The Life You Deserve

Chapter 13: Meet My Parents

September 1985

Hopper sat on the couch, his first beer of the evening grasped in his left hand whilst he rubbed his tired forehead with his right hand. He looked between the television and El's bedroom door with a sigh.

"So...is this the night he finally proposes or something?!" He called to his daughter. Her head popping around the door with surprise.

"Dad I'm 14..."

"Then why have you been getting ready for four hours?!"

El huffed and went back into her room. "Because it's the first time I'm meeting his parent's dad! I want to look nice!" She shouted.

Hopper pinched the bridge of his nose and took a sip of his beer. "Kid listen to me. You are beautiful as you are."

"You have to say that..." El's mumbled voice called.

Hopper laughed and turned his head towards the half-closed door. "I do?"

"Yeah. Max told me parents have to compliment you. Because it's kind of their fault we look the way we do." She answered.

Hopper couldn't help but frown, thinking right now was not the time to remind her he wasn't her biological father and so they didn't share the same DNA. He looked back at the television, but his expression was glazed. This wasn't the first time he had wondered who El's biological dad was. He prayed it wasn't that son of a bitch Brenner. Hopper decided he'd question Becky about El's parentage on the next visit to see Terry.

"What do you think of this one?" El suddenly asked making Hopper jump. She had come into the room and was wearing a red knee length dress. Her curls were pinned back slightly and she had done her make up.

"I think it's nice kid."

"Just nice?!"

Hopper groaned. "Look I think all your outfits are nice! The last five dresses you tried on were nice too. You look beautiful El, you don't need to impress the Wheeler's. Just remember the manners I told you about, the please and thank you." He told her warily.

El nodded nervously and brushed down the front of her dress in what Hopper imagined was anxiety. He sighed and gave her a smile, "you do look beautiful El." He said meaning every word.

She looked up at him and graced him with one of her sweetest smiles that always made Hopper's fatherly heart quench with happiness.

********

Mike felt frantic as he rifled through his closest trying to decide what to wear. It was easy for El, she looked breath taking in literally anything, but he had to try and put in an effort. He found a red sweater and threw it on with black pants.

He walked swiftly to the mirror in his bedroom and tried to fix his hair, he failed miserably. Sighing with annoyance at his hair unwilling to do as he asked, Mike left the room and made his way to the kitchen.

Mike was thankful that Nancy was out with Jonathan and so he could at least have an evening free of her embarrassing him in front of El. Their mom had been annoyed about Nancy not being there, but she had insisted that she had met El a number of times in school already. That technically wasn't a lie, they just hadn't mentioned how Nancy had first met El.

His mom had dressed up but had an apron tied around her waist whilst she checked the lasagne was cooking. Mike fussed around the kitchen trying to help her anyway he could, but she ended up shooing him out saying he was getting under her feet.