CHAPTER ONE:
MADMAX

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   ELIZABETH DUG THROUGH every drawer in her room, trying to find her piggy bank. She hid it somewhere in her room but she couldn't remember where she had hid it. She threw her clothes on the floor of her already messy room as she dug through her white dresser, desperately trying to find it before she had to leave, "Where the hell is it?"

   She closed the final drawer of her dresser and glanced around her room until her eyes landed on her closet. She smirked and ran over to it, yanking it open. She glanced at the top shelf of it, and sighed in relief once she saw the pink pig with the name Elizabeth, scrawled onto it in black paint that had started chipping over the years. She grabbed it and ran over to her bed, but not before tripping on a few things scattered on the floor. She pulled the bottom cap off, and dumped out all the change. She quickly stuffed a handful of the coins in her jacket pocket before she heard a static noise.

   "Liz, Liz, do you copy?" Dustin's voice sounded from the radio.

   She walked over to her desk, and grabbed the radio, pressing the talk button, "Yeah, I'm here. I got about six dollars, how 'bout you?"

   "Between Lucas and I, we have six." Dustin explained, making Liz smile at how much change they had for the Arcade. "Can you call Mike? I can't figure out what channel he's on."

   Liz sighed, she knew exactly what channel he was on, "I'll call him if you call Will."

   "Fine. See you soon."

She changes the radio to the channel that Mike is always on. It's the same one that Eleven used to contact the Upside Down a year ago, "Mike, It's Liz, do you copy?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I copy." Mike answers.

"What are you doing on this channel?" Liz asks, already knowing why he's on it. She caught him one day trying to contact Eleven on the channel and he begged her not to tell the others. She promised not to and she even said she was thinking about doing the same thing to find Eleven, but she had given up on it after eight months went by with no luck in contacting the missing girl.

"Nothing..." Mike answers.

"Okay, well, Lucas, Dustin, and I have twelve bucks total." Liz tells him. "What's your haul?"

   "Shit—Shit! I don't know yet!" Mike yells, making Liz furrow her brows in confusion. She didn't understand how he didn't know when he's had all day to look.

   "What?" Liz questions. "How do you not know yet?"

   "Hold on!" Mike yells.

   Liz sighs, and puts the antenna down on her radio. She then puts on a black jacket over her t-shirt, and stuffs the change into her jacket pockets. She glances at herself in the mirror and is somewhat satisfied with herself. Liz runs a hand through her long and messy hair before exiting her bedroom and heading down the stairs.

   "Steve! Steve!" Liz yells, wanting to tell her brother where she's headed off to.

   "In here!" He yells. She walks over to the kitchen and sees him sitting at the kitchen island, writing something. She guesses it's a college essay for his applications.

   "I'm going to the Arcade with the boys." She informs him.

   He nods, "Have fun."

   She smiles at him, and goes into the garage. She opens up the garage door, and gets on her bike, pedaling to the Arcade. She meets Dustin, Lucas, and Mike halfway there. Will rarely bikes anywhere anymore, his mom is always driving him everywhere. Liz always feels bad that he has to get driven everywhere instead of being a kid, and biking around, but she understands why his mom does it. After everything that happened, Joyce was very protective over him.

Everything changed after he came back from the Upside Down. They were all sworn to secrecy about the entire event. Mike became cold, because of losing Eleven, he barely smiled anymore. Dustin and Lucas liked to pretend that the entire event didn't happen. Liz, well Liz missed Eleven. The two from the beginning have always shared a special bond, and in another world, maybe they would've been soulmates.

They park their bikes in the bike rack, in front of the Arcade. A car horn sounds and Liz looks up and smiles once she sees Will. They wait for him to get out of the car, as he talks to his mom, but seems very eager to go with his friends. Will finally exits the car, and runs over to his friends. The gang immediately heads inside and to the Dragon's Lair game, where Dustin puts in the coins, and starts to play. A beautiful, attractive, blonde princess comes up on the screen and she says the directions which are basically, use the sword to slay the dragon.

Elizabeth knows one of the main reasons the boys like this game is because of the princess with minimal and revealing clothing. They always wonder why Elizabeth likes the game, and if she's being honest with herself, she'd say it's because she thinks the princess is really pretty, but she's not honest with herself. She doesn't understand what's happening to her, and it's scaring her.

"Oh, Jesus! I'm in uncharted territory here, guys." Dustin says, as he starts to play the game, the rest of the gang behind him, watching him.

As soon as he starts playing, the gang starts yelling at him to tell him what directions to go and what to hit. Dustin finally gets annoyed with it, and starts to yell at them, "Shut up, shut up, shut up!"

He presses the sword button to kill the dragon, but ends up getting himself killed in the game. Liz sighs as Dustin starts to get angry and kick the machine, "No! No! No! I hate this overpriced bullshit! Son of a bitch! Piece of shit!"

"You're just not nimble enough, but you'll get there one day." Lucas tells him, smirking. "But until then, Princess Daphne is still mine."

"Don't get too worked up over it, Dustin." Liz tells him, placing a hand on his shoulder and rubbing it. "You're still tops on Centipede and Dig Dug."

"You sure about that?" Kieth asks. Liz glances over and sees none other than Kieth, with his signature bag of Cheeto Puffs. He has never been seen without those, and he's never not seen working at the Arcade.

"Sure about what?" Dustin questions. Kieth eats another cheeto, and Dustin immediately realizes what's up. He pushes past Will and Liz, and runs over to Centipede, then to Dig Dug. "You're kidding me. No! No!"

The gang follows him, and they look at the top score of Dig Dug, "751,300 points!"

"That's impossible." Mike mumbles, as he puts his head in between Liz and Lucas to see.

"Who's Mad Max?" Dustin questions Kieth.

"Better than you." Kieth states, which makes Dustin flip him off, and Liz to giggle.

"Is it you?" Will questions, pointing at Kieth.

"You know I despise Dig Dug." Kieth scoffs.

Liz steps forward, her shoulder now in front of Mike's, "Can you at least tell us if this person is a boy or a girl?"

Dustin scoffs, "What do you mean? It has to be a boy."

Liz raises an eyebrow and crosses her arms over her chest, "And why's that?"

Dustin notices her body language, and his eyes widen, making sure to choose his words carefully, "Because... Because Max is a boy's name."

"It's can also be a girl's name." Liz states. Dustin glances at the boys for help, but they just give him looks that say, you're on your own.

"Yeah, that's true, but... statistically, boys are... better... than girls... at video games." Dustin explains awkwardly as Liz glares at him

"So, just because you have a dick in your pants, means you're automatically better at video games than I am?" Liz asks, the rest of the boys still silent.

"Uh... no..." Dustin stutters, not knowing how to answer the question. "I didn't mean that you're not good at video games, because you are. I just meant that not a lot of girls are."

"Okay, if you want information, then I need something in return." Kieth smirks, breaking up the argument between the pair. Liz turns her attention back to Kieth, and disregards their argument, knowing Dustin didn't mean to piss her off.

   The group looks at Mike, knowing exactly what Kieth wants. Mike's eyes widen in realization, "No, no, no. No way! You're not getting a date with her!"

   "Mike, come on." Lucas begs. "Just get him the date."

   "I'm not prostituting my sister!" Mike exclaims. Liz can't help but smile at the sentence. Mike and Nancy may fight like hell, but at the end of the day, they really do care about each other. Liz felt the same way about her older brother, Steve.

"But it's for a good cause!" Lucas argues, wanting to know who Mad Max is.

"No, don't get him the date. You know what?" Dustin starts, stepping forward. "He's gonna spread his nasty-ass rash to your whole family."

"Acne isn't a rash and it isn't contagious, you prepubescent wastoid." Kieth states.

"Oh, I'm a wastoid?" Dustin questions, now getting offended. "She wouldn't wanna go on a date with you. You make, like, what? $2.50 an hour?"

"Nice perm." Kieth states, taking another bite of a cheeto.

"Oh, you're gonna make fun of my hair now?" Dustin questions. Liz rolls her eyes at the exchange between the two, and laughs at how defensive Dustin is getting.

Mike ends up walking away from the argument, and so does Liz. She watches as Mike runs outside, and she furrows her brows and follows him.

"Will!" Mike yells once she gets outside. Will gasps and he turns around to see Mike and Liz standing there, looking at him with worry. Liz knew it was probably one of his episodes again.

"You okay?" Liz questions the boy. He doesn't respond, and just looks at the sky again.

Mike walks up to him and wraps an arm around his shoulders, "Come on, you're up on Dig Dug. Let's take that top score back, huh?"

She opens the door for them, and walks in behind them, but not before her and Mike share a similar look of worry.

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A/N:

[ 1713 WORDS ]

first chapter yayyy!!!

i'm so excited for max and liz to meet!! i was gonna make this chapter be the whole first ep but decided against it bc i wanted you guys to see her relationship with the boys