Y/n's pov
Mike came back from using the school phone while trying to get in touch with Will.
"Anything?" Lucas asked him.
"We need to talk. A.V. room. Right now." Mike said.
Dustin, Max and I stood up from where we were sitting on the stairs and started following Lucas and Mike into the school.
Mike looked over his shoulder to where Max was.
"Party members only!" Mike shouted.
"Come on, Mike!" I said, starting to get irritated at how he was treating her.
"No! This is non-negotiable!" Mike said.
Mike walked inside, and Lucas and Dustin followed.
"Sorry Max." Lucas said as he passed her.
"Yeah, sorry. Come on, Y/n." Dustin said as he too walked inside.
"Uh, one minute." I said to Dustin with a smile, before turning to Max.
"Let me guess, you're really sorry but I can't come because it's super serious?" Max said, looking really sad.
I sighed, and nodded.
"Something like that. I really am sorry, and I don't know why Mike is being such a jerk face lately, but I think it's about Will, and... I'm sorry but I just have to." I explained, looking down at my shoes.
I gave her a small sad smile, reaching for the door handle when she spoke.
"Y/n?" She asked.
"Yeah?" I said.
"Uh, thanks... for standing up for me, I mean. And at least trying to get me in your party." She said with a small smile.
I smiled back.
"Of course. And don't worry, I'm gonna get you in, I just gotta figure out how." I said, opening the door and walking inside.
We met up in the A.V. room, and we all took a seat.
"Will didn't want me to tell anyone, but on Halloween night, he saw a sort of shadow in the sky." Mike explained.
"A shadow?" Lucas asked.
Mike nodded.
"What do you mean by shadow?" I asked.
"I don't know, but it scared him. And if Will really has true sight... I mean if he can really see into the upside down, then what he saw on the field was the same shadow." Mike concluded.
"Maybe." I said.
"Can it hurt him? I mean, if the shadow thing isn't from our world..." Lucas said.
"I'm not sure, Dustin?" Mike asked.
"Well, if you're in another plane, you can't interact with that material plane so, theoretically, no, it can't hurt him." Dustin said.
"Yeah, if that's even happening. This isn't D&D, this is real life." Mike said.
"True but, yesterday he was so... different." I said.
"So what do we do?" Lucas asked, breaking the silence.
"We acquire more knowledge. I'll go to Will's after school. You guys stay here and look for Dart." Mike said firmly.
"Okay, but what does Dart have to do with this?" Dustin asked, quite defensively.
"Will said he heard him in the upside down. I don't know how yet, but he's gotta be connected to all this. He's gotta be." Mike said.
Mike stood up, as did the rest of us.
Mike looked between us all.
"If we find Dart, maybe we can solve this thing. Maybe we can help Will." Mike said, and Lucas and I nodded in agreement.
We went back outside to see Max sitting on the ground.
"Hey! Sorry for taking so long." I said while Mike glared at me.
"It's fine." She said with a smile as I helped her up from the ground.
"Alright, I gotta go, see you guys. Bye Max." Lucas said, as we all said goodbye and he pedalled off.
"Me too, coming Y/n?" Dustin asked, as usually we would bike home together.
"Uh, no thanks. See you dust." I said.
"Bye Y/n!" Mike said as he and Dustin biked off to their houses.
"Bye Michael! Bye Dust!!" I called after them.
"So! You and Dustin, huh?" Max asked once Mike and Dustin had turned the corner.
"W-what! No! Pffft." I objected, my face already red.
"You totally like each other!" She exclaimed with a smile.
"What about you and Lucas, huh?" I asked, raising my eyebrows at her and smirking as she blushed.
"Maybe.." she said.
"But I'll only admit it if you do!" Max said.
"Fine! Yes, I like Dustin." I said, rolling my eyes with a smile.
"Well, I like Lucas." She admitted with a shy smile.
"Don't tell the guys!" We both said at exactly the same time with serious looks on our faces.
We both burst out laughing, our laughter slowly dying down.
"So. Have any plans for right now?" I asked.
"No, why?" She asked.
I unzipped my backpack and held up a plastic bag full of quarters.
"Wanna go to the arcade?" I asked with a smile.
"Oh my god, yes!" She said fist pumping the air.
"Man, you are way cooler than Mike!" She said happily.
We both laughed as I unlocked my bike and she got on her skateboard.
We biked/skated all the way to the arcade.
We had so much fun, laughing and playing video games.
At one point, Keith brought us sodas, which wasn't really surprising because Keith actually didn't hate me as much as he hated the guys, I still had to give him some of that weird gum from Thailand my mom bought that he likes as "payment."
She even showed me some tips and I ended up beating Dustin's score on dig dug, putting him in third place and me in second.
Once we started getting low on quarters, we decided to go outside.
"See, ya Keith! See ya, Vickie!" I shouted to the two teens as we left the arcade, Keith and Vickie waved at me as we left.
"So. What do you want to do now?" Max asked.
"Well, I have a question." I said.
"Alright, what is it?" Max asked.
"How... do you skateboard?" I asked.
Max's face immediately lit up.
"Oh! Here I'll show you!" She said, placing her board down.
"So, put one foot on the board." She instructed.
I did as she said.
"And when you start to push off with your other foot, put that one on the board." She explained.
"Oh, and just, um, lean to one side to steer." She added.
"Okay. I'll try." I said.
I did as she said, and got going for a second or two, before the wheel hit a rock, and I went flying to the ground, the board laying in the grass.
"Jesus! Are you okay?" She asked, running up to me where I laid on my back on the ground.
Suddenly, and for no reason at all, I started laughing.
Like, laughing so hard you can't breath kind of laughing.
Max looked confused before she started giggling and then joined me in laughter as she too fell over.
We just sat there on the ground, laughing our asses off for a good three minutes until it finally died down.
"Are... you... okay?" I asked in between chuckles, talking about the fact that she had just fallen over.
"Never been better." She replied.
Static came through the radio in my backpack and I walked over to it and grabbed my supercom.
"Y/n?" Lucas asked through his radio.
"Y/n? Do you copy?" Mike asked from the other end.
"This is Y/n, I copy." I said into my radio.
"Guys we need to meet tomorrow, before school." Mike said.
"Copy that." Lucas and I said, all three of us switching off our radio's.
Max must not have heard our conversation because she had her jeans rolled up and she was looking at her knee, and slightly wincing.
"Hey. You alright?" I asked, walking back over to her.
"Yeah, just cut my knee on the pavement." She replied, looking at her bloodied kneecap.
"Well, it looks like I did too." I said, rolling up my jean pant legs, looking down to my knees to see that one had a large cut on it and the other one had a bruise that was starting to form.
We both chuckled, despite the small pain, and I walked over and got my backpack, her grabbing her skateboard from where it was on the grass.
"Come on." I said, walking back into the arcade.
"Where are we going?" She asked as she followed me.
I didn't answer, just walked in the door and up to the front counter.
"Oh, hey, y/n!" Vickie said, looking up from the book she was reading.
"Hi." I said with a smile.
"What do you need?" Keith asked from beside her.
"Bandaids." I said simply.
Keith stood up and walked back to somewhere, coming back with a box in hand.
"These are the only ones we got." He said, handing me the box.
They appeared to have yellow smiley faces on them, but some of them were purple, and some were blue.
"It's alright, thanks, guys." I said as we walked over to a bench.
I put a smiley face bandaid on my knee and a blue one on my shin, where a small cut was.
"Here." I said, handing the box to Max.
"Thanks." She said, taking a purple bandaid out and placing it on her knee.
"You know, you're pretty cool. We should hang out more often." Max said.
"Yeah, we should." I smiled.
I gave the bandaid box back to Vickie and we walked back outside, me grabbing my bike.
"Well, I have to get home or my mom's gonna put my photo on a milk carton but this was fun." I said with a smile, getting on my bike.
"Yeah, see you tomorrow, Y/n!" She called as I biked away, waving.
What a day.
Word count: 1633