Chapter Text
Jenn
Today was Tuesday. A dull, normal Tuesday. There was nothing special about it, nothing endearing or all that interesting. Just another day, and now that Jenn thinks about it; Tuesday has a lot in common with Carl. She doesn’t think it to be cruel or anything – it's just that he’s really not all that special. Sure, he’s tall, plays basketball and wears those too tight jeans that make it really hard not to stare, but when he talks it’s never to offer anything intelligent to the conversation and it’s usually not very funny either. Not to mention how when he chews it becomes the entire cafeteria’s business, or the way he never washes his jersey ‘in case it washes away the good luck’.
All this to say, it’s a mystery to Jenn why as Carl Fuller approaches her lunch table, her friends turn into giggling fools. Looking around at them bewildered, Jenn notices Kelly adjusting her ponytail and doesn’t miss Helen pulling down her shirt ever so slightly. Jenn drops her jaw.
“Helen!” she hisses, scandalized.
She’s easily ignored when Carl slinks into the seat in front of her and flashes a toothy smile.
“Ladies” he grins.
That’s all it takes for another bout of giggling.
“Carl” Jenn speaks for the group “Can we help you with something?”.
“Yeah” he nods, leaning in “I was wondering if you girls were gonna come to practice tonight?”
“Well actually-”
“Yes!” Helen interrupts.
“Definitely” Kelly agrees “We’ll be there”.
“Rad” Carl says, getting up to leave and still sporting that grin “I’ll see you girls later then”.
He spares Jenn a wink before turning to go and Kelly and Helen shriek once he’s out of ear shot.
“Oh my god!” Helen cries “Jennifer you lucky bitch! He’s totally into you”.
“Eugh” Jennifer makes a face.
The other two girls look to each other, perplexed.
“What do you mean ‘eugh’” Helen repeats.
“Jenn that was Carl friggin Fuller” Kelly says in disbelief.
“I’m aware” She says plainly.
“What you’re not interested?” Kelly pushes.
“He just said ‘rad’” Jenn defends.
“So?”
“So he’s an idiot”
The two girls groan and Kelly even holds her head in her hands.
“Jenn you’re so picky!” she laments.
“Wha- I am not!”
“Yes you are” Helen jumps in “You always find something wrong with any guy that’s interested in you”.
Jenn sinks further down in her seat, frowning. That’s not true – she's liked guys before, and she says as much.
“That’s not true”
“Whatever Jenn” Kelly rolls her eyes “I can’t name one guy you’ve not turned down”.
“That’s not-” she cuts herself off with a huff when even her mind comes up blank.
So that’s what occupies her mind as she continues through the rest of this dull Tuesday. It’s stupid really! Of course she’s liked boys before. She knows for a fact that she's always enjoyed their attention, at least a little. When she’s partnered with a boy for class she’ll subconsciously start to wear a bit more perfume or change up her hairstyle every few days. It’s just that...well if they actually ask her out she never really feels the need to go, you know? And look if she thinks that every single girl’s crush – Carl Fuller, is a little lackluster then that’s her prerogative! Why is this even an issue? Jenn just needed to get Kelly and Helen’s words and Carl stupid Fuller out of her head. There were more important things to think about. Like where the hell is her new class?
Jenn had fluttered her eyes at a few admin ladies and then – reluctantly, put on the tears so she could get out of music class and transfer to art. Music’s great and she was excited to take it, but she soon realized she likes when she plays it on her Walkman, not when she has to know what a ‘clef’ is. So, art it is! Besides, Kelly took art last year and told her it was an easy pass because everything is “subjective” so you can’t technically fail.
Now where is this damn class? Room A33...Room A35...Room A36. There’s no way. Did they actually just skip over A34? That would be just her luck. Just when Jenn turns, ready to give up and go to the office ladies again she bumps right into a solid body. Ouch! The boy who is holding about ten empty glasses, for some unknown reason, fumbles to hold on to them. Jenn quickly reaches out a hand and grabs a fallen one just before it hits the floor.
“Sorry” she breathes sheepishly “um, here let me take some of those”
“Oh - no you don’t have to” the boy says quickly, but Jenn’s already grabbing the glasses on top “thanks”.
“No problem”.
When the boy finally looks up from his bundle of glasses, Jenn realises who she’s talking to. Slightly ruffled brown hair, hazel eyes and a kind smile she remembers from the sandbox, all those years ago. A-ha! She celebrates internally – take that Kelly and Helen, I have liked a boy and his name is William Byers. Granted she was younger then and never did anything about it before he moved away, but it counts!
“Where are you heading with these?” she smiles kindly.
“Art” he supplies “I had to wash these for Ms. Solace”.
“Oh! That’s perfect, I’m trying to find that class and I’m so lost”.
“Let me guess, admin told you it was A34?”
“Yes”
Will chuckles lightly… it’s sweet.
“Yeah, that room doesn’t exist, we’re in the old supply room up ahead” he gestures vaguely in front of them but with his hands full of glasses it comes across more like an awkward shoulder thrust.
Jenn falls into step with him as he leads her toward the room.
“A supply room for a class?”
“It’s bigger than it sounds” Will shrugs and Jenn doesn’t know why he keeps testing those Jars stability.
“So how’d you get stuck with cleaning all these by yourself?”
“I volunteered” Another shrug.
That sounds about right, he always was one of the nicest boys in the year. Jenn remembers that was why she was first endeared to him. She was crying one day in the sandbox and he’d given her his tonka truck. She’d used it to do sand deliveries from one end of the box to another, over and over. Maybe it wasn’t super interesting, but she had smiled the rest of the day. So then she decided she liked him. She’d been devastated to hear that he had passed away and begged her mom endlessly to bring her to his funeral. When it turned out her was alive she was well…confused — but glad nonetheless! She never really had the courage to do anything about her crush though. She did almost ask him to dance at the snowball but then someone else had gotten there first. Looking at Will now, he definitely wasn’t that same kid. She’d heard he moved to California but he came back less than a year later, less like a boy and more like a man. Jenn wasn’t living under a rock, she’d heard the girls talking about him around school. In some cases you could argue that Will was just has popular as Carl, but more in like a ‘mysterious quiet boy’ way then an in your face jock way. Still — no one really dared to actually cross that line with all the hellfire rumours these days.
Will nudged the already half open door with his shoulder and stood there for Jenn to go in first. A short woman stood at the front of the disorderly class wearing a flowy sort of Stevie Nicks inspired dress. Jenn guessed this was Ms. Solace. The teacher turned as the two entered and offered them each a warm smile.
“Just place those glasses on my desk”
She waved a hand to the desk behind her and Will and Jenn placed their glasses down, Jenn trying particularly hard not to drop them too harshly.
“You must be Jenn?” Ms Solace questions as Jenn turned around again.
“Yeah, sorry I was late”.
“No worries darling, I see you helped Will with the glasses, why don’t you find a stool, you’ll find this class is a little more scattered than your usual”.
Jenn nods and looking around saw quite a few vacant stools, it was a smaller class and there were no desks only easel stands and folded tables. Making a hasty decision Jenn took the spare stool by Will. Ms. Solace didn’t seem to be gearing up to give her any more instruction, so she took to watching the other students. Some had unfolded their tables and were working on what looked to Jennifer like a blob, some were sketching and Will looked like he was working on some sort of painting. Was there like a curriculum here or what? Will puts down his brush and leans towards Jennifer’s stool. He smells nice.
“We’ve all got separate projects” he informs her “it’s supposed to be about how we see ourselves, but we can show it any way we want”.
“Okay thanks” Jenn sighs “would it kill the teacher to tell me that?”
Will laughs and grabs a pad of paper from beside him.
“Here” he says, handing it to her “just sketch out some ideas for now, Ms. Solace is nice but she’s not very hands on until you’ve actually started on something”.
Jenn takes the paper and unfolds her table to place it on. So much for an easy pass Kelly she thinks bitterly to herself. She began drawing random doodles on the paper. How do I see myself?. After about ten minutes of her trying to sketch her own face, it turns out more like some deformed pineapple with lips. Will snorts from beside her and she whips her head to him.
“What’s so funny?” She scowls at him.
“Nothing, nothing” he schools his expression poorly as he looks down at her paper “Is that like an abstract take or...?”.
“I’m not an artist okay!”.
“Why are you in art class then?” he laughs again.
“I remember you being a lot nicer Byers” Jenn pouts.
“Sorry, it’s just...is there anything other than drawing you might like?”.
“I don't know, what they're doing over there with those blobs looks kinda fun”.
“You mean with the clay?” Will raises a brow.
“Yeah...that, is it like pottery or does it turn into like a sculpture or something?”.
“Uh it could...”.
“Sounds cool”.
“So try it then”.
“Yeah, okay, maybe I will”.
******
That night Jenn found herself at Hawkins basketball practice. Lucky for her, it’s an indoor sport or she’d be freezing her ass off right now. As it happens the damage to it is coming from the indented lines of the bleachers beneath her instead. She watches mindlessly as the boys dribble the ball to the circle – shoot – pass and repeat. How anyone could find this interesting is beyond her.
“Whoo!”
Helen, Kelly and a larger group of admirers begin to cheer as Carl makes a particularly risky shot and passes the ball over to Andy. Jenn joins in on their applause, though with a lot less enthusiasm. Not that it matters – Carl makes a show of looking for her and grinning when he sees her clapping anyway. Helen grabs Jennifer’s arm and squeals.
“I knew we shouldn’t have come” Jenn groans “now he thinks I’m interested”.
“Don’t be such a priss Jenn” Helen sighs.
She’s really not trying to be…but when did all her friends become so boy obsessed? More importantly – why did nobody tell her, she could’ve been more prepared, maybe chosen some halfway decent guy for herself so they’d stop harassing her about it.
“Look! They’re being called in” Kelly jumps up.
Sure enough, the team seems to be wrapping up their practice with a few last words from their coach. The group watching seems to disperse as well while some of the more hopeful girls head for the edge of the court, twirling their hair and pushing each other forward. Jenn stands up too, relieved they can finally go home — she should’ve known her friends better than that. Less than a minute later she’s across the court and standing in front of Carl Fuller. To his side stands Chance and Andy, probably the more abrasive members of the team. The two boys excuse themselves along with Helen and Kelly, leaving Carl and Jenn alone. It’s an ambush she wants to scream.
“Jenn” Carl flashes a smile “You came”.
“Yeah, we all did”.
“Walk me out?”.
Jenn looks to her friends who are already heading for the exit with Chance and Andy at their side. She sighs and offers a polite smile.
“Yeah sure”.
She waits as he grabs his bag from the bench and they walk out to the front of the school where the others muck around with Andy’s basketball. Chance now holding it just out of Helen’s reach — forcing her to jump for it.
“So Jenn”.
Oh shit shit shit.
“I was kinda thinking that maybe we could-”
Jenn doesn’t get to find out what Carl was ‘kinda thinking’ because he’s interrupted by a loud –
“Piss off!”.
Jenn turns to see what all the fuss is about and coming out of the front of the school is a group of boys in white shirts, black sleeves and a red devil of sorts on the front. The Hellfire club. Carl immediately heads over to where his friends stand, looming over the boys.
Jenn rushes towards Helen and Kelly who watch on — almost in entertainment, as the boys argue.
“We have just as much a right to be here as you guys do” one of the hellfire boys says — Lucas.
“Not after the shit you pulled Sinclair”.
Andy moves as if to grab Lucas but the curly haired boy, and the taller dark haired one Jenn thinks is Mike, step in front of him almost immediately.
“Hey!” Mike shouts “Back off”.
Andy pauses for a moment, like he really is worried what Mike will do to him if he doesn’t. Chance steps closer to Andy’s side, fists clenched before Carl grabs both of their shoulders.
“C’mon guys let’s leave these freaks to their cult shit”.
The boys scowl at the group one last time as a car pulls up, clearly for the boys. A girl hops out of the passenger seat, taking in the scene and glaring at the three jocks like she knows what had just happened without needing to witness it. Jenn thinks she may have seen her before but she’s not sure where. She can’t make out much as the girl begins helping the boys with their bags and talking excitedly with them, but her hair is definitely brown and she wears her clothes mismatched, judging by the flannel, it almost looks like she’s borrowed straight from Will’s closet.
“Earth to Jenn” Kelly calls from behind her.
“Sorry?” Jenn asks, turning back to her friends.
“I said let’s go”.
“Oh – yeah”.
Jenn turns back one more time, not really sure what she’s looking for until her eyes lock with the strange girl. Jenn feels heat rush to her cheeks as the girl offers her a small smile. Her eyes are maybe brown…hazel? Jenn could probably get a closer look if she just –
“Jenn!”
Jenn jumps at Kelly’s second call and so does Will who steps in front of the girl currently disappearing into the car. He sees Jenn looking and waves in polite confusion, those similar hazel eyes, before following the girl into the car.
“Coming” Jenn calls as she rejoins her friends, who have since been abandoned by the other boys.
“What was that?” Helen questions her, eyebrows raised.
“What was what?”.
“Zombie boy just waved at you”.
“Don’t call him that” she mutters.
Helen’s eyes go wide, and Kelly smirks knowingly.
“Oh shut up” Jenn spits.
The girls giggle and she smiles with them. She knows what they’re thinking obviously, but she decides not to correct them. It’s not like they’re that off anyway, Jenn does think he’s cute and probably one of the only boys she’s ever enjoyed talking to. Maybe this whole time she’s just been looking at the wrong guys.
Now Jenn is certain. She’s decided right here and now. Will is the right guy. She tries to think what Helen would do if she liked someone. Well you’d have to kiss them right? Do you build up to that or does it just happen? She knows she’s thinking too much into this now, but when she settles into her bed that night, she finalizes her plan.
******
Will
The last three weeks had been pretty normal by Hawkin’s standards. It’s been a couple months since they defeated Vecna and closed the upside down’s connection to them for good. The nightmares hadn’t really stopped yet but every now and then Will got a somewhat peaceful sleep. The only really abnormal thing was Jennifer Hayes. Will was never popular — but he really wasn’t popular these days. So why Jennifer (Hawkin’s golden girl) was suddenly so eager to get to know him, was a complete mystery to him. Sometimes he’d stay back to clean up and she’d stay too, even though she’d already packed up. Will reasoned that she was probably just really social and didn’t have any other friends in the class.
Today, art was the last class of the day and so Will packed up early, hoping to beat the party back to their bikes so he could skip the usual…reunion. He was heading for the door when Jenn caught up to him.
“Hey, Will wait!”.
He turns and sees her scrambling to gather her things before rushing over to him. He opens the door for her, thinking he could still probably make it to the bike racks before the others if Jenn would just pick up the pace. Still, she seemed nervous, so he matches her slower stroll until she stops completely and he’s forced to stop with her.
“Everything okay?”.
“Yeah, I just wanted to ask something”.
Will notices that she turns a little pink as she says this, she tucks a blonde curl behind her ear and then looks up at him through thick lashes. Will thinks that a lot of boys would probably find that attractive. Maybe he should.
“Sure, what’s up?”
“I was thinking, maybe you could help me with my project some time after school? It’s just you’re so good at all this stuff and I'm still trying to get the hang of it”.
Will hesitates, he’s not actually done very much work with clay and he’s got so much of his own stuff to worry about, but seeing Jenn’s hopeful blue eyes and knowing what it’s like to be out of your depth, he can’t help but say-
“Yeah of course I’ll help”.
Jenn practically jumps for joy wrapping her arms around him and squeezing before letting go.
“Thank you! You’re a lifesaver”.
She squeals, the way girls do and then heads off down the hall. Will’s left standing there a little confused, but his silent contemplating is interrupted by Dustin clapping him over the back.
Will jumps at the sudden intrusion and realizes he has an audience of three. Dustin is wearing an impressed smirk, Lucas is gaping at him and Mike, who's usually the most expressive of the group, watches on stonily.
“Byers!” Lucas exclaims “The hell was that?”.
“What?” Will asks dumbly.
“’What’” Dustin mimicks ”Dude Jennifer Hayes just threw herself at you!”.
“She just needs help with her project”.
“Oh I’m sure she does Will the Wise”.
Dustin nudges Will and offers him an over-the-top wink while Lucas sniggers into his hand.
“Seriously shut up” Will chuckles.
“Did you say yes?” Mike asks.
“Huh?” Will turns to him.
“To helping her with her project” He clarifies.
“Oh, uh yeah I did”.
“My man!” Lucas holds up his hand.
“I’m not high fiving you on that” Will shakes his head.
Dustin high fives him instead.
“Are you going to have time to help her?” Mike continues the topic “You know with the campaign and everything”.
“Yeah of course” Will assures him “Don’t worry I’m not gonna slack off”.
“And even if he did I think we can give him a pass if he’s off with Jennifer Hayes” Dustin adds excitedly.
“Dustin, It’s just school work”.
“She hugged you!”
“She was grateful”
“She was feeling you up”
“Ew! Dustin”.
“What?!” He exclaims, throwing up his hands innocently.
“Let’s just drop this topic, please” Will tries.
“Yeah, El and Max are probably waiting” Mike agrees, expression still just as blank as the start of the conversation.
“Fine, but Byers, you’re telling us if anything happens” Lucas insists.
Will just rolls his eyes and doesn’t dignify that with an answer. His gaze turns on Mike as the four boys walk to the school entrance. His movements are a little stiffer than usual and he keeps his attention in front of him, ignoring Dustin and Lucas’ bickering and Will’s presence right next to him.
“You okay?” Will asks quietly, turning away from the two other boys.
Mike finally turns to him, still stiff in his movements but when his eyes land on Will they soften slightly.
“Yeah” he nods “I’m all good”.
“Cool” Will smiles.
“Cool” Mike smiles back.
They push through the school’s front doors as a group and find Max and El waiting by the bike racks. Lucas and Mike go over to greet their girlfriends and while Dustin goes to unlock his bike, Will’s chest aches just a little bit. He’s gotten used to it. That slow deteriorating pain knowing Mike Wheeler will always have a piece of Will that will never be returned. It’s okay really, he just wants Mike and El to be happy. El’s his sister now – a real sister that opens up to him and listens too. He loves her more than he needs to be loved by one Mike Wheeler. So that’s that. He’ll just have to deal with those aches the same way he’d deal with a scrape – put a band aid on it. Will turns away from the couple and brings his attention to unlocking his bike.
******
It’s late and almost no one else is left in the school other than Jenn, Will and probably some staff. Jenn has her hands on the pottery wheel in front of her, looking like she’s concentrating incredibly hard. Her tongue is poking out to one side of her mouth, and her brows are furrowed as she tries desperately to tame her ‘clay masterpiece’ as she calls it. She throws her hands up in frustration, forcing clay parts to fly across Will’s face.
“Ugh it’s not doing what I want it to” she huffs.
“You’re putting too much pressure on yourself” Will placates her, wiping clay from his face “and the clay”.
“Well maybe if you just showed me it’d be easier” she suggests.
“I told you this was never my strong suit”.
“Yeah but you’re way better with your hands” she argues “just here-”
She grabs his hands and places them onto the clay underneath her own.
“Show me” she says, turning to face him.
Will freezes, completely out of his depth here.
“Uhh” He splutters “Jennifer I don’t-”.
“C’mon, I don’t bite”.
“Okay” he sighs, moving their hands “get some more water and let’s start again”.
Jenn does as she’s told and then places her hands back on the mutilated clay. Will raises his hands tentatively and awkwardly — placing them on top of hers. After a minute he gets the hang of doing it this way and Jenn seems to actually be improving. This is a miracle in itself because she’s barely paying attention. She’s turned to face Will like ten times in the past two minutes.
“Watch what you’re-”.
“Will?” she cuts him off.
“Yeah?”.
“I’m gonna kiss you, is that okay?”.
Will’s brain short circuits. She’s going to WHAT? Jenn is pretty, he knows that. He knows she’s probably one of the most sort after girls in his grade. Right now she’s looking at him with bright blue eyes, her blonde hair pulled back, in a half up that shows off her soft features, her red cheeks and glossy lips, her hands are on his and he should want to kiss her. He should. He shouldn’t be thinking of deep brown eyes, and dark curls and slightly chapped lips instead. Yet here he is. She wants to kiss him though, and he should too. So maybe...maybe he could? Lucas can, Dustin can, Mike can...Will could.
“Okay” is all Will says before Jenn is leaning in.
Will’s never done this before, so he follows her lead, hands still awkwardly being held hostage under Jenn’s on the pottery wheel, he leans in unsteadily. Seeing Jenn close her eyes he follows suit, hoping desperately that his face would (or maybe wouldn’t) be able to subconsciously find Jenn’s without his visual senses in play. After what feels like an excruciatingly long time Will feels lips meet his own. Her overly sweet perfume fills the air, and the kiss is sticky from her lip gloss. It’s just a peck really – a too long brush of the lips, before she’s pulling away and Will’s eyes flutter open.
“Oh Will” Jenn says after a moment, eyes wide “that was really...not good”.
She bursts out laughing, finally releasing Will’s hands from the wheel. Will’s not sure how to respond, a little butt hurt to be having this sort of reaction, even if he himself wasn’t feeling fireworks.
“Hey!” He cries “I was just sitting there; I couldn’t have messed up that badly”
“No- it was- fine" she says through her giggles, catching her breath “it was-sweet".
“Okay...” Will responds, chuckling a little now too, dumbfounded.
Jenn takes a deep breath and composes herself.
“I’m sorry, it’s completely not you, I just” she sighs “I hoped it would feel like more than that...”.
Will nods slowly, yeah, he knows what she means.
“I feel like, I don’t know what’s wrong with me” she lets her clay hands fall onto her unprotected lap.
“What do you mean?” Will asks tentatively.
“Will, I don’t think I’m like the other girls in Hawkins” she responds quietly, almost too small to hear, her eyes begin to water slightly as she ducks her head.
“Me neither” Will whispers nervously.
Jenn looks up at him.
“You’re not like the girls here?”.
Will snorts, a small smile creeping on to his face. Jenn mirrors it.
“No, I meant, I’m...different” he corrects “I’m sure you’ve heard some of the stuff people used to call me”.
“What like zombie boy?” Jenn frowns.
“No...I mean – well yeah they did call me that too but like before all that”.
Will doesn’t even know what it is that’s compelling him to be so honest with this girl right now. He barely knows Jenn really, but something is telling him that this is okay. That it’s the right thing. Something lights up in Jenn’s eyes and her mouth forms an ‘o’.
“Yeah” he says simply.
“So you’re like...not into girls at all?”.
“Nope”.
Jenn laughs and gives him a weak shove to his shoulder, covering it in clay.
“Why’d you let me kiss you then you idiot?”.
“I don’t know-” Will deflects.
“You’re such a pushover Byers”.
“Excuse me-”.
“I mean really!” She continues “do you just let every girl that asks, have their way with you?”.
“Have their way with me?”.
The two are now almost doubling over with laughter and it feels good. It feels easy. After about two full minutes of nonsense and laughter, the two are covered in clay and tears stain Jenn’s cheeks. Will takes a deep breath to compose himself and gets up, to grab them both a wet cloth.
“Here” he hands one to Jenn.
“Thanks” she smiles.
They both silently clean themselves up for a moment before Will breaks the silence to say.
“Just the pretty ones”.
“Hmm?”.
“I only let the pretty ones have their way with me”.
“You flatter me, but I’m afraid I might be a lesbian so”.
“You- what?”
“What? Only one of us can be queer?” she scoffs.
“No, I just...wow” Will breathes.
“Yeah...wow”.
Jenn’s playful demeaner falls for a moment, she focuses on cleaning the stubborn clay from her fingernails, biting her lip.
“It’s kind of nice...” Will says softly “not being alone in it”.
Jenn’s soft smile returns.
“Yeah” she agrees “it is”.
“Your sculpture looks like a penis by the way”
Jenn looks at it.
“Perfect way to represent me don’t you think?”
The two fall into unceremonious laughter once more.
******
Since that night Will and Jenn have found an unexpected friendship in each other. Art class quickly became the two’s favourite class for reasons other than the art. Once Jenn opened herself up to the idea, everything began to make a lot more sense. For example she finally understood that tingly feeling in her stomach she got when watching fast times...
As for Will, he opened up about his feelings for Mike after Jenn caught on to one too many longing stares. It felt good, to get it off his chest, especially to someone completely separate from the party.
Being friends with each other felt safe, it felt like the beginning of a small community of their very own. Even when it was hard to be different, or when they had days that they felt like a mistake, they always had each other.