Chapter Text
Summer vacation in California. You would think that it would be a dream come true for anyone – except Will Byers was beginning to think of it as a nightmare. Don’t get him wrong, it’s nice to have the warmer weather and enjoy walking around the new town, but he kind of misses Hawkins and his old haunts. Okay, maybe it’s better that he doesn’t have to worry about bullies at every corner, but he has no more friends here than he had in Hawkins, which is zero.
It wouldn’t have been so bad if his brother were here – but Jonathan was already at college, or the town of his college, where he was working on getting a good part-time job and an apartment. And since his mom started her new job, she doesn’t have time for him either.
So, here he is. All alone. Walking around town, in the summer heat, like the lonely loser he is. A week ago, Will had been full of high hopes that the move would mean a new beginning. Outside of Hawkins, he could be free to reinvent himself and perhaps gain some friends.
But since the school year hadn’t started, he was having trouble finding anyone his age to be friends with. Little did he know, today that was all going to change. Starting with a skateboard.
“Watch out!”
“Oof-”
The momentum of the skateboard that had hit Will caused him to fall backwards onto the ground.
“Shit, are you okay?”
“Dustin, I swear to god, if you just killed someone with my skateboard–”
“Forget about the dumb board, Max. If he’s killed someone, Dad’s gonna kill us.”
Will groaned as he opened his eyes and lifted himself onto his elbows. He blinked several times and stared at the arguing trio standing around him. There was one boy with dark brown curls partially hidden under a baseball cap, a girl with red hair that had been braided into two braids that rested on each of her shoulders, and another boy with longer black hair that was currently tied back in a short ponytail.
The second boy squatted down beside Will and waved at him. “Hey, can you hear us?”
Will realised that the group had asked him a question. “Sorry, what?”
“We asked if anything hurts?” The boy repeated.
“Oh. Um, no. I think I’m fine.”
“Are you sure? You landed pretty hard.”
“I’m okay, really. I’ve taken harder knocks than that.” Will declared with a slightly awkward smile.
Honestly, he did feel fine. His butt hurt a bit, but his pride was wounded more than anything else. How could he embarrass himself like that? In front of a hot guy no less!
He looked around Will’s age, with dark eyes and lightly freckled skin. He was wearing a T-shirt with a baseball bat covered in nails and an electric guitar crossed like a coat of arms. Will half-recognised it as the cover art of an album – he couldn’t remember what album, or who it was by, or where he’d even seen it.
“Sorry for crashing into you, man.” The other boy said, reminding Will that it wasn’t just him and the band shirt boy.
“I promise he won’t mow down anyone else either since he’s officially banned from using my board.” The girl declared.
“Hey, that’s not fair!”
“Um, yeah it is. It’s my board and I don’t want you to go around knocking people with it.”
“I’m not going to make a habit of it.”
“Yeah, 'cause you’re not allowed to use the skateboard.”
Band shirt boy rolled his eyes. “I would apologise for them, but if I always did that, I’d never do anything else.”
“Hey!”
The boy ignored both indignant cries and held his hand out to Will. “Can I help you up?”
Will took the hand gratefully and suppressed a small squeak as he was helped to his feet with a quick yank. The band shirt boy helped him to get steady before backing off half a step.
“Any chance we could make this up to you with a free milkshake?”
Will blinked in surprise. “That sounds good to me.”
“Great. I’m Mike, by the way.”
“I’m Will.”
“I’m Max, and the little shit who knocked you over is Dustin.” The red-haired girl introduced.
Dustin gave Max a quick glare but then smiled awkwardly at Will, “Nice to meet you. Sorry, again, for knocking you over.”
“As long as I get that milkshake, then it’s totally fine.”
“Well, we were headed to the Tavern, if you want to get that now.” Mike offered.
Will paused halfway through nodding. “The Tavern?”
Dustin tilted his head to the side. “Are you new in town or something?”
“Um, yeah.”
“Oh, that explains why you don’t know it. The Tavern is a local diner here – it’s pretty well known.”
“It’s not that well known,” Max argued. “Most people who know about it are just lame nerds like you who are into DnD and shit.”
“Hey, Dad said you’re not allowed to call me names.”
“Calling you a nerd doesn’t count.”
“Yes, it does.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
“Yes, it does!”
“No, it doesn’t!”
Mike rolled his eyes at the pair and motioned for Will to walk away with him. “Like I said before, they always end up like this.”
Will nodded. “Are they going to notice we’ve gone ahead?”
“Yeah, don’t worry. They’ll catch up soon enough. So you moved here recently, right? Where from?”
“Indiana, a small town called Hawkins.”
“Hawkins. I think I’ve heard of that before.”
“Really? It’s a pretty small town.”
“Oh, now I remember, my parents are from there. I think Great Uncle Wayne still lives there too.”
“Wayne Munson?”
“Yeah, you know him?”
“Not really. I’ve heard of him – in Hawkins, you either know people personally, or you know of them through others. I think he lives in a trailer park.”
“Yeah, that’s where my pops grew up. So, why have you moved to California?”
“My brother’s going to college here and my mom was offered a better-paying job. The college is still a good distance away, but at least we’re all in the same state.”
As the conversation went on, Will kind of forgot about their surroundings, until they got to the Tavern. As they walked inside, someone from across the room yelled,
“Look who we have here!”
Will turned to see a woman with short brown hair standing behind the diner counter and smiling brightly in their direction. She was wearing a shirt that looked kind of like a green tunic that had been laced in the front.
“Finally got your lazy butts off the couch then, huh?”
“Well, yeah. We got hungry for something more than couch chips.” Mike quipped.
“And who’s your new friend here?”
This is Will, Dustin ran into him on my skateboard. Max declared.
“Hey, Dad said no tattle-tale,” Dustin whined.
Max rolled her eyes. “I’m not tattle-tailing – I’m explaining circumstances so that I can get Aunt Robin’s opinion.”
The woman – or Aunt Robin – raised an eyebrow in curiosity and asked, “Opinion on what?”
“Whether or not I can ban Dustin from using my board.”
“I made one mistake!”
“And I don’t want you making more with my board!”
Robin hummed. “Yeah, I’m not getting involved in this.”
“Wise choice,” Mike remarked. “Can we get four milkshakes?”
“I thought you came here for lunch?”
“Milkshakes can be lunch.”
“Don’t let your dad hear you say that.”
“Where is Dad?” Dustin asked, looking around the slightly crowded diner.
“He and Eddie had to run some errands. So, four burgers with fries and milkshakes, yeah?”
Mike frowned. “We didn’t say anything about burgers.”
“Nope, but if Steve or Chrissy find out I just gave you milkshakes, I’ll never hear the end of it.” Robin declared before turning her attention to Will. “You alright with a burger? You don’t have any preferences or allergies, right?”
“Um, no.”
“Great. What flavour milkshake do you want? We have strawberry, vanilla, chocolate, caramel, banana, bubble-gum or lime.”
“Chocolate, please.”
Robin smirked. “So polite. You kids could learn a thing or two from him. You can sit at the usual booth.”
“Is it alright that I got a burger and fries?” Will asked Mike as they went over to a far corner of the Tavern.
“It’s definitely fine.” Max answered, “Our parents co-own this place, so we eat here for free all the time.”
“Your parents own this place? That’s cool. It’s really incredible in here.”
Will was geeking out internally over the place. The walls were decorated with mounted weapons, like swords and axes, as well as some maps from books that Will could recognise, including one of Middle Earth.
Behind the counter where Robin was working, there was a wall of shelves lined with various glass bottles filled with brightly coloured liquids, like potions, as well as a few odd knick knacks like leather-bound books and strange-looking plants.
The tables even had electric candles for lighting, which added to the atmosphere. It truly felt like something out of a fantasy novel.
Dustin grinned. “Yeah. They chose the theme because Pops loves DnD – and that was pretty much the only theme that they could agree on. They even host one-shot sessions every second week.”
“That sounds awesome. Can anyone join?”
“You could join the next session if you want. It’s this Friday.” Mike declared. “You’ll get a character premade from the DM, but you can bring your own dice.”
Will nodded and, for the first time since arriving in California, he felt hopeful about making some friends. Perhaps this summer wouldn’t be so bad.