Peter shook his head to get the water free from his hair, El opening Heathers front door as the three walked inside. He'd been freezing, the thin shirt and the rain jacket giving him no justice. El still had his jacket under her own rain coat, her reds while Max had yellow, Peters white from a quick buy at a near by store.

The three walked down the small hallway, hearing murmurs from down the hall. Peter sighed, he didn't want to but he did anyways, stepping infront of El and Max to lead the way. He walked painfully slow, wanting to coward behind one of them but ended up rounded the corner, standing face to face with a laughing woman, Billy Hargrove, and a man sipping at his drink. The girls came up on either of his side, the three at the table gapping their way.

"Max." Billy greater after loosing his initial shock at the sight of her.

"We didn't mean to barge in." Max spoke up quickly for the three, the questionable and odd faces from the two adults at the table enough to scare Peter into silence, "We tried to knock, but maybe you didn't hear us over the storm."

"I'm sorry, who is this dripping all over my living room right now?" the man at the end of the table spoke up, looking at the three.

"Peter Clarke, sir." the boy snapped out of his coward like state, a charming smile across his face, "I believe you've done business with my father before, you look oddly familiar. Shane Clarke wouldn't happen to ring a bell, would it?"

What a people pleaser he was. Pulling the rich daddy card probably saved the three a lot more trouble.

"Ah, sure, helped me purchase the shop across from his smoothie place." the man smiled, becoming a lot less tense now that he knew who's kid this was, "How is your father, son?"

"Just great, sir." Peter nodded, a fake smile plastered across his lips.

"Janet, Tom, this is my sister Maxine." Billy introduced Max to the pair, motioning to the redhead who stood on Peters left, "What on earth are you doing here? Is something wrong?"

El saw the same fake act on Billy as she did on Peter.

"We just wanted to make sure everything was okay." Max looked up at her stepbrother.

"Okay? Why wouldn't it be okay?" Billy gave a questionable look toward the girl.

"Where is she?" El demanded to know an answer.

Billy looks her way, a chilling look dancing around his unrecognizable eyes, "I'm sorry, where is who?"

Peter caught the odd, questionable looks Tom and Janes were giving El. Panic set in, worry that they could possibly be smart enough to put two and two together and end up figuring out El was the random russian girl that was talked about a while back. Peter latched onto El's hand with a quick smile, "She isn't from Hawkins, we met at camp last summer."

"Oh, how sweet." Janes grinned.

"Well, they're a little burnt, i'm sorry-" Heather began as she walking into the dining room, the three looking over quickly with shocked expression to see she'd been okay.

"Heather! This is my sister, Maxine, and new friend Peter." Billy introduced the three before his eyes fell onto El, Peters hand still latched up with hers, "And, i'm sorry, I did not quite catch your name."

El stared at him, chin rose slightly, "El."

"From Indianapolis." Peter grinned, making up the story to cover her better, "Just visiting me for the summer."

"Now what is it you were saying, El? You were looking for somebody?" Billy asked her with a minor nod to his head.

El's gaze went over toward Heather, a look of confusion escaping her hazel eyes, "I-I- saw-"

"Your manager!" Max cut her off.

"Getting electrocuted!" Peter added in quickly after due to a wave of panic crashing through his heart. Max kicked him with her ankle, "He- well, I mean- he was talking about getting electrocuted."

"He said you guys didn't come in to work today, so we got worried." Max saved not only El, but also Peters over the top lie.

"Heather wasn't feeling so hot today, so we thought we'd take the day off to nurse her back to health." Billy smiled down at the redhead girl, "But you're feeling just fine right now, aren't you, Heather?"

"I'm feeling so much better." Heather smiled with a nod of her head, the curls bunched up behind her head bounced slightly when she did so. El stared up at Billy in disbelief, "Do you three want a cookie? They're fresh out of the oven."

The thing was, it wasn't that Max or El found Peter ugly, but neither really noticed how stupidly beautiful he was until right now. He'd taken a shower, hair wet, teeth brushed, and was now using a very strong, seemingly expensive, cleanser and moisturizer. El wondered if it was just for the scar from the corner of his eye to his mouth, or if it was meant for his entire face.

"Do you think he's-" Max began.

"Yes." El cut her off, the pair sharing a look as Peter paid them no mind, packing up the face wash into the small bag he brought into the bathroom with him, "You said, people at school-"

"Obsessed with him." Max rolled her eyes, "You should have seen the girls in December. They were all like 'Peter, take me to the snowball.' 'Peter, do you have a date to the snowball.' 'Please, let's go together.' It was sick, I wanted to yank my ear drums out."

"Who did he go with?" El asked. She found it weird she didn't notice him that night. Yes, she wasn't there long, but now she just felt as though she'd definitely have seen him of all people.

"No one, I don't think. I didn't really pay attention that night but he was never with anyone." Max shook her head, both of them shutting up as the bathroom door shut and Peter walked in, his face glazed over like a donut as he dropped his small bag nearest his large backpack. His scar stood out more now, it probably wouldn't so bad if he wasn't so pale, "Finally, you're here. We can't decide on a comic book."

"El, you've probably read a lot of those cooped up in your cabin with just boys to hang out with." Peter looked over at her as he took his seat on the small mattress Max's mom pulled into her room for him. El seemed a bit out of it, staring off slightly.

"Hey, there's nothing to worry about anymore, okay?" Max looked at her, El didn't seem very convinced though as she exhaled and shook her head.

"It doesn't make sense." she said to her.

"What doesn't make sense?" Max asked curiously.

"Heather." El sighed, "The blood. The ice."

"El." Peter leaned on her bed some, his hand nudging her knee, "When I get a fever, my mom makes me take really cold baths. It's horrible but it brings it down a lot. That's probably what happened."

"That has to be it. I don't know where that blood came from, but we saw her. All three of us saw her. She's totally fine." Max added into Peters words, both of them putting their entirely full attention onto El.

El looked at her, "What about Billy?"

"Weirdo." Peter twisted his finger near his head.

"He seemed wrong." El said, looking from Max next to her on the bed, to Peter on the ground on her other side.

Max laughed slightly, "Wrong is kind of like his default. But it's nice to know he's not a murderer, because that would've totally sucked."

El cracked a grin, eyes casting over toward the comic books again, "Who... is that?"

Max huffed, "See, this is why you can't just hang out with Mike all the time. This is Wonder Woman. AKA Princess Diana."

Night fall came rather quickly, Max passing out not too long after she finished the comic. Peter was taking a bit longer to fall asleep, the mattress rather uncomfortable and the tiny throw blanket not covering past mid calf. El tossing around caught his attention, sitting up. El stared at him when he sat up, now face to face, "Are you awake?"

El blinked at him, slowly crawling out of the bed when he stood up. She followed him toward the window across the room, pushing it open. Max had a small window seat, Peter sitting down with his legs out the window while holding a hand out, helping El do the same from next to him, "See that star up there?"

El followed is finger, one specific star brighter and bigger then the rest, "My brother says that the brightest star in the sky is suppose to talk to you."

"Talk to you?" El gave a weird look.

"Tell you something you need to know, especially when you can't sleep. I don't know if it's true, but he's really into all that stuff." Peter looked up at the star, El doing the same as they sat with their shoulder pressed together, "Is it telling you anything?"

"Something isn't right." El admitted as he looked over at her, "Telling the truth."

Peter sighed, "If you really think so, I believe you."

She turned to him with a nod, "What's it telling you?"

"What?" Peter gave a odd look.

El pointed at the star again.

"Oh." Peter gave a small laugh, "I think it's telling me that running away was a pretty good idea."

El rose her eyebrows as Peter went on, "Like, 'Hey, Peter, it's the star in the sky telling you that being in a bunch of trouble when you go home is gonna be worth it.' That's what I heard."

El laughed slightly at his words, kicking her legs, "I'm not allowed to go anywhere either."

"Totally sucks, doesn't it?" Peter sighed as El nodded, "Maybe now that your dad sees the government isn't gonna take you, you'll be able to go out more."

"Like school?" El rose one eyebrow.

Peter squinted his eyebrows, "School? Why would you want to go to school?"

El blinked, "Don't like school?"

"No." Peter gave a half way offended and grossed out look, "It's the worse. I have no friends and I can't do math."

"Max says everyone wants to be your friend." El gave him a weird look.

"Yeah, but not because of me, because they think it'll make them cool or something. My dad knows a lot of people, so a lot of people know me." Peter tried to explain without sounded like a complete asshole, "I don't want to be like him, ever."

"Not me and Max." El pointed out.

Peter smiled, making her do the same, "Yeah, not you and Max."

"When I go to school-"El began, frowning her eyebrows together oddly, "Will we still be friends?"

Peter looked over at her, blinking for a second before he smiled, "Yeah, we'll be friends and we can eat lunch together. My mom makes these really amazing turkey club sandwiches, you can have the other half. It's gonna blow your mind."

El grinned, "Yeah, blow my mind."

•

kylie speaks

babiessssss cryinggggg
awwww! we're gonna learn
more about the scar on peters
face soon, i'm just looking for
the right time for him to talk
about it bc it's personal to him!