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As difficult as it may have been to believe, Will Byers’ life, and the lives of just about everyone in Hawkins, Indiana, had gone back to sort-of normal following Dustin Henderson’s miraculous return from the dead.
Sure, it’d been the talk of the town for a few weeks. After all, everyone had heard about the body recovered from the Hawkins Quarry. The body which the coroner’s office had oh-so-confidently reported as being Dustin’s, before rescinding the statement only days later. But the folks at the lab had come up with some story about the body being found on state land, so state officials had taken over the autopsy without consulting the police and made a snap judgement. To anyone who didn’t know better, it was an entirely believable tale.
But Dustin wasn’t the only person in Will’s life who’d made a return to the land of the living. He’d found that out a few days after Dustin’s rescue, when El had called the rest of the Party over to her house to inform them that Max was safe. Will had wondered how that was so, but El had lost him the second she started talking about alternate-dimension physics and gateways and geography. The important thing was that Max was alive, she wasn’t hurt, and that she was going to be staying with El and Hopper until further notice.
Until everything dies down, El had told them over mugs of hot chocolate. When it’s safe for her to go outside again.
That had been almost a year ago.
It was October now, creeping up on the one-year anniversary of Dustin’s mysterious disappearance. And yet, whenever El or Max or any of the kids asked for updates, the Chief would just shake his head and grunt something about the coast not being clear yet. Not that it was any concern to the Party at the moment. They had bigger things to worry about. Namely- arcade games.
“Holy shit.”
Will blinked, rubbing his eyes to make sure he wasn’t seeing things. Nope. There it was, plain as day and clear for all the world to see- someone had beaten Michael Wheeler’s high score in Space Invaders.
This revelation was a bitter pill to swallow for Mike, who was currently on some tangent about exploits and cheating. El, the only member of the Party willing to listen to him right now, was nodding along and saying “mmm-hmm” at the right moments, even though the look on her face clearly gave away that she was only paying attention to him so she’d have something to gossip with Max about later.
“It’s insane!” Mike sputters, his ears turning red in the way that only ever happens when he’s either very angry or very embarrassed. Judging by the look on his face right now, it’s definitely the former. “This is bullshit!”
“Mike-“ El sighs, but Mike cuts her off, too invested in his ranting.
“I mean, who even is….” Mike leans in to inspect the screen, reading the name of the highest scoring player aloud. “Who even is ‘SKYWLKR’ anyways?”
“I don’t know,” Dustin blurts out, jogging up to join the group. “But whoever they are, they’re wicked good at arcade games. They’re number one on every machine.”
“Every machine?” El’s widen. “Overnight?”
“Uh-huh.” Dustin nods.
“Shit, I bet they’d be bitchin’ at D&D.” El turns to face her friends with a grin.
Mike’s expression sours. “We are not letting this cheater into our party, El.”
El rolls her eyes. “You don’t even know they cheated, Mike.”
“Obviously they did, El!” Mike shoots back. “We’ve been at this arcade for months now, and we haven’t even seen this guy on the board! Now, all of the sudden, he’s number one?”
“Wait, how do you know it’s a guy?” El raises an eyebrow. “Do you not think a girl could be better than you?”
“I didn’t even say that-“
“Oh my God, Mike, you are so sexist-”
Dustin rolls his eyes as Mike and El continue to bicker, turning to Will with an exasperated stare. “You wanna go play something else?”
“Like what?” Will asks, keeping one eye trained on El and Mike. What can he say? It’s kind of entertaining to watch them argue like this.
“Like…” Dustin grins slowly. “Mortal Kombat?”
Will returns Dustin’s smirk. “What are the conditions?”
“Loser has to buy the winner a Coke?”
“You’re on.”
“Race ya!” Dustin shouts, then darts off like a rocket before Will can even process what he’s said.
“Hey, wait up!” Will protests, taking off running after his friend. “That wasn’t part of the deal!”
As it turns out, running in a crowded place is kind of a recipe for disaster. Will’s so caught up in trying to catch up with Dustin, he doesn’t even notice the boy stepping in his way until it’s too late. With nothing to slow or stop them, it’s a direct impact- both boys go tumbling to the ground, quarters falling from the other boy’s hand and spilling across the linoleum floor of the arcade.
“I’m sorry!” Will yelps, face heating up as he scrambles to help the other boy retrieve his lost change. “I’m so, so sorry, oh my god…”
He continues to apologize profusely, even as the other boy starts talking over him in reassurance. “No, no, man, you’re good. I really should’ve been watching where I was going, anyways.”
“No, it’s my fault.” Will shakes his head. “I shouldn’t have been running-“
Will’s next words get caught in his throat. Not because the boy says something, but because this is the first time Will’s able to actually get a good look at him, and oh.
Oh, he’s cute.
He’s about Will’s age, maybe a little older, with dark skin and curly black hair and eyes that positively shine. There’s a grin on his face, and Will is suddenly acutely aware of the blush that’s crept up onto his cheeks. He hopes that the other boy attributes it to embarrassment.
“Hi.” The boy gives a little wave, and Will somehow manages to muster up a response.
“Hey.”
“I’m Lucas.” The boy says, offering out his hand. Will takes it, and he hopes the smile he gives doesn’t seem too nervous.
“Will Byers.”
Lucas laughs, but not in a mean way. “Nice to meet you, Will Byers.”
“Are you new here?” Will asks. “I, uh, I haven’t seen you around before.”
“Yeah.” Lucas nods, an annoyed sort of expression coming across his face. “Just moved here last week. We used to live in Atlanta, but then my stepdad got some fancy new job at the newspaper here, so we had to move. Kinda blows.” Lucas seems to realize the implications of his words as soon as he says them, wincing. “No offense.”
“None taken.” Will says. “It is pretty boring here.”
“I don’t know…” Lucas shrugs, flipping one of his quarters in the air. “The arcade’s pretty nice. Hey, wanna play a game? I’ve still got some money left.”
“I-“ Will started to say yes, but then he remembered Dustin, and a sigh escaped his mouth. “I promised my friend I’d play with him. Maybe in a bit?”
“Sure!” Lucas nods. “If my stupid stepsister doesn’t come back before then. But fair warning- I’m kind of awesome at these games. See you around, Will Byers.”
Lucas gives another wave goodbye (which Will eagerly returns) before turning and disappearing into the crowd of kids, leaving Will with butterflies in his stomach and a lingering warmth in his chest.
“Byers!” Will’s snapped out of his trance by the sound of Dustin calling his name from the Mortal Kombat machine. Remembering their promise, Will jogs over to join his friend, who’s impatiently tapping the console.
“What took you so long, man?” Dustin asks as Will approaches the machine.
“I ran into someone.” Will explains. “Like, literally.”
“Oh.” Dustin pauses a moment, then looks over at Will. “Was she cute?”
The comment catches Will off-guard. “What?”
“You’re blushing like crazy, dude.” Dustin gestures to Will, a smirk spreading across his face. “Come on, spill!”
“It wasn’t-“ Will feels his face heating up even more. “It wasn’t a girl.”
Dustin blinks. Now, it’s his turn to be confused. “What?”
“It was a boy.” Will explains.
“Oh.” Dustin pauses again, then looks back up at Will. “Was he cute?”
Will hesitates, then shyly says, “Yeah.”
“Cool.” Dustin nods. After another moment of silence, he asks, “Who do you wanna be?”
“Liu Kang.” Will says, grinning.
“What?” Dustin sputters. “No, I want to be Liu Kang!”
“Too late.” Will smirks. “I already called it.”
Dustin groans, but concedes the argument. “Fine. I’ll be Scorpion.”
They play one round, which Will wins, leading to Dustin insisting that they adjust their bet to best two out of three. Will obliges, and Dustin wins the next game. They’re halfway through the deciding match when they get interrupted by Mike and El, who run up to the machine shouting like madmen.
“We found out who he is!” El says breathlessly, nearly crashing into Dustin.
“What?” Dustin whips his head around, allowing Will to get a few good hits in on his character. “Who?”
“We found out who SKYWLKR is!” Mike says, getting the attention of both Dustin and Will.
“Who is it?” Will asks, because he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t just as curious as the rest of them.
“Over there.” El points to the other side of the arcade, where a strangely familiar boy is absolutely destroying Dig Dug. But not just any boy. Lucas.
Oh, shit.