𝙴𝚕𝚢𝚜𝚒𝚊𝚗 ~ 𝙴𝚕𝚖𝚊𝚡

《𝟸𝟹》

August 26, 1985
8:40 AM

While Max was running, her gaze was stuck on another redhead that was far ahead of her, laughing and pushing around with her. Why did she have to come? Everything was going so well and Max couldn't help but feel fairly agitated by the fact that Beverly befriended El so easily. It didn't make sense. When El met Max, she ignored her for at least six months before she even spoke a word to her. And that girl just came. Literally. That was it. That's all she did, and Max felt like she was less than two minutes from throwing a toddler tantrum. She was now actually glad that she could run. If she didn't, she would have to take her anger out on something else. Or more like someone else. She hated feeling like this and refused to call it jealousy. What did she expect? That El would stay with her and only her all the time and ignore other people who so obviously wanted to get to know her? Honestly, yes. That's what she thought. At least until now. And it hurt to find out she had been wrong all along. She eventually crossed the finish line with difficulties, stopping immediately after and trying to catch her breath. As she stopped, she felt her legs and chest pulsating, the adrenalin still rushing through her veins. Once she managed to calm down a little bit, she looked in front of herself, seeing Beverly and El talking to eachother about something. She shot a disapproving glance at the other redhead, deciding to approach them and sit on the grass next to her brunette friend. El then noticed Max walking to them and waved at her with a smile playing on her face. Max of course couldn't resist and smiled back, sitting down next to her, her heart still racing.

~ "Hey, you did good Ellie." She said, letting Beverly know that she's talking just to the brunette. El grinned at her, happy that she made it all the way to the end.

~ "Thanks! You were great too! Bev said I should try truck...I meant...track team." El shared in a slight stammer, making Max's body stiffen. Oh, no way in hell.

~ "Really? Bev said that?" She asked, her eyes traveling from El's face to the short-haired girl's one with a glint of something El couldn't really make out in them. Beverly raised an eyebrow at her, a beginning of a little smirk playing on her lips.

~ "Yeah. I mean, she's good. I think she could make it." The other redhead nodded, shrugging. Max just kept staring at her for a while until she heard the teacher's voice interrupting the chatter that could be heard from the other students.

~ "Alright, you all did amazing guys. I'm proud. Especially you two, girls. I watched. That was a battle! Good job." Mr. Lee said enthusiastically, looking at El and Beverly, who looked at each other with a brief chuckle that almost made Max roll her eyes. The teacher then looked at his wrist watch.

~ "We have ten minutes left. Go change, do whatever you need to do, just don't hurt yourselves since I kinda should watch over you 'till the end of the lesson. You know how it works, yeah?" The teacher continued with a rushed voice, watching the students nod and slowly stand up, starting to walk in the direction of the school again. As the three girls got up and followed, El noticed the stares Max and Beverly were still giving each other from time to time. And they weren't friendly stares. The brunette didn't know what was going on, so she walked next to Max, resting her hand on her shoulder.

~ "Are you okay?" She asked, her voice showing a bit of concern. Max was acting strangely.

~ "Uh...yeah. It's just that...me and Beverly aren't exactly what you'd call friends."

~ "Why?"

~ "Well, you see...she's...different." Max said, trying not to be harsh in front of El. If it was Beverly, she would certainly choose a whole different kind of word.

~ "Um...How? Why don't you like her? Iam different too." The brunette stated matter-of-factly.

~ "Oh! Nono I- didn't mean it like that. She's just...different in a bad way." Max tried to explain as they walked towards the school.

~ "What does that mean?" El asked again.

~ "It's like...ugh, okay. She's a stoner. In fact, the whole track team is known for their drug addiction." Max finally spilled the beans, hoping she won't get in trouble for exposing El to these topics. El scrunched up her nose. She didn't know a lot about drugs, but she definitely knew it was bad stuff.

~ "Oh, like LSD?" El asked, knowing the drug from her aunt Becky when she was telling her about how her mother was being experimented on. And Max was actually in a slight shock when the brunette mentioned it.

~ "Oh- you...oh. Okay...no. Probably not LSD. More stuff like...weed or crack- I really shouldn't talk to you about this..."

~ "Why not?"

~ "You see, your dad happens to be the chief of the police. And...if he somehow found out that I talked to you about this, he probably wouldn't be very appreciative of it..." Max said, keeping her voice down as they walked inside the locker room, this time with all the other girls.

~ "So...I shouldn't ask him about that?" El asked, walking to her locker.

~ "Definitely not..." Max shook her head, opening her locker and successfully ending the conversation. El nodded after a while of thinking of the new information she got about Beverly. She seemed like a good person to her so far.

Once the girls changed, El looked at her schedule again.

~ "Spanish?" El asked, showing her schedule to Max.

~ "Yeah. You're gonna learn a new language! Wait let's see if...um...I got English now." Max said after taking a look at her own schedule. El was starting to get nervous. How is she supposed to learn another language if she can't even speak one correctly? Max noticed the other's worried face and attempted to calm her down a bit.

~ "Don't worry El. I got Spanish too. We can help each other out, okay? Promise."

~ "...Okay." The brunette nodded, not wanting to part ways with Max. But she had to. So, as soon as they got out of the locker room and the first bell rang, Max showed El where is the Spanish class. El got closer to the door, already seeing bunch of other students sat in their chairs and talking in groups. She turned to Max, knowing she has to leave for her class now too.

~ "I'll meet you here when this lesson ends, yeah? We have Art together after. That's like...super fun. It's the creative stuff." Max tried to cheer her up, which seemed to work a little because the brunette nodded and smiled at her, making Max smile back.

~ "That sounds good. Okay..." As nervous as El was and as much as she didn't want to, she looked inside the class before waving at Max and taking a deep breath, going inside. Max waved back and started walking to her's with a light smile on her face.

El walked into the class, going directly to the first empty desk she saw, trying not to draw much attention even through she could see some students turning their heads in her direction in the corner of her eye. She sat down, pulling a red notepad out of her bag and pretending like she's busy writing something into it just to not look like she has no clue how to socialize. In reality, she was just drawing small circles on the paper though, almost constantly moving her legs under the desk to have something to focus on instead of the looks she was almost positive she was recieving.

~ "El, hey!" A familiar voice called from the back, obviously not ashamed of getting attention from others. El turned to see the person and her face melted into a smile when she saw Dustin and Lucas sitting on the other end of the class, inviting her to come sit in the empty desk behind them. The brunette didn't want to sit on her own when her friends were there, so she took her things and walked to them with a smile.