Skater Boy

KICK PUSH

"Mike if we don't finish this homework, Mr. Clark is gonna murder us" El eyed the black haired boy standing in the middle of the basement. She admired his features from her spot at the table and suddenly realizing she was staring, but she could stare at her boyfriend right? She'd made it her mission to glance at him lately, to memorize certain features on him from day to day. To see the subtle changes of a boy turning into a man, puberty hitting Mike like a sack of potatoes that fell off a tractor trailer.

He had grown a couple more inches since summer had ended and hair was starting to sprout along his upper lip, something that made El laugh whenever he nuzzled her neck. He had to wash more often than he would have liked and having jet black curly hair and being an active teenager but not the regular active teen that most kids in Hawkins were these days. Mike skated for 2 hours every day after school and even more on the weekends, getting in his time before he stopped to work on homework. Karen allowed him to skate after school, but afterward Mike had to get his homework done and keep his grades up or Karen was coming for the board. This gave Mike a reason to get his work done, skating was becoming his life and he was starting to get noticed.

Too bad the only person noticing it was Hop or Jim Hopper, El's father, who also happened to be the police chief of Hawkins. Hop had taken a liking to El's new boyfriend and even come to think that the boy might even become a permanent fixture in his home. From what El had told Hop about Mike, He had been raised in a home where the parents were present but only one cared it seemed. El had told Hop that Mike's closet thing to a father figure for a while had been the science teacher at school, Mr. Clark. Seemed that Mike was willing to look up to any male that he deemed worthy of his time or any male that gave him time. Mike hadn't been around him enough for Hop to get a good feel for Mike yet; all he knew was that El liked the boy, a lot. This was either going to work out very well and Hop wouldn't have to worry about anything, or it was going to give him more gray hairs than he already had.

This is why they found themselves in Mike's basement and not in El's room at her house. Hop had tried to have a talk with mike about his actions around town (Hop was making it seem like he was mugging people or spray painting the walls of Bradley's big buy) and it had not gone over well. Mike knew his limits with Hop, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to do his best to push that limit to the max. They'd left the Hopper residence, only after El had a long talk with her dad while Mike hung out on the porch, just swinging on the porch swing, looking like a lost little boy.

He knew Hop was just looking after his wellbeing and Els wellbeing, it was just, Mike loved skating. Mike had finally found something that made him feel like he belonged and that he really felt he was good at and now people had a problem with it? All Mike could think about his future and what he wanted out of it. He wanted to skate; he wanted to do what he knew he was good at. I mean come on, he went to school every day, he listened to his teachers, and he turned in all his assignments. What else did the adults in this town want him to do? He couldn't be any more different from the average skater in any other town in the country. This was Mikes current thought as he stood on his board in the middle of his basement, staring blankly back at El.

"Yeah I know El...I just.....I don't really want to do it right now. Hearts not in it."

El turned in her seat to face Mike, skirt flowing around her ankles as she pulled her legs under her and leaned on her hand to stare at Mike.

"This wouldn't have anything to do with Hop would it?"

Mike stared down at his board and shrugged his shoulders "Maybe Hop has a point El, maybe I should just grow up and worry about school and not......not this" Mike made a sweeping motion below him as his feet moved nervously around his board. Mike made a movement to his hair, sweeping back the curls around his forehead, yep thought El, He's defiantly frustrated.