Author's Note: I'm back with Chapter 3! I have no idea how many more chapters I'll be writing for this story, but what I do know is that this is far from over! Hope you guys enjoy!

Chapter 3: The Day That Never Ends

Friday, May 14, 1985

Hawkins Middle School Cafeteria

Mike was right.

The day seemed to last forever.

Max almost fell asleep in Calculus, Mike thought English would never end, and Will was expressing his boredom through art in History.

When lunch came, Max would've screamed of joy if her voice wasn't completely shot. She sat at her usual lunch table with Dustin, Will and Mike, and realized she completely forgot to make herself lunch.

Max decided it wasn't a big deal. She still felt insanely nauseous, and she knew it would be more suspicious, and disgusting, if she puked all over the table rather than if she didn't eat.

Dustin and Mike were in their own little world when Max sat down, and she didn't mind. That means less suspicion is directed at her. She just buried her head in her arms when a sharp pain started stabbing her in the stomach, causing a few tears she'd been holding back all day to fall.

Will sat across from Max and saw the red-head looking positively miserable. "Max? Are you ok?" Will asked Max quietly. Max lifted her head to reveal her tear-stricken face with pain written all over it.

"Will, I don't- I don't feel good," Max said, her voice high and raspy. She was done trying to hide how absolutely horrible she felt. Her nose was running, her head was pounding, and her stomach was doing gymnastics inside of her.

Will, as if it was a reflex, put a cool hand to Max's forehead, feeling the boiling skin beneath it.

"You're burning up. Guys! She's burning up!" Will said, urgency and panic in his voice. Dustin and Mike slid over to the two. Max started coughing, and Mike rubbed small circles on her back, now feeling the heat radiating off of her.

"Ok Max, enough is enough. We're going to the nurse ok?" Mike said. Max nodded, her coughing fit finally having subsided. She used Mike and Dustin for support while Will led them to the nurse's office (which was not fun on anyone's part down or up the 2 flights of stairs!).

The school nurse, Mrs. Jordan, was just organizing her cotton swabs when the party entered her office. She took one look at Max and beelined for the thermometer. Mike and Dustin sat Max down on the small cot in the back of her room when Mrs. Jordan put the thermometer in her mouth and started asking the others questions.

"How long has she been like this?" was her first question. "She was fine yesterday, she must've caught it overnight. She looked pretty sick on the car ride here," Will said with a calmness that surprised everyone, even himself. "We wanted to say something then, but Will doesn't know Max very well and she and me and still aren't really friends, so we thought she would just tell us she was fine and then I started panicking so we made a deal to take her here if she still looked sick or worse and she is definitely worse and I'm speaking way to fast, aren't I?" Mike said in a panicked tone. He was right, he had started speaking very fast due to his concern and lack of control over the situation.

"Wait, why didn't you fill me in on this?!" Dustin said in an exasperated tone. "You had already walked away," Will said casually. "That's not what's important right now! Is she gonna be ok?" Mike said, tears were forming now. When Will had this bug, it had never been so bad to the point where his friends had to drag him up and down 2 flights of stairs!

The thermometer beeped and everyone remembered Max was still there, looking at Mike with wide eyes. Mike just looked away. He didn't love Max or anything, his heart belonged to El no matter what, but he didn't want to see a fellow party member suffer. No, he didn't want to see a friend suffer.

Mrs. Jordan looked at the thermometer. Max had a fever of 101.4, so there was no doubt she had the bug that's been plaguing the school for weeks.

"You did the right thing, bringing her in. Better late than never!" she said, trying to lighten the mood. When it didn't work, Mrs. Jordan just cleared her throat and continued.

"Are your parents home, sweetheart?" she asked Max in a gentle voice. Will and Mike saw she looked like she was about to break down in tears again, being the fever was making her extremely emotional, so Will sat next to her on the cot, and Mike sat on her other side, the two boys squeezing her hands gently. Dustin still hadn't caught the nasty cold that had been going around, so he decided to keep his distance, even though he was probably already exposed.

"M-my p-p-parents left f-for a t-two week retreat t-to W-Washington this m-morning" Max stuttered between quiet sniffles and sobs. "Well, do you have any other relatives you could call? Like, maybe an older sibling-" Mrs. Jordan started but was cut off by Max. The mere mention of anything remotely related to calling Billy made her panic.

"No! Please don't call Billy! Please, I'm begging you!" Max pleaded, but it turned into a painful sounding string of coughs. "Don't worry dear! If you don't want to call Billy, we don't have to, but someone does need to take you home. Was Billy going to watch you while your parents were away?" Mrs. Jordan said calmly, trying to calm the poor, feverish girl down.

"No. Steve was," Max replied simply.

"Who?"

"Steve Harrington. He's a friend."

"Would you like to call him?" Mrs. Jordan asked. She knew Steve quite well. His immune system wasn't the strongest, and when he was in middle school, he would sometimes be forced to come in sick by his dad, or his sport-induced asthma would act up and he would need help from the nurse to get his breathing under control.

Max nodded, tears still rolling down her cheeks. "Where is he?" Mrs. Jordan asked the boys, knowing Max's brain might be too fever-ridden to give her a good answer.

"I think he's in advanced Spanish," Dustin piped up. Steve had always excelled at Spanish, being his Mom's side of the family came from Guatemala, and his aunts and grandparents would speak to him and his mother in Spanish. Mrs. Jordan immediately went to the phone and punched in a number.