◤BONUS CHAPTER◥
"Luna: The Martial Arts Instructor."
LUNA MAYFIELD WAS GONNA BE SO LATE. She had to work that afternoon and she happened to sleep a little bit longer than she intended after hours of shooting arrows at her target in the basement. Thankfully, she had already taken a shower after sweating up a storm and all she had to do was get dressed, stuff her feet into her black and white Nike Blazer Mid 77's and grabbed her bag with a spare change of clothes.
She quickly threw on a Karate Kid shirt that she cut the sleeves off of and turned into a muscle t-shirt, showing off the hard work earned muscles that the ginger girl had, then she yanked some gray leggings up her legs and called it an outfit before she slipped some socks on and stuffed her feet into her Nikes.
She quickly threw her hair up into a ponytail and grabbed her bag, then she turned off the light in her room and exited through the threshold. As she was going to leave she halted in the hallway and eyes flittered to the grimy white wall in the hallway. She felt a squeeze in her chest that caused her to place her hand on her thumping heart, a reminder to breathe before she worked herself up.
Ever since the tragedy at Starcourt Mall, she had been having these really bad situations where she would start trembling, and her breath would shorten and she couldn't speak, her lungs would feel like somebody was crushing them.
And for awhile... she didn't know what it was until it started happening almost everyday. Eventually her mom made her go see a doctor, and she found out that she was having something called a panic attack.
This always happened, everyday when she left for work. She walks out of her room and her eyes would immediately travel to that wall. It was stupid but... back in their old place Billy's bedroom door used to be right there. She remembered it like it was just yesterday that she saw it for the last time. She tried to tell herself that it was just a dumb wall, and some days she could ignore it, but other days, she wasn't so lucky.
She managed to brush the thoughts away, then she shook her head, her ponytail flopping along with the movement. She released a heavy sigh and dropped her hand as she walked down the hallway, she knocked hard on the white wooden door and waited. Then once she got a mere "come in.", she opened the door slowly and peaked her head inside the room.
As she looked inside the light blue painted walled room, she saw her little sister Max laying on her bed. She had a math book infront of her, her Walkman next to her, and the headphones hanging on her neck as she looked up at Luna. "What?" Max questioned, her brows raised expectantly.
"I'm headed to work, just wanted to let you know so you can make yourself some food."
"Okay. Cool." Max replied dryly, holding up her thumb as she flipped a page in her math book. "See ya."
Luna pursed her lips, and nodded at her sister. "See you later, Maxie."
The older Mayfield closed the door, taking a moment to hold onto the doorknob before letting go and continuing her journey down the foyer. Her sister had been like this for awhile, quiet, very distant, a little angrier and more aggressive than usual. Ever since Billy passed... everyone in their house was finding ways to cope in their own way.
Her mother's way to cope was to work 3 jobs all the while she is constantly fighting to get her divorce with Neil finalized. Max's way was to push away everyone and bring her walkman with her everywhere to drown out the rest of the world around her.
And Luna... well, when she wasn't working part time at Family Video, she was a martial arts instructor. She coped by teaching kids and teenagers how to defend themselves with both their bodies, and for those who had really wanted to learn and wanted the extra classes, the art of archery.
Having that as a distraction during the day helped her avoid thinking of the traumatizing events that she had encountered last summer, teaching martial arts gave her a sense of peace, normalcy. It was what she had always been good at her entire life, and it also happened to be her escape from her own mind reminding her of all the shit she'd been thorough.
After a short bike ride to the YMCA, she hopped off of her Lime Green Schwinn Sting-Ray bike and walked it towards the rack with the other bikes. After making sure it was sat upright, she pulled the strap of her bag and made her way to the gym. As she walked though the door that she pulled open she was instantly hit with the feeling of cold air brushing against her skin, and the scent of chlorine tickling her nostrils.
With haste she stopped at the front desk of the building, she waved at the older women with blonde ringlets at the front desk named Carol as she walked by. "Afternoon, Carol." She greeted her.
"Hey, kid." Carol replied, "You got two minutes to spare, your class is waiting on you."
Luna nodded, "Thanks, see you later." Carol nodded at the girl's words and she was off towards her section where her students were waiting for her.
She walked to the door to her class and turned the doorknob, as she walked in every kid in the room turned towards her with a look of relief covering their features. Luna snickered as she closed the door behind her.
"I get it, I am almost late but I made it on time." She dropped her back in the corner of the room on a chair before walking to the front of the room and placing her hands on her hips as she laid her eyes open the students.
"Took you long enough, I thought I was gonna have to call my mom and get her to pick me up." One of the kids said, a brunette boy with spiked hair named Justin.
Luna rolled her eyes, "No worries, Justin. I may be late sometimes, but I'm always gonna be here."
"But Ms. Luna." The small blonde Wheeler girl frowned, "What if you're sick?"
Luna grinned, "Even sickness couldn't keep me from you guys, Holly." She claps her hands, "Now, you guys ready to learn how to defend yourselves today?"
"Yes, Ms. Luna!" The kids replied, their voices simultaneous.
The ginger girl grins happily, "Good. Now, today I have something special planned." She announced to them, glancing out of the small window in the door of the room, a soft smile takes ahold of her lips as she sees a familiar face.
"Usually we work on self defense through our bodies, our fist, feet, and so on. But today... I decided that you guys probably would like to try something a bit more fun." She nodded at the person in the window and the door creaked open, catching the kids attention as the figure walked inside of the room. "Guys, I would like to introduce you to someone near and dear to my heart. This is Mr. Steve."
The brunette with the incredible head of hair walked around the group of kids and stood next to Luna, "Hey." He said, a smile gracing his lips as he clutched onto the duffel bag strap on his shoulder.
Luna smiled back, "Hey." She put her gaze back on the students. "So, you're probably wondering just what is going on today, right? Well, Mr. Steve here is a bit of a master of something that's probably unknown to you guys. Mr. Steve, would you like to show them what you have?"
"Yes, I would." Steve nods, then he drops his bag to the mat and unzips it. He then pulls out his trusty bat with nails hammered into it. The kids all gasp in awe of the choice of weapon in the older boy's hand. "Now, you guys are probably wondering why I have a baseball bat, right?"
The kids all nod eagerly.
"Well, this bat can be used for more than just baseball. It shows that even if you have the smallest of means of defending yourself, like this bat here, you can still use it to kick some serious ass—" Luna shot him a look, "Uh, butt, I meant butt." He stammers as the kids infront of them giggled at the boy's word choice.
Luna shakes her head at her boyfriend's mistake. "Now, what's gonna happen is we're gonna split you guys into two separate groups, okay?" The kids nod at her instructions, "I'm going to be teaching you self defense like I always do, but Mr. Steve here, he's gonna be teaching you how to hold and swing the bat the right way. Does that sound good to you guys?"
"Yes, Ms. Luna." The kids answered, but one of them raised their hand, a neck length curled haired brunette with glasses named Rita.
Luna glanced at her, "Yes, Rita?"
The rich milk-chocolate toned girl dropped her hand, "Will we all be able to work with Mr. Steve?"
"Yes, half of the session will be spent with me, and then we will switch."
"Don't worry." Steve assured the children around him, "All of you will get the chance to work with me. Me and Ms. Luna will make sure of it."
Luna nods, "Okay, any more questions?" She raised her brows as she waited for any hands to raise, but when none did she grinned. "All right. Let's get you all split up then. Okay, I'm gonna point to each of you and you will be either the number one or two, you got it?" The kids in the room all nod at her instruction, "Okay, let's do this."
After numbering all the kids she sent the group of two's to Steve and all the students who were one's were with her for half of the class session.
While she was sparring with one of her kids, a blonde boy named Jack, she couldn't help but look over at the other side of the classroom where Steve was. He was teaching Holly how to use the smaller bat he brought in his bag and hold it correctly in her grip, she smiled softly as she saw the little 8 year old swing the plastic weapon in her hands. The fond look on Steve's face as he watched Holly made a warm feeling creep into the ginger girl's chest.
God, he was just so damn good with kids.
Before she even knew it, she was sent falling to her ass. Her feet completely sweeped right underneath her. She dropped with a oof sound falling from her lips, then she flushed in a sense of embarrassment as she realized what happened.
"Sorry, Ms. Luna." Jack apologized frantically, offering his hand to her, which she took allowing him to pull her up. "I went to leg sweep you and you weren't aware of it I guess."
Luna chuckled, "It's fine, kid. You did what I told you to, I just wasn't paying attention." She glanced at the other students in a circle around her, "Take that as a lesson, kids. Always pay attention during an altercation. If you get distracted for even a second, just like me you could end up falling right on your butt. And we don't want that, now do we?"
The kids shook their heads, "No, Ms.Luna."
"Okay, good." The ginger girl nodded, then she looked back to Jack, getting into her sparring stance. "All right, Jackie. Let's try this again, yeah?" The blonde boy nods, getting in his own sparring stance as well. "Give me everything you've got, kiddo."
YO.
So I don't know if you guys recall this but Luna always wanted a career in martial arts, right?
Well I saw this really cool YMCA information from twitter on the Stranger Things premier, right?
And I just thought... holy shit. This is PERFECT for Luna! So I just decided to give you guys a little sneak peek in what her life has been like recently since Billy being gone and everything.
So yeah, she's a martial arts instructor.
Also, I added Steve here because why not, you know? Like, imagine him teaching little kids how to properly hold and swing a plastic bat for self defense.
Ugh... my fucking heart.
Honestly, I just wanted him to pop up in this, giving you guys a look at how they were both doing.
But yeah.
SEASON FOUR COMES OUT IN FOUR FUCKING DAYS.
F O U R
Okay, that's all I have for you guys. I hope you liked this small sneak peek, and I will see you guys again soon when I finish binging the entirety of season 4 a million times lmaooo.
Stay hydrated and take care of yourselves, later guys!
—Mic