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

12. At the Parade

12. At the Parade

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The Carnival Parade always came two weeks before the actual carnival arrived in Hawkins, it was a strange way of the summer to run - but this is how summer in Hawkins worked. Mike always thought it was strange, how the carnival parade was before the carnival, but if it meant he spent more time with El - he'd take it.

He loved spending time with El, it was one of his favourite things. He even prefered spending time with his girlfriend over spending time with his family - it was barely a family anymore. Nancy was with Jonathan and the Byers than their family. He spends more time with El and his friends than his family. The only person that hangs around the house anymore is Holly, but she is growing up with a group of friends of her own - and prefers to spend time with them than her parents. But even Karen and Ted are on the brink of divorce, which is something that has always worried Mike, but he doesn't really care anymore. He has El. What more could he possibly want?

When the Wheeler's arrived, Holly was happily sat on her older brother's shoulders, Nancy was already stood with Jonathan and Steve (the three are happily getting along, even though both of the boys had dated Nancy), El was perched on Hopper's shoulders, awaiting the parade with a joy on her face. The Party™ was stood around waiting for the parade to arrive.

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"Hi, Jane," Mike smiles up at El, who is happily perched on her father's shoulders. El smiled back and gave him a wave from sitting on Jim's shoulders, which is the most that she could do, being so far up from her boyfriend.

Hopper is holding her by her legs, holding her tightly - making sure that she doesn't fall off and hurt herself.

"Jim! What a surprise seeing you here," Flo walked over, having seen the chief of police stood side by side with Joyce Byers and the friends that Steve Harrington helps whenever he can.

He proceeds to point up to the little girl sat on his shoulders, the little girl with curls like mad and a massive grin on her reddening face. "Her first parade. Might as well give her a good view,"

"She needs sunblock, Jim," Flo states, as the curly-haired girl lifts her hand from Jim's hat and pokes at her reddening face, and made a look of hurt when her finger made contact with her cheek.

A boy with a dark mop of hair, who had a little girl on his back with two long blonde pigtails, looked up at the girl and saw her red cheeks and nose, Flo recognised the pair as Mike and Holly Wheeler - Karen and Ted Wheeler's youngest pair. "Jane, did you put the sunblock on before you had a shower?" He asks as Hopper wonders to a nearby bench (which just so happens to be underneath a tree) and allows the girl to climb off his shoulders.

"It said it was waterproof," She states, crossing her arms, as her arms were getting red. Mike knew that El really didn't know everything about the world like he did, and that just made her a lot cuter - trying to figure out why she is getting sunburnt when she had put the sunblock on and even when it said it was waterproof, it washed off when she had a shower.

"I know," he sweetly says, as Will walked over and handed over the backpack that Joyce had forced on his back this morning, as she knew that after they'd seen the parade, Dustin would get hungry - so she packed food for the always-hungry boys, as well as sunblock for when it fades away (knowing that they might end up at the quarry and go swimming). "Thanks, Will," Mike smiles at his first ever friend.

After a bit of digging, Mike pulled out the white bottle, that Will had drawn cartoon suns and flower petals, which El loved seeing Will do - she has many drawings in her bedroom that Will had done for her since they officially met after the pair woke up.

Mike takes one arm at a time, applying the sunblock up her arms and the back of her hands - making sure not to apply the sunblock anywhere near the top that she wears (an old one that was very much loved once upon a time by Nancy, and now by El), and then took some of the sunblock on his fingertips, and gently applied it to her face, rubbing it out so there are no white streaks.

"You're going to have to quickly apply it to your legs, kid, I think the parade's coming," Hopper speaks up, as Mike handed over the white bottle to El, who rather quickly applied the sunblock to her legs (leaving white streaks).

"You've got to rub it in, kid, so there's no white lines," Hopper said, as El looked down at her legs, and rubbed at patches where there were the white lines.

When it was rubbed in, Hopper crouched back down on the floor, and El clambered onto his back, then his shoulders - being warned not to get the sunblock on the back of his shirt.

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"What did you think to the parade, El?" Will asks as Dustin takes one of the chocolate bars out of Will's bag that Joyce packed for them.

The Party™ looked over at El, who was curled up next to Mike before Will had asked this, the pair had been cloud spotting - telling each other with each cloud that passes by, what they see.

"I was fun, when is the next one?" She asks, looking at her friends.

"The next one won't be until Thanksgiving," Max explained how there is usually a big parade in a part of America that is called New York City, and every year it is televised on the TV, so she'll be able to see it then.

She nods, accepting this fact from her only girl-friend, and lays back down on the grass and continued to look up at the clouds. "Bunny!" She exclaimed, pointing.