Chapter Text
Will opened his eyes and didn’t even have time to process what was happening around him when he sat down on the bed.
“Fuck!” He yelled. “Robin, wake the fuck up, we are going to be so late!”
Robin barely made a grount in acknowledgement, he was still asleep next to him in the bed, just like always the covers of the bed had been thrown to the floor in the middle of the night, but the sun shining in the sky was enough to keep them warm, but the sun also was a sign that it late.
“I’ll see you at school,” Will said as he put his backpack on his shoulders to walk directly to the window. “Don’t be late to the presentation.”
And just like that, Will jumped out of Robin’s window to run back to his house.
It was a routine now.
It was one of them running down the street to make it in time to get ready in his own house before walking to school, this morning it was Will’s turn, he had a really bad nightmare that he barely remembered leaving a note in the fridge before getting out of the house to walk almost in a trance to Robin’s place.
Robin, like every night this happened, opened his window and had a pack of Marlboros ready to go, they smoked by the window without talking before going to sleep.
They had perfected the way they went to each house by the practical use of walkie-talkies. Will had missed using one to talk to friends, he had been really excited to show them how to use them, the channels and talk buttons. They didn’t use them as much as the party did, but they were always ready, sometimes Will woke up with the sound of Finney or Robin asking if anybody was awake, some nighs he answered first, asking if they were coming over or if he should go, others he heard that the other had already answered and sometime he was the one to ask first.
His mother hadn’t been really excited about having her son leave sometimes in the middle of the night, but she had warmed up to the idea when she saw how Will always looked well-rested when he came from those improv sleepovers.
It was a good system, the only thing they hadn’t perfected yet was how to wake up early enough to get back home and ready.
“If we are late because of you.” Eleven warned him as soon as he entered through the door.
“I know, I know. I’m sorry.”
Will called back as he practically ran to the bathroom to take the quickest shower of his life, he was doing everything as quickly as he was able, actually he didn’t want to be late for his presentation on history, the though of having to interrupt a presentation just to enter the classroom with everyone looking at him was to embarrassing to even imagine. He got ready quickly and ran out of the door of his house, following Eleven, who jumped into the car with Jonathan, leaving Will to sit behind.
They had been taking Joyce's car to go to school since Jonathan’s car broke down. Sometimes Argyle took them to school, but his van smelled weird, so Will’s favorite times were when Robin took them.
Robin got his license around February on his sixteenth birthday, not even a broken leg was able to stop him from getting a car, since the cast was on his left leg, he was able to drive just with his right leg, and having worked on cars his whole life, it was easier for him.
His uncles had gifted him a beat-up Mercury Wagon car from the end of the 70’s, and with Robin’s repairs, now it was better than new. Will had seen the same car outside the Wheelers' house a thousand times before, since Nancy had the same one. Sometimes, when Will sat in the back seat, he remembered all the times he was driven around Hawkins by Nancy while he fought with Mike over something dumb, the only difference was the colors.
When they arrived at school, Will saw Robin’s car already parked there, the red and white roof was distinct enough that Will saw it immediately. At least that meant that Robin was not going to be late to their history presentation.
School was still hell, but now for the normal reason school was, now that a couple of months had passed, the news and murmurs started to die down, and it was almost normal.
Will wanted to throw himself out of the window this class, it was going horribly, first Angela’s presentation, how did she have the nerve to present about Helen Keller when she had been so mean to Eleven just because she struggled in social settings. And now a girl next to him, whose name he couldn’t remember for the life of him, was trying to play footsie with him.
It was not clear that he was gay by his presentation in Alan Turing, or by the fact that people had called him every slur under the sun because he was friends with Finney?
Nobody had called him gay since he came out of the basement, but it wasn’t like he stopped being gay just bacuse he was kidnapped, maybe people didn’t see it at something bad enough because the main reason people called him that was because of Moose, and since he hadn’t say a single bad thing to him or Finney people seemed to push that under the rug.
Will dreaded the moment Jane’s name came out of that bowl.
She wasn’t the best with presentations. Sometimes, when she was nervous, she would start to stumble over her words. Will had tried his best to help her write the speech she was going to present and Eleven had chosen to talk about Hopper as her hero. Joyce had even teared up when El had told them the idea.
But she got nervous immediately, forgetting the start of the presentation they had work on together, and started rambling about Hopper, making people laugh, but not in a nice way, people were laughing at her.
Will was baffled, he couldn’t believe that people were still picking on Eleven.
And the worst thing of all, Angele raised her hand to interrupt Jane, with that condescension smirk that she always had on.
“Sorry, I’m just like confused.” Angela’s interrupted. “I thought this was a presentation about a historical hero.
“My dad was in the newspaper.” Eleven defended weakly.
“Your local newspaper?” She asked in a mocking tone, making people laugh around them. “I don’t think this is what Miss Gracey meant by historical. I don’t think that counts to be a hero…”
“He saved many lives in a mall fire.” Her voice began to waver, holding back tears. “He was a hero for many people.”
Will could have slapped each student there, including the teacher, for allowing Angela not only to interrupt the presentation, but also because he was making fun of her, and the teacher didn’t say anything to stop her.
The assignment wasn’t specific enough for what Angela was alleging, he knew that because he had been curious when Eleven said that she wanted to make the project about Hopper, he had made sure to read the instructions a couple of times, and Eleven was not in the wrong. Maybe Jim Hopper was not as well-known as other heroes, but he did meet the criteria.
And he knew that Angela knew that too, but she was making her little show just to humiliate her.
Will needed to say anything, he couldn’t keep letting Angela say those things to his sister, but someone else was faster.
“Well, if Jane is wrong, so am I.” Robin’s voice broke through the classroom, he had a smile on his face, but it was far from the friendly smile that he always threw his way. “I was going to present about the guy who killed the Grabber.”
People didn’t laugh after that.
People didn’t mess with Robin normally, even less when he came back from the Grabber, but the killer of the Grabber was almost a taboo topic. Like they were all too afraid of saying the wrong thing directly to any of them, and the way Robin was speaking to the class was almost like he was begging one of them to defy him.
Robin was threatening the whole class.
“But if you all think that’s not enough to be a hero for this class…”
“I think, Angela, you would have heard exactly why Jane chose her hero if you hadn’t interrupted.” Will found himself saying out loud. Finally, being able to defend Jane just like Robin did. “Why don’t you continue? He was the chief of police, right?”
“Yeah.” Eleven nodded her head, blinking away her tears with a little smile. “My dad, Jim Hopper, was the chief of police in Hawkins, a hero to my small town in Indiana. He was a good man who helped and changed the lives of so many, including mine, especially on Fourth of July…”
And she started saying the speech they had worked on together, it was full of lies about what actually went down there, but she was able to explain how Hopped had been the hero of that night, it was nice seeing her finally being able to present, even when she was still a little shaken up from what Angela had said.
People actually clapped when she finished her presentation.
The teacher just quietly thanked her for the presentation and moved on to the next kid, which in s funny turn of events was actually Robin, who the teacher didn’t even allow to present, telling him that he would get an A for “living history” in her words. Robin was quite pleased with that turn of events.
Will wasn’t sure he would be able to just talk about what happened in that basement so freely, or maybe Robin had been bluffing and was never intending to present about Finney, but it had worked out in the end.
The second they were out of the classroom and into the hall, Eleven threw herself to hug both Robin and Will.
“Thank you, thank you!”
“Don’t thank us,” Robin laughed. “I was saying that to save my ass, if you failed the assignment, so did I.”
“Did you actually make your assignment about Finney?” Will cound’t help but ask.
“Why can I say? he is my hero.” Robin put his hands to his heart in a dramatic fashion, making the Byers siblings laugh.
The rest of his school day had not been as chaotic, and it had been a really peaceful day, like the perfect calm before the storm, but maybe Will felt that way because he was the one who was about to explode because Mike was coming tomorrow. But the peace outside of his mind couldn’t stay like that forever, the second he came out of the school to wait for his friends to go back to school, he realised there was a group of people in a circle, looking down at somebody on the floor.
A familiar image that he had seen a couple of times when he saw Robin fighting with Moose and his friends, but that hadn’t happened in months, still, he walked to the group quickly, afraid that someone else had started a fight with Robin again. But what was in front of him was even worse than he imagined.
The one on the floor that people were making fun of was none other than Eleven.
“What the fuck Angela.” Will pushed through the crowd to help Eleven stand. “Leave my sister alone.”
“She tripped. Didn’t you, Jane?” Angela asked in that sweet tone that he hated.
“If you don’t leave her alone.” He was not like Robin, his threat lacked any type of real danger, and Angela could see that, since she only scoffed in response.
“What are you gonna do? Kill me?”
That made the crowd murmur, and Will wasn’t sure what he was supposed to answer her, he wanted to yell at her to tell her that she had no idea how it actually felt like to be there, to yell how guilty some nights he felt of leaving Finney being the one who stained his hands with blood. But he stayed silent.
“Miss Angela!” A teacher seemed to notice the commotion and immediately put an end to it. People started scattering away, leaving only Angela’s friends and the Byers.
“I wasn’t- I didn’t-” Angela tried to defend herself.
“You are coming with me.”
The teacher practically dragged Angela to the office, while Will got to the floor to help Eleven pick up the pieces of her broken diorama, his heart broke for her, she had put so much effort into this stupid presentation, and Angela had ruined it for her twice.
“Are you okay?” Will asked, but Eleven was not looking at him. “We can fix that, don’t worry. Let’s go with Robin, he can drive us home.”
Will had to catch Robin in the parking lot, and quickly they were both seated in the back seat, Finney in the passenger seat.
“You’ll think she would learn.” Robin said after Will explained what had happened with Angela.
“At least Moose is not back at his old ways.” Finney said with a little smile.
“Small mercies.”
“I can teach you how to throw a punch if you want, Jane.” Robin offered after a couple of seconds, looking through the rearview mirror at Eleven. “I’ll pay good money to see you punch the lights out of her.”
“Maybe you should teach me.” Eleven answered softly.
At least being in the car with the boys made her feel better, Will was worried about her, he couldn’t believe Angela was still being a bitch to her. But at least they were not going to see her for these two weeks.
Will noticed that Robin was taking the slowest route to their house, purposefully missing turns so they could be in the car longer, so Eleven could keep singing the songs on the radio. He appreciated his friends, they both really cared about both of them.
“What time do you have to go to the hospital?” Will asked after a couple of seconds.
“Around ten, I can’t wait to get this cast off me,” Robin answered. “You guys coming with us?”
“We are picking Mike up around that time tomorrow.” Eleven paused her singing to answer Robin.
Will ignored the looks both Finney and Robin were giving him through the rearview mirror.
“Can’t wait to meet him,” Finney said, polite as ever. “Maybe we should do something together, the five of us, since Gwen is going on vacation with her friend’s family.”
“That would be so fun!”
Will didn’t want to imagine what kind of mess being around both Mike and these two, especially considering how jealous and distrustful he was of strangers who talked to his friends, he remembered how bad things had been when Max joined initially, and she was a really cool girl.
He didn’t know how he was going to take Robin’s and Finney’s presence around Eleven, since he didn’t know they were gay and dating each other, they were still really close to her and even a little touchy. Maybe Mike would be a little jealous.
Will didn’t think Mike would mind at all the fact that they were both friends with him, since Mike hadn’t cared about him in months, probably would have already forgotten that he even existed if it wasn’t because he was living in the same house as his girlfriend.
“So are you asking Dina out?” Eleven asked out of the blue, Will wouldn’t have known she was talking to him if it wasn’t because she was looking directly at him.
“Who?”
“The one that sits next to you in history?” She asked like Will was dumb.
And that was a fair assumption to make, because he didn’t know a single girl’s name of that class or any of his classes actually, he only knew Angela because she had made herself really known to the point he couldn’t avoid her, but this girl? He was barely aware she even existed until today, and that was because she had made the effort of putting her foot in his leg and batting her lashes at him, but even then, that was not enough for him to know her name.
“Wait, Dina Jones is into Will?” Finney asked, clearly more aware of who they were talking.
“She was staring at Will for all of class.”
“She has been doing that for the whole year.” Robin added laughing, explaining to Finney to give him the context of what was going on in history class, but Will also needed that context, because it was the first time he was hearing about this girl being into him.
“Oh my god!” Eleven said delighted with the information. “You should totally ask her out.”
“I’m not going to do that…” Will said dismissively.
He really didn’t want to do that, he couldn’t picture a worse scenario for himself than that, actually. Will didn’t want to string along a girl just to fit in, it was not fair for him or the girl, he would be playing with her feelings, knowing that he could never love her back.
Will loved Eleven, she was his sister, but he couldn’t explain that to her right now, not when Mike was coming over and was spending the whole break under the same roof. Maybe after Mike goes back home, he will explain to El why he will never have a girlfriend.
“Why not?”
“Leave it Jane.” Robin told her softly. “Finding young love is not for all of us.”
Robin and Finney exchanged a private glance at the mention of love, Will was too busy looking at them to notice the sour expression on his sister's face at the mention of the same word.
Lucky for him, Robin had already arrived at their house.
“Thanks for the ride!” Will said, opening the car door.
“Calls us when Romeo lands!”
Mike was stressed.
Why didn’t he pack before the game?
Now it was around midnight, and he was throwing random stuff in his backpack, unsure of what he should be wearing in California, he didn’t want to look bad and out of place there, but he was so lost about the whole thing. Max hadn’t been helpful when he asked what type of clothes they were there, so he was going in blind.
But not everything was bad, at least they had an amazing game. Erica had been an amazing player, Dustin had been right at picking her to be Lucas’ replacement for the night, it would have been better if Lucas was there too, but he had picked his dumb basketball game over them, where he probably only warmed the bench once again.
Eddie was an amazing Dungeon Master, his campaign with the cult of Vecna had been incredible, and he was breathtaking when he started getting into the story. Mike usually liked being the DM in his party, but he enjoyed being a player too, and every time he looked down at the stats of his Paladin, he thought back to the abandoned campaign that Will had created.
Sometimes he thought back to that day with a lot of shame. That had been the last campaign he had played with Will. He wondered if he still played D&D in California, if he had found a new party.
When he was satisfied with what he had packed, he left everything at the side of his bed, and Eleven’s present was in his desk, he had handpicked the flowers from his neighbor's garden when he came home from Hellfire’s. Mike had picked a lot of yellow flowers and a couple of blue, because that was her favorite color, right? At least that was what he remembered, he had been drawn to the yellow flowers.
Mike threw himself into his bed and tossed and turned for a couple of hours, unable to actually go to sleep before his alarm went off around 5 a.m.
His dad drove him to the airport in quiet judgment before he went to his job, and yes, his outfit was a little too summery for Hawkins, Indiana, but it was going to be what people wear in California. He went through the motions in silence, too tired to care about anything actually. Mike fell asleep on the plane, and when he opened his eyes, he was already in California.
He took a deep breath in as he walked out of the plane.
This was going to be a good, normal , easter-break with his girlfriend, whom he liked very much, and her family. Her family, which he had known longer than she had. A family that for years he had been considered a part of for his connection to Will, his best- his friend.
Everything was going to be okay.