Summer 1985 - Mileven/Jopper/Lumax

Chapter 2: Matchmaker

 Four hours later, and just barely ten in the morning, Joyce turns around to wake the kids while Hopper prepares to unload the truck

"We're here kiddos" Joyce hums quietly, enjoying the silence while she still can. Lucas and Max are the first to wake, both with a blush on their cheeks from their unusually close proximity. Leaning over Max to poke Dustin in the arm, Lucas roughly awakens the sleeping boy who will definitely have a sore neck for a few days.

"What? Five more minutes, stop it!" Dustin whines, causing a giggle to erupt from Max and Lucas to shake his head while trying to hide a smile. "No, you idiot! We're here at the campsite, we gotta help Hopper before he starts to get all pissy." Sluggishly, Dustin gets up to slide the door open and stretches followed by Max and Lucas whose faces have finally gone back to normal.

Awoken by the car door, Will's eyes peep open and excitement rushes through him as he sees the familiar surroundings of tall trees, rocks coating the river, and wooden picnic tables scattered across the dirt. Jumping up and over El and Mike, hitting the brown-haired boy in the knee, he rushes out to see his friends struggling to help Hopper and Joyce get the tents and coolers of food.

Now awake, Mike rolls his neck side to side stretching the best he can while being confined by Eleven's head on his chest and knees pressed against him. After the year in the Upside Down, El occasionally spends nights being tormented all over again in her dreams. While Mike has never witnessed it, Will informed him before the trip and he's already feeling guilty about waking her when she's been at peace this whole time.

"Hey El, we're here" he whispers softly. Only causing her to stir a little further into his warm body, he lets out a laugh and taps her on top of the head. "Sorry El, but you have to get up now. Everyone's out of the car already." Huffing, she pulls back and gives him a blank stare. "I'm sorry," he says sheepishly, "it had to be done! Let's go before they start yelling fo-"

"Are you guys serious, get out and help us!" Lucas screams from outside of the van, struggling to hold the large tent the four boys plan to sleep in. "Yeah, really! Eleven should be doing this shit with her mind." Dustin barks out after, causing Mike to roll his eyes and give El a knowing look. Smirking, she grabs his hand and leads them out giving everyone a shy wave.

Forty minutes later, after lots of bickering and no help from El's powers, the three tents were up and ready to be slept in later that night; the boys in one tent, El and Max in another, and Joyce and Hopper in the last.

"So guys," Max says as she plops down on a near-by picnic table, "what should we do?" Will, eager to start the day, lists off some activities him and Jonathan would always do when they came up. "Well, there's a nice trail to hike on since we're well-rested if you guys want to do that. Or we can go swimming! We should probably do that later though. It might be too cold right now. Oh! Or we can-"

Cutting off his excitable friend, adventurous Lucas agrees that hiking sounds like a good plan causing everyone to nod eagerly and run towards the way of the trail. Will informs Joyce and Hopper that they're going hiking and sprints to catch up to his friends.

"Please be careful, Will!" Joyce calls out after to her younger son, always reluctant to let him go off. Joyce looks over at Hop and sighs, biting her lip. "It's been two years Hop and him going off still makes me so nervous." Hop looks assuringly at Joyce, inching closer to her. "Two years is nothing compared to what happened Joyce. You and Will went through so much and, I say it all the time but, you're a lot stronger than you give yourself credit for." 

Joyce looks down at the dirt and lights the cigarette she pulled out of her back pocket. "Avoiding eye contact, you know better" Hopper says with a smirk. Rolling her eyes playfully, she shakes her head and walks over to distract herself by organizing the outdoor games the boys had overflowed the trunk with.

"That's so irrelevant Lucas, shut up!" Dustin argues back, bickering with his friend about whether or not he could get the new cute tenth grade girl to go on a date with him. "I don't see how us being total nerds isn't relevant! She'll be a pretty cheerleader in no time and won't even look your way."

Rolling her eyes, Max scoffs and side-eyes Lucas. "Oh don't listen to him Dustin!" the fiery red-head interjects, "you're super funny and sweet, she'd be stupid not to go out with you." Dustin gives a toothy grin to Max, turning his head slightly to give a smug look towards Lucas.

He may be the funny guy, but Dustin was just as perceptive as Lucas and Mike. He picked up on Mike's crush with Eleven right away, with his soft voice and pathetic love-sick eyes, and after meeting Max knew her and Lucas would connect in one way or another. He didn't care to much about being single within the group, choosing to flirt and woo the cute older girls. 

What he did care about, however, was getting under Lucas's skin; which happened to work perfectly as he watched him stomp off towards Will, who was leading and taking the pictures he promised for Jonathan.

El, whose hands were intertwined and swinging with Mike's, watches the whole thing unfold and smirks. Looking up at Mike, she nudges his shoulder and bluntly states, "they like each other." Letting out a snort, the taller boy looks down at her and raises an eyebrows, "you think? Are we gonna play matchmaker this entire trip? Because that's how long it will take for Lucas to admit any sort of romantic feelings."

Puzzled by the unfamiliar word, she narrows her eyes causing her light brown eyebrows to scrunch. Picking up on it, Mike continues, "a matchmaker. Kind of like a real version of Cupid, remember, from Valentines Day?" El nods, smiling as she thinks back to her and Mike's first holidays together.

Blushing at similar thoughts, Mike rambles, "yeah, well, if you think two people like each other, you can try to get them to admit to their feelings. If they both like each other, then you can plan a date for them." El stays silent for a moment, processing this information. With a final nod, El says softly to Mike, "I'm going to do that and then we can plan a date for them. I think they would like that." Kissing the top of head, he mumbles against it, "That's nice of you El, I'm sure they would."

Their moment is interrupted by the madness that ensues for the rest of the hike. Up a few feet, Will trips over a rock while looking through his camera lens causing Dustin to fall over him and scrape up his knees on the harsh rocks and dirt.

"Oh great, the biggest one falls and none of you skinny assholes will be able to help, unless.... Eleven, would you like to make me fly?" he asks excitedly.

El raises her eyebrow and examines his cuts, deeming them unnecessary for telekinetic use; "you'll be fine. Are you okay Will?" she asks, softly. Giggling along with the rest at Dustin's blatant rejection, he nods and thanks her.

Camping the half hour back to their campground, the group reminisces about middle school sharing the details with Max about Mr. Clarke and reformed bully Troy. When they return back, Hop notices Dustin's scraped knees and shakes his head knowing something of course would've happened to the chipper teen. Joyce grabs Dustin and cleans his knees, making sure three times that he was okay.

While Dustin gets cleaned up, the kids grab the frisbee, corn-hole boards, and bean-bags, preparing the rest of their day for fun-filled games. Grabbing El, Max rushes over to one side and proclaims "girls vs boys! C'mon Joyce!" Needless to say, even with the uneven amount, the ladies crushed the boys team and celebrated their victory by basking in the sun while the boys prepared lunch.