps her sleeping bag more tightly around herself. Even though she doesn’t want to look like a dopey weakling in front of Mike, she can’t stop her teeth from chattering.

“You look really cold,” Mike murmurs concernedly.

“I’m o-okay,” El lies, “I j-just need to f-fall asleep.”

Mike looks her over for a moment before his cheeks start to flush red. “Maybe,” he begins, voice cracking a little, “You could, like...uh...”

“W-what?” El shivers.

Mike smiles nervously. “Like...come over here?”

Now El’s the one blushing bright red. “N-next to you?”

“There’s room,” Mike explains, looking flustered, “And you’d be warmer.”

That’s definitely true. El’s not even next to him yet, and already she feels incredibly warm (mostly from blushing so much, though).

“Okay,” El whispers with a small shrug.

“Really?” Mike whispers back, sounding like he’s trying (and failing) to not seem too hopeful.

El nods.

With shaking hands, Mike moves his hands down to unzip the side of his sleeping bag. El quietly wriggles out of her own, crawls over to Mike, and snuggles up against him.

As Mike zips the sleeping bag closed again, El instantly feels enveloped in warmth.

Mike slides over so that El can rest her head on the pillow with him. As she wriggles upwards to do so, she can’t help but feel flustered, being pressed this close to him.

She rests her head on the pillow, shyly meeting Mike’s soft gaze. Their faces are only inches apart. As El studies his face, she can feel his warm breaths as they faintly brush against her skin.

“Hi,” she whispers teasingly.

“Hi,” Mike whispers back with a smile.

El falls silent, content with just enjoying the sight of him beside her. As she gazes at him, Mike wraps an arm around her back and starts playing with her hair. He runs his hands through it idly, almost mindlessly, and it takes everything within El to not melt on the spot. She’d give up anything to just spend the rest of eternity in this moment, snuggled beside Mike, his fingers nestled in her curls.

She gives off a contented sigh before she’s able to stop herself. As she relishes in this moment, her vision starts to seem a little hazy. Nevertheless, she does her best to take in every last one of his features: his warm, chocolate-brown eyes, his ruffled dark hair, his pink, though still faintly bruised lips, and of course, his freckles.

The sky above them is glittering tapestry of stars, way more stars than what El’s used to seeing in town. As she examines Mike’s face more closely, she realizes that the freckles on his cheeks remind her of constellations.

She’s definitely losing her mind.

“What are you thinking?” Mike murmurs, twisting a strand of her hair around his pointer finger.

“Your freckles are like stars,” El mumbles, not caring how insane she must sound.

Mike doesn’t say anything, he only nods, but it seems like he gets what she means. Either that or he’s just too nice to call her out on how weird she is.

The longer El gazes at him, the more she feels drawn to him. She wonders if it’s possible for people to be made up of magic, even if they don’t have superpowers. Mike has to be. The way he makes her feel is unlike anything she’s ever experienced before. Surely, if his cheeks are dotted with constellations, then his insides must radiate with stardust.

She’s getting pulled closer into his embrace, deeper into his orbit, and El realizes that she’s tired of wasting time. Her eyes close as she carefully leans in and presses her lips to his cheek.

It almost feels like the first kiss she gave him, only this one is far better. The first time, he’d just laid in bed, lifeless and cold. Now, while still a little cold, El can hear his breath hitch in awed wonder and feel his eyelashes flutter against hers.

It’s an intoxicating feeling, and El, feeling emboldened by his awestruck reaction, moves her lips down to press them against the corner of his mouth.

It’s not a kiss, not quite — her lips land more against his jaw than anywhere else — but it’s close. Very close. Close enough to make Mike’s breath hitch in another faint gasp.

Maybe the gasps aren’t a good thing though.

El pulls back to examine his face, suddenly worried that she might have overstepped her bounds. “I’m sorry,” she murmurs, looking a little embarrassed.

“Don’t be,” Mike murmurs back, shaking his head ever-so-slightly. His eyes seem almost glazed over, like he’s somewhere in between waking and dreaming. His fingers curl more tightly in her hair, slowly pulling her closer to him.

El feels light-headed, but in the best of ways, like she’s floating. Like the only sense of gravity she possesses is the force that’s pulling her closer to Mike, slowly narrowing the gap between their parted lips. Just a couple centimeters closer, and—

“Oh my god,” Dustin’s voice grouses, “Are you guys making out?”

Mike and El jump apart as quickly and jerkily as is they’d both been hit with an electric shock. Since they’re both still stuck inside the sleeping bag, they don’t manage to get that far apart, and only wind up accidentally elbowing each other instead.

“DUSTIN?” Mike yelps, “You’re awake?”

“No, Mike, I’m clearly asleep right now,” Dustin replies dryly.

Oh, god. Dustin’s awake and he’s heard everything, including that El thinks Mike’s freckles look like stars. She instantly wants nothing more than to jump off the edge of the Quarry.

“We weren’t making out!” El blushingly insists. She’s thankful it’s dark out — at least Dustin can’t see how humiliated she looks right now.

“You better not be,” Max suddenly pipes up, “Because the first teenagers to get it on in a horror movie always die first.”

“W-what!?” El stammers.

“MAX!?” Mike again yelps.

“Mike,” Max mimics in a whiny voice, “I couldn’t sleep over the sound of your mush-fest.”

“How many people are awake?!” Mike demands, sounding mortified.

“Like, all of us,” Lucas admits.

“Yup,” Will concludes.

“You’ve all been listening this entire time!?” Mike exclaims, “And you didn’t say anything?!”

The rest of their friends all shuffle inside their sleeping bags as they make an indifferent sort of mumble.

“Oh my god,” Mike mutters.

Oh no, no, no. This is officially the most embarrassing thing ever.

“Great,” El mumbles, turning to bury her face in the pillow.

“You guys are pretty cute,” Lucas snickers.

“And you guys are pretty much hypocrites!” Mike grumbles.

“How?!” Lucas counters.

“If this was a horror movie, El and I wouldn’t be the first people to get killed off, it’d be you and Max!” Mike explains bitterly, “‘Cause you guys totally made out on the kissing rock!”

As everyone falls silent, the sound of chirping crickets fills the air.

“Wait...you guys kissed?” Will asks.

“Um,” Lucas hesitates.

“Fine!” Max snaps, “We did! It wasn’t a big deal!”

“It wasn’t?” Lucas asks worriedly.

“I mean,” Max pauses, sounding flustered, “I guess it was.”

“Oh my god,” Dustin groans, “I mean, I’m like happy for all of you, but you guys seriously need to get a room, like, right now.”

“A room? In the forest?” Will questions.

“Lucas and I aren’t the ones being all weird! At least we understand the concept of privacy!” Max gripes, “Instead of trying to get to second base in front of literally everyone.”

“We thought you were asleep!” El insists.

“We weren’t trying to get to second base!” Mike adds.

“Because you were already there!” Max counters.

At this point, El knows that she wouldn’t need to cuddle Mike for warmth, her entire body feels like it’s been engulfed in flames. “Let’s just go to sleep,” she pleads, “Please.”

“It’s pretty late,” Will agrees with a yawn, “We should try to get some rest.”

“Fine by me,” Max sighs, settling back down into her sleeping bag.

A beat of silence passes as everyone tries to settle down. Unsurprisingly, the silence doesn’t last long.

“Wait, so are you and Lucas dating now?” Dustin asks Max.

“Dustin!” Everyone snaps.

“Jesus!” Dustin exclaims, “Sorry! I’ll go to sleep!”

“Thank you!” Lucas sighs.

As everyone finally falls silent, El wonders if she should go back to her own sleeping bag. Maybe Mike is too embarrassed to do this anymore.

But to her surprise, Mike doesn’t push her away. Instead, he draws her closer to him, gently tucking her head under his chin and wrapping his arms around her protectively.

Her ear is pressed against his chest, and as she cuddles Mike back, she listens closely to the steady, pounding rhythm of his heartbeat.

As embarrassing as that entire interaction with her friends was, a small part of El is relieved that they’re not afraid to tease her. Even though they know that she still has powers, they’re not treating her like some strange oddity, or someone to handle with rubber gloves.

To them, she’s still just El, and as El drifts off to sleep in Mike’s embrace, she realizes that that’s the most comforting feeling of all.

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