CHAPTER ELEVEN.
OUT OF THE BLUE

☆ミ ☆彡

IF THERE WAS ONE CONSISTENT THING IN HER LIFE, it was that ballet always made her feel better. Even in the worst situations, even after all the bad things, dancing made all of that go away. But only for a few hours. However, today was a little different.

Even though Challan allowed herself to be distracted in her dancing, she was still off. She was late at certain parts, her lines weren't as good as they usually were, she was falling out of turns, stumbling in her landings after her leaps, the list went on and on. The mistakes were noticeable to Challan, Mrs. Durand, and anyone paying attention.

Her thoughts were clouded with what had happened under the tree, of what happened with Max, what happened with Lucas, and all the bad things that have been happening in her life in general. The most distracting thought was the situation with Abigail and her friends. It wasn't like she meant for it to distract her, in fact, she tried her hardest to push the memory down. But so many of the dancers were blonde and for a split second, she would see Abigail in them and that terror and the memory of what happened the day before would flood her mind and mess her up.

They were in crunch time now, the recital about a month away, and things were coming together nicely. However, not completely to Mrs. Durand's liking. She didn't want the production to be perfect per se, but she wanted everything to look good and go smoothly. And it was not looking like that.

The music turned off and everyone stopped. Challan felt herself breathing heavily as all eyes turned to Mrs. Durand. The woman's gaze was on Challan for a moment before turning to address everyone. "Let's take a break for water, okay?" She announced. Everyone began to go to their bags for water, Challan doing the same before she was stopped.

Mrs. Durand looked at Challan with questioning eyes and the younger girl sighed. "I know... and I'm sorry. I'll do better," she said.

"I noticed you aren't yourself today. Did something happen? Are you okay?" The woman said, disregarding Challan's apology as she looked down at her in concern.

Challan looked down at the ground. She was not okay. But she couldn't go telling her business to the woman. She wouldn't understand.

Mrs. Durand noticed her hesitance and frowned. "If something is bothering you, you can tell me. Maybe I can help?"

Challan shrugged, "You can't. But thank you. Again, I'm sorry for being distracted, it won't happen again." Challan moved around her and walked to take a drink of her water. The woman watched her and sighed.

The curly-haired girl took large gulps of her water and tried to clear her mind. This was her safe haven, this was her place. This was where she could forget about her troubles. They weren't supposed to follow her here. She couldn't let anyone or anything ruin her happy place for her.

She took a final sip of her water before taking a deep breath. "Focus, Challan," she whispered to herself. She took another breath just as Mrs. Durand called them over again.

"All right, the Waltz of the Flowers, one more time. I need you all to focus. Let's get this right," she said.

They all got into their positions and the music began to play. This time, Challan forced her mind to focus solely on the task at hand, everything else could come later. She ignored Mrs. Durand's eyes and focused on the movements, her lines, her turns, her leaps. It was the best she had done that day. Mrs. Durand smiled, pleased with the performance this time and moved onto a different set of dancers who would be doing their dance.

Once practice was over, Challan packed up her things and began making her way out of the building to wait for her parents. "Hey, Challan!" A voice called from behind. She turned around to see some girls from her dance class approaching.

Libby, a tall brunette, had been the one to call her. Beside her was Talia, Cleo, and Jessica. Challan's eyebrows furrowed in question as she made her way over to the four. They didn't usually talk to her, save for a few occasions. They were nice enough but they weren't her friends and didn't try to be.

"Um, hi?" She said confused. Libby smiled as the four came to a stop in front of her.

"So, I've been planning this sleepover for some of the girls in our class the night of the recital and I wanted to invite you to it," Libby spoke.

Challan blinked up at her, looked at the other three, and then back up at Libby. "What?"

"I wanted to know if you wanted to have a sleepover with us?" Libby replied, a little confused by Challan's confusion.

"Why?" Challan blurted. Libby had never invited her to anything before. She barely even spoke to her before.

"We've never really hung out before. That's probably my fault but I realized that we should probably get to know each other. I think we could be good friends," Libby responded.

Friends. The word no longer made her happy. It made her feel sick. She didn't think she wanted friends anymore.

"Yeah, you're a good dancer and you seem cool," Jessica added.

Cool.

Max had said the same thing to her. But that had been a lie. This must be a lie too. It had to be. Challan couldn't trust that they were being genuine. She could trust anything anymore.

"Um, I don't know," she mumbled.

"Aw, come on. It'll be so fun!" Cleo pleaded.

"Yeah, sleepovers are so fun," Talia said.

Challan's face fell slightly.

"Have you never been to one?" Libby asked.

Challan shook her head 'no.' She had never been to a sleepover before. No one would ever invite 'the witch' to a sleepover. The closest she had been to a sleepover was watching them in movies. But they didn't know about her life in Hawkins and she wanted to keep it that way.

"Well then this can be your first," Libby smiled. "Just think about it." Libby pulled out a slip of paper with a phone number on it, "Here's my number. Give me a call when you've made a decision."

Challan nodded her head and the four girls began to depart, saying goodbye to her. She took a breath before walking outside of the studio, her parents already outside and waiting for her.

••••

Saturday had come quickly and Challan didn't have anything to do. She had told her parents about the sleepover invite and they were happier about it than she was. Ultimately, it would be her decision whether or not she would go but they hoped that she would, wanting her to make some more friends.

She wondered what she would have been doing this Saturday if she and Max hadn't gotten into their fight. Would they be hanging out? Challan would never know.

A sigh left her lips as she flipped through the T.V. channels in boredom. She wished she had something to do, someone to talk to. Her parents were home but they were whispering to one another in the kitchen. Tomorrow they would both be back at work. She was grateful to spend time with them but she was also bored.

The doorbell ringing pulled her attention away from the T.V. for a moment and she turned her head to the direction of the door, her father making his way over to answer it. He looked through the glass window on the door and smiled before unlocking and opening the front door.

"Max. Long time no see it feels," he greeted. Challan's stomach dropped and she sunk into the couch. Max? What was she doing here?

"Hi Mr. Logan. Is... is Challan here?" Max asked nervously. A part of the redhead was hoping that she wasn't. That Challan was off doing something else somewhere else. She felt like this was her last chance, and if she couldn't make things right today, she would never be able to. But she was scared. The redhead stared up at the man, silently praying that he would say she was out.

"Yeah she's inside. I'll call her over," he responded. Challan pushed herself off the couch and shook her head when he looked behind the door and toward the living room. "Max is here?" He looked at her in confusion as she continued to shake her head. Hadiyah walked out of the kitchen then. "Did I miss something?" He asked, looking between his wife and daughter.

"I don't want to talk to her," Challan whisper shouted.

Theodore looked back outside and at Max, "Give me a second." He left the front door open a few inches and he and Hadiyah walked over to Challan.

"Why not?" The two adults asked.

Challan sighed, "Because... we got into a fight and we're not friends anymore."

"When did this happen?" Hadiyah asked quietly, the front door still open slightly.

"That day of the incident," Challan replied.

The two adults looked at each other. "Before or after?" Theodore asked.

"During? I guess," Challan replied.

"But you guys talked that day," he then pointed out.

"Yeah because you two assumed I wanted to talk to her and walked away before I could tell you," she mumbled.

There was a pause. "Well we can't just leave the girl out there. Why don't you go see what she wants. Maybe she's going to apologize," Hadiyah suggested. At the look on Challan's face she backtracked, "Or not. Whatever you want to do is fine. Do you want me to make her go away?"

Challan thought about it for a moment before shaking her head and sighing. "No. I'll just go see what she wants." She made her way around the couch and to the front door. She took a breath before opening the door fully.

Max was standing there patiently, her nerves picking up when Challan came into her view. The two gazed at each other for a moment. Challan looked at her expectantly and Max couldn't seem to formulate the right words. The redhead cleared her throat and smiled awkwardly, "Hi."

"Hi."

More staring, more awkwardness. Challan just wanted to close the door and go hide away in her room. Max wanted to run for the hills and never look back.

"I came here to apologize... again," Max finally found her words. Challan opened her mouth to speak but Max was quick to interrupt, "Please. Please just hear me out. Please."

Challan nodded her head slowly and Max released a breath. "I'm really sorry. I know that you're probably still mad, and that's okay. And I know my apology probably doesn't mean much to you at the moment, and I get that, but I need you to know how sorry I am for what I said and for what happened with Abigail."

Max took in another breath before continuing. "My first day in school, I had wanted to talk to you since the beginning, after you smiled at me in Mr. Clarke's class. Twice. I thought that maybe that meant you'd be interested in being my friend. So I asked around about you, to, I don't know, find some common ground so that I'd know what to say when I finally talked to you. And then Abigail butted in and told me all of this stuff. And yeah, I was intrigued by what she was telling me. Not because I thought you were a witch but because other people did. I just wanted to understand. And so I introduced myself to you and we talked. And then we talked more and then Halloween. And I honestly forgot all about that witch stuff because you were just cool and funny and I liked talking to you and hanging out with you and that's all that mattered. I know this is probably hard to believe but Abigail lied and twisted my words. I said that I wanted to find out why everyone thought you were a witch because no one would tell me, they just said that you were. And I know that that sounds like I just wanted to befriend you to know why but I swear that's not it. I want to be your friend because I like you, not for any other reason."

Challan held her stare as Max finished speaking. She honestly didn't know what to say. It was... a lot. It was all too much even. Friendships shouldn't be this complicated, right?

Challan didn't even have the chance to figure out what to say to Max's words because the redhead was pulling off her backpack and unzipping it. "I have something for you." She pulled out an object and held it out to her. Challan looked down at what Max was holding.

"A Walkman?" She questioned in confusion.

Max nodded her head, "You said you didn't have one. This is my old one. Like, really old. I don't use it anymore, my dad had got me a new one a while ago so I thought I'd give this to you."

Challan stared at the Walkman for a moment before looking up at Max, uncertainty written all over her face. "So, are you trying to buy my forgiveness with this?"

Max looked at her in horror before looking down at the Walkman in her hand and realizing how this looked. "N-no! No, no, no. That's not— I didn't mean for it to look like that." She felt so stupid. So so stupid.

"Then why are you giving me this?" Challan wasn't trying to sound malicious or anything, she was genuinely just confused.

"It was more so you can listen to this." Max pulled something else out of her backpack. A cassette case holding a cassette in it. On the cover of the case, written in black sharpie, was 'Apology Mixtape: Terpsichorean Please Forgive Zoomer' written in big bold letters. On the backside of the case was a list of the songs accompanied by their respective artist.

Challan took it from her outstretched hand and looked down at it before looking up at Max, the confusion never leaving her face.

"I-it's, it's a mixtape," Max spoke timidly.

From behind her inside the house, Challan could hear a quiet "aw" followed by a "shhh." Her parents were listening in. She wanted to go in and chastise them about privacy but she was too stunned to even move.

"A mixtape?" She questioned, looking back up at Max who nodded quickly.

"I spent the past few days making it. I was struggling to figure out what to say to you in words so I thought I'd try with music. Obviously I figured out the right words now but I still want you to have this. When I was making it, I kind of wanted you to know what I think about you. I added songs that I think describe you, that just reminded me of you, that I thought you'd like, and that would tell you things that I wasn't sure how to say. I also included Heart Of Glass because you said you hadn't heard it," Max took a breath and continued, "I... I really value our friendship, despite it being new. I wanted to show that to you in a different way. So, give it a listen if you want to. You obviously don't have to but I'd appreciate it if you did. And maybe... if you're willing to forgive me, you can meet me at the arcade at 3:00? If you don't come, I'll understand and I won't ever bother you again," Max explained.

Challan could feel tears pricking in her eyes. A mixtape? She made her a mixtape? No one had ever done something like that for her before. No one outside of her family ever cared to do something nice for her. It truly meant a lot. She didn't know much about making mixtapes but it couldn't have been easy and it must have taken her a while. I spent the past few days making it, Max's words rang in her head.

Challan smiled slightly as she looked down at the mixtape. Max took notice of this, a feeling of hope beginning to swell in her chest.

"Just a heads up, I made that kind of fast so, I'm sorry if it sucks. Maybe I can make you a better one or something sometime. Or not. Uh... I... I should go," Max said, taking a step back from the door. Challan nodded her head and Max turned away before remembering the Walkman her hand. "Oh, here." She put the Walkman in Challan's hand.

"I can't take this," Challan tried handing it back but Max refused to take it.

"I want you to have it. It's more convenient than a boombox," the redhead smiled. She turned to walk away again before stopping and looking back at Challan. She opened her mouth to saying something before closing it. She sent Challan another small smile before walking away from the house.

Challan watched her leave for a moment before stepping back into the house and closing the door. She turned around to face her parents who pretended to busy themselves with other tasks. "I know you guys were listening. Not cool," she said before walking to her room.

She closed the door and looked down at the Walkman and cassette. After a moment of turning the device over, she realized that she didn't even know how to work it. She walked back out to the living room where her parents were giggling and whispering to each other, probably about what had just transpired.

"Um," the two looked over at her, "I'm not sure how to work this." Her father grinned, standing up from the couch and walking over to her.

••••

I meant to post a chapter yesterday so I can post another chapter today but that obviously didn't happen lol. The timeline with the show is a little off right now because I wanted to put a few days between their fight and now. But, everything will be back on track by the next chapter (just pretend everything wasn't happening so fast in the show).