Chapter Text
Mike Wheeler was standing outside Lenora Hills high school. Dying with anxiety, his hands were shaking, his heart was racing, and he felt like he was about to throw up the cereal he ate for breakfast.
He’d just moved from Hawkins to Lenora and was about to walk into his new school for the very first time.
He knew how hard it would be to make new friends, especially since he’s not a very extroverted person. Highschoolers could be really scary – especially if you were a new kid.
He finally got the courage to walk in, he looked around for a while, but forgot about the fact that he was standing in the middle of a crowded hallway.
Until eventually, someone bumped into him. “Hey, watch it, new kid!” It was a tall curly haired boy, who seemed old enough to be in college – so he’s probably a senior?
“Sorry” Mike replied, but his words were barely audible in the busy hallway. He felt his cheeks grow red with embarrassment – he’d barely even entered the school building, and was already humiliating himself… well that was great!
After scanning the place for a beat too long, he was finally able to spot the front office – where he was supposed to pick up his schedule and locker pattern. He tried his best not to accidentally run into anyone again.
When he got there, other students were already on line to pick up their own schedules. There were four different lines – one for each year – so he got into the juniors line.
Once it was finally his turn, the lady behind the desk didn’t seem very excited – he couldn’t blame her, he wasn’t either – “student name?” Her voice sounded very dry, “Michael Wheeler” he answered. She searched through her files – divided in alphabetical order – then finally handed him his schedule, along with his locker’s number and pattern “here you go.”
Mike gave her his typical awkward smile “thanks” which she didn’t reciprocate.
His first period would be math, and his locker’s number was 502.
He went back to the crowded hallway to drop off his books. When he spotted his locker, he opened it and was lucky enough for not running into anyone this time.
Well… guess he spoke too early.
A brunette boy had run into him – but this time it wasn’t Mike’s fault.
The boy was walking really fast, almost running through the hallways, he accidentally bumped into Mike who almost fell to the floor “I’m sorry, are you okay?” he seemed really sorry for not watching his way “I should’ve paid more attention to where I was going”.
“It’s… uhhh I mean, I-I’m fine” Mike said, embarrassing himself again.
“Wait, I think our lockers are next to each other! Isn’t that a coincidence?”
Mike didn’t know what to say, so he kept awkwardly staring at the boy.
“I’m Will! Will Byers, are you new here? I think we haven’t met before”
“I- uh, yes, I just moved into Lenora…”
“That’s nice! I bet you’ll love it here”
“I’m sure I will” Mike replied, not being able to tell if his own words were sarcastic or not.
“Well, see you around!” Will added, as he then walked away, and Mike was surprised at how easily the boy could make small talk.
He hoped they could run into each other again so that they could keep talking.
His thoughts were quickly interrupted by the bell ringing, and he realized he was supposed to be already in class. Mike ran for his life, but luckily was able to make it in time.
–––––––
Mike was sitting in the back at biology class, he could barely keep himself awake because of how boring it was – he was more of an english guy.
Luckily, this kid named Dustin kept answering all the questions, so the teacher didn’t even have the chance to pick Mike to answer any of them.
He was saved by the lunch bell.
When he left biology class, the hallways were packed with students – of course they were, what else did he expect at a high school?
Mike entered the cafeteria, and got on the food line.
While he was waiting, he saw the same long haired guy who’d bumped into him earlier. He was standing on top of a table, yelling at some jocks while talking about murder or something – Mike couldn’t really hear what he was saying.
Along with him was the boy from his biology class, plus a few other kids, but there was also… Will?
They were all friends? Mike would’ve never expected that.
He thought about approaching their table, but he was too intimidated by the senior student. So he came to the conclusion that it’d be easier to sit alone – since he knew he wouldn’t fit into any of the other groups.
The bell rang again signaling that lunch period was over, and for once, Mike was excited. He was about to have his first English class, and that was something he – weirdly enough – actually enjoyed in school.
On his way to class he saw a bullet board with all the school clubs.
He decided to check in – maybe there was something he’s interested in.
Theater? No, too much pressure. Cooking? Definitely not, last time he tried cooking he almost burned down the house.
But one of them stood out.
“Hellfire”? What's even that?
The poster said “small group of role playing fantasy games”.
Well, Mike had always wanted to try that, but he never really had anyone in Hawkins to play with. So maybe it’s worth the shot.
The poster also read “first meeting at 3:00p.m. August 31st, room 21”.
Mike had decided it. He’d be there.
Maybe he’d regret that later, but he’d still be there. His mom said he should try new things, get out of his comfort zone, and make friends. And that was the perfect opportunity for him.
––––––––––
The final bell rang, and it was almost 3:00 p.m.
Mike could barely contain his excitement, maybe he’d finally make some friends, and possibly find out a new hobby.
But at the same time he was extremely nervous.
Because what if the people were mean to him? Or what if they said he couldn’t join the club because god knows why?
His head had a million thoughts racing through – and most of them were bad.
His wrist watch read 2:59 p.m.
He’d finally reached room 21. He took a deep breath and knocked on the door.
“Thou may enter” a deep dramatic male voice replied.
He slowly opened the door, the room was dark, it had a few warm light lamps on – probably to bring a more dramatic effect – and some soft orchestral melody playing in the background. There was a table in the center of the room, and on top of it was a big board and a few small figures of fantasy creatures and characters. Behind the table was a big chair with a few hand made ornaments – to resemble a throne – and around that same table were a few other chairs.
“Aren’t you the boy who was standing still in the hallway earlier today?” The guy who asked was that same senior Mike had already seen twice today – the one he felt a bit scared and intimidated by – he was sitting on the big chair in a weird position.
“Yeah… that’s me” he nervously laughed – out of all the embarrassing things that had happened to him that day, this was definitely the worst of them.
He scanned the other faces in the room, and suddenly he realized Will was there too – now that was truly embarrassing.
“So… you came here for Hellfire?” He asked Mike, getting up from his chair and standing next to him.
“Uhhh, yes actually” he replied a bit more confident, but still feeling a bit nervous.
“Great, I think I haven’t presented myself. I’m Eddie Munson” Eddie said, offering him a hand shake.
“I’m Mike Wheeler” he replied, shaking Eddie’s hand.
“Pleasure to meet you,” suddenly, the older boy started laughing “properly this time.”
“It wasn’t that funny” Mike complained.
“You were so lost,” Eddie kept giggling, “you looked like a lost sheep.”
“Sure, whatever” he replied, rolling his eyes.
“But don’t worry Wheeler, you’re in good hands now,” he held Mike by his side. “These are my friends,” he pointed to the chairs spread around the table. “they’re former members of the Hellfire club.”
“Hi I’m Lucas”
“I’m Gareth”
“I’m Jeff”
“I’m Dustin”
“I’m Will, I think we’ve met earlier today”
“Right, we did! Hi everyone” Mike felt his face heat up with all the attention he was receiving, although he was glad that everyone was being nice to him – at least so far.
“How did you guys meet anyways?” Eddie asked curiously.
“Uhhh, long stor-“Mike started, but Will quickly cut him off “I accidentally bumped into him in the hallway, because I wasn’t watching my way, so I apologized and then presented myself”
“That’s the typical Will Byers thing to do,” Eddie replied grinning “well Mike, have you ever played D&D before?”
“No”
“What about any other role playing games involving fantasy?”
“Not really”
“Nothing?” Eddie was a bit shocked by his answer.
“Well, I’ve always wanted to… but I never really had anyone to play with” Mike said,staring at his feet.
“That’s okay, we’ll teach you everything you’ll need to know. I’m the dungeon master, I’m the one who writes the campaigns for you and the other players. Now, I’ll help you make your character sheet, since it’s your first time playing…”
“I could help him” Will offered.
“Well, since I still haven’t finished writing our next campaign… that would be great Byers, thanks”
At first Mike was a bit nervous, but as soon as they started discussing his character’s weaknesses, strength, class and name he felt a lot more comfortable. Will told him he was good at drawing, and if he wanted to, he could draw him his character, Mike loved the idea.
Time went by really fast when he was talking to Will, in the end he chose to be a Paladin, and picked the name “Mike the brave”.
“Well guys, the meeting is over,” Eddie interrupted, “See you next Monday.”
Each of the boys got up, said their goodbyes and left.
When Mike was about to leave through the door, he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Will.
“Mike wait”
“Yes?”
“Do you wanna sit with us tomorrow at lunch?” Will asked, “uh, I mean, unless you have friends already or something”
“Byers be for real,” Eddie interrupted them “does he look like he has any friends other than us?”
“Eddie” Will hissed.
Mike ignored the comment, and tried to act cool “yeah, sure, that’s very nice of you Will”
“Great! See you tomorrow” Will waved his hand with a smile plastered on his face.
“See ya” Mike replied with a soft smile – not his usual, but he sure wasn’t faking it.
–––––––
Lenora Hills High was very close to the Wheeler's house, so Mike was able to come back home walking.
When he entered the house, he saw his older sister Nancy along with his younger sister Holly, both girls sitting at the kitchen table having pre heated dinner.
Despite being single now, their mom managed to get a very well paid job at a local company, and bought her family a very nice house in Lenora. But that also meant she’d be getting home late from work.
It would probably take him and his siblings a while to get used to not having their mom around – good thing they were already used to not having their dad around very often.
“Hi Nance, hi Holly” Mike greeted his sisters as soon as he walked in.
“Hey Mike,” Nancy replied “there’s a plate of food left for you in the fridge, you can heat it up if you’re hungry” Nancy yelled from the table.
“ ‘Kay, thanks” he replied.
He took the plate out of the fridge, and set it thirty seconds in the microwave.
“So how was school? You joined any clubs like mom said you should?” Nancy asked him curiously?
“Yeah, I actually followed her advice this time” he replied in a bit of a monotone – because he was tired from school.
“Well I never thought you would actually listen to mom’s advice” she said with quite a sarcastic voice.
“Haha very funny” he fake laughed.
“But how was it, seriously? Did you make any friends?” she asked eagerly.
“Yes, I joined a D&D club and I’ve made a few friends there” he paused “they even invited me to seat with them at lunch tomorrow”
“Well that’s very nice of them, I’m so glad you finally managed to make friends, mom was so worried about you”
“Yeah, yeah,” Mike wanted to change topics, so he quickly added “what about you? Did you join any clubs? Did you meet anyone new?”
“Yes! I’ve actually met a few people, and I was thinking about joining the school paper, their first meeting will be this wednesday”
“Of course, what other club would Nancy Wheeler be joining?” Mike joked, and she laughed at it.
“Hey Nance–” Holly interrupted.
“Yes?”
“There will be a karate club at my school on Wednesdays too, do you think mom would mind if I joined it?” She asked, shooting her puppy eyes at her sister “You could pick me up right after your journal thing” she suggested.
“Yeah, she probably wouldn’t mind, I could sign you up tomorrow after I drop you out” she offered.
“That sounds great, thanks!” she replied with a big smile spread around her face.
After he finished eating, Mike washed his plate and went upstairs to do his homework.
When he opened his bag, he saw his D&D character chart, and he couldn’t stop smiling at it. This instantly brought back the memory of him and Will writing it together.
–––––––
The next day at school felt much lighter than the previous one. Mike knew his way around the school and suddenly everything felt a lot easier.
But today he woke up in a good mood, he couldn’t wait for lunch period, because he was finally going to have friends to sit with at lunch.
Even though many people would think that’s a normal thing, for Mike Wheeler it was completely new.
When he reached his locker, right before his first class, Will was already standing next to it.
He’d completely forgotten that Will and him had their lockers next to each other.
“Hi Will” he greeted him, trying to not act weird, but somehow ending up almost tripping into the air.
“Hey Mike,” Will replied, trying to hold back his laughter “what do you have for the first period today?”
“Let me check out my schedule,” he opened his locker and checked the schedule he’d taped onto it “history, what about you?”
“I have history too! Looks like we’ll have our first class together”
“That’s great! Do you want to sit next to me in class?” Mike wasn’t sure if he should’ve asked that, but he asked anyway.
“Yes of course!” Will replied excitedly.
They grabbed their books and walked their way to class.
The history teacher barely gave them any work to do, all he did was explain his teaching dynamics and what they’d be studying this semester.
His voice made Mike feel very sleepy, he could barely pay attention.
Suddenly he felt a hand tap his shoulder from the left, it was Will.
He looked to his side, Will was handing him a small note. He took it and read what he wrote, “this class is so boring” Mike wanted to laugh at it, but he couldn’t do that right now, so instead he replied to the note with a “yes, I was just about to fall asleep” he handed it back to Will, who – silently – started giggling at what the other boy wrote.
They exchanged notes for the whole class, which made time go by a lot faster.
They kept talking once the bell rang, except this time it wasn’t through a piece of paper.
“Thank god you were here, I wouldn’t have been able to survive this class by myself”
“Yes, it would’ve been awful without you here” Mike replied
“See you at lunch Mike”
“See you Will”
They had to walk their separate ways, since they weren’t set together for the next periods. This meant they would only be seeing each other at lunch.
Mike couldn’t take another second of his Spanish teacher talking, but thankfully, the lunch bell echoed through the hallways, and he was finally free to go.
Today he was quick enough to be one of the firsts in the lunch line. He grabbed his food, and right after that spotted where Will was sitting – along with his friends.
On the table he could recognize Gareth, Jeff, Eddie – who seemed to be having a separate conversation from the younger teens – ,Dustin, Lucas, and of course, Will. But there were also two other girls he recognized from his Spanish class – one of them was a brunette, and the other a redhead.
Mike hesitated a little, but eventually decided to approach the table – instead of just standing there staring at it – “uhh… hey” he waved awkwardly, almost dropping his lunch tray.
“Hi Mike” Will answered – seeming more excited than the others. He pointed to a seat next to him, indicating Mike should sit there.
As soon as Mike sat on the table the redhead looked at him a bit confused “I’m sorry, who are you?”
“Mike, I’ve…” he started, but got quickly interrupted by Will "He joined Hellfire yesterday, and we became friends, so I thought it would be nice to invite him to sit with us at lunch”
“Hi! I’m Jane, I’m Will’s sister” The brunette girl warmly greeted him, “and this is Max” she pointed at the other girl.
“Wow, I had no clue Will had a sister!” Mike said surprised, “Are you guys twins?” he asked.
“I guess you could say that” Will replied, giggling.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s because their parents got married, but they’re not blood related” Dustin interrupted.
“Yes,” Will replied “we’ve been siblings for around five years”.
“I still don’t understand how you guys are not blood related” Mike questions.
“Right? That’s what I’ve been saying this whole time” Lucas quickly added.
Mike got on really well with everyone – except for Max, at first – he never felt so comfortable talking with new people before in his life. Lunch period quickly slipped away, and suddenly the bell was ringing once again, indicating that they should get going to their next classes.
“What classes do you guys have right now?” Jane asked.
“Math” Max replied, seeming a bit sad by it “what about you?”
“History” Jane answered.
“I think I have geography” Will said.
“I think I do too!” Mike added excitedly.
“Lucky” Dustin cut in “I have P.E.” he said with a frown forming on his face.
“I wish I had P.E. right now” Lucas sighed.
They kept discussing their schedules until eventually it was only Mike and Will left. The two boys walked their way to geography class, where the tables were already set in pairs – so they obviously sat together.
The bell rang a second time, indicating that the class should start by now. Their teacher started by making a small introduction and then said “Well, now that I’ve introduced myself and the subject I teach, you will be working in pairs,” Mike shot a glance at Will, who was already staring at him.
“Each pair will have to choose between one of the fifty states of America and do a project about it, you’ll have until next Tuesday to hand it to me. And before anyone asks, you can’t do it about California, since that would be too easy, I want you to learn more about the other states,” the whole class groaned right after the teacher said that “and I recommend you to borrow a few books at the library to research for information.”
Once the teacher was done explaining, Will whispered “what about we head out to the public library today, right after last period? I’m sure they’ll have way more books there, the school library sucks. Trust me."
"Yeah that sounds good”
“We could meet at the parking lot then?”
“Okay”
–––––––
When the last period was over, Mike headed straight to the parking lot, where Will was already waiting for him.
“So… Let’s head to the library?” Will asked – even though it was more of a rhetorical question.