Chapter Text
The morning heat of summer was nice, a breath of fresh air. Will sat on his bed, rubbing his neck, stiff for his way a sleeping.
Today was when he was supposed to be drop off at summer camp, dustin went when they were younger and they all agreed one year they would go together. Now at 19 , he would be more of a camp counselor less a camper but still, it would still be fun!
Will stretched his arms and stood up, walking over to his dresser, thinking about what he could take to summer camp, he really only needed shorts since they would give him a camp shirt once he got there.
Will grabbed a random smiths shirt and put it on, then grabbed some shorts, not too long but not short enough to be considered booty shorts and slid them on. After that, he grabbed his bracelets , some were brownish and others were bright yellow beaded ones.
Will finally finished getting dressed and walked back to his bed and grab his phone, sliding it into his pocket and grabbing his headphones and putting them around his neck. He grabbed book bag and packed what he needed, shorts, underwear, socks and sunscreen just in case.
He walked over his room and walked to the bathroom, grabbed his toothbrush and started to bush his teeth. He looks up after finishing brushing his teeth and grabs his hairbrush, he's grown it out a bit, just enough to put it into a pony tail.
he laughs softly to himself and puts his hair in a low pony , then he walks out and to the kitchen. Jonathan was already making breakfast and Joyce was making coffee. "Morning Jonathan" will said softly "Morning will, how was sleep bud?" Jonathan muttered as he cooked the eggs "pretty good, can't wait for summer camp..i wonder who my campers might be.." will said as he walked over to his mom. "morning mom" will said "morning honey" Joyce said "hopper is outside waiting to drive you & jane camp" Joyce acknowledged.
Jane walked out her room and smiled, "morning you guys" she announced. she was so ready. After eating breakfast with each other, Jane and Will both stand up to go out side so hopper can dive them.
"There you guys go, took you guys long enough." Hopper groans as he honks as a joke, Will laughs softly as Jane nods "Sir yes Sir" Jane jokes as she walks to the back seat with will. they place their bags on the ground of the car and nod to hopper.
as the drive starts up, Will looks over at Jane "so.. .are you really ready Jane?" will asks "yeah, i'm ready..i know me and mike had a messy break up but we are still friends." Jane murmurs and Will nods.
The drive was Nice, most of it was quiet and Will was listening to music. Finally Hopper pulled up to the camp, the big sign saying "welcome to hawkins camp" in big bold font.
"Well..i'll see you after summer kiddos, call if you need anything." Hopper says, Jane and Will nod and take their bags as they start to walk into the camp.
Dustin notices them first, "Jane! Will!" Dustin yells happily as he runs to them and pulls them into a big hug, Jane smiles softly and Will chuckles. "Hey dustin, happy to see you too" will says. Max and Lucas look over "Dustin don't smother them, you have all summer for that.." Max says as she jogs over and pushes dustin away and hugs Jane and Will softly "you guys..i'm so happy your made it." Max says softly, Lucas smiles from afar and nods, He looks over at Mike, Who's leaning up against a tree. The group meets up and start talking about how much they are gonna do at the camp and how excited they are to meet campers.
Then out of nowhere, a loud car engine could be heard coming straight for the camp, and the person in hawkins with the loudest car could only be know as.."STEVE! holy shit! yall steve is here!" Dustin yells as runs over to the car as it parks. "Steve, what are you doing here?" dustin questions, he looks into the car and is met face to face with some boy around his age. "Who's this?" dustin says "uh, this is Ryan, His my Cousin from Cali, you know, he wanted to try the hawkins summer, so he's here" Steve says "Hey dude, you must be dustin." Ryan says as he starts to get out the Car "mind showing me to your friends?" Ryan asks and Dustin nods.
Dustin walks Ryan over to his friends. "So..Ryan, This is Lucas, Max, Mike, Jane..and Will" Dustin says softly "Huh.." Ryan looks at all of Dustin's friends, Then walks over to Will "Hey Cutie..you seem like the artsy type, am i right?" Ryan questions, Will blushes "ah..yeah, i am, are you?" will asks "i dabble here and there" Ryan says as he places his hand on Will's shoulder.
Everyone in the group looks at each other, but Mike scrunches up his face and balling his fist, Mike grabs Will wrist and nods "we better get going to the center, the campers are coming soon and we need to get our groups assigned.." Mike grumbles as he pulls Will to the center of the camp. Everyone one nods and follows along
the group stand in the center as a bus of kids roll in, the Camp director starts pointing them to the center as well, Once everyone is in the middle, The camp director blows a whistle. "okay! hey everyone! i'm the camp director, i'll be putting camp counselors together, then i'll be putting campers with said counselors!" the camp directors says. he looks around and starts counting in his head. "about 16 counselors. so 8 groups with 3 counselors in them! alright, tell me your names then make your groups." the director says, the counselors do as their told.
"Will, come on, us?" Mike ask, smiling softly "Yeah, we'll have to find a third tho" Will noted, just as that comes out Will's mouth, Ryan appears behind Mike "I could be y'all's group" He announces "Well we-" Mike murmurs as he looks around , everyone is already in groups, Max, Jane and some random girl, some with Lucas and Dustin, they were with someone already. "Fine.." Mike groans.
The camp directors notices the groups are all done and nods "okay! great, just like i needed! okay, campers, you can make your groups..and find a group of counselors!"
The campers start making groups and walking to counselors. A small girl, wearing a bright pink, yellow and blue striped shirt paired with big baggy jorts. Her pig tails bounced as she ran, pulling her friend along side her, a taller girl with long black hair that was wearing a baggy black jacket that said had a deftones logo.
"Come on Come on, let's go Gabby, those counselors look cool! he has a smiths shirt" the smaller girl says pulling her friend. "the smaller appears in front of Will "h-hey.." she says "i'm jackie.."
Will and Mike look down, "oh, hi there" Will says softly "I'm Will, this is Mike, and that's Ryan" he introduces himself and the other two. the taller girl nods and looks over at Mike, smiling awkwardly. "And your?" Will asks. "oh..hey, i'm gabby, but just call be gab" gabby mumbled. Will nodded and Mike smiled back.
"Well, that's 2, we need how much more? 4? how about i go get some, i've got a cool counselor aura" Ryan hypes himself up, Will nods and Mike groans.
Ryan leaves for a bit until he comes back with 4 more kids, 2 boys and 2 girls. "Here we go! let's get our cabin now so we can get the best one, you know what they say, early bird gets the worm." Ryan declared and started guiding the group to where he thinks the cabins might be.
they start walking down the trail, trying to find the cabins. "huh..not this way..uhm.." Ryan says as he looks around, Mike groans "oh my lord dude..look, that way! there's signs for a reason." Mike points and starts walking in the right directions "there's signs for a reason" Ryan mocks "whatever..". Will looks back and smiles at the campers.
Once they finally get there, they are the last ones. Mike walks to a cabin, with a number 7. "looks like we're cabin 7" he mutters. grabbing the handle and opening the door. He walks in and looks around. "There is shirts on the beds, seems like the campers have a side and the counselors have a side." Mike announces and walks in fully.
The campers pick their bed. jackie and gab sharing a bunk bed. Mike walks back to the counselors beds and nods. "well..here we go, our beds and shirts" Mike notes "yeah, thanks Mike for helping.." will said softly as he walked past mike to the three beds that were lined up, unlike the bunk beds.
later that day, Will was sitting on one of the random wooden benches that were placed around the whole camp. Then, Jackie slowly walked up to him "hey..will" jackie murmured, will could sense that jackie was nervous and smiled "what's up? where's you friend?" Will asks "she's talking with some of the other campers..said she wants to try and fit in" she continues "oh..it's okay, we can be friends, tell me more about you!" Will pats her shoulders and widens his smile. Will remembers how when him and Mike were younger, Mike never wanted to fit in but didn't always wanted to stand out. "Well..me and Gab got into something called DND, my dad used to play it with his friends when he was younger" jacki starts "uh, it's super fun, i'm the sorcerer and Gab swears she plays the best paladin." She continues, Will eyes widen and chuckle softly "that's..funny, and super adorable" Will chuckles out "And uh..gab has a boyfriend, he just moved here and i don't really like him! she always hangs out with him instead of me.." Jackie whines and mops slightly "it's okay, she knows you're her best friend and she'll always come back to you even if when she's mad" Will says as he pats Jackie's head.
Will and Jackie sit there talking back and forth, for a 13 year old, she's really set on how she won't ever fall in love with a boy, and that reminds Will of how he acted before he came out. They bond over shared interest like dnd, painting and crafts.
then out of no where Gabby comes running to jackie "Jackie! why did you leave the cabin, i'm sorry i was ignoring you" Gab says as she runs straight up to her and Will. "huh..there she is" Will giggles and stands up "How about i go get the other counselor and we can head to the lunch area..i think it's almost time anyway" Will says as he ways his hand for them to follow, and they shimmy behind him as they argue.
Once they end up in the lunch room, Will stops and turns to the girls "hey, how about you go get food, i'm gonna find mike and uh..ryan". Will turns to left and starts walking around the lunch area, he looks around and then feels a soft hands on his shoulder, thinking it's mike he smiles softly and turns slightly "Mike, is that you?" He says turning and then is met face to face with ryan "hey cutie, i'm not mike but mike is following somewhere behind me with the other campers" Ryan chuckles as he admits just leaving mike with all the other campers "You left him? how far behind is he?" Will asks , kinda annoyed "Not too far..but come on will, talk to me , i wanna learn more about you bud.." Ryan explained.
Will stared at Ryan for awhile, then chuckled softly. "Okay Ryan, let's get food and sit, then i'll correctly introduce myself..".
Will and Ryan enter the line for food, grab some food, a ham and cheese sandwiches with a cold colas. Then they walk to go sit somewhere in the somewhat large camp cafeteria, Will sits first and then slides over so Ryan can sit next to him.
"So hey, tell me about you Will.." Ryan teases "Well, i paint but you could tell that..i do play DND, and uh..i occasionally skate, well, when im with Max, you probably have met her yet, she's one of my friends and also a counselor here." Will tries his best not to sound awkward "Huh? DND, steve said some stuff about that in the ride here, just like how dustin tried to make him play one year when one of yall didn't want to." Ryan admits "Well since you i made you introduce yourself, i should to" Ryan says, "Well, i'm from cali, and im steve's cousin, you know that" ryan starts "uhmm, i surf, play football—I'm the QB actually" Ryan continued, smiling softly, slowly putting his hands on Will's thigh as he talks "and i like to occasionally write music. i'm a cool guy Will" Ryan finished, as he started to smile lopsided, Will giggled and put his hands Ryan's on his leg "Yeah, your a really cool dude"
For a second Will let himself feel admired by Ryan, but then it hit him, he's not getting that feeling, that warm feeling in the pit of his stomach like he gets with Mike, like he only gets with Mike.
Ryan and Will stayed like that for a while, Long enough for them not notice Mike walked in with the rest of the campers, even got them their food and sat them down. When Mike got his own food he noticed Will and started walking to where he was sitting, he wasn't too close but close enough to notice Ryan and Will were practically holding hands. Mike furrowed his brows and slammed his tray of food right infront of Ryan and Will. Making Will jump almost immediately.
"Mike! there you are" Ryan exclaimed "Yeah..hey Ryan" Mike murmured as he sat infront of them. "So..uhm..what were you guys talking about?.." Mike said as he slowly rub his face, fixing his glasses as he did "Nothing, Ryan was just introducing himself." Will tried to explain "We were getting cozy" Ryan jokes, Mike gulps and hits the table with his hands, "f-fuck!.." he groans, Will lets go of Ryan's hand almost immediately and grabs Mike "Hey, watch it, don't hurt yourself, Silly" Will smirks as he pats Mike's hand, Mike blushes and nods "Yeah.."
Lunch goes on for bit, after it, Mike, Will and Ryan meet back up with their campers.
Gab and Jackie were holding hands as they walking behind Will and Mike, whispering to each other.
"i think Mike likes Will" Jackie mutters, "Why do you say that..." gab asks "Well, i saw him staring at his lips earlier when we were lining up" Jackie snickers "and his butt" she giggles fully "Jackie!" Gab yells quietly. When jackie is talking about other stuff, about her family, Gab takes the opportunity to slowly lower her eyes to Jackie's lips, staring softly and smiling as she does.
They walk along the trail and make their way back to the cabin 7, Once they make it inside, Some of the camps were already getting ready to take naps, some were chatting and others were kinda just chilling.
Will sat on his bed, it was next to Mikes. Mike sat down on his bed "So..liking camp so far?" Mike asks "Uh, yeah , it's pretty good so far" Will answers back "what time do we go to that camp fire thing.." He questions "Oh, it's around 8pm" Mike answers back, Will nods and smiles softly.
during waiting for time to pass, Mike & Will tell Ryan they are gonna step out for a while and go for a walk, Ryan nods and says he can hold up the campers
Mike and Will walk across the trail's making sure not to go too deep into the camp forest "So..what's up Mike?" Will questions "Uh..i just..wanna tell you, me and Jane recently broke up, but we don't know how to tell the group" Mike admits, Will's eyes widen , he just broke up with Jane? Why? what could have happened? "O-oh my, what happened? was it mutual" Will mutters as he turns to mike "uh, well..yeah it was mutual, but i'm not sure i'm really ready say what happened..." Mike admits as he looks away, blushing slightly, he can't tell Will that he likes him, Mike can tell Will likes Ryan and he doesn't wanna ruin him and Will friendship "O-oh, yeah, that's okay." Will smiles and rubs Mike's arm, Slightly grabbing Mike's bicep.
Mike gulps, staring at Will's face for a while. "H-How about we head back to the cabin, i think it's almost time for the campfire.." Mike murmurs.
Will and Mike walk together, as they walk it's pretty silent Will can't stop thinking about how Mike is broken up With el, Maybe he can make a move? No, not yet, will doesn't even know if mike is bi, or gay or whatever!
They arrive by the cabin and notice it's about time for the campfire, so they go up to the door and knock on it "Guys, let's go, campfire time" Mike yells as he opens he knocks, the door opens and Gab is standing there "oh..hey there counselor mike, it's almost time for the camp fire? i'll go tell Ryan." Gab nods and runs to go tell Ryan.
Will and Mike look at each as they wait, then slowly Ryan comes out "It's almost time?" He asks "Yes, okay..come on!" Mike groans and he swats his hand.
Finally they start walking to the campfire, once they arrive, they notice most of the people are there and groan, their last again.
Will looks around trying to find Max, once he spots her, she's sitting with Jane, He smiles and runs over to them, Sitting down right by them. "You guys having a good time?" Will asks, Max and Jane nod "Pretty good, we went down to the dock with our campers, and their super sweet and they really like us. me and Max feel like moms" Jane explains as she blushes, Will's eyes widen, then he smiles softly, Jane likes Max, Max probably doesn't even know!
all of a sudden, Mike plops beside Will. "Hey guys, camp going good?" Mike asks Max and Jane, "yeah! pretty good, it's been great to be honest" Max admits, Smiling happily as she looks over at Jane then back at Will and Mike.
Then Dustin and Lucas run over "Hey yall!" Dustin yells as he approaches everyone "Oh, Hey you guys" Will waves them over "Come sit" Mike gestures them over.
They continue to talk, the camp fire around them sizzle, some campers run around, some roast marshmallows mellows and other just sit and talk to their friends.
They talk and talk, wondering how this summer at camp will go.