Chapter 10

006

• 𝐈𝐭 𝐁𝐢𝐭 𝐌𝐞 •

────✧･ﾟ: *✧･

☄. *. ⋆ Stella and Max woke up to the sound of Steve’s voice. “Alright, you two, come on, get up.”

“No,” Stella groaned, dragging out the “o,” not bothering to even open her eyes as she shifted in her spot. Max silently agreed with Stella, moving closer to the brunette, snuggling up against her more. The redhead was half asleep, not really realizing what she was doing.

“You two need to get up. You have school,” Steve told them, yanking the blanket off of the pair and refraining from teasing the two right then and there. “Essie, you’re normally on top of stuff like this.”

“Yeah,” Stella started, sleepily slurring her words and turning to her left to face Max instead of lying on her back as she was. “But we were out trick-or-treating last night, and I’m tired.”

“Come on. Up.”

Stella finally woke up, realizing the position her and Max were in, freezing while her face turned a bright red and her cheeks heated up.

She quickly sat up and looked to Max, trying to shake off how flustered she was. “Max,” she muttered.

“Hmm?” When Max noticed what she had been doing- cuddling up against Stella like that -she froze, her face flushing a deep red as Stella’s did seconds before.

“We gotta go to school,” Stella told the redhead, who snapped out of it, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. “You can borrow some of my clothes.”

“Thanks,” Max smiled, admiring the girl.

“Yeah, sure.”

–

☄. *. ⋆ When Stella and Max got to school, Lucas found them in the hallway. “Hey, Max. What’s going on?” He asked as he jogged over. “Why are you wearing Stella’s shirt?”

“She spent the night,” Stella explained, leading Lucas to nod, and expression on his face that Stella couldn’t pinpoint.

“Do you guys know why everyone calls Will ‘Zombie Boy’?” Max asked. “Like, I get it, he got lost in the woods or something, but why is he a zombie? Because everyone thought he was dead?”

“Well, yeah,” Lucas told her. “We had a funeral for him and everything.”

“After a week?”

“Okay, so…” Stella started. “Some other kid drowned at the quarry, and his body was like, super decomposed, so they thought it was Will.”

Max stopped walking. “What? Okay, Ess, that’s not funny.”

“Ess?” Lucas questioned.

“It’s not a joke, okay?” Stella told her, ignoring Lucas. “It’s public knowledge. You could ask anyone. Just not Will, he’s really sensitive about it, okay?”

Max seemed a bit surprised. “Yeah, o- okay.”

–

☄. *. ⋆ Stella started dozing off, her head in her hand as Mr. Clarke taught about Phineas Gage, a man who had a rod driven directly through his skull and somehow survived. She was tired after the night before, and it had been midnight by the time the girls fell asleep.

“Now, at the time, this was known as The American Crowbar Case. Although, it wasn’t a-” the teacher was cut off by the door suddenly swinging open, Dustin entering in as if he had been sprinting.

The loud noise and abruptness of it startled Stella, the girl’s head falling out of her hands and her head hitting her desk.

“Ow,” Stella muttered, bringing her head back up while Dustin frantically apologized to Mr. Clarke. “I am so sorry, Mr. Clarke. Please, continue with the lesson. I am so sorry,” he said, out of breath as he panted.

“Although, it wasn’t a crowbar, it was a rod, as I said,” Mr. Clarke continued.

Dustin leaned over and whispered to the group as soon as he sat down. “We have to meet. All of us. At lunch, AV Club.”

“Why?” Mike asked, speaking for everyone.

“I have something that you won’t believe.”

Dustin turned in his seat to whisper to Max. “AV Club. Lunch.”

Max perked up, leaning forward to hear Dustin before Mr. Clarke called for the boy. “Dustin!”

The curly headed boy whipped around in his seat. “Yes, my lord?”

“Would you care to join the class now?”

“Please! Yes!”

“Page 104,” Mr. Clarke told Dustin, the boy repeating the words as he flipped through his book. “Case of Phineas Gage. Focus.”

“Focusing. Focusing.”

Dustin turned one more time to whisper the time and place to Max before turning back around. Stella rolled her eyes as she turned back to the front.

–

☄. *. ⋆ Stella walked with Max to the A.V. Club room when the bell rang for lunch, finding Dustin and the others already in there. “Finally! What took you two so long?” Dustin asked the two, who shrugged. “Whatever. I need to show this to you guys.” Dustin clicked a button on the wire to his makeshift ghost trap from the previous day, and the doors popped open. Dustin reached inside the contraption and pulled out a small creature, seeming like some sort of amphibian. Stella almost gagged at the sight. “What is that thing?”

“His name’s D’Artagnan. I found him in my trash,” Dustin explained.

“D’Artagnan?” Mike repeated, obviously puzzled by the name choice.

Stella’s face twisted in confusion. “Like the Musketeer?”

Dustin nodded. “Mhm. Dart for short.”

“And he was in your trash?” Max asked, clarifying the information they had just heard. Dustin nodded again. “Foraging for food. Wanna hold him?” He asked after a pause. Max immediately shook her head. “No,” she refused, but Dustin pushed. “It’s okay, he doesn’t bite!”

Max looked to Stella, who put her good arm up in fake surrender. “Hey, don’t look at me, I can’t hold him. Broken arm.”

As Max’s eyes were focused on Stella, Dustin slipped the creature – Dart – into the redhead’s hands.

Max cringed, groaning in disgust. “He’s slimy!” And she passed Dart to Stella’s good hand. “Woah! Nope, nope, nope, no. No… thank you.” Stella went to pass the slimy creature to Lucas, but before she could, it sunk it’s teeth into the bottom of her palm. “Shit!” Stella cursed at the stinging pain in her hand as she quickly passed it to Lucas in order to pull her hand back.

“What’s wrong?” Max asked from beside the brunette.

“It bit me,” Stella told her, staring at her hand as the others made their own sounds of disgust about the creature, seemingly not noticing the fact that it had hurt Stella. “‘He doesn’t bite’ my ass, Henderson,” she muttered, intentionally not loud enough for the boy to hear.

Max looked Stella in the eye with a concerned look for a brief moment before looking back at her hand and grabbing her wrist. She pulled the slightly taller girl’s wrist closer to her for further observation, seeing the teeth marks that formed a circle within a circle within another circle, each looking like a circle drawn with small dashes. Soon enough, the two girls watched as scarlet red liquid started to seep from the tiny teeth marks. Max’s eyes widened and she looked up when Stella pulled her hand back and shoved it in her jacket pocket.

“I’m fine.”

“What is he?” They heard Mike’s voice say in contrast to the other’s reactions. Stella chose to focus on Mike, not wanting to make the bite a whole situation that everyone – or anyone, for that matter – worried about.

Max, however, kept her gaze on the brunette beside her, a concerned look plastered on the redhead’s face.

The raven-haired boy was holding Dart up to his face, not a smart move in Stella’s opinion, but he was now eye to wherever-is-where-Dart’s-eyes-should-be

Dustin seemed happy that one of his friends wasn’t grossed out by his new companion creature. “My question exactly.” The boy reached into his backpack, pulling out a book. “At first, I thought he was some sort of pollywog.”

“Pollywog?” Max asked as she pulled her eyes away from Stella, puzzled by the new word.

“It’s another word for tadpole,” Dustin told her before trying to elaborate further. “A tadpole is the larval stage of a toad-“

The redhead cut him off. “I know what a tadpole is.”

“Okay, so then you know most tadpoles are aquatic. Dart’s not. He doesn’t need water,” Dustin informed them. “Aren’t there non-aquatic pollywogs?” Lucas asked, a tone in his voice as if he knew for a fact there were non-aquatic pollywogs.

Dustin seemed prepared for the question. “Terrestrial pollywogs? Uh huh. Two to be exact.” He flipped open the book. “Indirana Semipalmata…” He flipped to the next page. “And the Adenomera Andrea. One’s from India, one’s from South America. So how did one end up in my trash?”

“Maybe some scientists brought it here, and it escaped?” Max suggested. Stella- ignoring the pain coming from the palm of her hand -raised her eyebrows and cocked her head towards Max, a look of consideration on her face, but nobody could respond to the theory before Mike spoke, noticing something. “Do you guys see that?” He asked. “It looks something’s… moving inside of it.” Mike moved the lamp on the desk to shine the light on Dart.

Dart made an odd chittering sound and ran out of the spotlight. He started running towards the edge of the table, and he would have run off if it weren’t for Dustin catching him.

“I got you little guy. I know you don’t like that, it’s okay,” Dustin comforted the small creature, petting it. Stella furrowed her eyebrows in a mix of confusion and disgust. She turned her head to look at Will, expecting him to be making a similar face, but he was kind of just staring at Dart, zoning out.

“That’s another thing,” Dustin said. “Reptiles. They’re cold blooded. Ectothermic, right? They love heat, the sun. Dart hates it. It hurts him.”

“So if he’s not a pollywog, or a reptile…” Lucas trailed off.

“Then I’ve discovered a new species,” Dustin grinned.

Everyone looked around at each other, Stella and Max making eye contact for a moment.

That’s when the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. Dustin put Dart back in the contraption of his before leaving the room, the others following him out.

“You gotta show Mr. Clarke,” Lucas told Dustin.

“No, what if he steals my discovery?” The curly-haired boy worried. Mike rolled his eyes. “He’s not gonna steal your discovery!”

“You know, I’m thinking of calling it Dustonious Pollywogus.” Dustin told them. Then he looked to Max. “What do you think?”

The redhead gave him a look. “I think you’re an idiot.”

“You know, when I become rich and famous for this one day, don’t come crawling back to me saying ‘Oh my God, Dustin, I am so sorry for being mean to you back in eighth grade. Oh my God.'” Dustin teased, and Max, Stella and Dustin all chuckled.

“I’m sorry,” Max suddenly said to Stella.

“What?”

“Dart bit you. I’m sorry.”

“It wasn’t your fault.”

“I handed him to you.”

“Anyone could’ve.”

–

☄. *. ⋆ After their next class, the party – along with Max. – went to Mr. Clarke’s classroom to show him Dart. Mike wasn’t there yet, since he went to go get Will.

“This is the reason I was late to class,” Dustin told Mr. Clarke before placing the box from his Halloween costume on the teacher’s desk in between them. Mr. Clarke looked down at it. “Pretty neat. These doors function?”

“Well, yeah, obviously. But it’s not about the trap. It’s what’s inside,” Dustin said. “Now, this very well may change your perception of the world,” he told him, and Mr. Clarke shrugged with a prepared and excited smile on his face. “Consider my interest piqued.”

“Alright, first, let’s just clarify that… this is my discovery, not yours,” he reminded as if Mr. Clarke was even the type to claim the discovery as his own.

“Dustin, really?” Stella rolled her eyes.

“Dustin, Jesus! Just show him!” Lucas demanded, annoyed with their curly-haired friend.

“I’m just trying to clarify-“

“Dustin,” Max voiced with a smile, a smile that made a hint of jealousy bubble in Stella’s stomach. Adding to Stella’s jealousy, Dustin folded when Max spoke up. “Okay, fine,” he agreed The moment he heard Max’s voice.

Everyone’s head whipped towards the door when it slammed open, Mike rushing in as he yelled for them to stop. He hurried to the desk, fumbling with the box in a hurry to pick it up. “I’m really sorry, Mr. Clarke. It was just a stupid prank.”

Stella’s eyes darted around. “Mike, wha-” she stopped herself mid-sentence out of pure confusion

“What the hell are you doing?”

“I told them to stop.” Mike turned to the party and Max, directing his words at everyone who was an official party member. “We need to go. Right now.”

“Mike!”

“Right now!”

At the boy’s scream, everyone followed him out of the room, leaving Mr. Clarke with himself and his lingering curiosity about what could have been in that box.

They all followed Mike into the A.V. Club room, and Max tried to enter, but Mike stopped her.

“Party members only,” he said sternly before shutting the door.

“Mike, what the hell?” Stella rose her voice at the boy.

“She can’t hear this!” Mike declared as he walked over to the desk.

“Can’t hear what?”

─────✧･ﾟ: *✧･

things i almost did part 4: dart never originally bit stella but i rewrote it 🙂

anyway thanks for reading!!!

sorry this is late it’s summer break and im losing track of the days tbh 💀