Letters to El

Chapter 15

The drive to Mike's place seemed to drag on and on. It was the excitement of seeing Mike again that made time slow down in El's head. Every minute she would turn to look at the time thinking it could have been five or maybe ten minutes but was disappointed to see only a minute crawled by.

"How much longer?" El asked almost bouncing in her seat from all of the anticipation.

"Five minutes." Hopper shook his head at his daughter and her giddiness. How can she have this much energy so early in the morning? Hopper wondered. But nonetheless, he was happy to see her so happy. He never really saw this side of her. She was always hiding away in her mind, she never really got to express herself. And if visiting a new friend who lived hours away from them made her like this, he didn't mind the long trip after all.

"You said 'five minutes' five minutes ago." El groaned throwing her head back against the leather seat.

"No. I said 'five minutes' thirty seconds ago." Hopper corrected smiling smugly at his daughter.

El laughed looking at the clock on the dashboard again. He was right, it had been 9:31 when she last checked and now it's 9:32, meaning they were now four minutes away from seeing Mike again.

"So, I was thinking," Hopper began looking between El and the road, "maybe, if it's okay with your friends, we could come back during your winter break and visit."

He watched as El's eyes lit up at his proposal. "Really? Can we?"

"You'll have to ask." Hopper chuckled at her response.

"I can do that." El smiled turning to look out the window. She watched as the trees past by and started to clear as they came up to a familiar neighborhood. They turned into the Wheeler's driveway and parked just as Mike came fast walking out of the house with a big grin on his face.

"I'll see you later Hop." El said quickly kissing him on the cheek and fumbled with the door until it opened. She got out and closed the door to the truck to see Mike waiting for her.

"Hey." El walked up to him. Every step she took, her heart sped more and more.

"Hey." Mike responded, feeling the same way she did.

"So, what's the plan for today?" She asked looking around, expecting to see the others. "Where is everyone?"

"They will be meeting up with us soon." Mike said starting to walk towards his bike. "We wanted to show you something else while you're here."

"Okay." El smiled and watched as Mike got on his bike.

He turned to her and tapped his seat twice. "Hop on." He instructed.

El got on and wrapped her arms around his waist. If a week ago El got told she was going to be in Hawkins and making these new friends and being social. She wouldn't have believed it but here she is, saying that this was one of the best decisions she ever made.

Mike started to ride his bike towards the outer parts of town. Looking around El noticed how nice living in a small town must be. Hawkins was way different compared to Chicago. There was less people running around in the street and more friendly faces. She could definitely see herself living in a small town when she gets older.

A few minutes later Mike slowed down the bike to a stop. El looked to her right to see a worn down tree house. The wood was darkened in certain places and some branches from the tree it was in was blocking the entrance. It looked like it had been there a while but still standing tall and refuses to move if anyone tried.

"It's an older tree house but me and the party came here all the time when we were younger." Mike explained, noticing how El was looking at it with some kind of curiosity. "During the summer we would set up D&D in here play till the sun went down."

El got off the bike and allowed Mike to lead her to the entrance. He pushed away some of the branches and went inside with El not far behind. The inside was empty and dark, but not in a scary or spooky kind of way. More like a comforting kind of way. El looked around at the old wood that made up the treehouse. She quickly noticed some scribbles in the wood and smiled as she saw words engraved in the wood.

Mike, Will, Lucas, Dustin, Max. She could tell that Max's name was a recent add due to the other names being more faded than hers.

"Every time we get a new member of the party, they add their names here." Mike explained happily. "It's a way to show that no matter where anyone of us is in the world, we always have friends here."

"That's amazing." El breathed out.

Other familiar voices were heard outside and within a few seconds the rest of the party was climbing in the tree house.

"Here you go." Lucas said handing El a pointy rock. El took it, confused at what he was getting at.

"Are you going to add or what?" Max giggled slightly.

El's eyes grew wide. "Really?"

"Yeah." Will smiled. "Did you think we would show you this just to exclude you?"

El smiled before walking over to the wall. Carefully, she carved the letters E L next to Max's name. When she was done, she stood back with the party to take a look.

"Just El? Not Eleanor?" Dustin asked pointing at her named.

"No. Just El." She turned to Mike with a smile on her face. "I like El."

Authors note (please read)
I'm back!! And hopefully for good this time! To be honest with you I have no ideas where this book is going. That is why this is no longer my book... it is OUR book. I want you guys to help me. If you have any ideas for this book comment it or message me. I want to hear them!

No idea is too big and no idea is too small! And if you do help come up with a chapter idea or more, I'll give you a shoutout.

So please help, I really want to continue this book for you and you guys are the key!!

Thank you and love ya!!❤️❤️❤️