Chapter Text
6:00am
The best thing about being back in Hawkins, Jonathan thought, was not having to help his mom get Will and El ready for school. Most days, that gave him three extra, blissful hours of sleep. Not today. Today was the first day the school reopened after the “earthquake”, and Will had to set an alarm. Usually, Jonathan could sleep through alarm clocks, but he could not sleep through his brother knocking one to the ground. “Jesus, Will. Could you be any louder?”
“Sorry, it scared me.” Will’s voice sounded so small that Jonathan decided to get up.
“It’s ok, Will. How about next time we try having the clock on my side of the room?” Crossing over, Jonathan picked up the clock and inspected the damage. “Nothing Hop can’t fix. Come on, let’s get breakfast.”
“I’m sorry for waking you,” Will said guiltily. After he’d gotten lost in the Upside Down, his mother had insisted on waking him up herself every morning. Now that he shared a room with Jonathan, she wasn’t as worried, but the sound of the alarm had reminded him of the sounds of the medical machines doctors used, and he’d freaked out. “Won’t moving the clock to your side of the room wake you up?”
“It’s alright, Will. I need to get up to drive you and El to school anyway, might as well be up for breakfast.” Not that he’d eat with Will and El. Jonathan had no desire to eat Eggos every morning, and if Hopper wasn’t going into the station early, that’s all there was. He figured if he woke up earlier he could probably change that too.
Fifteen minutes later, the three of them were out the door. Though Will could bike to school from where their old house was, Hopper's cabin was way out of biking range, and that left Jonathan to drive the kids until they were old enough to drive themselves. Just two more long years. School was being pushed back into the summer to make up for the lost days, but it was picking up right where it had left off. Will had even gotten to reuse his hero day project, which he was happier about than he should have been, given how badly the project had went over last time he’d used it.
When they pulled up to school, Mike, Lucas, Max, and Dustin were already waiting for them. Max and her mom had moved in with Dustin’s family after the “earthquake” destroyed the trailer park, so it wasn’t really all that surprising to see her on time. Nevertheless, Will did a double-take before he remembered that Max didn’t need to count on her shitty brother to give her rides any more.
“See you later, Jonathan,” Will said, climbing out of the car.
“See you later,” El repeated.
“Yeah,” Jonathan confirmed. “Don’t forget to say ‘hi’ to Nancy for me.”
“Ew,” Mike said. “You just saw my sister yesterday. You really need us to say ‘hi’ for you?” He turned to El. “Hi, El, I missed you.” He gave her a quick kiss.
“That’s not, like, hypocritical, or anything,” Dustin said, rolling his eyes.
“Whatever. Let’s just go inside.” Mike pushed through the crowd into the school building.
*
10:21am
Will and El walked into history, trying not to make eye contact with everyone staring at them. Even though Will had missed his friends when he was in Cali, he had not missed the stares. What made it even worse was that the curriculum in California had propelled Will and El a grade level ahead of their friends in Hawkins, so now, somehow, they were finishing out sophomore year. He wished that he had more classes with Mike, Dustin, and Lucas; all of them had outside friends who could keep the eyes off him. All his classes were with El though, so at least he felt some support.
Mrs Click stood at the front of the classroom, directing everyone to seats. She pointed Will and El to two new seats in the back of the room.
“I don’t want to present today,” El muttered to him.
“Neither do I.” Looking around, Will saw posters about Winston Churchill, FDR, Harry Truman, and even one about Hitler. He hoped the last one was negative. No one in the class had a poster about a figure like Turing.
Just before the bell rang, another new kid waltzed into the class and back to the seat that Mrs Click pointed to. “Welcome back, class. We have three new students today, and before we present, they need to introduce themselves. Let’s start in the back.” Mrs Click nodded to Will.
“Um, hi,” he said, standing up. “I'm Will Byers, and I’m a, um, tenth grader.”
“Zombie boy,” he heard someone snicker as he sat down. Immediately, he felt his face light up red with embarrassment, and he stared down at the desk to hide it. El did her introduction next, but Will was too busy trying to calm himself to really register it. What he did register was the pale hand suddenly planted on his desk. Following it up, he saw a leather-clad arm giving way to denim, then the face of the new kid.
“My name’s Sam Kelly. I just moved here from Boston, and I promise that I’m not going to like me being here any more than you are.” With a grin, the new kid collapsed back into his seat and turned around to Will. “Zombie boy, huh? Sounds interesting.”
Will opened his mouth to say something, but Mrs Click cut him off.
“Mr. Kelly, thank you for volunteering to present first.”
“I wasn’t aware that I did, but I don’t mind.” He stood up, grabbing his rolled-up poster. As he made his way to the front of the classroom, Will took in the decals on the back of his second jacket, mostly band names in red spiky letters. Will was surprised to notice David Bowie mixed into all the obscure names he saw. Not even a band, just the name.
“Bitchin’.” He heard El whisper.
“Yeah.”
“Does an infamous failure to join the British army count as a World War Two figure? I think so.” With that, Sam unrolled his poster. “Quentin Crisp. The man’s kind of a bitch, I’m not going to lie.” Will noticed the boy’s eyes scan his poster, as if wondering why he’d made the decision to present on this particular person.
“Mr. Kelly!” Mrs Click’s shrill voice cut through Sam’s thoughts.
“What, do you not curse in Hawkins? I’ll have to re-write some book reports for Mrs Turner then. Anyway, Quentin Crisp…”
About halfway through Sam’s presentation, Will realized that his mouth was hanging open. Sam seemed to have taken the topic and used it to create a broader commentary on what would exclude you from British military service in WWII. It was definitely bold that the topic that he was focusing on was homosexuality, and Will figured that his mouth may have fallen open about the time that the boy had said “He also failed to join up with the British military on the grounds that he was an absolute queer.”
After the presentation, the class was all silent. “I get the feeling I might have gone a little too far.” Sam’s mouth was still fixed in a joking grin. “Did I break a rule, or?”
“No…no.” Mrs Click was just as shocked as the rest of the class.
“Good. Do you want to keep the poster for grading?”
“Yes–yes Mr. Kelly I do.” As Sam dropped the poster off on her desk, Mrs Click’s eyes remained fixed on him. He began sauntering back to his desk, unfazed by all the stares.
Halfway back, Mrs Click had finally been distracted, and the class noticed. A boy stuck his leg to trip Sam, muttering, “Stupid freak,” but Sam was unfazed. When the boy doubled over in pain, everyone noticed the bootprint on his faded jeans.
“Oh, sorry. Maybe you shouldn’t put your leg in the middle of the aisle.” His voice was so steady, almost teasing, that Will wondered if he should be afraid of this new kid. Before he could make a solid decision, Mrs Click called him up to present.
–
“So, Alan Turing?” Sam was leaning against the locker beside Will's before the next period, chewing on a toothpick. “You like computers?”
“Uh, yeah.” Will reached around to get to his locker. He was somewhat uncomfortable with just how close Sam was standing to him, and it must have shown on his face.
“Sorry.” Sam moved back, letting Will get into the locker. “I don’t mean to freak you out. See you later.”
And see him later he did. When Will walked into lunch, there was Sam, sitting comfortably at one end of what Mike had described as “the Hellfire table”.
“Will! Hi!” Mike jogged over to catch up with him, balancing an extra chocolate pudding on his tray. “I gave Lucas and Dustin some money to buy us chips, they’ll be over here soon.” He looked around. “Where’s El?”
“She’s meeting up with Max. Are there enough seats at the table?”
“There should be…” Mike trailed off, having noticed Sam. “Who’s that?” Without waiting for an answer, Mike began walking angrily towards the table, forcing Will to jog to keep up.
“Mike!” Gareth greeted him with a smile.
“Yeah, hi Gareth. Who’s this?” Mike pointed an accusatory finger at Sam.
“New member.” Gareth shrugged.
“You can’t just bring new members in! What about Eddie?”
“Eddie’s not here,” Gareth shot back. “Thanks for bringing that up Wheeler.”
“Woah,” Sam cut in. “What’s the issue exactly? Who’s Eddie?”
“The head of Hellfire,” Mike spat. “He died. Tragically.”
“Well, so did my brother, but that didn’t stop me from taking his motorcycle,” Sam chuckled, clearly thinking Mike was joking. When Mike continued to glare, Sam stopped laughing. “Whatever. I’ll just leave if it’s such a big deal that I’m here.”
“No, stay. We’ll just put it to a vote when the other members get here. I don’t see why I can’t invite new people when Wheeler clearly has.” Gareth glared at Will, making him shift in his spot.
“Sit, Will,” Mike said, slamming his tray down. Will sat quickly, worrying about accidentally causing a rift in the tight-knit group he’d heard so much about.
“Hi, guys!” Dustin’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts. “New guy? Cool!” He put down his tray next to Mike, leaving space on the other side of him for Lucas to sit as well.
“No, not cool,” Mike sulked.
“Why not? He fits in great! Better than Lucas.” Dustin shot a look at Lucas in his basketball uniform.
“Just because I’m three dimensional doesn’t mean I don’t fit in, Dustin. Steve played ball too, and you’ve been trying to get him to play D&D for years.”
“Boys, boys, do you ever stop fighting?” Max interrupted. “Where do we sit?”
“There’s seats over here.” Gareth gestured to two empty seats next to Sam. “Just leave the head seat empty.”
“Got it.” Max put her lunch down next to Sam and motioned for El to sit next to her.
“Aren’t you the girl who kept turning down Henderson when he asked you to play?” Jeff snorted.
“I decided I’d try it out,” she shrugged. “El convinced me.” El gave a small smile.
“Mike says it’s fun. He talked about it all the time in his letters.”
“Whatever,” Max leaned back. “So how does this work?”
“Usually we’d just talk about the game at lunch,” Gareth explained. “But apparently we have some official business we have to do today. Voting on new members because Wheeler here doesn’t like one of you.” Gareth shot a look at Sam.
“Oh, yeah, you are new here.” Max laughed a little. “I didn’t even realize at first. Don’t worry, Mike’s just like that. He hated me when I first tried to join his old party too.”
“Glad it’s not just me,” Sam grinned.
“No, he’s threatened by change.”
“I am not!” Mike retorted.
“Children!” Gareth shouted. “Yelling isn’t my thing, but like it or not I am second in command and you listen to me now.” After no one argued, Gareth sighed. “Ok. All in favor of red over here?”
After going through each prospective new member, Sam was the only person without a unanimous acceptance vote. Mike had kept his arms crossed, glaring at Will and El when they’d raised their hands in favor. He didn’t speak to either of them for the rest of lunch, and all he said to Dustin and Lucas was a dark, “I’m not surprised.” Will tried to talk to him after lunch was over, but Mike avoided him for the rest of the day, going as far as to bike home before he even made it out of the building.
“See ya, Will,” Dustin called out, waving as he began to bike away. “Gotta go call Suzie!”
“Bye, Dustin!” Will called back. From the corner of his eye, he saw Steve’s car pull into the lot. For a second he wondered if he should say hi, but Robin climbed into the passenger’s side and Steve sped off. Lucas had basketball practice, and El and Max had left in Dustin’s mom’s car a few minutes earlier to go shopping, which left Will to wait for his brother alone.
The school lot was clearing out quickly, students streaming onto the buses or into cars, leaving Will to scan for danger in anyone left waiting around. Most of them were clumped in little groups, faces obscured in shadows, but across the lot he saw the faces he was worried about the most–the boys who’d picked on him in middle school. He saw among them the same kid who’d stuck his leg out to trip Sam earlier in the day. Will tried to back into the shadows of the school, but Troy’s eyes caught his own and he knew he’d been seen.
Troy’s face changed expressions quickly however, going from the look of a predator who’d just spotted his prey to disappointment. Troy broke eye contact, shaking his head at the rest of his group. Looking behind him, Will saw the principal staring out through the window, keeping an eye out for fights and drug deals. When the principal glanced away, however, Troy glared over at Will again.
You’re dead. He mouthed, laughing with the rest of his friends. The group began to move towards Will, but Jonathan’s car pulled up, blocking them from view. “Sorry I’m late,” he said. “More traffic than I was expecting with all the construction.” He noticed Will’s absent expression. “You okay?”
“Yeah, sorry. I just saw Troy across the way. It’s nothing.”
“That prick. If he gives you more trouble just let me know okay?”
“What would you do?”
“Probably tell his mom in all honesty,” Jonathan smiled as he unlatched the door. “Or Hop. Depends on what he did.” Will smiled, thinking about how scary Hopper could be. “You ready to go home?”
“Yeah.”
“No school tomorrow, huh?” Jonathan glanced over at Will.
“Yeah, apparently they actually need another day to get the AC running.”
“Got it.”