𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞: 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬

❝ʏᴏᴜ'ʀᴇ ᴀᴄᴛ ʟɪᴋᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ʟɪᴋᴇ ɪᴛ.❞

𝐎𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐎 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄, 𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐀𝐃𝐄 a b-line to the one game that she actually cared about; gaplus. she still had a bunch of quarters left from the night before, making sure to leave them in steve's jacket pocket. once she was there, she unzipped her bag and grabbed her walkman and headphones. she place the headphones over her ears before she clipped the walkman to her her jeans. she pressed the button with the triangle on it, the white symbol starting to fade from use. she smiled as someone to love by queen started to play, bringing her hand up to rub her nose. she dropped zipped her bag up and dropped it to the floor. she stuffed her hand into the pocket of steve's jean jacket, grabbing a quarter before she shoved it into the slot. she pressed the start button and started to play the game, spamming the button as she used the joystick to move her spaceship around, shooting the ships and aliens that was at the top of the screen.

this went on for about thirty minutes, the harrington girl trying to get her high score back from maxine "MADMAX" mayfield. she had about two quarters left in her pocket, a groan leaving her lips once one of the opposing spaceships shot a beam at her, killing her. karma chameleon by culture club started to blast through the speakers of her headphones. she muttered the words as she pulled out another quarter from her pocket, stuffing it into the coin slot and pressing start. she bopped her head to the beat gently, her eyes trained on the screen in front of her as the game started to speed up.

"karma, karma, karma, karma, karma chameleoooon. you come and go, you come and gooooooo." she mumbled as she killed the last ship from that round. "loving would be easy if your colors were like my dreaaamms; red, gold, and greeeeen. red, gold, and greeeeen."

she felt a tap to her shoulder, quickly shutting her mouth, thinking that it was keith or someone complaining about her singing so loudly. . . even if she was mumbling. she felt another tap to her shoulder, making her curse under her breath. whoever it was could clearly see that she was not only playing a game, but was also listening to music. another tap to her shoulder is what made her die, the latina seeing red for a quick second when she saw how close she was to beating max's high score. she quickly turned around, pulling her headphones down to hang around her neck as she got ready to curse whoever had distracted her out. she froze when she saw that the someone was max, all of her anger flying out of the window.

"sorry, i didn't mean to make you die." max apologized, an innocent smile pulling at her lips.

"uh, it's okay." arlo quickly said, shaking her head. she brought her hand up to her walkman, looking down as she pressed paused to stop her music from playing. "i - i thought you were someone else."

"i didn't expect to see you here." max decided to inform, letting her eyes scan over the screen that was showing the scores. she smiled when she saw arlo's name under hers, her score being only 100 away from beating her own.

"why is that?" arlo questioned, letting her eyes scan max's face.

the mayfield girl shrugged, looking back at arlo. she felt her heart leap into her heart when she saw that arlo was already looking at her. "you don't seem like the kind of girl to be into this stuff."

"i'm pretty sure i'm the only girl in this town that's into this stuff." arlo reasoned, looking around the arcade to see if she had seen any other girls inside. she didn't. "well, beside you, obviously."

"so i'm just connecting the fact that your name is arlo and that the name of the high score i beat was also arlo." max announced.

"yep. you're the first person to beat my score." arlo nodded, feeling proud of herself that max was the first and only person to ever beat her score, ever. "it hurts to know that you did it, but i'm happy that i finally have some competition."

"oh, you think we're on the same level to be competitors?" max challenged, her eyebrows raised as a smirk pulled at her lips.

arlo hummed, "oh, definitely. i'll be back on top in no time, mayfield. just wait and see."

"whatever you say, cherry." max said, making arlo's stomach do a flip. "in the meantime, do you wanna play me in karate champ?"

"oh, you're on!" arlo nodded, an excited smile appearing on her face as she bent down and grabbed her bag. "lead the way, red!" this earned her a look from max, the taller girl's eyebrows knitted together. "what? you call me 'cherry,' so i'm calling you 'red.' we're even."

max rolled her eyes, grabbing ahold of arlo's wrist before she started to drag her towards where karate champ was located. "whatever. you're acting like you don't like it."

"i never said that." arlo mumbled, feeling her cheeks heat up. max's smile widened at that, continued to lead the shorter girl to the game.

"you didn't have to." max shot back, turning her head so that she can look back at arlo.

the two got to karate champ, max pulling out two quarters from her jacket and stuffing them into the slots before pressing start on the game. the two started spamming the buttons to try beat the other, not being aware of the two pairs of eyes that were watching them. dustin and lucas had seen arlo walk into the arcade while they were waiting for max to make an appearance, doing a stakeout to make sure that max was mad max. the two boys watched from outside the arcade, looking through the window. they were confused on why arlo had been all cheesy and flushed the whole time that max and her had been talking, but they didn't dwell on it. they saw how the girls interacted with one another whole time, the both of them pushing each other as a way to distract the other and get them to lose. after awhile, the boys had decided to go home, coming up with a plan on how they were gonna get max to join the party. and after about five rounds of karate champ, the girls had decided to start heading home. arlo had agreed to walk max home since she lived the closest.

"so, uh, why did you and your family move from california? i bet california is ten times better than indiana." arlo decided to ask, breaking the silence that had fallen over them like a blanket. their arms were brushing against each other's as they walked, down the side of the roads.

"my mom married this guy, and they decided that it would be a great idea to start over somewhere new." max shrugged, keeping her eyes on her shoes as they walked. "it wouldn't be so bad if my step brother wasn't such a dickhead." she mumbled, not wanting to talk about what happened behind closed doors. "halloween's tomorrow."

arlo perked up at that, smiling at the thought of trick-or-treat. "yeah. who are you gonna dress up as?"

max smiled at arlo's excitement, looking down at the harrington girl before she faced forward. "michael meyers. you ever saw halloween? it's, like, one of my favorite movies."

"of course i've seen halloween. what kind of question is that?" arlo answered, her eyebrows knitted together.

"who are you gonna go dressed as?" max questioned.

"i've been a little obsessed with the outsiders lately, so i'm dressing up as a greaser. the jeans, the leather jacket, the converse, the gelled up hair. my brother can help me with that part. he has more hair products than i do." arlo explained as she nodded her head, feeling proud of her self.

"oh, you'll definitely pull that off. you would make a great greaser, cherry." max complimented, imagining the shorter girl all dressed up in her costume.

"you should totally come trick-or-treating with us, tomorrow." arlo suggested, looking up at the freckled girl beside her. "four of them are dressing up as the ghostbuster. uh, the four that was in mr.clarke's class. and percy as a ninja. i think that's what he said, i - i don't remember."

"would they be okay with me coming along?" max asked, not wanting to cause any problems within in the friend group. i mean, she had only known arlo for a day, and she was already inviting her to things.

"uh. . . i know the majority of the party will be okay with it." arlo replied honestly, knowing that mike might be the only one who would have a problem with it. "but will, lucas, dustin, and percy? they should be okay with it. i hope."

"you hope?" max repeated, her eyebrows raised.

"yeah. i mean, usually, they don't really go against anything i say because they know that 9 times out of ten, i'll be right." the latina mumbled, starting to think to herself about how the boy would react to max joining them tomorrow night.

"and what exactly would you be right about?" max asked, raising an eyebrows.

"oh, that you would be a great addition to the party." arlo answered, almost like the answer itself was obvious. max smiled at that, not knowing what say.

the duo continued to walk down the street, arlo going into thought. her mind had wandered back to the lab, thinking about how dr.owens was trying to bribe her with information about someone she didn't even know. obviously, she had wondered who her birth mother was and what had happened to her that arlo had to be put up for adoption. but she wasn't willing to expose her abilities just for a file that probably wouldn't tell her everything. plus, she's smarter than what dr.owens gave her credit for. she knew that once he could see what she could do, no one, not even hopper, would be able to stop him from hiding her away forever. arlo suddenly felt someone grab her arm, pulling her back into reality. she looked up at max with furrowed eyebrows.

"we're here." max announced, pointing to the house that they were in front of. arlo nodded, turning so that she could look at the house. it was a nice sized, one story house. two cars were parked in the driveway, meaning that max's family was probably home, awaiting for her arrival. "you drifted off there. you okay?"

"yeah, i'm fine." arlo nodded, sending max a small smile.

"thanks." max suddenly said, making arlo raise her eyebrows at her. "for, uh, for being the first person to welcome me here and everything. i've had a few people be total dicks to me today, but you were the only one who was nice."

"you don't have to thank me." arlo mumbled, the smile on her lips widening as she looked down at the ground.

"i'll see you tomorrow, okay?" max told arlo, starting to walk down the pathway that led to her house.

"yeah. i'll see you tomorrow, red." arlo repeated, watching max enter her house.

with that, she started to make her way home. she knew where she was, having past max's house many times. she decided against pulling her headphones over her ears, since her walkman was still clipped to her jeans. she stuffed her hands into the pockets of steve's jean jacket, letting the events that had happened within in the last hour replay in her mind. she felt butterflies flutter around in her stomach, only making a smile appear on her face. if this had been happening to her last year, she would've been confused and scared. but after many, many talks with steve and explaining to him how she felt, she was at peace with that part of herself. she knew she had liked girls, and she was happy that steve hadn't disowned her as his sister. when she had finally gotten home, she saw steve wasn't home, assuming that he was still at mr. and mrs.holland's house for dinner. she went upstairs, took a shower, and got ready for bed. all she could think about was max and how they had gotten so close within a day.

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daij speaks!
marlo, my beloveds. i love them so much and they're not even together yet. but i hope u enjoyed this short filler chapter. i don't really like how i ended it, but i didn't know what else to do.

but i hope u guys enjoyed :)