promise → mileven

three → a trip

hawkins, indiana. 1984. june 24th, thursday. around 3:00 am, wheeler residence.

mike was shaken awake from his dream by an ear-piercing scream. at first he thought he was the one screaming, but the lack of a raspy throat and heavy breathing told him otherwise. a few seconds later, when he was more awake, he realised it was coming from above him. or more precisely from the bunk bed above him, eleven's bed. they had shared beds so far, and she had never screamed or had nightmares but tonight, while watching movies she fell asleep and his father had to carry her upstairs. he was too embarassed to ask him to put her in his bed, but he also knew his father would begin a hypocritical lecture on how it's inappropriate to do so while he himself gawked at young girls in skirts.

eleven's screaming had died down into soft, muffled sobs as mike climbed up the ladder. he crept to her and pulled the still-sleeping girl into his lap. her pajamas were drenched in sweat, her short brown hair plastered to her forehead.
"wake up, el. wake up" he whispered, sweeping away the sweaty hair from her face with one hand.
"mike?" she blubbered, looking up at him with teary eyes. she pulled herself up into a sitting position and pulled the boy into a desperate hug, crying into his shoulder. he pulled her closer, one hand gently patting the small of her back while the other stroked her hair.
"bad dream" she mumbled into his shirt, still sobbing softly.
"want to tell me about it?" he asked, lifting her face from his shoulder so he could look into her eyes. he gulped. their face was less than an inch apart, and he could kiss her if he wanted to. but something told him this wasn't the time to do it.
she shook her head vigorously, and he nodded. "that's fine. you can tell me whenever you want to if you wish" he told her. they lay in the comfortable silence, bathing in the moonlight when mike broke the silence.

"how did you get back from the upside down?"
she tensed up at his question, sitting up straight. "you don't know? you were there" she answered, one eyebrow raised in confusion.
"i was?" his voice shook, trying to recall the night before he found her. he had no recollection of what had happened at all, a gaping hole in his memories, not even a fuzzy, distant inkling of deja vu. all he remembered was how he was vaguely annoyed at the person who was knocking, as it was seven a.m and way too early to be dealing with whatever. from then on it was all a mess, from eleven's eyes fluttering closed as she fell onto the 'welcome' mat, his hands shaking incessantly because of his nerves, and her cold body in his arms as he carried her into the house.

a dog barked somewhere in someone's backyard a few minutes later, but they both weren't awake to hear it. they fell asleep amidst a conversation, both too tired to carry on. somewhere, far away, lightning crackled. a storm was coming at a swift speed but the inhabitants of hawkins lay in their beds unknowing of the hurricane brewing.

hawkins, indiana. 1984. june 25th, friday. 10:12am, school bus.

"you guys cannot understand how excited i am for this road trip" dustin squealed, sitting beside mike and eleven, his backpack, which was stuffed to the brim with snacks sitting on his lap.

"i can see" mike sassed him. he was sitting in between the curly haired boy and eleven, waiting for their science teacher, mr clarke to finish making sure everyone was here.
hawkins middle had organized a thing over the summer where they'd have a field trip a week and people could sign up before school ended for them. some, like those that went to the waterpark or to the adventure park were packed full, but today's trip was headed to indianapolis to the museum of science and astronomy so not many people had come. just his luck, they'd let eleven come too since there was barely any extra people outside of mike and his friends. so here she was, sitting by mike in his old dungeons and dragons tshirt and high waisted shorts. she was swinging her feet clad in new nike sneakers, and she was wearing her now grown out short hair freely. she was wearing makeup that nancy did this time, and a few rubber bracelets and mike's watch to cover up her 011 tattoo.
mike glanced at her quickly for the one hundredth time today before looking at his teacher who was coming straight towars them. he couldn't help but think those shorts were too short - she might even get dresscoded for them. and he didn't really want anyone else seeing her legs other than him.
"hello dustin, lucas, mike, will. i see your cousin is visiting us again! and she changed her hair..." he frowned at the girl who was now a brunette instead of platinum blonde.
"she got gum stuck in her hair and she had cut it all off. and she dyed her hair for... umm... halloween!" mike smiled, completely forgetting that it was june and halloween was over half a year ago.
"well isn't that wonderful. im glad you joined us today, eleanor" he addressed her by her old fake name "it's wonderful seeing you again." he said, and walked back to the front of the bus. "now if everyone's ready, we'll get on our way" he said, taking a seat in the driver's seat and putting the key into the ignition.

half an hour later the soft shaking of the bus had lulled most of the children on it into sleep. those who weren't were occupying themselves quietly, although the majority had passed out. mike had two heads on his shoulders. eleven's and dustin's. his own was slightly tilted towards el. on the seats beside them, lucas was reading a book until will's head dropped on his shoulder. he stopped, looked at the boy and continued on reading.
another half an hour later and they were well into the city of indianapolis. by this time, most of the middle schoolers had woken up and were pressed to the windows. people in hawkins never got out of the small town, as anything you really needed was in town or close by. there was a few supermarkets, a cinema, a strip mall, and a hospital just on the outskirts. so, really the only reason people went out of hawkins was to either go to the airport or to college. and since most of these children had lived their whole lives here, they'd never really been outside of the sleepy little town.

but the most amazed of them all was eleven. she had pressed her face to the warm window, her steamy breath forming a fog on the window that disappeared almost immediately due to the warm outside weather. never in her life had she seen so many cars, so many people clad in so many different outfits, and so many tall buildings in one single place. even though it was friday, and at noon, there was still a lot of things to marvel at. some of the higher end stores had summery displays with the manequins posed as if they were playing catch with a beach ball. there was a big display on one building with a fitness video that showed a skinny blonde model in a workout leotard showing you how to do crunches. she was amazed by the big city life and stared out of her window until they got to the museum. it had a big dome shaped roof protuding from one side which said "indianapolis museum of science and astronomy."

(a/n: i just moved to america about a year ago and i've never been to indianapolis, so i'm just gonna describe it using my memories of going to atlanta and charlotte and also im a 2000s baby so idk how life rlly was in the 80s im sowwyy anyways i'm going to stop rambling now and if anything i describe is unlike the city, or the time pls tell me and i'll edit it out)

as eleven stretched out on the gravel next to the school bus, mike came real close to knowing exactly how short her shorts were. although she was wearing knee-high socks, they had slid down her legs and didn't do much to cover up her mile-long legs, neither did she seem too bothered by showing so much skin. after all, in the lab this was standard procedure as the flimsy hospital gowns never covered too much. but mike was an overjealous one, and pervy pete, the eighth grader who always got boners was here on the trip with them, so he slipped off his jacket and tied it around her waist.

"but i'm not cold, mike" she complained, lifting up one sleeve of the jacket as if to examine it.
"leave it on, it matches your outfit" he explained. see, over the weekend he'd gone shopping with eleven and his mom and sister, and he'd discovered that el had a huge, hidden passion for fashion. she'd even bought a few magazines so she could copy some of their outfits.
"okay" she smiled, then as the group began walking she held out a hand to the boy. he looked down at her hand, then up at her, then to the two curly haired boys beside them that looked like they'd say something any moment now.
and they did. as they wolf-whistled in unison, mike turned redder and redder and grapped the girl's hand then led her to the front of the group.
"hey, el, i want to ask you not to do that in front of the boys. you know, they're all so immature, they-"
"i think you're starting to be like papa now" she said simply, letting go of his hand "you want me to do things i don't want to and i don't like it" she finished, turning around and walking back to the boys.
mike was going to say something but couldn't, so his mout gaped open in surprise. did she just call him controling? where had she learnt these words? and most importantly of all, why did he secretly like this independent and confident side of her?

hey guys i hope you liked chapter three! im sorry i haven't written a new chapter in a while, i started writing this a little differently but then i was super busy and when i tried writing this chapter i didnt rlly like it so i had to redo it.
also, me n my classmates went to mosi so thats where i got the museum thing from.
also, my mom's friend gave me a bike she doesn't use anymore and i feel like the stranger things children when i ride my bike to school and stuff lol. im still not as good as them tho (i cant rlly keep it going straight so sometimes im a lil scared ill swerve right into the street)  even tho i'm 15 i cri.
idk when im gonna write the next chapter, but i'll try to get it out before next weekend.
also, last thing before i go, the temperature in florida has been in the 70s and it finally feels like fall ayyyeeee 🍁🍂🍁🍂🍁🍂🍁🍂🍁🍂🍁🍂