2. meeting madmax

MEETING MADMAX

✧･ﾟ: * Steve burrows under the covers as Eleanor bursts into his room early morning.

"I'm going to school now!" She shouts, pulling the covers off his body.

He mumbles some words before shoving his face into his pillows.

"If I get hit by a car on the way there, you're gonna regret your last words to me being 'mnmnm,'" Nora walks over to his closet for a jacket.

"How about, 'stop stealing my stuff before I start forcing you to drive with me,'" he lifts his face for a second before smushing it back to it's original position.

"You don't go to school anyways," she squints her eyes and tries a jacket on in front of the floor-length mirror.

"Exactly," he mumbles.

Nora sighs. She isn't a nerd per say. Math is her least favorite subject! Well. . . Science is her favorite - but that was only because of Mr. Clarke! Hanging out with Will, Mike, Lucas, and Dustin ruined her street-cred. If she weren't Steve "The Hair" Harrington's sister, her and her friends probably wouldn't have survived past sixth grade.

"Now," he turns over so his back was to her, the blanket still on the ground. "Go to school and actually learn stuff. One of us has to be the smart one in the family."

"Love you too, Stevie," she grins, adjusting her clothes and heading out the door.

"Gimme my jacket back!"

"See you later!"

—

✧･ﾟ: * "Meet the human brain," Mr. Clarke starts the lesson by placing a plastic brain on the table at the front of the room.

Nora's sitting in the first row, next to Dustin, while Mike sits behind him, Will beside Mike. "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."

Nora finds it almost annoying how passionately Mr. Clarke spoke about science. He seems like the type to explain how special effects in horror movies work.

Snapping her out of her rude thoughts was the sudden opening of the door.

"Ah, this must be our new student," Mr. Clarke smiles warmly.

"Indeed, all yours," the principal says before leaving, closing the door behind him.

In walks the most beautiful girl Eleanor Harrington has ever laid eyes on.

She has fiery red hair and the most gorgeous ocean blue eyes. Light freckles splatter against her face like paint, and her skin was the canvas. She has on long, baggy jeans, Nora thinks they would look much better cuffed. A skateboard is hooked onto her backpack. Nora starts to study the various ways the light caught her different features.

In a not weird way.

"All right, hold up," Mr. Clarke speaks as the girl tries to get to a seat. "You don't get away that easy. Come on up. Don't be shy."

Nora quickly closes her mouth once the girl starts scanning the classroom as she stood at the front.

The two make eye contact and Nora thought her brain was going to explode.

She tries giving a reassuring, welcoming, nice, sweet, not intimidating, friendly smile. It probably came across as anything but. The girl gives the smallest smile back and Nora feels like she one the lottery. Not that it's a big deal. . . she's just some girl. Jeez, Nora.

"Dustin, drum roll." The lovestruck look leaves Nora's face as a sudden sound comes from her right. It came from Dustin lightly patting his book, bright smile on his face. "Class, please welcome, all the way from sunny California, the latest passenger to join us on our curiosity voyage, Maxine."

Maxine. Wow. Even her name is stunning. What? Nora, shut up. Oh, my God.

"It's Max," she corrects.

HER VOICE. Sorry, sorry.

"Sorry?" Mr. Clarke looks taken aback. Nora doesn't even notice.

"No one calls me Maxine. It's Max."

"MadMax," Nora whispers to the group, surprised her voice wasn't as high pitched as she was thinking. The guys give her an intrigued look, but Mike is just glaring at the back of her head.

"Well," Mr. Clarke smiles again. "Welcome aboard, Max."

The redhead visibly relaxes and makes a beeline for the back of the classroom. Five pairs of eyes following her until she sat down, and they turn around quickly.

—

✧･ﾟ: * During recess, the party's watching Max practice skateboarding through the chain link fence. The boys are trying to look for any hint that she was MadMax, but Nora is more interested in the girl herself. She is pretty cool. . . and just pretty, and Nora kind of wishes she was her.

"There's no way she's MadMax," Mike speaks up, removing his hands from through the loops. Nora does as well, as to not seem suspicious.

She isn't that obsessed with the redhead.

"Yeah, girls don't play video games," Will agrees. Nora shoots him a glare and he smiles sheepishly. "Minus you, Nora, obviously." She just rolls her eyes and glances back at Max.

"Even if they are good," Mike continued. "They can't get 750,000 points on Dig Dug. It's impossible."

"Clearly not," Nora shrugs, suddenly awed by the tricks she is doing on the curbside.

"Her name is Max," Lucas states, clearly also awed.

"So what?" Mike snaps.

"So, how many Maxes do you know?"

"I don't know?"

"Zero," Lucas answers for him. "That's how many."

"And, she shows up at school, the day after someone with her name breaks our high score?" Dustin adds in.

"My high score," Nora quips, quickly looking away as the guys all shoot her a look. "Besides that, she skateboards which is super awesome."

"Awesome?" Mike questions, annoyed. "You haven't spoken two words to her."

"Maybe I will." As the gang turns back to see Max, they find she's gone.

"Shit, I've lost the target," Dustin says as the guys keep looking for her. Nora notices her towards the steps and starts making her way over there without their notice.

"Hey! Max, right?" Nora smiles as she stands at the bottom step, Max at the top.

"Yeah," she says, turning around slowly and looking down. "You are?"

"Nora! Well, Eleanor, but I don't like it when people call me my full name either." See, we're like the same, we should be best friends.

"Cool, cool. Hey, so you're friends with the guys that are staring at us right now, right?"

Nora looks over at the boys who suddenly turn away as if they weren't looking. Flustered, she awkwardly laughs, "Yeah, yeah. They're not normally this weird, I swear."

"I'm sure, but could you give this to them for me?" Max hands Nora a folded piece of paper. "It's not directed towards you, you seem cool."

Oh, my God. She thinks I'm cool.

"Uh, yeah. I'll give it to them," Nora nods.

"Thanks. Well, I'll see you later Nor. It was nice talking to you."

Nor.

"Yeah! Yeah, you too," but Max was already through he door.

Nora walks back to the boys, trying to suppress the smile on her face.

"Well," Mike asks as she came back.

"Well, what?" Nora questions. "Oh! Is she MadMax. Right. I forgot to ask her."

The guys collectively groan.

"Sorry! Sorry, but she did tell me to give you this," Nora holds the paper out.

Dustin grabs it quickly and reads aloud with the other boys who crowded around the paper, "Stop spying on me, creeps."

It takes everything in Nora not to laugh.

"William Byers," the principal comes, causing the whole party to turn around. "You're mother's here."

Will's face falls and he nods, walking to the front of the school without even turning to say goodbye.

"Do you think he's okay?" Dustin asks to no one in particular.

"He's always weird when he has to go in," Lucas answers, referring to the lab appointments Will often went to.

"I don't know," Mike says worriedly. "He was quiet today."

"He's always quiet," Lucas sighs.

Nora stayed silent, just hoping Will would be okay. The party hasn't been the same in awhile and it was messing with her hold world view.

She wonders if Max would change anything.

a/n:

wow. two chapters. nice. cool. fun. amazing. great. sick. wicked. totally tubular. okay i'll stop now.

anyway make sure you comment and tell me how amazing i am- i mean. what. :)