IN WHICH THE COOL GIRL HATES HER
✧･ﾟ: * Nora sighs in relief when Lucas picks the shortest straw. He objects weakly while his friends laugh at him before Mike rolls his eyes. "Stop being a baby, and do it already."
Lucas jumps in the dumpster next to them all the while complaining about how the smell wanted to make him puke.
Sucks to suck, loser, Nora thought, not quite ready to talk to Max while the amount of hand-holding that occurred yesterday ran through her mind.
"What the hell's going on," Dustin asks, finally arriving near the group.
"What do you think," Mike leans against one of the sticks they were going to use to sift through the trash without having to touch it. "We're looking for Dart."
"Well, well, well," Lucas appears out of the trash bin, along with a few random bags. "Look who finally decided to show up. After, I drew the short straw. Real convenient."
"You stink!" Max exclaims, making her way over to Dustin away from Lucas.
Dustin does not seem unhappy with the situation.
"Hi, Max," he smiled at her, showing off his teeth. Nora has to suppress the urge to roll her eyes. Hi, Max, she mimics rudely in her head. Oh, sorry, Dustin. I don't know where that came from. . .
"Hi. . ." Max's awkward voice pulls Nora out of her inner conversation.
"Where's Will?" Dustin asks Mike, looking around as if he'd jump out of nowhere.
"He'll be here," Mike just assures.
"Are you just gonna stand there?" Lucas tosses Dustin a stick. "Or, are you gonna help?"
The five stand around a pile of garbage and pick at it continuously until the bell for first period rings, all of them slouching to class, disappointed to not have found anything.
Nora sits down in her normal seat in the front row of Mr. Clarke's class. She tries to ignore the nagging in her brain upon noticing Will isn't in his seat, and listens to Mr. Clarke begin the lesson.
"All living things, from complex mammals, to single-celled organisms, instinctively respond to danger. Expose a bacterium to a toxic chemical, and it will flee, or deploy some other defense mechanism." Nora glances at Will's empty seat. "We're very much the same. When we encounter danger, our hearts start pounding, our palms start to sweat. These are the signs of the physical and emotional state we call. . . fear."
—
✧･ﾟ: * Mike is dragging Lucas, Dustin, and Eleanor to the AV Room, during lunch, rudely excluding Max on the way. "Party members only." The other three all give him a look but he just ushers them inside. "No, this is non-negotiable."
"Sorry, Max," Nora says quietly, hoping it came off as sincere as it actually was. Mike's a bitch.
Mike hops onto the table, arms resting on his legs as the other three take seats in chairs in front of him, all already annoyed with his actions.
He sighs, "Will didn't want me to tell anyone, but on Halloween night, he saw a sort of shadow in the sky."
"A shadow?" Lucas asks. "Wha- what kind of shadow?"
"I don't know," Mike shakes his head slightly. "But it scared him. And if Will really has the True Sight. . . I mean, if he can really see into the Upside Down, maybe he saw that shadow thing again yesterday."
"In the field?" Dustin clarifies. Nora looks down a little. When Mike confirms he continues, "So, that's why he was frozen like that?"
"Maybe," Mike answers. No one really knows anything for sure.
"Can it hurt him?" Lucas worries softly. "I mean, if this shadow thing isn't from our world. . ." He trailed off.
"I'm not sure. Dustin?" Mike turns to the boy who knows the most about D&D in the group.
"Well," he starts. "If you're in another plane, you cant interact with the material plane. So, theoretically, no, the shadow can't hurt him." Theoretically.
"If that's even what's happening," Mike sighs - again. "This isn't D&D. This is real life."
"So, what do we do?" Nora finally asks. God, this all sucks.
"We acquire more knowledge," Mike explains. "I'll go to Will's after school. See what's going on. You guys stay here and find Dart."
"Dart? What's he gotta do with this?" Dustin goes again defending his beloved pet.
"Will heard him in the Upside Down," Mike states. "I don't know yet, but he's gotta be connected to all of this. He's gotta be. If we find Dart, maybe we can solve this thing. Maybe we can help Will."
—
✧･ﾟ: * Nora walks up to Max at the end of the day, looking for Dustin and Lucas. "Hey, have you seen the guys? We're supposed to meet after class."
Max just slams her locker door shut and walks away without sparing Nora a glance. Nora looks at the back of her head in confusion before following after her. "Max? Hey, Max! Where are you going?" She stays a step behind the redhead as they went down the entrance staircase of the school. "We gotta go look for Dart."
"Yeah, good luck with that," Max replies harshly, making Nora stop in her tracks. What'd I do now?
She speed-walks after the redhead, still calling her name. "C'mon, what's going with you?"
"What's going on with me? What's going on with you?" Max just scoffs.
"I don't understand," Nora slows as Max spins around suddenly.
"No! I don't understand!" Nora jumps slightly. "You act like you want me to be your friend, but then you just treat me like garbage!"
"That's not true," Nora tried to deny, but she knew it was. How can she tell her? Hey, sorry my friends and I have been excluding you, we just don't want to drag you into this crazy stuff with monsters and parallel planes and True Sight. No, we're not crazy, what do you mean?
"Yes, it is!" Max yells back. "You just go and hide in the AV Club, keeping secrets like we're in second grade or something! You know, I thought you guys wanted me in your party."
"I- We do but it's just-"
"But what," Max demands.
Nora sighs, "Look, Max, there are certain things that we just can't tell you, okay? Trust me, it's for your own safety-"
"My own safety?!" She looks annoyed at poor Nora.
"Yes!" Nora just shouts back.
"Why? It can't be because I'm a girl, because look at you. and. . . did you keep secrets from El?"
Nora's mouth opens a bit. How the fuck- "How do you know about El?"
Max just keeps a serious face. "Did you?"
"That was different," Nora tries to reason. "Trust me, okay?" Nora tries to keep the tears from pricking her eyes as she thought about Eleven. . . stop crying. Stop crying. Stop crying. "That was just. . . just different," she trusts her voice not to give out.
"Y'know what?" Max ignores Nora's change in demeanor. Whether she notices or not, Nora doesn't really want to know. "Forget it, okay? I don't wanna be in you stupid party anyways. I'm out." Max turns on her heel to her brothers car. "Have a nice life," she says, without even looking back.
"No." Nora jogs after Max. "C'mon, I know you hate me-" Nora places a hand on Max's shoulder, but Max just shrugs it off.
"Go away, Nora."
Nora.
Max stalks off and Nora acts like another brick didn't just fall into the pile in her stomach.
—
✧･ﾟ: * Nora is sitting on the side of her bed, thinking about unicorns and rainbows and anything other than all the shitty stuff going on in her life right now.
"Boy problems?" Steve sits down with a sigh next to his little sister.
The full sized mattress covered with pink sheets dipped with his weight, and he grabbed a fluffy white pillow to hold near his chest.
"Something like that," Nora sighs, head racing too much to form a coherent thought.
"What's his name?"
Uh. "M-mason," Nora stutters out. Oh, God.
"Last name?" Steve asks, confused. Hawkins was a small town, he probably would've heard of "Mason" by now. . . if he were real.
"Um. Miller. . . you don't know him," She quickly adds, hoping that would be the end of it. "He's new."
"Mason Miller. Alliteration. Interesting. Where's he from?"
Ugh. "C. . . olorado. . .?"
"Okay. Is he cute? What does he look like?"
"So cute. Um, red hair, like, real red, not ginger. And, blue eyes, like, a pretty blue, not boring. And, oh, so cool. Sh- he, um, skateboards." Nora cursed herself for the slip-up. If Steve found out, he would tell Mom and Dad, and she'd definitely be disowned.
"Skateboarder. Nice catch. What's the problem?" Steve asks, still oblivious. . . to Nora's knowledge.
"I, um, I'm just not really his type, y'know," Nora hesitates slightly.
". . .What's his type?"
"I-I actually don't know. Probably not me." It's not supposed to be me.
"Why can't you ask?" Steve furrows his brows slightly.
Oh, how Nora just wanted to scream at him the truth. Because it's illegal. It's wrong. I can't- we can't be together. Even if she did like me - which she doesn't, she can't - it wouldn't work. And everything with the Upside Down, with Will, with Eleven. . . No, we can't be together. It's- it's too scary. I can handle Demogorgons and alternate dimensions, but this. . . this won't work. This can't work. But she's so pretty. She's so smart. She's so funny and cool and- No, stop. No.
"It would complicate things."
"Is she worth it?"
Nora looked up, surprised. "What?"
"I'm not that much of an idiot, Nora. C'mon, what's her name?"
". . .It's Max. Mayfield. Billy Hargrove's sister. I know, he's an asshole. But it's okay, because she's not. I mean, its not 'okay' but, like, contrary to what you would assume, because her brother's an asshole - well, step-brother - but the point is she's not. An asshole." Nora rambled suddenly, a new type of nervousness bubbling in her stomach.
She feels weird. When everything with the Upside Down is troubling her, she stays quiet, reserved, only speaking up when she was trying to understand what was happening. But now, it's like she wanted to scream into the world everything going on with her. She wanted everyone to hear her, her problems, her Max- What's wrong with me?
"Is she worth it?" Steve just repeats, putting the pillow back where he got it and throwing an arm around Nora's shoulders. It is enough to make her stomach settle slightly. He doesn't hate me. Why would he? He's my brother. He's not allowed to hate me.
Nora gives the smallest smile down at her hands, intertwined in her lap, "Yeah."
"Then, go get her."
"Don't say cheesy stuff like that."
a/n:
momma steve. that's it. that's the chapter.