"cause we are living in a material world and i am a material girl."

★・・・・・・★

Yesterday, after all that weird stuff happened, Amber ignored it. She didn't want to tell Max since she didn't see it, cause she didn't want her to worry.

Mr. and Mrs. Wilson were back from their business trip, so Amber decided.
Today was the day.
But later.

Amber told her parents that she was going to Max's and she heard her mom say, "I'm so glad Amber is great friends with that Max girl."

"Yeah... friends," Kristen smirked.

Amber smirked and went to Max's.

When Amber got there, she saw Max working on a trick on her skateboard. Amber looked at the board on the ground and got a flashback from the first time they met.

"Hey, wanna ride?" Max asked.

"What?" Amber questioned.

"My skateboard. Have you ever even got on one?"

"Oh no. If I did, I'd fall. Then my sister would yell at me. 'Amber, why'd you do that?! You're such an ass! Blah, blah, blah.'"

"Hey, Amber," Max said, snapping her out of the memory. "I've been trying to get this trick right for at least thirty minutes. Can you help?"

"Yeah, totally," Amber replied.

Amber tried helping Max when the mist came from her hands again.

"The hell?" Amber murmured.

"You okay, Amber?" Max asked her girlfriend.

"Yeah... fine," she lied.

"Come on. I want to finish this trick before noon."

Amber sat on the concrete steps watching Max try and perfect the trick. She failed a couple of times, then almost fell, causing the board to start going down the road.

"Shit!" She cursed.

Amber started getting up, going to go get the board when someone stopped it. El stopped it. She picked it up and walked over to Amber and Max.

"Hi."
"Hi?"

"Can we talk?"

-

The three girls went into Max's bedroom so El could talk to them. Max was pacing around the room, listening intently, while Amber was sitting next to El.

"And then he said he- he missed me. And then he just hung up," El finished explaining.

"He's a piece of shit," Max spoke.

"Max!" Amber exclaimed.

"What?" El questioned.

"Mike doesn't have jack shit to do today, and his Nana obviously isn't sick. I guarantee you, him and Lucas, maybe Will, are playing Atari right now."

"But friends don't lie," El said.

"Yeah, well, boyfriends and girlfriends lie. All the time. Except for Amber," Max said which made Amber blush.

"You're going to stop calling him," she started explaining. "You're going to ignore his calls. As far as you're concerned, he doesn't exist," Max said while sitting down next to El.

"He doesn't exist?" El questioned.

"He treated you like garbage. You're gonna treat him like garbage. Give him a taste of his own medicine."

"Give him the medicine."

"Mm-hmm. And if he doesn't fix this, if he doesn't explain himself, dump his ass," Max said. El's eyes enlarged as Max said that. So did Amber's.

"Come on."

"Where are we going?"

"To have some fun. There's more to life than stupid boys, you know," Max said as she grabbed Amber's and El's hands.

-

Long story short, Max took the three out to the mall. They got off the bus and stood in front of the huge building. Amber thought it was cool, to introduce El to different things, things outside of her house.

"So, what do you think?" Max said. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"Too many people," El said. "Against the rules."

"Seriously? You have superpowers. What's the worst that could happen?"

Amber didn't think anything of it. I mean, El's head wasn't shaved anymore, she had hair, and she grew up.

They went inside and El looked at all the shops in the building in awe.

"So, what should we do first?" Amber asked Max and El.

"You've never been shopping before, have you?" Max asked as El shook her head. "Well, then I guess we'll just have to try everything. Ooh. Come on."

Max dragged Amber and El to The Gap, a clothing shop at Starcourt. They went inside and El looked at all the cool clothes in there. She eventually looked at a shirt on a stand with sunglasses and hats and other clothing items on the table.

"Do you like that?" Max asked.

"How do I know... what I like?" El asked.

"You just try things on. Until you find something that feels like you."

"Like me?"

"Yeah," Amber smiled. "Not Hopper. Not Mike. You."

El grabbed a bunch of clothes to try on and tried them on. She then came out and looked in the mirror to see what they looked like. She modeled for Amber and Max.

She first came out in a blue shirt and yellow pants. Max held a yellow barret and dragged El to the mirror. El put the hat on but put it on the wrong way, so Amber helped her fix it.

Next, she came out in a white shirt and skirt with fake paint splatters on them. Amber and Max each held up a belt. Amber had a yellow one and Max had the red one. El started twirling around so Amber helped her. She got dizzy and slightly fell into Amber and they both started laughing.

El went back in the changing room and Max wanted to find some sunglasses. Amber brought over a couple pairs for Max. She tried the first ones on, didn't like them. She tried the second ones on but didn't like them either. Amber handed her a red pair and she liked them.

El came out in a colorful romper with different designs and colors on it. Amber really liked it. She'd have to steal it sometime.

El had confidence in the outfit and flipped her hair from one side to the other. She bought the outfits and some more and Max bought the sunglasses. Amber bought a bracelet that she liked and wore it out.

Max linked her arms with Amber, then the other one with El. The three ran into a photo place and got dressed up in weird costumes for photos.

"That's it, girls. Okay, here we go," the worker said.

He took different pictures of the three and gave them to them for free.

The girls next went into a shoe shop. Max was on the left side of El and Amber was on the right. They were helping her try and stand in high heels. It didn't really work out. She fell and started laughing as Amber and Max did as well. They got disgusted looks from four other girls who actually looking at shoes. Amber stared back at them and it made them roll their eyes which made the three laugh harder.

The girls left the shop and found the other older girls at a food restaurant with some guy. Amber, El and Max were hiding behind a wall. El decided to use her powers to make the sodas the girls were drinking, explode.

They started laughing and running away as Max started saying, "See? What'd I tell you?"

"There's more to life than-" Amber started, only to get cut off by El.

"Stupid boys," El laughed as they kept running.

The girls went to Scoops Ahoy to get ice cream. Robin came out from the back and started a brief conversation with Steve, who had the three ice creams. The girls in front of the counter didn't pay attention to the conversation because they were stuck in their own conversation that only got interrupted by Steve.

"Okay, here you go, you got a strawberry, vanilla with sprinkles, extra whipped cream, and plain chocolate," he said.

"Thanks," they all said at the same time.

"Wait a second. Are you even allowed to be here?" Steve asked as he looked at Eleven.

The girls laughed and turned away to exit the mall. They opened doors to exit Starcourt as Max asked the other two, "Wanna trade?"

They all somehow managed to trade three ice creams between them.

"That's ridiculous. Why can't I just..." Max heard Mike.

"Oh, you've got be shitting me," she said as she saw Mike, along with Lucas and Will. Max started walking towards the boys with El and Amber behind her.

"Well, isn't this a nice surprise," she sarcastically said.

Mike dropped his bike and said, "What are you doing here."

"Shopping," El responded.

"This is her new style," Max pointed out. "What do you think?"

"What's wrong with you?" Mike snapped. "You know she's not allowed to be here. And you, Amber! You should've even be here either. Who knows if you still have your powers."

"Don't talk to her like that!" Max defended Amber. But then went around to defend El. "What is she, your little pet?"

"Yeah," El agreed. "Am I your pet?"

"What? No!" Mike denied.

"Then why do you treat me like garbage?" El asked.
"What?"

"You said Nana was sick."

"She is," Mike started lying. "She is. She is sick."

"Yeah, sick- she's sick," Lucas tried helping.

"She's sick."
"She's super sick. That's why we're here, actually."

"Yeah, yeah, we're shopping. Not for us, but for her, for Nana."
"For Nana."

"Also, we're here to get a gift for you. Just, we couldn't find anything that suited you and I only have, like, $3.50, so it's hard."

"Super hard. It's- it's expensive."

"You lie. Why do you lie?" El said to Mike.

He couldn't find anything to say, so when the bus came, El knew what she had to do. The girls looked back at the bus, needing to get on it. El walked towards Mike.

"I dump your ass."

Max and Amber's jaw's dropped. They didn't think she'd actually do it. El walked towards the bus, and Amber and Max followed after, still shocked at what just happened.

El and Max sat in the row next to Amber. She felt bad for Mike. He just bent the truth a little. Maybe he did it for an important reason.

They didn't even let him explain himself.