"Your hear something crawling up the cave walls behind you. Its haunting and slithery, like a snake, but it's much larger than that, and its growling low and angry like a lion stalking its prey."
Mike was setting the tone for the big finale of his nearly 10 hour campaign. He had the party on the edge of their seats, hanging on his every word.
"The orb of light still floating above, gives you the slightest indication of the beasts appearance. You can see the outline of its large hulking silhouette, like a massive serpent coiling and uncoiling itself, lurking forward with hunger in its eyes." He continued
"Oh shit its the Basilisk." Dustin mumbled, frantically flipping through his notes.
"It's not the Basilisk! They haven't been seen in this region in years!" Lucas yelled incredulously.
"But this cave system has never been explored!" Dustin retorted.
"Guys shut up! Let him finish." Will scolded.
Mike smirked devilishly and continued. "Will sends the floating orb closer to the beast. It casts a thin veil of light over its massive claws and dripping scaly body. The orb floats higher, searching in the darkness for the monsters face! The monster darts forward, stepping into the light and hissing loudly, causing your skin to crawl." He pauses as the boys shudder. "The orb floats higher still, finally giving light to the creatures identity!" He slams forward a small statue of a grotesque reptilian monster, whose mouth hangs open, drooling and thirsty for blood. "It's the dreaded Basilisk!" He screams mischievously.
The boys groan and kick each other under the table. Dustin flips through his notes for the thousandth time, Lucas just gapes in horror.
"Will it's your move!" Mike yells at the smallest boy, who up to this point has been very quiet. The boys lean in intently, watching Will think over his options.
He pondered for a moment, rolling the shiny 20 sided dice around in his fingers. "I'm gonna fireball him." He said with a satisfied smirk. All of the boys gasp, completely surprised by his bravery, or foolishness, and Mike settles back behind his DM screen.
Will rolls his dice out onto the table, but it bounces off and falls to the floor.
"SHIT!" The boys yell in unison, scrambling on their hands and knees to find the die. Mike bumps his head on the table, knocking over the statues and curses loudly. Dustin and Lucas shove and push each other in some fight over where the die had fallen.
Max and El chuckle to themselves across the basement, safely avoiding the struggle. The boys had been playing their game all day, and it was either sweet, or terribly dorky, depending on which girl you asked. The two girls had become fast friends since their meeting only a week ago. Max was over almost everyday, and had been caught up quickly on the entire groups history and habits.
"They are such idiots." Max rolled her eyes at the frantic boys. El giggled and nodded. El looked over the boys with fondness, especially the curly haired one who was rubbing his temple in pain.
Suddenly, El saw something glimmer in her periphery. She turned and saw the die had rolled all the way to the basement door, not anywhere near where the boys were searching. She focused on the small shape and lifted it effortlessly into the air, careful not to let it turn over.
"Mike." She said gently, not letting her focus break from the object for a second. He jerked his head up to look at her, and followed her gaze to the floating sphere.
"Oh wow! Guys! El found it!" He clambered up and ran over the tiny object. He grabbed it from the air and read its top faceing number, smiling coily.
"Oh shit, Wheeler, what does it say?" Lucas huffed, dropping back into his seat.
"We are toast aren't we?" Dustin conceded, hanging his head in defeat.
Mike took his seat back at the table, and Will returned to his place directly across, eyes focused and ready for whatever the outcome was.
"It's a..." Mike started, dragging the answer out in suspense. The boys leaned forward, eager and impatient. "A natural 20!" He screamed.
The boys jumped up in excitement! Screaming and cheering and patting Will on the back.
"Will shoots the Basilisk in its open mouth, the fire travels down his throat and into his acidic belly! He stumbles backwards, screaming in pain and trips over the edge of the cliff! Falling into the bottomless trench once and for all!"
The boys cheered louder, Will and Lucas embarrassed in a celebratory hug, and Dustin imitated playing a bardic song of victory on an imaginary lute. Mike wrapped up the campaign, speeding through the ending and awarding each member their due riches and experience points.
"Are you morons finally done now?" Max asked, standing off the couch and walking towards the rowdy group.
"Hey no one said you had to sit there and watch us the whole time." Mike sneered.
"I didn't watch you the whole time, egomaniac! El and I went for a skate and got ice cream and you guys didn't even notice." She grinned and crossed her arms. El got off the couch and joined her, wrapping her arms around Mikes shoulders.
"Wait really?" Dusin asked astonished.
"Yeah, you dorks were so wrapped up in your game that you literally didn't even know. We came back and you guys hadn't moved, it was kind of creepy." She laughed.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Mike turned to El, who was resting her chin on his shoulder.
"We did tell you, you didn't hear." She snickered, kissing his cheek and standing back up.
Max grabbed a small statue from the table's surface and looked it over. It was a small wizard, meant to depict Wills character.
"So when are you going to teach me and El to play?" She asked turning the figure around in her hand.
The boys all looked from Max to Mike, and back again.
"Well... girls dont really play D&D." Dustin muttered quietly.
"And plus our party is already full!" Mike quickly added.
Max looked over the boys, face suddenly creased in confusion. "Are you serious right now?" She scoffed. Dustin and Mike looked at her unblinking, Will and Lucas sat in the uncomfortable silence.
"What?" Mike and Dustin asked in unison.
"Girls dont play D&D? Are you kidding me?" She raised her voice, crossing her arms and raising her eyebrows.
El looked over the boys for a moment. This was a tension she had never experienced before and it didn't make sense. Why would there be something that girls couldn't do? Mike had taught her a lot about the game he loved so much, and she was always interested and excited to learn, so why could she not play? She walked over to her friend and mirrored her position, crossing her arms in firm agitation.
"Yeah why not?" El asked.
"It's not that girls can't play! Its that they usually don't! It's just really gory and violent!" Dustin said trying to defend himself.
"Yeah it's all fighting and monsters." Mike added.
"Gorey and violent!?" Max yelled. "You think i'm afraid of stupid monsters? I asked you all to watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre and
were too scared! El has literally killed people! You are just being sexist assholes and you know it." She huffed. Mike stood up to try to reason with her but she turned and grabbed her bag, stomping up the stairs and slamming the basement door behind her.
"Wait! Max!" Lucas hollered up after her. "Nice going dicks!" He smacked Dustin and Mike on the back of the head before running up behind her.
"What I was just being honest!?" Dustin yelled throwing his arms up in exasperation. He stood up and walked into the bathroom, slamming the door.
"Mike, I don't understand." El said still clearly upset. "Why can't we play? Fighting monsters is not going to scare us."
"Well... it's not really about that. It's more like..." Mike pondered how to explain for a moment. "There are just things that boys do that girls usually don't, and this is one of them."
El raised an eyebrow at him. She felt offended but she wasn't sure why. What made this different than other board games?
"But Dustin is just being stupid!" Mike quickly added standing up. "Of course you guys can play with us, you are members of the party anyway." He smiled, wrapping an arm around El.
"Yeah I want to play with you, I bet you would be really good." Will beamed.
Max stomped through the house and out the kitchen door, pushing past Nancy and running out in the yard. She cursed to herself under her breath and grabbed her skateboard off the porch. How dare they try to tell her she couldn't play with them? And for such a stupid reason? It was just some dumb game, so why did they care so much? And why were her feelings so hurt?
She began the walk down the long dirt and gravel driveway, angry that she couldn't just skate down, when Lucas burst through the door behind her.
"Wait!" He hollered after her, but she pressed forward ignoring him. She had gotten better at controlling her feelings and powers since working with Hop and the other kids, but as he ran to join, her the wind picked up steadily.
He finally caught up with her and grabbed onto her arm, pulling her around to face him.
"What do you want, stalker!?" She yelled at him.
"I wanted to talk to you. And to apologize for Dustin, he was just being a jerk." He smiled sincerely.
"Yeah no duh!" Max huffed.
"But we don't all feel that way, at least I know I don't. I have never played D&D with a girl before, but I think you would be fun to play with. You're cool and you're not like a lot of other girls." Lucas nervously rubbed the back of his neck. Max noticed that there was the slightest tinge of warm pink under the skin of his face.
"I just don't understand why he would say something like that. I thought you guys wanted me to be your friend but whenever I try to be a part of whatever you are doing you all just act weird!" She threw her skateboard down in the grass and used it like a seat, crossing her arms.
"That's not true, we don't try to be mean to your or anything like that!" Lucas quickly replied.
"Well you are! Like the other day at the arcade, Dustin practically cried when I got to new top score in Digdug. And then he wouldn't talk to me the entire rest of the day!"
Lucas sat down across from her, he leaned back on his palms and squinted at her in the bright august sun. "It's complicated, I think maybe we just don't know how to act around you."
"You don't know how to act around me? Why because i'm a girl? But you have all known El for months!" She threw her hands up in frustration.
"But thats different, like completely different. El isnt really like a normal girl, she never had any friends or anything before us so she kind of liked all of us right away. And you know the way her and Mike are together, it's been like that since the beginning. So it was just easy I guess." He played with the tall blades of grass, nervously ripping them apart in his fingers.
Max thought for a moment, trying to understand what he meant by a friendship with El as being 'easy'.
"I liked all of you right away too." She finally said after a long silence. "Well at least I did until Dustin started acting weird. It's not like I had a ton of friends in California anyway." She hugged her knees and joined Lucas in playing with the grass in front of her.
"Do you miss it?" Lucas asked after another pause. Max looked up confused. "California I mean? Hawkins doesn't have any beaches or sand or anything."
"Sometimes. Mostly I guess I just miss my dad." She sighed. "It really sucks being so far away from him, because he is the only person who never treated me like a monster because of my powers. We moved up here because my mom has family here and her new husband was worried I would make a tsunami or something." She scoffed.
"That does suck, that your parents are split up. That has to be hard." Lucas looked at her, eyes filled with sympathy. It made her feel warm inside despite the heavy breeze she had created.
"It's fine, when two people dont love each other anymore they shouldn't stay together." She shrugged. "And Hawkins is pretty cool. It's nice to know there are other freaks in the world." She laughed.
Lucas laughed with her, nodding in agreement. The wind around them died down slightly, letting the humidity of summer settle back down on them, wrapping them in warm stagnant air.
"I'm sorry about Dustin. He is an idiot, but he really does mean well. Mike too." Lucas said trying his best to make her feel better. "It's just that girls don't really talk to us. They think we are weird and they usually just make fun of us." Lucas mumbled.
"Well you are weird." She laughed, playfully throwing a handful of grass at him. "But I guess i'm weird too, because I
like you." Her cheeks turned a subtle red underneath her golden tan and freckles.
"I like you too, Madmax." He smirked. "And I really shouldn't be telling you this, but I think the only reason Dustin is acting like that is because he likes you too. A lot"
Max paused, eyes wide. Did little Dustin have a stupid crush on her? And he was dealing with it be bullying her like a little kid? She laughed hard, grabbing her stomach, the whole thing was just too dumb to make her mad.
"I guess I can forgive him then," She sighed, falling back into the grass and looking up at the clouds. "Besides, i'm gonna get revenge when I kick his ass during the next campaign."
"You are probably right," Lucas moved around and layed in the grass next to her only a foot or so apart. "He isn't very good." Both young teens laughed, turning red and enjoying the warmth and company.
They stayed that way for awhile, looking at the clouds and listening to the crickets somewhere far off in the field. Every few minutes or so one of them would point to a cloud and describe what it looked like, making each other wheeze with laughter. Max turned and smiled at the boy. How had she been so mad only a few minutes ago, and how had he known exactly what to say to make it better? Lucas is nice, she decided, glancing at the eager boy next to her.
Out of all the boys, Lucas was the only one to ever really listen to her. She had gathered that his relationship with his parents was not much better than her own, and that made it easier to open up. Maybe moving to Hawkins really was for the better. If it meant she got to make friends with people like El and Lucas Sinclair, then it must be alright.