the girl in the woods ... // elmax

chp 4

Max Mayfield was heading to school, right after dropping off a plate of Eggos and maple syrup. A part of her wanted to stay with El, but she forced herself to leave and head off to school.

When she finally arrived back at school after having found her skateboard, she saw the party waiting for her at the entrance. 

"Someone's late," Lucas remarked as Max left her skateboard on the bike rack. 

"Someone's been stalking me again," Max countered. Lucas immediately stood up straighter and started motioning to his friends.

"What--? How is that--?" He protested, but he was cut off short by a glare from Dustin.

"Where were you yesterday?" Mike cut in, furrowing his eyebrows at a confused redhead. "We were supposed to meet up at the AV Club. Remember, to show you D&D?"

"Oh." Max cleared her throat as she watched the rest of the kids enter the school, trying to find an excuse. "Sorry. Something came up, with, uh... someone."

Lucas raised an eyebrow at her. "Someone?"

"Shut up, stalker," Max grumbled, heading inside the school with the rest of the party following suit.

"Looks like you woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," Dustin commented, eliciting a glare from the redhead as she continued down the hall to her locker.

"It's not like I woke up on the wrong side, I just--" Max quickly bit her lip to stop herself from continuing. "I just had to leave the wrong person," she decided to mutter to herself. El wasn't that talkative, which Max appreciated deeply, and a part of it was adorable, even. But the party wouldn't stop talking, contrasting El by a lot.

"Come again?" Mike asked. Max opened her locker door. He hopefully didn't hear her. If he did, that would raise some questions.

"Nothing," Max lied, about to shove her bag inside before mentally slapping herself. "Shit!" She cursed, raising the attention of a few students nearby.

"What?" Lucas questioned, then turned to see her. "Where's your bag?"

"I left it at--" her throat closed up to save herself, and she instead offered them a sarcastic smile and turned back towards the locker. Would now be a good time to hope that some books dropped out in to her locker?

"Okay, you're being weird," Mike said, observing her. "First-- someone? And now you're leaving your bag somewhere? And I swear, I heard you say something earlier."

"It's nothing," Max said again, dropping the smile to groan at them. She folded her arms. "Just-- tired. I guess. And I didn't say anything."

"Okay," Dustin decided, motioning to Mike to drop the subject. "Maybe Mr. Clarke has some spare books for his class, but I don't know about anyone else."

"Great." Max slammed the locker shut, startling all of them. "God, I should've just stayed..." she paused. "Home," she choked out. Surprisingly, the cabin felt more like home than her actual house was. Maybe it was because of Neil, or Billy, or whatever, but it helped being away from them. Being independent. 

"Right... home." Lucas turned to his friends, raising eyebrows at them to see if anyone else was questioning this.

Max suddenly turned to them, a more curious look on her face replacing the sarcastic one that was there since she left the cabin that morning. "Hey, Dustin?" She asked, and the boy standing across from her's face lit up. "You have any spare walkie-talkies?"

"Uh, yeah." Dustin rummaged around in his backpack and then tossed them to Max, and she placed them in her locker. "What is this for?"

"That someone I was talking about," she mumbled, only half-aware of what she was saying and even less aware of how loud she had actually said it.