"I'll go first." Rocky encouraged the girls to walk behind him as they headed into Heathers house, passing many family photos on the wall.

"Max." Billy greeted after loosing his initial shock at the sight of her.

"We didn't mean to barge in." Max spoke up quickly for the three, the questionable and odd faces from the two adults at the table enough to make Rocky clear his throat loudly, "We tried to knock, but maybe you didn't hear us over the storm."

"I'm sorry, who is this dripping all over my living room right now?" the man at the end of the table spoke up, looking at the three.

"Oh, we know that one." Janet forced a smile at the sight of Rocky, he shut his eyes when he realized how familiar they looked. "Put my nephew in the hospitals with a broken nose."

Max wacked Rocky in the arm as he cleared his throat. "Very sorry."

"Janet, Tom, this is my sister Maxine." Billy introduced Max to the pair, motioning to the redhead who stood behind Rocky's left shoulder, "What on earth are you doing here? Is something wrong?"

"We just wanted to make sure everything was okay." Max looked up at her stepbrother oddly.

"Okay? Why wouldn't it be okay?" Billy gave a questionable look toward the girl.

"Where is she?" El demanded to know an answer.

Billy looks her way, a chilling look dancing around his unrecognizable eyes, "I'm sorry, where is who?"

The look Janet and Tom were giving El worried Rocky. He knew she wasn't suppose to leave the cabin yet for this reason exactly, clearing his throat. "She's my....sister. Half sister."

"Well, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree." Tom mumbled under his breath.

"Well, they're a little burnt, i'm sorry-" Heather began as she walking into the dining room, the three looking over quickly with shocked expression to see she'd been okay.

"Heather! This is my sister, Maxine, and Rocky Byers. Who put your cousin in the hospital, it seems." Billy introduced the two before his eyes fell onto El, Rocky gave an awkward throat clear, "And, i'm sorry, I did not quite catch your name."

El stared at him, chin rose slightly, "El."

"Now what is it you were saying, El? You were looking for somebody?" Billy asked her with a minor nod to his head.

El's gaze went over toward Heather, a look of confusion escaping her hazel eyes, "I-I- saw-"

"Your manager!" Max cut her off.

"At the pool." Rocky agreed with her. "Reading....newspaper."

"He said you guys didn't come in to work today, so we got worried." Max nodded to draw out the lie.

"Heather wasn't feeling so hot today, so we thought we'd take the day off to nurse her back to health." Billy smiled down at the redhead girl, "But you're feeling just fine right now, aren't you, Heather?"

"I'm feeling so much better." Heather smiled with a nod of her head, the curls bunched up behind her head bounced slightly when she did so. El stared up at Billy in disbelief, "Do you three want a cookie? They're fresh out of the oven."

"No, I think he'll be okay." Janet cut in with a fake smile to Rocky. "We'll send Anthony our condolences."

Rocky couldn't help himself, nodding with a smile. "Don't waste your breath."

"I just am curious why you hit Anthony in the nose and nearly ruined our cover?" Max asked Rocky in disbelief as he sat at the end of her bed, El near the front.

"He was giving a kid a hard time." Rocky shrugged with a defensive look. "He definitely deserved it."

"What'd you do, exactly?" Max nodded her head with a sarcastic shrug.

Rocky shrugged in return, Max rose her eyebrows to get him to answer. "They already told you, I broke his nose."

"Yeah, but how?" the redhead demanded an answered.

Rocky rolled his eyes. "Shoved his face into a locker."

"Shoved his face into a locker." Max nodded as she clapped slowly. "Woah, sooo impressive."

"What did you want me to do? Let him give the kid a hard time for just having acne?" Rocky asked in disbelief with a stupid look her way.

"Why did you hit Steve, again? I wasn't around for that." Max waited for an answer.

"He deserved that too." Rocky pointed out.

"Oh, did he?" the red headed agreed.

"He called my brother a queer and always treated him like shit." Rocky argued as Max shut up now. "I know everyone loves to treat him like he's some "king Steve" and he's so fantastic, but he never once apologized for not only bullying, but straight up being a dick. I mean, what would it matter if Jonathan was?"

"It doesn't." Max shook her head.

"Well, someone had to knock some sense into him." Rocky shrugged. "And look where it got him, right? He's managed to not be such a mega asshole anymore and doesn't mess with Jonathan. Everyone just loves to forget because he helped Dustin out and can't get over Nancy, even though she always deserved better."

"He was really an asshole before?" Max asked. "I mean, he's pretty annoying but.."

"Yeah, he was." Rocky rolled his eyes.

They both looked over when El was too quiet, exhaling as she stared off.

"Hey, there's nothing to worry about anymore, okay?" Max looked at her, El didn't seem very convinced though as she exhaled and shook her head.

"It doesn't make sense." she said to her.

"What doesn't make sense?" Max asked curiously.

"Heather." El sighed, "The blood. The ice."

"Maybe Max was right." Rocky pointed out as he leaned back to be closer to her. "Billys muscles, or maybe they wanted to lower Heather temperature with the ice."

"He's right for once. I don't know where that blood came from, but we saw her. All three of us saw her. She's totally fine." Max added into Rockys words, both of them putting their entirely full attention onto El.

El looked at her, "What about Billy?"

"You're right." Rocky nodded. "I should have knocked him in the face."

"He seemed wrong." El said, looking from Max next to her on the bed, then to the other side where Rocky leaned.

Max laughed slightly, "Wrong is kind of like his default. But it's nice to know he's not a murderer, because that would've totally sucked."

El cracked a grin, eyes casting over toward the comic books again, "Who... is that?"

Max huffed, "See, this is why you can't just hang out with Mike all the time. This is Wonder Woman. AKA Princess Diana."

Rocky moved closer up onto the bed, leaning over to look down at the comic with them.

•

kylie speaks

ty rocky for being the reason
season one steve no longer
exist👏🏼