S2E1: MADMAX
Jason Harrington scrambled around his small room sliding on his black vans along with a zip up black jacket. Before leaving his room, he grabbed a bag of quarters containing about $4 inside. The curly haired boy shoved the bag in his jacket pocket as he ran downstairs. He rushed through the living room, grabbing his backpack and walkie talkie ready to finally get out of the house. He glanced into the living room at his brother, Steve Harrington, fixing his hair in the reflection of the tv. He shook his head and ran out the door after getting his key.
Jason and Steve weren't known to have a great relationship. Considering it was usually just the two of them around (their parents off doing work or god knows what) the two boys saw a lot of each other. However, they were polar opposites. Steve was a rather popular guy in Hawkins, 'king of Hawkins High' as some knew him, while Jace tended to keep to himself and stick with his small group of friends who were all complete nerds together. With the brothers not being too similar, they didn't care much to create a long and prosper relationship, they got into arguments regularly and just did what they had to do in order to live their daily lives.
Once outside Jace quickly walked from the large Harrington residence and grabbed his bike jumping straight onto the rocky driveway. The wind brushed through the boys messy hair as he strolled down the fairly long driveway toward the road which would lead him to Arcade Palace, his local hangout for him and his best friends, Mike Wheeler, Will Byers, Lucas Sinclair and Dustin Henderson.
As he finally met the newly paved road he heard a muffled voice coming from his walkie talkie which he used to communicate with the boys when they weren't together. Still strolling on the road, the boy pulled up the antenna, the voice now clear.
"Jace! Jace this is Dustin! Do you copy? Over." A familiar voice chanted. Jace chuckled pressing the button to speak.
"Yeah I'm here Dustin, what's up? Over."
"What's your haul? Lucas and I have six bucks total, over."
"I've got about four bucks, making ten overall. What about Mike, what's he got?"
"Can't find which channel he's on damnit! Can you try and find him?"
"I know what channel he's on. I'll see you there Dustin." Jace said before finally signing off and switching through channels before he met an unfamiliar one that no one ever used.
"Alright Wheeler I know your there, what's your haul?" he asked as the static pierced his ears.
"How did you- oh shit! I don't know yet-" Mike said obviously scattering around.
Jace shook his head, stopping at a stop sign. "What do you mean you don't know?" he scoffed.
"Just hold on!" Mike yelled before nothing but silence could be heard.
Jace let out a big breath, starting to peddle his bike again so his only focus now was getting to the arcade.Jace peddled fast up the hill, soon leaning forward as he dropped down the hill, the cold october air biting at his skin, but he absolutely loved it. He finally reached the end of the hill with a fast speed now when suddenly a figure popped out in front of him from the side of the road.
"Holy shit!" he yelled before hitting the breaks and falling to his side, just barely dodging the person. His body hit the ground with a loud thump along with the back of his head.
"Oh shit! I'm so sorry!" an unfamiliar voice said as Jace sat up, rubbing the back of his head. Before him was a red haired girl with glimmering blue eyes and freckles over her nose.
The girl held out her hand to the boy with sympathetic eyes. Jace gladly took her hand, as she helped him back up to his feet. He was a couple inches taller than her but not by much. His eyes met hers as he took in how pretty the girl was. He shook his head, slapping himself back into reality as the girl looked at him with worried eyes.
"Are you okay? Shit Im so sorry I really didn't see you coming down the hill-" she quickly explained to the curly haired boy.
"Hey don't worry about it, no harm done." he cut her off before she could keep apologizing.
The girl was about to speak again when her face turned into a confused expression. "You aren't going to yell at me or?" she asked as if Jace was supposed to beat her up about it.
Jace tilted his head and raised a brow. "No? I mean if anything you should be mad at me, shit I almost hit you." he said with a chuckle at the end. He then looked back up at the girl with a smile and held his hand out towards her.
"I'm Jason, but you can call me Jace." he explained waiting for the red haired girl to introduce herself. Hawkins was a small town, he knew almost everyone but this girl was unfamiliar. Maybe she was new?
A smile creeped up on the girls face as she took his hand and shook it firmly, "I'm Maxine, but call me Max." she said finally letting go of his hand. "You seem to be in a hurry so I won't keep you any longer."
Jace nodded picking up his bike and sitting down, placing one foot on one of the peddles. "I'll see you around Max. Maybe we'll run into each other again," he said with a soft laugh.
"Maybe." Max said watching as he peddled down the street and back towards the arcade. She smiled as she hopped on her skateboard, thinking how she possibly already made a friend in the town of Hawkins.
Soon enough, Jace arrived at the Arcade, Mike, Lucas and Dustin waiting out front for the two remaining boys. The curly haired boy locked his bike on to the bike rack, soon running up to the three boys. "The knight has arrived!" he said as he bowed jokingly towards the boys who laughed.
When Jace finally stood up straight he watched as a familiar car pulled up. It was his best friend Will Byers and his mother Joyce who seemed to be giving him a lecture about curfew. Ever since Wills disappearance last year, Jace didn't blame Joyce for making sure her son got home safe again.
Eventually the boy got out of the car with a wide smile towards his best friends as they ushered him into the arcade to finally start playing the games they all adored.
"To slay the dragon, use the magic sword!" a squeaky female voice blurted from the machine all the boys surrounded. Dustin was the one playing, the rest of the boys were cheering him on except Lucas who didn't want to lose his top spot on the game.
"Down! Down! Down!" they chanted, pushing Dustin around as the adrenaline rush hit them. It was edging towards the end of the game. Dustin could either take it or lose it right here.
"I'm going! I'm going! I'm going! I'm going!" Dustin screeched as he smashed his hand on the button to attack the dragon. The boys continued screaming as Dustin was barely alive now. "Shut up! Shut up! Shut- No. No. No!" Dustin yelled as the dragon had now successfully beat him. "I hate this overpriced bullshit! Son of a bitch! Piece of shit!" he yelled, hitting the game out of anger from losing the game.
"You're not nimble enough, but you'll get there one day." Lucas said patting Dustin on the back. "But until then, Princess Daphne is still mine!" He exclaimed, trying to tease Dustin and his anger.
"Oh whatever, I'm still top on Dig Dug and Centipede!" Dustin bragged.
"You sure about that?" a deep voice came behind the boys. They all turned around quickly to reveal Keith, the manager of Arcade Palace who was stuffing his face with cheeto puffs, his fingers practically orange now from the powder.
"Keith, what the hell are you talking about?" Jace said trying to get the manager to spill information. Keith's eyes slowly escalated towards one of the game machines, which was revealed to be Dig Dug.
Dustin rushed over to the game console, smacking it to life as the screen flickered on to show the leader board. Sure enough, a new name was now on top of the leaderboard, reading 'MADMAX' with 'DUSTIN' just underneath.
"You're kidding! No, no, no!" he yelled revealing the score board to the other boys crowding around him. Dustin was now indeed second place with someone towering over him in first.
"751,300 points! That's impossible!" Will exclaimed looking at the bright scoreboard with wide eyes.
"Who the hell is Mad Max?" Dustin chimed in, stepping towards Keith who shoved a cheeto puff in his mouth. "Better than you." he scoffed as the boy lunged at him.
"Is it you?" Dustin asked as Jace pulled him back from the manager. "You know I despise Dig Dug." Keith said, reaching for another cheeto puff.
Jace then thought to earlier, the girl he had met. Max. Could it be her? No, it couldn't be her... well it very much could have. Should he tell the boys? Nah, there are probably plenty of other Max's out there... right?
"Well then who is it?" Dustin demanded.
If you want information I'm going to need something in return." Keith said, his eyes narrowing to Mike.
"No, no, no. No way!" Mike yelled backing away from Keith. "You're not getting a date with her!" he yelled referring to his sister, Nancy Wheeler.
"Mike come on just get him the date!"
"I'm not prostituting my sister!"
"But it's for a good cause-"
"No don't get him the date.Know what?" Jace started to say as he approached Keith with a serious look. "He's gonna spread his nasty ass rash to your whole family along with orange fingers!" Jace said rolling his eyes.
"Watch it Harrington! Acne isn't a rash and isn't contagious you prepubescent wastoid." Keith said shoving yet another cheeto puff in his mouth. Jace lifted a brow as he suddenly lunged towards the other male, Dustin and Lucas holding him back.
Jace's reputation wasn't like the rest of the party's. He was well known around school, mostly for being Steve Harrington's little brother. With Steve's reputation, anyone would think he'd be the type to act up in class but that's when the similarities came in. Jace loved to learn and was actually a straight A student, it was just the things outside of school he wasn't too caring about. Everyone always wonders why a Harrington would hang out with the group of nerds. However, Jace didn't care about what everyone thought, he only cared about his four best friends who were like brothers to him, and he would do anything for them, not letting anyone dare to mess with them.
"Oh I'm a wastoid? She'd rather go on a date with me than you! You make what $2.50 an hour?" Jace scoffed as he finally stopped charging at Keith. Dustin and Lucas backed him up with a couple of smart remarks when he soon realized Mike and Will were gone.
Jace removed himself from the argument as he found Will and Mike outside. "Hey guys, everything okay?" he asked concerned as Will looked pretty shaken up. Both boys nodded,
coming back inside the arcade with Jace as they went to grab Dustin and Lucas.
Just as they were about to walk away, Keith let out another remark, "Nice perm asshole." which was directed towards Jace who turned around, now walking backwards. "This is all natural unlike your greasy ass nest, maybe take a shower asshat!" he yelled, sticking up both middle fingers before disappearing around the corner.
"Meet the human brain."
Jason's science teacher, Mr. Clarke placed a small model of a pink human brain on his desk in front of the class.
Jace sat now at his desk beside Mike, he was slouched down with his arms crossed and his leg stretching out underneath the desk. He wore a maroon sweater along with jeans and vans. He took a deep breath as he listened to Mr. Clarke explain the human brain. One thing Jace absolutely adored was reading, he couldn't get enough of it. After he got tired of the books at home, he started reading ahead in his science textbook, which made this lesson almost irrelevant. He felt as if he already knew every word that came out of Mr. Clarkes mouth.
"I know. I know, doesn't look like much, a little gross even right? But consider this, there are a hundred billion cells inside this miracle of evolution. All working as one. No, no I did not misspeak. I did not stutter, a hundred billion." he explained as the door opened revealing a girl and the principle.
"Ah, must be our new student." Mr Clarke exclaimed inviting the girl in.
"Indeed, all yours!" The principle said before exiting. Jace looked up from his desk hearing that a new student was joining them only to be met with the girl he ran into the other day. His eyes widened, as they set on her once again.
Max tried to walk to the back of the classroom when Mr Clarke's hand stopped her and she rolled her eyes. "All right, hold up. You don't get away that easy. Come on up don't be shy." Mr. Clarke said, moving Max back up to the front of the class where she stood awkwardly.
"Dustin, drumroll." Dustin pulled a book from his backpack and started patting it like drum with his hands giving dramatic effect. "Class, please welcome all the way from sunny, California, the latest passenger to join us on our curiosity voyage, Maxine!"
Max's face fell even more. "It's Max, no one calls me Maxine." she scoffed before rushing to the back of the room where she found an open seat and sat down. While the boys were busy muttering about Mad Max and how it might be her, Jace turned around, catching the eyes of the girl. He smiled brightly with a small wave which she soon returned before he turned back around as class continued.
"There is no way that's Mad Max!"
"Yeah, girls don't play video games."
"And even if they did, you can't get 750,000 on Dig Dug."
Jace was about to pull out his hair listening to the boys argue about a girl that plays video games better than they do. He pushed through them, blowing their cover from behind the fence which wasn't a good hiding spot in the first place.
"You guys have fun, Im going to talk to her. She's actually pretty cool, I met her the other day. I'll see if I can get any information." he said sarcastically before walking away towards the girl.
Jace soon realized the girl was getting around by a skateboard and he gave an impressed scoff. Could this girl get any better? He quietly snuck up behind her and towards her ear where he said, "Hey there voyager."
Max jumped off her skateboard about to fall when someone caught her. She soon realized it to be none other than Jason, the boy she had met the other day. "Shit, you scared me Jace!" she said hitting the boy playfully, before picking up her skateboard.
Jace helped the girl back up to her balance before letting out a soft laugh. "Couldn't help myself, so skateboarding huh? Holy shit, and a Madrid board? You hit the jackpot Mayfield!" Jace exclaimed examining her board before he looked back up at her. "Do you mind?" he asked, motioning to see if he could ride the skateboard.
Max shrugged, she seemed to trust Jace, so why not? The red haired girl handed the board over, crossing her arms as Jace placed the board down on the blacktop, placing his right foot up top on the grip tape before pushing off with his left. Soon enough, he was circling around the outdoor basketball court, his hair flowing with the wind until he came back to a stop next to Max, handing the board back over with a relieved smile.
"Shit, haven't stepped foot on my board for a while, thanks for that," he said, wiping his head with his sleeve.
Max raised a brow to the boy, surprised that he knew what he was doing, even though he definitely looked like the type. "So you're not a poser, nice to know. Do your stalker friends skate?" she asked, looking over to the huddled up boys who were more obvious than ever.
Jace winced in embarrassment as he looked back at the girl. "They're just a little butt hurt about you beating their score in Dig Dug, it was you right?" he asked as they now started to walk around the blacktop together.
"Yeah, what are you surprised it's me?" she asked raising a brow towards the curly haired boy who simply shook his head.
"Nah, kind of obvious really. I mean your nickname is Max, and you're pretty damn cool so it didn't surprise me you could beat Dustin Henderson's score on a video game." he said as he looked over to her with a chuckle.
Max felt heat rising up to her cheeks from Jaces compliment. "You think so? Well, thanks. Now I definitely need to teach you how to skate." she said with a bright smile as the bell rung.
"See you around Mad Max." Jace said with a smile before heading towards his next class. Mad Max.... she was absolutely incredible.
To be Continued