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

18. Sleepover

18.No One Will Shut Up and Go to Sleep at This Sleepover

🔆🔆🔆

With a lot of begging from Mike and Will, Hopper allowed El to go to the Wheeler's for a sleepover, mainly because the Chief of Police knew that the red-head Californian (that they always corrected him, that her name is Max) would be there as well. 

Max really just wanted to get away from her step-brother Billy, even though she threatened him with Steve's nail baseball bat, he still creeped her out. Lucas offered to sleepover to Max, she took it as quickly as it was offered, she also knew that if she was there, that would mean El would be able to go (and it would make Mike a happy teenager).

🔆🔆🔆

Will was looking through the records that sit in a box next to the old record player that was once Nancy's before she got a new one a couple of years ago. There was nothing wrong with it, Nancy just noticed that her brother wanted one, offered her current one after she told Karen about her little brother.

That is when Will found Queen's News of the World album, something he knew would freak out Dustin when the curly haired teen came for the sleepover.

He took the record out of its cardboard packaging, and gently placed it on the record table. When there was a heavy knock on the upstairs door - there was only one person The Party™ knew that knocked that heavy, Hopper. Which meant El was here.

🔆🔆🔆

Karen answered the door, seeing Chief Hopper stood in his uniform, either having the night shift or dropping his daughter off for the sleepover straight from work.

"Hello, Jim. Hello, Jane," Karen smiled, seeing the small girl that has captured her son's heart, she had what seemed like a backpack hanging from one arm, with what seems like badges of the things that she knows Michael likes.

"Hi, Mrs Wheeler," El smiles, her fingers wrapped around one of the straps, Karen moved to the side, allowing the small girl to bypass her and go down to the basement.

🔆🔆🔆

El walked down the steps of to the Wheeler's basement, as Will put the needle to the record, the sounds of We Will Rock You made El smile.

"Will put this on?" She asks, putting her bag down as soon as she steps foot on the final step, as Mike makes his way over and wraps her up in a hug, the pair were happy with this way of greeting each other.

Mike nods into her shoulder, pulling far enough apart so that he can look at her, presses a kiss to her nose and watches as her nose crinkle in such a cute way.

"I missed you," Mike whispers into her ear, running his fingers through her curly hair.

"I missed you too," El replies and smiles happily at the boy who rescued her in the winter of 1983.

🔆🔆🔆

It had been hours since El arrived for the sleepover, and since then - Max, Lucas and Dustin had also turned up. Dustin had a bag filled to the brim with candy, and Lucas with a couple of VHS tapes.

And they began watching Star Wars because even though they were going into High School this year, they were still hardcore Star Wars fans at heart.

Max wasn't the biggest fan of Star Wars, preferring films like Mad Max (which was the nickname the boys gave her) and what she said was the first Terminator.

El was leaning on Mike's shoulder with her feet in Max's lap, with the girl's being the best of friends (something that sometimes made Mike jealous, because he is sure that Hopper allowed Max to spend more time with her than himself - which he can understand) and Mike had his head resting on top of hers, smiling happily - compared to the last year of hell.

🔆🔆🔆

After being fed by Karen Wheeler, with chicken and vegetables, and Mike's father not really taking any notice of the extra teenagers sat at the dining table - however, Holly had very quickly taken a shine to El.

The teenagers were sent back down to the basement after some extra food (in the tense of cake), and Mike put the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind on - as El watch with rapt attention and confusion over Roy Neary and everything that happens to him.

"What did you think, El?" Dustin asks, turning around to look at her, causing El to wiggle her nose and look at the rolling credits.

"Weird, but cool," El says in her limited (but growing) vocabulary, as Mike ran his fingers through her hair. Lucas sat in front of the TV and rewound the tape back to the beginning. As he was doing this, the basement door flung open, and down the stairs came tumbling - Holly Wheeler.

The little girl reached for her big brother and crawled up into his lap - wrapping her arms around his neck and pushing her head into his neck. "Night night, Mikey," she mumbles, as Mike smiles at his little sister (the only one who didn't feel his depressing state/anger), Holly is the only one who can call him 'Mikey' - as well as El.

"Night, Holly," Mike rubs his sister's back, presses a kiss to the top of her head - then Holly moves her head and sees El sat next to her brother.

The tiny girl lets go of her brother and reaches over for El - wanting to say 'night-night' to the girl she's become really fond of. El looks slightly scared (not knowing how to 'deal' with a girl so young), with a look over the top of Holly's head to Mike. El gently reaches over, takes Holly's hand in one of hers (Holly then reaching over for the other one - because she 'wasn't having it') and tumbles into El's lap.

"Night night, Ellie," Holly said, wrapping El in a hug (much similar to Mike's - that she will now call 'The Wheeler hug') - calling the curly haired girl by the nickname she'd dubbed her with.

"Night, Holly," El echoes what she heard Mike say, and also rubs Holly's back, then Karen came down the stairs - seeing her youngest daughter hugging her son's girlfriend, made her heart flutter, there was something good that came out of the extremely rocky marriage with Ted - her three children, Nancy, Michael and Holly.

Leaning over the bannister, she spoke up. "Holly, come on, bedtime sweetie," Karen smiled, as Holly lifted her head off El's shoulder - the smaller girl reaching up and pressing a kiss to El's cheek, smiling at the older girl and toddling back up the stairs and back to the ground floor.

Mike smiles, at how close El and Holly are getting, and rewraps his arm around El's shoulder. Karen smiled seeing that two 14-year-olds, that they have a better relationship than she does with her own husband.

"Get some sleep, kids, see you in the morning," Karen smiles, walking back up the stairs - leaving The Party to the rest of their sleepover.