Hey guys, so I just wanted to leave an update here and now. My other story, Hawkins Very Own is done. I'm going to be honest, I lost my spark for that story, I've re-written the final chapter three times and each time feels just... forced, and the last thing I want to give you guys is a half assed ending, so for right now I'm sorry but that story is over. But now I've got something new here which I think you guys will like and honestly I feel is a better product than my last story, mostly because I drew a lot from my personal life and used it in this story. But other than that favourites and follows always help, and if you have the time leave a review and tell me what you think.

"It's hard to believe in coincidence, but it's even harder to believe in anything else." - John Green

Fuck.

Have you ever realized how it gets harder and harder to get up in the morning each time more shit is thrown at you? The best part being that is isn't even other people throwing it your way, it's just you being a brat and a rebellious teenager, basically just throwing shit at yourself.

Well that's how it's been for me at least since the start of this school year. Everything going great until it's almost like everything in your life has changed, maybe it's because I started high school, maybe I'm just losing my god damn mind. Either way I'm gonna be late for another day in the continuous rut of school.

"Michael! Breakfast is ready!"

See! There it is, no reason for me to be annoyed for any reason yet here I am, wondering why my mom feels the need to yell at me to come down stairs, I mean, how can she not hear my alarm which has been going off for at least a few minutes. God I've got myself hoping that I'm not this rebellious all throughout high school.

"Coming!" I half yelled, half groaned, finally pulling myself out from the safety of my bed, finally accepting that yep, it's Monday, it's time to go to school. I sat there for a moment, my head in my hands before a voice woke me from it.

"Finally starting to catch up with you?"

I looked up and saw my sister Nancy leaning against my doorframe, before she walked in and sat down next to me.

"How can you tell." I said, muffled through my hands still in my face.

"Well I can tell you one thing, you're doing a good job powering through it."

"Huh?" I said, the last thing I thought was that I was getting through high school well.

"You got up today, you took a step forward." Nancy said as she stared down at the floor.

"I was just like you, only some days I stayed laying down, telling mom that I didn't feel well. It wasn't me though that wasn't feeling well... it was my heart."

"I don't know why I feel that way though! I've got Will, Lucas, Dustin, and Max, I'm doing great in school, everything is perfect! But why doesn't it feel like it!" I yelled out in a whisper, unshed tears beginning to form in my eyes.

"That's how I was too, I spent a few days crying, until I met Barb." Nancy said as she put her arm around me and started rubbing my back, something she's always done to calm me down.

"We met when she had just moved here, she didn't know anyone and I was just some nobody at the time, when we met though we just... clicked."

"But... how does that help me?"

"What I'm saying is Mike, is while you got up today, don't forget about keeping your head up, you never know, you could meet your Barb any day..." Nancy said as she stood up.

"Life is a game of chance Mike, and you don't want to pass up any of the cards life puts in your hand." Nancy said as she finally got up and began walking out of my room.

"Wait Nance!" I said, Nancy turning around in turn.

"Thank you, for the help."

"We all need a guiding hand. Now come on, food's getting cold." Nancy said to me with a small smile.

...

*Ring*

And there goes first bell. Five more minutes till class starts, AKA five more minutes to talk to the few friends I did have.

"God you look like shit Wheeler." Max said as I finally sat down in my desk, yeah, I did kinda look shitty. I hadn't had time to properly brush my thick curly hair and my clothes honestly looked pretty faded.

"Thanks, Mayfield." I said sarcastically, flashing a smile to Max, we were always taking jabs at each other in good fun and today seemed to be the same as always.

"Anytime Wheeler." Max said as she straightened in her desk, sounding ultra happy with herself.

"Rough morning Mike?" Will said in his usual soft and soothing voice.

"Yeah you could say that..." I said before the bell rang, but there was one problem, or a panacea depending on how you look at it, our teacher still wasn't in the class room, and he never left his class room while a single kid was in here, he was just that kind of teacher.

"Where's Mr. Brown?" I asked looking around slightly.

"This is just a rumour going around but I hear we're getting a new stude-" Will said before he was cutoff by Mr. Browns booming voice.

"Class! Good morning! Sorry I was late, I just had to come and pick up our new student, everyone I would like you to meet Jane Ives!" Mr. Brown said as he stood next to a girl, maybe a foot and a half shorter than him, which wasn't uncommon considering he was 6'10" and probably should be playing basketball for a living.

But that was the least of my concerns as I analyzed the girl at the front of the room, I could tell she was nervous, she was practically gripping the handle of her binder like her life depended on it, her knuckles turning white as a result.

I don't know what it was but I honestly felt my heart skip a beat, had to be heart arrhythmia, there's no way I could be blown away like that from seeing this girl for the first time... could I?

I looked at her, I'm not gonna deny it, she looked beautiful. She had curly, brown shoulder length hair, she had dark brown eyes and when she blinked she had long eyelashes that fluttered, everything about her seemed... beautiful.

'God snap out of it Mike!' I thought to myself, ripping my eyes away from her, 99.9% sure she had probably already seen me staring. Besides what chance did I have with her? I'm just another cog in the wheel of the world, a cog that loved to play D&D and excel in school.

"Well Jane, everybody is here today, so wherever you see an empty desk you're good to sit." Brown said as he sat down at his desk before finally starting to get his lesson plan in place.

I watched as Jane began to walk along at the top of the room before stopping and then timidly walking down the aisle and sitting down at the desk right behind me.

Mr. Brown handed out the English papers that we were working on today and told us to get started, but I couldn't focus at all, all I could think about was that new girl. Had she noticed me staring, did she stare back, why am I so interested in a girl I know nothing about? These thoughts raced through my head, that is until Will tapped my on my arm.

"Mike?" He was looking expectantly at me, like he was waiting for something, had I missed something he said? I wondered for a moment before I felt a slight tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see the new girl staring at me.

"Do you have an extra eraser?" She whispered out to me, I could barely even make out what she said she spoke so quietly.

"Oh, yeah sure." I said as I spun back around and fumbled around in my binder before finally pulling out a small pink eraser, one of the many I had.

"Here you go." I whispered over to her as I spun back around and handed her the eraser... but I didn't spin back around, I was almost entranced by the curls in her hair, I only spun around right before she pulled her head back up to make sure she erased everything she needed to.

Another tap on my shoulder. I looked back and saw Jane with an outstretched arm, my eraser in hand.

"It's alright, keep it."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah I've got plenty of-" I was cutoff by the booming voice at the front of the room.

"I didn't know it was social hour!" Mr. Brown boomed out, he always had a tendency to be loud when he was teaching, it got everyone excited but it also intimidated you when he called you out in front of the class.

"Isn't that right Mike?" He said with a grin.

"Sorry Mr. Brown."

"It's alright, just get back to work." He said, picking up a book from his desk and opening it to his saved page.

The rest of the class went on without a hitch, I could focus clearly and I finished up the worksheet early, despite starting late. The bell rang and I found myself about to leave the room before I looked back and saw Jane struggling to get her binder closed, I don't know what caused it, but for some reason I ended up heading back over to my desk and where she sat.

"Here." I said as I lightly grabbed the binder from her. There was a special trick with these binders if they were to full to close, if you push down with your hand and then zip it up it should go up every time, it's just that the binder could and honestly would probably break at some point.

I got her binder closed easily and told her the trick, with her nodding silently as she watched me do it once or twice.

"Thank you again..." She said in a low voice.

"Of course... I'm Mike, by the way." I said offering a hand out to her.

"I'm Jane." She said as she reached out and shook my hand, her hands were incredibly soft, mine though were rough from... nothing actually, they were just naturally rough.

"What class do you have next?"

"Uh..." She said as she pulled out her schedule from her jean pocket and looked at it.

"Science, with... Mrs. Rucker." She said as she folded up her schedule.

"Hey! That's my next class too. Did you want to walk there together?"

"I'd like that, thank you." She said as she looked down at the ground a small smile on her face, I swear I could see some pink on her cheeks too but I chalked that up to my imagination.

"We're gonna be late, we should probably get going." I said as we walked out the door to our next class, which was in the other side of the school.

"So where are you from?"

"A small town in Canada..." She said quietly, I could tell she was still a bundle of nerves by the way she spoke, obviously though moving to an entire new country where you know nobody would have to be scary.

"Well it can't get smaller than Hawkins Indiana." I said as I led her around the corner, about halfway to the class now.

"Hawkins is kinda small and..." she trailed off, not sure where she was even going with her sentence.

"Shitty."

"Well... yeah." She said, realizing that's the word she was going for.

"Yeah it's pretty boring around here, not much to do, but there is a lot to see, the woods around here have so many different things and animals too see." I said, thinking about how me and my friends used to go into the woods on adventures... what happened to those days?

"Really?" She said, her interest peaking when I said this.

"Yeah, maybe sometime I could show you around?"

Now you've gone and done it Wheeler, you've already fucked it up, who asks to hangout and go sightseeing with a person you hardly even know, she probably thinks you're just weird and-

"I'd like that."

Ok so maybe I didn't screw everything up already.

We walked the rest of the way in silence to the class room, I walked in and sat down at one of the few empty tables, instead of desks Mrs. Rucker always had us sit at two person desks, said she liked it better that way.

Ever since the start of the year there had been an odd number of students in the class. None of my friends were in this class, meaning that I always ended up sitting alone... but I think that might change starting today.

"Did you want to sit together?" I asked, I mean me asking to hangout after school five minutes after we met didn't drive her away so I didn't think this would.

"Sure." She said, I think she was finally starting to get a bit comfortable around not only me, but the school and the city.

We both sat down and waited for Mrs. Rucker and when she walked in she had the biggest smile on her face, immediately I knew what was happening.

"Test time!"

'Good thing I studied last night...' I said as I found myself totally screwed, having not studied one bit heading into a science exam.

...

*Slam*

I dropped my tray onto the lunch table, pretty sure my orange went flying but I didn't really care considering I had just flunked my science test, all I did was sit down and slam my head into the table.

"You good man?" Dustin said as he poked my on top of my head, like you'd do if you were poking an animal with a stick to wake it up.

"Not really Dustin, not really..." I said raising my head from the table and began putting the straw in my juice.

"You know? I stand corrected, you look sad and shitty." Max said as she ate a bit of the microwaveable Ramen she had brought.

"Good to know you corrected yourself." I said as I just laid my head back down on the table.

"Mike?" Lucas said. I couldn't be bothered to answer.

"Mike?" Will said this time, again I didn't even bother batting an eyelash and raising my head.

"Paging Wheeler, look up dipshit." Max said, this got my attention now, why should I look up?

I raised my head and looked up and to the side and saw Jane, with her tray full with her lunch.t

"Can I sit here?" She quietly asked, pointing to the empty seat.

"Yeah, uh, yes you can, sorry." I said quickly before moving over a bit to clear way for her.

"Thanks." Was all she said before quietly sitting down at the empty spot, immediately I honestly felt better, less depressed than before.

"Do you mind if I introduce you to everyone?" I asked her, she just nodded her head no, signalling that she didn't mind.

"Everyone this is Jane, Jane this is Dustin, Lucas, Max, and Will." I said as I pointed out everyone at the table.

"So Mike are you going to tell us why you're all sad?" Lucas said as he took a bite of his sandwich, in it he had bacon, lettuce, tomato, and... banana, I swear this kid put some weird shit in his sandwiches sometimes.

"I bombed Mrs. Ruckers science exam."

"Ouch." Max said, she also had Mrs. Rucker and knew how much her tests were worth.

"Rough." Dustin said as he looked down into his bowl of chicken noodle soup.

It was a bit of silence at our table, well actually, you can't really call it silence considering all the screaming and talking around us.

"So are we still going to Benny's after school?" Dustin asked as began slurping the remaining broth out of his bowl, which honestly just disgusted everyone by the noise alone.

Everyone agreed but I just looked over at Jane who had pulled out a book and was face deep in it, obviously nervous around the people she had never met until a few minutes ago.

I directed everyone with my eyes to Jane, everyone shook there head yes signalling that they didn't mind me asking her.

"Hey Jane?" I said, raising her from her book.

"We're all going to Benny's Diner after school for something to eat and we were wondering if you wanted to come?" I said giving her a smile.

"Oh I don't know, I don't want to be a burden on everyone..." she said trailing off, looking down at her shoes.

"Oh no, you wouldn't be a burden, besides seeing what you did to Wheeler here we might need you there to keep him happy." She said to Jane, making her smile.

"Well..."

"Please?" We all said this time, wanting her to come.

"...Alright." She said looking at everyone smiling.

"Alright Benny's after school then." Lucas said as the bell for fourth period rang, causing everyone to disperse to their next classes.

...

You know? As I sat here in my room at 2:30 AM, unable to sleep. I was thinking about my day and I was just amazed at how things have unfolded.

After we had all gotten out of school we had met up and walked together to Benny's, considering Jane was new we all waited for her and guided her to it. Then when we all had gotten our food I noticed that Jane hadn't ordered a single thing.

"Aren't you going to order anything?" I asked Jane.

"I didn't think I would be going anywhere after school... I don't have any extra money on me."

"Why didn't you tell me? I could pay for you." I said and man, what the hell was I saying? I'm buying dinner for a girl I've just met today. Michael Wheeler, you've lost your damn mind.

"Oh no. It's quite alright." She said.

"No it's not, I can't just let one of my friends go hungry!" I said to her.

"Hey Benny! One more order here!"

"Hold on kid!"

"Mike! What are you doing?" Jane asked, clearly surprised by what I had just done.

"I can't just let you go hungry, please it's on me."

"Are you sure?"

"I wouldn't have called over Benny if I wasn't 1000% sure." I said giving her a smile.

"Alright what can I get ya?"

"...Can I get a BLT with a salad on the side, and just a glass of water."

"Coming right up." Benny said warmly, he always treated his customers as if they were his own family, he respected and honestly loved every single person who walked in through his doors, this is why me and everyone else always came here and never went anywhere else to eat.

"...I'll pay you back, tomorrow." Jane said looking at me.

"Like I said, it's on me Jane, you don't need to pay me back." I said, after trying to argue with me before I guessed that she had no chance of arguing with me on this and just silently accepted what I said.

"Here ya go." Benny said as he placed Janes food down on the table.

"Mike?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

I couldn't even respond, all I did was mimic her and give her a smile, and as I turned back to my own plate there was only one thing I thought.

I definitely saw her blush that time.