The Life You Deserve

Chapter 34: El's 17th Birthday

November 1987

Hopper woke up on El's 17th birthday feeling melancholy. His love for El had blossomed from her being the strange and dangerous girl with the telekinetic powers who had an obsession over Mike Wheeler; to the young teenager filled with hormones that Hopper did not want to understand...and now to the beautiful seventeen-year-old who had her whole life ahead of her, and yes, you've guessed it,who still had an obsession over Mike Wheeler.

As Hopper prepared El's now traditional Eggo Extravaganza birthday special, he felt a pang of sadness when he realised he would only get to do this for her, for one more birthday. He had been in denial thinking that she wouldn't want to go to college, that he would get her a job working alongside Flo where he could protect her and keep her under his wing.

When the brochure advertising University of California, San Francisco came through the mailbox, Hopper had immediately chucked it on Will's bed and assumed nothing more until his step son chuckled saying it had El's name on and not his.

Needless to say, Hopper was shocked. He stole the brochure at first and skimmed through it in his office, trying to see why El wanted to go so far away. He knew she had an amazing time on her road trip to California, but he never expected her to want to move there.

He ran his hands through his hair and rubbed his brow, wondering if it was acceptable to chuck the brochure away like it had never been sent. But he knew his daughter, or so he thought, and she would just send for another one, her determined mind not giving up at the first hurdle.

So instead, Hopper bit the bullet and sat down with El in her room, asking her why San Francisco. She told him how much she had fallen in love with the city and how it interested her, from the wide city roads that didn't feel as claustrophobic as she had imagined, to the cultural differences in China Town and the beauty of the bay.

El had then told Hopper how she wanted to become a nurse and he found a rush of pride squeezing at his heart. After everything she had been through, she still wanted to go right back in the lion's den and help people at their most scared and vulnerable times. She was incredible.

"Just don't forget about your old dad." Hopper had choked out as he held El close.

She had laughed softly and shook her head against his broad chest. "I couldn't. I promise."

So now he was making her second to last birthday Eggo Extravaganza and trying not to feel sorry for himself whilst Joyce teased him that he didn't suit the pout look.

El finally dragged herself out of bed, she was certainly a force to be reckoned with in the mornings. Her hair sticking up and wild, her eyes tired with an edge that told you not to mess with her and her usually smiley lips pulled tight. It would almost be comical if Hopper wasn't afraid of her temper. And may the teenage years soon be over!

When El awoke from her daze and remembered it was her birthday, she seemed to perk up enough to smile for photos and blow out the candles on her Eggos. She loved her present of some hair product that Joyce had picked because El had been apparently "dying for one" to straighten her hair and crimp it.

Hopper got an excited squeal, a hug and a kiss on the cheek before his seventeen-year-old went rushing to the bathroom to have a shower and get ready before she had school.

He had wanted to buy her a car seeing as she'd been able to drive for about a year now, but El wasn't that bothered about having her own vehicle. She said there was no point because she only had another year at home before she went to college, but Hopper suspected it had more to do with a certain dark haired, tall and skinny boy who picked her up every morning and brought her home every night.