the year of el | mileven

ch. 7 | yours truly

"Mike is completely losing it" Lucas complained as he walked down the school's long hallway

Dustin shrugged "Maybe he has like ptsd or something and he's relapsing"

"Or maybe you shouldn't have brought up Eleven in the first place, He was perfectly fine till you did!"

"Hey! I didn't know he would start seeing things and shit" Dustin exclaimed, lifting his hands in surrender

"Well we gotta help him get his mind off of her.."

"And how are we gonna do that?"

Lucas rubbed his chin "hmm... remember when we said we were gonna find Mike a date?"

"Yeah"

"Well we get him a girl. He goes to homecoming with said girl, he has a great time and boom bada boom. no more imaginary eleven problems"

"But dude, we can barely get ourselves dates.. How are we gonna get Mike one? Dustin replied raising an eyebrow

"Hand me your notebook"

As Dustin gave Lucas the notebook he watched him rip a page out of it

Lucas pulled a pen out of his pocket and started writing

Dear, Tracey

I know it's my fault we ended our relationship but I just want to apologize, I didn't know what I was thinking because you're super hot and way out of my league.

But anyways, to make it up to you I wanted to ask if you would be my date for homecoming? Hope you will consider it at least because I really do miss you.

Yours Truly,

Michael Wheeler

"This is genius. but wait, didn't he break up with Tracey for a reason?" Dustin said, reading over the note

"Pfft..The letter is just asking her to be his date, not get back together with him. Plus our boy Mike needs a good fun night at homecoming to ease his mind" Lucas grinned while stuffing the letter into a locker

✧

He couldn't help but stare at her. She was simply captivating. He just loved the way her hazel eyes sparkled when the light hit them just right or the way her forehead would scrunch up when she didn't quite understand something. He loved her small smile and the way she giggled softly at his jokes. He didn't care if anyone else believed him or not. This was definitely El, because no other girl could make him feel the way he did.

"Mike?"

"Y-Yeah?" Mike said, still staring

"You okay?"

He caught himself and immediately looked away " Yes. I'm good. Totally fine. Uh why do you ask?"

El pointed at the test tube in his hand

"Damn! I poured in the wrong chemical!" He yelled, now noticing that their experiment was excessively foaming over

She watched as a frantic Mike did his best to clean up the growing mess while also overhearing the other classmates laughter and teasing.

That was something she just couldn't understand. She noticed that he was laughed at and made fun of sometimes but really never knew why.

The bell rang, signaling the end of class

"Hopper, said I can hang out today" El beamed, helping Mike clean the remainder of the mess

Mike's face quickly lit up "Really? So do you wanna go grab lunch? I know of this really great burger joint we can go to"

"I'd like that" she softly smiled

✧

Mike began unlocking his bike from the bike rack "Sorry, I don't have a car.."

"It's okay, I like your bike. Just like when we were kids."

"I'm surprised you remember that.." he replied, rubbing his arm nervously

Eleven looked over at him "I never forgot you-

"Hey Mike!" Dustin and Lucas interrupted, running over to the bike rack

"What do you guys want?" he grumbled

Eleven observed the two boys running towards them. She had definitely see them before...

"Dude, he's with Eleanor" Dustin motioned, pointing at El

Lucas wrapped his arm around Mike's shoulders, dragging him away "Mikey, buddy, pal.. We should talk.."

"Don't wanna hear what you gotta say man"

"Look we're sorry we called you crazy..'

Mike gave him a strange look "Wait, you called me crazy?"

"Anyways.. We're sorry okay but you gotta shake off the past. I know it's hard but if you need help or anything we-

"Lucas!

"Not now Dustin, I'm talking here!... But yeah if you need help or anything you know we're here for you"

"Dude! Come here!"

Lucas rolled his eyes. "What Dustin.. What's so important that you had to interrupt our-

- Wait. That's not- no that can't be.

El held out her arm, pushing the bracelet out of the way to show her clearly printed 011 tattoo

Lucas eyes grew wide "ELEVEN?"

"Told you guys.." Mike scoffed

Lucas looked at her in disbelief "I can't believe it's really you.."

"Are you even real..?" Dustin said, poking her

Mike swatted his hand "Don't poke her! You're probably freaking her out"

Eleven laughed "Nice to see you guys again"

"You're alive! and-and you have hair now!" Dustin yelled in excitement

"But guys she wants us to call her Eleanor, nobody can know anything about Eleven" Mike spoke sternly

"What about Max? Lucas asked

"No, especially not Max!"

"But Max is officially part of our group we can't just not tell her.." Lucas uttered with irritation growing present in his voice

Eleven had no clue who they were talking about

"Who is Max?