- 𝗍𝗈 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗆𝗈𝗈𝗇 -

-3-

One thing Max quickly learned about Hawkins was that, no matter how cold or hot it was, the sun would never ever shine. It was a balance of light grey clouds and the thin sliver of yellow buttery sunlight cutting through. It was faint, but better than nothing.

As she skated her way down the gravel, the tiny rocks crunching under her as she sped past hardware stores and bakeries. The wind rushed past her and made her breath flee her lungs. Her entire being felt free, as if skating to your new high school was something she looked forward to.

It wasn't. But anywhere was better than being with her flighty ghost of a mom, her strict and crazy stepdad, and her psychotic step-brother who was barely ever around.

"Jesus Christ!"

Max opened her electrifying blue eyes and gasped. Shit, she was just a few feet away from some boy with absurd curls and pale snowy skin. A discarded (probably his) bicycle was lying in a pile of dead brown leaves. Swerving, she quickly ducked under a low branch and managed to avoid the boy and his bicycle. She could feel his eyes on her, even though she was far away.

As she got further and further away from the strange boy, her heart rate crept to a steady beating once more, her face no longer feeling hot with panic.

God, she had nearly ran over someone with her skateboard. The redhead sighed and pushed herself further and further away. Maybe she could push herself away from her life in Hawkins and skate away to Cali.

She wished.

________

Mike was awestruck. His first thoughts weren't, "Oh my god i'm going to die", but rather, "Who the hell is she?"

Her long red hair, glowing shades of orange and yellow and red, covered half her face as she swerved past him. When she did, he inhaled. She smelled like strawberries, the over-the-top sweet ones, and toast.

And she had a skateboard. Something he couldn't get because it was deemed "a one way ticket to broken-bonesville" by his mom, but didn't want to anyways because he preferred his trusty old bike (the one that just broke, yes). The same bike he used from time to time when he wasn't walking to diners with Elle, watching the sky turn a bruise purple and cuddling with Elle in a diner.

But it wasn't just the fact that she had a skateboard (unbelievably cool by the way) that made Mike think about her. She seemed dangerous. Almost like a rebel. Her face, was fierce and thoughtful, a combination of emotions that may not have belonged on anyone's face, but on the redheads face, it looked like her own. Like she owned the expressions fierce and thoughtful because she seemed to be the epitome of it.

His mind drifted to the comic books he read recently.

Leia.

Princess Leia maybe.

Yeah, Mike thought, his eyes still staring at where she had been before she slipped away, Princess Leia.

________

"Can i get my timetable?" Max asked. Glaring down at her watch, she only had ten minutes left until the bell rang and she needed to get her schedule so she could find her homeroom.

"Last name?"

"Mayfield." The woman looked at her as if she had never seen another human being in her life. "Your hair." she said, and pointed a long claw-like pink nail at her hair, that ran down to her waist in messy bright waves. Max rolled her eyes. "Yeah, i'm a redhead." How was this lady so surprised by red hair? There were lots of redheads in California.

"Well here's your schedule."

Max gave her a small smile, before rushing down the hallways in search for Class 238A.

She hoped she wasn't late. She glared meanly at her watch and wished that it would just freeze time for a minute. Just so she could shove her backpack in her locker and get out her textbooks for english literature.

But when did time ever wait for anyone?

"Maxine Mayfield?"

"Max. Nobody calls me Maxine, it's Max." The teacher raised one bushy eyebrow. "Well Max, you're late. What's your excuse?" Max gave him a bored frown, "I was getting my schedule."

"You're new then?" Max wanted to roll her eyes so badly. God, was this town boring. Hawkins reminded her of sleepy hollows, that quiet sleepy town that nobody ever remembered reading or watching. "Yes." she said through gritted teeth. She could feel everyone's eyes burning holes at the back of her head and all she wanted to do was spit at them and tell them to look somewhere else.

Calm. Be calm. Keep Cool... Her fists curled and her grip on her precious skateboard tightened.

"Good enough for me. Welcome to Hawkins, Indiana. I'm Mr Smith and this will be your homeroom for the next two years here at Hawkins High." Max nodded her head and quickly shuffled over to an empty desk near the large chalkboard-sized window. "Now hold on a minute, Max." She cringed and slowly turned to face Mr Smith. The man was smiling as if he had never had a better day.

"You'll be sitting between Mike and Lucas."

And who the hell are they? Max smarted in her head, her fists trembling with the effort of
holding back an annoyed scream. As if reading her mind, he inclined his head towards the fourth row.

And of course, she just had to see bicycle boy again. Could this day get any better?

________