Chapter Text
Max slowly opened her eyes, dreading today. The reality of starting high school hadn’t sunk in yet, so it didn’t feel real to her. She slowly got out of bed and made her way to the kitchen. Her eyes scanned the mess her mom made last night, sighing to herself. When she opened the refrigerator door there was barely any food, so she grabbed what she could and something for the dog as well. Max slowly made her way outside to the pen where the dog was kept.
“Hey buddy, big day today, right?” The dog just barked back, excited for food. “I know, I know,” Max cooed. Once the dog finished eating she stood up and went back inside to finish getting ready and mentally preparing herself for what she was going to face. Fifteen minutes later Max had gotten everything together so she waited for the bus with a pit forming in her stomach. She didn’t know how she was going to handle seeing her with him.
When Max arrived at school she felt so lost. It was even worse because none of the party was around. She wished so hard that someone would come up and much to her surprise, someone did.
“Hey Max, how’ve you been since I last saw you?” Robin said. Max and Robin were practically as close as Dustin and Steve, so seeing Robin was such a relief.
“A lot better now that you’re here”
“Happy to help, now where’s your first class?”
“Room 126.”
“Ooo, you have Mrs. Click, I had her last year.”
“Is she any good, I can’t have another bad history teacher.”
“She’s not bad, but not great either.”
“Great, now could you lead the way, I can’t afford to be late on my first day.” “Follow me this way then.”
Max and Robin walked down the hall, catching up on everything they could before they had to depart. While they were talking someone caught Max’s eye, the one person she dreaded seeing, El. Max stared at her, enamored by how beautiful she looked under the fluorescent school lights. She couldn’t pull her eyes away from her slightly crooked smile, tangled hair, and mismatched outfit. Max moved her eyes to El’s waist, only to find a hand around it. She slowly followed the arm the hand was attached to, only to find the one person she hated most, Mike Wheeler. El and Mike had gotten together over the summer and it created a divide between Max and El. It hit even harder for Max than El could realize because she didn’t know that Max liked her. When El first got with Mike she started hanging out with him more and more, until Max never saw her unless it was when she was on a date with Mike. It made Max so jealous, jealous that she couldn’t be with someone in public, jealous that she could neer be “normal”, and jealous that she could never be with El. The jealousy that Max felt got so bad, that she eventually started projecting her anger on El, which she knew was unfair, but Max couldn’t help it. When Max came back to reality, she saw that El was waving at her with that classic El smile that made everything seem insignificant compared to that smile. But this time, it made Max feel worse because she knew that her smile would never be hers, so Max turned the corner without smiling, or even waving back because it would hurt her more than to smile or wave back. Robin glanced sympathetically at Max, knowing exactly how she felt. As Max walked away she didn’t notice the hurt on El’s face that couldn’t be cured by even Mike.“El, what’s wrong,” Mike asked.
“It’s nothing,” she said with a fake smile. Mike smiled back, not noticing the hurt in El’s eyes.
When Max arrived at Mrs. Clicks class she waved goodbye to Robin and made her way to the back of class. A few minutes later Max looked up from her stuff to see the one and only El standing right in front of her. El’s eyes were full of concern and hurt from the incident in the hallway.
“Did I do something?” El asked tentatively.
“NO, no. I’ve just been having a stressful day,” Max lied. El’s face relaxed and she took a seat next to Max.
“So, how was your summer? I barely saw you,” El giggled.
“Yeah, because you were hyper fixated on Mike,” Max muttered under her breath.
“What?”
“Nothing, you were just busy with Mike so we didn’t have a lot of time together.”
“Oh yeah, look at this necklace Mike got me for the first day of school, isn’t it pretty?” Max looked at the necklace and her heart shattered. Instead of the best friend necklace El got when she went with Max to Starcourt Mall for the first time, there was a dinky heart necklace in its place.
“It looks really nice.”
“He’s so kind to get me this. He likes me so much!” Max tried so hard to be happy for El, but she just couldn’t. She was to blinded by jealousy to have any happy thoughts for their relationship. “Yeah, he must like you a lot.” Thankfully Max was saved by the bell so she didn’t have to hear El swoon over Mike and his ridiculous gifts.
All throughout class Max couldn’t stop thinking about El. How could one person confuse her this much? While Max was deep in thought she didn’t notice El looking at her in a way she never looked at Mike. Max snapped back to reality when the bell rang. She started to pack up her stuff when El tapped her on the shoulder.
“Can you walk me to my next class, I don’t know where it is.” Max stopped, frozen in her spot. Walk El to class, isn't that what couple’s did?
“Y- yeah.” Max mentally smacked herself for acting so stupid, she didn’t even know where anything was in the building.
“Thanks! I’m in room 173”
“Just follow me.” While Max was going through a mental map of the school, she looked down to her hand to see El holding her own. A blush spread over her face and there was nothing she could do to contain it.
“So we don’t get separated,” El said with a smile. Somehow Max’s face got even redder after that sentence.
“Good idea, now this way.” Max pulled El along the crowded hallways, trying not to focus on the fact that she was holding El’s hand the whole time. After what felt like forever to Max, they reached El’s class. “Here you go El.”
“Thanks Max, see you later,” and with that, El walked into her class. Max stood for a minute, processing what just happened to her. While she was thinking, the bell rang so she snapped out of her thoughts and ran to second period.