Neighbors - Strangerthingsau

Chapter 18

Dinner Party

The day flew by for El. Like it was the morning one minute, and in the next it was time to head over to the Wheeler's for dinner.

If only every Monday could be like this one. El thought.

For Mike though, that was a different. Time seemed to be moving at a snails pace. It seemed like every time he looked at the clock, only a few minutes passed by.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the doorbell went off signaling the Byers/Hoppers were here. Mike ran down the stairs to see his mom letting in the guests, already starting up conversation with the adults.

El was the first one to spot Mike at the bottom of the staircase. Her eyes lit up as she grabbed Will's arm and practically dragged him over to Mike.

"Hey Mike!" El smiled.

"Hey!" Mike replied.

"Mike! You will never believe what El did with her powers!" Will whispered excitedly.

"What? What did you do?" He asked El.

"She started up all the robots and made them move towards me. She was in the hallway when she was doing this though, so I thought the house was haunted." Will said laughing at himself.

"He was scared. I kinda felt bad after a while." El said quietly.

"Don't be." Will said still laughing at the memory. "It was amazing!"

"We should do that to Dustin!" Mike said starting to laugh too. "Imagine his reaction! He would freak out!"

The group laughed at the thought of Dustin's reaction but were cut off by Karen calling from the kitchen that dinner was ready.

They made their way to the dining table with El sitting in between Hopper and Holly, and sitting directly across from, who she could only guess, Mike's older sister, Nancy. She looked less than thrilled to be there. Even El could tell that Nancy thought she could be doing something better with her time than having dinner with them.

El watched as Karen whispered something in Nancy's ear with Nancy rolling her eyes in response.

The dinner went well, only the adults talked while the kids just sat there silently. El kept her head down for most of the dinner, only to look up when she felt someone's eyes on her. It was mostly Holly that gazed up at the girl as if she was the most interesting thing in the room. Every time El caught the little girl looking at her she gave a small but sweet smile towards her. After a little while Holly started to smile back at her, a smile that said, I just made a new friend.

Every once in a while El would feel a new pair of eyes watching her. She would look up to see Nancy looking at her unsure of something before looking away, acting like she didn't just get caught staring.

This stuff happened all throughout dinner, until everyone was done and the kids were excused from the table. The adults stayed to talk more while the kids went off to do their own thing.

"El seems like a very nice girl." Karen said to Hopper after she made sure the kids were in the other room.

"Yeah, she is. She can be a little shy at times, but I'm glad that she was welcomed into a nice friend group." Hopper spoke truthfully.

"Yeah, well it's always nice to have good friends when your new in town. I've known all of Mike's friends for a while, their all good kids."

"That's what Joyce told me." Hopper smiled.

"How is she with moving to a new town and all?"

"She was very excited. She didn't really like the city. She didn't have really good memories there."

Meanwhile, as the kids were leaving the kitchen El lagged behind with Holly, who grabbed her hand saying that she wanted to show El her room. El followed the little girl upstairs as she they walked into a pink bedroom. El could tell that this room was meant to be for a little. There was dolls, stuffed animals, and other toys all over the floor.

"You have a very nice room Holly." El said looking down at the girl.

"Thanks!" Holly smiled up at the girl before picking up one of her dolls.

"So," a voice came in back of El which made her jump and turn around quickly. And there was Nancy Wheeler standing in the doorframe. "The town has a lot of people in it with many different types of personalities. Why did you choose to be in my brother's friend group?"

"Because they were the first people to take a chance on me." El breathed out, not sure where this conversation was going. "They were nice to me and made sure to help me when I needed help. Also, my brother is in the party so it made it easier to talk to them in a way."

"Don't you want to hang out with more girls?" Nancy laughed.

"I have Max. She's my best friend. I don't really need anymore girls to hang out with. She and I already have many differences in our personalities. So, it's very difficult to keep up with her sometimes. Same with the group. I don't need anyone else to try to keep up with."

Nancy smiled at her statement she just made. "No wonder why Mike likes you so much."

"What's that supposed to mean?" El asked quietly.

"It's just your personality, and the way you speak." Nancy stated nicely. "Your words alone can make you seem like the most confident person ever, but when you put them with your voice, it makes you seem like your telling the truth but you don't want to harsh to the person your talking to because your afraid your going to hurt their feelings."

El didn't say anything, she knew Nancy was right. So she just looked down at her feet shyly. She heard Nancy giggle.

"I like you." She simply stated before turning and walking away, leaving El behind with Holly to play dolls.

Authors note

Thank you guys so much for reading!

There are probably many errors in here because I was rushing to get it done. I'm currently out of town. So if you catch anything that needs to be fixed, please let me know and I will fix them as soon as possible.

Bye!!