𝐇𝐮𝐫𝐭 𝐌𝐞 ; 𝘉𝘺𝘭𝘦𝘳 ✓

𝟏𝟑.

Hawkins High | Mon 9:32 AM
El Hopper

As soon as the bell rang, El bolted out the classroom and went to go search for the raven haired, freckled faced, Mike Wheeler. The first relevant person she saw was Lucas, and assumed he'd know where his so called 'best friend' was.

"Hey Lucas, have you seen Mike?" El asked.

"He's probably at his locker by now."

Straights. So boring. She thought.

"Ok thanks."

El speed walked down the hallway when she spotted him at his locker. "Hey Mike." She said while interlocking her fingers behind her back. He took his bookbag out his locker, closed the door, and turned to face her.

"Hey...what you smiling about?" he said while copying the expression on his face and leaning his body against the locker.

"Can you go to the dance with me?"

Mike had obviously forgotten about the dance, even though he'd been asked a couple of times at this point. El asking to go to the dance shocked him, causing him to hesitate when answering her.

"Uhh—" he said before being cut off by El.

"Only as friends. I promise." El assured him.

"Alright. Fine." Mike said, giving in. "What color are we wearing?"

El remembered the dress she looked at when she went to the Mall with Max. "Navy Blue." She said, smiling up at him.

"Navy Blue it is."

"Thank you, Mike" El hugged him tightly. He hugged back.

"Good luck with the game!" She said while heading to her next destination, the girls locker room.

***

After getting dressed in her green and white uniform, El grabbed her pom-poms and prepared to run out on the field with the other cheerleaders. Today, Hawkins would play against the Woodlake eagles. El had never been super Interested in football but still tried to pay attention to support Mike and Lucas.

"Let's go Hawkins lets go!" They all cheered as they shook their pom-poms in the air and ran to the sideline beside the benches.

As the game started, El's eyes couldn't help but wander over to Heather, who was arguing with another cheerleader for forgetting her hair tie. Even though she was extremely irritating, El also thought she was somewhat pretty, which scared her a bit. Was El one of those people who were attracted to people who were mean to them?

Once halftime hit, it was time for El to finally do the pyramid that they'd been working on for weeks now. El stretched before being lifted up on the top. She balanced herself before lifting one hand in the air and smiling.

El knew the pyramid wasn't stable enough and could feel the shaking hands of one of the girls holding her. She tried to stay calm so the audience wouldn't notice, but eventually the girls palms started to get sweaty and it felt like El was going to slip.

El bent down slightly and adjusted the girls hands, which caused her to shake even more. The rapid movement caused El to wobble back and forth, not being able to balance on to anything.

She fell back and hit the ground.

Luckily, she fell on her side and the pyramid was only a couple feet high so she didn't hurt herself badly. The collision with her body and the ground was still enough to knock her out though.

"Jane! Get your ass up! You messed up the goddam pyramid!" El heard subconsciously while she was still lying on the ground.

El flickered her eyes open and groaned as she lifted herself up, reaching her hand up for Heather to help her but not receiving it. She limped over to the bench and wrapped her arms around her body.

She sat and thought for a moment about what just happened.

Even though she fell and could've really hurt herself, all Heather did was yell at her! She didn't even ask if she was ok! El mentally slapped herself for ever thinking she was attractive and then turned around to face the audience.

All their attention was on her, which embarrassed her a little. El turned back around and tried to just focus on the rest of the game and relax.

***

El walked to the car with her arms crossed and a frown on her face. She sat down in the passengers seat and Hopper was able to pick up her frustration and the reason why she was frustrated.

"Heather again?"

She turned her head to look at him and said, "Yes! I fell off the pyramid and instead of helping me she just yelled at me and embarrassed in front of everyone!"

"Are you ok?" Hopper said, quickly going in concerned parent mode.

"Oh yeah I'm fine, she just really pissed me off."

Hopper skipped over the fact that she swore and said, "You only have to put up with her for one more year, then you can be the cheer captain and be better than her!"

El smiled and hugged her dad from over the seat separator. They drove home and El thought about her big accomplishment of the day. She got Mike to go with her to the dance! This would make Max jealous for sure!

To be continued...

Thank you all soooooo much for reading!! I literally remember having 5 views on this 2 weeks ago and now it's at 1k!!

[6/25/20 | 902 words]