teach

verb

show or explain to (someone) how to do something.

"And that's how you focus the lens," Emilia showed El, letting the younger girl hold the camera in her hands. Never before had she let anyone touch her camera, her most prized possession, especially since she'd gotten it fixed. But she knew that even if El did drop it, she could stop it before it hit the ground below them. She moved El's finger over the shutter release, "And that's how you snap the shot."

"Snap the shot," El always repeated what everyone else said, she was like a sponge taking in everything that they would teach her.

"Yeah, go ahead," Emilia pointed at the vast expanse of trees. Though Hopper was growing greys every time El stepped out of the house, Emilia had argued with him that keeping her trapped inside of a house would be unhealthy. She'd been trapped inside that lab her whole life, and nature soothed, brought one back to their roots. Emilia promised always to be with El, and that they would never stray out of sight of the house.

Hopper had begrudgingly agreed.

It was September, and school was starting the next day. Emilia found herself growing excited to enter her final year. Nearly one year ago, just after the events that brought El into their lives and changed everything forever, Jonathan had asked Emilia to move to New York with him when they completed high school. Since she had no future plans, nothing to keep her in Hawkins, she'd said yes without hesitating. Now, as she watched El hold the huge camera, looking comical in her small hands, she wondered if something was keeping her in Hawkins now.

She had Hopper to look after, in some weird way she knew she held him together on those harder days. Now she had El, and after the last seven months of bonding with her, she realized that she'd missed out on having a sibling. Seeing Jonathan and Will have a brotherly bond that couldn't be broken by monsters and other realms, Emilia didn't know she craved that connection too. Of everything that happened since the last year, it was the connections she made that brought out a different person in her. Her unbreakable bond with Jonathan would always be there, but with Hopper, with El, with Joyce, even with Will.

How could she leave some of them?

El turned and snapped a photo of Emilia deep in thought, she lowered the camera so that it rested against her chest, and realized something was wrong with Emilia. She said, "sad" and it took Emilia out of her deep thoughts.

"Not sad," Emilia shook her head. She had a year to figure it all out. "Hey El, I'm going back to school tomorrow, and I won't be around as much."

El processed this, then nodded, "At night?"

"I'll be here sometimes," she admitted. "Remember when I was gone this summer for a week?"

Emilia and Jonathan had gone to Lake Michigan together to recreate the  photo of her mother, it had been the furthest Emilia had ever gone from Hawkins. After months of being quite distant from Jonathan, due to her new family member, it had brought them closer together. He always inquired why she stopped coming over, and she never had an honest answer for him. She loved Jonathan, and she loved the time spent with him and his family, but for the first time in her life, she had her own family too. Only, she couldn't tell him.

"I will be very busy with school, and won't be here every night, but I promise, I'll be here at least twice a week. My friends, they miss me." Emilia regretted the words the moment she had spoken them. More than once El had a freak out about her friends, how much she missed them and needed to see them, how unfair Hopper was being. Hopper would shout, Emilia would try to calm the situation down. It always ended in tears for El, and Hopper would crack a beer with furious intent.

"Do my friends miss me?" she asked.

"Yes, El, they do. This is a part of who we are," Emilia knelt down in the warm dirt below, the sun having been beating down on it all day. She placed a hand on El's shoulder, "If we don't feel that tug in our hearts, then we aren't really living."

"It hurts," she pleaded.

"I know," Emilia embraced El, her slender frame fitting snug against her. "You'll always have me and Hop, and he promised one day you'd get to see your friends, when it is safe."

"Too many days," she mumbled into Emilia's shoulder.

"Waiting is a big part of life," Emilia thought about what Jonathan might say if he were in this situation. He always knew the best things to comfort Will, but Emilia didn't have much experience. She smiled, thinking about how good of a person Jonathan was, down to his core. She released El and looked out to the woods, in the distance stood a deer. Male, a five pointer.

"You wait long enough, and the picture will come to life." Emilia pointed at the deer, "That's a shot people search for for years, go ahead, take the picture."

Distracted, El turned silently to face the deer. She brought the camera to her eye and looked through it, focusing like Emilia had taught her. It was a beautiful shot, a beautiful animal standing before them. It nibbled the foliage, and El pressed the shutter release. The sound startled the large deer, it looked up, ears flickering worriedly. Eyes landing on the two humans, it stared unblinkingly. El took another shot. The deer resumed eating, sensing that they weren't a threat.

"Sometimes waiting can lead to beautiful things, you never want to rush anything and make rash decisions," Emilia said, thinking about her mother and the decision that lead to her death. "You never know who you might hurt."

El nodded in understanding, but wondered why she hurt so badly. Inside she felt something stirring, she needed to see her friends, she needed them to know that she was alive. She grasped that Hopper saved her life, gave her a roof over her head, and kept her fed, even made sure she always had Eggos. He was doing what he could, but it felt as though he was doing nothing at all. She looked up at Emilia, her sister now, and told herself that she knew what she was talking about.

She would wait a little longer. 

I haven't written in ages, not this story. I have twelve completed chapters, so I'm not going to run out, but the goal for this weekend is to get a handful done! 

Question of the Day: What is something you can teach? What skill?