Chapter Text
Will Byers had never even wanted to live anywhere but Hawkins anyways.
Even after he had gotten stuck in the Upside-Down and was nearly killed over and over again, he had always imagined living the rest of his life in Hawkins. Everything he imagined his future to be, all of his friends, everything he knew was in Hawkins. But moving across the country did have one promise, maybe, just maybe, the torment of other kids at school would go away, along with the threat of an alternate dimension destroying the world. And it did, at least for him.
It was El’s first time in any social setting with people she didn’t know, let alone in a public school, and Lenora was absolutely not the best place for someone who was just getting adjusted to regular human living. Their classmates would never let the poor girl have a break, blowing spitballs and tripping her daily. She had almost always left school with red puffy eyes and snot dripping down her nose.
If Will were a worse person, he would advise El to skip class to avoid that, actually, he’d considered telling her that once, and had instantly shut that idea down.
What the actual hell, Will? Why would you ever even think to tell her to do that?
He was lucky [if you would like to use that word, Will wouldn’t] enough to be completely ignored by Angela and her goons, and only had to witness the torture of his new step-sister.
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Paying attention in class is something that should’ve been easier for Will in Lenora, with no more giggling behind him and notes that say zombie boy , queer , faggot , or something similar being passed to him, but the only things he could think of were Mike and the rest of his life he left behind at Hawkins, sure, he did not miss the bullying, but he did miss his friends, having sleepovers and movie nights, and the stares that him and Mike shared after everyone fell asleep that he prayed meant something, even though they absolutely didn’t. Actually, even before he moved, they haven’t had a night like that since…
Since around the time Will got trapped in the upside down, actually.
They had had something similar the night he moved, but still, they wouldn’t have had it if Will wasn’t leaving seemingly permanently, and it was nothing like the nights they used to have. It seemed like they were forcing themselves to pay attention to him, as if they had gotten bored of him three years ago and were just pretending that they still liked him.
He must’ve been clearly drifting into space, as the teacher had taken note,
“Will, are you alright?” Her grating, whiny, slightly raspy voice was loud, drawing attention to him.
While he didn’t like getting ignored, this was much, much worse. “uhm, I need-I need to go to the bathroom, may-may I?” He had this stupid habit of repeating phrases and words when he was getting uncomfortable or nervous,
What the fuck, Will?
“Well, sure sugar” all of the teachers had collectively agreed to call him sugar and El sweetheart, while Will didn’t really mind it, actually, he kind of liked it, but, it had seemed to make El uncomfortable, and she had been too shy to alert the teachers about it, and the teachers hadn’t acknowledged it.
He pushed his chair away from his desk and lifted himself away from it, not bothering to push it back in when he got up and left.
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The men’s bathroom was almost at the end of the hallway, making it a little bit of a trip to get there, and when he opened the door, he was hit with an extremely familiar and unpleasant smell.
Cigarettes.
Someone had definitely been smoking in the bathroom, it must’ve either been recent [likely, given the amount of smoke that hadn’t dissipated yet] or the person who was smoking had smoked a lot [also equally as likely, it was probably both] Will wheezed after taking a small breath in, cringing from the bad memories that had come with the scent, his mother used to chainsmoke before her and Lonnie had separated, it had stuck to the walls and ceiling of his old house and the scent had seeped into almost everything they owned. He stumbled back, realizing he hadn’t been breathing for a bit, inhaling, with another cough. He’d decided that he should just wash his hands and go back to class.
“Will Byers?” Oh shit. He had paused for a bit over the trash can, with what looked like half a pack of cigarettes sitting at the bottom.
He assumed that his position, along with the smell of the bathroom, would make it look like he was the one smoking. And from the teacher's reaction, he was right. There was something resembling shock on his face, as if he couldn’t believe the Will Byers was smoking. Because he wasn’t.
“I’m going to have to alert your mother.” Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. “It-It wasn’t me! I promise… it wasn’t. Wasn’t.” She looked unconvinced. Fuck. He’s fucked. What is he even supposed to do? “Come with me.” Come with him, he supposed. He walked out of the bathroom, Will following anxiously behind him.
He stopped at history, the class El was in, and opened the door.
“Jane Hopper?”
Will and El walked together, side by side as they always did. El looked more anxious than Will did, and she wasn’t even the one that had gotten caught ‘smoking’
“Why… why are we going… wherever we’re going?” She craned her neck over to look at him, they had a similar unreadable expression, that both of them knew as a mix of sadness and a touch of anger. “They think they caught me smoking a- smoking a cigarette.” He lowered his tone, El’s face twisted in confusion. “Cigarette? What's a cigarette?”
Does she not know what a cigarette is? Given the way she was raised, it’s not all that surprising, actually.
“You know those plants Johnathon smokes with Argyle?” She nodded.
“The smelly ones.” El let out a small giggle reminding herself of them.
“It’s like that, but it doesn't make you act different and they aren’t as smelly.” She nodded again, and by the time their near silent conversation ended, they were at the office.
Because Johnathon and Argyle were still in class, and the first person the school had down as a contact was Joyce, she had to pick them up.
And when she arrived to pick them up, she hadn’t believed that Will, her boy, her innocent son would have ever smoked [which she was right about] and had nearly suffocated him with questions when they had got in her car, most of which could be answered with ‘no’
“Do you know who was actually smoking?”
“No.”
“Well, did you see anyone leave?”
“No.”
“Was there anyone else in there with you?”
“No.”
When Joyce had stopped interrogating Will about the cigarettes, she had asked if they wanted to go to Rink-o-Mania, just to eat and maybe skate, to which they had both said yes.
When they had pulled into the parking lot, Will and El got out first, followed by their mother.
When they walked in, they saw a dark haired boy, who must’ve been no older than Will, resting his elbows on the table holding a cigarette.
“ Well, I think we found out who was actually smoking in the bathroom. ”