#also take a few guesses who’s the fourth vecna target lol

[klausinamarink]

Thinking of an AU where after Starcourt and Billy’s death, it’s the Mayfields who leave Hawkins for California while the Byers stay. With her family fractured, Susan Mayfield decides to take the opportunity to return back home if not slightly pushed by the men in suits who gave her and Max special forms to sign. They won’t go back to their old residence in San Deigo but Lenora should be a better start.

But Lenora turns out to be worse for Max. She’s too angry and scared to make any new friends - friends who wouldn’t understand the horrors of the Upside Down with its cat-eating demodogs and giant fleshy Mind Flayer. The closest person she might consider a friend is one of the stoner dudes at Surfer Boy’s Pizza who always gives her free slices of pineapple pizza whenever she comes in.

Usually her behaviour works in pushing her peers, but instead it attracts the annoying popular girl Angela’s attention and makes Max her favourite “friend”. Their fights are often verbal but sometimes Angela’s words strike better than Max’s. She doesn’t tell her mom, who’s been working long hard hours at her new job, or her friends back at Hawkins whenever she writes back to their letters. Even when calls with Lucas bring her close to tears, she keeps her voice even and lies through her teeth about how she loves her new home and classmates.

This predictably comes to a head when Lucas and El tag together to visit Max for the spring break. El quickly realizes Max’s lies and confronts her at the skating rink, telling her that if Lucas finds out, he’ll be devastated too. Max tries to brush this off, pretending to have a normal, Angela-less day with her boyfriend and best friend.

Well, we all know what happens at the rink.

This time, El (albeit more accidentally) trips Angela and her goons before they do anything worse. This time, Max had enough of Angela’s bullshit and beats her face with her skate, yelling at her that if she dares to pick on her again, she’s fucking dead. This time, Lucas is horrified by what just happened and heartbroken that Max’s been having a difficult time without telling him.

They don’t really have the time to talk about it before the cops come the next morning to arrest Max for assault. But El steps forward and, to protect Max, says she’s the one who did it, much to Max and Lucas’ chagrin. So El gets taken to jail, Max and Lucas get Susan to help El bail out, survive a sudden shootout in the house, they get Argyle, and then the Nevada road trip takes off from there.

Throughout this, Susan gets told about the Upside Down and the truth of Billy’s death. She also starts having a more heart to heart with Max, apologizing about being so distant and seeing herself as the start of this mess they’re in. But Max tells her not to blame herself and that Susan’s only been doing what’s the best for both of them. Max also apologizes to Lucas for lying and sweet Lucas forgives her, but says that he’s always still here so Max shouldn’t have hid away from him. There’s a lot more talks on the road, some ending with tearful smiles and a new hope for the future.

Meanwhile in Hawkins, Vecna might’ve missed Max as a potential victim but he finds someone better…