𝟎𝟏𝟎 | Max Mayfield

Chapter One

Ten sighed, resting her hand on her cheek as she stared at Mr. Clarke; watching as his eyes danced around with excitement.

She found school absolutely fascinating; since she was raised in the Lab. A place she never wanted to think of again. And she never had to.

She had gotten really close with the Party. Dustin's mom had taken her in, after believing Dustin's lie about Ten being a orphan abandoned child. And Mike? Well, he grew closer to Ten after El's disappearance.

As she rolled her lips into her mouth, she tugged her sweater over her hands. She returned her attention back to Mr. Clarke as he placed a plastic brain figure onto his desk.

"There are a hundred billion cells inside of this miracle of evolution." Mr. Clarke exclaimed enthusiastically. "No, I did not stutter. A hundred billion."

The sound of the door opening captured everyone's attention. Shifting her gaze to the front of the classroom, Ten locked eyes with an unfamiliar redhead. Immediately, her breath hitched in her throat.

This girl was... pretty. Ten tilted her head as her eyes traveled over the redhead's body. From her smooth and silky red hair, to her scarlet red coloured jacket. Light freckles splattered across her face like paint.

"This must be our new student," Mr. Clarke observed as he shot the girl a smile.

He turned to Dustin expectantly, "Dustin. Drum roll."

Dustin closed his school book and began hitting it with his hands to imitate a drum roll sound.

"Class, please welcome, all the way from sunny California, the latest passenger to join us on our curiosity voyage, Maxine."

"It's Max," The redhead corrected in a soft voice. "Nobody calls me Maxine."

Ten's heart rate increased as Max brushed past her, to find a seat. She slumped down in an empty chair and stared back at the blonde.

Ten quickly looked away from the girl's mesmerising blue eyes and took a deep breath.

Max.

Throughout the lesson, Ten's mind kept returning back to Max. Usually her mind consisted on thoughts of Eleven.

Was she okay? Was she still out there? Could—

Max.

At lunch, the Party peered through the chain link fence at Max as she performed tricks on her skateboard.

They often ate lunch out here; the cafeteria was too loud. Ten preferred quiet. She was used to quiet.

"There's no way that's Mad Max." Mike said.

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

They had tried to teach Ten the joys of DND and arcade games but she just didn't get the hang of it. Nor did she care for games.

"And even if they did, you can't get 750,000 points on Dig Dug." Mike added. "It's impossible!"

Ten wrapped her fingers through the fence's loops.

"But her name is Max." Lucas pointed out, his eyes trained on the redhead.

"So?" Mike questioned.

"So, how many Maxes do you know?" Lucas asked.

"I don't know—"

"Zero! That's how many!" Lucas answered for him.

"Yeah, and she shows up at school the day after someone with her same name breaks our top score." Dustin said, earning a nod from Lucas.

"Exactly! So she's gotta be Mad Max." Lucas agreed. "She's gotta be!"

"And plus, she skateboards, so she's pretty awesome." Dustin added as he sighed dreamily.

"And pretty." Ten added softly.

So pretty.

"Awesome? Pretty? You guys haven't even spoken a word to her!" Mike exclaimed with exasperation as he scowled at the two.

Without any warning, Ten emerged from the group and sauntered up to Max. She clawed at her arms nervously as Max kicked her skateboard up, catching it in her right hand as she did so.

Ten walked up to Max. "Hi."

Max slowly looked over to Ten and rose an eyebrow. "Hi?"

Ten's mouth opened and closed a few times, trying to think of what to say. Then it hit her.

"Come with my friends to... Trick or treat?" She slowly asked.

Max crossed her arms as she briefly looked the blonde up and down.

"Halloween." Ten added.

"Sure is." Max added with an uninterested expression.

"Coming with?" Ten asked, mustering up all the words she'd learnt.

Max hummed in response, "I'll think about it."

"Friends?" Ten asked softly.

Max nodded, "What's your name, stalker girl?"

Ten's eyebrows scrunched up with confusion but shook it off. She did not know what a stalker was.

"Te— Rose." She lied. It wasn't a complete name. While she had gone by 010 all her life, she couldn't exactly call herself that in school.

One morning, Dustin had showed her a book of names and let her choose. The name Rose just stood out to her; she liked it.

"Pretty name," Max complimented.

Ten's eyes widened slightly as a smile crept onto her face.

Max briefly glanced towards the chain link fence and back to Ten. She reached down in her jacket pockets, pulling out a pencil and a piece of paper.

She wrote something down and handed the paper to Ten.

Ten felt her face blushing as their hands met. Max's hand was soft and warm.

Ten's hand shook as she took the paper from the redhead.

"Give this to your friends." Max instructed before heading into the school.

Ten stood frozen for a moment as the others ran up to her.

"What happened?" Will spoke first.

"Why'd you do that?" Mike asked with wide eyes. "You can't just—"

"What'd she say?" Dustin asked eagerly.

Ten handed him the note Max had given her.

"Here we go," Dustin drawled out as he took the note from her hands and began to read it.

Stop Spying on me CREEPS!

"Well, shit." Dustin cursed under his breath.

"I asked her to come trick or treat." Ten blurted out to the four.

"You what?!" Mike exclaimed. "Why did you do that?"

"Friends." Ten added nervously as she glanced between the boys.

Dustin and Lucas shared an excited look.

"She's not a friend!" Mike spat with irritation. "We don't even know her!"

The bell rung, preventing the situation from escalating.

Mike let out a long huff before stalking off to his next class.