Monday 3rd September, 1984
Summer was over. And while he yearned for a replay of the weeks before, life went on, bringing with it new and not so unpleasant changes. Like the sudden growth spurt that put him head and shoulders above Nancy, which he loved to lord over her (no matter how hard she could still kick his shins and return his jibes). Or the seniority that came with being in the top grade of middle school, bullies almost a distant past thanks to Max, especially now that they were honours students which meant even more time spent with Mr Clarke and less around Troy and his goons.
And the biggest change came about with his cute friend not official girlfriend due to start 8th grade, her first ever grade, with them. It was hard to tell who was bursting with anticipation more that morning, as he took in the cute denim overall skirt and pink leggings she had on, sweater folded neatly in her bike basket. She looked back at him every so often as her mom struggled to keep her attention, with Will listening in her place.
"I signed her up for all of your classes. Her lunch is in your bag. El, you'll only have a half day, just to get used to it. I'll pick you up at 1."
She hugged and kissed them both before turning away with teary eyes, into the waiting shoulder of Chief Hopper who stood silently by. "You'll keep an eye on her Will, or maybe she'll keep an eye on you huh?"
"We watch each other." El replied ahead of her brother, waving back at her pseudo father and mother as she mounted her bike to ride off with Will and Mike. "Love you sweetie." Joyce called, taking the time to kiss her daughter again before gently letting her ride off into the morning. "They grow up so fast..."
"Hell yeah!" Max yelled, immediately slinging an arm around the new girl and dragging her away from the indignant boys at the bike rack. "You've finally stepped up to the major leagues huh pipsqueak?"
"Come on Max! No need to give her a hard time." Mike said, trying to pull her off of the now frazzled girl to no avail. "Oh reelaaax Wheeler, your girlfriend's fine."
"She's not-" "Your locker 239? That's 2 down from me, yippee~" Max loosened her grip and led the wide-eyed girl through the crowd, shoving her elbows into people's sides to get them out of the way and receiving glares in all direction. "Give it up Mike, El's a goner."
Lucas shook his head and grabbed the arm of a pleading Mike, while Will glared silently at the retreating redhead and Dustin was already busy at his own locker. "She makes my job a lot harder..." Will muttered, more to himself than the others.
"At least the other girls won't try to steal her away. Not to degrade our personal hell girl, but word on the street is any person caught with 'Mangy Max' is dubbed a social leper. Trixie and her posse have a hit on her..." the information conveyed to them by Dustin stopped all three boys from their tasks.
"Mangy Max? Those airheads didn't come up with that on their own..." Lucas claimed, eyeing the cheerleaders on the other side of the room a little more peeved than the others probably felt. "Who cares what Trixie thinks? Those girls are the female equivalent of the troy-bots anyways."
"I doubt she'd want to be bffs with them anyways, Max has been telling her about everyone we don't like since the day they met..." Will revealed after Mike's comment, recalling the occasional memory he'd once been able to swipe from the now impenetrable force that was her mind. No doubt, the boys all had faith in El to make the right choices as she navigated her way through the jungle that was middle school.
'What's with that cat on her shirt, is she like 8?'
'1975 called, they want their legwarmers back...'
'That haircut makes her look like a boy...'
'I bet her mom did it coz of head lice, probably from hanging around Mangy Max...'
'Ewww! You're probably right Trix. Nadine's gonna flip when she hears...'
El felt her cheeks immediately flame and tears sprung to her eyes, but Max was just as quick to grab her shoulder and whisper "ignore those bitchy comments. Trixie doesn't have shit on us El, none of those girls are as pretty as you and it makes them jealous enough to start nasty rumours."
Their lockers were on the other side of the school, in a much quieter area save for the gossiping teens within earshot of them. The main hall was much more crowded, here, the students were sparse and left as quickly as they came to join their friends in the throes.
"Yes Max. Thanks..." El placed her bag in her bare locker, trying her best to occupy her mind with thoughts instead of how she'd personalise her locker the way her friends did, with pictures and a planner.
'I bet Mangy Max got her claws into more than one of them though. I bet she's totally a slut... well, between toothless and midnight. Frog-face and Fairy-boy are probably exclusive.'
The girls were joined by Troy and his gang, eyeing the redheaded girl across the hall from them boldly as her nostrils flared, hunched over her locker door with her fists curled. "Come again ass-wipe?!"
"I said, you're probably a slut. Mangy Max, oh wait... don't you go by Mangy Mary on the streets?" the crowd of almost twelve erupted into peals of howling laughter and cackling, just as Max stepped forward. "You're asking to get your balls pushed in again shit for brains!"
"I aint afraid to beat a girl, especially a beefcake like you White." Troy pushed past his friends cheering him on and walked up to meet her, fists raised and ready to strike...
But only to be frozen mid-air. Max tackled him to the ground in one foul swoop, revelling in the heavy thud as he fell flat on his back and stared up at her in disbelief. "What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?"
"Hey, Troy? Get up man!" One of his cronies tried to get to his aid but immediately tripped onto his front, his leg mysteriously pulled out from under him. Just as quickly the entire group of teens screamed and yelped as they were all yanked into the air by the roots of their hair or the back of their jackets, as high as the ceiling would allow (barely eight feet) before dropping like ragdolls.
"Oh my god we're being haunted! Someone help!" One of the cheerleaders cried amidst terrified screams and scrambling limbs trying to get up and away from the unknown source of their troubles.
El wiped the blood from her nose, thin frame hidden behind the set of lockers her door was on the end of, relishing in the pain she'd caused the nasty kids. Max took advantage of the mayhem and confused scattering of the crowd to hide beside El, throwing her arms around the smaller girl's shoulders fully this time. "Welcome to the public middle-school system, we're going to knock those so-called kingkahs off their thrones one asshole at a time..."
Author's notes:
This story's undergoing the process of some extreme reconstruction. It seriously might end up being entirely different to your first read, but I'm keeping its most vital parts even through the chops and changes. If you see more chapters than before, it's just that I've broken up the little bits that I'd usually bunch up into one chapter.
Along with the reconstruction I'll say that I really should have broken this up into a series, but I'll just continue writing everything in one big story because meh. Series starting with Part 1: The Return and After of El Byers, then Part 2: Band of Misfits. There will be a part 3, definitely.
That's all for now :)
