||𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐑'𝐒 𝐏𝐎𝐕||

"To slay the dragon, use the magic sword."

"Oh, Jesus! I'm in uncharted territory here, guys."

"Down! Down! Down!"

"I'm going! I'm going!"

The cartoon woman on the screen exclaimed as the game picked up speed. All of surrounded Dustin, cheering him on as he played.

"I'm going! I'm going! I'm going!"

The boys yelled over one another as I stood on my toes to try and get a better look at the screen.

"Okay. Shut up. Shut up. Shut up!" Dustin bellowed as he slammed his hands on the buttons, but then the disappointing sounds from the machine indicated he had lost.

Dustin began taking out his anger on the machine, kicking as he screamed profusely at it.

Meanwhile, the screen returned to the original title screen, inviting its next player. Lucas began to goat at Dustin.

"You're not nimble enough. But you'll get there one day. But until then, Princess Daphne is still mine."

"Whatever. I'm still tops on Centipede and Dig Dug."

"You sure about that?"

We all turned our heads to see one of the younger employees, Keith. He was standing there with a bag of cheese puffs and an awkward smirk.

Dustin's face dropped as he asked the question we all seemed to know the answer to.

"Sure about what?"

Keith only smiled and took a large rather obnoxious bite out of a cheese puff.

Dustin broke out into a panicked sprint and we all quickly followed suit, curious to see the outcome.

"Move! Move! No, no, no, no, no. Hey, no! No! No!"

We all zeroed in on the Dig Dug screen where sure enough, Dustin held second place to someone named MADMAX who held an insanely good score.

"751,300 points!" Will exclaimed, turning and sharing a disbelieving look with one another.

It was then that Mike chimed in. "That's impossible."

"Wow, you really have your work cut out for you," I said, with a hint of a smile on my face as I patted my brother's back.

He only ripped his shoulder away from me, clearly annoyed and turned to Keith.

"Who is Mad Max?"

"Better than you."

"Is it you?" Will asked.

Keith scoffed. "You know I despise Dig Dug."

"Then who is it?"

"Yeah, spill it, Keith."

"You want information, then I need something in return," he smirked and looked at Mike.

It took me a second to realize what was being implied. When it hit me, I fought the urge to throw up in my mouth.

"Gross!"

"No, no, no. No way. You're not getting a date with her"

"Mike, come on. Just get him the date."

"I'm not prostituting my sister!"

"But it's for a good cause."

"Oh, so what? Does this mean you're gonna have Dustin pimp me out whenever you need a favor?"

"Well, I mean,"

"Lucas!" My voice starts to reach higher octaves and I feel Will's hand grab my own.

I give his hand a light squeeze, silently thanking him and my attention was brought back to the conversation when Dustin spoke up.

"No, don't get him the date. Know what? He's gonna spread his nasty-ass rash to your whole family." Thrown off by the sudden direction that conversation headed, I sighed, releasing Will's hand and running both hands down my face.

"Acne isn't a rash and it isn't contagious you pubescent wastoid." Keith threw back.

"Oh, I'm a wastoid? She wouldn't go out on a date with you. You make, like, what? $2.50 an hour?"

"Nice perm."

"Gonna make fun of my hair?"

I sighed, knowing we were gonna be here a while.

Suddenly, a voice caught my attention.

"Hey. Hey, guys, do you see the..." I frowned when I saw he was standing over by the front door, looking around the arcade curiously.

"Yeah?" I asked walking forward.

But he only looked right through me. I could tell he was now on edge.

"Will?"

Suddenly, he let out a frightened gasp and whipped around to face the door. My stomach dropped.

"Will? Hey, come on." My breathing began to pick up, I risked a glance at the boys but they were too distracted in their argument and it was far too loud. That's when Will began to walk outside. Not wanting to lose him or let him get hurt I quickly followed him.

"Will, hey, it's me, come on." He stopped when he reached the edge of the sidewalk and he stood still, rooted in place. He looked to the sky in terror. I looked over my shoulder only to see nothing but the stars, and I looked back to him. He was still frozen.

I shakily brought my hands up to his shoulders. "Will!"

He gasped and I could tell he was back. Without even thinking, I engulfed him in a hug, and he shakily returned it. I pulled back to look at him and I touched his cheek. "Are you okay?"

His eyes lingered on me and he nodded his head. I was now very aware of the fact that my hand was still on his cheek and I quickly pulled away, a little flustered. There was a moment of silence and then I looked back up at him, knowing on some level what it was about.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He looked away for a moment, before shaking his head.

"I'm fine. I'd rather not, at least not right now."

I smiled reassuringly. "That's completely okay. I get it." I glanced down at his hand before taking it in my own and together we headed back into the arcade.

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

"That's what I've been saying! I'm telling you, she may be a teacher, but that doesn't give her any right to treat kids like that!"

"Yes, exactly! Thank you! Hey so do you have any plans for Halloween?"

Emma was a great friend I had made in the dirty trenches of math class where a solid bond was formed. The two of us were currently walking down the hallway, discussing the horrors that were last class.

"I do actually, yeah me and the guys are going together. They're gonna be the Ghostbusters and I..." I trailed off when I saw Will up ahead.

He was standing at his locker, looking around rather disturbed with something in his hands.

Hesitating to take my eyes off of him I reluctantly looked to Emma. "Hey, can we talk later? I'm sorry, it's just, I think I need to check on him,"

"Oh yeah, no problem. I'll see you later!"

I threw her a grateful smile as she walked away and then I hurried over to Will.

"Will! Hey, everything okay?"

His head whipped around to face me and he seemed a bit startled to see me. I gently put a hand on his shoulder in reassurance and that seemed to calm his nerves.

"Oh, um, yeah I'm okay." He quickly folded up a small piece of paper that didn't go unnoticed.

"You sure?" He nodded his head and smiled warmly at me causing my stomach to do little flips.

"So, what's that?"

"It's nothing," he said and I raised my eyebrows, not quite believing him. "really. I'm okay."

"Okay, well in that case, should we head to science?" I smiled and held out my hand shyly and he gladly took it.

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

"Meet the human brain," Mr. Clarke said, placing the model before us.

"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. All working as one,"

I was hanging onto every word, fascinated much like my other friends. I looked to Will excitedly but he didn't even seem to be paying attention. Something was definitely bothering him. My face fell when I saw this, unintentionally tuning oh Mr. Clarke as well in the process.

I turned the boy and was about to say something when the abrupt sound of the classroom door closing grabbed my attention. Everyone seemed to look to the front when the principal walked in with a girl our age.

She had fiery red hair and freckles all over her face. She wore jeans and a red sweatshirt. I felt kinda bad for her though, she seemed uncomfortable being the center of attention that Mr. Clarke inevitably put her under the spotlight.

"Ah, this must be our new student."

"Indeed it is. All yours" with that, the principal left, leaving the awkward introduction of the new student.

She attempted to rush to find a seat but Mr. Clarke stopped her. "All right. Hold up. You don't away that easy. Come on up. Don't be shy."

She didn't attempt to hide her eye roll as she backed up to face the class.

"Dustin, drum roll."

Without skipping a beat, my brother began drumming his palms on his desk and Mr. Clarke began the introduction.

"Class, please welcome, all the way from sunny California, the latest passenger to join us on our curiosity voyage, Maxine."

The girl shifted uncomfortably before mumbling. "It's Max."

"Sorry?" He asked.

"Nobody calls me Maxine. It's Max." We all looked to each other, thinking the same thing.

"Mad Max," Lucas whispered.

"Well, all aboard Max."

I couldn't fight the smile growing on my face and like the boys, we all couldn't help but watch as she took a seat at the back of the class.

She leaned back and crossed her arms, obviously still uncomfortable from the sudden spotlight. She frowned when she saw all the guys staring at her and turned to Dustin and Lucas and a loose chuckled escaped me. They were practically drooling.

I looked to her once more and she met eye. I made sure to send her a small welcoming smile, not wanting to make her more uncomfortable than she already was.

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

We all stood in the small baseball dugout, watching, well the boys were anyway, Max. She was riding her skateboard all around the campus and we were debating whether or not she could be Mad Max. I had settled on the bench in the dugout, not feeling comfortable to be standing around watching someone.

"There's no way that's Mad Max," Mike stated matter of factly.

"Yeah, girls don't play video games," Will said, catching me by surprise.

I crossed my arms and looked at him. "What's that?"

He seemed to notice his mistake and shuffled uncomfortably. "Except you, I mean. You're cool," I only raised my eyebrows.

"I'm sorry, you know what I mean though, right?" I laughed, having already forgiven him, but enjoying being able to mess with him.

Dustin brought his fist up to his mouth and spoke through pretend coughs. "Whipped."

Will turned to him and whacked his arm and I only giggled.

"Ok, but seriously, regardless you can't get 750,000 on Dig Dug. It's impossible," Mike said, still focused on the conversation.

"But her name is Max," Lucas argued.

"So what?"

"So, how many Maxes do you know?"

"I don't know."

"Zero, that's how many,"

Dustin the spoke up. "Yeah, and she shows up to school the day after someone with her name beat our top score,"

"Here's a crazy idea, why don't you ask her?" I chimed, looking up at the boys.

"No, no way! She'll be weirded out,"

"Oh, and stalking the poor girl is doing you everybody so many favors,"

"My point is, I don't even think it's necessary. She gotta be Mad Max, she's gotta be,"

"Plus, she skateboards, so she's pretty awesome," Dustin argued, much to the dismay of Mike.

"Awesome? You haven't even spoken a word to her!"

"I don't have to, I mean look at her. Shit, I've lost the target."

"There," Will said, and we all followed his gaze to the back entrance of the school.

She stood at the top of the steps, and before going inside she dropped a crumpled up piece of paper into the trash.

The boys, looked to each other, silently communicating before simultaneously running towards the trash can much to my dismay.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," I mumble, begrudgingly walking after them.

Sure enough, they began digging through the trash can and by the time I reached them they grabbed the piece of paper.

"Seriously, guys this is a new low," I snatched the piece of paper from them. "It's just garbage,"

"Well, if it's just garbage, then open it," Lucas retorted.

I sighed, looking them in the eye while unfolding it. "Fine, but only to show how ridiculous you are being, I mean come-" I stopped short when I read the words, a loud belly laugh erupting from me.

"What? Let me see!"

"What?"

"Give it!"

My laughter died into chuckles as I watched their faces fall when they read the words,

"Stop spying on me CREEPS"

They sighed and looked up at me as I stifled my giggles with a hand against my mouth. My hand dropped my side and I sighed, before smirking.

"I like her."

"Well, shit," Dustin sighs.

I feel a pit forming in my stomach when I hear the principle speak. "William Byers, your mother's here," we all turned to face him, and I could immediately feel the anxiety radiating off of him.

I grabbed his hand in mine and I gave it a reassuring squeeze and he squeezed my hand lightly in return as he looked at me.

He was doing it again. He was shutting himself down again.

He gave me a weak smile and without another word, he followed the teacher into the school to get his stuff.

Without even a second thought I walked quickly around the building and the others followed. I peeked around the corner ad watched as he walked slowly to the car where his mother was waiting for him greeting him with a smile and a wave.

"you guys think he's okay?" Dustin asked.

"He's always weird when he has to go in,"

"I don't know. He's quiet today," Mike said worriedly.

"He hasn't been himself lately. I ran into him in the hallway and he was acting all weird and secretive."

"Well, you're basically his girlfriend. Has he shared anything with you lately, I mean he tells you everything,"

My face fell and I looked to my feet in sadness before looking back up and watching as he reluctantly got in the car. "That's just it. He hasn't said a word. I think something is really bothering him,"

"and, for the first time, I feel like," I sighed. "I can't help him."