Chapter Text
“Get up, or I’m not taking you!” Y/N’s Mom calls from downstairs. Y/N groans and lazily rolls out of bed. She looks around at her room. Its a mess. There are clothes everywhere, and unpacked boxes are starting to collect dust in the corner. How did her room get so messy, having barely just moved in? ..Well, not really. Thats just an excuse. Y/N’s family moved in months ago, before the ‘earthquake’ happened. She didn’t even start school before the government closed everything down for months. But, since the school is conveniently out of the way of the now fenced off ‘cracks’.. it’s the first day of her sophomore year. Y/N doesn’t particularly enjoy school, but its better than having no friends and nobody to hang out with all summer while watching the people her age in the neighborhood bike around and hang out all day. Her mom told her to try and talk to the boy next door. But she doesn’t understand what its like to be the new girl in town, and Y/N thought she’d never have to.
Reluctantly, Y/N walks out of her bedroom and towards the bathroom. She uses the restroom, brushes her teeth, and attempts to fix her hair that she had washed the previous night. She tries to do an updo until her arms hurt and she gets mad, so she quits and leaves it down. Back in her room, Y/N searches for something to wear through the pile of clothes and her closet. But, surprise, she can’t find anything. Y/N plops down at her vanity and does some light makeup. If there is anything she’s sure about, its her makeup routine. When she’s done, Y/N turns around in her chair, ready to face the mountain of clothes that have accumulated on her floor.
Eventually, Y/N walks downstairs in blue jeans, a white tank top, and a red and orange jacket over the tank top. She sits on the last step of the stairs, putting on her red and white sneakers. “Mom, could you put my lunch in my bag please!” Y/N calls out. She gets no response, but she hears shuffling around the kitchen. Getting up and walking towards the sound, Y/N sees her backpack on the table and her mom putting her lunch bag inside. “Toast is on the counter, if you want to take it in the car. We’ve got to go.” Y/N’s mom says when she hears her daughter’s footsteps enter the kitchen. Y/N nods and grabs the toast off of the kitchen counter. “Thank you.” She says to her Mom and grabs her backpack off of the table. Y/N starts to walk out of the room and towards the front door until her mom stops her. “Wait! Picture!” She says, already holding up the camera. Y/N turns around and smiles for the picture, but then she rushes her mom out of the house, all of a sudden in a rush to leave as soon as the camera is pulled out. When Y/N is able to drag herself and her mom out of the door, she walks to the car and hops in the passenger’s seat. She’s settling her backpack into her lap when her mom gets in and says, “You need to start driving. Maybe then you’ll be able to get up on time.” Y/N rolls her eyes. “You just want me to get groceries.” She says and looks out the window, tuning out whatever else her mom says. As the car starts down the street, Y/N sees a boy riding his bike out of the garage of the Wheeler’s house. Over the summer, she would always see him and his group of friends go in and out and up and down the street on their bikes. She would wonder what they were up to. Her mom told her to go out and introduce herself, but Y/N would never risk embarrassing herself like that.
Y/N is zoned out for so long that the car ride felt like it was two minutes long, and suddenly she’s at school. She didn’t touch the toast she grabbed from the counter. Y/N groans and gets out of the car, slinging her backpack over her shoulder. “Have a good day!” Her mom says. Y/N gives her mother a small smile and wave as she shuts the car door. Then, she turns around and walks towards what looks like the gym for a first-day-of-school pep rally that the school sent multiple letters and phone calls home about. Y/N passes groups of people and makes her way through the traffic of people all heading towards the gymnasium. Suddenly, she’s knocked down to the ground by someone trying to zip past her on a skateboard. She scrapes her knees and looks up to see who the hell just knocked her over. She looks up and sees a head of red hair looking back at her. The girl on the skateboard turns around and skates over to Y/N. “I’m sorry, are you okay?” The girl asks and offers Y/N a hand. Taking the hand of the red-haired girl, Y/N stands up with burning knees. The other girl notices the blood seeping through Y/N’s now ripped jeans. “Oh, shit. You’re bleeding.” She points out. “Here, I should have bandages. I fall off my board all the time.” The red head says and starts digging through her bag. “Its okay, really-“ Y/N starts, but is cut off by the red head pulling out two band-aids. She holds them out for Y/N to take. “Here, its no big deal. I’m Max, by the way.” Says the red head. “Oh, thanks. I’m yn.” She says and takes the band aids. She brushes off her knees and puts the band aids over the cuts. “I like your outfit.” Max says. Y/N looks up, surprised. She didn’t know that Max was still there. “Thank you. I like yours, too.” Y/N says and stands up, looking over Max’s outfit. She’s wearing a multicolored striped shirt with some high rise jeans and some purple chucks that match the scrunchie holding up her wild hair. “Where did you get your board from? I didn’t know there was a skate shop in Hawkins.” Y/N says and looks at Max with curious eyes. “Oh, this old thing? I got this back in California. I don’t think there’s any skate shops within ten miles of this hellhole.” Max jokes and chuckles. Y/N laughs along softly. “Yeah, I should’ve guessed that.” The two girls stand there for a moment in silence. Surprisingly, its not too awkward. “You headed to this pep rally thing?” Y/N asks, deciding its probably time to go. “Yeah, unfortunately. They’re shoving it all the way down our throats. Just gonna tell us to stay away from the gates and town square and that its totally normal.” Max roles her eyes and picks up her board. The two girls start walking towards the gymnasium. Y/N smiles softly to herself. This girl is cool. Maybe she’s made a friend. Hopefully Max sees it that way too.
“Wanna sit together?” Y/N asks, doing her best to branch out and secure this friendship. “Yeah, for sure. Lets find my friends, you can sit with us. They won’t mind…. Most of them.” Max smiles and looks around, trying to find the party. “Uh oh, what’s that supposed to mean?” Y/N asks with a small, nervous smile. “Mike doesn’t really like when ‘outsiders’ are brought into our party. I thought he hated me for a while. But Lucas convinced him. And with all the- well, a bunch of stuff happened. We’re all good now.” Max explains vaguely. She finally spots the group and waves. She nods Y/N in their direction and the girls walk over. There sits three boys and one approaches Max. One with a bowl cut is talking to a curly head. Next to them sits Y/N’s neighbor, the Wheeler’s son. And- “Lucas, this is Y/N. She’s gonna sit with us.” Max says to this darker skinned boy, Lucas. “Cool” He says and takes Max’s hand. He nods at Y/N as a greeting and she nods back. They walk towards the three other boys and sit down in the row of bleaches in front of the one that the three boys are sitting on. “You weren’t here last year. Freshman? Or are you new?” Max asks. “Oh, I moved in before the earthquakes. I didn’t get to start school here until this year. And I’m a sophomore.” Y/N explained.
“Who’s that?” Y/N hears a guy’s voice ask. She looks up and sees two boys looking back at her. “This is Y/N.” Max introduces. Y/N waves, “Hey.” She says with a small smile. The two boys glance at each other and back at the other boy. They nod to each other, mutually deciding something that Y/N doesn’t understand. “Dustin Henderson.” The curly head boy says with a wide, squishy smile. He reached behind Lucas and Max, who are talking amongst themselves, to shake Y/N’s hand. She smiles back and shakes Dustin’s hand. “And I’m Will.” The boy with the bowl cut says and leans forward to shake her hand as well. “It’s nice to meet you both.” Y/N smiles at the boys. She then glances at the Wheeler boy. He is bent forward, resting his elbow on his thigh and holding his head up on it. He looks pretty bummed and spaced out. Will and Dustin notice her looking at their friend and both lean forward to talk to her in hushed tones. “That’s Mike.” Will says. “Yeah, don’t worry about him. He’s been like that since El broke up with him.” Dustin adds. “He tries to act like he doesn’t care, but then he looks like that. Totally believable, right?” Will rolls his eyes. Y/N chuckles quietly. “Who’s El? Does she go here too?” Y/N asks. The boys glance at each other again and back at the new girl. “Uhhh.. no. She’s..” Dustin stumbles over his words and starts to get flushed. “She’s homeschooled.” Will picks up for him. Y/N nods.
“Who’re you?” The other boy finally speaks up. Y/N looks over at him. The dark haired boy looks at her with something unreadable in his eyes. “I’m Y/N.” She introduces herself. Mike hums. His gaze lingers on her for a moment longer, making something do a backflip in Y/N’s stomach. The boy looks away, resuming his depressing-looking gaze into nothing. Y/N acts like she didn’t feel something when he looked at her, and looks back to Dustin and Will. They’re talking between the two of them. “He didn’t react like he did with Max.” Dustin says. “Yeah, he was totally a dick to Max. Is it because of the breakup?” Will asks. “Maybe he’s going soft.” Dustin says. “I can hear you, you know.” Mike says in an annoyed tone, looking at his friends. “Well, its true. You were kind of an ass to Max when we brought her in.” Lucas turns around and adds to the conversation. Max turns around, too. And suddenly, Y/N’s introducing of herself to two of the boys turned into a whole group conversation. One that she doesn’t feel apart of. The group starts discussing everything that happpened last time someone was added to the party. Why do they keep calling it that? Is Y/N being here a problem? The group keeps talking, using terms that make no sense to Y/N. Eventually, she just turns around to face forward, suddenly finding the speaker they had all tuned out interesting. She hates feeling like an outsider. But she doesn’t want to insert herself into their conversation. She can’t just join a group and expect them to just include her. Maybe it’ll get better. If they keep letting her join them.
Y/N tunes out the rest of the pep rally. When its over, she reaches into her backpack and pulls out her new schedule. “What class do you have?” Y/N turns to Max, who was talking to her, zoning back in. “What?” Y/N asks. “I asked what class you have.” Max laughs softly. “Oh, I have.. umm” Y/N looks down at the paper in her hand and looks for her first period class. “I’ve got Mr. Anderson. What about you?” Y/N looks back up as Max smiles at her. “I’ve got him, too. So does Mike.” Y/N glances at Mike after Max says this. She nods. “Cool. Lets go?” She says and stands up.
The two girls walk to their class together, talking about moving to Indiana from different states and how it is different from where they used to live. Max walks into the classroom and Y/N follows. They sit at desks that are right next to each other and continue their conversation. More of their classmates that weren’t in the room before file in, including Mike. None of the other boys are in this class. Is he alone? “Hey, did you wanna sit with us?” Y/N asks Mike as he’s looking around the room. He looks at her, really looks at her, with those brown eyes of his. He nods and walks over, sitting in front of Y/N. “..Thanks.” He says while sitting down. Y/N nods with a small smile, ignoring the blush creeping up her neck. She looks back to Max, who is already giving her a knowing look. She leans closer and talks in a hushed voice. “You know.. Mike was pretty hostile towards me for about a week. He’s being pretty nice to you.” Y/N rolls her eyes and moves her hair over her shoulder, twirling the end slightly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” “Sure you don’t.” Max smiles.
The rest of the day goes by. Y/N has most of her classes with at least one person from the new group. She’s in a good mood as she walks out of the school to go find her mom’s car. But, she doesn’t see the car anywhere. ‘Its fine. Maybe she’s just late.’ She thinks to herself, taking another look around the busy parking lot. “Whatcha waiting for?” Someone calls out. Y/N turns around and sees Max riding towards her on her skateboard. “My mom” Y/N says as Max gets off of her board and stands next to her. “Do you want me to wait with you? I’m not doing anything right now, and Lucas is already walking home with his sister.” Max offers. “Oh, sure! If you don’t mind.” Y/N smiles and Max shrugs with a nod. The girls stand out on the sidewalk next to school, talking for what feels like hours. It’s been about thirty minutes. Y/N’s mom still hasn’t pulled up to the school. A pit of anxiety begins to pool in her stomach. “I might just have to walk home.” Y/N says. “But I don’t know how to get home from here..” She adds and scratches the back of her neck. “Oh, shit. Thats not good. Where do you live? Maybe its on my way home.” Max says. “I live on Maple Street.” Y/N looks at Max, hoping she lives nearby. Max sighs. “I live on the other side of town… but you know who does live on Maple Street?” Max smirks and her blue eyes sparkle with something mischievous. Y/N rolls her eyes and bites back a smile. “Yeah..” Max looks around and spots Mike’s bike still locked up on the bike rack in front of the school. She smiles and starts walking towards the front doors of the school. Y/N follows with a sigh. An awkward walk with someone she doesn’t really know is better than getting lost on the way home.
“Mike!” Max shouts while walking down one of the hallways. “It’s okay, really. I can figure it out..” Y/N says, scratching her cheek. “You live pretty far, you could get lost easily.” Max says, insisting that Y/N gets Mike to walk her home. “My mom drove me here, I can probably remember the roads she took.” She says, starting to get flushed. Max stops and turns around. “Are you sure?” She asks. “Yes.” Y/N says with a small chuckle and starts walking back towards where they entered the school. “I’ll be okay.” She reassures Max. “Fine.” Max follows and they exit the building. “But if there is a missing persons poster with your face on it..” Y/N laughs. “There won’t be.” Y/N smiles. The girls walk out of the school, walking past the now empty bike rack. The girls go their separate ways, waving back at each other before Max hops on her skateboard and rides away. With a sigh, Y/N starts walking towards what she hopes is the street that her mom drove her down on her way to school this morning. She walks down the same street for a couple minutes before coming to a four way stop. She scratches her head as the pit of anxiety in her stomach begins to grow. She looks up and down all of the streets twice, when she spots a familiar boy riding his bike down the street to the left. She quickly crosses the street and follows. She’s walking faster than she was before, not wanting to lose him. She sighs.
“Hey!” She calls out to the boy on the bike. He turns his head around, his pace faltering. Y/N waves, hoping he’ll stop. Mike stops moving forward and takes one foot off the pedal, keeping himself and the bike up on it. Y/N quickly walks down the street to catch up with him. He looks at her, confused as she approaches. “Wheeler, right?” Y/N asks. “What?” Mike says, still confused. “Your last name is Wheeler, yeah?” She repeats. “Why?” He asks. Y/N sighs. “You live on Maple street? The Wheelers? Is that you?” Mike looks confused and a little scared, his eyebrows furrow. Y/N groans softly. “We live on the same street.. and I don’t know how to get there from here. Could you help me out?” She asks. “Oh.. yeah, I guess.” He says reluctantly. “Thanks, Wheeler.” Y/N says. He nods and gets off his bike. “Come on” He starts walking down the street and Y/N follows.