3. ghostbusters

GHOSTBUSTERS

✧･ﾟ: * Nora bikes as fast as her legs would let her, trying to get to school. Normally she would meet up at some point with the guys on their way there, but she was too busy trying to get away from Steve who was still angry about the whole jacket thing. So, she ended up leaving the house too late.

And today, of all days! Her favorite day of the year! The one day she would be able to make fun of their outfits with reason! She was planning on telling them probably no one would wear a costume this year (they're not 11 anymore), but Nora figures bullying them would be funnier.

"You're late," Mike stares at her as she pulls her bike into the bike rack.

"You're. . . ugly," she retorts weakly, brushing her fingers through her hair in a makeshift comb.

"Where's your costume?" Will asks confused, looking at her multi-colored sweater and mom jeans.

"No-"

Mike cuts her off suddenly, "Woah, woah, woah. Why are you Venkman?" He points an accusatory finger at Lucas' name tag.

". . .Because I'm Venkman?" Lucas replies in an obvious tone.

"No, I'm Venkman." Mike gestures to his own name tag.

"Why can't there be two Venkman's?" Will asks, butting in.

"There's only one Venkman in real life. We planned this months ago," Mike explains, taking charge like he always does. "I'm Venkman, Dustin's Stantz, Will's Egon, Nora was supposed to be Dana Barrett-" Mike looks her up and down, "-and you're Winston."

She scrunches her nose at him and Lucas gets defensive. "I didn't specifically agree to Winston. . . and Nora didn't specifically agree to Dana."

Nora pats Lucas on the shoulder, "I'm on his side."

"No," Mike raises his voices slightly. "There's no sides. We already agreed."

"I'm not sure they did," Will continues to try to break up the argument.

"No one wants to be Winston, man," Lucas shakes his head, Dustin with him.

"What's wrong with Winston?!" Mike looks personally attacked.

"What's wrong with Winston? He joined the team super late, he's not even funny, and he's not even a scientist!" Lucas exclaims, counting off his fingers.

"Yeah, but he's still cool," Mike shrugs, shying away a little.

"If he's so cool, why don't you be Winston?"

"I can't?"

"Why not?"

"B-b-b-because-"

"B-b-b-because," Lucas mocks. "Because you're not black?" Lucas narrows his eyes.

"I didn't say that!" Mike gasps.

"You thought it!" Lucas fires.

"Guys. . . Guys. GUYS!" Dustin interrupts the two with a panicked look to the school busses. Everyone turns to look and the boys eyes widen as not a single student getting off wore a costume.

"And that," Nora smirks, moving her hand to Will's shoulder, "is why I'm not wearing a costume." She moves to go through the entrance, leaving the boys to stare dumbfounded at the incoming teens laughing at them.

Nora stands by her locker for awhile, trying to remember what classes she has today. She really has to start carrying a schedule.

A little down the hall, she vaguely hears Lucas and Dustin talking to Max about trick-or-treating. While they're wearing those clothes? Nora sighs exasperated before slowly making her way over. She should save them before they make things worse for themselves.

"That's presumptuous of you," Max says, slightly annoyed.

"Yeah. . ." Dustin awkwardly laughs. "So. . . you'll come?"

"Come where?" Nora appears next to Max. Should I lean on her? Like just gently place my arm on hers? Is that cool? Is that too forward? Are we close enough for that? Does she have an issue with touching? Will she hate me if I try to talk to her? Will she think I'm clingy if I try to convince her to come trick-or-treating? Do they even do trick-or-treating in California? It'd be so embarrassing if they didn't. Oh God. This was a mistake.

"And you'll be with Nora!" Lucas exclaims instead of answering. "You don't want to leave her with us, do you?"

Nora and Max both give him a look, slightly tilting their heads to the side.

"I'll think about it," Max shuts her locker, causing the other three to jump a little. "Just for you, Nor," she gives Nora a little wink.

"I feel honored," she smiles, before watching Max walk away to her first class.

Oh, my God that was such a good line. Nice job, Nora.

"Nor?" Dustin asks, making Nora snap her head around. The two boys are looking at her confused,

Max was the second girl they'd ever seen Nora ever get along with, Eleven being the first. But Nora never acted so. . . so into El, not like she is Max.

"I dunno," Nora shrugs it off. "Just a nickname."

—

✧･ﾟ: * "How do I look?" Eleanor asks, twirling a little in her yellow Dana Barrett dress.

"Amazing," Steve responds, not looking away from his mirror, fluffing up his hair in random places.

"Right. . . well, I'm off," Nora makes a motion of going towards the door.

"Hm. Have fun. . . stay safe. . ." Steve drags distractedly.

"Got it. I was thinking of getting a tattoo while I'm out. What d'you think?" Nora places a hand on the handle.

"Yeah. . ." Steve steps away from the mirror and straightens out his shirt.

"Cool! See ya later. Maybe 1 or 2 in the morning?"

"Mkay. . ." He bends down to re-tie his shoes. For the third time.

"Nice. . . bye?" Nora just rolls her eyes and walks out the door.

"Hey, wait!" She heard a shout as it slams shut. Oh well.

—

✧･ﾟ: * Nora is upset.

The night is getting darker and darker, and yet, still no sign of Max. She shouldn't care that much. I mean, the girl clearly thinks all her friends are freaks, but she can't help feel a little disappointed. Guess the "just for you" thing didn't really mean much, did it?

"Trick or treat!"

"Aw, look. Four little exterminators and a princess," An old lady smiles, looking down at the five kids. They share awkward smiles before shoving handfuls of candy into their buckets.

"If I get another 3 Musketeers, I'm gonna kill myself," Lucas groans as they walk through the front yard.

"What's wrong with 3 Musketeers," Dustin asks, surprised.

"What's wrong with 3 Musketeers?!" Lucas repeats as if he heard wrong.

"No one likes 3 Musketeers," Mike rolls his eyes as an explanation.

"I like 3 Musketeers," Nora butts in to defend Dustin.

"It's just nougat," Will says, almost confused.

"Just nougat? Just nougat? It's top three for me," Dustin states.

"Top three?" Lucas asks disbelievingly.

"Top three," Dustin confirms.

"Oh, God," Mike sighs. "Gimme a break."

"Seriously. I could eat a whole bowl of nougat. Straight-up."

Nora's about to say something before someone in a Michael Myers mask jumps out of some bushes. The party screams and jumps back in fear. The person slowly pulls off the mask, laughing as they do.

"Holy shit!" The one and only, Max, grins. Nora's mood immediately brightens. "You should've seen the look on your guys' faces." Mike just glares at her, but Nora slightly elbows him. Shut up, Michael. "And you?" Max looks at Lucas. Who screams like that? You sound like a little girl," she keeps laughing.

She starts walking forward before noticing no one was following. "Hey, you guys coming? I heard we should hit up Loch Nova. That's where all the rich people live, right?"

Nora steps forward, Dustin and Lucas behind her, Mike and Will just behind them, and she falls into step with Max.

"There's this old lady by my house. Gives out these little goody bags. The best," Nora tosses an arm around Max's shoulders. Nice.

"Oh! I didn't know you lived in that area," Max looks suddenly taken aback. Nora didn't want to be one of those people, but she is also surprised. Almost as soon as she said her last name people knew who she was. It was kind of. . . interesting to hear Max be shocked.

"I dunno," Nora feels awkward. "It's not a big deal. Mostly inheritance money and stuff. . . Where do you live?"

"Just, um, up Old Cherry Road," Max also seems awkward. "But y'know. Street's good for skating."

Nora nudges her a little. "You'll have to teach me sometime."

"Yeah! Come over, whenever." Max smiles, Wow, she has a pretty smile. Woah. Where did that come from? Shut up, Nora.

"I will," she tries playing it off. "Keep a lookout."

"For what?" Dustin asks, taking a bite out of chocolate bar to the right of Nora, Lucas going to the left of Max.

"Max is going to teach how me to skateboard," Nora grins, reaching into Dustin's bag to take some of his candy.

"Totally tubular," he says, oblivious to it. Max gives him a look and Nora laughs softly.

"No, no," Lucas pipes up. "It's like totally tubular," he drags out the words with a weird accent.

"Totally tubular," Nora tries, grinning when Max laughs at her.

"What a gnarly wave, dude," Lucas continues.

"Wicked surf."

"Stop! Stop! My ears are bleeding," Max spins away from Nora's arm, covering her ears.

Nora just laughs and Max couldn't help but smile at the sound. But she knew she shouldn't. Billy would kill her if her were here right now. . . but he's not-

"Hey, have you guys seen Will?" Mike asks suddenly, out of breath.

"I thought he was with you," Nora says, instantly going into panic mode.

"Will?"

"Will!" The party shouts around before hearing him crying out side someone's driveway. They rush over to see him curled into a ball, face pale and sweaty.

"Will!" Mike helps him stand up. "We couldn't find you! Are you okay?" Will just breathes heavily and the other five watch him in worry. "I'm gonna take him home," Mike says, gently pulling him away. Nora makes a move forward, but Mike just waves her off. "You guys go ahead, I'm bored anyways."

"Is he okay?" Max asks, confused more than anything.

"Yeah. . . yeah, he's just. . . not feeling well," Nora sighs quietly. She knew it was getting worse, she just didn't know how to help. "I'm tired too," she says, making her way to her house, just a few feet away. "See you guys."

Dustin and Lucas nod softly and Max just waves, starting to get concerned.

If only she knew.

—

✧･ﾟ: * "Steve," Eleanor calls walking into their house. "I'm back. Tattoo free!" She didn't hear from him, so she went upstairs to look in his room

He is lying in his bed, face pressed into the pillows, covers almost suffocating him. "Not right now," He mumbles out. . . was he crying?

"Steve? Is everything okay? What happened?" Nora goes into a panic for the second time that night and makes her way over to him.

"It's. . . it's n-nothing," he sniffles and Nora goes to grab a box of tissues before lying down on her back next to her brother.

"So, is now a bad time to talk about me?" She asks quietly, passing a tissue to him as she spoke.

"No, no," he shifts a little so he was on his back too, tissue resting on his face. "How'd it go? The trick-or-treating?"

Nora gives him a sympathetic look. "It was whatever. . . Did something happen at the party?"

"It was whatever," he repeats her words, still not removing the tissue from his face.

"Did you get in a fight with someone?" She presses, trying to get an answer.

He stays quiet.

". . .Did you get in a fight with Nancy?" Nora asks, dreading the answer. Nancy has always been like an older sister to Nora, even before she started dating her brother. Spending time with Mike every week for more than three years straight will do that, I guess. Nora was over the moon when Steve and Nancy started seeing each other. The only downside was if they got married, Nora and Mike would be like siblings. . .gross.

"I'm not in the mood right now," Steve just sighs, the tissue flying up a little, like in cartoons.

"Just get her some flowers," Nora shakes her head. She didn't want to push any buttons, even though she wasn't above begging for details. "Girls like flowers."

Do you think Max would like flowers?

a/n:

longer(ish) chapter!

lmk if y'all like longer or shorter chapters better

also, i know the place is called loch nora, but every time wrote it i could only think of my nora, and so i changed. very sorry, don't hate me. :)

also, can someone help me come up with witty chapter titles- cool thanks