Chapter Text
Will could hear the clock tick as he marked yet another red X on a student named Derek’s test.
Who in the world thinks that the war of 1812 was in 1923? It’s literally in the name…
He tried to shrug it off, he knew that Derek had fallen asleep in class during the review, so nobody could really blame Will. Being a teacher always kept you on your toes. As he continued grading the tests of the week before, the boredom seemed to be too much. The clock seemed to get louder and louder as the absolute silence in the classroom drilled into his skull. He had been teaching American history at Hawkins High School since he got his teaching degree around 4 years ago. In the beginning, it seemed so exciting, but as he settled in, it just got less and less interesting.
Will put down Derek’s work into the graded pile, and picked up the next one. He sighed as he marked the first answer wrong on Holly’s test. She was a little more disappointing. After all, that was his star student. He shuffled up all of the papers, after finally reaching the bottom of the insurmountable stack after what seemed like hours. In reality, it had only been 20 minutes. Will didn’t even have that many papers to grade, he had a fairly small class. Of course, Hawkins was a pretty small town. He looked over to his left, where there was another pile of homework that just got turned in. Will sighed. All of the grading he had to do was a prison of his own making, so he couldn’t complain.
Anything to get the state-mandated test scores up.
The only way you could make high schoolers pay attention to anything you said was by putting something on their grade.
As he was just about to start on the next mind-numbing stack of papers, footsteps echoed through the halls and into his classroom through the open doorframe. The clacking of two pairs of shoes on the linoleum floors was too loud to miss in his silence. Will could vaguely hear two voices talking, one that he recognized as belonging to his sister, Jane, the principal at Hawkins; and because of that, Will had to fight really hard to avoid being accused of nepotism, telling Jane to avoid pulling any strings so that he could earn his spot there. The second voice was one that Will didn’t recognise. Because it was such a small school, he knew everyone there personally.
Although Will tried to complete the task he knew that he needed to do instead of running off, he couldn’t help himself. The pages still left to grade were boring and dull, and the mystery person was new and exciting. He stood up from his rolling chair at his desk and walked towards the doorframe. His timing was perfect, reaching the hallway right as the duo passed him.
“....Faculty lounge is right over here, just past your room and- Oh! Hello Mr. Byers!”
Will made eye contact with Jane. Her wavy hair was loosely styled into a low bun, a blue bandana tied with a bow acting as a headband. She was currently wearing a green and orange pullover sweatshirt with a tiger across it.
“Hi Jane!” Will smiled. Jane smiled back, and turned to the stranger. “This is William Byers, he teaches history. You two are room neighbors!”
Will turned and smiled at the stranger. He had short curly black hair that reached just below his ears, round wire framed glasses, and a blue button down shirt. He smiled when they made eye contact, which emphasized his sharp cheekbones. The way he looked at Will made him feel like he had known him forever. His brown eyes seemed to light up the whole room, with flecks of gold that danced in the fluorescent lighting. He was around 6 inches taller than Will, so he was looking up towards the stranger. Will felt his breath catch a little.
Shit.
“Hi, I’m Michael. Michael Wheeler.”
He took a pause, his face looking deep in thought.
“Y’know what? That’s weird, scratch that. Just call me Mike, everyone does.”
Will tried to fix his face, realizing that his eyes were wide. It took him a second to figure out that Mike’s hand was outstretched. Will reached out and shook it, the contact sending electricity through his entire body.
Will choked on his words before he spoke, but finally managed to stutter out an introduction.
“Um, I’m Will.” The words came out a second too early, as realization hit a moment later.
“Wait… you already knew that.”
Oh my god- I’m such an idiot…
He sighed and put a hand over his eyes, looking down and trying to avoid eye contact. Mike let out a laugh, and Will felt his face grow warm. Blushing was his tell, he did it whenever he got embarrassed.
Unfortunately, it got him into… interesting situations at times.
He looked down to try and hide his embarrassment. “Will, Mike is the new English teacher.” Jane smiled. With her mouth meshed together tightly, she looked like she was trying not to giggle. Will’s pain was always comedic to her, it was a classic sibling dynamic. She always wished for the best for him, but whenever he had a hard time getting it, she didn’t seem to have a hard time enjoying it either.
Oh god- was I really that obvious?
“Well, it was nice to meet you, Will!” Mike looked down at Will’s shirt, noticing his button. “By the way, I like your pin!” Mike smiled, gesturing towards the pin on his left shoulder. Will looked down by instinct. He was wearing his pride pin, the MLM flag. He had always been drawn to it since his coming out. The green and blue melting together in the middle was so vibrant, and Will had always felt like it encapsulated the spirit of love. Jane had convinced him to start wearing it to school to let queer students know that they had a safe space. Hawkins wasn’t necessarily conservative, but they sure as hell weren’t liberals either.
“Thanks!” Will blushed, again. As soon as he realized he was doing it, he became even more embarrassed, and blushed even harder.
So there was a chance.
“Well, there still is a lot to cover with our tour, so you two can talk later. Oh! And Will, we still need four more chaperones for homecoming on the 25th. Please tell me if you are even remotely interested- it’s been so hard convincing anyone after last year’s fiasco.” Jane sighed.
“What happened last year?” Mike puzzled. Will looked him dead in the eyes with a serious face. “Mr. Henderson’s class pet salamander got loose and fell in the punch bowl.” Will solemnly recalled, making an expression like a soldier discussing the war.
“Yikes.”
“Yeah.”
“That reminds me,” Jane continued, “He still owes me after that, so don’t doubt that I'll get him roped in.”
“The salamander or Mr. Henderson?” Will joked. Knowing Jane, he wouldn’t put it above her to force the lizard into community service as well. She responded by giving Will one of her famous eye rolls, making Mike laugh.
“Now we only need three.” Upon saying it, Jane elbowed Will and Mike, raising her eyebrows hopefully.
“Well, I’ll let you know.” Will sighed dramatically as he rolled his eyes, returning the earlier favor.
“I think that's our cue to leave, let's see your new room!” Jane laughed, motioning Mike towards the room across the hall. He turned around one more time before following her, and shot Will a little awkward wave. Will giggled, and gave Mike one back in return. After they left, Will headed back into his room and sat back down at the tower of papers. He looked down at his pin, his brain swirling with thoughts trying to process what had just happened.
How in the world could he be so cute… but did I even have a chance with him?
Did Mike even know what the pin meant? Maybe he’s just one of those straight people constantly trying to prove that they’re allies…
Was I too obvious?
No, I couldn’t be, it’s just that Jane knows me like the back of her hand, and she can always see right through me.
Was that why she put him in the room across from me?
Will forced himself to stop, his constant spiraling never helped anyone with anything, it only stressed him out more.
It was just a workplace crush. That was it.
Will turned to look back over to his desk to see that his work grading papers was cut out for him. After another dramatic sigh, he popped in his airpods and played his specially curated playlist, consisting mainly of Chappell Roan, Conan Gray, and Sabrina Carpenter. He had gotten about halfway through the massive stack of papers when he heard a faint knock on his door. He could barely hear it over the blasting of “Nobody’s son”,
God, Sabrina must have known me personally for that one. Seriously, where are the cameras??
He took off his earbuds and put them back in their yellow polka dot case. Standing at the door was Jane, who had taken the liberty of opening the door, and was currently leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed, and a smug smile across her face. Will rolled his eyes.
“What?”
Jane unfolded her arms, clutching them behind her back. She looked around the room, feigning innocence as she approached him.
“Oh, I don't know… just contemplating.” Will groaned.
“Uh huh.”
“Contemplating life.”
“Sure.”
“Thinking about stuff.”
Will broke with a sigh. Jane obviously wanted him to ask what she was thinking about. If he didn’t, this conversation could (and would) go on for hours.
“What stuff?”
“Just the fact that somebody in this room has a crush on the new teacher.” Jane smirked, leaning in, her voice a stage whisper.
“And it isn’t me.”
Will groaned again. “Jane….” He whined.
“Don’t you dare ‘Jane’ me. I wasn’t the one making goo goo eyes at our new coworker.” “I’m not even sure if I really like him! After Chance, I’m not really ready to jump right back into the dating pool.” He reasoned. “Yeah well- I hope you can swim, because someone just shoved you into the deep end.” Jane looked serious. “And I am not dealing with another six months of you being sad and lonely.” “But I’ve only been single for 2 months?” Will questioned, a confused look on his face.
“I meant what I said.” Jane interjected. “You don’t have to be alone to be lonely.” She looked into his eyes, dead serious.
“Listen,” The tone shifted dramatically from playful banter to genuine concern. “We all knew Chance wasn’t the one for you. Me, our parents, hell- even Uncle Murray.” Will laughed at that. Uncle Murray was an oddball, showing up at random family events whenever he pleased. Will wasn’t totally sure if they were even related, let alone how or why their family knew him. He asked his mom once, but Joyce just laughed and said, “He’s how I met your father!” Which really didn’t clear anything up for him.
“But we love you, and didn’t want to ruin it if he did genuinely make you happy- except you never were. You distanced yourself from us, and I was really afraid that I was going to lose you. Not physically, but that you would… lose yourself. That you would forget what you wanted for yourself. I cannot tell you how relieved I was when I heard you broke up.” Jane shook her head, and adjusted her glasses. “But I really think you did lose part of yourself in the breakup. Not anything you have to find in yourself or whatever. You just lost… being happy all the time. He was a toxic manipulator who managed to convince you that you couldn’t be loved in that way. And the thing is, I know you can. I really think you should find someone who genuinely brings you that kind of happiness. A kind that I can’t.” Will snorted. “And you want me to find it in the new high school English teacher? Pretty specific.”
Jane squinted her eyes. “I’m not saying it has to be him, just that you should think about who could do that for you. Put yourself out there. But hey, I mean, if you don’t like the options in front of you, dating apps are always a thing.”
“No.”
“I rest my case.”
Jane smirked, punching his shoulder playfully as she stood up from the desk she was leaning on. “I love you.”
Will smiled back.
“I love you too.”
Just as he was about to put his headphones back in, he heard her call from the hallway.
“I wasn’t kidding about that chaperone thing!”
He groaned, put his headphones back in, and got back to work.