Home ||~~Elax/Elmax~~||

Burst my balloon

"So, what's the plan today?" Nancy asked El, Max, and Mike across the breakfast table.

They looked at each other questioningly. "Dunno, is Dustin back yet?" Max asked Mike.

"Yeah, back yesterday, Lucas a couple of days ago" he replied.

"Well, we should do something then. El's pretty much recovered, weather's good" Max reeled off, "and frankly I'm bored."

Mike looked thoughtful for a minute, "wait there, guys" he ordered and rushed upstairs. He came back down a few minutes later holding a box.

"Is that what I think it is?" Max asked. El and Nancy looked at each other and shrugged.

Mike smirked, nodded, and tipped the box over and out fell a couple of hundred water balloons. "Yeeaassss!" Max jumped up in enthusiasm.

Nancy closed her eyes and shook her head, but couldn't suppress the grin on her face. "Are you serious, guys? You're 18 for goodness sake."

"And? You're older but I know you can't say no either...caaaan yoooouuu?" Mike said smugly.

"Dammit" she replied, walking over to the phone.

"What are you doing?" asked El.

"Calling for reinforcements!"

"Crap" Mike said, looking at the girls. They ran upstairs to his walkie talkie and called Dustin, Lucas, and Will over, telling each to tell as many people they could.

An hour later, about 25 high school graduates faced off against about 20 college kids. Extra supplies had made it into the mix, so each side had hundreds of balloons ready to go.

"Holy crap, this is gonna be epic" said Dustin, as Mike and Nancy made their way to the center.

"Ok, rules" said Nancy.

"I'm listening" replied Mike.

Nancy looked around at her 'side' and saw as Jonathan, Steve and a few others nodded, "no rules!" she shouted as she proceeded to dump a balloon over Mike's head and ran back to her team. Everyone scattered.

The woods proved an excellent place for a water bomb war. Steve was ambushed by 3 guys, all happy to dump balloons on his hair and watch as it lost its swagger. Nancy proved a crack shot and took out the 3 guys who ambushed Steve in revenge, in addition she managed to hit almost all of Mike's team during the battle. 2 innocent kids just passing through the woods got caught up in it and went home very wet indeed to confused parents. El and Max were a deadly team, El may or may not have been using her abilities to protect them at times, and Max was almost as deadly as Nancy in her aim. Lucas was sneaky and climbed a tree, dive bombing unwitting college kids who strayed close by, until Nancy came along and hit him about 10 times as he was a sitting duck when finally spotted.

In the end, everyone was drenched...except for Dustin. "How the hell does he do that?" asked Lucas, shaking his head in disbelief.

As everyone disbanded, the gang made their way back towards their respective homes. "That was hilarious" said Nancy, "I'm gonna go ahead get changed, I'm heading out with Jonathan, see you later."

They waved her off as she ran towards home. "Guys that was awesome, we need to do that every year when we come back" said Dustin enthusiastically. They all laughed and agreed, continuing walking and chatting. All except El.

Max took her hand and walked slower so they would drop away from the rest of the gang slightly, "El, are you ok?"

El nodded yes, but kept looking straight ahead.

"Tell me" Max said sternly, "I won't let you hide things from me again, not after last time."

El stopped walking, her head was bowed, "college" she finally said.

"What?"

"You've all graduated, you're all going to college, you're going to college" she said sadly.

Max closed her eyes and sighed inwardly, she knew this was going to come up eventually, she just hadn't known how to start the conversation. "I know, but...it's just one year, one more year you have to do at school, then you can join me" she tried to reason.

"I know" El said, "I'll just miss you so much."

They started walking again in silence, hand-in-hand. "All you have to do is ask, El" Max said.

"No, I'd never ask that, I never want to hold you back" she replied earnestly.

"But I would stay...for you."

"I know, and that's why I love you so much, and why I'd never ask."

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