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It’s May 6th, 1986. Maxine has just got detention for cussing out Troy. “He deserved it! He doesn't have the right to make snarky comments about a woman's body.” Max exclaims. “I understand Maxine. But it does not excuse your use of vulgar words in my school. Now, I am dealing with Troy, but you need to straighten up.” Principal Coleman says in a condescending tone. “This is bullshit.” Max mumbles under her breath”. Principal Coleman lets it slide, partially because he can’t hear worth a damn but also because he’s too busy to deal with minor problems like this. “5 hours of detention Maxine.” Principal Coleman says sternly. “Whatever” Max says with the biggest eye roll anyone's ever seen. Max storms out of the office and yells “And the names Max!”.
Max walks out of the office to find Jane sitting on the bench near the door. “Hey Wonder Woman whatcha doing?” Max says suddenly very chipper. “I think I have detention..” El says in the most ashamed tone. “Holy shit El, me too! Wait..but why do you have it?” Max asks. El looks up at Max, her eyes are full of tears. “I accidentally fell asleep in Ms.Johnson’s class. Sh-shes really harsh!” El says. Max sits down on the bench beside her and starts digging in her backpack. Eventually she pulls out a Snickers bar and immediately hands it over to El. “For me?” El asks. “Yeah, don't worry about it…plus, we can have detention together!” Max says with the cheesiest smile on her face. El stares at Max until she feels her face heating up. She's blushing. El awkwardly stands up and says quietly “Well I have to go to the bathroom.” Max replies with “Oh, I’ll just come with you.” El shakes her head, still red from blushing. “No, I…I uh have to take a dump..massive! Massive dump!!”. “Right. Ok…see ya later”. El runs in the total opposite direction of a bathroom as if she's lost her sense of direction. Max scrunches up her face in confusion.
Max walks over to her locker only to be surprised by a very worried Dustin. “Max!” Dustin yells. “Shit Dustin! Don’t scare me like tha-” Max is cut off by Dustin, “Whatever Max, have you seen Lucas? He was supposed to give me the answers to the homework that's due in like 5 mins.” Max looks around and says to a very eager Dustin “Uhm no? Do I look like Sherlock Holmes to you? Really Dustin, can't you just get your “Suzy poo” to help you?.” “Ok thanks a lot Max, you're no goddam help at all.” Dustin replies annoyed. Max does a sarcastic smile and waves goodbye to Dustin.”
2 hours have passed, it's the end of the day. Max is waiting outside to be picked up by Billy. El is sitting 20 feet away. She looks over at Max, tapping her foot fastly on the ground with a nervous look. She looks away. She can't help but look again but this time she puts on her determined face and starts walking over to Max. El starts to ball her first up, not with intent of punching max though. “Max” El says, it's muffled by the music blasting in Max’s ears from her walkman. El touches Max’s shoulder and gives it a light shake. “Oh, hey El, you need something?” Max says as she takes off her headphones. “Can I come hang out..with you?” El asks shyly, “Yeah of course, like right now?” Max says. El sits in silence for a moment and thinks about how mad Hopper would be but she eventually comes to the conclusion of “At least it's not Mike.” She excitedly says “Yes! Right now”. Max and El smile at each other and begin to walk off.
“El I gotta stop at the DVD store to pick up something, is that ok?” Max says, El replies with a nod. As Max and El are walking they physically grow closer together, their hands are pretty much touching. Max slowly curls her fingers around El’s hand. El looks down at their hands for one second and she immediately heats up. They continue walking with the biggest smiles on their faces.
They finally make it to the dvd store. The bell chimes loudly as they walk in. El is easily startled but she plays it off. “Ahoy!! Shoot that was last year” Robin says. Steve shakes his head and rolls his eyes. “Steve, come greet your children” Robin exclaims, “Hey Max, and El surprisingly, you finally got let out of the house?!” Steve asks. Max looks at El with a smile and lets out a loud sigh, “Yes dingus, now where are the old movies?”. Steve looks at Max with a certain face only a mother could make, “Robin! Did you teach her that?...You know what, whatever. They're over there on the middle shelf.” Robin shrugs as she laughs to herself. El drags Max over to movies, something caught her eye. El picks up a copy of The Children's Hour. “You wanna watch that tonight?” Max asked, El nodded vigorously. They pay for the DVD and walk to Max’s house.
Max unlocks her house door and runs to her room with El, “Thank god Billy's not here, he's an asshole.” El looks disgusted, “Asshole…?”. Max bursts out laughing and starts grabbing El's arms as she almost falls to the ground. “Not literally, my god! Like a mouthbreather!”. El smiles and chuckles. Max takes El’s bag and throws it to the side. She jumps onto her bed and lays down. “Ughhh I am so tired”, El jumps onto the bed with her and lays beside her. “Can we go to sleep for a while?” Max says. “What about the movie?” El looked at Max slightly disappointed. Max looked all over El’s face. “We'll watch it after, don't worry.” Max kissed El’s forehead, “Sweet dreams.” El froze. A small gasp let out from her, she then smiled. Max and El fell asleep facing each other.
An hour passed, it's now dark. El wakes up and rubs her eyes. El starts to shake Max “Max! Max!” Max jumps up “Gosh, you scared me!”. Max runs her fingers over the top of her hair then she realizes it's dark. El takes a look at her watch “Oh, it's only 5:15.” “Daylight savings.” Max added. El looked confused, “Huh?”. “Nothing, let's watch the movie before you have to leave.” Max says. Max jumped off the bed and grabbed the DVD out of her bag. She slid the DVD into the tv *click* , “And boom!”. Loud opening music began to play.
Max and El both have their arms crossed whilst sitting on the bed. Max moves her fingers slowly onto El’s, arms still crossed, ‘But I'm a Cheerleader’ style. El tries her hardest to hide her smile but she can’t help it. She's never felt this way. Not even with oblivious Mike. Mike had never made El feel truly happy and a part of El knew he hadn’t. Maybe she wasn’t so afraid now to let him go, because she had Max. Fearless Max.
In that moment she felt seen, loved. She was almost scared, scared she’d lose it.
Max’s heart was pounding, pounding like how Billy used to bang on her door when he got angry at her. Max could feel the warmth of El’s warm blooded body. She looked over at El, El did a triple take and immediately dropped her smile, she thought *oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh*. El finally looked back at Max..
”Hi..” El said with a voice crack. Max giggled a bit “Hey Wonder Woman, what's on your mind?”
El leaned back and sighed, she thought for 30 seconds about what she was gonna say, she didn’t wanna ruin the mood. Max leaned back with her and became anxious at the silence.
El finally blurted out with multiple stutters “Is it ok to uhm like you know..” El picked at her fingers. “Liiiike..?” Max said with confusion. El bit her lip and took a deep breath, “girls. Is it ok to like girls?”. Max sat up and put her hand on El's leg for reassurance, “O..Of course, absolutely!”.
A wave of relief washed over El. “Do you?” El asked Max very intriguingly. Max lit up “I mean..” she looked at El with a soft smile. El and Max laughed together for a moment until Max finally asked “Who do you like?”.
Tension grew between them at the question, blood rushed to their face as they turned red. El looked around the room until she finally looked in Max’s eyes with a slight smile. Max knew exactly what that meant.
El intertwined her hand around Max’s, El’s palms were warm like the pavement in the summer. Max held the side of El’s face, two fingers behind her ear and two fingers in front. El tilted her head onto Max’s hand as a sign of affection.
“You’re so beautiful El.” Max said. El looked at Max’s lip and went in. Their lips locked as if they were always meant for each other. They kissed until they had to come up for air almost like the one time they went swimming with each other last summer. They both pulled away and stared at each other with bright smiles on their faces, they knew everything would work out. Max kissed all over El’s face and neck still with a big smile. El could feel Max’s teeth on her, she loved every minute of it.
El giggled and flopped back down on the bed pulling Max by her forearms with her. They both looked at each other longingly. “Can we do this..again?” El asked, biting the inside of her cheek.
“Hell yeah Wonder Woman. Like every day! Like tomorrow and the day after tomorrow and the day after the day tomor-” El let out a playful laugh “Max! Max! I get it”.
El cuddled up on Max’s chest to feel her heart. It was sweet. They felt complete.