9. sorta stargazing

SORTA STARGAZING

✧･ﾟ: * Night has come quicker than Nora expects, but she wasn't complaining when the once pink and orange sky turned to purple and navy, sprinkled with stars.

She doesn't know much about constellations or astrology, but it doesn't stop her from sitting on top of the bus, making shapes slightly with her finger. . . but if anyone asks she's keeping watch.

Her body shivers and rises with goosebumps as fog collects below her, and she pulls her - Steve's - jacket tighter.

Lucas, Max, Steve, and Dustin are sitting below her in the vehicle, and she can hear Dustin's excessive pacing enough to want to throw herself off the bus.

"So. . . you really fought one of these things before?" Max's muffled voice comes through the bus roof. "And you're, like, totally, a hundred percent sure it wasn't a bear?"

"Shit!" Dustin snaps, his voice much louder than Max's. "Don't be an idiot! It wasn't a bear!" Nora hopes Max kicked him in the shin or something. "Why are you even here if you don't believe us? Just go home."

Dustin, please.

"Geesh, someone's angry," Max's voice says. "Past your bedtime?"

It's silent for awhile and Nora leans onto her back, just basking in the moonlight. Definitely not thinking about what it would be like if Max were there.

"It's kinda awesome."

Nora jumps slightly before turning onto her stomach and facing Max who sat next to the ladder, facing the opposite direction as Nora.

"The fog, I mean," Max clarifies, looking down. "It's like the ocean."

Nora looks down too, "You miss it? Like, California. I mean, I'd probably think Hawkins is some kinda dump compared."

"No, no, no. . . it's not that. It's just," Max pauses and Nora faces her again, she's still looking down. "My dad's still there so. . ."

"Why?"

"It's this legal term called divorce," Max emphasizes and Nora laughs softly. "See, when two married people don't love each other anymore-"

"Yeah, yeah," Nora rolls her eyes jokingly, sitting up so she was next to Max directly. Their legs were dangling together as Nora looks up at the sky again and Max never moves her eyes from the ground.

"My mom and my step-dad, they wanted a 'fresh start' away from him. As if. . . as if he was the problem, which is total bull," Nora has never been more interested in anything before. "And things. . . are just worse now. My step-brother's always been a dick, but now he's just angry, all the time. . . and, well, he can't take it out on my mom so. . ."

Nora tries to ignore Max's glossy eyes. "So, he takes it out on you?"

"I don't even know why I'm even telling you this," Max quickly wipes her eyes. "I just. . . I know I can be a jerk like him sometimes. I do not want to be like him, ever. I guess, I'm angry too, and. . . I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Nor."

Nor.

Nora doesn't know what to say, so she just grabs Max's hand, and the two look at their intertwined fingers. After a moment, she speaks up, "You're nothing like your brother, y'know. I mean, you're cool, smart, a total badass, and you. . ." Nora trails off, not wanting to say what was on her mind. "I'm sorry too. About that day after school-"

"I'm sorry," Max sighs. "I shouldn't have-"

"You don't have to apologize," Nora interrupts. "We - I - treated you like shit, and you don't deserve that. . . I really wanna be your friend Max. I really should've treated you better."

"I wanna be your friend too," Max smiles. Nora knows if she were to look at the redhead she wouldn't be able to help herself, so she just shifts her gaze the fog. "Let's start over," Max let's go of their hands and holds one of hers out. "Hi, I'm Max Mayfield."

Nora raises her eyebrows before putting her hand out too. "Nora Harrington." They shake each others hands with a laugh. "Nice to meet y-"

Nora is cut off as a sudden roar rings through air and the girls jump suddenly. Nora instantly reaches for the binoculars and tries to see something on the horizon. "Nora! What's going on?" Dustin's voice yells from the bus.

"I'm looking!" She shouts back nervously. Lucas climbs up the ladder to the other side of Nora and grabs the binoculars as he looks where she was.

"I've got eyes," he yells quickly. "Ten o'clock! T-ten o'clock!" Max snatched the binoculars and Nora tried to look where she was to see it.

She quickly crawls down the ladder when she sees a creature in the distance, and presses her nose against the window with Steve and Dustin. "Why's he not taking the bait?" Nora asks as Dart just sniffed at the pile of meat.

"Maybe he's not hungry," Dustin shrugs.

"Maybe he's sick of cow," Steve pushes away from the window and Dustin and Nora watch with wide eyes as he picks up his bat.

"Steve?" Dustin starts worriedly. "Steve, what are you doing?"

Steve just grabs his arm, "I'll be fine. Just get ready."

"Hey, if you die I'll kill you," Nora warns before Steve ruffles her hair a little and walks out slowly.

Oh, God. . .

—

✧･ﾟ: * Nora is trying to ignore the voice in her brain telling her to race after Steve. Drowning in worry, she starts biting her nails as Steve whistles softly to the Demogorgon. "Come on, buddy."

"What's he doing?" Max comes up beside Nora and pulled her hand out of her mouth, holding it closely.

"Expanding the menu," Dustin replies.

"Come on, buddy. Come on, buddy. Come on. Dinner time," Steve coaxes, walking slowly. "Human tastes better than cat, I promise."

"He's insane," Max stares.

"He's awesome," Dustin grins.

"He's gonna die," Nora closes her eyes tight.

"Steve!" Lucas yells from the roof suddenly causing Nora to shoot them open. "Watch out!"

"A little busy here!" Steve yells back, eyes focused on the baby Demogorgon in front of him.

"Three o'clock! Three o'clock!"

Nora snaps her head to the right and barely notices Max's wince in pain as her grip tightens. Close behind Steve is an identical creature hopping onto an abandoned car and roaring, excessively.

"Steve!" Dustin yells. Nora was frozen in shock. "Steve! Abort! Abort!"

Steve looks over his shoulder and starts dodging the monster. He slides on top of a car and Nora winces at the near miss. Lucas had come down, screaming too in the process. Steve managed to hit one of the three more Demogorgon's that arrived and races over to the bus where the four kids are screaming. He falls in through the door and the group cowers in the corner as the Demogorgon's bang against the door.

"Are they rabid, or something?" Max asks, not seeing them as anything more than some dogs. Her and Nora had dropped each others hands in the process, and Nora has her arm around seat back to hold herself up.

Steve grabs a metal panel and pushes it against the door with his feet to add extra protection. "They can't get in!" Lucas yells, convincing himself more than anyone. "They can't get in!"

As soon as he said it though, the bus shakes with intensity and the kids ran to the back, Nora and Max grabbing each others hands again. Steve was hitting the Demogorgon over and over with his bat as Dustin yells into his radio, "Is anyone there? Mike? Will? God! Anyone?" They were all still screaming. "We're at the old junkyard, and we're going to die!"

Everything goes silent, the only noise being Steve hitting the already dead Demogorgon and a faint banging on the roof. Max makes her way over to the ladder and her eyes widen significantly. Nora slowly inches over and quickly pulls Max out of the way as the head of Demogorgon pops up.

"Outta the way! Outta the way!" Steve comes over and pushes the girls away and sticks his bat in the air at the snarling Demogorgon. "You want some? Come get this!"

Suddenly, a load growl echoed through the trees, and all the Demogorgons looked up slowly and ran towards the noise.

Silence fell over the group again, this time the only noise was their heavy breathing. Nora quickly dropped Max's arm as Dustin and Lucas looked at the two girls. Embarrassed, Nora looks away and speaks up, "What was that?"

"I don't know," Max replies.

"Steve scared 'em off?" Dustin tries.

Nora frowns, "Yeah, the murdering demons are afraid of a baseball bat."

Steve nodded. "Nora's right," he faces the group. "They're going somewhere."

a/n:

guys, be honest. am i overplaying the whole nickname thing?