Chapter Text
Blending into society is not an easy task. People always have an instinct that there is something off. Three years passed since her escape from the lab, and Charlie’s life… wasn’t getting any easier. After the incident of last year with Eleven (she had barely escaped the lab’s clutches, again), getting along with the rest of the party… Yeesh.
Naturally, when Dustin invited her to go to the arcade with them, she hesitated. Would it really be okay? After all, Mike never seemed happy when she was around. Dustin told her it was because of Eleven, that he wasn’t mad at her, and even though she could feel that he wasn’t, Charlie thought so anyways.
“Char. What’s your haul?”
“Shit-” She cursed as Dustin’s voice came through the walkie-talkie. “What?”
“Haul! How much money?”
“Uhm. We’re about to find out.” Charlie grumbled, grabbing her piggy bank and yanking the bottom plastic out to search for quarters. 10 fell out. “Two dollars and fifty cents, does that work?”
“Yeah. Okay, be there in ten?”
“On my way.”
Charlie let out a groan as she shoved her quarters in her bra and ran downstairs. “Hey, mom, I’m leaving!” After hearing her mother call out ‘stay safe’ and ‘love you’, she walked out the door and grabbed her bike from the garage. 7 minutes and she stood at the arcade, locking her bike to the rack. One by one, her friends arrived, Mike, Dustin, Lucas- She waited outside for Will with the rest of the group.
“Hi, Mrs. Byers!”
“Hi, Charlie! How are you, sweetheart?”
“I’m good, how are you?”
“Good! Have fun, okay?” She paused, looking towards Will and sighing. “Please look after him.”
“I will, don’t worry. See you soon! Bye!” Charlie hummed, turning on her heel as Joyce started the car and pulled away.
After a few games, Dustin dragged the four of them to Dragon’s Lair , insisting that he needed to see the princess. Charlie tried to rationalize his need. “Dustin, she’s a cartoon, for crying out loud.”
“Shut up, I need to focus- If I lose, you owe me the next one.”
“Fuck you.”
A few minutes of button mashing, and Charlie helplessly giving up her coins to Dustin, they were very close to the end. With bated breath, the four leaned over Dustin’s shoulders, staring at the game.
“Oh, Jesus! I’m in uncharted territory here, guys.”
Screams of controls came when the dragon showed up.
“I’m going! I’m going! Fuck! I’m going! I’m going! Okay. Shut up. Shut up. Shut up!” More button mashing, more screaming. “No. No. NO! No! No! No! I hate this overpriced bullshit! Son of a bitch! Piece of shit!” Dustin yelled, hitting the joystick.
“Dude, you’re going to break it, stop-” Charlie grumbled, looking over at Lucas for some help.
“You’re not nimble enough. But you’ll get there one day. But until then, Princess Daphne is still mine.” Charlie could feel his smitten smile.
“Whatever. I’m still tops on Centipede and Dig Dug. ”
“You sure about that?” Came the annoying voice from over Dustin’s shoulder. They all whipped around, staring the arcade manager down.
“Sure about what?” A pause, Keith slowly ate a Cheeto. “You’re kidding me. No, no, no. Move! Move! No, no, no, no, no. Hey, no! No! No!” Dustin yelled once more, enraged at the new name that held first place on Dig Dug .
“751300 points?!” Will yelped, his eyes wide.
“That’s impossible.” Charlie stared at the name as Mike spoke, studying the characters.
Madmax.
Just as she thought it, Dustin turned around, hesitating. “Who… Who is Mad Max?”
Keith shrugged, “Better than you.”
“Is it you?” Will asked, as Dustin flipped him off, followed by a laugh from Charlie.
“You know I despise Dig Dug. ” Keith scoffed, eating another Cheeto puff.
“Then who is it?” Lucas demanded.
“Yeah, spill it, Keith.” Dustin backed Lucas.
“You want information, then I need something in return.”
Everyone looked over at Mike, knowing there was no way that this would work. At this rate, they’d never find out. Then came the sharp response.
“No, no, no. No way. You’re not getting a date with her.”
“Mike, come on. Just get him the date.” Lucas groaned, they were all desperate and Mike knew that.
Another defiant response. “I’m not prostituting my sister!”
“But it’s for a good cause.”
“No, don’t get him the date. You know what? He’s gonna spread his nasty-ass rash to your whole family.” Dustin glared at Keith. His anger overwhelmed Charlie’s psyche for a moment.
“Acne isn’t a rash and it isn’t contagious, you prepubescent wastoid.”
“Oh, I’m a wastoid? She wouldn’t go on a date with you. ‘Cuz you make, like, what? $2.50 an hour?" Dustin huffed.
“Nice perm.”
“Gonna make fun of my hair?”
“Dustin, back off. He clearly doesn’t have any good comebacks, let’s just… I still have quarters. Let’s play.”
Another defiant huff, before Dustin turned around to Dig Dug , yelling at others to clear the way so they could all fit around the machine (he was very irritable). All the while, Charlie stayed silent, even though Dustin began to beat his high score.
“Who-” She trailed off when she realized Will no longer stood next to them. “Mike-”
They both walked outside, seeing as their friend stood frozen in place, silent, staring off into nothing. Mike was the first to see. “Will! Will, are you okay?”
“Yeah… I just. I needed some air.”
“C’mon, you’re up on Dig Dug . Let’s take that top score back, huh?” Mike said, his expression concerned. Will began to walk inside, and Charlie turned to Mike.
“He’s afraid. I think something happened-” She mumbled, and Mike let out a sigh.
“He’s been acting strange, but I can’t blame him all that much after what happened.” Charlie sighed too, heading back inside.
“Yeah…”
Walking back over to Dustin, she remained quiet for quite some time, spacing out. This garnered the boys’ attention after they called her name five times as it was her turn to play. “Charlie, dude-” Dustin touched her shoulder, causing the girl to jump. “Jesus! Sorry, sorry. It’s your turn… Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Mad Max… Who do you think that is? Is there anyone in our school named Max? What about in the high school? We could never find this person! Just because fucking Keith won’t spill-” She groaned, clearly annoyed with the worker for not providing them with any information.
“It’s not a big deal, I already beat their score, whoever they are. It’s your turn now, Char.” Another sigh.
“Why are you so anxious to know, anyways?” Lucas asked.
“Why are you so anxious to know?” She shot back, looking over at Dustin almost teasingly.
“Nevermind.”
So, Charlie started to play. She didn’t beat Mad Max (even her years spent with the party did not increase her talent), but wasn’t too bothered by that.
Even so, as she went to bed that night, her thoughts were filled with the mysterious person who’d beaten Dustin’s high score.
At school the next morning, Charlie chained up her bike, standing outside with Will and Dustin, waiting for Mike and Lucas to show up. Silence lasted for a while, before the sound of music blaring drifted into the school parking lot and gradually got louder. “Uhm, guys?” Charlie asked, her interest immediately piqued.
“Who the hell-” Dustin mumbled, looking over at the Chevrolet barreling towards them at top speed. They weren’t in any danger of being hit, but the speed made Charlie, Dustin and Will’s hair blow in a different direction. “Jesus!” Came Dustin’s next response. This driver spun, the loud screeching noise of the tires drawing just about everyone’s attention as they slammed into place in the parking lot.
The music stopped rather abruptly. The doors slammed shut.
Charlie’s eyes went straight to the person previously in the passenger seat. “Wh…”
She came skating towards them, and Charlie couldn’t stop looking.
Dustin had to slap her cheek to get her to snap out of it. “Jesus, Charlie. Come on .” But he had been staring, too. “We need to go inside, the bell’s going to ring soon.” Mike and Lucas were walking towards them. Dustin nor Charlie said anything about who they’d just seen.
But then, again, Charlie’s mind held nothing but the redhead as she walked inside. Even as she stood next to Will, she said nothing. Up until he pulled something out of his locker, to which she looked up at the sound of the paper rustling and the flush of emotions from the boy.
“Will, you okay?” She asked, her voice soft. She knew to be gentle after what happened, but she knew what it felt like to be coddled, so she avoided that. She peeked over his shoulder to look at the paper. “Oh…”
The paper read ‘zombie boy’. Will’s eyes had x’s over them in red marker. Will said nothing. He looked around for a moment, before crumpling up the snippet of newspaper and throwing it into the back of his locker. Neither of them said anything.
She stood there, glaring around until he grabbed his books and they headed to science. They remained silent.
She dropped into her seat behind Will just as the bell rang. Mr. Clarke jumped into his lesson immediately, as per usual. She paid close attention this time. The nervous system remained something she knew maybe too much about, thanks to her powers. After escaping the lab, she’d tirelessly searched the public library for any book she could find that would give her more explanation on how her powers worked.
She’d found her answers, of course, but they didn’t come from the books. She could only curse Brenner for finding her in Hawkins. ‘Of course you aren’t far from home, I’m not surprised,’ was what he said. She wanted to slap him.
“Meet the human brain.” Mr. Clarke slammed down a model of the pinkish organ that their consciousness resided in. “I know, I know, it doesn’t look like much. A little gross even, right? But consider this. There are a hundred billion cells inside of this miracle of evolution. All working as one. No, no, I did not misspeak. I did not stutter. A hundred billion.”
The door opened, Charlie flinched a little. Everyone’s heads turned, including hers.
“Ah, this must be our new student.” The redhead walked in, looking at the ground.
“Indeed, it is. All yours.” The principal hummed, before walking away. She started to walk away, too. Clearly, she was not interested in introductions.
“All right. Hold up there. You don’t get away that easy. Come on up. Don’t be shy.” Mr. Clarke teased, the redhead reluctantly retreated back over to the side of the desk, rolling her eyes. “Dustin, drum roll.”
Dustin initiated the drum roll. Charlie stifled a laugh at his enthusiasm. She couldn’t blame him, though.
“Class, please welcome, all the way from sunny California, the latest passenger to join us on our curiosity voyage, Maxine.” He seemed enthusiastic, but Maxine? Not so much. She looked over at him, and Charlie could feel some sort of anger.
“It’s Max.” She uttered.
“Sorry?”
“Nobody calls me Maxine. It’s Max.”
Immediately, Charlie's heart raced. Her eyes widened. It clicked. Dustin lost his enthusiasm, overtaken by shock. Max headed to her desk.
“Mad Max.” Lucas whispered. Charlie’s heart fluttered.
“Well, all aboard, Max.” Mr. Clarke smiled, before returning to his lesson. Charlie could no longer focus on his words. All five of them followed her as she dropped into her seat. She stared out the window as she settled.
Then, Max turned and caught Charlie’s gaze. They held eye contact for longer than two seconds. Charlie’s cheeks went red. Immediately, the curses in her inner monologue became present. Oh, no .
The rest of class went as normal, but Charlie resorted to taking notes about specific things that she found interesting, something that she rarely did. All of the information about the nervous system and the brain and its parts were important to figuring out the extent of her power.
The rest of class passed as normal, with her occasionally leaning over to Will and whispering to him about Max.
When their lunch break came, they stood outside away from the others (as per usual, they were the outcasts). Charlie and Will were both silent, lost in thought. Up until Dustin hit Charlie in the arm to grab her attention. “Charlie.”
“Hm?”
Dustin nodded towards Max, and Charlie looked up.
“There’s no way that’s Mad Max.” Mike said.
“Yeah. Girls don’t-” Will stopped when he felt Charlie’s stare on his back.
“Aside from Charlie. Who sucks at it, anyway.” Lucas teased, and the girl rolled her eyes.
“Quiet.”
“Listen, even if they did, you can’t get seven hundred and fifty thousand points on Dig Dug . It’s impossible.” Mike interjected, glancing over towards Charlie.
“But her name is Max,” She protested.
“So?”
“How many Maxes do you know?” Lucas asked, looking at Mike.
“I don’t know.”
“Zero up until now. That’s how many.”
“Yeah, and she shows up at school the day after someone with her same name breaks our top score. I mean, you kidding me?” Dustin said, raising an eyebrow.
“Exactly. She has to be Mad Max,” Charlie seemed to be completely enthralled with the new student, but nobody (aside from Will, maybe) had picked it up. “Plus, she skateboards, so she’s pretty awesome.”
“Awesome? Charlie, you haven’t even spoken a word to her.” Came Mike’s almost condescending response.
“I don’t have to. I mean, look at her. Shit, I’ve lost her-” Charlie grumbled, looking around for the redhead.
“Oh! There.” Will hummed, turning over towards the entrance back inside the school. Max climbed the stairs with her skateboard and dropped a piece of paper into the garbage before going in. Dustin, Lucas and Charlie all looked at each other before racing over to the garbage. There was no way that could be a coincidence. Had Max seen them?
They volunteered Dustin to grab the paper as the rest hid him from view.
“Stop spying on me, creeps.” They all read the note.
Charlie wrinkled her nose.
“Shit.” Her and Dustin both cursed. “She caught us-” Charlie grunted, her frown becoming even more evident.
“William Byers?” The principal’s voice interjected their conversation. “Your mother’s here.” They all fell silent, and the rush of impending doom and pity hit Charlie like a bus.
“Bye, Will.” They all muttered, Charlie stayed beside him for a second.
“Good luck.” She could only offer him a comforting smile, and he smiled back just as weakly.
“You guys think he’s okay?” Dustin asked, frowning.
“”He’s always weird when he has to go in.” The four of them peeked around the corner as Lucas spoke, watching their friend head to the car.
“I don’t know. He’s quiet today.” Mike’s worry was the strongest out of the three boys.
Lucas squinted. “Yeah, but, he’s always quiet.”
“I’m sure he’ll be fine, though.”
Charlie buzzed with a ton of emotions for the rest of the day, Worry, frustration, some sort of flustered feeling (for a reason she couldn’t quite place) to name a few.
Dustin and Lucas caught up with her at the end of the day.
“Charlie, hey, do you think you can come to the arcade with us?” Dustin asked, tilting his head with an almost pleading smile.
“What, is this part of your ploy to spy on Max?”
Neither boy spoke.
“... Okay.”
“Yes! Alright. Thank youuu!”
“Let’s go, come on.” Lucas hummed, undoing the lock on his bike and waiting for the others. They rode down to the arcade, and Dustin pulled binoculars out of his bag.
“Dustin-”
“I’m always prepared.” He smiled as the three of them leaned against the car. Lucas grabbed them from him, scanning the area.
“Care to tell me why you recruited me into your creepy girl stalking session?”
“Because you like her too, duh.” She punched Dustin’s shoulder lightly. “What? I’m just saying!”
“Either way, what if she doesn’t show?” Charlie narrowed her eyebrows, looking over at Lucas for any sign of recognition.
“Guys, shut up, I’m trying to focus here.” Lucas hissed. Charlie pulled them away from the boy a minute or two later, scanning the same area.
After ten minutes of waiting, they’d alternated between the three of them, restlessly looking for the girl.
“Still no sign?” Dustin asked.
“Jack shit.” Came Lucas’ response.
Dustin groaned as he looked at his watch. “Oh! Damn it. My mom’s gonna murder me.”
“So go home. I’ll radio if she comes.”
“Oh, yeah, nice try. You just want me out of here so you can make your move.” Charlie hit his shoulder again.
“Hey, jackass, I’m right here.” Dustin looked at her for a second before shrugging. “Who knows, you could plot something against me!”
“So, you both admit to liking her, then?” Charlie teased. She held her tongue, though. Dustin and Will seemed to already pick up on her interest towards Max, but it seemed only Will fully understood the extent of it. She hadn’t officially told the party that her powers weren’t the only thing that made her different. Maybe she was just worried that they would judge her.
“Oh, ‘cause you’re such a threat.”
“That’s right. She will not be able to resist these pearls.” And he purred.
“You guys are such idiots .” Charlie yanked the binoculars from Lucas and scanned around as they argued about who could win Max over. Charlie held longing that it would be her.
“Ten o’clock. Ten o’clock.” Charlie mumbled, her voice rising in pitch and speed as she caught sight of the car that sped in earlier.
“What?” They both hissed, frantically looking around.
There she was. The fiery redhead herself. She stepped out of the car the moment it skidded to a stop, arguing with the person in the driver’s seat.
“They’re arguing. They’re arguing.”
“Why are they arguing???” Charlie asked.
“Charlie, can you feel that?” Dustin’s curiosity piqued at the opportunity.
“Yeah. 5 miles radius, remember? I still have my powers. Just because they’re not as visible as El’s doesn’t mean they’re not there.” She grumped, still peering into the binoculars.
“Why do you even need those?” Dustin hissed. “So stupid.”
She paid attention to Dustin for less than a second before her mind and gaze inevitably went back to Max, her brain not even clocking what Dustin had said as potentially offensive. Max slammed the door as the driver sped away, flipping the person off. Charlie could feel herself getting slightly angry, too. Max ran inside.
Charlie’s footsteps followed right after, Lucas and Dustin falling behind.
The three of them stood by the entrance, watching Max as she played.
“She’s incredible.” Came Lucas’ breathless response.
“She’s gorgeous…” Charlie trailed off, sliding down the wall.
“She’s… Mad Max.” The three of them spoke together, dumb smiles on their faces.
Immediately, a rain cloud found its way over her head as she thought about Dustin and Lucas. No way she had a chance. “Come on. Now that we know it’s her, we shouldn’t stay. Don’t want her catching up to us. Dustin, take your binoculars.” She grumbled, pulling the strap off her neck and handing them to the boy walking beside her.
“Jesus, what happened to you? Less than a minute and you’re grumpy again.”
“Shut up.” Came her less than happy response. She, of course, did not want to leave, but did not want to give herself a bad second impression in terms of meeting Max. “Come on. ” She groaned, clearly not willing to stay. “Unless you want her to think we are even creepier for stalking her outside of school, we should go .”
Dustin and Lucas looked at each other, at Charlie, at Max and then at Charlie again before they nodded and stepped outside. “Fair point. Fair point, my liege.” Charlie snorted, to which Dustin smiled, seeing as he succeeded in trying to cheer the girl up after her momentary misery.
They stayed outside for a while, before getting on their bikes and riding home.
Charlie glanced over at the boys. “Dustin, are we gonna tell Mike?”
“Yeah, give me one second-” A pause as Dustin switched channels. “Mike?” Nothing yet.
Broken static- Mike probably spoke, but neither of them could make it out.
“Hello? Hello, is that you?” Mike sounded panicked.
“Yeah, it’s me, Dustin. What are you doing on this channel again? I’ve been trying to reach you all day, We were right. Max is Mad Max.”
“Yeah, I’m busy.”
“But, Mike-” Dustin cut himself off, seeing as Mike clearly turned his walkie talkie off.
The three of them sighed.
“What do we do now?” Lucas asked.
“We stick to the plan.”
“Mike’s not gonna like it.”
“Last time I checked, our party is not a dictatorship, it’s a democracy.”
“What if Max says no?” Charlie peeped in.
“How can Max say no to these?” Once again, he purred.
“Dustin-! Stop it!” Both Lucas and Charlie groaned.
“I’ll see you tomorrow. I won’t be in costume, okay?” She said, turning her bike into her driveway and peddling up to the garage.
“Why not?” Dustin yelled back.
“Too much work! I don’t have time to get ready!” She shouted. “Bye!”
Instead of dreaming of the redhead that night, Charlie dreamt of a memory. Last year, when she’d left with Nancy and Jonathan to attempt to kill the Demogorgon. Which seemed like a good idea at the time. She refused to sit and watch as El protected everyone, so, stubbornly, she came to the agreement that she would go with Nancy and Jonathan.
She could protect them and assure that she would not be caught by Brenner and brought back to the lab, since she had a permanent place to stay. As far as the lab knew, she didn’t exist. They were ignorant.
In years prior, she’d had to communicate using only the walkie-talkies, since they couldn’t be traced like phone calls. She lacked the critical thinking to come up with the limited usage of the phone (thanks to her sheltered lifestyle and simply the fact that she was about 11 at the time of her escape and first encounter with the chief), so Hopper and herself constructed an elaborate lie as to why she wouldn’t use the phone.
Telling the truth to her friends… relieved her. She hated keeping secrets. If they were trustworthy, they would know.
Hopper promised her after the incident the year prior that he would try to find a way to help her lead a normal life, somehow. At this point, Charlie had little hope that she’d ever be normal. But then again, why would she? After all, she had powers.
If anything about the incident the year prior was normal, it was how much she missed Eleven.