·˚ [bring me the sun] ! ˊ

ᵃʳᶜᵃᵈᵉ.

⁽ᵉᵖⁱˢᵒᵈᵉ ⁱ ; ᴹᴬᴰᴹᴬˣ⁾

isabella harrington scrambles around her house, stumbling into the walls, and nearly slipping on a plate of spaghetti her idiotic half-brother left out on the floor. she tuts, stopping to shake her foot free of sauce, before resuming her frantic search. the girl tears apart the sofa cushions, before revealing three silver quarters wedged in a deep crevice. with a grin, she retrieves them, and stuffs the money in her already bulging pocket.

"isa, do you copy? isa, you there?" ; a voice comes from her spare hand.

"yeah, i copy, lucas. i got, uh, about four dollars? steve already took all the damn money yesterday," ; isa groans, keeping the walkie talkie in her grasp as she pulls on her socks and shoes.

"can you call mike? i have no idea what channel he's on," ; a different voice speaks - dustin. she agrees, and switches the channel to one she knows she's gonna find mike on.

sure enough, she catches the end of whatever he's saying, and calls for him. mike curses, and isa hears scattering around which she assumes is his desperate dash for cash. she counts the seconds until she hears...

"mike!" ; a muffled female voice yells from the background. ah, there it is, good old mike stealing from his poor siblings again. it's not like isa just did that, or anything.

isabella grabs a jacket, tugging it over her shoulders while taking care of the walkie. she walks over to her bike and mounts it, beginning to pedal towards one of her favourite spots in the world - the arcade! the boys always said that girls couldn't game, but isa had proved herself many times over. she was second only to dustin on dig dug, and first on tetris - her reaction time was unchartered. perhaps she was, like, the only girl who was interested in that kind of stuff anyway.

she finally reaches the arcade, bright lights showering the sidewalk with yellow, purple and red as dusk begins to fall upon hawkins. isa dismounts her bike, watching lucas, dustin and mike pull up beside her simultaneously. will isn't far behind, in the passenger seat of his mom's car - obviously, mrs byers won't leave him alone after the 'incident' last year, and rightfully so. isa doesn't want a repeat of last year, not at all. nobody in the town deserves to go through all that bullshit again.

"to slay the dragon, use the magic sword."

dustin has his hands on the controls, while all the others are crowded around the machine, watching eagerly as their friend struggles with the joystick.

"oh, jesus, guys, i'm in unchartered territory here," ; dustin vents, trying to take the advice of his friends as they yell instructions at him from all sides.

the suspense is building up, until...

"NO! no, no, no! i hate this overpriced bullshit! son of a bitch!"

dustin is kicking the machine, as the others around him back up and the princess daphne comes on-screen in her beautiful, sleek white dress, with a simple 'try again next time' in her lovely, soft voice. lucas blows her a kiss, and then turns to dustin.

"aw, until next time, dustin! until then, princess daphne is still mine," ; he coos.

"- and mine! don't forget i helped you on that game, you dickhead," ; isa adds.

dustin grumbles, and stops kicking the machine as the screen pointedly flicks back to the highscores, displaying the name 'LUCAS' at the very top.

"whatever, i'm still tops on centipede and dig dug," ; the game loser murmurs, not noticing an arcade worker holding a bag of cheese puffs come up behind him with a sly grin.

"you sure about that?" ; keith grins, stuffing a handful of cheese puffs into his mouth.

the teenagers follow his gaze to the dig dug arcade game, and dustin breaks into a chorus of 'no, no's', and they all dash towards it, in awe as they notice the score that has pushed the former champion down to second place, and isa down to third.

"aw, come on! let's find this idiot and show them ... " ; isa pauses to read the name, and the numbers associated with it.

"751,300 points?! that's impossible!" ; dustin booms, pointing at the score with the name 'MADMAX' written next to it.

isa ignores the conversation that ensues, but she assumes the boys are being idiotic again, begging keith to tell them who the hell 'mad max' is, and probably where he lives so they can 'beat him up.' what isabella is focused on is will's sudden disappearance. she's got no idea where he is, but he isn't here anymore, so she zones out of the argument that's going on around her, and begins to scan the arcade.

huh, curious. he's not actually here. there are many boys playing different machines, with the occasional girl, but isa can't see any... will haircut. it's pretty trademarked by now, and she keeps begging him to change it, but she assumes mrs. byers cuts his hair.

"hey, guys? where's will?" ; isa questions, bringing the group to their senses.

mike immediately spots will outside, and dashes towards him. isabella scoffs - he seems to really care about will. instead, she's focusing more on the arcade machine. who the hell is MADMAX?

and why did they have the audacity to push her down to third? isa harrington is NEVER third.

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word count; 931

hey, hey! this is a very short chapter, so i'm sorry about that, i didn't mean for it to be this short. i'm looking forward to having max and isa meet, so eeeeeee! i've got something to manifest! i hope you know a bit more about her relationship with the boys now, and her overall personality, which i LOVE, and think will work very well with max.

until next time!