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Lavender met with Ms.Kelly each Thursday after Max Mayfield. Lavender sympathized with Max. A lot in fact, and she hated to be one of those theorists who never seemed to take the truth for the truth but she didn't believe that a mall fire is what killed Billy. It looked far too brutal for simply just a fire. But, as per usual, the Hawkins police department never did any work that wasn't required of them. The very reason why Will Byers almost wasn't found. She often wondered how the Byers were doing and if they had ever recovered from that.
"So, Lavender, how've you been holding up lately. Still having headaches. .nosebleeds?" Kelly asked, prepared to write down whatever Lavender had said onto her notepad. This almost made Lavender scoff; as nice as Ms. Kelly was, Lavender knew very well that she didn't care any more for her than she did for any other student she met with each day. She was just there to collect her paycheck each day.
"It's cool. The same." She shrugged, careful not to give too much information. She didn't want her or her parents to worry about her anymore than they already did. She never told Ms. Kelly about her daydreams, or day terrors rather. Unlike she could do in any other area of her life, she adapted to them. Manipulated them in her favor, she'd created a safe place in her mind. She wasn't sure how she'd done it, it was like her own superpower. But sometimes, reality began to seep in.
Sometimes she was met with a monster. Often actually. But one that felt familiar, for whatever reason, she felt connected to the creature no matter how much it tried to consume her, her thoughts or her mind. It couldn't, because they were one in the same.
"Lavender?" Ms. Kelly called, pulling Lavender from her deep thought. "Oh. Yeah?" She hummed, acting as if she hadn't zoned out for a moment. "Your sister? I asked about your sister. How's your relationship been?" She asked, tilting her head as she wrote down a few notes. About the moment she'd just had, Lavender assumed. "Eh. It's pretty much the same but I'd say it's gotten better." She muttered untruthfully.
She wasn't completely lying though, it had gotten better but not in the way she'd led Ms. Kelly to believe it had. It had gotten better because they weren't even speaking anymore. They agreed to stay out of one another's way.
...
"Where're you goin'?" Mae asked, peeking around Lavender's doorframe as she pulled her fleather jacket over her Black Sabbath tee. "Hellfire Club. And I assume you're going to the game." Lavender responded, pointing out the obvious as Mae flaunted her "tiger pride" in her uniform with orange and green paws on her cheeks. "You said you were coming to the game. It's the championship game!" Mae exclaimed, "Well, I'm sorry, Mae. I'm just not interested in that shit. Balls in laundry baskets as Eddie calls it." She chuckled at the thought of Eddie before scrunching her nose in disgust, shaking the thought off.
"Eddie," Mae scoffed, shaking her head. "Of course. I should've known." She mumbled, rolling her eyes at Lavender before storming off to her room. Lavender quickly followed, "What is that supposed to mean?" She asked, genuine confusion with a hint of anger in her expression.
"It means that you don't even try to fit in, Lavender. It's like you want to be an outcast!" She snarled back causing tears to begin welling up in Lavender's eyes. "Did it ever occur to you that I don't want to fit in? Maybe I don't want to live a boring, "perfect" life like the rest of you!" She shouted, blinking back the tears in her eyes and swallowing the painful lump in her throat.
"You think my life is perfect? Really, this is what you call perfect? Having to pretend like I don't hear the shit people call me behind my back, the shit you say behind my back!" Mae cried, her voice breaking the more she spoke.
This was a normal occurrence for the sisters, brawling in the middle of the hallway. Except this time was different. For Lavender at least. She felt a surge of energy running through her body and felt the need to return to her safe place. The place she'd created in her mind.
Suddenly, the lights began to flicker, heavily. All throughout the house in fact, nevertheless, the sisters continued to argue relentlessly.
"Oh, don't act like you're so innocent! You let your fake little cheer friends and the rest of those jocks you hang out with trash me and my friends all the time." She scoffed, unaware of the blood dripping from her nose and onto the floor. "Your nose!" Mae exclaimed, stepping away from Lavender frantically as she looked down at the growing puddle of blood. "Shit." She sweared, walking over to her room for tissue.
As she wiped her nose she heard Mae rushing down the stairs, watching her hop into Jason's car before they sped off to the game. "Cheating bastard."
