in which an unlikely relationship forms between two girls over the summer of '85...
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ever since andy harrington and max mayfield met in the fall of 1984, there...
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"No, we're just...good samaritans."
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THE GIRLS LEFT Max's house moments later, blanketed in colorful raincoats that stood out from the gray, misty atmosphere taking over Hawkins July sky. But even with the coats, their skin stung as freezing plump drops of rain splattered onto them, their eyes squinting as heavy wind blew from towering thunder clouds. They drenched their shoes from stepping in accumulating puddles and their hair looked like they'd dumped their head in a bucket of water.
The trio arrived at the Hawkins Public Pool after ten minutes of walking, which felt like ten hours. The pool was empty, except for a lifeguard fishing something out of the pool. Screaming people ran for any sort of cover as thunder boomed around them, flashes of lightning highlighting the gray sky. Max looked around for her brother while they walked toward the pool's front desk. But of course, he was nowhere to be found. A manager and one lifeguard were sitting at the desk. They were reading magazines and sipping on cherry colas, completely ignoring what was happening around them. The manager rolled his eyes at the teenagers in front of him.
"No one in the water until thirty minutes after the last strike." He said before they could say a word. "And don't try and argue with me. You wanna get electrocuted, go climb a tree." He looked up from the magazine, expecting them to leave.
"Yeah, we don't care, we're not here to swim," Max replied.
"Or get electrocuted," Andy added. There was silence until El took out the fanny pack from her soggy coat pocket. The manager gave a curious look and the lifeguard raised her thick eyebrows. El was about to speak when a soft voice interrupted her behind them. "Excuse me, have you seen Jaydyn? He came here for his shift and hasn't come home."
They turned around, and Andy came face to face with someone she thought she would never see again. Rue.
Rue's stormy gray eyes instantly lit up at the sight of her, although she was curious how they could come to the same place at the same time. Max tried her hardest not to show how annoyed she was with the girl. Hell, Max thought she was the reason she almost lost Andy. And she grew more annoyed when she left to catch up with Rue instead of staying with her and El.
"Sorry guys, meet up with you later," Andy said and grabbed Max's hand, holding it for a moment before Rue pulled her away.
Eleven's eyebrows lowered as she watched Andy leave with Rue. "Who...was that?" El whispered to a seething Max, who bit her bottom lip, not noticing until her mouth tasted like raw metal from the blood. How could Andy just leave like that? Especially with someone she just met two days ago. Max attempted to shrug the boiling jealousy off and pretend to El like she didn't know who she was. "Why would I know?"
Yet El wasn't as gullible as people thought. "Lie." She could read the dirty look on Max's face with ease, and she knew she wasn't acting like that for no reason. The manager raised one of his eyebrows, surprised to see them still standing there. "Why are you two still here? And weren't there three of you?" he asked, earning a stifled laugh from the lifeguard. But it was obvious she was just laughing to suck up to him.
"We wanted to ask if the fanny pack belonged to anyone," Max said ignoring his remark, taking the fanny pack from El and holding it up for them to see. The manager nodded, immediately recognizing it as Heather Holloways since she was the only lifeguard who wore a fanny pack.
"Oh, yeah. That's Heathers. I'll get it back to her–-"
"We could get it back to her," El cut him off and Max nodded. The manager smirked and looked down at his magazine, licking his finger and turning the page.
"You could. 'Cept she's not here. Bailed on me today." He replied slightly frowning, annoyed that they were short on lifeguards today because of her and Billy not showing up. Max and El glanced at each other and shared similar looks of an annoyance since he was acting pretty rude.
"What is this? You girls want a reward or something?" He rolled his eyes, flipping the page of the newspaper, and the girl forced another laugh.
"No." Max shook her head. "We're just...good samaritans."
At her words, the lifeguard nodded her head to a corkboard across the room with ad posters and all the lifeguard photos on it, including Heathers. "Come on, El. I have a better idea." She said walking away from the desk, which made the manager sigh in relief. She grabbed El by the wrist and directed her to the corkboard, stopping in front of Heather's photo.
Max looked at El. "You think you can find her?"
El nodded but then remembered about the manager being behind the desk. Luckily, he and the lifeguard seemed to be endorsed in the magazine they were looking at so it would be pretty easy to sneak past. El quickly ripped the photo from the board before they could realize they were there, and the two girls headed to the locker room.
–
El and Max attempted to find Heather through the void while Andy talked to Rue about her brother. Jadyn went to work two days ago, and he still hasn't returned home and they haven't heard a word from him. "My brother has always been distant, but he's never been distant enough to not come home. And it's not like him to just leave like that without even telling anyone, so mom of course thinks he's out selling drugs again."
"Maybe he ran away." Andy shrugged, slightly referring to the situation she was in right now. Running away from her mother was turning out to be a bad idea. She had nowhere to stay, and it was only a matter of time before she reported her missing to the police. But to be honest, Andy didn't even know if she cared enough to do so. It had been almost 3 days and still nothing. But even still that lifelong feeling of being watched was still around–even when she wasn't with her mother.
Rue crossed her arms over her varsity jacket, her eyes burning with eagerness to convince herself her brother was okay. "I don't think he ran away. But there must be some reason he didn't come home."
"You said he was a lifeguard, right?" Andy asked and Rue curiously nodded.
"You know Billy Hargrove? That senior who just moved here with his sister?"
Rue rolled her eyes, "you mean that racist mullet-wearing asshole? Hell yeah, I know him. He's the one that got into a fight with my brother. Why do you ask?"
Andy raised both of her eyebrows, surprised to see her curse for the first time. She thought about telling Rue what they saw, but now that she thought about it, it seemed pretty unbelievable that a harmless high schooler would start killing people randomly. Even if that high schooler was Billy Hargrove. "If I told you, you wouldn't believe me."
"Try me," Rue said, which to Andy was convincing enough so she revealed every single thing they saw, from Els' vision to the dirty magazines to the blood-stained whistle and Heather's fanny pack. At first, the coarse-haired girl did not react. She then shook her head, chuckling to herself. "Well, you were damn right about it being unbelievable. But I don't understand the 'vision' part."
Andy rolled her eyes. "I'll have to explain that later. I don't even understand it myself."
Rue uncrossed her arms. "Who is this El girl? Is she like a psychic?"
"You could say that."
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A/N: I don't know how I feel about this chapter. But I do hope you enjoyed it and thank you so much for reading! Expect the next chapter to come out this week, and I'd appreciate it if you vote <3. Also thank you so much for almost a thousand reads on this book! I can't believe how fast this book is growing.
