Chapter Text
It’s lunchtime and Will’s found a shady spot under a tree to sit and eat by himself. He’s alone by choice–El has a different lunch period and as much as he loves Jonathan, he prefers to keep their school lives separate. He feels a lot less conspicuous eating alone outside than he does sitting at a table in the lunchroom.
He’s absentmindedly eating a sandwich while sketching the Party’s DND characters. (He should be practicing his still-life drawing for class, but he’s missing his friends–he might be alone by choice, but he’s also reliably had at least one person to sit with at lunch for his entire school career until now.)
He’s not paying much attention to his surroundings until he senses a presence nearby. He looks up to see a girl he’s talked to a few times during track practice, Heather.
"Hey!" Heather says brightly, "I was by myself and saw you across the quad…do you mind if I join you?"
Will admires the confidence it takes to approach someone this way, and he hasn’t had problems with her during practice. He shrugs and answers, "Go ahead."
She drops her messenger bag and lowers herself and her lunch tray to the ground. She sits as if she was wearing a skirt even though she’s only in jean shorts.
“So, how’s your day been so far?” she asks casually.
“Eh, fine I guess. Not super interesting.”
She sighs emphatically, “Same.” She eats a french fry then says through the mouthful, “ Oh! Wait, in math it was kind of interesting. Er…it involves your sister…”
He furrows his eyebrows, vaguely concerned.
“Jane? What happened?” he asks.
Heather purses her lips and starts, “Okay, so our teacher was going over the homework problems, and she called on Jane to go through the process. Jane, like, didn’t know, and Mrs. Jackson kind of shamed her for not knowing the basics. Some kids were laughing and I felt bad for her, but she stayed quiet and we just moved on with the homework problems. It must’ve upset her a lot, though? I really don’t know, ‘cause later we were put in groups to do problems, and all of a sudden there’s this huge scraping sound and I turn around and I guess Jane shoved this girl’s desk at her? It was one of the girls who was laughing at her, so maybe that girl said something? I dunno, it was just so random and unexpected! She got detention for it.”
“Shit, she did?”
Heather nods.
“I mean, I’d be surprised if she didn’t, right? Even though that girl probably said something rude, but I totally wasn’t expecting your sister to just do something so violent! She’s always so quiet in class and when she’s waiting for you after practice.”
Will nods absently and wonders if he should wait for El outside of detention–he’s pretty sure she only knows what it is through The Breakfast Club, and that’s definitely not what real detention is like.
“Okay, don’t take this the wrong way,” Heather starts, “but does your sister have, like, problems ?”
Will frowns in offense.
“What? ”
“Wait, no, listen, I don’t mean it in a bad way necessarily. It’s just, like, see…I have a cousin who…he has, like–” she lowers her voice slightly, “ mental challenges, if you know what I mean? I don't think he's been diagnosed, and he looks normal, but he’s just kind of… slow. I’ve heard my aunt complain that she’s gone through so many tutors trying to get him to catch up with his peers. Sometimes he’ll scream and yell, so tutors will leave after a few sessions. So I’m just saying, like, I kinda get it, if your sister has issues like that? You know, ‘cause I like my cousin and all. One time, he spent an entire afternoon telling me about the history of the tomato because he went to Italy and got, like, super obsessed with it. It was cool to see him so excited, and it proves that obviously he’s able to learn when he likes something. So, like, I was just wondering if your sister was like that?”
Will has no idea how to answer this question. It’s true that you could call El “slow,” but that’s because she literally never went to school before. He’s seen her be violent, but always in the context of protecting them from interdimensional horrors. He assumes that her violent outburst in math was probably because that’s the only way she was taught to deal with problems. There’s no way he could explain all that though, least of all because it would put El’s anonymity in jeopardy.
He starts awkwardly, “Um…I– I don’t know if it’s like that. She hasn’t– we never– um, she had a difficult childhood? It was…bad. Really bad, and it affects her at school sometimes.”
Heather tilts her head in sympathy.
“Oh, that’s awful.”
Will nods silently. Heather seemingly reflects on this news and eats some more of her burger. Eventually she asks, “So, why did you guys move here, again? Was it for your sister?”
Will almost says yes, then remembers the cover story.
“N– no, it was for my mom’s job.”
“Oh, really? Mine too! Well, my dad’s job, actually. He's, like, pivoting–" she makes air quotes, "into the tech sector. You know, like, computers and stuff? The investment opportunities are apparently way better out here than in New York. I don't really get it, but California weather is super nice, so I'm not complaining. It reminds me of Hawaii."
"You've been to Hawaii?"
The question is out of his mouth before he can tone down the surprise in his voice.
Heather smiles widely and answers, "Yeah, it's practically my second home!" She huffs a laugh and adds, "Well, it literally is our second home, so we go every winter and alternate summers between there and my grandparents' place on the Cape."
Second home? What kind of rich person bull is this? He focuses on the second half of her sentence.
"The Cape? Like…where the Kennedy's live?"
"Yeah! It's soo picturesque in summer, you should totally go if you haven't already."
Will smiles and nods politely as if going to Cape Cod is something his family reasonably might do. He figures he won't mention that the first time he stepped foot in an ocean was a month ago.
He diverts the conversation to talk about school and asks her when she started doing track and field. They chat amicably until the warning bell rings and they part ways to go to their respective classes.
He’s trying not to let her obvious wealth color his feelings for her. She’s been nice to him, and it doesn’t seem like she has some ulterior motive by befriending him. She has no more control over her family’s financial situation as he does his own. However, there’s something vaguely nauseating about how casually she mentioned her family has a second home–he’s pretty sure not even the Harringtons have one of those . “New York rich” apparently out-classes “small-town Indiana rich” by a lot.
But…whatever! He’s not gonna fixate on it. He has more immediate concerns such as “where is El’s detention room” and “does his mom know how much El is struggling?”
If she doesn’t…should he tell her? There’s only so much Will knows how to help. After all, he’s only fourteen and just barely managing to keep it together himself. He might be the only person who understands El when it comes to suffering otherworldly phenomena, but he has no idea what living in a lab is like. Obviously, none of it was good, and it obviously affects how she interacts with other people. He knows this from what his friends have told him–like how apparently when they first found her, she had no self-consciousness about changing right in front of them–and from living with her–she doesn’t understand what topics are inappropriate for the dinner table, he always has to explain things directly–but this is the first time she’s ever had to truly integrate into larger society.
Technically, in Hawkins, she was introduced to society, but she was sheltered for the most part. And then his friends…well, they all know what it’s like to be different, so her weirdness wasn’t a problem. She also was the only person capable of defending them from the Upside Down, so that almost certainly gave her a free pass to act however oddly she wanted.
So, really, El hasn’t had to truly face the “real world” until now. And, unfortunately, she’s doing it in the harshest, most unforgiving environment Will knows: high school.
He doesn’t see El for the rest of the day, and just has to hope that she’s functioning and not hiding in a bathroom somewhere.
***
After school, he manages to catch Jonathan (and Argyle) at the car before they disappear to get high or whatever. He tells Jonathan that he's gonna wait for El outside of detention. Jonathan looks briefly concerned, but Will says he can handle it, and that’s apparently enough.
He has to go to the main office and ask the lady there where detention is. She gives him a funny look but he doesn’t feel like explaining himself, and she gives him the room number regardless.
He’s not sure if it’s weird to sit in the hallway outside the detention room, but by the time he gets there, most kids have cleared out and gone home. He peeks in the room real quick and sees El fidgeting in her chair. She doesn’t always do that, so she’s probably anxious. He’s never had detention, but he can guess that it feels a little bit like being trapped. And given her history…
He wishes he could signal that he’s there in some way; possibly if she knew she wasn’t alone it would help her get through the next forty-five minutes. But he can’t, so he doesn’t, and takes up a spot across the hall and pulls out his biology homework. He labels a diagram with the stages of photosynthesis, which doesn’t take much time at all. There’s still roughly half an hour left of detention, and his choices are math homework or reading Antigone…
He decides to doodle in his notebook instead. When he runs out of space in the margins, he pulls out his copy of The Hobbit that he decided to re-read recently.
Finally, it’s four o’clock and kids start filing out of detention. El appears, and her relief upon seeing him is clear as day.
He stands up and says, “C’mon, let’s go find Jonathan and get out of here."
He doesn't press her to talk about it, so they walk in silence down the hall.
At the doors, she asks, "How did you know I had detention?"
"Oh…a friend who's in your math class told me at lunch. Well, she's not really a friend. I know her from track."
“Oh.”
“You know…” Will starts, “My mom…she helped you a lot with school, but I’m sure if you asked she could help you, uh, socially. You know…if you’re having trouble…”
“No,” El states.
“Um… no , you don’t want to ask, or no, you’re not having trouble?”
El stares at the ground in front of them as they walk.
Eventually, El says quietly, “She will not understand…”
“Sh- she tries her best, though.”
El shakes her head.
“No,” she repeats.
“O-okay. Well…we’re always here if you need. Uh, maybe less so Jonathan, but me and Mom for sure.”
She flashes him a tight-lipped smile that doesn’t reach her eyes before staring at the ground again in silence.
He has El wait at the car and goes to find Jonathan at the stoner tree. It's still completely bizarre to see Jonathan doing drugs, but it's like Maria said, weed is probably the least harmful choice out of what's available. It's still his opinion that it smells awful. If he had to choose a preferable smell, he'd choose cigarettes every time. He wonders if Mom is ever gonna catch on to Jonathan's new "hobby."
***
It turns out he shares his lunch period with Heather three days out of the week. She joins him a couple times and they get to know more about each other. She likes to talk, and he's happy to listen if it means he doesn't need to divulge too much about his own background.
Inevitably they share sibling stories. She’s the third of four siblings, which sounds chaotic to Will, but Heather says that ever since her two older siblings went to college it’s been super quiet.
“You have an older brother, right? Does he have plans to go to college?” she asks.
Will realizes he has no idea what Jonathan’s current college plans look like–they’ve grown distant the past few months. He falls back on what he knows.
“He’s really into photography–I think that’s what he wants to major in. And he’s always wanted to go to NYU!”
“Oh…” she nods slowly.
When that’s all she says, he frowns slightly.
“What? What’s that face for?”
“Nothing!” she says defensively, “It’s just…” Will watches an internal debate play over her face. Eventually, she says, “Is he…he’s not, like, a queer, is he?”
She lowers her voice on the word “queer” but Will struggles not to flinch anyway. He masks the flinch by frowning judgmentally.
She stutters, “I– I don’t mean that– like, I’m just asking! ‘Cause, you know, it’s art and New York, so... ” s he trails off and raises an eyebrow meaningfully. Then she adds, "And trust me, I'm from New York City, I know what it's like."
“No!” he denies emphatically, “He’s not– he’s not like that. He has a girlfriend!”
Heather merely shrugs dramatically with a skeptical expression.
Will emphasizes, “No, he’s definitely not! He’s way too into Nancy to be anything but straight.”
Unfortunately, Will knows all too well what obnoxious straight couples look like.
“Okay, okay, I was just checking…”
“Checking? Why?”
She has the decency to look mildly embarrassed when she answers, “I– I dunno! It’s just…you're from Indiana, so I thought maybe you might not know…certain things...”
Will frowns, offended once again.
“It’s not the fucking moon. We know what queer is.”
He is, in fact, intimately aware of the definition.
“Okay, sorry!” She raises her hands innocently.
Will wants to move on from this topic. He asks, “What about your siblings?”
“Huh?”
“Where do your siblings go to school?”
“Oh! Well, my sister is at Yale Law, and my brother just started at Harvard Business School this fall. Ugh, you wouldn’t believe the drama surrounding my sister getting another degree.”
Will raises his eyebrows in anticipation of the story.
Heather puts her hands out in front of her dramatically and starts, "Okay, so of course it was expected that she goes to college, right? 'Cause my mom also went, and basically my mom expected Emily to follow in her footsteps, right? But, my mom got what she jokes is her M-R-S degree."
Will frowns in confusion and Heather heavily rolls her eyes.
"It's M-R-S, like Mrs.? It's stupid, but it's like...she went to college, but her actual goal was to find a husband. 'Cause that's what her mom expected from her."
At Will's bewildered expression, Heather says, "I know, it's kinda dumb, but it's like a tradition in our family? I dunno. Anyway, that's what Mom expected Emily to do, 'cause tradition…and I guess Mom wants grandkids, I dunno. But Emily's really smart, and she wants to have a real career, so she announced that she wants to go to law school–she wants to be, like, the next Sandra Day O'Connor or whatever. And Mom was so against it–she was all, 'How are you gonna raise kids and be a lawyer at the same time?' and 'No man will want to marry you if you're making more money than him!' Blah blah blah. Tell me," she postures towards him, "You're a guy. If your girlfriend made more money than you, how would you act? Would it, like, stop you from marrying her?"
Will tries really hard to look normal and not grossed out imagining himself with a girlfriend.
He thinks for a second, then says, "Um, I mean…what if I didn't wanna marry her?"
She rolls her eyes.
"Tch, play along! In this hypothetical, she's 'the one,' but she makes more than you. Would that hurt your feelings?"
"What? No! I mean…that's good, isn't it? To bring in more money?"
She sighs dramatically.
"Yeah, but it's 'the man's' job, right?" she says sarcastically.
Will squints–it sounds similar to what he'd hear his dad and his dad's friends say when they played poker at the house.
He drops his gaze and says, "I guess I'm just… my Mom's always worked, so I'm used to the idea of a woman earning money for the household. If I had, uh…if I had a…girlfriend, and she had a high-paying job, I think I would be…proud of her, I guess."
Heather sighs dramatically again.
"Ugh, I need to make you meet my mom and be like, 'See! Not all guys think so backward!' "
Will chuckles politely, hoping she's being funny and not serious about getting Will to meet her mom. If he’s being honest, he’s not super keen on getting to know anyone here well enough to meet their parents.
He’s kinda hoping this move to California is more temporary rather than permanent. Of course, he likes not being haunted by the ghosts of bullies past, or literally haunted by supernatural beings, but his entire life was in Hawkins. His best friends are there. Mike is there. He misses them all the time. He doesn’t not want to make new friends, but he doesn’t wanna become someone totally different, either. The track and field thing is just him trying something new, like Lucas is doing with basketball!
He sighs internally–growing up sucks. Every day presents a new challenge that he doesn't want to face: loneliness, homework, dating, college, money. Sometimes he, too, wants to shove desks and scream and cry. His one line of defense against it all is his art-he's so grateful his mom always encouraged him to draw and create. He doesn't know where he'd be without it.