𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧𝐞: 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐚𝐝𝐞
❝ʜᴏᴡ'ʀᴇ ᴡᴇ ᴅᴏɪɴɢ?❞
𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐎 𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐂𝐊𝐋𝐘 𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐁𝐁𝐄𝐃 𝐀 𝐓𝐄𝐍 dollar bill from her piggy bank, stuffing it into the pocket of her jeans before she ran out of room. she could hear dustin's voice coming from her supercomm that was downstairs, which made her quickly make her way down the stairs. she gently placed her butt on the railing before she slid down the rest of the way, landing on her feet with ease. she ran into the kitchen, seeing steve sitting there, eating a bowl of cereal.
"your stupid little radio has been going off for the past five minutes." steve decided to inform through a mouthful of frosted flakes.
"and yet, you still decided to sit there and listen to it." arlo shot back with a roll of her eyes. "do you have change for a ten?"
"you need two fives?" steve questioned, pulling away from his cereal to reach into his pocket and grab his wallet.
"more like. . . 40 quarters." arlo corrected, quickly doing the math in her head.
"the hell you need 40 quarters for? who even carries that much change around?" steve quizzed, looking at his sister with knitted eyebrows.
arlo was about to answer, but dustin's voice quickly boomed through the speaker of her supercomm. "arlo, come on! i know you're there. how much money do you have? over."
she quickly made her way towards the kitchen island, snatching the walkie off of it and pressing the button on the side. "i have ten bucks in total! but i'm gonna need to ask keith for change."
"where the hell did you get that kind of money from?" dustin asked, arlo practically seeing the confusion on his face. she was about to about her mouth to answer, but dustin's voice shot through again. "oh, wait. never mind, i forget that you're rich!"
"you know what, henderson? i was gonna give you some of my quarters because i know that you're short. but never mind. you're gonna stay short." arlo told him, earning a shake of the head from her brother, who was still munching on his cereal.
"wait, no! i'm sorry!" the curly haired boy quickly apologized.
"nope, it's too late for that. i'll see you at the arcade in 15. over and out!" arlo practically yelled into the walkie, quickly pushing her antenna down so she wouldn't have to hear dustin try and protest.
"really, the arcade again?" steve asked as he put another spoonful of cereal into his mouth. "you guys have been there every night since they opened."
"it's fun. i'm sorry that you don't see the appeal, my dear older brother." arlo shrugged, looking around the kitchen for her walkman. "have you seen my walkman?"
"it's on the coffee table." steve told her.
the youngest harrington quickly made her way to the living room, smiling when she saw her walkman laying on the coffee table. she practically snatched it from the table before she clipped it onto her jeans. she quickly opened it, seeing which mixtape had been in there. she smiled when she realized that it had been the smiths' whole album, which was named after themselves. the smiths had quickly became one of her favorites bands since they released the album. she closed the walkman back and quickly made her way back towards the kitchen, seeing steve placing his bowl into the sink.
"hey, i'm going." arlo told him as she raised the headphones onto her ears.
"okay, be safe, lo. and take a jacket." steve told her in his usual motherly voice that he's been using on her for the past year.
arlo rolled her eyes but nodded nonetheless. "i'm taking one of your jackets."
"you know i don't care." she heard steve mumbled as she walked to the front door.
she grabbed one of the jean jackets from the hook, it being the same jean jackets she's been wearing since the autumn breeze had replaced the summer air at the beginning of september. she walked through the front door, making sure to close the door behind her as she walked down the steps and to her bike. she picked it up from the ground and got onto it, pressing play on the walkman so that music could fill her ears. she started to pedal down the road, turning on the light on her bike so that she could see. this charming man played in her ears as she made her way towards the arcade, knowing that most of the party was already there.
over the past year, music had been something that helped calm arlo down. even though she wasn't the one who got dragged into the upside down, she was still badly affected by the events that happened last november. she had three big scars on her side to show for her physical trauma, but when it came to her mental trauma. . . she kept the affects to herself for the most part; the nightmares that had turned into night terrors, the lack of eating, the fact that she couldn't go anywhere without feeling like she was being watched, the panic attacks. the only cool thing that came from last year was the fact that she discovered she had powers. but even that wasn't good.
we've already established that her abilities can make someone see their worst nightmares, that she could travel through shadows -- which she had gotten better at doing, and being able to throw shadow balls. but she's found out a lot more about her powers, like she could make her consciousness go into someone else's mind to relive one of their nightmares -- if they want her to. she can also create creatures out of the shadows, which she was still learning to do. she could only cause fear with her abilities, and she didn't like that. she didn't like that she wasn't able to help someone or take away their fear. in fact, she feeds off of fear. it makes her feel stronger. more powerful. and she absolutely hated it. but what could she do?
on top of that, ever since she's gotten these powers, it's been this buzzing in her head. she had grown accustomed to it, but she wished that it was there. it was almost a small voice at the back of her head, but she could never hear what it was saying. so she turned to music to push it out, to ignore it, to wash all her worries away. sometimes it helped, and sometimes it made her feel even worse than what she was already feeling.
she pulled up in front of the arcade, smiling when she had seen mike, lucas, and dustin patiently waiting for her and will's arrival. ever since he's gotten back from the upside down, jonathan or joyce would drive him everywhere. she pulled her bike into the bike rack, right next to dustin's. she then pulled her headphones from her ears, pausing the mixtape from playing. just as she did that, the sound of a car honking echoed through the air. she turned to see joyce's car pulling into the parking lot. arlo and the boys waved, big smiles on their faces.
once will was out of the car, the party all went inside of the arcade. the boys automatically to play dragon's lair while arlo went to the counter in an attempt to find keith. once she had found him, she gave him the ten dollar bill and he immediately started to give her quarters. he didn't even count the 40 quarters out, he just grabbed two handfuls and gave them to her. so now she was walking back to her friends with pockets full of quarters, sounding like a bunch of bells were on her body.
"how're we doing?" she questioned once she approached her friends, lucas giving her a weird look because of the sound of quarters in her pockets.
"we just got to uncharted territory. dustin's words, not mine." the sinclair boy answered, looking back at the screen.
the boys then started to yell, giving instructions to dustin on what to do as the dragon started to attack. arlo watched with raised eyebrows as they all yelled over eachother, dustin telling them to shut up as he tried to get the sword. but the dragon got him, blowing fire from out of his mouth and burning the knight to a crisp. arlo couldn't help the smile that pulled at her lips when she saw dustin's reaction, the curly haired boy bringing his hand up to cover his mouth.
"no! no, no, no!" he yelled. "i hate this overpriced bullshit! son of a bitch! piece of shit!" he yelled as he hit the game all over again, earning a chuckle from arlo.
"you're just not nimble enough. but you'll get there one day. but until then, princess daphne is still mine." lucas told him, a proud grin plastered on his lips as he leaned on the game.
"whatever. i'm still tops on centipede and dig dug." dustin mumbled.
"you sure about that?" a deep voice asked, making the party turn to see keith standing there with a bag of cheese puffs.
"sure about what?" dustin questioned. instead of answering, keith stuck a cheese puff into his mouth, slowly chewing on it as he stared back at dustin with a small smile. dustin's face dropped when he realized what keith was insinuating. "you're kidding me. no, no, no." he mumbled to himself as he ran around to where centipede and dig dug were at. the party followed him, arlo's eyebrows raising when she saw that someone named MADMAX was at the top of the scoreboard for both games.
"751,300 points!" will announced to the group while dustin complained, his voice cracking.
"that's impossible." mike commented.
"for you, obviously." arlo shot back, earning a nudge from the wheeler boy. mike had grown over the past year, now being at least seven inches taller than arlo. the features on his face had definitely matured, the boy slowly starting to grow into his looks.
"who is mad max?" dustin asked keith, who had followed them around to the two games.
"better than you." the older boy answered as he continued to munch on a cheese puff.
"is it you?" will asked as dustin stuck up his middle finger at keith.
"you know i despise dig dug." keith replied in his usual boring tone.
"then who is it?" lucas questioned.
"yeah, spill it, keith." dustin demanded.
"you want information, then i need something return." keith told the five teens. the boys looked at mike while arlo looked at keith in disgust. they all knew keith wanted to go out with nancy, who had been with steve for almost a year now.
"you're disgusting, dude." arlo told him as she walk past him. "and by the way, no girl wants a guy who has cheese puff breath." she told him while she walked over to her favorite game in the whole arcade.
she smiled when she saw gaplus appear in her line of sight, picking up her speed so that she could get there faster. she was getting ready to put a quarter in, wanting to beat her high score -- which was the number one score on the board, but she stopped when she realized that her name was no longer number one. MADMAX was at the very top with almost 800,000 points. arlo's eyebrows raised slightly, hurt that someone had beat her high score, but also intrigued on who this someone was. very intrigued. but then the thought left her mind as fast as it came, suddenly feeling fear start to radiate off of someone. she turned back to where her friends were arguing with keith, seeing that will was no longer with them. she quickly made her way towards the boys, pulling mike by his shoulder.
"what?" he asked, his voice snappy because of how hard she pulled on it.
"sorry, i didn't -" she quickly apologized before she shook her head. "where's will?"
"what do you mean? he's right -" mike started, going to turn to the byers boy. but his face dropped once he realized that will wasn't standing next to him anymore.
the two teens moved away from the group, trying not to panic as they searched for their friend. as also got closer to the front of the arcade, she felt the sense of fear get stronger, making her grab mike and pull him outside. she sighed in relief when she saw will standing in the parking lot, but he was looking up at the sky. arlo furrowed her eyebrows, wondering what he was looking at since there was nothing there.
"will!" mike called, making the smaller boy snap his head towards him and arlo. the harrington girl noticed how he gasped for breath, almost like he was being pulled back into reality. "are you okay?" mike questioned.
will turned back around, almost like he was checking to see if he had seen something that wasn't actually there. "yeah, i just. . . i needed some air."
arlo tilted her head slightly, feeling the amount of fear that was coming from him. he had seen something that had scared, but she didn't push. "well, come on. its your turn to play dig dug." she told him as mike walked up to him and wrapped his arm around his shoulders.
"yeah, let's take that top score back, huh?" mike added as the three of them walked back into the arcade.
"mad max took the top score in gaplus." arlo informed the two boys.
"what? no way. no one's been able to beat your score since it opened!" will quickly said as they approached dustin and lucas.
"i know. whoever this mad max is, they're really good." arlo mumbled. "and i wanna meet them."
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daij speaks!
i'm so happy that i'm finally writing season two. i'm
so exited. omg.
but i hope u enjoyed 🫶🏼