MADELINE, dustin henderson

|006

The final bell rings and me, Max, Dustin, and Lucas are in the classroom, ready to show Dart to Mr. Clarke.

"This is why I was late for class," Dustin states, having the proton pack with Dart in front of him.

"Pretty neat, these doors function?" he asks, looking down at the trap.

"That's the bare minimum of what we're about to show you today." I smile.

"Consider my interest piqued," Mr. Clarke says.

"Alright, first, let's just clarify that this is my discovery, not yours," Dustin says and I sigh in frustration.

"Dustin, Jesus. Just show him!" Lucas exclaims and I nod.

"Yeah, come on!" I say.

"Alright, I'm just trying to clarify—"

"Dustin!" Max cuts him off.

"Okay, fine," Dustin says. Suddenly, the door swings open. We all look at who rushed in, seeing Mike and Will.

"Stop!" Mike says and reaches the desk.

"I'm really sorry, Mr. Clarke. It was just a stupid prank," he exclaims and grabs the proton pack that holds the creature inside.

"What the hell are you doing?" Dustin asks.

"We need to go, right now. Right now!" Mike shouts and we all run after him.

-

Max pounds on the AV club's door as I sit on the floor, leaning on the wall.

"Hello? Hello? Guys, can we come in yet?" she asks in frustration.

"No!" Mike yells from the inside and Max pounds on the door once more.

"Max, let them do whatever they're doing," I say and she sighs.

"Yeah, well if they would want us in their Party, they wouldn't act like this!" Max states and sits up against the wall too.

"Hey, as you said. If we don't make friends, we still have each other," I say and she turns to me, a small smile showing. She sighs.

"Okay, okay. Fine," she says and looks to the ground. Suddenly, we hear something from the inside of the room. A... screech of some sort. Max and I share a look and nod. We start pounding on the door again.

"Guys, what's going on? Come on!" Max says.

"Let us in, guys! You're concerning us!" I yell, but it leads to nothing. We lean on the wall again. Max looks at her backpack and grabs it.

"Max, what are you doing," I mutter, but she takes a paperclip from her textbook.

"Max!" I say, but she straightens the paperclip and puts it in the lock.

"What are you—" I cut myself off, seeing that she opened the door. As she does so, we see something coming towards the door.

"Oh, what the fuck!" I shout in disgust. The thing passes us by, trying to run away.

"Shit!" Dustin yells and heads out of the door, only to trip and fall onto me, while Lucas falls on Max.

"Seriously?" I grunt.

"Where'd he go?" Lucas asks as the boys stand up.

"What was that?" Max says as she stands up too.

"Dart!" Mike states towards my sister. Dustin holds a hand for me to grab and I stand up.

"What?" I ask Mike.

"You let him escape!" Mike yells at me and Max and my eyes widen.

"Excuse me?" I ask in disbelief.