CARDIGAN | SEASON II ; ACT I
.୧ ‧₊˚⋅🍂 chapter 1 ━━━━━━ ❛madmax❜
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MOVING PUT A GREAT DAMPER TO ARABELLA'S MOOD. The girl had always been the reserved one when it came to the set of twins. Both intense, but in their own, different ways. Her mood seemed gloomy from a stranger's perspective around half of the time.
"you're such a priss." Her best friend Nate would often say to her. It was all in good fun most of the time. Insulting each other, laugh about it (or get angry at each other). Forget, have fun, then eat, sleep and repeat.
But Nate wasn't around anymore. Ara had moved to the small town in Hawkins. It was a town in Indiana, aka the middle of literally no where. There wasn't much to do without friends you see, hence Ara's gloominess. But atleast the late summer breeze was something to enjoy in the town.
There was also the arcade, where she and her twin sister Max would go too almost everyday. They hadn't started school yet and it was one of the only things bringing them joy and also an escape from their home life.
"C'mon Max!" Ara cheered as her sister was about to beat her previously set score.
Max huffed as she lost again. She crossed her arms and kicked the machine.
"This stupid game is the worst." She groaned.
"At least you still have the highest score." Ara said, trying to cheer up the red-haired girl.
"You try." Max said, still frustrated.
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Billy drove them to school drove them to school, 'Rock You Like a Hurrincane' by the scorpions was blaring through the car.
Max got out of the car with her skateboard in hand and Ara followed, hanging onto the straps of her brown backpack. She made sure to walk fast enough to catch up with her sister, skating.
They went to first their class, science, being led by the principal and tried to quickly go find two seats.
"Alright, hold up there, you don't get away that easy." The teacher said.
The two stood in front of the class and you could see how they contrast each other just by observing them. While Max had fiery red hair, Ara's was a soft brown. Max wore a bright red jacket while Ara had on a beige, crocheted cardigan, curtesy of her aunt Ruth. The pair of twins found it funny.
The most notable thing they shared at the moment were their pretty blue eyes and their vans although Ara's seemed new while Max's were practically falling apart.
"Dustin, drumroll." Mr. Clarke added and the student Ara presumed to be Dustin hit hands on his desk to make the sound of a drumroll. "Class, please welcome, all the way from sunny California, the latest passenger to join us on our curiosity voyage, Maxine and Arabella!"
"It's Max." The redhead said.
"Sorry?"
"Nobody calls us Maxine and Arabella , it's Max and Ara."
Ara heard the guy sat beside Dustin whisper 'MadMax'. She furrowed her brows before turning back to Mr. Clarke.
"Well all aboard Ara and Max." He said enthusiastically.
The two girls took seats at the back of the class and Ara quickly noticed a group of boys staring at her and her sister.
Ara looked down at her desk, feeling a specific set of eyes staring at her head.
When she looked up the freckled quickly turned away, swiftly shifting his focus to Mr. Clarke and so did Ara but what she didn't notice was the couple of glances he had sent her during class.
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Max showed off her skateboard tricks to Ara who sat criss-crossed, by the school with a comic book in hand.
The brunette rolled her eyes because her sister's antics and they began to have a conversation about the four boys who were staring at them during class.
"And did you see that guy?" Max skated back to where Ara was sitting. "Which one?" Ara tilted her head.
"The one with brown eyes and freckles. He kept on glancing at you in class!" Max exclaimed with a teasing smile.
"Doesn't matter! What matters is that they're watching us right now." Ara brushed off Max's comment with a look of slight embarrassment on her face.
"There's no way that's MadMax and Arabella." Mike said in disbelief, looking at the two girls talking along with Lucas, Dustin and Will.
"Yeah, girls don't play video games." Will added on to Mike's comment.
"And even if they did, you can't get 750 000 points on dig dug. I mean that impossible."
"But their names are Max and Ara." Lucas said matter of factly.
"So what?"
"So.. how many Max's or Ara's do you know."
"I don't know."
"Zero, that's how many."
"And they show up to school the day after people with the same names break our top score." Dustin ranted like he always did.
"Exactly!" Lucas exclaimed. "So they've gotta be MadMax and Arabella. They've gotta be."
"Plus Max skateboards which probably means Ara does as well since they're twins and Ara reads comic books so they're pretty awesome."
"Pretty awesome?" Mike questioned. "You haven't even spoken a word to them."
"Don't act like you weren't staring and Ara during class and- hey, I don't have to. I mean look at them." Dustin cursed under his breath. "I've lost the targets."
"There," Will turned around and pointed at the redhead and brunette. Both girls walked up the set of stairs leading up back into the school.
Ara chuckled a bit while she threw a crumpled piece of paper into the trash can.
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Billy dropped Max and Ara off again, this time at the arcade, Max flipping him off as he drove off while Ara couldn't even be bothered socializing with the older boy.
At first she thought he was cool. She couldn't wait to brag to her friends about getting an older brother but, after he hurt her best friend, Nate, breaking his arm, she couldn't help but dislike him. That was just the tip of the iceberg, though.
Max played dig dug while Ara went off to look around at the other games available to play.
Dustin and Lucas watched Max through the arcade window. They turned around, making sure their heads weren't visible anymore so they wouldn't get caught.
"She's incredible." Lucas said.
"She is,"
"MadMax." They both said.
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The first day of school went smoother than the two girls expected. Max and Ara were now in their shared bedroom.
Ara listening to Abba trough one side of the earbuds to her Walkman so, Max, who liked talking to Ara instead listening to music, wouldn't get bothered as they did their homework.
"Don't you think it's strange that those guys were stalking us at school?"
Ara hummed in agreement, although not fully listening. It wasn't till the light in their room flickered a bit that Ara was paying attention to her surroundings.
She was out of her trance and was now welcomed back to reality.
"What was that?" Max said, confused.
Ara, who had now stopped the music looked around the room.
"I don't know, maybe a light needs replacing." She answered. And though she could've been right, deep down she knew it wasn't the case..
thanks for reading the first chapter of this re-write ! nothing interesting really happened this chapter I guess but it set the scene.
I kinda have more of an idea of who Ara is as a person now so I'm trying to add more internal monologue.
hope you liked this and please don't be a ghost reader