Greetings fellow travelers

I haven't written a story to post for a long time, but I've just been so obsessed with Stranger Things since season 2 came out that I had to create my own version of season 3. I spent a whole year avoiding it at all costs, and I got so annoyed when people kept saying I should watch it, but then I finally watched it and I've been hooked ever since.

This is the first of many chapters that will lead up to my Stranger Things 3 interpretation. It'll be almost all fun and fluff, so I hope you enjoy.

The Snowball lasts long into the night, but few by few kids start to leave. Parents come and go with their children after looking through the window at their kids dancing, making small talk with Mr. Clarke while they waited their turn.

There are a few that don't seem to notice at all, though. A precious few that have the rest of the world tuned out, finally able to enjoy a night of peace, together.

Eventually they're the only ones left in the gym as the last song plays, Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper. As the last chords fade out of the speakers the teacher chaperones and custodians start about cleaning up. Mr. Clarke ushers the last students, his personal favorites, out of the gym.

"I hope you kids had fun tonight," He says once they're out of the gym.

Two sets of them are holding hands, and the other two look plenty happy by themselves. The older kids with them are similar, though they're also looking at their younger counterparts with amusement.

"A pleasure as always, my lord," Dustin responds with an exaggerated bow. Mr. Clarke laughs, but returns a small bow of his own.

"I think your rides are waiting outside," Mr. Clarke tells them, pointing into the parking lot where Joyce and Hopper are still chatting. "Don't keep them waiting too long. Have a great weekend."

With that he turns to go back and start breaking down all the electronic equipment, but he stops, taking a closer look at one member of the group. The girl's eyes widen, taking a micro-step backward at the scrutiny.

"I'm sorry, but have we met before?" He asks. "You look really familiar."

She opens her mouth, but no words come out, and she looks a little panicked.

"She's new in town, Mr. Clarke," Mike jumps in, squeezing her hand. "You must be confusing her for someone else."

"Oh, my mistake then," The teacher says, much to the kids' relief. "I'm Scott Clarke, I'm one of their teachers here at Hawkins Middle. It's a pleasure to meet you miss...?"

"Jane," The girl replies quietly. "Jane...Hopper."

Mr. Clarke seems to come to a realization, and then smiles.

"Welcome to Hawkins, Jane," He tells her, and then stands up a little straighter to address the whole group. "Tell your parents I say hello, as always. That goes for you too, miss Jane."

"Will do," Dustin responds immediately.

"Count on us," Lucas tells him right after.

They both have nervous smiles on their faces, but Mr. Clarke doesn't seem to notice. He bids them a good weekend again, and then disappears back in the gym.

The entire group breathes a sigh of relief once he's gone.

"That was too close," Mike says breathlessly.

"He only met her once!" Lucas exclaims incredulously. "Over a year ago!"

"He's got a great memory for people though," Dustin points out. "That's why he's one of the best teachers."

"Let's just go before we have any other incidents," Nancy suggests, starting to usher everyone toward the door.

Everyone shivers a little once they step outside, and Nancy rubs her arms.

"It's cold," El murmurs, her breath forming a cloud.

Almost immediately Mike shrugs off his suit jacket and puts it over her shoulders. She smiles, wrapping it closer around herself, enjoying the fact that it's warm and smells like Mike.

"Whipped," Dustin says through a storm of fake coughs, earning a glare from Mike and laughs from Lucas and Will.

"What does 'whipped' mean?" El asks, making all the other kids burst out laughing, except for Mike. She looks at them confused as they walk across the parking lot. "Did I say something wrong?"

"No, nothing wrong," Mike tells her quickly. "It doesn't matter what the word means, it's just something stupid."

He directs a glare at Dustin with the last part, but the boy doesn't notice.

"Hey guys," Joyce calls once they get close to her and Hopper. "How was it? Did you guys have fun?"

"It was awesome," Will answers for the group.

Meanwhile Hopper eyes the jacket around El's shoulders suspiciously, as well as how close she and Mike are standing, their shoulders all but connected. Neither of the kids seem to notice the suspicion on them, still focused on Mrs. Byers.

"Just one more week until Christmas Break," Dustin says with a big sigh of relief, rubbing his hands together. "It's gonna be awesome!"

"Speak for yourself," Lucas retorts. "We're going to my crazy grandmother's house for Christmas dinner, it's gonna be awful."

"You're grandmother's so sweet though," Mrs. Byers interjects. "She always brings cookies to give to all the parents when she visits."

"Yeah, but she just loves pinching cheeks," Lucas informs her. "And she always forgets that you already said hello, so she does it four or five times."

Everyone shares a nice laugh at his sullen forecast for break. Mike joins in laughing at Lucas' plight, until he feels a tap on the shoulder.

"Mike, what's Christmas?" El asks, curiosity and confusion written all over her face as the laughing dies down.

"Oh, well, umm," Mike starts, grasping for a place to start. "Christmas is a holiday, on December 25th every year."

"And you get lots and lots of presents," Dustin jumps in excitedly. "And there's a special Christmas Dinner with lots of food."

"And you celebrate it with your family," Mrs. Byers adds. "That's the most important part, to be with family when you celebrate."

"Yeah, and as for presents, you're supposed to give them to other people to," Will informs the slightly less confused girl. "It's the 'Season of Giving', so people exchange gifts with each other. And if you're good all year long, Santa Claus comes and brings you even more presents."

"Santa Claus?" She questions, her confusion coming back. "Who's Santa Claus?"

"He's kind of like the spirit of Christmas," Mike explains. "He's fat jolly old man with a long white beard and a bright red suit. He and his reindeer bring all the good little boys and girls presents for Christmas."

She nods slowly, and then looks at Hopper.

"Is Santa going to bring me presents?" She asks with her big brown eyes glittering slightly in the dim December moonlight.

"He'll probably bring a few," The chief tells her. "You just need to keep being good until he comes."

"Is he going to bring all of you presents too?" She continues, looking expectantly from face to face.

"Of course," Dustin answers. "After everything we've done to help people in this town, I think we're permanent residents of the Nice List."

They all laugh at that, some easier than others. After a short silence Hopper clears his throat and gets everyone's attention.

"I think it's time we all go home for the night,"He says, stuffing his hands in his pockets so everyone hears his keys.

Everyone looks a little disappointed at the idea, and El even pouts at him, but he doesn't retract the statement.

"Chief?" Mike starts, nervousness and apprehension more than evident in his voice. "Can we talk really quick? Over there?"

Mike gestures to a spot a fair distance away, where nobody would be able to hear them, unless they start shouting. Knowing the history between the two of them, that's the most likely outcome.

"Yeah, sure," Hopper replies, tossing his cigarette to the ground, and then turns to El. "Start saying goodbye to everyone."

He and Mike move away from the main group, who one by one give El big goodbye hugs with promises of Christmas presents.

"Alright kid, what is it this time?" Hopper asks once they're out of earshot. "I've told you a hundred times already, it's still too early for visitors."

"I want to throw a Christmas party for El," Mike tells him, his voice still shaking a little bit. "You know she'll love it, and it would just be us-"

"The answer's still no," Hopper interrupts. "The fewer people who know where that cabin is, the better. Right now that's staying at me, Joyce, Jonathan and Nancy, and that's already too many."

"What if we had it somewhere else then?" Mike persists. "I'm sure Mrs. Byers wouldn't object, and their house is almost as out of the way as the cabin. You'd be the only one bringing her anywhere."

He remains silent for a few moments, chewing on his cheek while he thinks of an appropriate response without getting mad.

"After everything she's been through, don't you think a little holiday spirit would be good for her?" Mike continues pleadingly. "Especially now that the lab is shut down, letting her have a little time out of the cabin once in awhile-"

"Alright," Hopper tells him, interrupting again in exasperation. "If you can convince Joyce to go along with this plan, then fine, I'll bring her over for a few hours. But there are some rules we're going to go over before any of that happens."

"Rules?" Mike questions, still shocked that Hopper agreed.

"Yeah, rules," Hopper answers. "But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. For now let's go home and enjoy what we've got."

"Wait, there's one more thing!" Mike exclaims, drawing a few curious glances from his friends. "Don't tell El just yet, I want it to be a surprise for her."

"You don't even know if it's happening yet," Hopper retorts.

"It's happening," Mike insists. "Whatever I have to do to make it happen, I'm going to do it. She deserves this much at least."

Hopper gives the boy another scrutinous look, and then sighs.

"Fine, I'll keep it a secret," He agrees before turning and walking away, Mike close at his heels trying to fight down a grin.

The others give them curious looks when they get back, which they both elect to ignore. Hopper gives Joyce a one armed hug instead and whispers something in her ear that makes her smile a little more. Meanwhile Mike only has eyes for one person, as if the rest of the universe had ceased to exist altogether.

"I guess this is goodbye again," El murmurs, a sullen look in her eyes.

"It won't be for long this time," Mike assures her, taking her hands. "I promise we'll get to see each other more often. Hopper can't say no forever, right?"

El laughs a little, and then gives him a hug, tighter and longer than the ones she'd given to the others. It gets to the point that Hopper starts getting annoyed, though the others range from making mock goo goo eyes to bemused smirks.

Hopper finally clears his throat, and when they don't seem to notice he does it again, much louder. The two break apart, their faces a little more pink than before. El takes off Mike's jacket and gives it back, much to her displeasure as she shivers at the loss of warmth.

"Promise," She says, holding out her pinky.

"Promise," Mike repeats, sealing the vow between them.

With that Hopper leads El away to his car, and everyone else waves as they drive away. Once they're out of sight everyone rounds on Mike.

"What did you and Hopper talk about?" Dustin demands, getting closer than Mike seems entirely comfortable with.

"Geez guys, give me some space," Mike responds, taking a step back. "I have to ask Mrs. Byers a question or it doesn't really matter."

All eyes expectantly turn to Joyce, who seems a little surprised.

"Fire away," She says with a slightly apprehensive confidence.

"Can we throw a Christmas party for El at your house?" Mike pleads, doing his best rendition of puppy dog eyes. "It's the only way Hopper will agree to it."

She doesn't seem as surprised by the actual question, and her surprised look soon turns into a motherly smile.

"Of course we can, it'll be good for her to get out of that cabin," She answers, and Mike can't stop himself from cheering.

"That's so sweet Mike," Nancy comments. "She's going to love it."

"He's probably just hoping to be under the mistletoe with El," Lucas comments with a chuckle.

"You're dead Sinclair!" Mike shouts, leaping at his friend, but Jonathan holds him back with a smirk on his face.

"You're kind of just proving his point with this," Jonathan whisper to him, and Mike stops struggling with a huff, straightening his clothes again.

"*cough* whipped *cough*" Dustin starts again, but Mike just glares at him.

Aside from a couple chuckles everyone stays silent for a few moments, until Mike finally remembers the other part of what Hopper said.

"He said there would be a few rules to go over," Mike informs them. "He didn't actually tell me what they were, but they're probably important."

"I'm sure he'll let us know after I talk to him," Joyce assures everyone. "For now, why don't we all go home and get out of the cold?"

As if on cue another car pulls into the parking lot and comes up next to us. Sitting behind the wheel is none other than Steve Harrington.

"Hey everybody, sorry I'm a little late," He greets. "My dad started talking about apartments again, and once he starts he just can't stop."

"No problem, sweetie, you're just in time," Joyce tells him.

"I guess I'll see you guys on Monday," Dustin says, giving everyone a wave as he walks around the car and gets in the passenger seat.

"And I'm doing the carpool tonight, so let's go everyone," Joyce continues, but then can't seem to find her keys.

"Check your back pants pocket," Jonathan suggests, and lo-and-behold, that's where she'd put them.

"Thank you," She says, giving her older son a quick hug. "Try not to stay out too much later you two, I still need help decorating tomorrow, especially with the tree now that we're having a party."

"Don't worry Mrs. Byers, I'll make sure he's home in time for bed," Nancy assures her, giving Jonathan a pat on the arm. "I'm pretty tired too, I don't know if I'm up for doing much else."

With that the kids pile into Joyce's car, Will smug in the front seat while Lucas, Max, and Mike have to squeeze in the back. Nancy and Jonathan get into his car, and Steve just drives away with Dustin.

"Alright, Max, where do you live?" Mrs. Byers asks. "I'll drop you off first since I already know where Lucas lives, and Mike is staying the night to help us do the decorating tomorrow."

Max gives her directions, and gives Lucas a quick kiss on the cheek before getting out, which Mike and Will give him no end of grief about until he bails as well.

"So Mike, what are you going to get El for Christmas?" Will asks, breaking the relatively comfortable silence.

Mike is quiet for a few seconds to ponder the question, not having thought that far ahead just yet.

"I'm not sure, but it has to be something special," He finally says. "Something that means more coming from us."

"You mean from you?" Will replies, his smirk just getting more and more smug.

"I know where you sleep, Byers, don't think I won't strangle you," Mike threatens, but Will just laughs it off.

By the time they get to the little house at the edge of town, both boys have grown considerably more tired, practically trudging inside while yawning profusely.

Mike takes a quick shower, giving him some time to think, and also because he doesn't want to fight with Will and Jonathan for it in the morning. The two of them sleep in Will's room, as usual.

"Hey Mike, I know we teased you about it before, but...," Will says just as they're about to fall asleep. "I think it's really cool that your first thought was to throw El a Christmas party. She needs more people like that, after everything."

Mike groans an incoherent reply, probably missing most of what Will said. Will just smiles and turns out the lamp.

XxX

The last week of school is torturously long for Mike that year, though he does his best to distract himself with planning the Christmas party. His grades have made a significant jump over the last month, as has his attitude, though his fights with bullies haven't changed at all.

Luckily the week passes without incident, the teachers watching the hallways like hawks after two fights the week before. Mike had only been in one of them, and to his benefit a teacher had actually seen Troy start it from the other end of the hallway, so he hadn't gotten in any serious trouble.

Halfway through the week the Chief had called them all together to put down his ground rules for the party, and going forward. They mainly seemed like the ones he'd already given to El, like not going outside, keeping the curtains drawn, and the door securely locked the whole time.

When Saturday finally came around Mike was up long before his alarm, struggling with wrapping paper. The finished product looks like an absolute mess, but it won't give away what's underneath just by looking at it. It had cost him every last cent he'd managed to scrape together mowing lawns and raking leaves, as well as a few more dollars begged from Nancy with the promise of paying her back.

He packs extra clothes in his bag to spend the night at Will's again, grabs his sleeping bag out of his closet for the same purpose, and a few other odds and ends from around the room that he might find useful. When he goes downstairs his mother is still making breakfast, and she seems pretty surprised to see him.

"You're up early for a Saturday," She comments, mixing some kind of batter in a bowl, just adding chocolate chips to it. "Something special going on?"

"I just need to check something," Mike tells her, going straight to the fridge. He groans, biting back a curse around his mother.

"What's wrong?" His mother asks glancing over at him as he shuts the door.

"I need to borrow some money," He starts, resorting to pleading right out of the gate. "It's just a few dollars, I'll pay you back soon, I promise."

"What's this about?" She questions, eyes him suspiciously as she puts down the batter she's mixing.

"I just need to buy something for the party later," Mike answers, doing his best puppy dog stare. Unfortunately his mother seems immune to his.

"Were you supposed to take something with you after all?" She responds, putting her hands on her hips. "I told you to let me know by Thursday."

"No, it's not that!" Mike bursts out, interrupting her. "It's supposed to be part of a gift for someone, I just don't have enough money."

"I'm sure they'll understand if you can't give it to them right away," His mother replies, going back to her mixing. "And I thought you made a lot of money doing all that yard work this month."

"I spent that on the other part of the gift," He tells her, to which she raises an eyebrow. "It's just really important that I get these, so can I please have a couple dollars to buy it?"

"What could you possibly have bought that cost that much money?" She questions. "And what is it you want to buy this time?"

Mike has a silent crisis for several moments, trying to figure out how to explain this without revealing the secret.

"We made a new friend, so she needs a supercom for herself," He finally explains, his words carefully measured. "And she really likes Eggos."

His mother's expression changes from suspicion to a childish curiosity.

"So this is about a girl?" She asks with a little smile. "Trying to impress her?"

"What?! No!" Mike exclaims. "I'm just trying to welcome her to the party!"

His mother nods, but her smile still remains.

"Is it this mystery girl you were with at the dance?" She continues, enjoying that she can finally do her motherly relationship prying.

"Who told you about that?" Mike demands, looking more than a little worried.

"I was chatting with a few other mothers at the supermarket, and they mentioned the pretty new girl you were dancing with," She says, much to his embarrassment. "Is it true that you kissed?"

"Mom!" He yells, his face turning beet red.

"Oh, alright," She lets up, going over to her purse on the counter. "Since you've been doing so well this month, I'll let you have five dollars."

"Thank you," He huffs, his face still looking like a tomato.

"You should invite her over sometime," His mother tells him as he races back upstairs. "I can't wait to meet her."

Mike buries himself in his pillow, both wanting to die of embarrassment and wishing it were just a little bit later so he could go to Will's.

About fifteen minutes later his mom starts calling for breakfast, coming upstairs to get Holly. He waits another minute, making sure his face has no traces of red or pink, before he finally goes to eat. His mother hands him a plate of chocolate chip pancakes with a smile, which he purposely ignores, sitting down next to Holly.

The chocolate chips are still gooey in the pancakes, and Mike helps Holly put some syrup on them while Nancy joins them with a yawn.

"Morning you two," She greets, accepting the syrup from Mike.

"Morning!" Holly responds with a mouthful of pancake. Mike just grunts through his food, though he and Nancy both laugh a little at Holly's high spirits.

Even though Mike was there first, Nancy is the first one done with her pancakes. She takes a second to hand Holly a napkin for her syrupy chin before turning her attention to her brother.

"So, did you get it?" She asks, whispering and leaning forward a little.

"You don't have to whisper, mom already knows," He responds, though he doesn't sound particularly happy about it. "But yeah, I got the extended range model."

"She's going to love it," Nancy assures him. "Plus, you're getting her Eggos, right?"

"So you've been getting your advice from Nancy?" Their mother questions, sitting down with her own plate of pancakes.

"I've been known to offer some helpful hints every so often," Nancy answers, more than a little smug. Mike just stuffs the last of his pancakes in his mouth so he doesn't have to answer.

"And do you know who this mystery girl is?" Their mother presses between bites.

Nancy throws a glance at Mike, but he doesn't know what to say either, swallowing his mouthful of food with difficulty.

"I don't know too much," She finally replies. "I know that she's one of the sweetest people I've ever met, and she loves to learn."

"Hmm," Their mother responds, looking between the both of her older children. "Will I be meeting her, or her parents, anytime soon?"

"She's actually adopted," Nancy tells her before Mike can get a word in. "Chief Hopper must have had his grinch moment, his heart grew three sizes."

"So she's in your classes at school?" She persists, and now Mike has no excuse for not coming up with an answer.

"She had a little trouble in her last home," He explains, again choosing each word with the utmost care. "She's a little behind right now, so Hopper's homeschooling her. With some luck, she'll be able to enroll in high school with us next year."

Their mother just seems to eat it all up.

"You should offer to tutor her, I bet she'd love having another girl to talk to," She suggests to Nancy. "And Mike, you probably have some old textbooks or workbooks laying around up there you could lend to her."

"Will do," He says, getting up from the table with his plate.

"I should probably go get ready for the party too," Nancy adds, doing the same. "I promised Jonathan I'd help him get some last minute things together."

Mrs. Wheeler is left with a knowing smirk on her face at the table with her youngest daughter, who is still having far too much fun with pancakes and syrup. After another few minutes her husband finally comes downstairs, taking his plate from the counter.

"Everyone seems up very early today," He comments. "Did I miss something?"

XxX

It's just before noon when Mike gets to the Byers' house, leaning his bike up on the porch in case it snows. Mrs. Byers ushers him inside quickly, offering him a ham and cheese sandwich before they start setting all the party stuff up.

He eats it in a couple huge bites while Will throws the stuff he brought over in his bedroom out of the way.

"Alrighty then," Joyce says, looking over the living room. "We can probably move the coffee table out to the dining room..."

With that she starts directing the boys to move different things around, bringing some chairs into the living room for more seats. They get an old folding table out of the shed just in case, as Dustin's mom is supposedly sending some snacks, which usually means a feast of side dishes.

The couches get pushed to the edges of the room to leave space for everyone to socialize. The tv is left where it is so everyone can see it around the room, though Will takes his Atari to his room.

By the time Joyce is finally happy with the arrangement of the room, and has started all the cooking preparation she needs to do, it's already four o'clock. They're alerted to this fact when someone knocks on the door; Will answering it to reveal Dustin and Steve, both carrying a dish in each arm, and a duffle bag over Dustin's shoulder.

"These are just the first four, we've got, like, ten more in the car," Dustin tells everyone while they come inside. Steve helps Joyce fit all the dishes on the table, and it takes the three boys two more trips to get all the rest out of Steve's BMW, including three big trays of just deserts.

"And these are just snacks?" Will questions, looking over the dishes in wonder. No matter how many times it happens, he'll always be amazed.

"Snacks, side dishes, and a special christmas lamb stew," Dustin explains. "When she heard it was going to be a party she started cooking on Thursday, and placed an order at the bakery last Sunday."

"So long as Lucas doesn't get seconds, we should have plenty," Mike jokes.

Speak of the devil and he shall appear, the next knock comes only a few minutes later, revealing Lucas and Max, both seeming a little cold after the bike and skateboard ride over. They're just as much in awe of the spread as anyone else, Max even more so because she's never had a 'snack' from Dustin's mom.

"Hopper said he won't get to leave the station until at least five thirty, so you kids can get started with whatever it is you want to do," Mrs. Byers informs them.

"Mike, I challenge you to dragon chess," Dustin says immediately.

"Did you seriously bring the dragon chess set with you?" Lucas asks incredulously.

"Of course I did," Dustin replies indignantly. "Now that emo-Mike is gone, I can get a legitimate game out of him.

"What's dragon chess?" Max chimes in before they can start arguing too much.

"It's a type of chess they use in D&D," Will explains. "Basically there's three chess boards set up in a stack, and the pieces are different creatures from D&D. They all move in special ways, and you have to consider all three levels at once."

"That sounds complicated," Max observes as Dustin and Mike go to start setting it up on the floor.

"Yes, but think of it this way," Lucas says. "If Mike is playing dragon chess, that means he won't just be moping about El not being here yet."

It takes them almost twenty minutes to set up the board with all the pieces, but once they actually start it gets intense pretty quickly. Mike makes expert use of his basilisks on the bottom level, striking Dustin's middle level pieces when they can't move. Dustin keeps his griffons swooping down on Mike's pieces, using their special triagonal attack to prevent his opponent from taking them.

Unfortunately for Dustin is starts to fall apart when Mike's mage moves to the upper level and immediately takes one griffon, with the dragon in its sights. Dustin's own mage is frozen by a basilisk, and has no way to come to the rescue.

In rapid succession Dustin loses his dragon, his second griffon, his basilisks, almost all his sylphs, his mage, his paladin, his unicorns, and his heroes. Meanwhile Mike only loses half his sylphs when they're on the middle level, a basilisk and some dwarves on the lowest level, and some sacrificial warriors on the middle.

Just as Mike is about to make the finishing move to put Dustin's king in checkmate there's a knock at the door. He immediately disregards the game entirely, rushing to open it. Unbeknownst to them, it had started flurrying a little while they were engrossed in the game, so when Mike throws the door open a little snow comes in along with El's hug.

"Mike!" She exclaims, her voice filled with joy and excitement.

"H-hi El," He responds, hugging her back with just as much excitement and joy, though he seems a lot more tentative and nervous about it.

The reason why decides to loudly clear his throat from the other side of the doorway, which to two of them are currently blocking with their hug.

"Maybe let us in the door first," Hopper suggests. Mike and El break apart quickly, and Mike flushes red in embarrassment, stepping out of the way. The Chief has a couple things with him as well, a couple bags and a bottle of eggnog.

Hopper shuts the door behind him and Joyce comes out to greet them. El takes off her obviously new purple winter coat, with a matching knit hat, which Mike hangs on a coat hook for her. Underneath she has a pair of lightly worn jeans and a well loved red and green Christmas sweater.

While Hopper and Joyce sort out what he's added to the menagerie, Mike and El rejoin the game, now holding hands. There are more hugs all around, and an awkward handshake between El and Max.

"Hopper said we were going to get a tree," El informs them with a smile. "But then we came here."

"We wanted it to be a surprise," Mike tells her, grinning like a happy fool.

"More like Mike wanted it to be a surprise," Lucas says under his breath, but loud enough that everyone can hear.

Mike shoots him a glare, and the others try to hold back their laughter. El just squeezes his hand, a light dust of pink on her cheeks.

"What's this?" El asks, changing the subject by pointing the hopelessly one-sided game of dragon chess.

"It's called dragon chess, I was just creaming Dustin at it before you got here," Mike tells her, just short of having hearts in his eyes, not even looking at the board. He manages to catch himself before she notices, though obviously Max notices because she coughs to bring him back to reality. "I just need to do this, and then I win."

Mike makes the final crushing move, putting Dustin's king in checkmate.

"It looks like fun," El observes, picking up one of the sylph pieces. "Could you teach me?"

"Yeah, definitely," Mike agrees, open to any excuse to spend more time with her. "But why don't we go check out the Christmas tree first?"

El's face lights up at the mention of the tree.

"Here, put this on," Will tells her, handing her a blindfold. "We'll walk you over, we just want it to be a big surprise."

She ties the cloth around her eyes, grasping Mike's hand a little tighter now. They slowly walk into the dining room, where there was more space to put the tree. With a small turn she's in perfect position.

"Okay, I'm gonna take the blindfold off," Will says, reaching up and pinching the top edge of the cloth. With a single yank upwards he removes the blindfold, and El opens her eyes.

They immediately go wide in wonder as she takes in the big tree, fully decorated with lights, ornaments, and tinsel. At the top of the tree is a star, also lit up, which seems to draw most of her attention.

The closest one to her is Mike, so she hugs him first, and the longest. She even hugs him again after everyone else has a turn, but he doesn't complain. When she finally pulls back, her arms still on Mike's shoulders and his still on her sides, he sees the tears in her eyes.

"Is something wrong?" He asks in concern, but she shakes her head, letting a few tears fly off her head in the process.

"It's perfect," She says, choking up a little. "Thank you."

With that she embraces him again, a big smile plastered on everyone's faces. Her reaction was better than anything they'd been expecting, even Mike.

It ends when Hopper clears his throat at the loudest possible volume. El breaks off slowly, wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her sweater, her other hand silently slipping into Mike's. For his part, Mike's face is bright red again, realizing how long they'd been standing there.

"We're going to wait until Nancy and Jonathan get here before we eat and do presents," He informs the kids. "I assume you can keep yourselves amused until they get here?"

"Affirmative captain!" Dustin responds with a mock salute. The Chief just sighs, shakes his head, and goes back to the kitchen where Joyce is pouring out some eggnog for the both of them.

While the kids migrate back to the living room, arguing about what games to play, and ultimately deciding on Max's suggestion of would-you-rather, Joyce and Hopper take a few minutes to relax in the kitchen.

"I don't know how you can stand to have so many kids around all the time," Hopper comments, downing half the eggnog in a single gulp.

"They're not so bad, I've just had a lot more time with them," Joyce responds, sipping her drink more slowly. "You'll warm up to them."

"I'm not so sure," Hopper mutters, rubbing his temples as the volume starts to rise in the other room, only for Max to silence it. "I might end up shooting one of them pretty soon, they're just...grr."

He can't even find the words to finish the sentence, but he holds his hands out to strangle the air in front of him.

"This is about Mike and Eleven, isn't it?" Joyce observes.

"That's a definite part of it," He grumbles, downing another gulp of eggnog. "He's the biggest headache of the lot, he even shows up at the station. She's too young for boys, and she has too much studying to do to catch up for next year."

Joyce puts a gentle hand on his shoulder and smiles.

"You and I both know that last part is an excuse," She tells him. "She's gone from no reading level at all to fifth grade in a year, and she's only getting better every day. She caught up to six grade in math and science in a month, and she's almost done with fifth grade history. Her studying is going more than fine, and it's only gotten better since you told her she could be in high school next year."

"That doesn't mean she needs to be thinking about boys," Hopper insists.

"She's always been thinking about boys, one boy in particular," Joyce retorts. "And he's always thinking about her too. The entire year we thought she was dead, he called her every night, even when he was over here. He thought nobody noticed because he went outside after Will was asleep, but I heard him. He missed her more than anything in the world."

"He's still a boy, Joyce," Hopper says after downing the last of his glass. "I know what boys that age are like, I was the same way when I was younger."

"He's not like you were, Hop," Joyce responds, setting her cup down and crossing her arms. "He's definitely not a football jock like you were, he's almost a carbon copy of... of Bob."

She hesitates with that last point, turning away to grab a tissue and wipe her eyes. Hopper's expression softens, gently pulling her into a hug. They stay like that for a while, the only sound coming from the game in the living room.

"Sorry about that," Joyce says, breaking away. "It's just... He looks at her like she hung the stars in the sky, like she's the only girl on the planet. You should give him a chance, Hop, he deserves that much."

Her tone is much different, wavering a lot more than before. Hopper just sighs.

"Alright, fine, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt," He tells her, leaning back against the counter. "She hasn't stopped talking about him since the Snowball, I was ready to rip my ears off if I heard 'Mike' this or 'Mike' that again. Maybe now she'll finally stop."

"Now what?" Joyce question, wiping away the last traces of tears from her eyes.

"A Christmas present for the two of them," He answers, though he doesn't seem entirely happy about it. "Mike can visit the cabin, on weekends only."

Joyce lets out a half chuckle, a smile flirting across her lips.

"What's so funny?" Hopper asks.

"I'm just hoping your couch is comfortable, for his sake," She replies. "You're not gonna be able to get rid of him until Sunday night."

"Don't make me change my mind," Hopper warns her, turning to pour himself another glass of eggnog.

Joyce opens her mouth to say something else, but light floods through the front of the house then, signalling their last arrivals. It cuts out quickly, and then Jonathan and Nancy come in out of the flurrying snow.

"Sorry we're late, I got stuck on overtime," Jonathan apologizes.

"But we brought dessert!" Nancy announces, revealing a Christmas themed cake from under her coat. "It's an ice cream cake!"

There is a chorus of cheering from the living room while Joyce goes to hug her son. Hopper takes the cake from Nancy to go in the freezer, eyeing a box of eggos with a bow on it with a suspicious gaze. It has 'Mike' written all over it.

"Alright everyone, time for dinner!" Joyce says, to more excited cheers.

One by one, or really mob by mob, everyone gets a plate and silverware, and they take as much food from the veritable buffet as possible. El just stands there staring at the different selections, not knowing what any of them are.

"See anything you like?" Mike asks, his plate loaded with a little of everything.

"I don't know," She tells him, her eyes aimlessly drifting from dish to dish.

Mike seems to understand, starting to describe each dish one by one, and letting her try some the ones that sound good to her off his plate. In the end she gets some of the stew Dustin's mom made, green beans, a baked potato piled high with toppings, and some alfredo pasta.

Dinner is the least formal affair of the night, everyone finding whatever seat they can in the living room. Mike and El sit side by side on the floor, plates carefully balanced on their knees.

Once they've devoured most of the food Mrs. Byers and Nancy set out the dessert, cutting the cake into pieces for everyone. El takes a tentative bite, her eyes going wide before she takes another much bigger one. Mike grins and chuckles at her, wiping a little icing from the tip of her nose when she smiles back.

"Okay, now that everyone is stuffed to the brim," Joyce announces as they all finish up their desserts. "It's time for presents!"

El cheers, getting up and rushing over to one of the bags Hopper had carried in with him. She pulls out a plastic bag and starts handing out the contents, handmade cards, decorated with buttons, glitter, and all manner of other things. When she gets to Mike's she turns a little pink.

Mike immediately out does her when he sees the inside, a stick figure drawing of the two of them under what has to be a mistletoe. He turns a bright enough red to be a traffic light, but that doesn't stop him from hugging her.

"Thanks El, I love it," He says, and Joyce gives Hopper a knowing smile at the unspoken words after that. He just rolls his eyes, but doesn't comment.

"I got something for you too," Mike continues, breaking away from the hug. He rushes away to Will's room, grabbing the poorly wrapped gift, the handmade card, and making a detour to the kitchen on the way back to grab the box of eggos.

El's eyes light up when she sees the box of eggos, practically jumping for joy when Mike hands them to her. She beams at the card, a poorly drawn Christmas tree on the front in crayon, but when he holds out the gift though, it's like she's reached a happiness overload.

She tears the wrapping paper off to reveal the supercom, eliciting several gasps from Dustin, Lucas, and Will. El tackle hugs him again, her eyes tearing up once again. Hopper doesn't even make an effort to clear his throat this time, letting them have their moment.

"It's amazing," She says when they break apart, tearing her eyes away from Mike's to look at the gift.

"Now you can talk to us from the cabin," Mike tells her, as if she can get more excited about the gift. "It's the extended range model, so it should have no problem sending out a signal from all the way out there."

"It's just whether or not ours will be able to pick up the response," Dustin comments. "And you can just do your whole psychic listening thing to hear what we're saying since we have the crummy short range ones."

"Dang Mike, where'd you get that kind of money?" Lucas asks, eyeing the shiny new walkie talkie with some envy.

"I did a lot of yard work this month," Mike answers. "And I owe Nancy five dollars, but it's totally worth it"

El just grins as he shows her how the different buttons work, the other supercoms crackling to life once they get the right channel. Joyce nudges Hopper in the ribs again, to which he rolls his eyes.

"Alright, I guess this is as good a time as any," Hopper announces, getting everyone's attention. "I've got a gift for the both of you."

Mike just kind of stands there, too surprised to say anything, but El's excitement just keeps coming.

"Against my better judgement," He starts, getting another elbow to the ribs from Joyce. "I'll let you start visiting the cabin, but only on weekends."

He adds the last part even more sternly, but anything else he says is drowned out by El's joyous shout, finally knocking Mike the ground with the force of her hug.

"Hey, don't make me change my mind already!" Hopper exclaims, his voice cutting through to the two teenagers. "There are some more rules to talk about, but we can do that later."

Once they finally manage to sit back up everyone else starts to bring their gifts over. Steve and Dustin collectively got her the first two Star Wars films on VHS, as well as a matching t-shirt for each. Max and Lucas banded together to get her Ghostbusters, along with another t-shirt and a hat to match.

Will gave her a set of crayons and a sketchbook of her own, as well as a couple drawings of the party with their D&D personas. He promised her that he would give her an updated version once she and Max officially made characters.

Jonathan gifts her a small polaroid camera, getting her solemn promise that she would get a lot of good shots for the future.

Joyce and Nancy spring the surprise on her, as well as Max, that they would be going out for a girl's day sometime soon, once its safe to be out in public, to get El some new clothes of her own. They would get some quality girl time together, something she sorely needs after so long with only Hopper for company.

To his credit, Hopper gives her a small radio to put in her room so she can listen to it when he gets too annoying.

Once all the presents are set out Joyce turns on the radio to a Christmas station, filling the little house with music. El is the first to get up to dance, dragging Mike with her as Jingle Bell Rock starts to pick up. The others quickly follow suit, dancing carefree in the limited space of the living room.

When Let It Snow comes on the dancing slows down, the couples and the almost couples getting together to dance together for a few minutes. Even Hopper joins in when Joyce drags him off the couch.

The highlight of the song comes when a stalk of asparagus flots into the room over Mike and El as they dance.

"Is that asparagus?" Dustin questions, standing off to the side with Will and Steve.

"I saw it on the tv," El answers sheepishly, her cheeks turning a little pink. "They hung a little plant."

"I think you're looking for mistletoe," Steve tells her. "If you get caught under the mistletoe with someone you have to kiss."

El turns even more pink as he explains it, though she already knew that part. She leans her head against Mike's shoulder to hide her blush, sending the asparagus back where it came from to the amusement of everyone else.

"Hey El," Mike whispers to her a few moment later, getting her to look up.

When she sees him looking up she does the same, seeing a little plant tied with a red ribbon at the end of a string above them. Holding it up there with fishing line on a stick is none other than Dustin, taking it out from his duffel bag of wonders.

Hopper looks like he wants to say something, but Joyce steps on his foot for good measure. He grumbles something, turning away from the two teens.

El blushes again as Mike leans closer, closing her eyes and tilting her head a little to the side. When their lips touch, just for a tentative moment, electricity tingles through them for the third time ever. They both move back a little, each hesitant to do more, but Mike finally musters the courage to give her a real kiss.

Everything seems to disappear around them when their lips touch, as if it never existed to begin with. All either of them care about in that moment is right in front of them. For a minute nothing else in the world matters except that they're finally together, they finally have each other.

It takes all of Hopper's self control not to separate them, though Joyce's staying hand does help. When they finally do separate their lips they seem to come back to reality, both turning a fiery red to a chorus of fake kissing sounds from their friends around them.

The song plays its final note soon after, and the dancing partners break apart as more lively music comes on.

"Why don't we watch a movie?" Joyce suggests to lighten the mood for them.

They finally decide on watching the classic 'A Christmas Carol', with Mike explaining the different ghosts to El as they come.

By the end Will is already asleep, and everyone else is well on their way, except for Hopper and Joyce. The boys and Max start to set up their sleeping bags and El gives Hopper a hopeful look.

"Go on, I'll pick you up in the morning," He tells her with a sigh, no energy left to try to argue with her.

She lets out an excited squeal, running to tell the others, who help her make a bed out of blankets. She chooses the spot closest to Mike, Max on her other side.

Hopper leaves before the bedding is fully done, before he can see the two of them move their bedding closer and closer until they're practically on top of each other.

Steve crashes on the couch and Nancy steals Will's room for the night as Joyce makes a few calls to parents, getting caught in conversation by both Mike and Dustin's mothers for almost twenty minutes each. By the time she's done all of them are fast asleep, so she carefully weaves her way through them to turn off the lamps around the room.

She stops for a second when she hears El let out a soft groan in her sleep, and when she turns to look she sees her expression tighten. When the sound repeats again she goes to start toward her, only for Mike's hand to reach out and touch her arm. The boy himself is still asleep, but the touch seems to make El feel better, her expression softening again.

Joyce smiles and grabs her own polaroid off the end table. By the time she turns back to them El has moved even closer, right up against Mike's chest, Mike's arm wrapped around her protectively. She snaps a couple shots of the adorable scene, one for her, one for Hopper, and one for each of the two teens to have.

Joyce turns off the last of the lights, the smile still on her face as she goes to sleep in her own room, the pictures sitting on her nightstand with the camera.

Hope you all enjoyed, this was just supposed to be some happy fun times for the kids. I had the idea for this after writing my other story, No More, which was just depressing, so I needed to write something happy.

I'll be doing a bunch of holidays and significant moments, leading up to the next year, so if there's anything specific you want to see, let me know. If it isn't already on the list I'll add it. Right now the list stands at: Christmas, New Year's, Valentine's Day, Spring Break, a mystery surprise, summer break, 4th of July, something for end of summer, and then the start of school.