ｏｃｔｏｂｅｒ １９８４

Asher had reluctantly shown up to school today. For the past week, Asher had been skipping school to hang out with Eddie, but after staying at the Henderson household the night before, Claudia had forced him to go in. In her very own words, 'it's your last year of middle school, make the most of it' which Asher thought was complete and utter bullshit, but he could never say no to Claudia, so he came into school.

"What you guys doing?" Asher asks as he walks over to Dustin, Lucas, Will and Mike. Asher didn't really know Dustin's friends that well, but he had no one else to talk to and he ended up getting bored, so why not go and see what Dustin's friends are like.

"None of your business" Mike bluntly says, not even turning around to face Asher.

"Well, aren't you just a little ball of sunshine" Asher sarcastically says as Dustin turns around to face his older brother.

"Remember the person I told you about? MadMax?" Dustin asks, making Asher nod his head "Well, we think that's her" Dustin says, pointing over to a girl with red hair, riding her skateboard around.

"How many Maxes do you know? It's obviously her" Lucas tells Dustin.

"And why are you guys stalking her instead of going over to talk to her like any sane person?" Asher asks the group "And this is coming from someone who is never sane."

"You are a sane person... when you're not high" Dustin mentions before looking at Asher's eyes "Are you high right now?"

"Maybe" Asher says with a shrug "What's so special about this girl anyways? So she got the high score on a game, big deal."

"But girls don't play video games" Lucas says "Especially cool girls."

"Cool? Have you even spoken a word to her?" Asher asks with a laugh, finding the boys ridiculous.

"I don't want to admit it but I agree with this stoner" Mike says, rolling his eyes.

"I don't have to speak to her. I mean, look at her" Dustin says, turning back to look at Max, seeing she is no longer there "Shit, I've lost the target."

"Oh, there" Will says, looking over to the side, seeing Max walking back up the stairs to go back into the school, right before dropping something into the trash can. Asher couldn't really see her all that well. All he could really see was the bright red hair that sat on her head and the skateboard that she was holding in her arms.

"I swear to God if you--" Asher goes to say, right before the four boys run over to the trash can "And you're gonna do it. For fuck sake" Asher mumbles with a sigh before following the boys over, seeing Dustin basically hanging into the trash can "Dude, that's disgusting."

"No it's not. Got it. There we go" Dustin mentions, getting out of the trash with the piece of paper in his hands before unfolding it.

"Stop spying on me creeps" The five boys all read out at the same time.

"I like this girl" Asher says with a laugh "I've never met her, but I like her."

TIME SKIP BY MAX AND ASHER

The next day at school, Asher was hanging out at Dustin's locker, watching his little brother stare over at Max. If Asher was being honest, he didn't see what was so special about the girl. Yes, he had to admit she is pretty, but apart from that, there wasn't anything that special about her that Asher could point out. Max just seemed like one of those girls who acted angry all of the time to seem cool. But that is just Asher's opinion.

"Dude, are you going to talk to her or are you just going to creepily stare at her?" Asher asks Dustin, making the younger boy shift his focus onto Asher.

"What... what are you talking about?" Dustin asks Asher.

"If you like her so much, just go and talk to her" Asher points out, making Dustin roll his eyes "It's not that hard to just walk over and talk to her."

"If it's so easy then you go and talk to her" Dustin mentions, making Asher smile.

"Okay" Asher says, still smiling, before walking over to Max's locker, leaning against the one next to it "Nice skateboard."

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Max asks as she turns to look at Asher.

"I'm Ash, and you're Max, right?" Asher asks, making Max look up at Asher in shock.

Even though Max had only been in Hawkins for a few days, she had already heard of Asher, and none of it was good. A violent, trash-mouth,druggie, kleptomaniac who's probably never going to graduate from middle school, never mind high school. Everyone who had brought up Asher had said the same thing to her 'stay away from Asher as much as you can and always be careful whenever you're around him'. So, having Asher willingly talking to her wasn't something that Max really wanted.

"How do you know that?" Max asks Asher warily.

"Well, my brother seems to like you a bit" Asher says, pointing over at Dustin "I mean, you did beat his high score in that video game he loves. He was impressed. Sad, but impressed."

"What, so he sent you over here to be his wing-man or something?" Max asks with a scoff, already wanting to be done with the conversation.

"Nope" Asher says with a smile "I just wanted to see what the big deal was about you, that's all."

"The big deal? Are you seriously treating me like I'm some prize or something?" Max asks Asher with a glare.

"You know, normally I don't get people talking to me like that... I don't really know what to say now" Asher admits. Asher knew that high school would be his reality check, but at middle school, no one ever dared to talk to him like Max has. Everyone else was too scared to talk bad about Asher, but Max didn't seem to care. Asher liked that about her.

"You so used to people bowing down to you?" Max asks Asher.

"More like running away from me" Asher corrects Max, making her roll her eyes "But I'm honestly not saying it as a bad thing. You're sticking up for yourself, even to me. I like it."

"Wow, I'm so honored" Max sarcastically says to Asher "Look, just tell your brother that if he wants to speak to me, then he can man up and do it himself. He doesn't need to send his big brother."

"I'll let him know" Asher says with a nod before walking away from the girl.

Now, at this time, Asher didn't realise it... but looking back at it, this was the moment he fell for Max. In this moment, Asher had found the girl that he wanted, but because he knew that Dustin had a crush on him, he pushed all those thoughts to the side and forgot about them until the summer of 1985. It took Asher over a year to finally get the girl and he didn't want to give her up anytime soon.

1187 Words
Welcome to season five of rewrite the stars! I know the season isn't out yet but I wanted to post this as a little teaser for this season! Since Max is in a coma for a bit of season five, I really want to focus on Asher and his trauma this season, so I hope you're all ready for a very depressing season!