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Max smiled at Eleven, looking over the top of her binder which was propped up to shield the teacher from seeing what she was actually doing, which was writing a note to pass to the other girl. Eleven grinned back, turning ever so slightly towards the teacher to nod, her new curls bobbing as she faked interest in their lesson on the book Of Mice and Men. Max watched transfixed for a few moments before turning her attention back to the note she was writing.
“Do you want to go to the Snowball with me?” The note read, in red pen and slightly messy handwriting. Max let out a small breath and passed it to her friend, leaving it folded on the edge of the other girl’s desk.
Eleven picked it up and unfolded it quickly, expecting a snarky comment or a joke scribbled messily and smudged but her eyes widened in surprise and Max saw a look of disbelief cross her face. The other girl wrote something back and tossed it to Max, glancing up to make sure the teacher hadn’t seen.
Max hastily opened up the note and read the words written there. “Of course.” Her heart sped up and she looked up to see Eleven look back at the board, a smile playing on her lips. Max quickly pocketed the note and set her binder down, glancing at the clock in anticipation for the bell’s ringing.
When the bell rang a few minutes later the two girls were the first out the door, thank god for pushing and shoving and the desperation of two lesbians.
The two girls ran out the doors of the school and hustled with their bags flopping over their shoulders, running towards the bleachers farthest from the school where they usually met their friends. There was always a competition, unspoken of course, about who could get there first.
Today Eleven and Max had an incentive, privacy.
When the girls dropped their bags at the bottom and flopped over onto the metal they shared a small smile between them.
“So,” Eleven started, sitting up and looking Max straight in the eye, “the Snowball huh?” She teased, mostly because of Max’s usual distaste in any school event.
“Yeah. Figured I had to beat Mikey boy to it this time.” She said nonchalantly, putting her hands in her pockets and playing with the paper from earlier. Eleven cocked an eyebrow.
“This time? You wanted to ask me before?” She asked, Max’s ears going slightly red at Eleven’s question.
“Duh. I thought it was obvious, the system isn’t the only reason I never went. You really think me, the stone butch lesbian of the school would want to watch my crush dance with a dude she basically promised herself to?” Max chuckled at her joke and looked out over the field, not exactly avoiding El’s eyes. She noted that the boys seemed to be approaching.
“You really think me, the futch lesbian of the school actually wanted to go with the boy I basically promised myself to?” Eleven asked jokingly. Max smiled, and turned to her friend as the other girl spoke again. “I really like you, like that, Max.”
“Me too El! And now you aren’t promised to him, I’ll even give you like a promise ring pop or something so Michael Wheeler can back off.” Max said, smirking when Eleven blushed slightly.
“Come on.” Eleven nudged Max with her shoulder and smirked back. “A ring pop? I want a ring or you get nothing but one awkward dance to like, It’s Raining Men, or something very heterosexual.” Max scoffed but blushed nonetheless.
Eleven had noticed the boys now, watching as the four hustled over to meet the girls.
“Hey, nothing about what we’re doing is heterosexual and you know it.” Max said, challenging El’s words with a wink. Eleven just laughed at that, loud and bright. Her hands going to clutch Max’s knee.
“Oh I do. And I’m glad.” She said, winking back at Max. A pleasant flush had invaded both girl’s faces by now as the boys dropped their bags near the other ones and climbed up to meet them.
“What’d we miss?” Dustin asked, watching as the two girls just shared a look.
“Nothing much.” Max said, leaning back against the cold metal and pulling her hands out of her pockets to crack her knuckles. “It was girl stuff don’t worry about it.”
“You know one day you two are going to kill us and it’s going to come as a complete surprise because you always brushed it off as girl stuff.” Lucas said, crossing his arms and sitting next to Max, who shoved him lightly.
“One day? As if.” She said, Eleven leaning forward.
“Yeah if by one day you mean in under 24 hours.” She said winking. Lucas rolled his eyes and Dustin smiled nervously.
“Just kidding!” Max said, with jazz hands. Nudging Eleven and whispering not so quietly. “I thought we were keeping it a secret.” The boys and girls all laughed, the rest of the kids sitting down so that they formed two lines. Lucas, Max, and Eleven on a step above Will, Mike, and Dustin.
“Speaking of 24 hours,” Dustin said, nudging Mike not so discreetly with his foot, “the Snowball is tomorrow.” Mike flushed, and quickly looked at Eleven. Eleven just smiled kindly at him.
“Yeah it is.” Will said quietly. Looking forlornly at Mike, not so subtly checking to see where his best friend was looking and smiling sadly when he caught the boy’s eye on Eleven.
“It’s no big deal.” Max said, nudging Lucas with her elbow and smirking before speaking again. “Besides none of us have dates so we might as well not go.” Eleven cleared her throat pointedly at that.
Max made a fake noise of surprise before saying “Oh did I say none of us have dates? I must’ve made a mistake, only you 4 don’t have dates.” Max shot a wink at Eleven, who just smirked back and listened to the boy’s surprised cries.
“You have dates?” Lucas said, looking at the two girls with a curious eye.
“Who are they?” Dustin asked, his mouth slightly open in shock. Mike just said nothing.
Will started to laugh and he smiled up at his female friends. “Congrats guys!” He said, holding up his hand for the two to high five. “Though you would never figure it out!” Eleven snickered and Max just stuck her tongue out petulantly.
“Wait what?’ Lucas said, obviously even more confused now. Dustin just nodded dumbly in agreement, for once being the oblivious one.
Will snorted.
“They’re going together guys.” He said, the girls nodding. Max reached down and grabbed Eleven’s hand in hers, giving it a squeeze and holding it up for the boys to see.
“Like as friends?” Mike said, in a last ditch attempt.
Eleven shook her head. “As romantic friends.” She said, Max nodding and putting their hands down. “Not all girls like boys. Sorry Mike.” Mike just smiled tightly, Will putting a hand on his back.
“Well damn if Max has a date we all have to go! Date or no date for us, this girl has never gone to a school event! It’s basically going to be historic!” Dustin exclaimed.
“Oh I guarantee it’ll be historic Dustin, the two lesbians of Hawkins tearing it up on the dancefloor from 6:30 til 9:00.” Max joked, making an exaggerated dance move and hitting her friends in the process.
“Besides, there are four of you. You guys could pair off and go together!” Eleven said, obviously having something in mind.
“Yeah and having the other kids beat our ass? No thank you.” Lucas said crossing his arms. However, when the others focused their attention elsewhere he looking a bit at Dustin and something passed between the two.
“Yeah, and how would we pair off anyways?” Dustin asked before hastily tacking on a “Don’t answer that!”
“Oh come on.” Max said, standing up. “You guys know how you would be paired off, obviously Lucas and Dustin and Will and Mike! Have you guys like conveniently gone blind?” She asked, making the boys all blush and stammer out protests.
“She is right.” Will said, not looking too upset about the redhead’s comment. “Besides, you all know I’m gay so it’s not as if I’m asking a girl or something. We’re losers too so I’ll bet you my D&D manual that you guys couldn’t get girls either.” He smirked, knowing no one would take the bait, even with something like that as a possible prize.
“Well then.” Lucas said, standing up with a flourish. “If I’m going to do this I’m not going to half ass it.” He made a joking bow and got down on one knee.
“Dustin go to the Snowball with me.” He demanded making the other boy snicker.
“I think you’re supposed to ask dumbass.” Dustin responded, still snickering at the dramatics his friend was showing.
“Oh so you don’t want to go?” Lucas asked, raising his eyebrows. The boy in front of him just responded with a shrug.
“Guess I’ll go. Just promise to not hit it and quit it after the dance.” Dustin laughed at the shock on Lucas’s face at his comment. Lucas just sputtered for a moment, before getting up and sitting back down, this time next to Dustin. El and Max were in hysterics, and Will looked like Christmas had come early.
“Now it’s down to you two, you don’t have to if you don’t wanna.” Eleven said kindly, seeing Mike’s face still contorted into an unknown look.
“No.” Mike mumbled.
“No?” They all echoed.
“No.” Mike looked up. “I wanna go.” He looked at Will. “I wanna go with Will.” The other kids held their breaths, a bit fazed by the words that were seemingly coming from nowhere. Will flushed and looked down at his hands, not daring to make any more eye contact with anyone.
“As friends!” Mike tacked on, but it was a little too late, the others had already taken note of the fondness in the Wheeller boy’s eyes.
“Ok.” WIll said, finally looking up and smiling a small and happy smile at Mike. “Let’s go as friends.” Mike smiled back.
All of a sudden Dustin stood up and announced loudly that there was too much sappiness going on and they should all go to the arcade. The other kids chimed in agreement and hopped down the bleachers, grabbing their things and all chatting animatedly as they headed towards the front where their bikes and such lay. Slowly as they neared the entrance, Max and Eleven walked towards the back of the group, splitting off.
“So.” Max started. “I didn’t get to ask this earlier, but since we’re already all a bit sappy from that disgusting exchange I figure I should.” Eleven nodded, and looked over in waiting.
“Are we dating or something?” She asked quickly.
Eleven sighed and grabbed for Max’s hand.
“I’m not exactly sure. I know I like you, we’re going to the dance together I mean come on. But you know as well as I do that I’m still adjusting. I’d say we go to this dance and tear it up, and then wait for this time 9th grade year. This time next year.” Eleven said.
“And we go from there?” Max asked, squeezing Eleven’s hand.
“Yeah, we go from there.” Eleven said, nodding.
The two walked the rest of the short walk in silence. Getting to their vehicles, Max stepped on her skateboard and Eleven swapped out her shoes for rollerblades, rolling up her sleeves to reveal the elbow pads she’d started wearing.
As they weaved away, Max called out in a spur of the moment.
“But I’m not promising I won’t kiss you tomorrow!”