"shut up and give her a break!"

hey guys!! i'm back with season 2 of the erin cartwright series!!

- erin's outfit in the media for the arcade

—

"something in the way you love me won't let me be!"

erin cartwright rumbles through her closet, looking for a jacket to wear tonight.

she stands up after finally finding a suitable one and bops her head up and down. she grabs her hairbrush and holds it up to her mouth.

"stop playing with my heart, finish what you start!" she sings along with madonna through the radio. "while you make my love come down!" she dances wildly around her brightly colored room, flipping her long hair.

erin brushes her hair out, before flicking it out of her face and walking to her mirror. she picks up the lip gloss that liz had bought her a couple weeks ago and applies it gingerly, careful of her wild hair — that had started curling more when she didn't straighten it, much to her dismay.

she walks over to her bed and pulls on her coat before quickly going back over to her vanity that she had just sat at. she picks up the money sitting on top of it and puts it in her front jean pocket, sighing and walking out of her room and down the hall.

her mom is sitting at the kitchen counter with a beer and a magazine. erin walks by her mom quickly, situating the jacket. "bye, momma! i'm going to the arcade! i'll see you later." she says.

"okay, sweetie, be careful! love you! don't forget to take your medicine!" she calls back to her daughter. erin rolls her eyes. as if she would let herself forget.

"bye, dipstick!"

"bimbette!" erin automatically yelled back as she turned and slammed the door close, looking right at her sister who was sitting on the couch, smirking. she could hear her mom yell, "girls!" in warning as she stepped out into the night.

she had started hanging out with liz and nancy a lot more. she found that she enjoyed their company and their knowledge and they liked to introduce her to new things, but her and liz were still sisters and still argued easily.

she runs out to the shed, picking up her bike and pushing it out to the road and hopping on.

erin bikes to the arcade by herself, not seeing any of the boys at all. when she reaches it, she gets there just in time to see joyce drive off and will run to the door.

she smiles and goes to the bike rack, setting it in there. she walks over to the front doors, pulling it open. she's met with the nice air conditioned vicinity. it blows into her face nicely. then she spots them over at the counter, talking to one of the employees, so she sneaks up behind them, tempted to scare them.

"told you she wouldn't show."

she stops behind them, out of peripheral vision as dustin looks to mike. hurt builds up in her chest as the smile slowly drops from her face.

"we just got here! shut up and give her a break!" the wheeler boy defends. "she will show! so what, she's missed a couple of our meet ups? she's a girl, my mom said they go through weird stuff."

erin awkwardly looked around before looking down at her shoes.

"a couple? mike, she's changed! girl or not, she's just been acting like a.. like, ugh! the point is, she's gonna drop us.. soon. i can feel it. she missed the last time, but came the time before that, and the time before that, but she missed the two times before that. she came the time before that," his voice suddenly goes hoarse in distress. "but then she missed-!"

before he can start again, she steps up beside mike and puts on a fake smile, masking her hurt. "hey, guys." she says cheerfully. "what are we talking about?" she asks in false interest. had she really been skipping the boys' hangouts that much? and had they really noticed it like that?

in her defense, she'd either been just hanging out in her room by herself or she was with elizabeth and nancy. the two girls had taken her in under their wing, wanting to take her out for food or shopping. she really wasn't sure why, but maybe she would when she was their age.

"oh, nothing. just the games." dustin says, his face turning white. she nods, crossing her arms and looking down at them. she tries not to cry, blinking quickly. she registers the boys quickly going to one of their new favorite games. something about a dragon, erin supposes. she doesn't really pay that much attention to it. she walks over to the bubblegum machine, deciding if the coins are worth the three-month old teeth-breakers.

she doesn't stand there for very long before she hears the boys cheering and lightly yelling. she walks back over to them in interest. she pushes up beside lucas, who glances at her and sends her a smile. she returns and it looks down at the screen. just as she thought, dustin's playing a knight, trying to fight a dragon. the boys are yelling at him, trying to get him to do what needed to be done.

"i'm going, i'm going!" dustin yells over them. they continue yelling directions until a sudden cartoon woman is shown looking surprised. erin's eyebrows furrow.

"i'm going, i'm going, i'm going!" dustin cheers again. erin just looks down at the screen in interest.

the knight finds the sword guarded by the dragon and the boys suddenly start yelling totally different directions. erin watches in amusement, looking at them with wide eyes.

"okay. shut up! shut up! shut up!" dustin yells at them. he clicks the button repeatedly, but nonetheless, his character gets burnt to a crisp by the green dragon. they all look in shock, erin raising an eyebrow. dustin holds his fist up to his mouth in anguish. "no. no. no!" he cries as the now skeleton knight crosses his arms at the screen. it falls to the ground in dust.

"no! no! no! i hate this overpriced bullshit!" he yells, hitting the machine. "son of a bitch! piece of shit!" he kicks it in anger. the words 'dragon's lair' pop up on the screen.

"you're just not nimble enough. but you'll get there one day. but until then," lucas points a finger at the game. "princess daphne is still mine."

erin looks down to the game. the same girl from before was there and the words, 'the princess daphne' were on the screen. she's leggy and blonde, with long eyelashes and red lips.

erin feels something shoot up her stomach and into her chest, along with a chill down her spine. she swallows and breathes in deeply, looking away quickly.

"you know, whatever, i'm still tops on centipede and dig dug." dustin states, looking over at lucas and erin.

"you sure about that?"

they turn to the right to look at him. keith, a boy that works at the arcade and goes to the high school with liz had said it. he holds up a cheese puff as dustin shakes his head.

"sure about what?" he asks. keith doesn't say anything, just crunches into a cheese puff. erin's eyes and smile widen slightly as she glances around at the other machines. dustin seems to realize what he means a little too late. he pushes through mike and will.

"you're kidding me. no, no, no." he says, running past keith. they all follow him quickly. "move, move!" he says to a kid and pushes past them, going to centipede. "no, no, no, no, no!" he turns around to dig dug.

"hey, no! no! no!" he cries. erin moves beside him to look at the screen. sure enough, dustin had been sent down to rank 2. her eyebrows raise high.

"751, 300 points!" will said in surprise from beside erin. "that's impossible." mike breathes. erin scoots closer to get a better look. "there's no way." she says in awe.

"who's madmax?" dustin immediately asks, turning around. the rest turn around too. erin gets on her tip toes to look over mike's head. god, he shot up over the summer. she was taller than him last year. she was taller than all of them last year.

she moves to the side, between dustin and mike. will stood right behind her shoulder, his chin almost laying on top of it. "better than you." keith states monotonously. erin glances at dustin as he holds up his middle finger.

"is it you?" will asks, pointing.

keith scoffs. "you know i despise dig dug."

"then who is it?" lucas asks. "yeah, spill it, keith." dustin mocks.

"you want information, then i need something in return." he says. dustin and lucas immediately look to the dark-haired kids beside them. erin glances at them and then looks to keith. ugh, he wants their sisters.

"god no, gag me!" she cries in disgust, looking at keith.

"no! no, no, no. no way!" mike says. he looks at keith. "you're not getting a date with her."

"guys, come on. just get him one date." lucas tries.

"i'm not prostituting my sister!" mike argues. erin nods, looking at them.

"and liz's love life is none of your guy's business, especially not yours," she looks to keith. "so you're not getting a date either."

"but it's for a good cause." lucas argues back.

"no, no, no." dustin pipes up. "don't get him the date. you know what? he's gonna spread his nasty-ass rash to your families."

"acne isn't a rash and it isn't contagious, you prepubescent wastoid." erin raises an eyebrow is amusement, shaking her head. she sets an arm on dustin's shoulder, despite still being hurt by his words.

"oh, i'm a wastoid?" dustin starts. "she wouldn't go -erin, you smell good," erin sets down her arm, shaking her head. "-on a date with you. you make, like, what? 2.50 an hour?"

"nice perm."

"oh, you're gonna make fun of my hair?" dustin says. "you're so-"

erin was too enthralled in the continuing conversation to even notice the distant thunder she would be able to hear. she didn't notice will walk away, or out the door, until mike suddenly quickly turns around and dashes to the door behind them.

she follows over quickly and stands at the door, watching mike speak to will. will turns to look back and then begins backing away a little. mike walks forward and wraps an arm around will's shoulders, guiding him back to the arcade. erin smiles at the small boy, pulling the door open and letting them through. she lets it shut, walking alongside will.

-

the next day at school, in mr. clarke's class, erin sat behind will. she lays her head in her hand and leans forward as mr. clarke sets down a plastic human brain on his desk.

"meet the human brain." he says to the class. "i know. i know, it doesn't look like much. a little gross even, right? but consider this. there are a hundred billion cells inside of this miracle of evolution." she looks up at mr. clarke. "all working as one. no, no, i did not misspeak. i did not stutter. a hundred billion."

erin zones out, which has become a new bad habit. it never used to happen until last summer. maybe that's what dustin means when he says she's different.

her eyes flicker to the curly-haired boy as he clings to every word mr. clarke says. she wishes she could do the same. she used to be that way, but now she just finds it to be just another small thing. there's so much more happening in the world. outside of hawkins, indiana, there was the actual real, authentic world.

erin lets out a small exhale, sitting up. oh. so that is what dustin meant. she isn't the same little girl anymore who would spend the night at mike's without a second thought. well, she would because she doesn't care, but it could mean something now. it could be... weird.

and that terrified her.

and she wasn't gonna let any of that happen. not when her only best friends were boys. she wasn't gonna make them uncomfortable just because she wanted to do 'girl things'. she was gonna do her girl things and also do things with her best friends because she adored them and they've always been there for her no matter what.

but if they're her best friends, that shouldn't bother them! they have realized she's a girl, right? she's not like them. they're all gonna have to grow up at some point whether they like it or not. they're getting older and this could get worse. what's gonna happen when they go to high school?

they'll become mature! erin thinks with relief. girls just mature faster than boys because they have to. at least that's what liz says. it's okay. it's okay.

no, it's not. that grimy voice tells her at the back of her head, and she wants to scratch and claw it out.

so she still shrivels in on herself the second troy, or any other bully for that matter, got too close? everyone's scared of a bully. she still likes dungeons and dragons, and riding her bike, she still takes her stupid medicine that she wants to throw away more than anything, and she still blushes heavily when steve harrington and nancy looked at her at the same time, which happens strangely far too often since she had began hanging out with liz.

just when erin was about to ask to go to the bathroom so she could escape the science room that seems to be closing in on her, the door suddenly opened and a girl with long red hair and a red jacket strides in with the principal behind her. erin looks her up and down, surprised by how tan she is. it looked good on her.

"ah," says mr. clarke. "this must be our new student." he says.

"indeed it is. all yours." the principal replies as the girl begins to walk past the desk. mr. clarke catches her, though.

"all right. hold up, there. you don't get away that easy." he says, holding his arm out. erin could see the annoyance on the redhead's face as she backs up and walks up beside his desk. "come on up. don't be shy."

"dustin, drum roll." mr. clarke addresses. dustin closes his textbook and does so, drumming his hands on it softly.

"class, please welcome, all the way from sunny california," erin raises her eyebrows in surprise. california? what's she doing in bum-ass hawkins? she looks over at the girl, who seems annoyed and uncomfortable, avoiding eye contact with everyone. erin gets second-hand embarrassment. being the center of attention in anxiety-filled situations always sucks. "the latest passenger to join us on our curiosity voyage — maxine!" he holds out his arms like a magician. she looks over at him.

and she speaks. "it's max." she says.

erin's heart does two things. first, it bounces. her voice is soft. second, it flips. max? as in madmax?

"sorry?" mr. clarke asks, not hearing her.

"nobody calls me maxine. it's max." she says a little louder. the boys all look at each other but erin continues watching her in soft surprise.

"madmax." lucas whispers.

"well, all aboard, max." mr. clarke says. she then walks past them, around the corner and to the last seat in the row to the left of erin. the five kids watch her go and stare at her as she sits down. erin makes eye contact with her and smiles politely.

'max' blinks back at her, her eyebrows scrunching together very slightly. she quickly looks away from the brunette, eyes bouncing over the room.

—

YEJDKWID IM SO E X C I T E D