Calum Harrington scrambled around his room sliding on his blue vans along with a blue zip up jacket that had one horizontal yellow stripe across the middle. Before he left the room, he grabbed a bag of quarters equaling about $3. The boy shoved the bag in his pocket and ran downstairs. He rushed through the living room, grabbing his walkie talkie and backpack ready to leave the house, until he was stopped by a voice.
"Hey, Hey. Where do you think you're going?" Steve Harrington, Calums older brother, asked. Calum turned around to face him with a sheepish grin on his face.
"I was going to the arcade with my friends. I am allowed to, right?"
Steve looked at his adopted younger brother and thought about it. Ever since the events of last year, Steve has been more protective over Calum. He didn't want the scientists to take him away. Luckily Calum hasn't blown his cover of being a 'normal' boy yet and Steve knows he won't, it's the thought of Calum getting taken away and experimented on because he let him go out that worries him so much. Steve glances at Calum and sighs.
"Ok, you can go, however don't stay out too late and-"
"Don't use my powers unless it's life or death. Don't worry Steve, I'll be safe with my friends"
Steve nods slowly and pulls him in for a quick hug. He let's go and Calum rushes out the front door and shuts it behind him. Once outside the young Harrington quickly walked from the large house and grabbed his skateboard, jumping straight onto it and riding it down the driveway. Once off the driveway, he went on the road that would lead him to Arcade Palace.
As he skated down the road he heard a muffle voice coming from his walking talkie. Still skating, he grabbed the device and pulled up the antenna.
"Cal! Cal this is Dustin! Do you copy? Over." The familiar voice that belonged to his friend. Cal pressed the button to speak.
"Yeah I'm here Dust, what's up? Over."
"One, I thought I told you to stop calling me Dust. Two What's your haul? Lucas and I have six bucks total, over."
"I've got three bucks, making nine overall Dust. Have you contacted Mike yet? What's he got?"
"Can't find what channel he's on, damnit! I'll try again, see you soon"
"See ya Dust" Cal said before signing off and putting the walkie talkie back in his bag.
Cal let out a big breath, letting the wind run through his hair, and skated down the hill at fast speeds when suddenly a figure popped out in front of him on a skateboard from the side of the road.
"Oh shit!" he yelled before colliding with the person, both falling off their skateboards and onto the ground.
"Holy shit! I'm so sorry!" The figure said while sitting up, Cal also sat up. Before him was a red-haired girl with ocean blue eyes and freckles over her nose.
"You're sorry? I should be sorry, I'm the one that flew down the hill" Cal said, standing up and holding out his hand towards the girl. She gladly took the hand, as Cal helped her back to her feet. He was a little bit taller than her but not that much. His eyes met her as he started to get mesmerized by her eyes. He snapped himself back to reality as the girl looked over him with worried eyes.
"Yeah, but I was the one who just went on the road. If I didn't that wouldn't have happened and-" She started to quickly explain to the boy.
"Hey it's fine. I was bound to get hurt anyways, just one of the perks of skating" he cut her off before she could keep apologizing. He then smiled at the girl and held his hand out towards her.
"I'm Calum by the way, but you can call me Cal, all my friends do." he explained waiting for the red-haired girl to introduce herself.
A smile slowly creeped up on the girl's face as she took his hand and shook it, "I'm Maxine, but call me Max" she said, letting go of his hand.
"Well Max, although I wish I could talk longer, I was actually on the way to meet some people," Cal said while getting on his skateboard again. "But I'm sure we'll see each other around, it is a small town after all, and then we can continue our talk. After all, we're friends now" He said with a small chuckle at the end.
"Yeah." Max said, smiling watching as he skated down the street and towards the arcade. She got on her skateboard, still smiling as she had made her first friend in Hawkins.
Soon, Cal finally arrived at the acard. His friends, Mike Wheeler, Lucas Sinclair and Dustin Henderson were waiting out the front for the remaining two friends, those being himself and Will Byers. The boy got off his skateboard and put it under his arm, running up to the three boys. "Your Knight has arrived!" he said as the others chuckled.
They all then watched as a familiar car pulled up. It was Will Byers and his mother Joyce who looked to be giving a lecture about curfew. This was common ever since last year. Of course, Cal didn't blame Joyce. She was just making sure her son got home safe.
Eventually the boy got out of the car, a wide smile on his face, and ran towards his best friends as they ushered him into the arcade.
"To slay the dragon, use the magic sword!" The female voice blurted out from the arcade machine the boys surrounded. Dustin was the one playing while the rest of the party were cheering him on, except Lucas who didn't want his highscore taken.
"Down! Down! Down!" they chanted, pushing Dustin around. It was edging towards the end of the game. Dustin can either win it or lose it.
"I'm going! I'm going! I'm going! I'm going!" Dustin screeched as smashed the button to attack the dragon. The boys continued to shout as Dustin started to lose concentration "Shut up! shut up! Shut- No, No No!" Dustin yelled as the dragon killed him "I hate this overpriced bullshit! Son of a bitch! Piece of shit!" He yelled, hitting the game out of anger. Cal was just chuckling to himself, he always found Dustin's reaction hilarious.
"You're not nimble enough, but you'll get there one day. But until then Princess Daphne is still mine!" Lucas exclaimed, trying to tease Dustin.
"Oh whatever, I'm still top on Dig Dug and Centipede!" Dutin yelled.
"You sure about that?" a deep voice from behind the boys asked. Cal groaned as he recognised that voice. They turned around and, yep, it was Keith, the manager of Arcade Palace who was stuffing his face with cheeto puffs, his fingers orange from the powerd.
"What the hell are you talking about Keith?" Cal asked. Keith's eyes slowly escalated towards the game machine for Dig Dug.
"No, no no!" Dustin yelled as he ran over to the machine and revealed the scoreboard, the other boys following him. The Scoreboard read at the top 'MADMAX' with 'DUSTIN' underneath.
"751,300 points! That's impossible" Will exclaimed with wide eyes.
"MadMax huh?" Cal said smiling to himself, remembering the red-haired girl he met earlier. He kept this to himself to see how long the boys will figure out who it is.
"Who's MadMax?" Dustin chimed in, stepping towards Keith. "Better than you" he scoffed at the boy.
"Is it you?" Will asked the manager. "You know I despise Dig Dug" Keith said, reaching for another cheeto puff.
Will frowned a little, turning to Cal who shrugged. They both had no idea he despised the game.
"Y'know that's quite presumptuous of you" Cal said, "Isn't it?"
"What is?" asked Keith, eating a cheeto puff.
"That we'd know literally anything about you. I mean you're" Cal trailed, pointing at Keith while moving his hand up and down. Keith just gave an irritated glae to him. Cal smiled in return.
"Who is it?" Lucas demanded, rolling his eyes.
"Yeah, spill it, Keith" spat Dustin
"You want information, then I need something in return" Keith stated as he turned towards Mike, who immediately picked up on what he was suggesting.
"No, no no! No way, You're not getting a date with her!" Mike shouted.
"Mike, come on." groaned Lucas "Just get him the date, would you?"
"I'm not prostituting my sister!"
"But it's for a good cause"
"No, don't get him the date" snapped Cal, his eyes narrowed at Keith "You know what? He's gonna spread his nasty-ass rash to your whole family!"
"Acne isn't a rash and it isn't contagious, you prepubescent wastoid!" argued Keith, his face falling immediately.
"Oh, I'm a wastoid? She wouldn't go on a date with you!" Cal shouted at Keith.
"Yeah, you make like what? $2.50 an hour?" remarked Dustin, backing up Cal.
"Nice perm." mocked Keith, although he was losing confidence.
"Gonna make fun of my hair? Is that all you have?"
Cal drowned out the argument as he noticed Will missing from the group. He looked around and noticed Mike glancing at him before he turned his head, looking over his shoulder. Then he strode out the back door and exited.
"Where did Mike go?" Dustin asked as Keith walked away, his hands over his head.
"He went outside to grab Will," answered Cal. As soon as he said that, Mike walked in with his arm around will. "Come on, guys. Will's up next in Dig Dug right?" Mike asked.
Will just nodded weakly, Cal raised an eyebrow at the boy, but just assumed it was just another one of his episodes. He patted Wills back as they all turned around to play Dig Dug.
The next morning, Cal woke up to the sound of knocking on his door. He tried to ignore it and go back to sleep, but was startled when Steve entered the room.
"C'mon sleepy head, You're gonna be late for school. I've made breakfast so hurry up" Steve then exited the room leaving Cal to get dressed. After a few minutes, Cal exited the room wearing a simple t-shirt and pants while also wearing his blue jacket again. He went downstairs and saw Steve eating his breakfast. He quickly sat down across from Steve and started eating his breakfast.
After breakfast, they both cleaned up and went towards Steves car and made their way towards the school
Time Skip
Steve drove Cal to school. Before Cal could leave the car, Steve put a hand on his shoulder. "Now remember, don't use your powers and if you see any people from the lab-"
"Use my powers on them, alright love ya bye!" Cal said while exiting the car.
"Wait no that's-*Sigh* whatever" Steve said.
Cal then entered the school and started skating till he reached the door for the classroom. He picked up his skateboard and entered the room and sat down at his desk. Mr Clarke then entered the room and started the lesson.
"Meet the human brain. I know. I know, doesn't look like much, a little gross even right? But consider this, there are a hundred billion cells inside the miracle evolution. All working as one. No, no I did not mispeaks. I did not stutter, a hundred billion" Mr Clarke explained.
He was then interrupted by the principal opening the door with a new student. As the new student entered the room, Cal noticed it was the girl he met yesterday, Max.
"Oh you must be the new student"
"Indeed, she's all yours" The principal said and left the classroom right after. Max then tries to go sit down but is stopped by Mr Clarke.
"Alright. Hold up there. You don't get away that easy" Mr Clarke told her.
"Come one up, don't be shy" he said as his face curved into a smile
"Dustin, Drum roll" Dustin closed his book and started tapping on it
"Class please welcome, all the way from Sunny California, the latest passenger to join us on our curiosity voyage, Maxine" He introduced her, Cal started to smirk.
"It's Max," She corrected.
"Sorry?"
"Nobody calls me Maxine, It's Max" She informed him.
"MadMax" Cal heard lucas whispering to Dustin
"Well, all aboard Max!" Mr Clarke smiled at her. Max then went to the seat which was empty and saw Cal in front of it. He smiled at her and She smiled back and sat down as the lesson continued.
"There's no way that's MadMax" Mike told them, all five boys including Cal were looking over at Max who was Skateboarding.
"Yeah, girls don't play video games."
"And even if they did, you can't get 750,000 on Dig Dug"
Cal was losing his mind listening to the boys argue about Max. He then pushed through them and started to walk towards Max.
"You guys have fun, I'm actually going to talk to her. She's pretty cool." He said as he dropped his skateboard and skated towards her.
"I told you we'll see each other again" He said as he got off his skateboard and picked it up.
Max jumped off her skateboard startled about to fall when Call quickly caught her. She soon realized who it was. "Jesus, you scared me Cal '' She said, playfully punching his shoulder before picking up her skateboard.
"Whoops my bad, wasn't my intention" Cal chuckled.
Max smiled at the boy until her attention was drawn to behind him where she saw the four boys huddled up together looking at them. "Hey, uh, are those your friends?" She asked him.
Cal turned around and spotted the group. He winced in embarrassment and turned back to the girl. "Yeah they are. They're just a little hurt that you were able to beat Dustin's score, that was you right?" He asked as Max was writing something on a piece of paper and dropped it in the bin.
"Yeah, what, you surprised it's me?" She asked as she started to walk back into school, Cal following her.
"Nah, I mean it was kind of obvious. You're name's Max, the player was MADMAX, I was able to put the pieces together and plus you're cool so it didn't come as a shock to me you were able to get an awesome high score" He said as he looked over at her chuckling.
Max felt her cheeks heating up from Cal's compliment. "You think so? Well, thanks." She said with a big smile as the bell rang.
"Welp, I guess we'll be seeing more of each other now. So I'll see you around Red" Cal said with a smile before heading towards his class.
"Red?" Max questioned while she stopped walking. Cal turned around and winked at her before continuing to class.
Max stared at him with her cheeks heating up while he walked away. She smiled and made her way to her next class.
To be Continued.