Chapter Text
“Son of a bitch,” Dustin muttered to the rest of the party. “Do I really have to?”
El, now officially Jane Hopper, was starting school as a freshman at Hawkins High School. Hopper’s old high school football buddy, now Hawkins High principal Mark Leach, had been carefully crafting Jane’s schedule, selecting only the best teachers, and informing them all of Jane’s difficult upbringing. After intensive tutoring, Jane was ready but still needed some help with her speech, especially conversational skills and confidence around strangers. Principal Leach discussed this with Mrs. Sloane, the district speech therapist, who, after meeting with Jane, recommended, in addition to weekly sessions with her, that Jane should enroll in choir. Jane loved music and singing, and choir was a good way to meet other students in a more relaxed classroom setting. Since the party had all agreed that at least one of them needed to be in each of her classes, Jane needed one of the party to join her. After looking through their schedules, Dustin was the only one available.
“I mean, I am already bullied enough for being a nerd, but a singing nerd? That’s not helping at all.”
The rest of the party all replied as one, “a party member requires assistance, and it is our duty to provide that assistance.” They had been waiting forever to use one of Dustin’s favorite quotes against him. It was absolutely worth it. Dustin flipped them all off but grumbled, “OK, OK, I’ll do it.”
Dustin didn’t want the party to know he was actually a little pleased that he would be joining the choir. He would pretty much do anything to help Jane. All of the party loved her, just not quite as much as Mike did. She was a superhero, but more importantly, she was a friend, who was kind and generous. In addition, he really did like singing. He often entertained his mother by singing along to her favorite Frank Sinatra albums while she made dinner.
Of course none of party knew this. Friends don’t lie, but friends don’t have to tell each other everything.