( darkest before dawn / act two )
episode one-ish   | stranger things

❛ BEFRIENDING THE ENEMY ❜

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"AURORA," MR. CLARKE CALLED after the blonde who was packing up her things after the bell had rung. Most of the party followed Max out, leaving the girl alone in the classroom. "Can I speak with you?"

Aurora nodded, shoving the rest her of supplies away before walking to his desk, "yes, Mr. Clarke?"

The teacher tapped his pen twice on his desk, before sighing, "science was your best grade last year. I understand that last year was stressful, with everything that happened to Will, but you're taking high school level classes in every other subject, and are passing with flying colors, Aurora."

Mr. Clarke sighed again, "I just need to know if how I'm teaching isn't working for you."

Aurora sucked up the tears as she twisted her fingers nervously, "it's not you, Mr. Clarke, I promise. It's just, I don't want to be smarter than everyone else, I don't like being in the high school classes! I don't know anyone in them, and I feel like an outsider."

Mr. Clarke stood up, and moved around the desk to lean against the front, "Do you feel like you are learning a lot better in these classes?"

Aurora shook her hands, "I don't like having to learn anything online, and then I have to go to the high school from my final exam—"

Mr. Clarke held a hand up, "Aurora, do you feel like you are learning something in the classes?"

She sighed harshly, before speaking, barely above a whisper, "Yes."

"Do you feel like you are learning something in my class?"Aurora shook her head softly, "then why are you here?"

"Because," the girl started, her voice cracking, "this is the only class I had with Will last year, and I feel like I missed so much with him, and I don't want to leave them behind."

"Aurora," Mr. Clarke started, "your friends will always be your friends, thick and thin, the boys will be by your side, I promise you. But you can not compromise your learning to stay with them. Now, I will keep you in my class, but you have to do the work, and try. I can give you harder worksheets and things you would be doing in a high school level class if you would like, just try."

Aurora couldn't stop the grin from growing on her face as she looked at her science teacher, "you would do that for me?"

"Of course," Mr. Clarke nodded with a smile, "so go on to lunch, and I'll try and figure some things out with the school."

Aurora thanked the man over ten times as she ran out the door, grinning to herself as she walked to her locker. Ready to shove her things into her locker for lunch. Max happen to be right across the hall, her locker adjacent to Aurora as she angrily shoved a skateboard into her locker.

"Hey!" Aurora spoke up as she closed her locker, "I'm Aurora, we have science with Mr. Clarke together."

"Yeah," Max shoved her locker shut, "he always that peppy?"

Aurora grinned, "it makes his class pretty fun. But, California? Why move here, of all places?"

"My mom married a douchebag, who wanted a new start," Max rolled her eyes as Aurora walked over to her. "Apparently that involves moving to the middle of nowhere."

Aurora nodded, "well, I hope to see you around soon, I think my friends and I might go to the arcade after school if you want to come!"

Max grinned, "Maybe. See you around, Rory."

The blonde nodded, before walking to the front of the building, where Will was being walked out to his mom. Aurora ran to the boy, pulling him into a hug.

"Rory!" The boy exclaimed softly, "don't miss me too much."

"Can't promise anything," Aurora grinned as she waved to Mrs. Byers, "have fun, Willy! I'll see you later?" She was still shaky about the fact that Will had to go to the lab almost every time he had an incident.

The boy nodded, as Aurora jogged towards the three other boys. All of them filling Aurora in on Max, and Aurora decided not to mention her interaction with the girl.

When lunch ended, Aurora headed to the library to study and listen to her Algebra I lesson, they were getting ready to start their trigonometry unit and Aurora was panic studying for the test. Then she had pottery and English, and then school had ended.

Aurora had decided to go to the Arcade after school, after calling home to inform her aunts, she pulled her bike off and pedaled to the building. Part of her was hoping Max was there and she had shown up, and the other part was hoping that Max didn't show up.

So when she pulled up as Max jumped out of her car, yelling profanities at the person driving, Aurora grinned. Max slammed the door as the car sped away, flipping the bird to the speeding car. Aurora locked her bike up quickly.

"Hey Max!" Aurora grinned at the redhead.

"Hey," the girl seemed skeptical but smiled, "Aurora."

"Come on! I've got a high score to win back." Aurora led the girl into the arcade with a grin. The two began playing games, though they didn't play next to each other.

They simply enjoyed each other's company, when Aurora left for the bathroom, Lucas and Dustin cornered her.

"What are you doing with her!" Lucas whisper-yelled at the girl.

"What are you doing here?" Aurora mocked.

"We," Lucas gestured to him and Dustin, "are watching MADMAX! While you seem to be making friends with her! The enemy! You are literally befriending the enemy right now!"

"She's actually really nice," Aurora grinned.

"She beat your high score!" Dustin responded with an eyeroll.

Aurora just shrugged, "Stalk her somewhere else! Please."

The girl walked away from the boys, towards Max who happened to be playing Donkey Kong, she was only at level twelve, but Aurora silently watched as she hit the buttons furiously. She watched her technique, and grinned.

"You're really good," Aurora complemented as Max kicked the machine in anger.

"Yeah, I guess. I mean I beat your high score." Max gestured to the scoreboard, Aurora frowned softly when she found her name still in second place.

"Well," Aurora placed her hands on her hips, "anyone who beats my high score on Donkey Kong is on my list."

Max glanced at the blonde who was a few inches shorter than her with a grin, "your list? what's that supposed to mean?"

"I mean," Aurora pondered for a moment, "I don't really know, I just thought it sounded cool."

Max scrunched her eyes for a moment in confusion before breaking into laughter, Aurora quickly following suit. The pair was red in the face by the time they had finished, before taking turns on Donkey Kong.

"Friends?" Max asked after night had fallen on the arcade and it was time for them to leave.

"Yeah," Aurora grinned, "we're definitely friends, Max."

⋆ ★ ⋆

NIGHT HAD FALLEN BY the time Aurora had made it home. The moon hung in the sky, as she hurried to finish the homework she had promised her aunts she had already done.

It was almost eight by the time she had finished her english essay. She had been hunched over her desk for almost an hour, completely skipping over dinner in a rush to finish. Her desk was cluttered with Algebra textbooks, half-filled notebooks, and glitter gel pens.

On her left, her old backpack crackled harshly, causing Aurora jump as she dropped the black glitter pen onto her paper. Her hand fell inside the bag as she rushed to grab her old walkie-talkie.

The pink plastic casing had faded and cracked through the years she had used it. The amount of times Aurora had dropped in the week they had lost Will was the main factor to the cracks. The old walkie-talkies batteries should've been dead months ago, that was her excuse that she should just get a new one for her birthday ( which she did get ).

The green LED light flashed on as Aurora pulled the slightly bent antenna up, and then the grid of tiny dots let out a groan and crackled once more. Aurora laughed, the stupid thing still worked.

Just as she was ready to toss the item back into last year's backpack, the walkie-talkie spoke. A static filled whisper floated through her room, sending chills of determination and hurt through Auroras mind as the voice registered in her mind.

"Eleven?" Aurora held the talk button down quickly. "El? Are you there?"

The green light had faded as the static sounds from the item stopped. Aurora frantically pressed the talk button, hoping she had heard it right. Alas, nothing happened.

Aurora gripped the walkie-talkie tightly in her hand as though it was the last connection she had to Eleven and everything that had happened last year. Glancing at it one last time, Aurora threw it to the ground, the radio breaking into pieces from the force.

The sound had her aunts bursting into her room only seconds later, all of the rushing to Aurora all the while trying to avoid the pieces of plastic and metal on the ground. Her aunts pulled her from the room, Mary began wrapping a cut on Aurora leg the girl had failed to notice as Flora and Fauna began cleaning up the mess.

"I'm sorry," Aurora whispered to Mary as she kissed her forehead. "I thought it was working, and then I dropped it. I didn't mean for it to happen." Mary just nodded, reassuring the girl that it was her old walkie-talkie, not the new one.

Both of them chose to ignore Auroras obvious lie.

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(      LET ME SPEAK    :      )

i have a tendency to write chapter
only to read over them once im done
and absolutely HATE them, but have
like no energy to fix it. that is what
this chapter is to me. so apologies
for whatever this is lol.

credit goes to fivehxrgreeves