Chapter Text
Will Byers
"Will! Jonathan! Jane! Hurry up, you guys are going to be late for the train!," Joyce yelled.
Will looked up at his brother annoyedly. "Is this what it's like every year?," he asked, half-groaning. Jane giggled.
"For the most part, yeah. Mom is super paranoid about making the train on time," replied Jonathan.
Jonathan had been attending the Hawkins School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for the past six years, and he was about to start his seventh. Jane had started three years ago, without Will. Since they're twins, Will should've joined his siblings three years ago, but his given predicament prevented him from attending any sort of school.
After he was taken into the Upside Down at 12 years old, he had been.... different. He didn't develop like most kids, and he fell behind academically. Luckily, Joyce had stepped in as a teacher to Will, helping him to advance to the level that children his age should be at, and he was finally ready to join them at school.
If he was anything, he was nervous. All of these kids had already been going to school together since they were 12, since year one. They already had their set friend groups. Who would he sit with? Who would he talk to? Who would he room with?
These thoughts clouded his mind in the same way that they had possessed him ever since he sent his letter of intent to Mr. Clarke, the headmaster of the school. He had gotten in, easily of course, since
Everyone at the school had special abilities, and Will's abilities were more heightened than those of others, seeing as he was personally sought out by Vecna to do his will. Will was somewhat of a sorcerer. No one could know about it, though. It could get him in serious trouble. Everyone else harnessed their power using wands, while Will just needed his hands.
Jane wrapped her arm through Will's, leaning her head into his shoulder as they walked. "I'm so excited for you to finally meet my friends!," she squealed. "There's Max, Mike, Lucas, and Dustin. They're all super nice, so don't worry about anything."
Will was hesitant. "I don't know, Jane, what if they don't like me?"
"Bullshit. They're gonna love you!"
Will just smiled down at her.
"I wasn't kidding when I said we had to hurry up!," Joyce shouted, still speed-walking ahead of the three siblings.
After 15 more grueling minutes of the Byers family speed-walking to the train platform departing from Indianapolis to Hawkins, they had finally arrived.
Joyce gave a teary hug to Jonathan, then Jane, and finished with Will, holding on to him for a little while longer.
Will was suffocating. "Mom, let go," he stifled a laugh. "I'm fine," he reassured her.
"Oh, baby, I know. I'm just sad to see you go. I'm gonna miss spending so much time with you. If anything happens, or even if you just want to come back home, you call me, okay? I'll do whatever you need me to do, no questions asked."
This made Will tear up. "I know, mom, I love you."
"I love you too, Will. Now, get on the train already! Jane and Jon already got on," she said, gesturing to the window where her two other children were waving from.
Will walked up to the stairs of the train, being met with Jane at the entrance. "C'mon, let's go to the train car with my friends!," she said, grabbing his wrist and practically dragging him towards the car. On their way there, they passed Jonathan and his friends. They looked.... cool. Cooler than his brother was.
There was a girl with short, dirty blonde hair with pink stripes and eyeliner, a guy with really nice hair, another girl with curly hair, and his brother. Compared to these kids, in their leather jackets and band tees, Jonathan looked like a loser.
When the twins finally reached Jane's train car, Will took a deep breath before entering.
Everyone jumped up to say hello to Jane, with an eagerness to introduce themselves to Will.
"I'm Lucas. And this lovely lady here is-," Lucas began to stretch his arms around the short redhead next to him before she cut him off.
"Maxine. Everyone calls me Max, though. Don't listen to this loser, he's too cocky for his own good," Max said, earning her a cheeky wink from Lucas.
"Hi, Lucas. Hi, Max," Will said shyly.
"I'm Dustin. You've probably heard about me, though," he said, enveloping Will in a soft hug.
"Jane's boyfriend, yeah," Will said, smiling.
Dustin smiled back, wrapping an arm around Jane's shoulders and leading the two to go and sit down in the car.
Wasn't there one more?, Will thought. He counted in his head, and there should be one more of Jane's friends for him to meet.
While he was deep in thought, a hand tapped him on the shoulder.
He whipped around, and was met with the best sight he ever could've imagined. The boy was taller, with black curly hair and dark features, a chiseled face, and impossibly pink lips.
Will was flustered. "H-hi, I'm Will," he said.
"Mike," the taller boy replied, giving Will a friendly hug.
"Hi, Mike."
"Hi, Will."
"Dude, seriously, Mike?," Will heard Max yell. "He's not even here for 10 minutes and you're already trying to hit on him? Leave the poor boy alone."
Will's cheeks turned pink, as did Mike's.
"Shut up, Maxine. Just welcoming our new friend," he said, looking Will up and down.
Max just rolled her eyes. "Whatever. You're gonna scare him off, Mike," she yawned, fluttering her eyes shut and leaning her head on Lucas' shoulder, which made the boy grin widely.
Jane interrupted the conversation. "Will's fine, guys. Are you two gonna sit down or what?," she asked, gesturing toward Will and Mike, who were still standing by the door of the train car where Will had entered through just moments before.
"Yeah," Will said quietly, sitting in the empty space next to his sister and Dustin. Mike could have gone to the other side of the train car, in the empty space next to Max and Lucas, but no. He just had to sit down in the impossibly tight space next to Will, so tight that their bodies were pressed up against one another from shoulder to ankle. No one seemed to notice (or care about) the closeness of the two, all indulged in their own things, so Mike leaned down, whispering in Will's ear.
"I have to stretch my legs," he says, providing a rather lame excuse for pressing up against Will.
Will just nodded, his breath slightly hitching.
He had never been this nervous around a boy before. Sure, he'd had crushes on other guys before, but none had ever made him feel the way Mike made him feel.
After the three long and painful hours pressed up against Mike were finally over, they had arrived in Hawkins. Will had never even been outside of Indianapolis, so this was different for him.
Stepping out of the train station, Will was in utter awe at the sight of the school. It was majestic. He couldn't believe that his siblings had been living here for years.
"Will?," he heard Jane call.
"Yeah?"
"Don't worry about the rooming situation. I put in a word with the headmaster for you to stay with Dustin, Lucas, and Mike. They had a fourth roommate last year, but he- he had to leave the school," she explained. They're all Gryffindors, same as you."
Will knew he was a Gryffindor, since it was a matrilinear thing. If your mother was in a certain house, so were you. Jane had explained this to him a while ago, telling him about the cirsumstances and exceptions of this. Sometimes, if the headmaster truly thought you belonged somewhere else, that was where you would go. Apparently, after talking to Jonathan a bit after the train ride, he learned that Jon was actually dating Mike's older sister, Nancy. One of the cool girls from the train car, he thought.
Anyways, Mike was a Gryffindor, and Nancy was a Slytherin. Their family had supposedly been utterly pissed when they learned that Mike was being transferred to Gryffindor, since their family were historically Slytherins. Will recalled the traits that Jane had given all of her friends, and she described Mike as rebellious. Will liked that. A lot.
Once all students were in the Great Hall to commence the new school year with a welcome dinner, Will found himself sitting at a table with his sister and newfound friends, with Max to his left and Mike to his right. They were arguing over him, some stupid conversation about whether 70's or 80's music is better, while Will just ate his chicken in silence.
At some point, the two fiery individuals had stopped arguing, and had returned to eating their chicken. At this same point, Will felt something just barely touching the outskirts of his thigh, seemingly reaching for something. Mike's fingers, Will had come to the realization.
Will moved his own hand to be closer to Mike's, almost as if he was asking a question, a question of what exactly Mike was doing. Mike's fingers caught onto one of Will's, answering his question.
Will looked at Mike, who was already looking down on him. Sorry, he mouthed. I need something to fidget with, Mike explained, toying with Will's fingers in a way that made his face kinda hot. Will just accepted it, nodding an okay at Mike while the two just ate their chicken holding hands.
Totally normal.
Two guys who just met, holding hands under the dinner table.
Oh, Will was so fucked.