"I have to stop at my locker." Will says.

"I'll come with you." I say quickly and we split up from the other three as they head to science class.

"You excited for tomorrow?" I ask as Will and I walk through the halls, around students and to his locker.

"Yes, but my mom wants Jonathan to go with me."

I crinkle my nose, "Yeah. Steve is paranoid, but he's not that paranoid. No matter, we can just bribe him with candy."

Will laughs, "Yeah I'm sure that'll work."

"It'd work for me."

"Yeah but you're a chocoholic. You'd kill a man for just a lollipop."

"What can I say? I'm a sucker for suckers."

We arrive at his locker and he opens it, grabbing a binder as I continue to talk.

"Are you sure Mike and Lucas have figured out which one of them is gonna be Venkman?"

"Hm."

"I mean, I'm almost sure they're both gonna turn up in the same costume."

"Hm."

"And start an argument about it."

"Hm."

"Will?" I tap his shoulder and he turns around quickly, one hand swinging behind his back.

I narrow my eyes as his widen, "Yeah?"

"Everything okay?" I raise an eyebrow suspiciously and he shrugs.

"Absolutely, let's go to class." He goes to walk past me but I turn him around, swiftly snatching the piece of paper from his hidden fist. He reaches for it, but I turn away, reading what seems to be a clipping from the daily newspaper.

The headline reads, The Boy Who Came Back To Life, but in thick green marker next to a picture of Will, are the words "ZOMBIE BOY."

"What douches." I exclaim, turning to an uncomfortable looking Will, "Don't listen to them. There's nothing wrong with you. Just cause this happened doesn't mean you're different."

He nods and smiles a bit as I crumple up the paper, throwing it into a garbage bin and grabbing Wills arm. We get into class just as the bell goes, and take our seats. Dustin and Lucas sit in the front, with me, Mike, and Will in the second row directly behind them.

Mr. Clarke dramatically slams down a model of a brain onto its holder, "Meet, the human brain."

I love science. Mr. Clarke makes it really exciting, and compared to math it's easy and fun.

"I know. I know, it doesn't look like much. A little gross even, right? But consider this." Mr. Clarke lowers his voice dramatically, "There are a hundred billion cells inside of this miracle of evolution. All working as one. No, no, I did not misspeak. I did not stutter. A hundred billion."

I smile at how contagious my teacher's enthusiasm is.

Suddenly the door slams, causing everyone's head to turn as the principal walks in with the red headed girl from this morning. The one that was riding in that car.

"Ah, this must be our new student." Mr. Clarke says happily.

"Indeed it is." The principal responds with the same manner and I roll my eyes. "All yours."

The principal leaves and the girl goes to walk past Mr. Clarke, but he stops her, just like he did to me when I was wearing that hat.

"All right there. Hold up." She stops and turns, looking frustrated. "You don't get away that easy. Come on up. Don't be shy."

He nods to Dustin and me, "Guys, drum roll please."

We close our textbooks and begin patting on them in a rhythmic pattern.

"Class, please welcome, all the way from sunny California," Dustin and I pat faster as he gets more excited, "The latest passenger to join us on our curiosity voyage, Maxine."

We tap our books dramatically, grinning at each other.

"It's Max."

Our grins die and we share a wide eyed look.

"Sorry?" Mr. Clarke seems offended that she isn't as excited to be here as he is to have her.

"Nobody calls me Maxine." She says quietly but with a firm tone. "It's Max."

"Mad Max." Lucas whispers and we all nod, watching her walk to her seat in the back.

"Well, all aboard, Max."

She crosses her arms and sits, and I grow slightly annoyed that she's killing our teacher's thunder. Undoubtedly, however, he instantly regains his enthusiasm as we enter back into the lesson.

We stand outside, watching through a fence as Max skateboards around the schoolyard.

"There's no way that's Mad Max." Mike says with disbelief.

"Yeah. Girls don't play video games."

I whack Will on the side of his head and he grins.

"And even if they did, you can't get 750,000 points on Dig Dug. It's impossible."

"But her name is Max." I argue.

"So what?"

"So, how many Maxes do you know?" Lucas says.

"I don't know."

"Zero." I say, "That's how many."

"She shows up at school the day after someone with her same name breaks our top score." Dustin points out, "I mean, you kidding me?"

"Exactly."

"So she's gotta be Mad Max."

"And plus she skateboards, so she's pretty awesome." I roll my eyes and shake my head as Dustin looks away from the girl.

"Awesome?" Mike argues, "You haven't even spoken a word to her."

"I don't have to. I mean, look at her." We all look back out the fence, and she's vanished, "Shit, I've lost the target."

I turn around, "Oh! There."

We watch as she climbs up the stairs, skateboard under her arm as she drops a piece of paper into the trash. The boys share looks and sprint towards the garbage as I groan.

"Seriously?"

They rifle through the trash and I stand back, shaking my head.

"You guys looks stupid—"

"Got it."

Dustin pulls the paper out and unfolds it as people stare.

"There we go."

"Stop spying on me, creeps." I burst into laughter as they read it.

"Well, shit."

I shake my head in amusement, suddenly liking Max a lot more than I did this morning.

"William Byers." We all turn to see the principal, who nods to Will.

"Your mother's here."

Will looks troubled, so I step forward. "I'll walk him out."

"No that's quite all right Miss Harrington."

"I'm not doing this for you."

The principal looks shocked as the boys behind me snicker. I take Will and we walk through the halls, me glaring at anyone who stares. Will shakes his head, laughing slightly.

"What's so funny?" I ask and narrow my eyes at a girl looking at Will.

"You." He says, "Being so defensive."

"Defensive?"

"Yeah," He says, "You think I don't notice how you glare at anyone who stares at me or yell at people who whisper behind my back? It's funny."

"Sorry if it bothers you." I say, "I just don't like people treating you different cause you went through something."

"You're treating me different."

"No. I'm treating them different for treating you different."

"Do you think you would be as good of friends with me if I hadn't been taken by the Demogorgon?"

"I do actually," I shrug, scowling at two girls who walk away from the middle of the hallway, "It brought us closer sure, because I can connect with you more. But I don't think it affects our actual friendship."

"You're the best, you know that? You don't treat me like I'm gonna break like everyone else does. It means a lot." He stares at his shoes as we walk and I nudge him so he looks at me.

"Well they're just worried about you." I say, "There's no need to be, but they are. They care about you. I do too, I just have a different way of showing it."

"I like your way better."

"Yeah well, my way's always better." I smile and he laughs as we walk out of the school, seeing Joyce standing against her car.

"Good luck then."

He nods and I wave to his mom who smiles and waves back gratefully. He's off to an appointment. And as I feel bad that he has to talk about his PTSD, I feel like I should too. Steve hasn't taken me to therapy or anything, because he's inexperienced and both of us are used to taking care of ourselves on our own. I just deal with it, mine's not as bad as Will's so it's not as big of a deal.

I watch them drive away and turn to my left, seeing Dustin, Lucas, and Mike walking towards me.

I sigh, and run a hand through my blonde hair as we regroup.

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*

Blech.

This chapter was rushed and it's really awful so excuse me for that. Anyways I'll update again soon so hang in there peeps.