"Who are you, carrot head?"
★彡
To say the car ride to school that day was tense was an understatement. Billy blasted his music at full volume and drove so fast that Charlotte felt ill and was sick out of the window.
Nobody said a word except for Max saying "You okay?" To her friend when she was sick, to which Charlotte gave her an unconvincing nod.
Both girls were thrilled to be out of that vehicle, but not as thrilled as when they saw the stalkers embarrassing themselves in front of the whole school.
"Why are they dressed so weirdly?" Charlotte wondered out loud, risking her friendship by being confused, but desperate to understand.
"It's Halloween, you know 'dress up scary and get candy from houses' day, and they are nerdy enough to wear their costumes to school!" Max laughed,"I've got the best costume!"
As Max described her costume, the slightly alarmed teen walking next to her imagined what she could possibly do to fit in and tried to remember all the information about what Halloween was. Stealing (she did not understand that you have to pay) some black clothes from the corner store, especially if the two were going to go 'tricked or eating' or whatever it was called, was the best option.
★彡
When she was leaning against a locker to Max's right, oblivious to the two boys grinning behind her back, Charlotte drifted into a day dream. A girl with a shaved head and blood dripping from her nose held her head in her hands and muttered the names Mike, Lucas, Will and Dustin, showing an 011 tattoo. Unsurprisingly, she was in the upside down. Charlotte had never seen this girl before, as she only knew the numbers up to 004, so it was alarming to find out that there were even more people like her.
"Oi." A boy's voice broke her out of the dream and his clicking fingers were extremely irritating, even when another boy tried to hit him with some weird box that was on his back.
"Hi Max and Charlotte, I'm Dustin and this is..." The curly-haired boy introduced, while Charlotte considered sprinting off.
"Lucas." His friend finished.
Now that she realised that their names were mentioned by Eleven, Charlotte decided to avoid them to keep her identity from anybody who could know her new sister.
"Yeah I know. The stalkers." Max replied, shutting her locker as Charlotte sniggered behind her.
Lucas and Dustin stumbled over their words, and Charlotte had had enough. Feeling sick of the amount of normal human interaction (she had only been nodded, lectured or yelled at before for up to ten minutes at a time), she took out the walkman she found on the floor.
The only tape that could be found in the few minutes Charlotte spent waiting by Max's locker before the bell rang was a Beatles one, and it began to play through her headphones.
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun
And I say
It's alright
It really did feel alright listening to something so optimistic. Amazed by how music was playing through the device, she hummed along to the song and watched Max make the boys regret ever approaching them.
Max eventually started walking and Charlotte took her headphones out, hearing Dustin say "Is it bad?" behind her while they hurriedly walked off.
"What was that about?" She asked.
"They invited us to go trick or treating with us, I said no and I want us to surprise them, got it?" Max informed her, secretly extremely excited.
"Got it."
Charlotte definitely did not get it at all, in fact she had to skip a lesson to find books on Halloween in the library later that day.
★彡
The next lesson was History, which neither of the girls knew all of the 'Queens' were in as well.
Mary's POV
I knew that the creepy girl called Chloe or whatever was going to be in my History class, so of course the girls and I decided to think of a way to torment her.
"Let's pretend to be friends with her, just so we can humiliate her at prom!" Talia suggested.
She's the dumbest person I've ever met: how is it possible to be so stupid? Luckily, Grace thinks this too.
"That's so basic, we gotta be original like our great looks and personalities!" She snapped, rolling her eyes.
Thank God someone shut Talia up- I almost did myself. Wanting to impress Grace with an idea, I though about it for a minute, enough to come up with something to start with.
"We can just be really nice for a second at the start but do something horrible at the end of the lesson!" I said out loud, hopefully this doesn't sound too basic or dumb.
Both girls agreed, even Grace, and when the weirdo skulked in we were ready to set her back in line.
★彡
Max's POV
Despite the Queens, Charlie and I were going to make sure we sat together and actually had a normal lesson. Guess that was a fantasy. The three blondes were all sat on top of the desks at the front, acting like they owned the place. Typical. One of them spotted us and began to whisper, making me check if Charlie was okay. She looked fearful, which was strange for someone who usually hides their emotions. Does she trust me though? Am I special to her? Being special to her is my dream! What am I doing?! These thoughts are too confusing.
"If anything bad happens, meet me at our bench, I'll have to run." Charlie murmured extremely quietly, clearly scared.
I knew then what I had to do if those girls came near us: fight back. Dustin said there were loads of bullies, and who cares if they own the school? They deserve to be told off for once! As if by magic, the Queens were stood in front of us, Troy side-hugging Talia and his 'mascot' putting his arm around Mary, while Grace was on her own in the middle.
"Sup." Troy said in a cool (only to him) voice, "Who are you, carrot head?"
"Who are you, dingus that can't even force someone off a cliff?" I retaliated.
Dustin had told me that story to impress me and convince me that there really were some hardcore bullies at this school. Only one of those actually worked, and it wasn't that I was impressed. This comment threw Troy and his girlfriend off. She must not know, so I guess that is a win for me.
"So, how's fairyland with Will, anomaly?" Mary taunted Charlotte, who turned pale as if somebody had called her that before that was truly terrifying.
I could not bare to watch my best friend feel so powerless and upset, so I said the first insult that came into my head.
"Fuck off and stop bothering us: we don't care about what you think!" I spat, stalking off to a seat at the back with a stiff Charlie. At least she was sort of happy. Making her happy makes me happy.
★彡
One/Charlie's POV
A distant but forever traumatising memory flashed through my find when the insult 'anomaly' was used.
"You're an anomaly, One, nobody outside these walls will ever except you!" Her mother laughed, "Trust me, I had the freedom to be out there, but you never will, understood?"
Max dragged me and thankfully I snapped out of it: nobody wants to remember my parents. I thought school was supposed to distract me from this, but I guess not. This is unbearable, especially with the Queens and all the other bullies hating me! That moment, I knew that Max could manage a lesson without me, certainly after she defended me. After all, I needed to buy a costume (I had finally learnt what it was at lunch break in the library) and some more supplies. I considered whether asking the teacher politely if I could go to the toilet or running out of the room was a better idea, then Max started talking to me and I decided I could do it after school, being with her was much more exciting than being alone.
I tried putting in some povs to make it more interesting, but I probably won't do it again bc I prefer third person for some reason.