A.N.: Hi, I decided to start a little ST story collection about some of my favourite songs. Feel free to send me prompts, too, if you like! Bye!


"Chocolate"

by The 1975


Max & Lucas & Dustin

Summer, 1985


"All that I'm saying is, can we be a hundred percent certain?"

"Dustin, for the last time: The moon landing wasn't faked!", Lucas groaned, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, that's what we'd all love to believe, but the question is, can we know for sure?"

"Urgh."

"The nation with the biggest film industry on the planet, Lucas! And we would have had a good motive for the whole thing. The entire world was watching! No one wants a government that makes empty promises.", Dustin argued.

"Can you nerds shut up for just one second, please?", Max complained, barely looking up from the screen. "I'm working here."

"You've been 'working' for almost three hours now, Max.", Lucas quipped in, frowning. "Time for a break, isn't it?"

"Not until I get my damn high score back.", she growled, between her gritted teeth. "I can't believe this is happening."

"Now you know how I felt when you moved to town.", Dustin told her, wisely. "But that's just the way it goes. You work and work and work to get to a good score, and then, just like that, someone else comes along one day and you can't reclaim your freaking score ever again."

"Okay, you two really need to stop referring to playing this game as working.", Lucas decided. "And aren't you guys starving by now? Let's just go."

"I'm really sort of hungry, come to think of it.", Dustin realized. "Max?"

She rolled her head back, closing her eyes in annoyance and defeat. "Fine.", she grumbled. "Seems like today isn't my day for this, after all."

"What we really need to do", Lucas pondered, as they made their way out of the arcade, "Is find out who the score belongs to. That's what we did when you arrived. Otherwise, can we even be sure if the score is real?"

"What do you mean?", Dustin frowned.

Lucas shrugged. "Remember that one time when we thought Will's pacman score was gone, although someone had actually just managed to swop the names, somehow?"

"Who the hell does that?", Max exclaimed, looking disgusted. "What's that even good for?"

"Probably to brag in front of friends with it, I guess.", Dustin commented, thoughtfully. Max seemed pretty smug.

"Hm. Well, maybe my score is still there then, after all... If that's actually true, someone will get into a hell lot of trouble pretty soon."

"What, are you going to beat them, or something?", Dustin snickered.

"That would be an option, of course.", Max joked, while evily rubbing her palms together like a comic-book-villain. The boys laughed.

"So, how are we doing this? How do we find out who that "B.I."-person is?"

They climbed on their bikes – Max on the back of Lucas', since that was a lot quicker than using her skateboard.

"That depends", Lucas considered, "How comfortable are you with stalking people, Max?"

"If it saves my Dig Dug score? Comfortable enough."

Lucas glanced at her, over his shoulder, and he smiled.


"Bob Ingram?"

"Nah. I'm pretty sure that's the name of one of our neighbours. The guy is like a million years old."

"Blaire Idell?"

"Hm. No idea who that is." Lucas made another small X on his paper and wrote the name down.

"Really, guys?", Max sighed, coming back from the bathroom and flopping down on Dustin's couch, "I thought you wanted to start some kind of observation, not just sit around writing lists."

"Yes, but there's only", Lucas counted, "There's only eight people in Hawkins who's last name even starts with I! Look!"

Max went over to him, glancing at the telephone book page.

"Yeah, and four of these are family names, smartass. See: Family Bill Irwin."

"Well, okay, but..-"

"But we can still use this sort of information.", Dustin shrugged. "If telephone books don't do the trick, we could go through our year book, see if someone in our grade has those initials."

"Did you ever stop to think that maybe those aren't even real initials?", Max pointed out. "B.I. Could literally mean bullshit initials."

Dustin overheard her. "Oh, we could also ask Steve for his old yearbooks! That way, we can cover a whole lot of ground!" He scrunched up his nose. "Oh, wait, that doesn't work, Steve's at this job interview today, I think. But … maybe Nancy or Jonathan can help us, instead."

Max sighed, rolling her eyes. "Alright, whatever. But I swear, if you two turn this mission into some lame, only-research thing, I'm gonna try to catch the score thief on my own, instead."

Dustin grinned, patting her on the shoulder. "Cheer up Max! We're so gonna solve this potential crime."


None of their classmates had the initials "B. I", however, so their own yearbooks weren't much of a big help. It also quickly turned out that Jonathan didn't own any old year-books, and if he did, he wasn't sure where they were right now.

It kind of made sense, come to think of it: Jonathan didn't really strike you as the sort of person who truly cares about this stuff. He was a bit of a social outcast, and not really involved or interested in any club or school sport, either.

So, around noon, Max, Dustin and Lucas dropped their bikes to the floor next to the Wheeler's house. Nancy would have a yearbook that she could borrow them, right?

Mike's mom let the three of them in, a phone pressed to her voluminously styled hair and a surprised, but polite smile on her face. Mrs. Wheeler pointed towards the basement, mouthing "Mike is downstairs", before disappearing into the kitchen again. The three of them looked at one another, making their way towards the basement steps.

Mike wasn't alone. Of course he wasn't. He and El sat at the table, a bunch of paper sheets and two or three large books spread out in front of them, looking like they were having the time of their lives.

"Twenty times seven... minus the root of nine... Is 137?", El suggested, looking uncertain.

Mike's grin was wide. "Yes, correct!"

At that, El smiled, too. "So the Eggo kingdom has 57 more Eggos than last spring.", she concluded, happily.

"And 21.3% more Eggos than two years ago.", Mike added, pointing at one of the exercises they'd apparently already finished.

Max cleared her throat, smirking. The two looked up, a little startled.

"Hey guys!", Dustin said, stepping down the rest of the stairs. "Do you know if Nancy's home, Mike? We were hoping she'd maybe lend us her old year-books."

Mike frowned, blushing a little from the sudden interruption.

"Um, yes, she's upstairs, I think... What do you even need that for?"

"It's an investigation.", Lucas answered, winking. "Don't worry about it. We'll tell you all about it in school on Monday, yeah?"

"Okay, sure...", Mike shrugged, still looking confused.

"Bye, El!", Max said, as an afterthought, while Lucas and Dustin were already making their way up the stairs again.

El waved back, a little puzzled, as well.


"No one? None of the people who is or has been going to or school these past few years has the initials B.I.?", Max complained, an hour and a half later, looking frustrated. She let the book in her lap drop closed, biting into one of the chocolate bars Dustin's mom had offered them ages ago instead.

"Well, I guess this means we just have to wait in front of the arcade, a couple times this week, and if we notice any new faces around Dig Dug, we might see what's going on...", Lucas murmured, pretty defeated.

"Forget it.", Max declared, grinding her teeth. "You know what? We went about this the completely wrong way. Who cares who B.I. Is, or whether the score is fake, or whatever." Max sat up straight, eating the rest of her chocolate bar.

"All I really need to do is save some money over the next couple days, and then go back to the arcade and manage a better score than ever, period. Better than my old scores, and better than that "B. I. "guy, whoever that is."

"Or," Lucas considered, thoughtfully, "Or we could go back there today."

"Yes!", Dustin nodded, excitedly, "Let's try it again today, Max!"

He reached into his couch, between the cushions and the back rest, pulling three or four shiny coins out from its depth. Lucas was also reaching into his jeans, looking for money in all existing pockets.

"What? No, come on guys!..", Max groaned in annoyance, when she realised what her friends were doing. Max didn't like it when people borrowed her money, she didn't like it at all.

Lucas gave her a stare. "No, you come on, Max. We all want someone from our party to hold the Dig Dug score, and let's face it, you are our best shot for that. It's really just fair if Dustin and I help you get there."

Dustin nodded. "Yep. We just have to make sure that you're concentrated enough for this project, if we're really going back to the arcade." He threw another "3 Musketeers" bar into Max' lap. "Better store up some energy now already."

Max shook her head, grinning. "You sound like you're talking to El, Dustin."

He shrugged, his smile wide. "Well, you might not be able to be able to throw cars around or to make people's eyes melt, but your talent for this game is a sort of superpower, too, isn't it?"

"And you get to openly brag about it, whereas El has to hide her power.", Lucas added with a smirk.

Max rolled her eyes. "Oh, just shut up and give me some more candy, you freaks. I need to "store up energy" over here."


It was a long afternoon. It took so long, in fact, that it was almost as quiet in the arcade yet again as it had been the first time around, when the three had spend the morning here. Sure, there was always some noise in the background, but it was Sunday, and more and more kids abandoned their game consoles and screens eventually, to head home. When it was almost late enough to consider bribing Keith so he'd leave the hall open a little longer for them, something drastically changed, though.

And then...

"YES! Oh my god, yes!", Max screamed, while Dustin and Lucas broke out in excited laughter, "We did it! We did it, guys!"

"What, are you finally done?" Keith commented, only mildly interested, while shoving a bunch of potato chips in his bored face.

The three ignored him, jumping up and down and hugging each other in elation.

"Do you want to have the honour?", Max asked Dustin and Lucas, pointing at the screen. They looked at each other.

"Definitely.", Lucas said.

"The highest score in the history of … ever.", Dustin murmured, awed. He reached for the keyboard, typing the first three letters. Lucas added three more.

"MAD MAX", the screen showed. 85 1300 points.

They drove back home in the dark, their grins brighter than the street lamps and their moods better than the most awesome chocolate bars. Although victory kind of tastes like chocolate, come to think of it. And friendship sort of does, too.

(the end)