• 𝙲𝚘𝚕𝚍 𝙰𝚜 𝙸𝚌𝚎 - 𝙵𝚘𝚛𝚎𝚒𝚐𝚗𝚎𝚛 •

The next morning, the girls surprisingly woke up before twelve. Around 9:30am to be exact. It was one of those times when their bodies woke them up without any alarm. The weather was supposed to be great during the day so they wanted to skateboard.

Bea has been practicing with Max everyday and she can even do a few tricks. It's pretty cool. She's, like, a professional skateboarder.

That's a lie. I just lied to you.

Trying to learn a kick-flip, Beatrice almost fell and the board slipped from her footing. It started rolling down the street until it suddenly stopped. Actually, until it was stopped by someone.

And that someone happens to be...

"El?" Both girls wondered with frowns. Bea has barely seen her this summer and Eleven isn't exactly fond of Max. So, seeing her here, in front of Max's house, was an odd sight to see.

"Hi." Eleven greeted monotonously as she walked up to them and handed Bea her skateboard back.

"Hi?" Max replied unsurely. Like I said before, this is weird.

El shifted in her feet. "Can we talk?"

They brought Eleven into the house and Max's room. The topic of conversation was none other than Mike Wheeler. Apparently he ditched Eleven today. Where was that Mike all the times Bea had plans with El?

Eleven and Bea sat on Max's bed, while the redhead paced around her room, listening to what Eleven was saying.

"And then he said he— he missed me. And then he just hung up." Eleven finishes her side of the story.

"He's a piece of shit," Max confirms and Beatrice nodded in agreement. She has no idea what happened to the sweet little boy from when they were younger, but he's gone now.

"What?" El asks at the insult. She has never thought of Mike to be 'shit'.

"Mike doesn't have jack shit to do today, and his Nana obviously isn't sick," Beatrice pitches in. She has met his Nana and that lady is in perfect condition. She even does pilates at the mall.

"I guarantee you, him, Lucas and Will are playing Atari right now." Max points at the girls in frustration.

"But friends don't lie," Eleven repeats the number one rule of the party.

"Yeah, well, boyfriends lie," Max explains. "All the time," she speaks slowly.

"Will has never lied to Bea," El mentions in thought. To her—besides her and Mike—they were the perfect couple. Mainly because she never really knows when Max and Lucas are together or not.

Beatrice shifts uncomfortably on the bed. "Actually, El, Will hasn't been completely honest with me the last couple of days," she confesses.

This made Eleven flop back onto the bed. That's it! She doesn't believe in love! I'm kidding, but that's how people usually feel when their favorite couple are having relationship issues.

Now, that's something I can relate to.

Max sat on the bed, bringing Eleven back into a sitting position. "You're going to stop calling him. You're going to ignore his calls. As far as you're concerned, he doesn't exist," Max tells her.

"Doesn't exist?"

"He treated you like garbage," Beatrice pipes in, "You're gonna treat him like garbage. Give him a taste of his own medicine." She shrugs.

"Give him the medicine." El nods. Both girls hum in response.

"And if he doesn't fix this, if he doesn't explain himself..." Max looks back at Bea. She nodded her head in agreement, so Max continued, "...dump his ass." El's eyes widen.

Max stands up with Bea following suit. "C'mon."

"Where are we going?" Eleven furrowed her eyebrows at her two friends.

"To have some fun." Beatrice shrugged with a giggle.

"There's more to life than stupid boys, you know," Max reminds and drags both girls out of the house.

The girls soon went on the town bus and ended up at Starcourt Mall. A new shopping area with practically everything in it. Ice cream, clothes, perfumes, jewelry, and the party's favorite: the movie theater.

Stepping off the bus, El eyed the crowed area with a worried expression. Max wondered what was wrong and Eleven replied, "Too many people. Against the rules."

"Seriously?" Max asks, "You have superpowers. What's the worst that could happen?"

They went in, following the rest of the town into the air conditioned facility. Eleven admired the large building. The neon lights, the two story stores everywhere. It was magic to her. It was magic to everyone in this decade.

"So, what should we do first?" Bea asked her two best friends as they stood in the center of the mall.

El continued to stare wide-eyed all around her. "You've never been shopping before, have you?" Max asks. It's true. El is currently wearing one of Hopper's old flannels. She's never been out of the house.

Eleven shakes her head 'no'. "Well, then I guess we're just gonna have to try everything." Bea smiles. Looking to her right she spots The Gap store. "Ooh, c'mon."

She grabbed both their hands and brought them in. Today was going to be a fun, boy-free, day. It's their first ever girls day with all three of them! The trio couldn't wait!

El looked fascinated by all the clothes on the clothing racks. She kept looking and brushing her fingers over everything. All the cool designs and patterns drew her eyes to each and every shirt. Especially a blue shirt with red, yellow, and white paint splatter on it.

"Do you like it?" Max asked, noticing how the girl tilted her head like a puppy that sees something it wants. She was mesmerized by the design.

Turning to look at her best friend and newly found friend, Eleven asks, "How do I know... what I like?"

"You just try things on." Bea shrugged simply. "Until you find something that feels like you."

"Like me?"

"Yeah." Max nods. "Not Hopper. Not Mike. You."

The girls all went into changing rooms and tried on all different types of outfits. Eleven came out with that blue shirt from before and yellow pants. They tried on weird and funky hats as well.

Next, El put on a white set with the same design as the blue shirt with the paint streaks. Max held up a yellow belt while Bea held up a red one to see which would look better on the brunette girl. Eleven put on the yellow belt and started spinning around in front of the mirror. She would've fallen if it weren't for her friends catching her before laughing.

Max and Bea made funny faces at each other when they tried on sunglasses. "You should get those." Max chuckled, pointing at the ridiculous pair of shades. "Ha ha. So funny." Beatrice joined in on the laughter as they waited for El to try on her last outfit.

When Eleven came out of the changing room, it was crazy. Her romper with many colors on the black base and crazy designs looks perfect on her. She went in the mirror and fixed her hair. She was so excited with today.

After paying for what they wanted, the girls walked out of the store, bags in their hands, arms looped together, in slow motion. Or, at least, that's what it felt like.

They went to another clothing shop that Max was non-stop raving about; Flash Studio. They dressed in even crazier outfits than before and even took pictures with a photographer there. They wore headbands, boas, bracelets and rings on their white gloves. They also tried on really cool denim jackets that Beatrice paid for after they left.

At a shoe store, they tried on colorful heels for fun. All three girls barely or never wore heels so, they couldn't stop laughing when each of them fell to the floor from tripping. They noticed a group of girls looking at them strangely because of the noise they were making. That didn't stop the three from having fun.

Later, they found the group again, now in the middle of the mall. They were holding cups of soda and talking to a cute guy. Hiding behind a corner, Max and Bea watched as Eleven used her powers to squeeze the cup all over the red haired girl and her friends with her drink. They couldn't stop laughing as they ran away from the scene.

Running through the mall, Beatrice had an idea, "Come with me!" She grabbed both girls' hands and dragged them to her favorite place; Scoops Ahoy.

"Okay, here you go, you got a strawberry and then a vanilla with sprinkles, and your usual: cookies and cream." Steve handed the girls their orders of ice cream.

"Thanks, Steve." Beatrice smiled brightly as she paid for the creamy sweets.

"Wait a second. Are you even allowed to be here?" Steve asked Eleven. Her and Max just ran away laughing while Bea stayed back at the counter.

"It's fine. She's fine. Is Robin busy? I want to show her my jacket I just bought. I got her one too." Bea held up her plastic bag as well as showed off the jacket she was wearing.

"Yeah, she's in the back. We're kinda busy, so, uh, I can give it to her. You guys could twin one day or something." Steve spoke quickly because he doesn't need anymore people in on the secret mission happening in the back room.

It was clear that she was a little deflated after hearing the news, but she handed him the bag anyways. "Oh, okay. Tell Robin I'll see her later. Bye, Stevie!" She yelled as she went to catch up with Max and Eleven.

"I told you to stop calling me that!" Steve shouted to deaf ears as Beatrice was already out of the parlor.

When Beatrice caught up to them, they walked out of the mall together. The plan was to have a sleepover at Eleven's house tonight. With ice cream in their hands, they started walking to the town bus. That was until they stopped, hearing familiar voices. The voices of their boyfriends.

"Oh, you've gotta be shitting me," Max mumbles. They speed-walked over to the boys. Angry can't even describe how they're feeling seeing them after a full day of laughter.

"Isn't this a nice surprise," Max spoke sarcastically once they were in front of the boys who were holding their bikes.

Mike dropped his from shock and asked Eleven slowly, "What are you doing here?"

She licked her ice cream before simply stating, "Shopping."

"This is her new style. What do you think?" Beatrice rhetorically asked with her head tilted.

"What's wrong with you? You know she's not allowed to be here."

"What is she, your little pet?" Max jumps in. He can not talk to her best friend like that.

"Yeah. Am I your pet?" El asked her boyfriend.

"What? No!"

"Then why do you treat me like garbage?" She questioned.

"What?" He's so clueless. All boys are.

"You said Nana was sick."

"She is." Mike lies. "She is. She is sick." He looks at Lucas for help with his lie.

He decided to defend his friends lie while Will stands behind them, watching the scene silently. "Yeah, sick— she's sick. She's super sick. That's why we're here, actually."

"Yeah, we're shopping. Not for us, but for her, for Nana."

"For Nana," Lucas repeats.

"Also, we're here to get a gift for you. Just, we couldn't find anything that suited you and I only have, like, $3.50, so it's hard," Mike explains.

"Super hard." Lucas adds. "It's— it's expensive."

"You lie. Why do you lie?" Eleven asked as she took a step closer to Mike. All Bea could think about is how Will is technically lying to her. Keeping secrets and shit. And he's right across from her. Has been this whole time, yet he hasn't spoken a single word.

As Mike searches for an answer, the bus pulls up to the bus stop. The girls need to go for their sleepover. They turned to the sound and when they faced them again, Eleven walked up to Mike and said, "I dump your ass."

Max and Bea have the same expression of surprise and proudness written all over their features. They follow Eleven to the bus. With a final glance at Will, Beatrice gets on the bus as well.

All three sat next to each other on the bus with Bea in the middle. They started laughing at the events that just happened.

Today was a crazy day.

•••••

(🕰) T TIME!

fun fact: cold as ice actually started playing after eleven dumped mike in the show

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