MARLEY // Max Mayfield

Storm Cellar

Marley skidded into a docking spot at the bike wrack, yawning and rubbing at her eyes as she dismounted her saddle and stood, locking her bike frame to the station. She didn't see the need in it considering if it were to get stolen, finding the bike again would be easy thanks to the custom paint and personalisations made to the frame, but it was peace of mind to Steve and was really no trouble.

"Marley!" The girl looked to her side, seeing Dustin ride and park next to her, "Where is everyone?"

"Don't know and I do not care..." Marley grumbled, bringing her hands down her face, "Probably just gone to class..."

"Stop being a baby and do it already!"

"Apparently not," Marley sighed, turning to look in the direction Mike's voice had come from. Dustin turned and started running, leaving Marley to begrudgingly follow after him, a limp in her step. It didn't take long to find them, standing at the back of the school by the bin Marley had gone to the day, Troy and James decided to bust her nose.

"This is so disgusting. Is this really necessary?" Marley grinned, fully turning on the corner only to see Mike and Max stood around the bin, just staring up at it expectantly.

"What the hell is going on!" Dustin shouted as Marley saddled up beside him.

"What do you think? We're looking for Dart!" Mike shouted leaning on one of the pokers. Bags of trash were sent flying out of the dumpster and Marley tumbled backwards, avoiding a split bag that would have landed on her head.

"Ah jeez..." Marley grumbled, kicking off a banana peel that landed on her foot, the yellow skin piling with the trash bag in the centre.

"Well, well, well. Look who finally decided to show up. After I drew the short straw. Real convenient." Lucas said, eyeing up both Dustin and Marley as he jumped out of the bin. Marley grimaced and backed up, her hand to her nose.

"You stink!" Max frowned going over to stand in between the newcomers.

"Hi, Max," Dustin smiled. Marley bit the inside of her cheek and stared at the ground, her brows furrowing in reserved annoyance. It wasn't Dustin's fault he was crushing in the redhead and the Harrington didn't blame him, quite the contrary actually, she could really see the appeal. Max, a cool, gorgeous girl who happened to like a lot of things they liked, who wouldn't fall head over heels for her?

Still, the small resentment was there, thinking that Dustin had more a chance than her, considering, as far as she knew, Max was straighter than a pole.

"Hi..." Max responded. Marley let out a breath and looked back up, her fists still bawled up in her pockets, letting out little amounts of her pent up frustrations in small goes. "Hi, Marley."

Marley glanced up at her and nodded, "Hi..."

"Where's Will?" Dustin asked, looking around.

"He'll be here," Mike said, stabbing his poker into the floor.

"No he won't," Marley sighed and walked forward, picking up a poker left leant against the dumpster.

"How do you know?" Mike hissed, still salty from the day prior and Halloween night.

"I just know!" Marley growled, stabbing at a stray apple core and flinging it back into the bin, "Are you just gonna stand there!?" she tossed her poker to Dustin and grabbed a different one, "Or are you gonna help?"

Marley angrily stuck at a few stray pieces of trash as the rest of the party got to work in finding Dart amongst the garbage bags, waiting until the bell rang for the first period.