𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝗜 𝗪𝗔𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗗 ━━━━ 𝒎𝒂𝒙 𝒎𝒂𝒚𝒇𝒊𝒆𝒍𝒅

𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙛𝙞𝙫𝙚

[𝗘𝗣𝗜𝗦𝗢𝗗𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗥𝗘𝗘: 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗢𝗟𝗟𝗬𝗪𝗢𝗚]

"I STILL DON'T GET WHY THEY STILL call him zombie boy." max said as she walked in between lucas and sage through the halls. "i mean, i get it. he got lost in the woods for a week or something, but why is he a zombie? because everyone thought he was dead?"

"yeah. i mean, we had a funeral for him and everything." lucas replied. "after a week?" max asked, still confused. "well, see, some other kid drowned at the quarry." sage spoke up. "we thought it was will because his body was super decomposed." lucas added in.

"what?" max scoffed and stopped walking. "okay, that's not funny."

"it's not a joke, all right? it's public knowledge." lucas told the red-head. "you can ask anyone." sage chimed in. "except will, because he is really sensitive about it." the wheeler girl added.

"all right?" lucas asked max, making sure they were on the same page. "okay," max responded after a short pause, walking off.

sage followed her and walked next to her. "how did you get effected?" max asked the wheeler girl making sage look at the red-head. "i don't really like talking about it, but i'll tell you someday." sage replied, smiling softly at her.

max stares at the wheeler girl before nodding and walking into mister clark's classroom, sage following behind her with lucas.

"the case of phineas gage is one of the great medical curiosities of all time. phineas was a railroad worker in 1848 who had a nightmarish accident. a large rod was driven completely through his head." mister clark explained to the class, tracing a marker through the skulls head.

"phineas miraculously survived. he seemed fine. and physically, yes, he was."

max stared at the back of will's head, thoughts running through her head.

"but his injury resulted in a complete change to his personality. so much so that friends knew him —" will slowly turned around to look at max, feeling her stare. the red-head quickly looked away. "— started referring to him as "no longer gage.". at the time, this was known as the american crowbar case."

the bowl-cut boy turned back around and sage looked at him confused. "although it wasn't a —"

suddenly, dustin rushes into the classroom, panting. "i am so sorry, mister clark." dustin told the teacher and walked to his seat. "really, i'm so sorry. please continue with the class. don't mind me. really, continue, please. thanks."

soon enough the henderson boy sits down in his seat as the teacher continues with his lesson. dustin turns to his friends as they lean closer to hear him better.