Stories From Summer; Stranger Tales From The Summer of '85

6. Camping trip

6. This camping trip is meant to be fun and relaxing but no one knows how to set up a damn tent!

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Mike knew that when he accepted Hopper's invitation that El wanted to go on a camping trip with them, he didn't realise the amount of crazy stress went into planning it.

Karen was constantly fussing over Mike who just wanted Hopper to arrive and take him away for the camping trip.

"Are you sure you've got everything?" Karen asked as Mike set down his large backpack of stuff for the trip. Even though Karen had helped to pack it, she just wanted to make sure that Mike had everything, and that he wouldn't go without something this weekend.

"What about those biscuits for Jane?" Mike asked, thinking back to when Karen had first met El (Hopper hadn't told Karen about El's true backstory - rather the one that the rest of the town knew), El loved the soft sugary cookies that were in heart shapes and shapes relating to Alice in Wonderland (which was becoming one of El's favourite stories - because even though it was Mike that had read it to her, she loved the adventure that Alice goes on).

Karen's eyes widen when she realised that she hadn't handed them over to Mike or that they weren't in his backpack. She ran into the kitchen, to get the cookies that were drying on the drying rack.

Only that Holly was happily nibbling on one of them. "Holly! No, those are for Jane!" Karen exclaimed, running over to her young daughter, and stopping her from taking another.

"There for Ellie?" She asks, looking up at her mommy, when Mike quickly walked in, hearing his little sister call 'Jane' Ellie, and went to help.

"Ellie? Why did Holly just call Jane, Ellie?" Karen asked, looking over at her only boy.

Mike tried to think of an excuse that would help what Holly just said. "Her middle name is Eleanor, she prefers that to Jane," Mike explained, taking the outstretched box with El's cookies in from his mom's hand.

"So what do you call her?" Karen asked, wanting to be a little bit nosey with her son's relationship. She knew Jane meant a hell of a lot to Mike, but they hadn't put a label on it... Yet...

She doesn't think...

"El, short for Eleanor," he smiles, remembering when he said that to El in the basement of 1983, 'El, short of Eleven'.

Karen smiled when a small pink/red blush flushed up Mike's cheeks, and he looked down at his feet.

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Once Hopper had arrived, El bouncing excitedly in her seat as she looked forward to her first camping trip.

"Mom! Hopper's here, I need to go!" Mike yelled, picking up his backpack and holding the plastic tub in his hands carefully.

"Ok, have fun, honey!" Karen shouted, watching her baby boy walk out of the house - she wouldn't see him all weekend.

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Hopper picked up the rest of the Party™ and Joyce (because he wasn't going to deal with 6 teenagers without another adult).

When Hopper looked into the mirror, that showed what was happening in the back - El was fast asleep, curled up against Mike, who was keeping her cuddled into his side, a pair of headphones and listening to a tape in his Walkman.

Hopper smiled, even though he hated that El had attached herself to the Wheeler kid, but if it had to be anyone that El was attached to - he was glad that El was attached to Mike.

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Hopper looked at the four boys stood before them, as the struggled to put up one tent... "This camping trip is meant to be fun and relaxing but no one knows how to set up a damn tent!" He exclaimed, walking over to the four, and snatched the tent out of their hands.

Within 10 minutes, Hopper had managed to get the 3 tents up (one for the boys to share, one for Max and El - the girls quickly becoming fast friends, and one for Joyce and Hopper - the old friends remembering when they use to share when they were in high school).

El smiled at her dad handed over her new backpack, which still had the new smell to it. The soft pink canvas fabric reminded her of the soft pink dress that Mike handed her during that week they met.

Dustin walked over and saw El hugged her new backpack. "I've got something for you, El," he said, reaching into his own backpack and pulled out a packet of pin badges. "They can go on your backpack," Dustin suggested.

In the pack was; the American mascot for the 1984 Winter Olympics, a 'Happy Birthday Donald Duck', a Billy Idol from one of his recent vinyls, a Ghostbusters, Star Wars, Purple Rain, Blondie and Madonna pins, and many more.

"Thank you, Dustin," she hugged her curly-haired twin, grateful that she had something for her backpack which now seemed quite bare.