Chapter Text
The entire town was fast asleep.
Only at the bus depot outside Hawkins High School was everyone awake.
Young people were getting out of their cars and heading towards the bus depot, from where they were due to depart on a three-day bus trip.
Suitcases clattered against the paving stones; the crowd was indescribable.
When the bus arrived, a tall driver got out, wearing a cap and a moustache like a Frenchman.
He opened the boot for the students to load their suitcases into.
They started jostling to secure the best seats at the back as quickly as possible.
Somewhere to the side stood a group of friends: a tall boy with carefully styled brown hair, a slightly shorter friend with black hair and freckles, a petite blonde girl with a lot of make-up, and another petite brunette with curly hair, who looked as if she didn't want to be there and had been forced to come.
A few metres away, at the very back, stood a brown-haired boy on his own.
He looked a bit scared, and he had bags under his eyes.
He was wearing some clothes that looked like they had been found in a rubbish dump.
Over his shoulder, he carried an old, slightly holey bag, and in his hand, he held the handle of a suitcase that didn't look great either, while around his neck hung an old, slightly worn-out camera.
That's when the group noticed him.
'Hey, look,' said the black-haired boy.
- Could that be Byers himself?
- Hey, you're right, Tommy, said the blonde, peering over her boyfriend's shoulder. - Look, Steve!
The boy with the neatly styled hair, Steve, looked in the direction Tommy and Carol were pointing.
There, he spotted Jonathan, the boy he had picked on throughout secondary school.
'How on earth could he afford the trip?' Tommy wondered.
- After all, they can barely afford food, water, bills and clothes.
This trip cost almost a thousand zlotys.”
- He probably borrowed it from the foundation for weirdos, - Steve scoffed. - And losers.
'Hey, leave him alone,' Nancy, the only sensible one in the group, interrupted them.
'Oh, are you defending him?' the black-haired guy smiled mischievously, running his hand through his hair.
'Leave him alone,' she simply said, as she loaded her suitcase into the boot.
The others did the same, then got into the car and took their seats at the very back.
- Attention, the king is coming! Tommy yelled.
- Steve Harrington in the flesh!
The king of Hawkins High School!”
Steve responded with a smile.
He and Tommy sat at the very back, with Carol and Nancy next to them.
Out of curiosity, Szatyn peered out of the window, where he spotted his enemy, the last to throw his meagre belongings into the boot.
He snorted, fogging up the window.
'Who came up with the idea of waking us at 4:30 for the bus?' Carol asked sleepily.
- I'm going to sleep; wake me up at the lunch stop.
Meanwhile, Nancy scanned the people on the bus, looking for Barb, her geeky best friend.
She spotted her sitting right at the front, with Jonathan sitting opposite her.
The girl studied him for a moment.
Her gang couldn't find out they were friends, or they'd kick her out.
Anyway, she didn't even care, because everyone here was acting like jerks, which Nancy didn't really like.
She simply sighed, turning to Carol, who was already asleep, and to Steve and Tommy, who were gossiping about the people around them.
She tried to fall asleep, but a voice over the public address system woke them up.
It was Mr Clarke, the physics teacher and her form tutor.
'Can you hear me?' he asked. 'Good.
I'm taking the register. When I call your name, shout.
If someone's missing, shout, 'Not here!' Got it? I'm reading the list...
But Nancy wasn't listening to him.
She stared at Jonathan as if hypnotised.
She didn't react when her name was called.
'Wheeler?' Mr Clarke asked for the third time.
'Nancy,' Steve hissed. 'Clarke is calling your name!'
'What?' she replied drowsily.
'Clarke,' Tommy repeated into her ear.
- Here I am! - shouted the brunette.
- Nancy, pay more attention. I know it's early, but focus!
- Yes, sir - the class replied in unison.
They set off. Finally, after more than half an hour of struggling to stow their luggage and trying not to fall asleep,
Jonathan, trying to distance himself from the others, put on his headphones and played a relaxing compilation from his cassette.
Steve scoffed at the sight and resumed his conversation with Tommy.