Chapter Text
“Max Mayfield?”
The substitute teacher’s voice rang through the unusually chaotic algebra classroom.
Lucas looked up, trying to hide his gaze as he scanned the room for any sign of her. Weird,she’s not here, he noted to himself, quickly shaking the thought away. He shouldn’t care. He didn’t know her… personally… at least.
…
When Lucas returned from Georgia to Hawkins to start high school at Hawkins High, he was surprised by how much had changed. Of course, he had expected things to be different; nothing from sixth grade could stay the same forever.
Some of those changes were welcome, like reuniting with his old best friends.
When he first saw them Lucas stood there for a second, eyes flicking between Mike and Dustin. Both of them looked… taller. Not just taller, but different and grown up.
“Damn,” Lucas said, a grin appeared . “When did you two decide to grow up without me?”
Dustin laughed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Uh… ”
Mike smirked. “Yeah, you left and suddenly puberty caught up with us.”
Lucas shook his head. “That explains a lot. And next you’re going to tell me all the girls are all over you.”Lucas joked
Dustin’s jaw tensed . “I mean. I found a girlfriend,Suzie, over the summer at camp”
Mike nodded. “I told you about Jane right?”
Lucas leaned against the Wheeler’s counter, pretending it didn’t sting like he thought it would. “Oh yeah”
Lucas hadn’t had the best luck with girls back in Georgia. Being a nerdy black kid from a small town didn’t make him a chick magnet to say.
For a moment,he let it pass and it felt normal again. Comfortable silence . Like no time had passed.
“So,” Lucas said, after a beat, “what’d I miss?”
Mike and Dustin exchanged a look. It was quick, but Lucas caught it.
“Not much,” Mike said too fast.
“A lot ,” Dustin added, way too cheerfully. “Same old Hawkins stuff.”
Lucas raised an eyebrow. “That’s funny, because you two can’t agree.’”
Another pause.
Dustin suddenly found the floor very interesting. “We just— some things are kinda… complicated.”
Lucas straightened. Against the counter now facing Dustin “Complicated how?”
Mike shrugged. “It’s just stuff we don’t really talk about anymore.”
Lucas let out a small laugh, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Since when?”
Neither of them answered.
The room felt heavier than it should’ve, like there were words hanging in the air that refused to land.
“Right,” Lucas said quietly. “Got it.”
He looked at them again, Lucas realized reuniting didn’t mean picking up where they left off.
Of course, Lucas brought up Will. He had to especially after the incident. He had been unbelievably upset when the news reached Georgia that Will had gone missing. Lucas tried calling Dustin and Mike, but they later explained they had been “too busy.” Doing what, exactly, Lucas still had no clue.
When the news broke that Will’s body had been discovered, Lucas spiraled into a dark place. He felt guilty for leaving Hawkins. Will was his close friend, and not being there to help search for him deeply upset Lucas. So when the miraculous story of mistaken identity and Will’s return surfaced, Lucas accepted it at face value, relieved that his friend was alive.
Still, he couldn’t help but wish he hadn’t because Mike and Dustin’s explanations were filled with conflicting details and hesitant voices.
That wasn’t the only thing his two friends brushed over.
Dustin, wouldn’t shut up.Lucas for the most part didn’t mind it felt familiar. He let him talk as a smile had made its way up his face and he leaned over the table.
“And I’m telling you, Lucas,” he said, pacing around the wheeler basement like he was a game show host , “Susie is a literal genius. Like, smarter than me. And she’s way hotter than Phoebe Cates.”
Lucas snorted and then let out a way too loud laugh . “Alright, pause. First of all, that’s physically impossible.”
Dustin fired back . “It’s True!”
Mike also added “Can we not do the Phoebe Cates comparison again?”
Dustin ignored him. “She knows calculus, she sings, she—”
“Does she even exist?” Lucas cut in.
Dustin froze. “Why would you think that”
“You keep talking about her like she’s a mythical creature.” Lucas said, smirking.
Dustin scoffed. “You’re just jealous.”
Lucas opened his mouth to fire back, but shut it down. I mean what did he have to be jealous about? Right?
Lucas turned his head to face across the table which was being set up for a new D &D campaign. He faced Mike and asked
“How about you?”
Mike suddenly spoke.
“Her name’s Jane. I told you that right?” Mike said, a little too stiff. The air shifted and Lucas glanced up.
“Jane?”
Mike’s jaw tightened. “Yeah.”
Something about it felt… familiar. Uncomfortable. The same tight look when Will’s came up.
“Okay,” Lucas said slowly. “So Jane is-”
“She’s just my girlfriend,” Mike cut in. A stern and almost upset tone that Lucas wasn’t used too
Lucas held his hands up. “Alright. Relax.”
Silence crept in again.
Weird
“So,” Lucas tried, changing gears, “what about that new kid? You said Max, right?”
Dustin and Mike both went still.
“What about her?” Dustin sat down at the table and asked carefully.
“I dunno,” Lucas said.Now looking across the room as Mike finished setting across from him.
“You mentioned her like three times already. I thought you guys would be telling me all about a new party member” He finished but another question crept through “And Starcourt. I heard had some kind of… accident?””
Mike’s eyes grew and he stood up too fast. “First she’s going to be around you’ll probably meet her and…Starcourt…It was nothing.”
“Yeah,” Dustin added.Looking at Mike for approval it seemed “Electrical fire. Big mall. Shit happens all the time.”
Lucas stared at them.His stare asked the rest of the questions. No one answered.
Dustin suddenly found something fascinating on his shoe. Mike crossed his arms, eyes fixed on the wall.
Lucas felt it then.
They were hiding something.
And what hurt most wasn’t the secrets themselves. It was the fact that, for the first time, it felt like he wasn’t part of the party anymore.
Like whatever had happened, they didn’t trust him enough to tell him. It seemed whoever this Max was replaced him and so did Jane before leaving to California with the Byers.
He swallowed it down, forcing a smile. “Right. Guess I really did miss a lot.”
But inside, it stung more than he wanted to admit.
Their campaign had started and for a few hours it allowed everything to return to normal.
That was how things stayed until Lucas mentioned trying out for the basketball team.
Dustin rolled the dice, watching them bounce across the table. “Okay, my bard casts Vicious Mockery on the demog— I mean, the goblin.”
Mike sighed. “You can’t just insult everything.”
Lucas leaned back in his chair, arms crossed. “Worked for you so far.”
Mike looked up. “So you’re really trying out for the team?”
“Yeah,” Lucas said. “Basketball.”
Dustin shook his head almost instantly. “Bad idea.”
Lucas frowned. “Why?”
“You’ve never played before,” Mike said. “It’d just… be rough.”
Lucas leaned back. “So your solution is Hellfire?”
Dustin nodded. “With us.”
Lucas sighed. “I love you guys, but that’s not exactly what I had in mind.”
Mike rolled for the next enemy turn, not meeting Lucas’s eyes. “It’d just be better.”
“For who?” Lucas asked.
Silence. Dustin adjusted his dice. Mike cleared his throat.
Mike nodded. “Right. Moving on.”
Lucas frowned. “That’s kinda my point.”
After a beat, Lucas said, “Either way, I’m still going to tryouts.”
Mike frowned. Damn Lucas really could just punch him
“You could just stick with us.”
Lucas shrugged. “Not everyone wants to stay in the same campaign forever.”
Dustin snapped his fingers. “Oh! Steve can help you train.”
Lucas froze. “Steve… Harrington?” Everyone knew Steve “The Hair” Harrington but no way Dustin could have a personal connection with him
“The same,” Dustin said. “He said he would help us with anything .”
Lucas stared…yeah something about this was off.“How do you even know him?”
Mike sighed, closing his notebook. “We’re friends.” annoyance spread all throughout his tone
Lucas let out a short laugh. Seems like everything has changed. “That’s the weirdest thing you’ve said all night.”
He looked around the table, the dice, the map, and his friends who suddenly felt miles away.
…….
Within two weeks, he went from never touching a basketball to what Steve called “good enough for the bench.” Steve had been incredibly helpful, and honestly, he was way too cool to be hanging out with Lucas and his friends. Maybe that was why, during a one-on-one game, Lucas finally asked,
“So… how do you know Dustin?”
Steve stayed focused, dribbling as he checked Lucas’s position. After a moment of hesitation, he replied,
“You know. The usual.”
Lucas recognized that response instantly. After a month back in Hawkins, he knew the playbook. Steve was in on the same bullshit everyone else was hiding from him.
The thought distracted Lucas just long enough for Steve to drive past him and lay the ball up, sealing his win. Lucas barely noticed or cared .
He needed answers
now
“Come on,” Lucas said seriously. “I know you and everyone else are hiding something from me. Tell me what’s going on, or else.”
Steve grinned, running a hand through his perfect hair before laughing. “Or else what, Sinclair?”
Lucas smiled back. “I’ll let Nancy know about all the times you stare at her. Or maybe I’ll tell her about the flashcards of hers you keep in your glove box.”
Steve’s smile dropped. “You know about that?” he scoffed.
Lucas shrugged. “Start talking.”
Steve stood there for a moment, clearly debating his next move. Finally, he sighed. “Alright. I think you deserve to know,but you can’t tell anyone that you know, or that I told you. Deal?”
Lucas nodded.As they started another game.
That was how he learned everything.
Lucas stood at the top of the key, the ball resting against his hip.
“Okay,” he said, letting out a short laugh. “Now you’re just screwing with me.”
Steve bounced the ball once, slow and steady. “I’m not.”
“Monsters?” Lucas said, dribbling as he circled. “Another dimension? Jane having powers?”
Steve slid with him, eyes locked on Lucas’s chest, not the ball. “I’ve been punched by things that weren’t human, man.”
Lucas hesitated, and Steve drove past him, pulling up for a clean jumper.
Swish.
Lucas barely reacted.
“The Mind Flayer,” Lucas said, shaking his head as he checked the ball back in. “That’s not even a real”
“It is,” Steve cut in. “And it doesn’t stop.”
Lucas took the ball, dribbling harder now.
“So while I was gone, you’re telling me that the same Mike and Dustin were fighting monsters and lying to my face.”
“They were protecting you,” Steve said, backing up into a defensive stance.
Lucas faked left, crossed right, then stopped short. “Didn’t feel like it.”
Steve reached in, nearly stealing the ball. “None of this feels good.”
Lucas pulled up and shot.
Brick.
He cursed under his breath.
“And Max?” Lucas asked quietly, jogging after the rebound. “For being part of the party I’ve never seen her around .”
Steve caught the ball, spinning it on one finger before letting it drop.
“She lost her brother. Starcourt.”
Lucas froze mid-step. “Billy.” He had seen the newspaper report and remembered the name.
Steve nodded. “He saved her.”
Lucas swallowed, the court suddenly too quiet. “Wasn’t it an accident?”
Steve dribbled once, slower now. “It was. Just not the kind they could explain.”
Lucas set his feet again, squaring up. “So that’s why Mike and Dustin won’t talk. Why everything feels… off.”
Steve drove in, laid the ball up gently this time. No celebration.
“Yeah,” Steve said. “They already survived it once.”
Lucas grabbed the ball, bouncing it hard. “And nobody thought to loop me in.” It was all so crazy but he just wished they trusted him like he trusted them
Steve shrugged.
“They thought they were keeping you safe.”
Lucas shook his head. “Funny way of doing it.”
They played in silence for a moment
He couldn’t tell anyone. He had promised and it still hurt knowing his own friends hadn’t trusted him.
Slowly, Lucas began to distance himself as school approached. He attended summer basketball practices and started associating with the jocks instead.
It felt wrong laughing and playing with people who still made racist remarks and bullied him for being a nerd.
Just a fresh start, he told himself. That’s what high school is for.
On the first day of school, it was clear the party had already noticed his decision when he walked in wearing a varsity jacket. Their once-meaningful friendship had been reduced to a nod and a wave.
Lucas sighed as he walked to his locker. His new reality seemingly setting in.
And that’s when he saw her.
Max Mayfield.
Lucas watched her disappear down the hall, the red of her hair fading into the crowd. For a second, the world dissolved under his feet.
So that was Max Mayfield.
She looked nothing like the way Dustin described her when he did mention her.
Not sharp or loud or untouchable. Just… guarded. Like someone who had learned how to push the world at arm’s length and never let it close enough to hurt again.
Lucas turned back to his locker, twisting the dial without focusing on the numbers. He had noticed her Walkman and he wondered if the music was loud enough to drown out memories the way basketball did for him.
The big Varsity jacket on his shoulders suddenly felt heavier.
He shut his locker and started toward class, passing the familiar faces of the party without stopping. No one called out. No one chased after him. That stung more than he expected.
This was what he’d chosen. A new path.
Still, as he took his seat and stared at the empty desk beside him, Lucas couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d traded one kind of fake for another . The jocks laughed louder, moved easier, but they didn’t know him.
He saw Max one last time before entering his history class and his eyes stayed on her just a bit too long.
What was wrong with him?
…
The loud bell snapped him out of his daydream.
Lucas looked down at his packet, his name the only thing written on it after an entire class period.
“Shit” He muttered under his breath
Max’s desk at the front of the classroom remained empty but again he shouldn’t care.
He doesn’t know her, just rather a retelling of what she once was.