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.*･｡. A DEAL WITH GOD! .*･｡.
————MADMAX
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004.
BRATS ON BOARDS.
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   She fixed the essay.

   Or at least, Ashley fixed what she could.

She knew that Steve Harrington wasn't particularly academically inclined. Everyone knew. Being King Steve had been a full time job, one that had neglected his grades, and Steve was now retaking all the failed classes he had never cared about until the last year — it was probably because his girlfriend, Nancy Wheeler, had inspired him to actually make something of himself before it was too late to take back his carelessness.

Regardless, Ashley had never expected him to apply to colleges. He just didn't strike her as the type.

Not because he was dumb, or because he didn't have a chance at being accepted, but because Steve Harrington just didn't seem like college was the place for him; she couldn't quite put her finger on it honestly, but the essay she read almost proved her assumption right.

It wasn't bad, but...

It wasn't good.

And if there was one thing Ashley Miller hated in this world, it was a poor essay— let alone a college application. So, as a means of distracting herself from the terrible morning she'd had, Ashley decided to fix it; to... jazz it up a little.

There was some faint markings already on it but they were just circles that had no real helpful information alongside them. They weren't enough to help him improve, at least. Not in Ashley's eyes.

So once she was done with her bio test — which was easy, even though her studying had been interrupted — and put the answers in a spot Eddie Munson could see them because she was going to lose her mind if he was held behind another year, Ashley got to work on Steve's essay. She had pulled out her fancy pens and started marking the papers, circling words and scribbling tiny arrows to reorder most sentences, as well as little notes and corrections here and there. Ashley even made a key on the back with a list of what he should change and why it would help.

   She was used to marking essays for Linda and Cindy, and she had even reviewed some of Dustin's the few times he needed it. This was Ashley's forte; she'd been prepping her college application for years, she knew what they would be looking out for.

And it was cathartic; the organisation soothed her.

Was that weird?

She was done with it by lunch. Ashley had changed it enough to make it better without taking away from his own originality. It was Steve's essay after all, not hers, and she didn't want to just erase his tone or his hard work.

Ashley slipped it into his locker when nobody was around to see her, and quickly walked away.

"Ashley!"

The girl turned, worried someone had seen her put something in Steve Harrington's locker — it would have made good gossip for Carol to sink her teeth into. But, upon seeing their principal rather than a short, bitchy redhead, Ashley relaxed. Lips tugging into a smile, she nodded her head.

"Principal Ralfman." She greeted the woman, sweetly. She was a little confused why she was approaching her at lunch, but it was hardly the first time she had randomly been flagged down in halls — she was their student council rep, after all. It tended to happen every now and then. Still, Ashley was curious. "What can I do for you today?"

"Always eager to help," her principal beamed.

"Always," Ashley smiled.

"There's a pupil I'd like you to chaperone," she said, and the words made Ashley's shoulders tense. Please don't be the new boy, don't be the new boy, please don't be the—! "Principal Russel just asked if you might have time to help his newest student over in the middle. She started today and has been rather closed off," the woman revealed. It made Ashley's brows jump up in surprise. "I'm sure we can both remember how hard change was back then," she laughed, making Ashley fake one too.

Tell me about it.

"So, what do you say?"

"Uh, sure!" Ashley widened her fake smile. She might have had her fair share of experience babysitting Dustin, but she wasn't too good at dealing with kids; especially closed-off ones. "Did you just want me to show her around?"

"Pretty much," Principal Ralfman nodded. "It might help her to know that she has someone in her corner. Maybe it'll inspire her to open up a little," she suggested.

Ashley agreed, "I can do that." Hopefully.

   After a moment more chatting, Principal Ralfman bid Ashley a good luck and sent her on her way to Hawkins Middle. It took little time to get there, being that it was only up the hill from their high school, and it wasn't very long before Ashley was walking through the halls like she had four years prior.

   It was rather strange to see it all again. Everything felt smaller, or maybe Ashley had just gotten bigger. Regardless, she found it weirdly cathartic to revisit her younger years.

   Her middle school life had been better than her home life at the time, and school had been a saving grace. It got her out of the house and into a bunch of clubs to distract herself, ones that brought Ashley Miller to where she was now: a favoured junior with a very golden reputation, traipsing the halls in search of Principal Russel and their newest student. A small part of Ashley wished she could go back to middle school, but when she remembered all the issues at home she decided against it; she didn't want to make a wish she might regret in future.

    "Ashley? What the hell are you doing here?"

   Ashley's eyes snapped shut.

   She sighed.

    "Henderson," she greeted, slowly turning on her heel.

   Ashley was faced with three boys staring at her with a selection of judgmental looks. Luckily, Will Byers wasn't with them. Ashley let out a harsh breath, that could've been bad.

    "What are you doing here?" Dustin repeated.

    "Maybe I came to get my quarters reimbursed," she folded her arms over her chest, refusing to be sassed by a child she'd babysat for years and known since he was in diapers. Ashley watched him purse his lips, "How about that, Dustin?"

   Lucas snorted, "She got you."

    "Sure she did," Mike rolled his eyes. He was clearly super sour today, which he usually always was, and Ashley mirrored the look he shot at her. She and Mike had never gotten along amazingly, but she wasn't really sure why. The kid was a total brat and had never liked when she called all the D&D character the wrong names. As if she cared about that, what a little loser. Though, Mike looked even more sour today — she wondered what had rubbed him the wrong way. Maybe it was just seeing her in their domain. He huffed, "It's called middle school for a reason."

   "Why? 'Cause you're all in the middle of being total brats?" She fired back, watching his face fall further. Lucas laughed again and imitated a gunshot.

    "Round two!"

    "Quit it," Mike nudged him.

    "Hey!"

   Ashley turned back to Dustin, "I'm here to meet the new kid. I was asked to show her—"

    "We'll come with you!" Lucas and Dustin yelled.

    "...what?"

    "The new girl! MadMax! She's the one who beat my high-score on Dig Dug!" Dustin threw his hand around. "She's freaking cool!"

    "You got beat by a girl," Ashley smirked.

"Not just a girl!" Lucas denied, "He got beat by MadMax!"

"That means nothing to me," she informed, "But you can't go with me. It'll totally throw her through a loop, she might bug out and I want this to go as smoothly as possible. You losers will only weird her out."

"I don't even care," Mike sulked.

"Good."

"Dude! Don't ruin this for us!" Lucas groaned.

"You ruin it for you." She pointed at him and Dustin, spinning on her heel to continue down the hallway. Ashley heard their sets of footsteps starting to follow her and she quickly turned back to stand in their way. They stumbled to a stop and groaned. "Move it or lose it, okay? Don't you have lunches to eat?"

   When they stared up at her blankly, she groaned; "I'm serious!"

"I thought you were Ashley," Dustin quipped, smugly.

She frowned.

Mike scoffed, "It was a joke."

"I know what a joke is," Ashley quickly defended herself, even though the joke had flown completely over her head. When had all of them gotten so sassy? Were all middle schoolers like this, now?

Was MadMax like this?

"Go away," Ashley waved her hands at them, trying not to get herself too worried about dealing with the new kid. She wasn't so sure she could deal with an ill-tempered tween right now and her stomach flipped at the thought. Why did she agree to this again? Oh yeah, because Ashley had a complex where she always needed to do the things asked of her.

Dustin pouted, "Fine."

"Finally!" Mike muttered.

"Tell her we say hi?" Lucas asked.

"No."

"Dammit, Ashley!"

Rolling her eyes once more, the girl headed off in the opposite direction to the lunch hall, gradually losing the faint bickering of the three boys the further she went.

   It was a very short journey to the principal's office, where Ashley's presence was welcomed with open arms.

    "Ashley Miller, look how grown you are!"

    "Principal Russel," she smiled, "Is it just me, or was everything bigger last time I was here?"

   Principal Russel chuckled at the poor joke, just as she expected him to. Ashley knew it wasn't funny, but she also knew that it was the type of joke a middle-aged principal would be amused by. All middle-aged people liked bad jokes. At least, that was what Ashley had learned from the amount of time she spent around them.

   An entire childhood spent at the sheriff station and most evenings at extra curricular activities had surrounded Ashley Miller with middle-aged people of all sorts; cops, teachers, principals. As a result, she picked up on a lot — how they acted, what they found funny, who they interacted with. It was probably why Ashley's personality was catered to impress figures of authority so much. It was more than good grades and sweet smiles. Ashley knew how she should talk to teachers to impress them most, and that was half of the secret.

   After a bit of small talk where they caught up on how the teen had been and how her father was, her recent grades, whether she was thinking about her college application yet and if she needed another letter of recommendation, Principal Russel finally began to talk about the new student.

    "Mr Clarke informed us that Maxine was quiet in her classes, this morning; very reserved and to herself," the man informed as they strolled out of his office and towards where he'd said the new kid — Maxine — was waiting on a seat in the hall. She nodded to show that she was listening. He continued; "Being a kid is already hard and moving to a whole new state is never easy on them. She might just need some support, even if she won't admit it. Clarke's first choice was you,"

    "I'm flattered," she said, "But why not somebody her own age? Wouldn't that find her a friend?"

    "Sometimes it's harder blending with the people around you. I feel Maxine may be reluctant to seek help from the other children in her classes before she knows them."

   Ashley hummed.

    "She's incredibly smart. The grades her last school sent over to us were commendable," he seemed genuinely impressed. "But she was very closed off and blunt," Russel breathed a chuckle, "And I think she has a lot more personality than she's willing to show us. I was hoping that was where you could help."

   Noticing her left brow arch, he expanded; "You're a confident girl, Ashley. You know this school and you know how to get yourself involved. Your influence on Maxine could be really beneficial for her. I know that she has a stepbrother but I heard from her mother that they aren't particularly close."

    "That's a shame," Ashley sighed, not really connecting the dots as to who this kid could be.

    "Mr Clarke and I thought you could guide her."

    "Like a chaperone?"

    "More like a buddy, I think."

    "A buddy..." Ashley repeated, nodding. "Okay, I think I can do that," alongside my studies, my side job, my student council and cheer captain duties, and my reoccurring episodes that are sending my father insane. "Will it bother her at all?"

    "Possibly," Russel said as they fell to a stop, glancing at the girl metres down the hall from them. "But I'm hoping she'll realise it's the support she needs."

   Ashley personally didn't think that was likely.

    "Besides, I think you'll make a very good impression." He gave her a kind smile, "I hear that Dustin Henderson sang your praises,"

"He did?" Her heart warmed.

Maybe she wasn't the worst babysitter in the world.

    "Clarke assures me," Russel laughed. He glanced down at the expensive watch on his wrist, "Would you be alright to introduce yourself to Maxine? I know it's a pain, but I have a meeting after lunch that I have to prep for."

    "Sure," she said.

    "Thanks, Ashley. I think this could really help," the Principal's legs started to move him back towards his office, "Let me know if you need that letter of recommendation! I'll make sure it's good!"

Ashley waved him off, although he was already turning the left corner before he saw. The girl paused, pursing her lips, and span on the heel of her tennis shoe.

   She spotted a redheaded girl, clad in wide jeans and an equally as red jacket; an old skateboard was sat underneath the soles of her tattered sneakers and she lulled it back and forth with her feet, no doubt bored out of her mind. As Ashley observed her, recognition swelled in her eyes. Wasn't she the kid in the new guy's Camaro?

"Fuck," Ashley muttered, "Fuck!"

Maxine was new guy's little sister? Ashley wanted the world to swallow her whole.

   Why did it have to be her? After the show she had put on this morning when the new guy had nearly flattened her in the parking lot, why did it have to be Ashley stuck with that asshole's kid sister?

Was she an asshole, too?

Sucking in a deep breath, Ashley tried to rationalise.

Maybe Maxine wouldn't recognise her? After all, she skated off with her head down and eyes on her board. So maybe she hadn't even paid attention to Ashley? Not enough to recognise her face at least. Maybe this would be fine.

   It would be fine. Well that was what Ashley chanted in her head as she approached the girl, anyway. If she tried to play it off cool then maybe Maxine wouldn't care. All Ashley had to do was make a good impression. Easy. She could do that. Ashley made good first impressions, all the time! What was a tween girl on rooms of parents and teachers or the whole student body? This was nothing! Ashley had this in the bag.

   She tightened her ponytail and smoothed out her skirt, the smile on her lips wide as ever. She could do this.

"Maxine?"

The girl's head lifted.

"Hi," Ashley extended a hand, "I'm—"

"You're the girl my brother tried to run over in the lot."

Ashley blinked.

Dammit.

In attempt to recover, although there was no doubt in her mind that Maxine had noticed the shellshocked expression on her face, Ashley closed her gaping jaw and cleared her throat. She feigned another smile, but tighter this time.

"Yeah, but—"

"He's an asshole," Maxine stated, showing herself to be just as blunt as Principal Russel had warned her to be.

Ashley wasn't too sure what to say in return. She just hummed, hand still outstretched. "Right... I'm Ashley. It's nice to meet you, Maxine. I'll be your budd—"

"It's Max," the girl, Max, interrupted.

"What?"

"It's never Maxine. Just Max."

"Oh," Ashley's lips formed the syllable. Max, she nodded once with absent thought, it suited her more than Maxine. "That's... good to know. See? We already know each other, better!"

   Ashley's level of enthusiasm was met with a blank stare, lips curled into a grimace. Okay— so this kid was as sour as Mike Wheeler? Noted.

   Ashley put her hand down finally, "Well, it's nice to meet you. You moved all the way here from California, right?"

   Max sighed, "Yeah, so?"

    "I've never been to California," Ashley said. "Is it hot?"

    "Is the sky blue?"

   Ashley's lips pressed together.

   Two could play at that game.

    "I dunno," she shot back, "Are you a brat?"

   Max's mouth dropped open, her thick brows jumping up to her hairline. "Excuse me? A brat?" She scoffed, "Sorry for not being an irritating ray of sunshine, ponytail!"

    "What's wrong with my—?" Her hand touched her ponytail, a pout on her lips as she recalled Max's asshole of a brother calling her the same thing, but she swiftly shook her head in a fluster. The ponytail wasn't the point! Ashley huffed, folding her arms; "Look— it's been a really bad day for me okay? I had an awful nights sleep and this morning was the worst — and then I literally heard the funeral march 'cause your brother nearly killed me!"

   Max watched Ashley unravel from her tightly wound coil, her eyes shining in a cerulean amusement.

    "Then I had the most awkward conversation ever and it makes me wanna tear my eyes out just thinking about it!" She put her hand to her forehead in exasperation; "And our bio test wasn't even that hard! Totally not worth all the stress!" She groaned, huffs passing her lips. "And— do you find this funny?!"

    "Kinda," Max smiled. "And pathetic."

    "Pathetic?!"

    "Yeah," she nodded.

    "Pathe—" Ashley's hands splayed around incredulously, but she stopped herself short.

   She sighed.

    "Okay— yeah," the girl relented, "It's pretty pathetic."

   Snorting, Max watched the girl with curved brows; "You didn't have to try and tell me twice."

    "Well, what about you?"

    "What about me?" Max frowned.

    "You're the cool new girl from California," paraphrasing Dustin and Lucas' words, Ashley shrugged and took the empty seat to the left of the spunky redhead. The toe of her tennis shoe nudged her skateboard. "Why aren't you making any friends?"

   Immediately Max seemed to shut back down, small grin fading from her freckled cheeks. She shut herself off again, like closing a door from the outside in. Her legs hauled her body to a stand and the sudden movement had Ashley reeling backwards, confused by the abrupt switch up.

    "'Cause I don't need friends," Max snapped, stamping a foot on the rim of her skateboard; it shot up into the air and made Ashley flinch, but Max's hand shot out to snatch it. "And I don't need some pathetic high school cheerleader acting like my buddy to tell me I need friends! I don't want a buddy! You can take your silly ponytail and get out of my face!"

    "Okay—" Ashley scowled at the girl, "What is the deal with my ponytail?!"

   Max scoffed, sour-faced.

    "I'm not here because I want to be," Ashley frowned, "I'm only here because I was asked to be. People want you to settle in here. I know that's hard to believe since the whole world is against you," it was too mocking of a tone for Max not to squint. "But it's the truth. Maybe this attitude flies in California, but not here. You're living in Indiana now, Max, and you're not going back."

   Ashley then folded her arms defensively, "And maybe I am feeling a bit pathetic today, but I don't think I'm the only one here."

   Max didn't say anything, but her shoulders stayed tense.

    "I'm here as your buddy; not your friend. I was assigned to you, so you can't stomp off and push me away. That's not how all this works, okay?" Ashley clarified, "And I need as many good letters of recommendation as I can get before I start applying to colleges so you're not getting rid of me that easy, Maxine."

With a huff, the girl stalked away.

    "I'll find a way, ponytail."

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