Letters to El

Chapter 11

Welcome to Hawkins

The party took El around Hawkins. They brought her to the arcade, to the mall, and to Castle Byers. El surprisingly enjoyed the small town feel and the people in it. Everyone, to her just felt like they knew one another. They would give people little smiles as they walked by one another, something no one did in Chicago.

The group made their way to a diner that they said was one of the best one's in Hawkins. El became skeptical has she walked into an older diner with not many people in there.

"This is Benny's diner." Lucas said holding his arms out for dramatic effect. "Don't let the look of the place fool you. The guy who owns this, Benny, is a very good cook."

El giggled while Max rolled her eyes and looked back at the girl. "He can be an idiot sometimes."

That only made El laugh harder as they sat down in a booth. Max, Lucas and Will sat down on one side while Dustin, Mike and El filled the other.

"Hey guys!" A guy said walking up to the group. He was wearing an old white shirt, some older pants and a grease covered apron.

"Hey Benny!" Will responded from him corner of the table.

Must be the owner. El thought.

"What could I get for all of you?" The group placed their orders and watched him walk away before starting up conversation.

"Oh! After this we have to go see Robin!" Max said with her eyes lighting up.

"Who's Robin?" El asked Mike.

"She a fri-" Mike started to say but got cut off by Max.

"She is this really cool high schooler we hang out with."

"Oh!" El said nodding her head.

Soon the group starting speaking about bings she really didn't know and she zoned out. She looked around at the people in the restaurant talking amongst themselves. There was mostly older people there, a few of them in groups, others by themselves.

She looked around until someone caught her eye. She smiled and excused herself from the table. As she walked to the other table her smile got brighter and brighter with every step she took.

"Hey." She said standing in front of the table.

Hopper looked up from his newspaper and smiled at El.

"How's it going kid?" Hopper said folding up the paper.

"Good." El she said looking down at her feet.

"Was Mike surprised?"

"From what I saw, he looked surprised." El smiled at the memory.

"That's good." He said with a light voice. "How's it going with his friends?"

"Well, they do most of the talking." El said trying to tell him that everything was amazing.

"Come here." Hopper said holding out one of his arms. El walked around the table, sat beside him and let him give her side hug.

The two stayed like that for a moment before Hopper whispered, "I know this isn't exactly your style, but I'm so proud of you for stepping out of your comfort zone."

El smiled and pulled out of the embrace to face her father. "Thanks dad, that really means a lot."

"El?" A familiar voice came in from the other side of the table.

El looked up and smile. "Mike!" She stood up and looked over at her father. "Mike, this is my father. Dad, this is Mike." She introduced them.

"Nice to meet you." Mike said sticking his hand out to shake.

"You too." Hopper said shaking his hand. "El was just telling about how much fun she was having." He winked at El. "It's nice to see her talking to people other than me."

"Dad." She said quickly trying to make him shut up.

"She has been difficult about talking to people but your the first person she actually wanted to talk to." He said ignoring El. "What is your secret?" He asked leaning in knowing he's embarrassing El.

"And we're leaving!" El said grabbing Mike's arm leading him back to their table.

"Love you, El!" Hopper calls over to them loudly making El's cheeks turn red.

Mike chuckled slightly, "I like him."

"Oh shut up!" She said pushing him playfully before returning to the table.

Authors note
Sorry I haven't updated in a while, I've been focusing on my other books and school. Hopefully, now that Home is up and moving, I can start working on this more.
Let me know if anything needs to be fixed. I didn't read through it.