The Virus | ST Mileven fanfiction

In the Morning

Mike:
Mike awoke to the soft morning sunshine filtering through his curtains. Yawning, he sat up and rubbed his eyes, his gaze flickering to the alarm clock on his night stand.
"10:00," he read aloud. "It's Saturday, no school."
With a sigh of relief, Mike rolled out of bed and stretched. He yawned and trudged over to his dresser where he changed into a clean striped shirt and a pair of blue-jeans.
Once finished with that, he exited his room and down the hallway to the bathroom. He brushed his teeth and washed his face, and then headed downstairs to begin the day.  
   "Good morning, Mike!" His Mother greeted cheerfully when he entered the kitchen. "Did you sleep well last night?"
Mike nodded with a silent yawn and popped an eggo waffle into the toaster. It wasn't his favorite thing to have for breakfast, but it was quick and easy, and reminded him of his girlfriend. So, in the end, they weren't that bad.
   "Having a quick breakfast?" His Mother noted.
  Mike nodded. "We were planning to bike around today. Find something to do, go to the arcade or something."
"As long as you don't steal my money again," An impatient voice called from behind them.
   "Good morning, Nancy. What are you planning to do today, Sweetie?"
  "I'm hanging out with Jonathan," Nancy replied simply as she strut over to the kitchen counter.
  "Doing anything fun?"
   Right as Mike's patience was about lost, the waffle popped out of the toaster. He snatched it, no butter, no syrup, and it about burned his hand as he raced towards the door for his bike.
"Mike, don't run in the house!" His mother called out behind him. When Mike didn't listen, she cried out again and Mike could already see her  stamping her foot in anger. "Ted!"
    Mike's father let out a frustrated groan from his Lay-Z-Boy in the living room. His newspaper crinkled audibly as he lowered it from his face. "You heard your mother," he replied impatiently.
Mike rolled his eyes, darting out of the house to his bike. Without wasting one second more, he popped on and stuck the eggo in his mouth. With increasing excitement, he began to pedal up the hill at full force. He doubted he was going to be late to pick up El, but he couldn't wait to see her!

Mike had exserted most of his energy on the way to El's place, and by the time he arrived, he was panting heavily.
"Where to today, Kid?" Jim Hopper, El's foster father and chief of police, called from the front porch as he took a puff from his cigarette.
    "Hmm..... Around. We haven't made a plan yet,"
   Hopper chuckled, turning his back to Mike as he opened the front door. "Alright. I'll see if she's ready. She should have finished her breakfast by now."
   Mike nodded, watching curiously as Hopper disappeared through the front door. A moment later, the door swung open again, and Jane Hopper, or more commonly known as El, sauntered out. She wore a light pink shirt under a pair of overalls, complete with her favorite pair of tennis shoes. Her dark dirty blonde hair looked unbrushed, but she never usually combed it if she could help it. Either because it was hard with her messy curls, or that she wanted to fit in. She'd never explained it quite well.
   "You ready?" He called out to her as she bounced down the steps and climbed onto the back of his bike.
   El nodded, giving a small smile as Mike took off.
   Mike grinned. Her lack of words still did not surprise him to this day. She didn't usually talk unless she had a question or if she had a burning question on her mind, which wasn't too often. She tended to keep to herself a lot more than Mike or any of his friends did.
   "It stinks that you don't have a bike, huh?" He asked her as she wrapped her arms around his waist.
    "Yes," she agreed, her tone slightly amused. "Where are we going today?"
   Mike snorted good-naturedly. "You know, 3 times today people have asked me that. We're going around, but I want to check out that field we found the other day."
"Where are we meeting?"
"By Will's," Mike responded. "Since his Mom doesn't like him going out alone anymore."
"Hmm...."
"Yeah. So, hold on, okay? We're almost there."
El nodded, her grip tightening on Mike's waist as they neared a large hill sloping downwards.
Again, Mike smiled and sighed to himself as they flew down the hill.

El:
As the two flew down the hill, El buried her face into the back of her boyfriend's t-shirt. It was an attempt to shield herself from the wind, but it didn't end up working quite as planned.
Once at the bottom, unintentionally, she squealed in delight as they flew over the speed bump. When they had finally lost their momentum and had begun to slow down, Mike placed his foot on the ground to stop them.
El hopped off the bike, giggling in delight, until she saw Mike panting as if he'd completed a marathon.
"Mike, what's wrong?" El asked, concerned.
Mike rested his head on his handlebars with a chuckle. "Nothing's wrong! That was fun!"
When Mike finally got back on the bike, El barely had enough time to get on before he was off again. She was still confused, but didn't have time to ask because in a matter of seconds, they were riding up Will's driveway.
"There you are!" Dustin exclaimed, pushing himself off of the ground once the had almost reached the house. "We've been waiting forever for you!"
Mike stopped the bike, and El got off the back.   With a small wave,  he threw it to the ground next to Dustin and Lucas' bikes. El glanced around, hoping not to see it, until with great disappointment, she did. It was underneath Dustin's bike: Max's skateboard.
She had never been very fond of Max ever since that day in the gym. Even with the air cleared, Max had never done anything to get on her good side.  Even through her many attempts to be nice, in El's eyes, she was still a smelly, boyfriend stealing, no good girl.
"So, what are we doing today?" Dustin asked.
"How about the arcade?" Max suggested.
"You say that everyday." Will murmured, his voice filled of amusement. "And besides, we went yesterday. Don't you want to do something else for once before we go broke?"
"How about we check out that field from the other day?" Mike suggested.
"Why? What's over there?" Lucas asked.
"Fruit maybe? Fresh fruit." El piped up.
"You don't like fruit though," Max replied.
El shot her a look, and Mike responded for her.
"How do you know that?" He threatened.
Max rolled her eyes, throwing her hands in the air. "Fine! Whatever! We can go look at your stupid field!" She crossed her arms tightly and stared at the ground. A minute later, Lucas pulled her close to him in comfort and kissed the top of her head. He murmured something to her and then looked back Mike and El.
"You two don't always have to be so mean to her, you know! She hasn't ever done anything to you!"
The tensions raised between the four and it took a moment for Dustin to speak up again and break the silence.
"Umm... alright. Will, go ask your Mom and get your bike and then we can hit the road..."
Will nodded in agreement and turned back to his house. Once he was gone, Dustin let out a loud sigh.
"You people need to get along for one day in your life. It's the same thing every single day! Max says something, El gets mad, Max fires back, Mike stands up for El, and then Lucas stands up for Max, everyone gets mad. It's bull, you guys! I'm sick and tired of it! I don't care what your mood is today, but you need to get along for once!"
No one spoke another word until Will came out of his house and grabbed his bike. He got over to the 5 and looked around uncertainty. "Are we going to go...? Or...?"
Everyone stood up off the ground, the pressure on the group relieved.
Mike picked up his bike off the ground and got on it, he waited until El got on, before he took off down the hill.
El was almost knocked off the bike, barely given enough time to grab on to his midsection before he took off. She looked worriedly at Mike. He'd never acted this way before... it made her very uncomfortable, all the bad energy radiating off of him. What was wrong with her boyfriend?