𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝙾𝚗𝚎
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𝚖𝚊𝚍 𝚖𝚊𝚡
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"Shit, shit, wait- no, shit." Genie frantically rushed around her room in search of spare change. So far she held two quarters in her cupped hand. "Steve!"
The girl ran down the hall to her brother's room. He was laying on his bed studying or something. Genie didn't have time to ask questions.
"I need money." She panted, leaning against the door frame.
"For the arcade?" Steve asked, not looking up at her. Genie rolled her eyes.
"No, I wanna buy a pony." She retorted sarcastically. Steve sighed and got off his bed.
"How much do you need?"
Genie looked down at her pathetic coin collection. "Like two quarters."
As soon as her brother dropped the coins in her hand, Genie raced down to her parents room. Sitting on a shelf beside Steve's was a jar labelled 'Genie's college fund.'
"I still got a few years." She mumbled, grabbing some coins from the jar and stuffing them in her pocket.
She dashed down the stairs, grabbing her coat as she ran and fled the house, hopping quickly on her bike and peddling off. She was supposed to meet the boys at the arcade but they'd inevitably find her before she got there.
As suspected, Genie met up with the boys a block or so from the arcade. The group rode together—well four out of five did. Will's Mom was driving him. She didn't want to risk a repeat of last year.
When they arrived, Genie went off on her own and played her own games, different from the ones the boys liked to play. After about ten minutes, Mike came running up to her with Dustin and Lucas behind him.
"Genie, someone beat Dustin's score on Dig Dug!" He exclaimed. Genie raised an eyebrow, killing off her character and spinning around to face the group.
"Yeah! Their name is MADMAX." Dustin's eyes were wide. Genie scanned the group of boys and her brows knit.
"Where's Will?" She asked. Mike glanced behind him, as did the other two. Genie facepalmed quickly before pushing through the group and towards the game they were playing earlier. As she was doing so, she spotted Will standing outside, staring at the sky. "Shit."
She rushed out and met him but he didn't seem to see her. "Will?" She asked. When she placed a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to shake him out of his trance, her surroundings changed. The sky turned darker and the air smelled of sulfer.
"Genie." Will looked her in the eyes and pointed a shaking finger into the air behind her. There was a large shadow arched above Hawkins. It had a lot of legs.
"Holy shit." She mumbled.
"Will!" Mike's voice came from inside the arcade and the sky flickered back to normal. "You good?"
Genie blinked a few times and her hand fell from Will's shoulder.
"Yeah-yeah, I'm fine." He mumbled, grabbing Genie's hand and following Mike inside.
The rest of the night sort of flew by. Before she knew it, Genie was biking home and wishing her friends a goodnight.
When she arrived home, she parked her bike and threw her coat on the coat hanger beside the door.
"Hey, Genie." Steve said as she walked past his room. She paused and backpeddled into the doorway.
"Hey, Steve." Said Genie with a small wave.
"How was the arcade?" Steve asked, shifting his position so he was sitting on the edge of his bed. Genie let herself in and sat down beside him.
"Good, someone beat Dustin on Dig Dug." She mentioned with a grin.
"Dig Dug, I'm assuming that's a game?" Steve raised an eyebrow and Genie laughed.
"No, it's a cooking show." She rolled her eyes and got up from the bed. Steve laughed.
"Go to bed, kid. You got school tomorrow." He playfully shoved her out of his room and watched her walk off. Genie casually flipped him off before shutting the door to her room and collapsing on her bed.
When Genie awoke she mentally prepared herself for a day of hell. All summer she'd been called Zombie Girl. It made her feel better that she wasn't the only zombie in town, though. Will was going through the same thing. Fortunately, their friends had their backs as they had each other's.
Finally, it was science. The quintet's favourite class.
"Meet the human brain." Mr Clarke began, "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." Around the class, various students ignored Mr Clarke in all different, creative ways. Nevertheless, he continued to talk, "No, no I did not misspeak. I did not stutter. A hundred billion."
Just as Mr Clarke finished his speech the door swung open and the principal came in with a red haired girl.
"Ah, this must be our new student." Mr Clarke greeted.
The girl looked grumpy. She wore a plain red hoodie and some jeans and tucked under her arm was a skateboard with lots of designs on it.
"Indeed." The principal nodded, "All yours."
The girl went to grab a seat but Mr Clarke held out a hand to stop her.
"All right, hold up there. You don't get away that easy."
She rolled her eyes but returned to the front of the classroom.
"Dustin, drum roll." Mr Clarke instructed and Dustin began drumming his textbook with his hands, "Class, please welcome, all the way from sunny California, the latest passenger to join us on our curiosity voyage...Maxine!"
"It's Max." The girl corrected quietly.
"Sorry?"
"Nobody calls me Maxine. It's Max." She repeated, her tone sharp as she walked past Mr Clarke.
"Mad Max." The boys in front of Genie glanced at each other with wide eyes.
"Well, all aboard, Max." He continued enthusiastically. Genie turned and watched the new girl walk to the back and take a seat. When she turned around she found the boys still watching Max.
"Turn around." Genie hissed at Mike who sat in front of her. He blinked and twisted around, signalling for the others to do so as well.
The class broke for lunch and Genie walked with the group through the hall.
"It's got to be a coincidence." She shook her head, glancing at her friends.
"No way. It's totally her." Argued Lucas who had a smirk on his face.
They ate lunch then went outside with the rest of the students, soon hiding behind a chain link fence.
"There's no way that's Mad Max." Mike shook his head in disbelief.
"Yeah, girls don't play video games." Will added. Genie flicked him on the side of the head and he turned to face her, "You don't count."
"And even if they did, you can't get 750, 000 points on Dig Dug." Mike continued, "I mean, that's impossible!"
"But her name is Max." Protested Lucas.
"So?"
"So, how many Maxes do you know?"
"I don't know." Mike shrugged.
"Zero. That's how many." All five kept their eyes trained on the ginger as they talked.
"I mean it all adds up." Genie shrugged.
"Yeah, she shows up at school the day after someone with her same name breaks out top score. I mean, you kidding me?" Dustin said.
"Exactly. So she's gotta be Mad Max." Lucas and Dustin exchanged glances.
"And plus she skateboards, so she's pretty awesome." Dustin grinned.
"Awesome? You haven't even spoken a word to her." Mike argued.
"Come on, lighten up dude," Genie patted Mike on the shoulder, "Max does seem pretty cool."
"No she doesn't!"
"Yeah, she does, Mike, look at her- shit!" Dustin scanned the area where they last saw Max and frowned, "I've lost the target!"
"Oh, there!" Will turned to the left where Max was walking up the stairs to go inside. Before she opened the door, she dropped a crumpled up piece of paper into the trash can below.
The five quickly exchanged glances before hurrying over to the garbage. Dustin began rummaging through the trash while the other four awkwardly stood in front of him.
"Got it! There we go." Dustin exclaimed, uncrumpling the paper. It read in big bold writing,
Stop spying on me
CREEPS!
"I think she saw us." Genie muttered.
"No shit." Said Mike.
A voice came from behind the group making them all turn around, "William Byers, your mother is here."
Will glanced at Genie who gave him a reassuring smile.
"Genie, can you um..."
Genie knew Will didn't like walking through the halls alone so she nodded and walked after the principal with him.
The two walked through the hall with he principal following behind. As they went, eyes watched them.
"Genie." Will whispered, glancing at his friend.
"It's alright, we don't care what they think." The girl searched quickly for his hand and gave it a light squeeze. Will pursed his lips and nodded, averting his gaze from the curious staring students.
They exited the school and found Joyce standing outside of her car. She didn't seem surprised to see Genie walking along with her son.
Joyce waved enthusiastically and Will returned it with a smaller wave.
"Alright, honey, get in the car." Joyce said gently. Will opened the door and did as told, sitting quietly in the front seat.
"Thank you, Genie." She whispered before going to talk to the principal. Genie nodded with a smile and ran back to where her friends were peeking around the corner.
"Hey guys." She waved as she approached them. They all had solemn expressions in their faces.
"Is Will alright?" Mike asked eagerly. Genie nodded slowly. To be honest, she wasn't sure if Will was alright or not. She just wanted to be there for him.
After school, Dustin and Lucas offered to let Genie go with them to the arcade but she decided she was done with spying. It was a bit weird, even for them.
"Radio me if she comes, though. I'm curious too." She had called to them while skipping over to her brother's car.
"Come on, Gen, let's go!" Steve yelled impatiently, opening the drivers door and hopping in.
"Shut up, I'm coming!" Genie shouted back.
She slid into the passenger seat and threw her bag at her feet.
"How was school?" Steve asked, starting the car.
"God, you sound like Mom." Genie chuckled as she buckled up her seatbelt. Steve rolled his eyes.
"I just wanted to know how your first day was." He responded sassily. Genie laughed.
"Well if you really wanna know, I spied on the new girl with Mike, Will, Lucas and Dustin." She smirked, sitting up straight in her seat.
"You were spying with your—you know Nance calls her friends her 'girls' but I have no idea what you call yours." Steve pointed out, "your homeboys?"
Genie let out a snort of laugher. "Sure, my 'homeboys'. I'm sure they'd love that." She snickered.
Steve put his hands up in defence and Genie clutched the wheel. "Hands on the wheel, dingus!"
"Sorry, Mom." Now Steve was the one laughing.
They pulled into the Harrington residence and Genie rushed out of the vehicle. She wanted to be by her radio in case the boys called. To her luck, Lucas was in the middle of a sentence when she arrived at her doorway.
"-here! Max is here and she's arguing with someone!"
Genie grabbed the radio and pushed the button. "Wait seriously?"
"Yeah, now she's storming into the arcade."
The boys gave incredible detail through the walkie-talkie. Genie laughed a lot while listening, rarely responding to their messages. It would be amusing to watch Dustin and Lucas fight for Max.
She shifted positions on her bed, accidentally switching channels in the process. She was about to switch back when she heard, "El? El, are you there? It's me, it's Mike. It's day 353, 7:40pm-"
Genie switched the channels quickly. Mike was talking to Eleven again. He was so desperate to reach her. She couldn't blame him. Shortly after El disappeared, Genie tried contacting her too. El blocked her out of her mind but Genie knew she was there. She was just ghosting them.
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2000 words, you're welcome.
I hope this was an okay start to S2, I don't love it but it'll have to do. I've had today off from school so I had some time to write :)! Yay, fun.
I feel like there hasn't been many Will/Genie moments but maybe thats just me.
I just saw a pin where someone dressed up as Steve and Nancy for Halloween 😃🤚
Okay see you in part two <3