Chapter 40: Clash of Friends
"Sorry Max," Eleven says over the phone. "But I have tutoring today."
"Okay, when did this start?" Max asks.
"Last week," El replies. "Papa got me a tutor to help me get caught up on schoolwork. We have a deal: if I work hard, I can come to school with you guys after Christmas."
"Honestly, I don't know why you would," the redhead snorts. "High school sucks just as much as middle school."
"Because… I want to be like a normal kid," El reasons.
"But you're better than normal," Max insists.
"We can hang out after if you want, it's only an hour. We could even do a sleepover. Papa is working late meaning we'd have the cabin to do whatever we wanted."
"I'll think about it."
Just then the sound of a revving engine fills the house and Max rolls her eyes. She turns her back away from the entrance to the house, hoping that he'll just ignore her. The door slams open and Billy strides into the house, cigarette dangling from his lips and filling the house with a noxious smell. She barely manages to avoid his gaze as he transitions to the kitchen, puts his cigarette out on the counter, and digs through the fridge to find his dad's beer. Ignoring the spray of foam as he opens it, he chugs the entire can before crushing it in his hands. He gives his stepsister a side glance and then throws the garbage down on the floor.
"Pick that up for me will you Maxine?" he says.
"Do it yourself you slob," she hisses, covering the receiver so Eleven won't hear their fight.
"What did you just say to me?" he snaps, his hands clenching into fists. "Don't you ever… I need to do homework."
"Bullshit, you haven't done homework since kindergarten. Go read your magazines or stick your tongue in a wall socket."
Billy reaches forward to grab her wrist and threaten her, but she's ready for it. She's quicker than him and uses the phone to swat him away. The crack of plastic against the bone gets him to back off. He's staring daggers at her, but Max holds the phone up, ready to use it again.
"Max? What's going on?" Eleven's voice is heard.
"Leave me alone because unlike you I have friends to communicate with."
"Is that Sinclair you're talking to?"
"No, it's Jane Hopper… you know the daughter of the sheriff."
The mention of the law seems to shut Billy's attempt at a fight down and he grabs one more beer, holding it against his sore wrist before storming down towards his bedroom. He flips her off before slamming his door. The sound of heavy metal music then fills the entire house, purposefully done to ruin his stepsister's conversation.
"Max, what happened?" Eleven asks.
"Billy's home," the redhead snarls under her breath. "Sorry about that."
"Why is he a mouth breather?"
Max smirks. "No goddamn clue, maybe they're just born that way. Anyways I will definitely say yes to the sleepover considering how much of an asshole Billy's being."
"Okay…"
There's a pause as another voice enters the background of Jane's call.
"I have to go, my tutor's here."
"Okay, well I'll see you later and maybe we can order pizza or something."
"Sure. Bye, Max."
"Bye," she says before hanging up.
…
Beverly bikes down the street towards the cul-de-sac where Bill's family now lives. After her failed attempts to get the Loser's Club back together, she'd been keeping to herself mostly. She still hung out with Ben and Bill at lunch, but they never really said too much aside from discussing schoolwork. Ben had joined the school Book Club and also took an interest in the A.V. Club, meaning he wasn't around as much, and Bill was distracted with some kind of big art project. She caught him constantly putting sketches into his notebooks of different medieval figures and monsters as well as mixing various coloured pencils together. He didn't tell either of them what he was making, but it excited him. He's doing it with one of the kids from Hawkins that they somehow keep ending up meeting... the shy one named Will. While it was nice to see Ben finding his social scene and Bill being so passionate about something, this left Bev feeling a little more alone. Aside from smoking out back with some of the stoner kids, she really didn't have any other social interactions. None of the clubs were interesting to her
Just then a car pulls into the driveway. Bev notices that it's Bill's cousin Amelia. The two had only formally met once when she brought Bill his forgotten lunch to his locker.
"Hi. It's Beverly… right?" Mia says, gathering her books and backpack from the car.
"Yes, that's right. Hi Amelia."
"Oh, you can just call me Mia, it's a lot easier," the older girl says.
"Okay... Mia… is Bill home?"
"No idea, want to find out?"
The two go up the steps and enter the house.
"I'm home," Mia announces.
"Hi, Mia!" Georgie says, coming to the door. When he notices the other guest, "Hi Beverly."
"Hi Georgie," Bev says.
"Is Bill home Georgie?" Mia asks.
"No. He went to his friend Will's house."
"Oh wow," Bev says, surprised by the information.
"They're working on a project together," the six-year-old informs them. He then wanders off.
"Sorry that he's not here," Mia says, hanging her bag on a nearby chair.
"That's okay," the redhead shrugs. "I just wanted to check."
Mia then dumps her books on the kitchen table before going to the fridge.
"Do you want a drink?" she offers.
"Just water is fine, then I'll get out of your hair."
As the elder teen makes the drinks, Beverly notices the stack of books. She sees The Tempest, a Shakespeare book, and a lot of middle school workbooks. That was weird since Mia was a senior in high school.
"What are these?" she asks.
"Oh, those are my tutoring books," Mia explains, bringing over two glasses.
"Really? For whom?"
"You know Chief Hopper's daughter?"
"Jane?" she asks while taking the glass of water
"Yeah, that's her, I'm helping tutor her and help her get ready for high school."
"She told me that she was homeschooled," Bev says.
"You met her?"
"Yeah, a couple of weeks ago. She and I kind of hung out."
"That's nice. Mr. Hopper said that he'd homeschooled her, but he didn't have time anymore, so he hired me to help ease the workload."
"How's it going?" Bev asks. She just assumed that Jane was homeschooled and was at the same level as them, not the case based on the books her tutor is using. Did she have learning difficulties?
"Really well. Jane picks up on things fast and I think she'll be ready for high school soon."
Bev takes a sip of her drink and looks at the book.
"What's The Tempest about?"
"Oh, that's a classic Shakespeare play. It sucks you're not learning it in freshman English this year. It's about a man and his daughter who were banished to an island for many years. The man has mystical powers and a spirit that serves him. He has the spirit conjure a storm, a tempest, to bring many people to an island, some of whom have wronged him."
"Sounds interesting," Bev declares, examining the book
"Yeah, Jane is loving it and while the language is older, she's able to understand. It's among the safest of Shakespearean plays. I sure as hell can't do Macbeth or King Lear, those are intense and in a lot of cases, bloody."
"Wonder what it will be in English next semester," Bev ponders.
"Bill is studying Twelfth Night, which is a great play and safe to assume that you will too."
The redhead teen nods and finishes her water.
She then notices a crumpled piece of paper sticking out from one of the books. Without thinking, she pulls it out to see a crudely drawn map.
"What's this?"
"That's the map on how to get to Mr. Hopper's cabin. It's way outside of town, and usually requires a car to get there."
"I was only at her cabin once, but I couldn't even try to find out where it is."
Mia picks up the implication. "Do you want me to make a copy of it?"
Beverly shrugs but then nods.
Mia takes a pencil and begins to trace it and explains what landmarks to look for in order to find the cabin since it was so deep in the woods.
Once she's finished, she hands the map to Beverly.
"Thank you," she says.
"No problem, I'm sure Jane will be happy to see you."
"And thanks for the drink," she adds.
"Sorry, Bill wasn't around,"
"No problem. Thanks again, Mia. Bye Georgie"
"Bye Beverly," he waves.
Once Bev is out the door.
"That's Bill's girlfriend," Georgie states to his cousin.
…
It becomes a struggle to take her bike through the woods and follow the map given to her. Bev tries to find all the landmarks Mia pointed out and it takes a lot longer than she wants it to, especially as the sun starts to set. She ends up walking her bike with one hand and holding the map in the other.
Eventually, she sees the cabin and walks toward it. She leans her bike against the porch and climbs the steps to knock.
With a click, the doorknob turns and the heavy oak door opens, but no one is behind it to greet her.
How did… how did the door open? her mind asks. Did I knock too hard? Is it because the place is old? I swear I heard the knob turn. Did it unlock?
While the questions reel through her mind, a voice snaps her
"Hey, Max…" Eleven calls out from somewhere in the cabin.
El walks to the door and freezes in her tracks when she sees that nice girl, Beverly. Her heart drops into her stomach realizing that she just used her powers in front of someone who didn't know anything… Papa always told her not to be stupid and she just broke that rule a million times over.
The two girls stare at one another, unable to think or speak to one another.
"Hi… Beverly…" she finally manages to say.
"H-Hi," the redhead replies. Maybe the house shifted, try not to look weird.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to come over unannounced. I ran into your tutor Mia Rogers; her cousin is one of my friends and she showed me how to get to your house. I was hoping that we could hang out like we said we would."
"Uh, we can, but I have another friend coming over soon."
"That's okay, I won't stay long," Bev shrugs.
"C-Come on in," Eleven says.
"Thanks."
The redhead walks into the tiny place, the smell of wood and must fill her nostrils. It's certainly a… comfy place and very rustic. Bev finds a seat nearby and El sits in her father's favourite chair.
It's dead silent, neither girl knowing what to say to the other at first, especially after that strange encounter.
"So… how's it going with the tutoring?" Bev asks.
"Good… Mia is a good teacher. She's very nice."
"Yes, she is. I heard she was reading The Tempest with you,"
"Yes, it's a fun story so far and she does voices to go with it," Eleven says. "They're very funny."
"I'd love to see that, probably a lot better than Richie's lame impressions."
"Richie ?" El puzzles over the name and places the face again as it had been a few weeks.
"The one with the big glasses." To emphasize her point, she uses her hands to mimic her former friend's larger-than-normal specs.
"Oh him!" El says. "He's funny."
"He sure tries to be, the problem is that he shoots off his mouth a lot more than making people laugh."
"Are you and him friends again?" the shier of the two asks, now remembering that Beverly was stressed over a fight that she and her Derry friends had.
"Fat chance," Bev snorts. "All of them are too stubborn to apologize to each other and fix anything."
And it's me who has to suffer, she thinks to herself.
"Why are they all mad at each other anyways?" El asks.
"Well, it started with Richie insulting Eddie, which was typical, but he took it too far and then both of them began to fight, humiliating each other in front of other people. They ended their friendship. Bill, Mia's cousin, tried to fix it by tricking both of them into coming to the arcade to talk. But this just made them angrier and then my friend Stan got involved and it basically broke up the group. Only Bill, Ben and I are on speaking terms, and even then, they've kept their distance."
The redhead is battling a few tears, but she bites her lip hard enough to bleed to avoid showing it. A little trick she learned a long time ago while living in Derry with bullies and her horrible father. Emotion was weakness and she didn't want to show any in front of this friend. She cares about all those idiot boys. They were her only friends for the longest time, and it was their bond that protected them over the summer.
Eleven looks at her sympathetically.
"I'm sorry."
"It's okay. I just wish boys weren't idiots all the time. Put their dumb pride aside and fight over stupid things."
"It's why we're a different species," El grins, deciding to make Beverly laugh.
Bev manages to smirk at that.
"Do you know that Richie looks like my boyfriend Mike?"
"Yeah, I remember that…" she laughs.
Eleven goes to grab a picture of her boyfriend and then sits next to Beverly on the couch to show her.
"It's like they're twins," Bev says in amazement.
"I know, but Mike doesn't see it," El replies.
"Seriously, put the glasses on and Mike is Richie, although your boyfriend's probably less of an a-hoke than trash mouth."
"Mike's the best," Eleven smiles.
"You're very lucky."
"What about you and that Bill guy? Is he your boyfriend?"
The freckles on her face disappear as Beverly Marsh flushes a strong shade of red. She looks away and swallows heavily. Her heart races and her stomach twists with emotion.
"N-No, Bill and I aren't boyfriend and girlfriend. We're just friends…"
Even though we kissed.
"Oh," El says. "Okay."
"Do you know that Richie was still convinced he's better looking?" she says quickly to change the subject.
"How?"
"I don't know… I mean…"
Just then the door opens and Max stands in the doorway, bag over her shoulder and skateboard under her opposite arm. She's completely stunned by what she's seeing.
"M-Max," El says, standing up. "Hi. Want to come in?"
The other redhead says nothing, her eyes darting between her best friend and the weird girl from Derry.
"Yeah, thanks but no thanks. Seems like you've already got someone over," she snaps before turning and slamming the door behind her.
A/N: Please follow and review. I'm a little on the fence about the title of the chapter. If anyone has any suggestions, please leave a review.
Replies to Reviews:
xLiteratureLoverx: Yeah, it's a nice change to see what's happening with Mike
GlaringEyes: I find Mike's uncle's words ironic, and something is being investigated in Derry. I haven't really thought about bringing Kali or any other numbers in. It would be interesting, but I do have a lot of characters on the go already, maybe save it for a sequel or something
Norozco772: It is funny that you and Glaring Eyes think a lot alike. We'll have to see what happens.