Heartbreaker (Mileven AU)

a new crowd

Jane needed to step up her game if this was all going to go to plan. Mike was oblivious to the flutter of her eyelashes and never seemed to understand her hints for him to ask her out. She didn't want this to have to go on for much longer, if she could just prove it to Troy then she could stop worrying about it. 

The next day at school, Jane's eyes scanned the cafeteria until they landed on his familiar dark hair and knitted sweater. He was sat on the corner table with his friends Dustin, Lucas and Will, all looking like they were in the middle of some heated debate, with Will trying to calm them all down. Jane watched reluctantly for a few moments, not used to sitting in the cafeteria and especially with no experience whatsoever of making new friends. It was more than getting the other boys to find her pretty, she had to make them like her as a person, something that she never seemed to be good at. 

She gulped nervously and plastered on a sweet smile, plopping down in the chair next to Mike with enthusiasm. 

They all seemed to stutter into silence, staring at her expectantly as if she was in the wrong place. Lucas had his eyes narrowed as if wondering what her intentions were, Dustin was looking around with wide eyes as if to work out if she was being dared and Will just looked plain confused. Jane smiled brightly at Mike who furrowed his eyebrows as he bit into his green apple, wondering what she was up to. 

"Hi."

She looked at the other boys but they just glanced at Mike, as if prompting him to say something or to tell them what was going on. Poor Mike looked just as confused as Jane tried not to laugh at how panicked they all looked that someone was talking to them. 

"Uh-hi?" Mike mumbled around his apple. 

Jane shuffled slightly closer and rested her chin on her palm. "You don't mind me sitting here, do you? I wanted to meet your friends."

"You did?" Mike raised his eyebrows. 

She rolled her eyes slightly, turning to his friends with an awkward smile. She held her hand out, trying to seem as friendly as possible. "Hi...I'm Jane. Mike is tutoring me in Earth and Biology."

Dustin was the only one who plastered a grin on his face, despite it still being hesitant, and he shook her hand enthusiastically. "I'm Dustin, nice to meet you, Jane! Do you happen to have any chocolate pudding? They told me they ran out which is bullshit."

Mike opened his mouth to instruct him to shut his mouth, but was stopped when Jane laughed softly, reaching down into her bag. She tossed him a pudding container, the plastic smacking down on the table lightly. Dustin's eyes lit up and he grabbed it gratefully, digging into the sweet snack almost instantly. 

Jane shrugged at Mike's surprised face. "I don't really like it much."

"I like her already, Mike" Dustin grinned over a mouthful of chocolate pudding. 

Mike coughed, his cheeks turning slightly red and Jane laughed. She turned and smiled again at Lucas and Will, both of them sending her small smiles of their own, but Lucas still had his arms crossed over his chest as if trying to figure her out. 

"Don't you usually sit with Max Mayfield?" he asked carefully. 

Jane waved a hand in her air dismissively, "Yeah, but she wanted to skateboard today. Not really my thing, you know? Do you know her?"

Lucas quickly looked down. "No..Not really."

Jane felt her insides melt as she remembered the pair always shooting each other small smiles from across the room. Max never opened up about boys, always skateboarding or working on her schoolwork to catch up from when she moved to Hawkins a year ago. Jane knew that Max always defended Lucas, calling him the coolest nerd out of the bunch, always skating around his neighborhood in case she bumped into him.