the small group had been walking for about half an hour, hawkins long gone out of their sight. they even passed the trees that surrounded hawkins, and now stood in long, dead dry grass, covered by melting snow, taking a short break as dustin took a puff of his inhaler.
el was extremely use to the coldness. mike didn't seem like he was, though, as he climbed onto el's arm, his arms tightly squeezed together as he didn't move an inch. as for max and lucas, they were laughing about a corny joke will had made before.
it was about lunch. mike's watch read 12:22pm, to be exact. el was wearing dustin's cap on her head, and she looked behind them. it looked like they were in the middle of no where, but for a weird reason, el had a visual map of everywhere they had been so far. the kids sat down in silence and began to eat food that they had each packed.
she took a bite of mike's sandwich as he sat on a small tree stump, el sitting on his lap, leaning her head on his shoulder. max and lucas joined them, soon joined by will and dustin, who were making bad dad jokes to each other as they pulled out some small pies and sausage rolls, putting them on a lid container in the middle of the small circle they had formed.
"where are we going?," el asked, gently. no one really had an answer, but will grabbed a map out of his bag, and stared long and hard at the map before looking back up. he showed el the map, as she noticed the small blue circle where they were, and then a small line from there, where a red circle was.
"it's a place jonathan took me when our parents got into a fight. it's a swimming lake, with climbing rocks all around it. you'll like it," he smiled. el nodded, smiling back as she grabbed a sausage roll up from the 'plate'. "of course, we aren't going swimming. not in this weather, anyway." he tilted his head at the sky, and looked at his sand which again.
"maybe, actually, we can dive."
el heard lucas snort, and after a few minutes, they packed up their lunch, and started to walk north again, where they soon started to see small trees in the distance. she smiled to herself, turning around as she faced mike, slightly frowning as she pulled the cap in front of her head to shield her eyes from the sun which had slightly came out from the grey clouds that covered the sky.
the others were a few meters ahead of the two of them, and mike took advantage of it as he looked at el, frowning as well. "what's wrong?" he asked, generally concerned about his soon to be girlfriend. el shrugged, and mike put his arm back around her waist, smiling at her softly.
they started walking again, running to catch up with the others. they were back to climbing through trees and bushes that surrounded them, not really seeing any path as they just dragged themselves through the many thorns. they found themselves climbing up a steep hill, will biting his lip, remembering how jonathan use to carry him up on his shoulders so he didn't get a single scratch from the bushes.
they quickly ran up the hill, until there was once again only dirt as they took their few last steps out of the trees, el being the first to stare down at the water. it was the first time she had ever seen something like this, and she admired how the water swiftly ran off the rocks into the almost clear pond. they stood on a cliff, reminding her much like the quarry, but a bit shorter fall.
she looked at max, who took her large puffy jacket off, followed by the red 'coca cola' shirt she recently got, staring down at the water as she stood in her undergarments, placing her hands on her hips. el turned back and saw that the boys were taking their shirts and woolly jumpers off, as well.
she was very, very confused, and stared at the boys that were
so, el quickly lifted her woollen sweater joyce had made her over her head, and swiftly folded it, placing it into her bag, and unbuttoned her shirt, and let the lose item of clothing fall down her slim shoulders, and onto the moist grass she was standing on.
she picked it up, placed it into her bag, and didn't skip a beat, running past max and dived head first into the water, screaming in both fear and joy as her body collided with the water. "holy shit!," she heard dustin yell.
the water was absolutely freezing. so much so that it almost stung against her pale skin. after a minute or so, she felt her body start to get use to the water, but still felt very, very numb.
she was soon joined by max, as el watched her dive off of the cliff, laughing.
one by one, the boys started jumping off of the cliff, screaming and carrying on once they hit the water. el realised they must feel how cold it is, too.
soon enough they were splashing each other, and el laughed, watching as mike and lucas tried to drown each other. this time, she knew it was all fun and games, unlike another time that rigged so many memories from the old days.
she swam underwater, sitting on the floor of the small lake, the sand around her shifting and making it harder to see through the water, as she felt something softly grab her hand when she reached out. she felt her body being pulled away towards something.
correction, not something, but someone, as she discovered by opening her eyes when her head surfaced the water, her face only inches away from mike wheeler as he wrapped his arms around her waist, el leaning in, quickly, so they weren't interrupted this time, as they kissed. a few seconds later, mike pulled away, blushing.
as el placed her hand on his cheek, mike wrapped his arms around her neck, slowly. "boyfriend," she said, gently. mike turned bright red, getting what she meant as he cupped el's face with his hands. "girlfriend," he smiled, kissing her forehead, and el slightly giggled.
"guys, we're playing marco-polo!," they heard dustin yell, as the kids shook their heads, giggling as they let go of each other, swimming towards the small group.
they rushed to play a game of 'rock, paper, scissors' to decide who was going to be polo. in the end, it was dustin, and the kids scrambled away from him as he started counting down to ten.
will was the first one to be tagged, then followed by max, mike and lucas. el hid underneath the water, taking long breaths every time she had to come up. brushing her hair back out of her face with a slim bony hand, she finally resurfaced the water as dustin shouted "marco," quite loudly.
she replied with a loud "polo," and swam quickly away but felt strong arms wrap around her legs, as she laughed, dustin quickly letting go, awkwardly scratching his neck. they joined mike, lucas and max on the rocks, where she laid her head on mike's lap, who was putting his sunglasses with his jacket covering el's shoulders. it warmed her up only a tiny bit, but not a lot.
they stayed there for a bit, laughing at jokes and stories they exchanged, and el once again looked at the time. it was 2:28. time goes fast, el thought to herself. they swam back to the riverbank, and quickly started to walk up the steep steps that lead up to the small cliff they jumped off.
it wasn't a long walk, but it was incredibly freezing. she shivered and shook, as did the rest of the group did, as they stepped one foot at a time, slowly, up the hill.
it was very steep and felt like they would each fall to their deaths if they took one wrong step at the wrong time, so they took extra long to add up to how cold it was.
when they got up there, el's hair was already dry and didn't cling to her face and neck as much as it did when they got out of the water.
mike grabbed el's hand, softly, smiling at her. dustin saw them, and frowned.
"son of a bitch. hey, lucas!," he said, grabbing a five dollar note out of his back pocket, shoving it into lucas's hand as lucas smirked, shoving it into his pocket as he held maxes hand with the other. will laughed and mike just raised his eyebrows. "assholes," he muttered, but slightly grinned.
as they walked through the heat again, el slung her towel over her shoulders as she rubbed sunscreen into her face. they took two breaks, one to eat lunch and one because they thought dustin was having an asthma attack.
they started to run when they saw the outlines of trees in the distance, and in little to no time they found themselves back to hopper's house by 4:39 pm.
the others started go home after having some drinks and a packet of chips each, leaving jane and mike by themselves as they stepped inside el's room, shutting the door behind them.
