Chapter Two:
Whatever

The scent of popcorn and nachos filled Scotty's nose, overwhelming his senses as the losing sound followed by the words 'game over' displayed across the screen in bold red letters.

"No.. No. No! Damnit!" Dustin swore suddenly, kicking and hitting the machine. "I hate this stupid overpriced bullshit! Son of a bitch. Piece of shit! Dammit!"

"I told you not to the last move, man." Scotty shuffled his feet, quickly pulling his hand away and shoving it in his jacket pocket when his fingers brushed against Mike's.

"You're just not nimble enough, you'll get there one day." Lucas shrugged, pointing at Dustin. "But until then, Princess Daphne is still mine."

"You know? Whatever, I'm still tops on Centipede and Dig Dug."

"You sure about that?" Kieth rose his eyebrows, shoving another cheeto into his mouth and crunching loudly.

"Sure about what?"

Kieth remained silent, a mischievous glint in his eyes as he shrugged. Dustin's eyes widened as ge scrambled past Will. "You're kidding me! No, no, no."

"Oh, shit." Scotty huffed, stepping past Will and following Dustin closely.

"Move! Move. Ah, no! No, no, no, no! No! No!" Dustin cried as the sound of the video game chime.

Scotty sucked his lips in, shaking his head. "Damn.. You got your ass beat by.."

Scotty paused, his eyes drifting from the score to the name, "Mad Max.."

"Seven-hundred fifty-one thousand three-hundred points!" Will exclaimed, his mouth falling open in shocked excitement.

"That's impossible!" Mike shook his head, looking towards Scotty. "Right?"

"Should be." Scotty shrugged, "Anything is possible, though."

"Who is Mad Max?" Dustin ordered, looking towards Kieth, and accusatory look in his eyes.

"Better than you." He snickered.

"Is it you?" Will asked, causing the older boy to scoff and roll his eyes.

"You know I despise Dig Dug.."

"Then who is it?" Lucas asked.

"Bet it's some tourist passing through on their way to sunny California." Scotty huffed, crossing his arms. "Right?"

"Yeah, spill it Keith!"

"You want information, then I need something in return." Keith looked towards Mike, followed by all the party's eyes.

Mike blinked, the sudden realization hitting him. "No! No. No. No way. You're not getting a date with her."

"Mike, come on. Just get him the date." Lucas gestured wildy around himself as he spoke.

"I'm not prostituting my sister!" Mike argued.

"But it's for a good cause!" Lucas huffed at the look on Mike's face. "Fine! Scotty what about your aunt? She's what, twenty?"

"Nah, I'm not into Vietnamese girls." Keith waved him off dismissively. Scotty's eye twitched and his hand balled into a fist by his side. Mike, noticing this, and knowing how Scotty can be when he got angry, quickly turned to Keith with a glare in his eyes.

"Hey! He's Chinese!" Mike defended, rolling his eyes. "There's a difference. Learn it."

"No!" Dustin interrupted, "Neither of you are getting him dates. You know what? He's gonna spread his nasty-ass rash to your whole family."

"Acne isn't a rash and it isn't contagious, you prepubescent wastoid."

"Oh, I'm a waistoid? Yeah, she wouldn't wanna go on a date with you. And Scotty's aunt is way too hot for you anyway-"

"Wait, what?" Scotty turned to Dustin, "Did you j-"

"You make like, what, two fifty an hour?"

"Nice perm."

"Oh, you're gonna make fun of my hair?"

Scotty rolled his eyes, "You guys are such assholes. Just shut the fuck up and tell us who took the spot!"

"Hm.." Keith paused, pretending to think. "No."

"Ugh." Scotty rolled his eyes, glancing behind him as Mike left his side and walked out of the building in search of Will.

Scotty watched as Mike spoke to him, unable to hear the conversation through the glass and over the arguing of his friends and Keith. Something he could understand, though, was the jealousy that spiked when Mike tossed his arm around Will and led him back into the arcade.

~~

Scotty stared out the window, his mind drifting as the heater he was positioned beside spit out bursts of warm air onto him, gently blowing his hair out of his eyes.

The sound of the classroom door opening brought him from his daydream, bringing his attention over to the girl the principal walked in with.

"Ah, this must be our new student." Mr. Clarke suggested, closing his lesson book.

"Indeed it is." The principal nodded, "All yours."

Scotty boredly rested his chin on his palm as he yawned, waiting for this to be over with.

"All right, hold up. You don't get away that easy."  He stopped her, causing the redheaded girl to roll her eyes as she begrudgingly walked over to stand beside him at his desk. "Come on up. Don't be shy. Dustin, drum roll."

Dustin obliged, shutting his book and drumming his hands on it as the teacher continued his Introduction to her. "Class, please welcome, all the way from sunny California, the lastest passenger to join us on our curiosity voyage, Maxine!"

"It's Max." She corrected.

Scotty sat up in his seat, his interest piquing suddenly at the familiarity of her name.

Mad Max.

His eyes widened in realization, looking over toward Mike, who already had his eyes trained on Scotty.

"Sorry?"

"It's Max," The girl, Max, repeated. "Nobody calls me Maxine."

"Max Max." Dustin whispered to himself in realization.

"Oh, well.." Mr. Clarke hummed. "All aboard, Max."

~~

Scotty yawned, his eyes squinting as the bitter wind nipped at his cheeks. "Why are we out here again?"

Scotty looked over at Mike, who had his hands wrapped tightly around the binoculars as he peered through them. "Research."

"Ah, right." Scotty pursed his lips, nodding his head slowly. "Stalking."

"Hey!" Mike swiftly pulled the binoculars from his face, handing them off to Lucas. "It's not stalking! It's r-"

"It's a little like stalking." Will said as he pressed his fingers together, "Just a little."

"Whatever." Mike huffed, "I'm calling it research, because there's no way that's Mad Max. And I'm gonna prove it."

"Right." Will agreed, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "Girls don't play video games."

"Have you ever met a girl?" Scotty raised his eyebrows.

"No, Scotty." Mike rolled his eyes, puffing his cheeks out. A gesture Scotty had noticed Mike doing whenever he was being sarcastic. "Never. In fact, until now, I've never even seen a real girl in real life."

"What about Nanc- Oh! Nevermind." Dustin spoke quickly as he pulled the binoculars away from Lucas. "Nevermind."

"Whatever, even if girls did play video games, which they don't, they can't score seven-hundred-fifty-thousand points!" Mike added on, pulling his hands away from the fence and looking towards Scotty. "It's impossible!"

"The impossible, in the end, will always become possible." Scotty shrugged, shoving his hands into his jacket pocket. Mike blinked, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion and shaking his head.

"Very wise of you, Scotty." Dustin hummed, not bothering to look back at him.

Will blinked, pursing his lips and nodding his head back and forth. "I mean.. Yeah, yeah.. I guess."

"Exactly! And her name is Max." Lucas gestured towards Will and Scotty in agreement.

"So what?" Mike rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, clearly becoming more and more agitated by the situation going on around him.

"So what?" Lucas repeated, disbelief burried under his confident tone, "How many Max's do you know?"

"I had a cousin named Max." Scotty said absentmindedly to himself. "Hm. Wonder where he is."

"He's dead, Scotty." Dustin glanced at him, raising his hands in surrender when Mike shot him a sharp look. "Sorry."

"Oh, yeah." Scotty nodded, looking down at his feet as he remembered going to the funeral when he was ten. "Sucks for him."

"Probably, wasn't he a mob boss? Nevermind, Mike, what about you? Huh? How many Max's do you know?"

"Well.. Well, I don't know!" Mike stammered, stumbling over his words. "That's not the point-"

"Zero!" Lucas interrupted, pointing at him. "That's how many."

"Yeah, and she shows up to school the day after someone with the same name beats our top score?" Dustin began listing off the coincidences, "I mean... Are you kidding me?"

"Yeah," Scotty said, pulling his hand from his pocket and resting it on Mike's shoulder. "Face it, Mike."

"Exactly! So, she's Mad Max. She's gotta be!"

"And she skateboards," Dustin added. "So, she's pretty damn awesome."

"Yeah, that's important." Scotty nodded, causing Mike to look over at him in shock. "Skateboarding is awesome."

"Awesome? Awesome.. Are you serious? You haven't even spoken a word to her!" Mike argued, "Scotty, I thought you were sensible! Why are you buying into this?"

"Uh-" Scotty scrunched his nose up, letting his had fall from Mike's shoulder. "Bec-"

"I don't have to!" Dustin interrupted, turning quickly and briefly to Mike to defend himself. "I mean, look at her- Ah, shit! I've lost the target.."

Scotty rolled his eyes, "Neither of you have taken your eyes off of her.. How did you lose her?"

Mike rolled his eyes, "'Cause they're idiots."

"Mike, c'mon, man." Scotty said, tossing his arm around the shorter boy's shoulders. "Don't be a bitch."

Mike let out a loud scoff. "I'm not being a bitch!"

"Okay..." Scotty shrugged dismissively, a smug grin finding its way into his lips as he grinned. "Bitch."

Mike's smile fell as he shrugged Scotty's arm off of his shoulders. "Whatever."

Scotty covered the spike of pain shooting through him with a small, but fake, smile. "Whatever."

{ A/n: this took longer than expected whoops }

{ Edited: No }