• 𝙹𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝙰𝚗𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝙳𝚊𝚢 - 𝙾𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚘 𝙱𝚘𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚘 •

Beatrice was sitting at her desk, again. She has found herself there a lot recently. She has covered over half of the book Will gave her for Christmas last year. Her parents even bought her a big case of colored pencils and crayons.

Whenever Bea's pen or pencil touched the paper, she was in another world. Time would fly. What felt like minutes turned out to be a couple of hours.

Currently, she was drawing a creature. She doesn't even know what it is. It has four legs with three legs/fingers attached. It also has an oddly shaped head. There seems to be what looks like a tail in there (?) Who knows? Bea clearly doesn't.

Her brain is saying that because it's so close to Halloween, her mind is making up scary monsters and she's just drawing what she comes up with.

Her gut, on the other hand, is saying it's a banshee thing. That something bad is going to happen. But what would happen? It's been good for so long, why ruin it? But her head is also telling her to listen to her instincts.

Brain pick a side!

The inner fight with her mind and her gut was cut off from static coming from the left of her desk. Her walkie-talkie was going in and out. And then she remembered: Her and the party had plans to go to the arcade today.

She grabbed the communication device and pulled up the antenna. "Bea. Beatrice, do you copy?"

"Yes, I copy. Over." She answered as she reached for her piggy-bank.

"God, do you know how long we've been trying to reach you?" Dustin complained.

Pressing the button, she replies, "Sorry, sorry. I lost track of time."

"Drawing again?" The voice of Will was heard coming from her walkie-talkie.

"Yeah. But that's besides the point. How much you got?" She asked, talking about money as she counts her quarters.

Lucas spoke, "Yeah we've got a good amount. When are you gonna get here?"

"Um, gimme a sec. I'll get some more coins and I'll have my dad drop me off. See you in a bit. Over and out." She pushed the antenna back down.

Beatrice grabbed about five dollars worth of quarters from her piggy-bank and ran out of her room. When she reached the living room, her dad was nowhere to be found. She was about to ask her mom when she was cut off. "Outside."

Surely enough, when Bea went outside, there was her dad, waiting for her in the driver's seat. This has happened on multiple occasions. She would lose track of time and race to leave and go to the arcade. It's become a sort of routine.

As soon as she clicked her seatbelt in, her dad started driving her to the arcade. It didn't take that long and it was good because she saw the boys pull up at the same time.

Wherever Beatrice goes, she needs a parent to drive her. Her parents are deathly worried about their other child going missing. They never want it to happen again. Hell, they wouldn't wish for it to happen in the first place.

It's okay because she's not the only one. Joyce brings Will wherever he goes, too. At least they're in this together, y'know?

"Okay, Joyce already said that she'll pick you up and bring you home tonight." Mr. Holland informed his daughter.

Bea rushes out of the car. "Got it. Love you, bye dad."

When she reached the boys, Will was walking up to the group. They all went into the arcade, took their money out, and started playing some games.

"Oh, Jesus! I'm in uncharted territory here, guys." Dustin said as he played Dragons Lair.

The friends all yell for Dustin to move the switch up and down, left and right, yada, yada, yada. It's not important since his player dies in the end, anyway.

"I hate this overpriced bullshit!" Dustin yells as he punches and kicks the side of the video game. "Son of a bitch!"

"You're not nimble enough. But you'll get there one day. But until then, Princess Daphne is still mine" Lucas gloated.

"Y'know, whatever. I'm still tops on Centipede and Dig Dug." Dustin boasts with a shrug.

"You sure about that?" Keith — a worker at the arcade — asked suggestively as he ate his cheese puffs.

"Sure about what?" Dustin asked, not following. When he realizes the teens vague question, he sprints all the way to Dig Dug and sure enough, he wasn't number one. "751,300 points!"

"That's impossible." Mike stares astonished at the score.

"It's impressive." Bea shrugs, earning a glare from Dustin.

Dustin turned to Keith. "Who's Madmax?"

"Better than you." He chewed, which resulted in the boy flipping him off.

Will points to him. "Is it you?"

He scoffs, "You know I despise Dig Dug." He shoves another cheese puff into his mouth.

"Then who is it?" Lucas asks simply.

"Yeah, spill it, Keith." Dustin spits.

"You want information, then I need something in return." He eyes suggestively at Mike. The kids all knows where this is going.

Beatrice gags at the thought. "Ew. Oh, my God."

"No way. You're not getting a date with her." Mike finalized. He will not be setting up this creep with his sister!

Lucas pleads, "Mike, come on. Just get him the date."

"Are you serious?" Bea asked with a scoff.

"I'm not prostituting my sister!" He argues.

"But it's for a good cause."

"No, don't get him the date."

Bea threw her arms up in the air happily. "Thank you!"

"Y'know what?" Dustin continues, "He's gonna spread his nasty-ass rash to your whole family."

"Acne isn't a rash and it isn't contagious, you prepubescent wastoid." Keith defends his 'rash'.

Dustin continues to bicker with Keith. Honestly he's kinda annoying. Keith, not Dustin. Well, Dustin is a little bit, but Keith is really annoying. Like, really annoying. Dustin is like a cute little bean.

Bea was interrupted from her thoughts when she noticed Mike walk towards the door. That's when she realized Will wasn't with them anymore.

"You, okay?" Mike asked after the pair found Will staring at the sky in front of the arcade.

"Yeah, I just. I needed some air." He stammered, looking out at night the sky.

The two walk over to him. "Come on." Mike put his arms around his friends.

"Yeah, you're up on Dig Dug." Bea smiles.

"Let's take that top score back, huh?" Mike suggests as the three of them walk back into the arcade.

When nine rolled around, it was time for them to go home. Like promised, Joyce dropped Beatrice back off at the Holland's house. Bea had fun tonight. But, it took her a while to fall asleep.

She could've sworn she saw her drawing in the sky when she went out for Will.

•••••

When Beatrice woke up this morning, everything was a blur. She did her normal routine, ate breakfast, and before she left, she was reminded that Nancy and Steve were coming to the house tonight for dinner.

Today, Jonathan picked her up and brought her to school with Will. It's fun carpooling with them. They talked about school, drawing, and Jon's photography.

Sometimes Bea gets picked up by Bob Newby. He is Joyce's boyfriend. When Beatrice first met him they became really close. Bob is the best. Sometimes Bea goes to the Byers just to talk to Bob. He's like a child but an adult at the same time, y'know? It's refreshing to be friends with an adult and they don't parent you.

When opening her locker, Bea saw that Will had something in his hand. A newspaper article of how he came back to life with writing on it that says, "'Zombie Boy'?"

"Uhm, yeah, don't worry. Let's get to class." Will dismissed, crumbling the paper as the bell rang.

Grabbing their books and shutting their lockers, the best friends walked together to Mr. Clarke's science class. The entire party has this class together. The four boys sit in the front in a square formation, while Beatrice sits two seats behind Will. She likes sitting in the back. She gets to see everything.

"Meet the human brain." Mr. Clarke started class by placing a brain diagram down on his desk. "I know, I know, it doesn't look like much. A little gross even, right?" The class nods. "But consider this. There are a hundred billion cells inside of this miracle of evolution. All working as one."

And that's when Bea zones out. She opened a blank page of her art book and began a sketch. The drawing is not like the others. It's not a monster, or a person, but a skateboard. Just some random skateboard. She shrugs as she's sure she saw it once from one of her classmates or something.

The classroom door slams open and all the students' heads snap in that direction. Bea wouldn't be surprised if they all got whiplash from that. Apparently it's a new student. She has red hair. That's all Bea took notice of before she went back to drawing.

Beatrice was brought back, from her teacher calling on her. "Huh?" She hummed as she snapped her head up.

"Beatrice, I was asking if you could raise your hand to show who, Maxine— Max, is sitting next to."

"Oh, sorry." She apologized sheepishly as she slightly raised her hand for the red haired girl.

"Oh, great. Another ginger." Some boy in the class sighed loudly.

"I'm strawberry blonde."

"She's strawberry blonde."

Both girls snapped as Max went to her desk. Bea looked at the girl and smiled as a 'thank you'. She didn't even connect the dots that this could be Madmax until she saw the boys looking at her as a way of telling her to talk to the new girl.

"Hi. I'm Beatrice, but please call me Bea." The now established strawberry blonde said to the ginger.

"Max, but, uh, I guess you already knew that." Bea chuckled quietly as Mr. Clarke went back to teaching.

"Yeah." She looks at the boys, tilting her head to tell them to face the front before turning back at the girl to her left. "Uhm. Do you play video games?"

"Yeah, I love them. You?"

"I dabble." She shrugged shyly.

"You skateboard?"

"Huh? Oh, no, no way. I don't even own a skateboard."

"Well you're really good at drawing them." Max complimented.

When Bea looks back at her notebook, she sees what Max was talking about. How did she draw it in so much detail?

"It kinda looks like mine. Pretty cool." Max added as she faces the front to focus on what her new teacher is teaching.

Beatrice is still staring at her drawing. She doesn't even remember shading in the wheels. When she looks up she sees the boys staring at her in confusion, she sends them a small smile to say that she's okay. They all turn back around except Will. He doesn't believe that she's actually okay. He would know. He's a master at disguising his emotions.

She gives him a curt nod and another smile. He doesn't budge. She sent him a double thumbs-up and the only reason he turned around was because Mr. Clarke was teaching and he needed to pay attention.

Now the only question is; Is this really Max's skateboard?

•••••

"There's no way that's Mad Max." Mike spoke in disbelief. The party was hiding behind a bench, watching Max skateboard on the basketball court.

Will agreed, "Yeah. Girls don't play video games."

"Since when was I a boy?" Bea asked. She plays video games and last time she checked, she's a girl.

Mike waves her off and continues, "And even if they did, you can't get 750,000 points on Dig Dug."

"Well, she did." Bea concluded.

"But her name is Max." Lucas states.

"So what?"

"So, how many Max's do you know?"

"One. Just met her today. Sits next to me in science class. Said she loves video games and skateboarding. Which, coincidentally, is what I was drawing when she sat down."

"See. This is the only Max here. Probably the only one in town." Lucas answered his own question, agreeing with Beatrice. Everyone else seemed to be ignoring her.

"I'm gonna go talk to her." Bea got the courage and as she was about to leave, she was stopped by Dustin pulling on her backpack.

"No. We don't engage, we just observe."

"Do you know how creepy that sounds? And, besides, she seems nice and I want to be her friend. So, I'm going."

As Beatrice walks away from them she notices Max walking into the school. She runs up a bit to catch up with her, noticing that she dropped a piece of paper in the trash can before opening the door and walking inside.

Bea follows, wanting to talk to the girl. "Hey! Hey, Max!"

"Yeah?" The girl questioned and turned around.

Beatrice clears her throat. "Um, I'm guessing you saw us, right." Max nods. "Just wanted to say that I suggested going up and talking to you but no one agreed so here I am." Awkward silence. Nice! "Uh, I was wondering if we could be friends and the best way to do that was to actually talk to you."

"Yeah. I'm guessing you're the smart one?" She jokes.

She nods. "Definitely in social skills, that's for sure." They both laugh.

Max shrugs with a small smile. "You seem chill. I'm down to be friends."

"Great, yes. You can teach me how to skateboard and I can teach you how to draw them."

"Yeah, yeah. Sounds good. Listen, I have to go. My step-brother is going to be pissed if I'm late. See you tomorrow." Max began to slowly walk away.

"Yeah, and, uh, Happy — early — Halloween."

"You, too."

When Bea goes back to where the boys were — surrounding the garbage can — she notices one missing. Will.

"Doctors?" They all nodded at her question.

It's a weekly occurrence. Will goes to this therapy-like thing and talks about what happened to him last year. He's talked to Beatrice about it a little. He never really goes into detail and Bea's okay with that. He doesn't have to tell her. It's traumatic. And she never pushes him. Whatever he says, he tells her on his own.

All she hopes is that he's getting better.

•••••

(🕰) T TIME!

max + bea = bffs fr 🤞🤞🤞

should their friendship name is bax or mea ?? i need you guys to pick or make one 🙏

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