Chapter Text
Will looked out of the airplane window and sighed to himself, his eyes dropped down to the yellow raincoat over his lap. He had been living in Phoenix where the sun shined bright and temperatures were high, raincoats were not needed, however where he was heading he would definitely be needing one. He was wearing a pair of dark blue denim jeans, paired with a gray long sleeved t-shirt and a short sleeved green flannel on top. Life had been tough growing up, he can't really remember anything before his parents divorce but his dad, Lonnie, had somehow gotten custody over him and took him as far away from his mom, Joyce, as possible.
Lonnie was an awful dad, constantly belittling and degrading Will for what made him, him. Calling him ‘queer’, complaining how weak and sensitive Will was and making fun of his interests. Will was miserable in Phoenix but it was familiar to him at least. It all got too much one day and Lonnie decided to kick Will out, leaving him with no choice but to go and live with his mom in Washington. Will was nervous, it had been years since he had any kind of contact with Joyce.
He eventually found himself sitting silently in the passenger seat of Joyce's police car, he kept his eyes on the road, tall trees surrounded both sides of the road. Will had forgotten how green and damp everything was here, it was pretty, but something about it was eerie, a light fog seemed to hang permanently in this town. Speaking of, they drove by the ‘Welcome to Forks’ sign and Will remembered there was a population of 3120 here, how on earth was he going to survive this. He was used to being by himself at his old school and no one paid attention considering how big the school was, he was aware that that wouldn't slide in a small town like this, everyone was in each other's business of course. A tight knit community but at what cost.
Joyce eventually broke the silence by looking over at Will and smiling slightly “your hair has gotten longer” she mentioned.
Will fidgeted with his hands, he had an awful bowl cut most of his life but he finally added some texture to the fringe so it looked a lot fluffier now, he thought it suited him a lot better. “had a haircut since I last saw you actually” he cringed internally not really sure why he had decided to say that.
She focused back on the road and nodded “must’ve grown out again then” the rest of the journey was silent.
Joyce helped Will with his suitcases, as they walked into the house Will realised it was exactly as he remembered from the last summer he was here, which was 3 years ago. He followed Joyce up to his room and as he pushed open the door his jaw dropped slightly, nothing had changed. Except the bedding which was dark blue with small yellow stars all over. He put his bag down and walked around, taking in every item that seemed to be frozen in time.
Joyce appeared behind and laughed awkwardly as she put his suitcase on his bed “I cleared a shelf in the bathroom for your stuff, and if you need anything else I haven't thought of then just uh let me know” she stopped to look at him fondly “it’s nice having you back Will.”
He pulled at the end of his sleeve and nodded, focusing on an old stuffed tiger plush “thanks mom, it’s nice being back” he half lied. He was happy to be out of Phoenix but being here in Forks was so awkward and would take some time to adjust to.
She walked out the room and headed downstairs. He sighed a breath of relief, shut his bedroom door before flopping onto his bed and slowly drifted off.
He woke up the next morning to the sound of loud commotion happening outside his window. He sat up and stretched before heading over to the window to see what was going on. Joyce was standing with another woman her age and a boy who looked a little younger than Will, he walked away from the window and got ready for school before heading downstairs, knowing he would be called for if he didn’t go say hello himself.
He walked up to the group, wrapped his arms around himself and looked at his mom. “Will hey! You remember Carlton and his mom right?” Joyce smiled looking between the three.
Will nodded “hey how have you been?” he said slowly to the two.
Carlton's mom grinned at Will “you’ve grown up so much since we last saw you, your mom has been going on non-stop about you coming to stay here, I’m sure you’re going to enjoy it just fine!”
Joyce looked a little embarrassed and looked away whilst Carlton rolled his eyes subtly at his mom but stayed quiet. “Look at what your mom got you” she continued and pointed at the red truck beside them.
Wills eyes widened and he looked quickly between the car and Joyce “no way…” he said softly.
Joyce nodded “thought you might need a ride for school seeing as I wont be able to take you or pick you up, it's a little rough around the edges but i think-” Joyce was cut off by Will running over to the drivers door “Mom it is perfect! Thank you so much!”
Carlton followed Will and before Will could get in the truck he felt a hand on his back, he turned around and tilted his head. “Hi, I’m Carlton, we used to make mud pies when we were little” Carlton smiled sheepishly.
Will nodded slowly whilst analysing the boy in front of him “yeah.. I think I.. um remember” he looked so different yet exactly the same as the boy from his childhood.
Tall, tanned skin, dark hair and eyes, he was wearing a zip up hoodie that looked too big on him. Will was pretty sure Carlton was a year younger than him which would make him 16 as Will had just turned 17.
“I helped repair the engine by the way” Carlton added “i have to show you something about the clutch” he walked to the passenger side and climbed into the truck. Will hopped into the driver's seat and took the keys from Carlton.
“Okay so when you shift, you have to double pump the clutch” he demonstrated.
Will nodded “thank you, do you want a ride to school?” he asked politely.
Carlton shook his head "I'm homeschooled so I’ll be okay thanks.” he slowly looked Will up and down and smiled slightly to himself. Will was completely oblivious “oh okay nevermind, would’ve been nice to know at least one person” he laughed awkwardly.
Carlton got out of the car and waved goodbye as Will pulled out the drive and started his journey to school.
Will got out of the car and headed towards the building, he could feel everyone's eyes on him, he was sure it wasn't an often occurrence getting a new student in a town this small. He clutched onto his rucksack a little tighter as he headed towards the reception. He was suddenly distracted by a red head approaching him. She had long ginger hair in a half up half down style, with a messy fringe that still somehow looked perfect, she had soft pale skin and pink, plump lips. She wore a red knitted sweatshirt with denim bootcut jeans and a gold key necklace.
“You’re William Byers right? New guy? I’m Tina, I know everything about this place, if you need anything, tour guide, shoulder to cry on, I'm your girl!” she beamed.
Will stumbled back slightly, not expecting that enthusiasm “i uh i kinda just keep to myself” he mumbled.
“Well I'm on the school paper and you’re gonna be front page news! How fun!” she squeaked slightly.
Will gasped and shook his head “I- um- no no I’m not, don’t do that please” he stuttered out.
Tina rolled her eyes and smiled “fine fine no feature, I’ll take you to gym” she shrugged and signalled for him to follow.
Will had gotten changed and was now in the gymnasium where everyone was playing volleyball. He sighed softly, he hated volleyball, and gym being the first class as a new kid, yeah this was gonna go badly one way or another. The sound of shoes squeaking and volleyballs bouncing surrounded him, he quickly dodged out of the way ignoring the annoyed shouts as he let the ball fall. He suddenly realised a ball was flying towards his face. He flailed his arms and hit the ball in a random direction, it ended up hitting a guy.
Shit.
Will hurried over to the boy “I am so so sorry, I am awful at this sport, I should’ve just sat out and I-” he rambled quickly before being interrupted.
“Hey man you’re good don’t worry, it happens sometimes, you’re William right? I’m Lucas!” Lucas shot out a hand for Will to shake, Will reluctantly did so.
“Just Will, please” he pulled his hand away and looked down at his shoes.
Another red head walked over and smiled at Lucas “he has a great spike doesn’t he” she teased. “Soooo you’re from Arizona right? Aren’t people meant to be super tanned from there?” she laughed.
Will felt a little taken back but decided to play it off cool and make a joke “yep that’s why I got kicked out” he shrugged.
Lucas and Max laughed, they looked at each other and nodded before looking back at Will. “You’re sitting with us at lunch, I can already tell we are going to be great friends” she grinned and gently smacked Will's arm in an endearing way.
The cafeteria was busy of course, students queued up to get food, whilst others took their seats and rushed to complete the homework for the next period. Will had gotten his food and sat with Lucas, Max and Tina. Another girl sat besides Tina, she had a camera hanging around her neck and was gossiping about some boy who had been rude to her earlier that day. She finally turned her attention to Will.
“I'm Erica by the way! Doubt my brother mentioned me to you” she stuck her tongue out at Lucas and he threw a crumpled wrapper at her. “We need to take photos of you for your feature in the paper” she went to turn on the camera before Tina quickly shook her head “Feature is dead Erica, not happening” she said frantically. Will smiled gratefully at Tina.
The doors to the cafeteria suddenly swung open, Will looked up to see what was happening and noticed four ethereal looking people. He took a sip of his drink as he tried to get a better look.
Max noticed him looking and giggled “who are they” he whispered to her.
“Okay it's time to tell you about the Wheeler’s!” she clapped her hands together quietly.
“They’re Dr Wheeler’s foster kids, they all share the same surname now but none of them are actually related” Tina muttered.
“And they’re all like together together, it’s a bit weird” Erica snickered, Lucas shrugged “if they aren’t related I don't see the harm.”
A brunette boy and girl walked inside, they were similar heights and the girl had voluminous curly hair, they were hand in hand smiling to each other. They definitely had to be in their final year of high school, Will thought they did not look his age. But the boy looked oddly similar to Will.
“The tall brunette boy is Jonathon, he seems sweet, but the curly brunette with him, that’s Nancy and she can be quite harsh” Max shared to Will, he nodded at the info.
Following them came a shorter brunette girl and boy, this time the boy had curly hair but he was wearing a cap on top. The boy held the girl's hand and spun her around before giving her a kiss on the cheek. Will looked at the others.
“So that weird girl is Jane, she just has a vibe to her that freaks us out a little, and the guy she’s with is Dustin, he is super smart but again weird.” Erica mumbled as she looked judgementally as the pair walked by. Will didn’t quite understand the judgement but he kept nodding along to the new information. He looked down at his food before realising one more person was walking through the doors.
His breath caught slightly as the most handsome man followed behind the other four. He was a tall, lanky boy, with black, wavy hair, messy but in the most perfect way. He was pale but didn’t look sickly, sharp cheekbones and dark, almost sad looking eyes. Will panicked internally, he had never been so attracted to someone before.
Max smirked slightly “that is Mike, he’s the only single one of them lot, I guess no one here is good enough for him, so don’t waste your time!”
Will was staring, he couldn’t help it, he forced himself to look at Max and nod “yeah yeah I wasn’t planning on it…” he smiled. He looked back over to the table where the five had now sat down and got their food out, Mike was staring straight at him, almost like he was trying to figure Will out. Will felt a blush creep onto his face as they made eye contact before Will turned his attention back to the group of friends around him and attempted to join into the conversation they had moved on to.