Chapter Text
Chapter One: The Move
Will’s Point of View
We’re somehow only an hour into the long drive, and I already miss all my friends. This year felt so incomplete. As I sit in the car with Jonathan, all I can think about is what I’m leaving behind, who I’m leaving behind. I’ll miss Lucas, Dustin, and, of course, Mike. It hurts so much that he said those things and has barely spoken to me at all. It’s been like that all summer.
I hoped that when he heard we were leaving, he would want to hang out more. But no, he just didn’t care, even though we’ve been friends for so long. I don’t deserve this. I want to be mad at Mike, or at El, but El doesn’t deserve my resentment. I feel so bad for her. Hopper just died, and now we’re moving. She won’t have Mike, and she won’t have Max. It seemed like she was just starting to find herself, and then she was thrown into fighting again.
I hope Long Beach is different. Maybe I can leave everything behind and start anew. Hopefully, so can El.
A few months later
It's been a month since school started. I haven't really fallen into any group yet, and I don’t have friends, but no one's been calling me names, and El, or Jane, tried out for the volleyball team and got in!!! She has a good group of friends with those girls, and her before-school tutoring is really helping her catch up. Out of all of the friends she’s made, her closest friend is Tonya. I finish putting my books away and grab the books for math. As I’m closemy locker, I look up and see El and Tonya walking over
“Hey Jane,” I say, waving her over and smiling at Tonya. We may not be close, but she is by far my favorite out of all of El’s new friends
“Hey, which class do you have next again?” El asks. Seeing her always makes me smile because after moving in with us, my mom gave her the signature Byers haircut, and if I didn’t know better, I would assume she was a mini Joyce
“I have Algebra, sadly,” I reply, since El and I aren’t in this class together.
“Ugh, that sucks we have English,” Tonya says as she dots the end of her sentence with a pop to her bubble gum
“Aw, well, I’ll see you in Art, though, right?” El asks, as she loops her arm into Tanya's, getting ready to go since the bell is about to ring
“Yeah, of course, I’ll see you guys later,” I say as I start walking away towards my class
Once I finally get to class I see that the teacher has assigned us seats and as I make my way to my seat I realise that someone's sitting there chatting away with their friend ‘gosh what do I do in this situation I mean I know what to do but I don’t want to piss him off’ I must have been hovering and thinking for too long because the guy who the one in my seat is talking to looks up at me. He reaches over and kinda smacks his friend in the arm and gestures at Will, causing his friend to whip around and give Will an apologetic look.
“Sorry, didn’t see you there, I’ll get up!” the guy says as he rushes up his arms raised in a way as to add to his sorry
“Yeah, man, don’t you know it's rude to sit in someone else’s spot?” his buddy snickers while saying his snide remark.
“Oh no, you’re ok, I only just got here,” I awkwardly reply
“Ok, cool, hey, see you at the end of class, Danny,” the seat stealer says as he high fives his friend ‘Danny’ and heads towards the back
Not knowing if I should say anything, I just shuffle into my seat and sit down. As much as El has really grown and found herself, I’m still working on it as I am taking out my books, I notice that the guy ‘Danny’ my mind supplies is staring at me.
He must have caught me staring because he smiles and then starts talking, “Hey! Since we will be sitting next to each other for a while, I thought I would introduce myself. I’m Danny, and the guy who was sitting in your seat was Curtis.”
“Oh well, I’m well its nice to meet you, I’m Will,” I say, smiling
“Wicked nice to meet you, Will, soooo now that we’re like best friends, do you happen to know anything about algebra?”
“Uh, kinda? But I’m definitely not good enough to help you for sure,” I say awkwardly, trying my best not to sound uncomfortable
“Bummer, I guess I’ll just have to keep bothering Joey about it,” he sounds really dramatic as he says this and puts his hand to his chest and closes his eyes, trying to look heartbroken
“Sorry to disappoint,” again, I just feel so awkward about this. It's times like these when I miss Hawkins and my reliable ish friend group.
“Nah your cool I was just messing with you BUT we should get to know each other more and-” Danny gets cut off as the teacher clears her throat and gets ready to start teaching class luckily Danny goes quiet and straightens in his seat, now facing the front, but as the teacher turns away, I feel a tap on my leg and look towards Danny. He reaches out to pass me a note, and I look up at the front to make sure the teacher doesn't see me, and, confirming she is writing on the board, I reach over and take it from him. On it is written As I was saying before being interrupted, you should join my friends and me for lunch so we can get to know each other more. I look over at him and see him smiling at me. I quickly glance up at the teacher and flip the paper over to scribble my answer on the back yeah, sure, that’d be awesome, and pass it back. I'm so happy; I think I’m finally making friends here. My leg starts bouncing as I count down the minutes until the bell rings so that I can go to lunch with my new friend.
Finally, after what feels like hours, the bell rings, and Ms. Diaz announces that we are free to go. I rush to pack up, and as I finish packing, I notice that Curtis, the boy in my seat earlier, has made his way over to us.
“Hey, ready to go?” he says to Danny and jerks his head towards the door.
“Yeah, just packing up, oh, by the way, Will here is joining us,” Danny says as he finishes packing and goes to put on his bag. I just hover and wave
“Oh, rad, I’m Curtis, nice to meet you. Will, sorry again for sitting in your seat earlier. I was going to get up as soon as I saw someone come over, but I didn't notice you standing there.” he gives a half wave towards me as he introduces himself
“Yeah its nice to meet you, and it's ok, thanks for letting me come to lunch with you guys,” I say, trying to sound as chill as I can
“Yeah, for sure, our other friends Joel and Steph will be there too.”
“Yup! Now, guys its time to walk. Let's go, I’m starving,” Danny says, butting in and putting his arms around us to push us towards the door
It’s a chill walk to the cafeteria. They end up just chatting away, always making sure to reel me into the conversation. As we finally get there, I notice a girl with black hair gesturing them over. Next to her is a boy who takes my breath away. He has shaggy blonde hair and what looks like piercing green eyes. He’s so different from Mike, the boy I’ve had a crush on for my entire life, but he somehow lights a fire under me. Lost in my thoughts, I’m drawn out by the girl who I assume is Steph speaking.
“Hey, guys, who is this?”
“What's up! This is Will, he’s in mine and Curtis’s class, and we are now best friends, so of course he had to come sit with us,” Danny exclaimed while putting his hands on my arms and squeezing.
“Hi, as he said, I’m Will, thanks for letting me sit with you guys.” I wave slightly while saying this and try to smile
“Hey, well, it’s wicked to have you here, Will come have a seat away from Danny's crazy grasp,” she ends this with sticking her tongue out in a clearly playful way, and not wanting to argue, I make my way towards her
The gorgeous boy from before finally speaks up, “Hey Will, I’m Joel, and this is Stephanie, but we all just call her Steph.”
“It's nice to meet you. Curtis mentioned your names as we were walking over,” I tell him, and I reach into my bag to grab my lunch
“Soooo Will, do you have any hobbies?” Steph says as Curtis and Danny go to get in line for school lunch
“Uh, well, I like to paint, and I just moved here, so I’m trying to find some other new hobbies.”
“I knew you had to be new. I would have remembered seeing you,” says Joel. It's funny, he looks like he just cracked a code. “Where did you live before you came here?” he adds on
“Oh yeah! That's so cool, ugh, I wish I could do art, but all I can draw is stick figures, anyway, you should totally join us afterschool we’re all in a band together!” Steph blurts out before I can even think to answer Joel
“Oh, we, I have a brother and a sister who go here now too, all moved here from Indiana, and if you guys wouldn't mind, it’d be awesome to join you after school. I just have to check with my siblings," I explain while taking a bite of my sandwich
“Yeah, I’ve seen a girl version of you walking around here. She’s actually in a couple of my classes!” Steph says happily
As she says this, I point my sandwich at her and reply with “Yup, that would be my step-sister Jane, and I swear we only look alike because my whole family has the same haircut.”
“Oh wow, yeah, I have Jane in my PE class, I totally would have assumed you guys were related now that I think about it, and of course, you can come,” Joel says
As Danny and Curtis get back to our table, Curtis says, "Why are we talking about the Jane girl in our PE class?”
“She’s my stepsister. I mentioned how I had a sister and a brother, and Stephanie said she had seen her around.”
“Who’s your brother?” asks Danny, as Curtis digs into the slop the school calls lunch
“His name’s Jonathan, he’s a senior,” I say
“Ohhhhhhh I know him, he's friends with Argyle, right?” Danny seems a little excited at this news
“Yeah, yeah, he is.”
"That's so bitchin’ Argyle's chill, I work with him at the pizza place,” Danny says
We keep chatting for a while and I am really enjoying getting to know everyone when I look up at the clock and realise I need to make my way to my locker to meet up with El for Art gathering my stuff up I say “hey this has been really fun thanks for inviting me to lunch but I have to head to class I’ll see you guys later”
“Yeah, it's about that time. What class do you have next?” Joel asks
“I have Art next.”
“So do I, can I come with you to class?” Joel says as he picks up his lunch tray
“Sure, as long as you are fine with coming with me to my locker to meet up with my sister before class.”
“Yeah thats chill with me.”
“Ok, be sure to meet up with us later to come hang out after school, ok Will!” Steph adds before we walk away and I just nod and wave goodbye. We start walking over to my locker. The walk is quiet but not in a bad way, shockingly, and as we finally get there, I see El is waiting like I knew she would, but as I get closer, I notice that Angela and Stacy are approaching her; she looks nervous.
As if reading my mind, Joel says, “Hey, that’s your sister, right? Is she ok? She looks nervous.”
“I don't think so. Angela and Stacy really pick on her. Come on lets hurry over.” I grab his arm and rush over in hopes of splitting them up. I hate Stacy and Angela with a burning passion. They are always picking on El when she’s alone, and because Angela is a ‘good girl’, the teachers don’t believe us.
“Hey Jane whats up?” I say, trying to break them up without starting something, “This is my new friend Joel.”
Angela looks me up and down and rolls her eyes before saying, “Well, Jane We’ll see you later,” shoving her slightly and walking away while giggling with Stacy
“Are you ok, El? Sorry that I was late,” I quickly get closer, making sure that Angela and Stacy didn’t do anything.
“Yeah, I’m fine its whatever. Angela and Stacy are just mouth breathers.” She looks upset but more mad than anything. “hi I think Will mentioned that your name was Joel?”
“Yup thats me its nice to meet you! I’m in Art with you and Will, so I thought I would tag along to class.”
“That's so cool, are you a friend of Wills? I don’t think I have seen you two together before.”
“I meet him during lunch because I have a class with two of his friends, coming on lets go to Art before we’re late,” I say, bouncing on my heels a little. Art is my favorite class, and I really don’t want to be late.
“Haha, ok, ok, guess we can walk and talk,” El thankfully says, and we start making our way down the hall and chatting as we go, El asking Joel a ton of questions, and I think I could get used to this.