Chapter Text
Will Byers lived a Simple Life. He went to school. He had a good group of friends, but that all changed on one special September day. Will barely remembers the day all he remembers is that he was skipping study hall, and the next thing he knew, he was knocked out in the Boiler room. It didn't take him long to realize that he was a ghost confined to the wall of his high school.
About a week has passed since the incident, and missing posters have gone up all over Hawkins High, and now they are having a pep rally.
Will is observing the people he has gone to school with his whole life as they sit, listening to this stupid speech by Principal Higgins. “Please, if you see anything, tell the authorities. Please". Will sighs, knowing they are going to find his dead body somewhere in a ditch.
As life starts to fade in and out, Robin, his afterlife tour guide, sits down next to him. “ It's a wonderful tribute, at least they chose a good photo”. She says, smiling at him. Will rolled his and tried to focus on the cheerleaders who were now doing a routine.
After it finished through the cheers, he heard the cheerleaders yell, “For Bill’ this pissed him off so much he screamed, “It's WILL!”
Robin gave him this pitying look and then went, “Say it with me, they can't hear you!” her voice booming through the gym. Will storms off, trying to avoid Robin, but Robin is as persistent as she is annoying and gets up and starts following him.
Will truly wishes he were anywhere but here.
-
Will is trying his best to ignore the words coming out of her mouth.
As he's walking down the hall trying to avoid Robin, he is startled by a familiar voice saying, “What are you doing?” will freeze up, believing that the teacher can see him, but he is talking to a group of boys down the hall playing with a soccer ball.
Robin looks at him and sighs and states, “That's one thing that hasn't changed for me. I was invisible then, and I'm invisible now, but at least then high school felt like eternity and now really is.” Will gives her a look and tries to walk away, then he sees Mike looking tired and worn out, hanging missing posters.
Will remembers when he and Mike first became friends. It was the first grade, and he sat alone on the swing that was until Mike came and asked Will if he wanted to be friends. Ever since that day, Mike and Will had been inseparable, barely leaving each other's side, and when they were apart, they were always texting.
Yes, Will had other friends like Dustin, Lucas, and Max, but Mike was his closest friend, the one he confided in the most, the one he was most worried about. Will wishes he were able to tell Mike that he was there to let his presence be known, but he's been trying all week, and the more he tries, the more of his hope is lost.
Will could never really pinpoint the point where he knew he had feelings for Mike; they were just always there, they just never went anywhere because he knew Mike was straight. I mean, he dated Jane for the longest time. Till there rocky brake up a few months ago.
Will soon snaps out of his trance when Robin says, “ Now who’s this cutie you're gawking at?” Will felt appalled that he was not gawking at Mike. Was he?
Robin then goes on and starts to talk about this meeting that she thinks she should go to, something about an afterlife support group.
Will has nothing better to do. What could go wrong?
-
A bit later, Robin leads Will to a spot in the gym where a bunch of other ghosts are sitting.
Will scans the room, looking at all the ghosts around him. There seems to be someone who looks like a jock, a boy in a sweater pouting,
Will feels a little out of sorts and starts to sit down when he is stopped by the boy in the black sweater, who happens to be eating a lollipop. “That's my seat,” he states, taking the lollipop out of his mouth to point in the direction of the dark chair.
He soon finds out the guy with the lollipop is named Steve Harrington. He looks like he's been here since the 60’s but is not sure.
Will soon finds a seat and asks, “Does anyone sit here?”
Robin's face shifts into a frown as she says, “That used to be Henry's seat, but he crossed over about a year ago”. Will was shocked. He knew this whole ghost thing was a shock but the fact that heaven and hell may exist is crazy to him.
Will sits down as the meeting begins.
A tall, younger-looking teacher looks directly at Will and says, “Welcome to the Hawkins High afterlife support group. I'm Mr. Brenner. Nice to meet you, Will.” The rest of the group says, “Hi Will,” in a way that sends chills down Will's spine.
Mr. Brenner keeps going on about how he hopes she has had a good time so far with Robin as his tour guide, when Steve interrupts him, asking Will how he died. This makes him flinch in a way because he doesn't really know the answer to his question.“I was ditching study hall, and then suddenly, I was here. I don't know who did it to me, and they haven't found my body yet”. Mr.Brenner is trying to change the subject, maybe a little too fast, by trying to have the other ghosts introduce themselves, but he is interrupted when Will says, “I don't really remember what happened.” That's when he starts to get looks from the other ghosts. This freaks him out, and he blurts out, “Is that not normal’ and almost in unison, the ghosts shake their heads.
Steve then asks Will, “What do you remember, sweetheart?”
Will tries to remember what happened that day.
-
The morning of the incident, Will was hanging out with Max. Max and Will have only been friends for about a year now and have hung out more than Will and Mike have in the past few weeks. They are cracking jokes about the cheerleaders and how they smile so much. Will really does look up to Max at times. He likes everything about her. Like her style with her almost grunge look, to the way she jokes with him.
When hanging out, he spots Mike walking by as the bell rings. Will excuses himself to walk with Mike to class. He waves goodbye to Max, and he is off.
Once he finally catches up with Mike, he asks him, “So Mike, what did you think of Ghostbusters: Afterlife?”
Mike looks at him and sighs, “Will it be horrible. I mean, Ghostbusters is a classic. How can you remake the magic of the original? It's just not possible," Will starts to giggle as they walk into the building.
In the midst of their jokes, Will breaks through and asks, “Is it ok if Max joins us next weekend at the movies?”
Mike looks at him with shock on his face. “Does she even like the Saw Franchise? I mean, it's not for the faint of heart”. His tone is a bit harsher than it was earlier.
“She will be fine, and I'm pretty sure she's a huge fan. We have talked about it in passing once or twice.” Will is now smiling in the same way he always does when he wants Mike to say yes.
Mike caves in and says, “No, it's fine, she can join us.” He seems upset, but Will can't clock exactly why.
They soon look down and see a student in a tiger costume trying to promote the football game. Will and Mike are dying looking at the poor guy in the suit.
“I hope the sucker is getting extra credit,” Mike blurts out before another fit of laughter comes from them.
As the moment ends, Mike's emotions seem to regulate, and he asks, “How's your mom?”
Will make noticeable changes to something more grim than it was a few seconds before, as this is the one topic he doesn't want to talk about. “ She's fine, I mean, she is sobering up.” Will then cut the tension with a comment to lighten the mood. “Until then, the castle is all mine,” they both break into laughter once again.
Mike then comments, “You know we should have a huge party and invite all of our friends.” They both start giggling again.
Behind them, Lucas and Dustin have arrived, and Dustin enters and says, “Who's throwing a party?”
Will turns and lightens up, “Dustin, Lucas, you guys wanna come to a party at my place?”
Dustin and Lucas both accept the invitation, and Will turns to Mike and says, “There we go, we invited all our friends.”
Mike laughs and says, “It's going to be a rager.”
Mike turns to Lucas and sees him chugging a large can of C4 in the strawberry starburst flavor and asks him, “Why are you drinking that, dude?”
Lucas looks at it and says, “I had a very intense scouting game last night for college basketball, and it was a late night worrying.”
The Party's eyes all open at once as they are celebrating, Will cuts in saying, “Lucas, that's amazing!”
Lucas smiles, “Yeah, the guy from Manhattan College said I was really good.” He will notice a twitch beneath Lucas's eye but chooses to ignore it.
Mike got so excited, “ Looks like the party is going to New York, sayonara, to the shit hole we call Hawkins.” Mike then ends up bumping into a guy walking behind him. Will and Mike both applied to go to NYU, and they strongly believed they would get in even without getting their letter yet.
Will laughs at Mike, “Mike, we haven't even gotten in yet, how do you know we're all going to New York?”
Mike turns and says, “Oh, I know you will believe me, we will get in, we are just that good.”
As they got close to Mr Clarke's class, the bell rang, marking them as late. “Mr. Clarke looks at them and says, " You degenerates are late.”
Lucas looks at him and goes, “I'm not even in your class.”
Mr. Clarke laughs at his comment and says, “Well, you're also late and a degenerate, so it goes for you as well”.
Will walks into his classroom and sees something from the corner of his eye. It's Max sitting in their car. Will is surprised weren't they supposed to be in class. He decides to head down to investigate. “Ummmm, Mr. Clarke, I have to go to the bathroom.”
Mr. Clarke sighs, “This is why we have time in between the bells”.
Will is now halfway out the door, saying, “I know, but I'll be right back”. Will is now running down the hall on his way to see what his good friend Max is up to.
Will is running down to see what she is doing because they were supposed to skip study hall together.
Will finally makes it to the window of Max's truck to see what she is up to. When he asks her what's up, she is surprised and looks like she is hiding stuff. Her phone is flipped around as if something important is on it. Then he spots the real reason Max is in her car. Her pen. Will points it out and says, “Dude, you know those things will kill right”.
Max looks down at her pen and laughs, and says, “Yeah, you caught me, I'm just getting high out of my mind instead of going to the gym.” She starts giggling, but is still tense as if that's not the only reason she is down here.
“So are we still skipping study hall later then” will ask.
Max sighs, “Yes, don't worry, Will. I'll see you later ok.”.
Will smiles, “Alright, see ya later, queen and Max, quit the drugs, I need someone to skip classes with.” Max Laughs, “Don't worry, my dad's the chief of police, if I got caught, then I would have already gotten caught”.Will waves and leaves trying to run back into his classroom. When he passes his personal enemy Jane Hopper. Jane and Will aren't exactly enemies. Jane just dated Mike for a long time and Will was extremely jealous of that. Luckily he never has to worry about her again because a few months ago her and mike went through a horrific break up.
Jane looks at him and runs to the parking lot a few seconds later Will gets a text from Max and immediately his phone dies.
-
Will is stuck looking out the same window she looked out of the day he died.
Robin walks up to him and sighs, “Look, I know I'm not the best tour guide or person to be around, but I'm just trying to make you feel better, and I'm sorry it is just hard to stay hopeful when in our situation. That's why our little group helps. I want to show you something.” Robin continues to walk to an empty class room to show WIll something out the window “This is the marching band. They died in 2008 in a freak accident; they just loop there forever, or there is Dawn, she just sits there, I think she died from a bad acid trip in the 70’s or something, but besides that. Our group really helps. It won't take us back, but it keeps us looking beyond.
Will looks at Dawn with pity and asks, “But there's still a way out, right i mean, didn't Henry make it out?”
“Yeah, but Henry was stuck here since the 50’s,” Robin mentions
Will's face drops, “The 50s, what do you mean he was stuck here for over 70 years!!”
“We don't really know how he ended up crossing over. It happened after a party we had for her,” Robin adds on
Will feels like he is going insane. What do you mean, he could be stuck here forever? He can't do this. Will starts sulking, and it seems Robin may be noticing.
Before she can say anything, he starts to hear commotion coming from Ms.Click's classroom and decides that he should go check it out.
Will is peeking in and seeing what all the yelling is about.
Will is shocked to see Mike and Max fighting. Well, he's not really shocked they do this alot but he was shocked that they were arguing over Will and his well-being.
It seems Mike thinks that Max has something to do with Will's disappearance, but Max is insistent on not knowing anything and is attempting to leave when Mike pulls her bag, and it rips with its contents spilling everywhere, including Will's phone, its yellow plaid case unmistakable.
The room freezes for a second until Dustin mutters a small “Why do you have Will's phone?” The tension in the room felt like it could be cut with a knife.
What the fuck is happening?