After class was concluded, Aiden headed towards the drinking fountain to at least get a little hydrated. As the boy started drinking the water that spilled onto his cupped hands,he drifted into his thoughts once again... A habit he seemed to develop over the past year. He always tried to make sense of each new experience he had in Hawkins and in this case,it was Max's attitude towards him; the one person he was actually planning to avoid seemed to actually be friends with him. The redhead was actually way more fun than he'd anticipated,that was for sure... She was much louder than he was and she was always expressive too. The blue eyed girl also seemed to have endless nicknames for him,each one being funnier than the last.
"Aiden!"
The lightskinned boy immediately spat out his water at the sound of the voice behind him, breaking into a fit of coughs as he backed away from the fountain. Turning around, Aiden was met with the eager gaze if Dustin.
"What is wrong with you?!" Aiden looked at the curly haired boy as his coughs subsided.
"Sorry" Dustin gave a sheepish smile. "I wanted to ask you help us get madmax come trick or treating with us"
"Let me think... No!" Aiden walked away from the fountain, wiping his hands on his pants. Dustin immediately ran after him in his Ghostbusters costume.
"Come on, why not?" Dustin whined.
.
"You're being way too creepy about it" Aiden said.
"What? How?" Dustin asked.
"Spying on her for the past two days,maybe?" Aiden said.
"We were observing!"
"Mhmm" Aiden rolled his eyes.
"Aiden, please" Dustin pleaded.
"If do everything for you, you're never gonna learn"
"I don't have to learn, you're from the future"
Aiden gave Dustin a death stare.
"Dustin,you and Lucas are gonna march up to her on your own and ask her" Aiden said. Of course he knew they'd still do it anyway but he still needed them to man up. The boys couldn't depend on him for everything. He was supposed to be the shy one and here they are, asking him to talk to a girl for them.
As if by coincidence, Lucas walked up to them.
"Ah, perfect" Aiden smiled.
"You're gonna talk to her?" Lucas asked hopefully.
"Nope," Aiden grabbed both boys. "You are"
"What-"
Aiden then dragged the two to the direction of his locker which was right beside Max's and luckily,the redhead was right there.
Aiden patted the two on their backs and pushed them forward.
Dustin cleared his throat. "Hi, Max... I'm Dustin and this is-"
"Lucas" Lucas smiled.
"Yeah,I know" Max said. "The stalkers"
"No, no" Dustin said. "we weren't stalking you. We were just... Concerned cause you're new and all. There are a lot of bullies here"
"So many bullies, it's crazy " Lucas added.
Aiden felt the urge to use flying Thundergod and teleport away from this embarrassing conversation. Max took notice of the lightskinned boy and smiled at him. Aiden have a smile while still shaking his head in embarrassment.
"Is that why you're wearing proton packs?" Max asked Lucas and Dustin in amusement.
"Oh,these don't function," Dustin said before pulling out a box. "but I do have this handy dandy little trap here..."
'please don't try to open it...'
Aiden closed his eyes.
".... and it even opens and closes" Dustin said, right on cue, opening and closing the trap in an effort to impress Max.
Aiden couldn't take it anymore and immediately slid his headphones, leaning his head back on one of the lockers and hitting the play button on his Walkman. He didn't care what he listened to,but the secondhand embarrassment was killing him. He tried to avoid looking at the conversation going on as the video game like sounds of Beno by Playboi Carti met his eardrums.
Barely twenty seconds into the song,he felt himself get pulled by the sleeve of his arm, causing him to open his eyes. Aiden found himself being pulled by Max, pulling off his headphones just in time to hear Dustin's voice
"Aiden! Is presumptuous a good thing?!"
"What was that?" Aiden once again pretended to be clueless, knowing fully well that Dustin and Lucas just effortlessly embarrassed themselves.
"You don't wanna know" Max shook her head.
"I did hear some of it though" Aiden said. "You really should come with us"
"You're going trick or treating?" Max looked at the light-skin boy as if she couldn't believe her ears.
"I mean, I got nothing else to do" Aiden shrugged. "besides, it's free candy. You can't go wrong with that"
"Fair point" Max nodded. "By the way, what're you listening to?"
"Oh,uh..." Aiden tried to cover the earphones of his Walkman. "Some weird,techno pop kinda music... It's really not popular"
"Come on," Max quickly reached for his headphones. "It can't be that bad"
"No, Max really..."
A split second before he could do anything,they were on her ears. Aiden stopped blinking as the girl seemed focused on the song. After a few seconds, Max looked at him and took them off.
"If you hate it, it's not like I didn't warn you" Aiden prepared to defend himself.
"No,no I actually don't hate it" Max chucked. "it's weird for sure,but then again... You're weird and i like you"
"Aww,stop" Aiden playfully looked away, earning a punch in the arm from Max.
"Oh,shut up curls" Max rolled her eyes as they headed out of the school. "but really... How'd you get all this stuff? First your clothes,then the music... It's almost like New York is moving faster than the rest of the world"
Aiden laughed.
"I guess you could say that"
As they headed out of the school premises,a familiar blue Camaro came into sight.
'Oh just great...' Aiden mentally groaned.
Max however,made her annoyance visible. "Ugh, it's Billy. I should go before he sees you... Later,Cheater. Thanks for the weird music!"
"See ya!" Aiden chuckled as Max headed towards Billy's car. The adopted Wheeler let out a content sigh before walking towards the bike racks. Luckily he, Lucas and Dustin managed to put it back together... After hours of improvised and amateur welding. The boy unlocked his bike and started pedalling home,not bothering to wait for the others.
______________________________
Aiden looked at his outfit in the mirror,the dark blue shirt and pants seemed almost sewn together if you didn't look close enough. He had black fingerless gloves on his hands and black sandals decorated his feet. Most noticable of all,the lower half of his face was covered by a dark blue mask.
Not exactly a perfect replica of Kakashi,but it was close enough.
"Aiden!"
"Keep your pants on, I'm coming!"
Aiden quickly his his phone under the floorboard as usual and ran out the room door.
Going downstairs, Aiden met Mike who was already fuming. The boy traced his finger on the fade on the side of his head.
"What was taking you so-"
"Don't wanna hear it" Aiden walked right past him. He stopped when he saw Nancy and Barb sitting on the couch and talking almost excitedly.
"Nance," Aiden called. "Didn't you guys have a party to go to?"
"Yeah but..." Nancy replied. "Barb doesn't want to go to another party after..."
"What happened last year" Aiden completed the sentence,brown eyes shifting to the best friend of Nancy. "Barb, you okay?"
"Yeah" the girl nodded. "I'm fine kiddo, just still a little shaken. Don't worry too much"
Aiden let out a sigh. "Okay... Just stay safe, please"
Barb smiled and nodded before slightly adjusting her coke bottle glasses. "Have fun,okay?"
Aiden nodded before he and Mike headed out the door.
______________________________
"If I get another three musketeers, I'm gonna kill myself" Lucas complained as the boys walked down the street. They'd stopped at about five houses so far.
"What's wrong with three musketeers?" Aiden asked.
"Oh come on, Aiden" Lucas rolled his eyes. "it's just nougat"
"Woah!" Aiden stopped walking, pretending to be offended.
"Just nougat?" Dustin asked. "it is top three for me!"
"Valid statement" Aiden patted Dustin on the back, mentally preparing himself for their little surprise.
In 3... 2... 1...
Someone with a mask and a knife jumped out of the bushes right in front of them, causing the boys to scream, Aiden excluded but he was still slightly startled.
The person immediately took off their mask while laughing, revealing themselves to be Max.
"Holy shit,you should've seen your faces!" She said between laughs before pointing at Lucas. "Who screams like that? You sound like a little girl"
Aiden and the others stood there for a few seconds as she walked away before she turned around. "Hey, curls! You and your friends coming or what?"
Aiden shook his head as they all followed after her.
"You actually did show up" Aiden walked side by side with the redhead.
"And you actually dressed up" Max smirked. "So you're like a... ninja?"
"Exactly. Ninja" Aiden nodded with a smile behind his mask.
"You're such a dork" Max laughed.
"I'mma take that as a compliment" Aiden replied.
"As you should" Max nodded.
This would most likely be an interesting night...