-When we were young, the future was so bright
•••• •••• ••••
Although growing up was an exciting feeling, it was often incorporated with growing old, and that is a feeling one many wish would just go away. Sully Tyrell being one of those people. It did not help that she was the eldest child of three, with a brother who is three years her junior, and a sister who is six years old. Sure, with age comes freedom, and that made the aging process less unpleasant, but it also came with responsibility. To most teenagers, it was like a buy one-get one free deal. You get responsibility and are assigned certain tasks from your parents, while getting freedom and other cool gadgets.
Ever since Will Byers got lost in the woods last year, Sully's parents realized that their eldest daughter was going to be sixteen soon, and that their little girl was growing up, so she should get something. That something was responsibility. Responsibility of looking after her younger brother Lucas, which meant taking him to and from school. If her younger brother was staying after, she sure as hell better stay after with him or else she's the one in trouble, which never made sense to her.
Her brother, who was turning fourteen in two more months, surpassed her by three inches, and looked as if he can handle himself in any given situation.
Like most teenagers her age, she was also given a little something to help her deal with her responsibilities in a mature manner, but since she failed her drivers test, her parents gave her brand new car they were going to reward her with, to her aunt who wrecked the sleek vehicle in the first two weeks of having it.
Now here she was, sulking her way through the cold conjoined parking lot of Hawkins middle and high school, with her hands in the depths of her pockets as she fought against the harsh winds.
Normally Sully would have made her way to the heated jeep her best friend is always seen in, but today was different. Meghan had a doctors appointment, and with a signed note from her parents, the raven-haired beauty was allowed to leave school early.
After waiting ten minutes for her brother to show up at the parking lot, she bit her lip when she was not met with a familiar face. She continued to lean against the cold brick wall for another minute when she huffed out in frustration at the thought of her brother staying after school.
As the cold air prickled at her skin, pushing back her hair in a dangerous manner, Sully mentally debated with herself whether she should go find her brother and see what he's doing, or just stay in her own school. Another minute passed by, and Sully hiked her bag over her shoulder, and made her way to the parking lot, while heading towards the lot, she walked past a trash can, and blindly stepped on an unopened candy bar, which caused her foot too slip slightly, but she used the can to hold herself up.
"Gross." She muttered as her eyes landed on the three musketeer bar, and how it was now on her new pair of converse. She rolled her eyes in annoyance at the fact she would now have to clean her shoes when she gets home, before she trudged through the cold weather.
Halfway through her journey, the blonde passed the familiar navy camero with Billy prepped against the hood. When their eyes met, Sully wanted to make her way over and keep herself occupied with some, somewhat friendly, company, but refrained herself when she remembered the words he whispered in her ears when brushing past her after class. As she shuffled past him, she gave him a friendly wave, only to have her hand get caught on something making her body snap back a feet.
Billy chuckled at the sight of Sully awkwardly trying to free her hand some the hood of a freshman's jacket, but quickly covered it up with a single cough, bringing a cigarette to his lips, deeply inhaling the addicting nicotine as he continued to stare at the amusing blonde who was currently trying to explain herself to an underclassmen.
"I did not choke you out! I was waving at someone while you just so happened to walk by, then my hand got caught inside your hoodie." She huffed towards the younger male, who began to make a big deal about the awkward event when his green eyes landed on the familiar spaz.
"You were choking me!" Sully narrowed her eyes in annoyance as the freshman continued over-exaggerated what just happened.
"No I wasn't! This-" The blonde forcefully brought her hand down into the hood of his jacket, "Is just my fist getting caught in here, as a weird twist of events." She then brought her hand out of the hood, "This is me choking you." She made a grab for the boy's neck, but a tall figure interrupted the interaction between Sully and the freshman by standing between the two.
"Why don't you beat it, twerp." Steve cocked his head towards the school busses, making hand gestures in a shooing motion.
Sully crossed her arms in annoyance as she watched the boy run away from the two with his imaginary tail between his legs, literally shaking in his boots, all because Steve called him a twerp. She called the brunette every word in the book, but when Steve Harrington says somewhere along the line of 'beat it, twerp', that's threatening. She began to mentally curse her physical appearance and its large role on how people can never take her seriously, when she heard someone clear their throat.
Her eyes fell onto the tall male, her head tilted back due to the height difference, and stared at Steve with curious eyes before bluntly asking, "Why did you do that? I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm grateful seeing as I was about to choke a kid two years younger than me, but why did you step in?"
Her face, which had been flushed in results of the cold weather, was scrunched. Her nose wrinkled up, while her permanently smiling lips were twisted into a pout.
"Precisely because of that." Steve placed his hands on his hips, slightly leaning down to look the short girl in front of him, "To make sure that you don't do anything you're gonna regret." He continued, making Sully raise an eyebrow.
"Since when did you care about what I get myself into, Mr. Harrington?" Which was something Sully wanted to know. The blonde grew up in the same neighborhood as Hawkins most popular boy, and their relationship was everything but interesting. They did not have a passionate hate towards one another, nor were they childhood friends torn apart by the socialistic hierarchy that is high school. They had few play dates growing up due to their mothers being friends, but that was all.
If she could recall, the most exciting thing that happened between the two, other than their basketball game from earlier, was that the day he was getting his license plate renewed was the same day Sully was taking her drivers test, a test that went horribly wrong right in front of the arrogant males eyes. That was also the day she was given the nickname, 'America's Spazzheart' from the king of Hawkins High.
"I'm just trying to keep you out of jail, Tyrell." He stuffed his hands in his pocket, lightly shuffling from one feet to the other. "I still can't believe you were about to put your hands on him, and choke him"
"I wasn't really going to choke him. Just a little light squeeze. That should do the trick." She shrugged, not hearing all the illegal errors in her own sentence.
"Okay." He nodded, his eyes squinted as the glare of the sun seemed to powerful for him to handle. "So, I noticed that Meghan isn't here, and you normally ride with her and all. So, like, do you need a ride seeing as you live right across from me?"
The confused expression that Sully often wore slowly melted into a relaxed smile, and was about to take up on the kind offer when she remembered Lucas. "If this was any other day, I'd say yes but my brother is apparently staying after school, and ever since the Will incident last year, my parents want me to be with my brother on the journey to and from school."
"Lucas, right?" He asked, remembering the name of the kid who used to hustle Steve of everything he owned that was dear to him whenever their mothers got together.
Giving the former king a nod, she pushed back a strand of her hair, "Yeah, Lucas. Look, I have to go see what he's up to, but thanks for the ride. Really, it means a lot." She waved goodbye before making her way down towards Hawkins Middle.
•• •• •• ••
With his back pressed against the cool wall, Lucas pushed the sleeve of his maroon colored sweater away from his wrist, and glanced at his watch he received as a birthday present. He let out a low groan when he saw that school ended ten minutes ago, which meant that his sister was probably waiting for him to come out. The blue-eyed male mentally debated whether he should stay put, or just say fuck it and go home.
"I'm going to kill those dweebs when they get out. I swear." Lucas growled to himself in frustration, pushing himself off the wall. He scuffled towards the other side of the hall, where an equally annoyed Max was sitting on the floor with her back to the wall as she angrily slapped the wheels of her skateboard.
"You and me both." He heard the Californian girl mutter, he arched up an eyebrow and watched in amusement as she began to lightly hit her head against the wall before lifting her butt of the ground and squatting on her heels, roughly pounding on the AV room door.
"Guys? Guys, come on! Let me in." Max pleaded, hitting the door with her palms. "Guys?" Lucas shook his head at the girl's pleas, before making his way towards the doors and harshly pounded on the doors.
"Open up, asshats!" The light-haired male shouted, his voice carrying through the closed doors, making Dustin's head pop up from the small huddle and peer at the door.
"Does he ever know when to shut up?" He angrily hissed, narrowing his light eyes towards the voice.
"What I don't understand is how Tyrell even knew about, Dart?" Lucas turned to look at Dustin with accusing eyes, making curly-haired boy snap.
"Hey! It was not my fault. Well-okay, maybe I shouldn't have fed Dart in the middle of class," Dustin began to come to terms on his mistake with his hand raised in surrender, "But, he snatched the box and looked inside."
"God, he's such an ass." Will shook his head, his light hair brushing all over the place. He could not begin to understand how someone like Lucas, was even related to someone as perfect, and sweet as Sully.
Mike stared at his friends with an annoyed expression, running a hand through his raven-hair in order to calm himself of the irritation that slowly spread inside him, "Yeah, yeah. Lucas Tyrell is a major asshole, we already know that." Mike exclaimed, he was about to continue his rant when a loud hit came from the entrance of the AV room, which was soon followed by Lucas shouting at Mike that he could hear him.
"Look." Mike lowered his voice as he leaned closely to his friends. While the party continued to talk about Dustin's newly found 'Pollywog' that seemed to be something from the upside-down, Lucas and Max began to loose their patient with one another, leading them to make jabs at one another.
"Is that your real hair?" She rudely snorted, her lips formed into a sarcastic smile knowing that this comment would give her a reaction due to the amount of times she saw him play with the fluffy curls that rested on the top of his head.
The Tyrell, however, simply smiled at her insult, appearing unfazed by her words as he brought his hand to tap his hair, "All natural baby." He winked, before leaning forward, "Now is that the result of some cheap hair dye." He cocked his head towards the girl's hair with a smirk, "Or will I be able to see that color hair in other, natural places." He lowered his voice.
This made Max widen her eyes, as her blood began to boil at the suggestion which caused her to stand up and walk towards an arrogant Lucas. When she made it in front of him, she sent him a short, flirtatious smile, before kneeing him in the balls.
Giving out a howl, Lucas fell onto his knees and covered his privates as the pain radiated through his entire body. He eventually curled up into a ball, cradling his balls as his neck turned a deep red as he held in many harmful words. After a minute of whimpering, he managed to wheeze out, "It was only a joke."
Towering over the cowering male, Max meekly shrugged, "I know." She simply replied, "It's just, I want you to know that I will not tolerate you talking to me in that way."
She looked at the bright eyes of Lucas Tyrell, that held nothing but pain, and she felt kind of bad for kicking him, and was about to help him up, when he opened his mouth again, reminding her why she kicked him in the first place.
"So, are you really a red-head?" He groaned out, pushing himself off the ground, kneeling in front of Max, who rolled her eyes at the question and pushed him back onto the floor, making the boy yelp out. "What was that for?" He yelled, laying on the floor, defeated and somewhat afraid of Max.
"For being such an- that was for being you." She snapped, but she couldn't help feel a tab bit entertained around the annoying male, who was just interesting enough for her to look past his quirks.
"So if I was being myself, why hit me?" He asked, standing up, and dusting off the imaginary dirt off his pants. When he looked up to see Max rolling her eyes at the him, he then cockily stated, "You never answered my question by the way."
"Go stick a pole through your brain." She rolled her eyes unamused at the boy's antics, but it did not stop her from answering his question, in hopes of him sealing his mouth shut, "And this is my real hair color."
"Can I see the proof." He cheekily bumped her shoulder, only to receive a scowl from Max as she threateningly raised her fist, causing the boy to lightly cower. "Okay, okay." He shouted, shielding his face with his arms, making the skater chuckle.
When removing his arms away from his face, Lucas glanced at his watch once more, and huffed when he saw the time. "Are they really gonna keep us out here the whole time?"
The smile from her face dropped when the words reached her ears, for she can her relate to Lucas and his irritation at how they were being treated. Max did not understand why the boys asked her to go trick-or-treating with them, and be apart of their party, if they were going to treat her this way. Yes, she desperately wanted friends even though she tries to play it off that being a loner does not bother her when it does, but she was not that desperate. She's not going to lose her dignity by being a toy to a bunch of boys who all have an odd obsession with dungeon and dragons.
The sound of someone snapping their fingers broke her out of her spell, and Max's eyes caught glance of a larger and colorful pair staring back at her. "Did you hear what I said?"
"No, I did not." She bluntly stated while shaking her head, causing her red waves to flow around her like a waterfall.
"I said, since your a girl you probably have a bobby pin on you." He paused to gesture at her long hair, which coincidentally, had a few pins in them in order to keep hair away from her face. "Well, now that I see the pins, I'm assuming you know how to jimmy the lock with them. It shouldn't be that hard if you don't know how to. If my sister could do it, I'm pretty sure you can too."
After hearing the plan, Max shook her head at Lucas's plan. "I'm not invading their private conversation." She huffed, before sitting right back down on to the floor. She then turned to look at Lucas with curiosity, "You have a sister?"
"Uh- yeah. An Older sister, and a younger one as well, but I'm referring to my older one." Lucas explained.
She hummed out intrigued by this new set of information, a little shocked that someone so barbaric has not only one, but two sisters. An older one, and a younger one. "How old is your older sister?"
"Random." Lucas vocally noted, but answered anyway, "She's sixteen, and will be turning seventeen in the spring. She'll be a senior next year while we'll be freshmen."
"She's nothing like you, is she?" Max shuddered at the thought of an older, female version of Lucas, and to be in the same school as them for a whole year, "Because that would be a nightmare."
The brunette snorted with amusement at Max's question, and fear, "No. She's the exact opposite. Quite a loser if you ask me."
Max opened her mouth to ask more questions to kill the time when she heard shouts coming from the AV room. The sounds of things crashing as well as Dustin's screaming and Mike's yelling seeped past the door, and echoed through the empty halls.
"What the-" Lucas cursed out, while Max hopped into action. She reached to grab a pin from her hair and kneeled down in font of the lock, and began to pick at it. Lucas took a step closer to Max when Dustin's screams became more clearer, and he was able to hear the boy lisp out the word stop in a high octave. He then peered over the top of Max's head to see her working on the lock at an expert pace. "See, I told you you could do it."
"Now is not the time." She hissed before opening the door, but when she did both her and Lucas were met with an unexpected sight. The creature they both saw earlier today, which was thought to be a pollywog, now had grown about another two to three inches, and had legs. The two watch as it screeches at them before skidding down the hall. Right behind it were Lucas, Will, and Mike, who all piled on top of one another as they all tried to exit the room at the same time in hopes of capturing Dart. Mike Wheeler who desperately tired to follow after it began to chastise Max about how it was her fault Dart got away.
"Hey, Mike. Watch your tone." The Tyrell boy snapped, helping the lanky boy up to his feet, before reaching to grab Max, Lucas, then Will.
"What?" Mike moved his mocha colored eyes onto Lucas, who challenged the boy's stare with his blue hues.
"I was the one who made her open the door. So, untwist your panties." The middle school king informed, getting an appreciative smile from Max.
This did not go unnoticed by Dusin, who gaped at Lucas. He already had his best friend, Lucas Sinclair to worry about when it came to wooing Max, now he has to watch out for his arch nemesis, Lucas Tyrell. It was in that moment, Dustin wondered why everyone he knew by the name of Lucas, was trying to get in kahoots with Max. The overwhelming feeling of bopping the Lucas he hates on the head with his shoe quickly overcame him. As his hand itched towards his sneakers the familiar screeches of Dart echoed through the vents making Will look at the others with wide eyes.
"Guys." The pale brunette calmly called towards the group, "We have to find him before someone else does."
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Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I've had like three papers due this week, and like three test. But it's the weekend!!!
Thank you all for 25k reads!
That is so surreal!!! I am so happy to know that all of you guys are enjoying this story! I love writing this so much
I hope you all enjoy this chapter❤️
Song of the chapter: The kids aren't a alright by The Offsprings.