Chris knocked on the door of his Aunt Joyce and Uncle Hopper, a difficult task, given the tray of iced coffee he was holding in his hands along with his history book. Luckily, he didn't have to wait long, as Will opened the door, beaming when he saw Chris.
"Morning!" said Will brightly.
"Here, take yours and El's," Chris said, lowering the tray of coffee. Will took two of the cups out of it and led Chris into the house. Chris set down the tray of ice and took his backpack off, opening it and attempting to stuff his history book into it.
"Oh my god, I love you," said El when she walked into the living room, carrying her own bag and history book. Chris grinned at her. El took the iced coffee that Will offered her and immediately took a big sip.
"Now what did we talk about, El? Don't go drinking too much of that stuff!" came a chastising voice. The kids looked up and saw Jim had walked into the kitchen with them, already dressed in his police chief's outfit.
"Can't help it, Dad," said El, shrugging and taking another sip. "This stuff gets me started in the day."
Jim chuckled.
"You sure you don't wanna be a cop?" he asked.
"No," El said with emphasis while Will and Chris grinned at each other. "I'd rather do something useful with my life."
"Ouch," said Joyce as she joined all of them in the kitchen. "I guess you're harsh in the mornings, aren't you, honey?"
El shrugged. "Can't help it," she said, laughing.
"Well, listen, you guys better get on to Max's and to school," Joyce said. "You have your English paper, Will?"
"Yeah, I checked three times before I came downstairs," said Will.
"Chris, you too?"
Chris nodded.
"Mom wouldn't let me leave the house without showing it to her, Aunt Joyce."
"Wise decision on her part," said Joyce with a mischievous grin. "I know how you like to forget things."
"Hey now..." said Chris in an annoyed tone, but Joyce was smiling widely.
"Only joking, honey. You and Will gonna go to the arcade tonight?"
"It is Wednesday. We get our half off prices starting at 7, so we'll definitely be there. Will owes me a game of air hockey anyway."
"I said I'd think about it," Will said, rolling his eyes.
"Seemed like you made a promise to me," said Chris, grinning.
"Well, then I'll see you tonight when you pick Will up," said Joyce. "I've got the day off today, so I'll be here all day enjoying the silence."
"You've certainly earned it, Mom," said El, giving Joyce a hug.
"Thanks, honey. Now you kids get on to school, okay? I'll see you all later. Have a great day!"
Chris zipped up his backpack and picked up the ice tray, following Will and El out of the kitchen. He turned around and called to Jim just before he walked out the front door.
"Dad said he'd get breakfast this morning, Uncle Jim. He said you can owe him one."
Jim chuckled.
"Thanks, kiddo."
"See ya!"
Chris followed Will and El out the front door and shut it behind him. Together, the three of them walked three houses down, where Max was waiting on her front porch for them to arrive.
"Chris, you're a bloody lifesaver," she said, jumping up and hurrying over to Chris. She took the remaining iced coffee and started drinking it. Chris pulled his out of the tray and threw it into Max's trashcan before they started walking on. "I was up till like 1:30 getting debate prep ready for this weekend. I swear it's going to be murder."
"Girl, you gotta get more sleep!" said El. "We can't have you being more irritable than normal, now can we?"
"See, now if Chris or I had set that, Max would be staring at us with daggers in her eyes," said Will before Max could speak. Max glared at him.
"Yeah, because only El is allowed to tell me I'm irritable," she said coolly before she grinned at the boys. "Anyway, Chris, have your parents decided on what they're gonna do yet for the Halloween party next week?"
"Oh yeah," said Chris as they rounded the corner that would take them to Hawkins High School. "They're gonna go with a 'Scream-a-thon.' They wanna watch all four Scream movies during the night. And since Halloween is on a Saturday for a change, maybe we'll actually get to watch all of them!"
"That's badass," Max said with a smile. "It's gonna be a lot of fun."
"Yeah, definitely beats the rain out we had last year," said Will.
"I will kill a man if that happens again," Chris said with a laugh. "Dad wouldn't stop bitching about it for like two months after that. I almost had to whack him upside the head."
"He probably would've shot you," said El with a grin as they approached the school's entrance.
"Yeah, that's his solution for everything, isn't it?" said Chris, shrugging and grinning. "At least Uncle Jim doesn't threaten you all with it on a daily basis. Course he doesn't have a son with a black belt, either, so I guess there's that."
Just as they entered the school, the bell announcing 10 minutes until first period rang. They all groaned slightly as they all finished drinking their coffee.
"Thanks again for the coffee, Chris," Max said as she and El turned to walk off to their English class. "You're a lifesaver."
"Don't mention it. See you guys at lunch."
Mr. Teeter stood up when all of the students had sat down after the bell had rung to signal the start of class. He walked up to the front of the room, coffee in hand. He smiled at the class before he spoke.
"All right, everyone, we're gonna have an easy class period this morning," he said. "Since we're starting a new unit today, you'll spend today reading the next chapter and answer the questions at the end of it..."
Mr. Teeter stopped when there was a knock at the door.
"Come in," he said.
The door opened and Mr. Baier, their principal, walked in, followed by a nervous-looking boy. The boy was rather tall and lanky and had curly, dark hair. He looked around the classroom nervously and caught eyes with Chris, who smiled at him. The boy smiled back and then looked at his feet.
"Mr. Teeter, this is our new student, he's starting in your class this morning," said Mr. Baier. "This is Michael Wheeler."
Chris watched as the boy looked like he was going to say something, but thought better of it. Mr. Teeter thanked Mr. Baier, who walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.
"So, Michael..." started Mr. Teeter before the boy spoke up.
"It's just Mike."
"Okay, Mike. We're gonna have an easy lesson today, so you don't have to worry about anything. Why don't you partner up with Chris over there?" he said, gesturing to Chris, who perked up in his seat and nodded at Mr. Teeter. "His old lab partner moved away last week and since we're starting a new unit, you two can work together for now."
Mike nodded wordlessly and sat down in the seat behind Chris, who tried to smile reassuringly at Mike. Mike nodded at him before he sat down and faced the front.
"As I was saying, everyone, you'll read the next chapter in the book and work on answering the questions at the end of the chapter. This chapter is a little longer, so I thought I'd give you the whole period today to read it and start answering questions, which will be due at the start of class tomorrow morning. If you have any questions, I'll be at my desk grading your last lap reports. Feel free to work together on the questions, but let's try and keep the noise level to a dull roar, shall we?"
A handful of the students chuckled as Mr. Teeter gave them all another smile before returning to his desk at the back of the room and starting on the mountain of paperwork he had to grade.
Chris turned around and faced Mike.
"I'll take you over to my favorite spot to work in here," said Chris. "Teeter doesn't mind if we sit over there during this busy work days and it's more comfortable over there anyway."
Mike nodded at Chris and followed him to the side of the room, where there were several beanbags sitting on the floor. Chris claimed the green one, while Mike picked the blue one.
"Teeter said your name is Chris?" said Mike, unsure of how to start this conversation.
Chris nodded warmly at Mike.
"Chris Byers," he said, holding out his hand and offering it to Mike. Mike took it and they shook hands briefly.
"Mike Wheeler," said Mike.
"So, Mike, where do ya come from?"
"A small town in Kansas," said Mike, looking slightly crestfallen. "It's probably not a place you've heard of."
"Try me," said Chris.
"It's a town called Andover."
"Yes, I know the place. It's right outside of Wichita, isn't it?"
"How'd you know?"
"I have some extended family who live in Wichita and we've visited them from time-to-time. I think we drove to Andover on our way to an uncle's farm out in the country."
"Small world," said Mike with a grin.
"Yeah it is."
"So, have you lived in Hawkins long?"
"All my life," said Chris. "My parents both grew up here and they decided they'd rather have their lives here than anywhere else. My dad is a homicide detective and my Mom works for WTHR."
"What's that, a TV station?"
Chris nodded.
"Yeah, she's one of the evening anchors at the station. And she never tires of telling me that David Letterman worked there way back when in his early days."
"That's pretty cool!" said Mike.
"It'd be cool if she would quit reminding me of it about once a month!"
The boys laughed heartily.
"Hey, listen, Mike, I know being a new student can be rough on the first day. If you'd like, you could sit with me and my friends at lunch."
Mike beamed at him.
"That'd be great! Um, would it be all right if my brother Richie sat with us too? He's kind of a nut, but I'm sure he'd like to meet some new people."
"Oh, you have a brother?"
"Twin, actually. He looks exactly like me except he has glasses. And he's constantly cracking jokes."
"He sounds like my buddy Dustin," said Chris. "He's always been a handful, but I love him anyway. And yeah, feel free to let your brother know to join us. It'd be nice to have some new friends in our group."
Will looked over at the new student with the rather large glasses who had sat down next to him. The boy seemed a little nervous, having pulled out his book and starting to read it as soon as Mr. Wilmott had told them to get to work. Will cleared his throat and the boy looked up.
"Hi, I'm Will, Will Byers," Will said.
"Hello, Willie Will Byers, I'm Richie Wheeler."
"Willie Will?" asked Will, frowning at the boy.
Richie grinned at him.
"I like to give people nicknames. It helps me remember who they are."
"That's kinda a weird one for me," said Will.
"True, but I can't think of anything else to call you, Willie Will."
Will couldn't help but chuckle at this before he continued.
"Listen, you wanna work together on this? It'll help us get done quicker."
"Sure thing, Willie Will," said Richie before he looked over his shoulder. Will frowned at Richie, who seemed satisfied as he turned around and lowered his voice so only Will would hear him. "What kind of teacher tells his students just to read the book, write down the theories and then do the homework? Shouldn't he, you know, teach?"
Will grinned.
"That's Wilmott for you," he said. "He's not much of a teacher, but at least he lets us work on homework during class so we don't have a pile to take home."
"Kind of a shitty thing for a teacher to do, don't you think? I mean, shouldn't he at least lecture for a bit?"
Will shrugged. "I mean, yeah, it'd be nice if he would do a better job of explaining stuff to us, but I don't know, it's kind of nice having a teacher who will let us learn at our own pace.
"If you say so, Willie Will," said Richie, turning back to his book and continuing to read it.
For the rest of class, Richie cracked several jokes as he and Will worked on their homework. Will was slightly annoyed that Richie kept calling him Willie Will, but the name was starting to grow on him by the end of class. As the bell rang and everyone gathered their stuff, Will caught Richie's attention.
"Hey, would you want to sit with me and my friends at lunch? It's just me, my cousin, my stepsister and a couple of our friends."
Richie's face lit up.
"I'd love to, Willie Will! If it's cool, I'll have my twin join us too."
"The more the merrier," Will said with a smile.
Chris and Will walked out of their English class together, bound for the lunchroom with the rest of the student body. They didn't say anything until they had reached the lunchroom and gotten their food. Chris grabbed a table that had enough chairs around it and set his tray down. Will mimicked him.
"So, what's Mike like?" Will asked.
"Kinda quiet, but he seems super nice. How about Richie?"
"Obnoxious, but he's pretty funny."
"Yeah, that's how Mike described him," Chris said before he caught Mike's eye and waved him over. Mike sat down across from them, grinning nervously. "Hey, Mike, this is my cousin, Will."
"Hi," said Will with a smile.
"Nice to meet you," said Mike, sounding slightly nervous. Will blushed, but managed to hide it from Mike as he looked down and picked up the apple on his tray. Chris looked at Will curiously before he picked up his own apple.
"Over here, Richie!" Mike called, waving his twin over. Richie sat down next to Mike.
"Hello Mike and Ike, and Willie Will," Richie said.
"Don't call me that," said Mike irritably.
"Oh come on, you know you love it!"
Mike rolled his eyes as Richie turned to Chris.
"And you are?" Richie prompted.
"I'm Chris Byers, Will's cousin."
"Ah, hello Christopher Byers," Richie said, rolling his R's when he said Chris' full name.
Chris chuckled to himself.
"I guess that's gonna be your nickname for me?" he asked.
Richie glanced at Will, beaming.
"You told him I give nicknames?"
Will shrugged. "I guess that was my way of warning him."
"Well thanks for that, Willie Will," said Richie as the rest of the party sat down at the table, looking at the twins curiously.
"Ah, now everyone's here," said Chris. "This is Dustin," he gestured to his left. "Lucas and Max, the power couple of Hawkins High," he gestured to Will's right. "And this is Jane, Will's stepsister, but we all call her Eleven or El."
"Like the number?" asked Richie, sounding amused.
"Long story," said Chris with a grin.
"I like stories!" Richie said excitedly. "Tell me, tell me, tell me."
El looked slightly taken aback at Richie's excitement, but smiled at him.
"Back in the first grade, there was another Jane in my class. Since I was the 11th person alphabetically, I told everyone to call me Eleven so they wouldn't mix us up. It's kinda stuck ever since then. Now, pretty much everyone calls me El for short."
"El...I like it!" Richie said as he picked up the sandwich on his tray and started to devour it.
"So, tell us a little bit about you two," said Chris.
"We moved here last week," said Mike. "Like I told you in chemistry class, we moved here from Andover."
"Yeah we had to get away from our shit father after he and Mom split up!" said Richie. Mike glared at him, but Richie shrugged. "Hey, it's true, Mike and Ike. We had to get out of Dodge."
"Well, join the club on divorced parents," said Dustin. "My parents have been divorced basically all my life."
"And my parents split a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away," said Will, nodding.
"Oh my god, a Star Wars reference, I knew I liked you for a reason, Willie Will," Richie interrupted. Will smiled at him.
"My Mom remarried El's dad Jim, the police chief, and my bio Dad is long out of my life."
"No shit, your dad's the police chief?" asked Richie.
El nodded silently, grinning despite herself.
"So what about the rest of you?" asked Mike. "Tell us about you."
"Well I'm on the JV basketball team," said Lucas. "I'm not a real jock by any means, but I still like to play."
"I'm on the debate team," said Max, "so don't ever think you'll win an argument with me."
"She's right," said Chris with a grin.
"Shush!" Max demanded, but she was smiling nonetheless.
"I'm a bit of a theatre nerd," said Dustin with a smile. "Will is too for that matter, but I'm usually not in starring role. I prefer playing secondary characters."
For the rest of the lunch period, the group of eight continued getting to know each other as they cleared their trays. Soon, the bell rang to announce they had to get to their next class. El, Max, Dustin and Lucas stood up together and threw away their trash before bringing their trays to the wash area before they left, all heading in the same direction for the English class they shared together after lunch. Will, Chris, Mike and Richie did the same before they regrouped over by the lockers.
"Hey, listen, if you guys wanna get out for a bit tonight, you can come with Will and me to the arcade tonight," said Chris. "We usually go on Wednesday nights since they have half off prices on all games after 7."
"I don't know, I might have quite a bit of homework," Mike mumbled before Richie cut him off.
"We'll be there," Richie said. "We'll have to ask our Mom, but I'm sure she'd say yes to hanging out with some new friends."
Chris and Will grinned at them.
"You want us to meet you there?" asked Will.
"Sure thing, Willie Will," Richie said, pulling his phone out of his pocket and handing it to Will. "Just put your number in there and text me the address and Mike and Ike and I will find it."
"I wonder what's keeping Max?" Will mused as he stood with Chris and El in front of the school.
"She'll catch up," Chris said, shrugging. "We'd better get going, otherwise we're gonna get trapped by the buses."
Will nodded and followed Chris and El away from the entrance. Once they were off school grounds, El started to talk.
"Ugh, these next few days are going to be totally insane," she complained. "I'm gonna be up all night cramming for that history test tomorrow, we've got three new moves to incorporate into our routine, the game is just two days away. I'm gonna be totally wiped out!"
"I don't think you have enough going on," said Will with a smile. "You should do more."
"Totally," said El.
At that, Max ran up behind them, looking cross.
"Hey, assholes, thanks for waiting for me!" she said.
"Well hurry your ass up next time!" said Chris. Max glared at him and gave him a light slap on the arm before she turned to El, grinning.
"I saw you had fun after lunch," she teased.
"Max, shut up!" El demanded.
"What happened after lunch?" Will said curiously.
Max grinned at El, who glared back at her as they kept walking. They were just a few hundred steps away from Max's house.
"Oh, come on, El, you gotta tell them!" Max said.
El sighed deeply before she responded.
"Paul dragged me into the boys' locker room after lunch," El said.
"Exploring uncharted territory, were you?" asked Will, sounding amused.
"We just talked," El insisted.
"Sure, sure," Chris said sarcastically.
El scowled at Chris.
"So, what did El-Jerko want to talk about in the locker room?" asked Max.
"Same thing he's been talking about ever since we broke up last time: when are we gonna get together again?"
"Is he bugging you? Do I need to give him a whoopin'?" asked Chris, sounding totally serious.
El laughed.
"No, Mr. Black Belt, you don't need to kick his ass, I can do that myself," she said. "I just told him I will let him know if I'm interested in dating him again; I'm just not sure a relationship is what I want right now."
"Good for you, girl," said Max as they reached her house. "Well you remind him that I'll kick his ass too if he keeps asking."
El grinned at her.
"See ya later," El said.
"Bye, assholes!" Max said before she turned around and walked inside.
Chris, Will and El walked on toward Joyce and Jim's home, talking about Mike and Richie.
"Richie's a bit much, but he seems super funny," said El. "And I love how he gives us all nicknames."
"Hard to call my full first name a nickname," Chris said with a grin. "Even if he does roll the R's to make it sound cooler."
El shrugged.
"I think it suits you," she said. "And I like yours, too, Will."
"I'll admit it is growing on me," Will replied as they reached the front yard. Chris and El hugged each other before El walked inside while the boys remained behind.
"I could tell you seemed to find Mike attractive," Chris said nonchalantly.
"What?" said Will, sounding flustered. "No, you must've been seeing things."
"Will, I'm like your brother, I know what you look like when you see someone you're attracted to."
Will sighed.
"Yeah, I guess Mike is pretty good looking. Richie too for that matter since they look exactly the same minus the glasses."
"So...?" Chris prompted.
"So what?"
"You could ask him out, you know. After you've gotten to know him a bit. I don't know, but I got a 'he's not quite straight' vibe from Mike while we were talking. And he did seem a little flustered when you two were introduced."
"He was just nervous, Chris!"
"If you say so, Will. Listen, you can at least give it a chance with Mike. All I'm saying is you deserve to be happy, Will."
"And what about you?"
"You know me: I don't date. Period. I'm not attracted to anyone romantically or sexually, and I just love people as friends and family."
"Weirdo," said Will giving Chris a playful hug.
"What can I say, Will? I was born that way. Besides, it means I avoid a broken heart."
"You sure Richie doesn't have a little crush on you?" Will asked.
"If he does, I'll let him down gently. Anyway, I'd better get home and help Dad get dinner ready before Mom comes home for her dinner break. I'll call you later when I'm on my way to come and get you."
"Thanks, Mom!" Richie said as he hurried up the stairs toward his and Mike's room. He barreled into the room and walked over to Mike's bed.
"Good news, Mom said we can go to the arcade!" Richie exclaimed as he sat down next to Mike. Mike didn't respond or even turn to look at Richie, who frowned. "Hey, you awake?"
Slowly Mike turned around to face Richie, whose eyes widened when he saw his brother's face. Mike had been crying and had fresh tears falling down his cheeks. Richie scooted over to Mike and put his arms around him.
"Are you okay? What's wrong?" Richie demanded.
"I missed him a lot today," Mike whispered in response.
Richie nodded at him.
"I know," he whispered back. "I missed him, too. But he was there with us."
Mike cried into Richie's shoulder for a few seconds before he sat back up in Richie's embrace.
"I can't help think about the last time I spoke to him. He tried to tell me how he was feeling but I didn't understand what he meant, and I just told him it would be okay. And then it wasn't."
"You loved him," Richie said simply. "And he loved you. He never doubted that you cared for him, Mike. He knew that, I promise you."
"I know, I just can't help thinking about that last conversation. I should have seen it."
"What happened wasn't your fault, Mike. I hope you know that."
It was several seconds before Mike nodded and fell into Richie's embrace again.
"Thank you, Richie. For being here."
"Listen, do you want me to cover for you with Will and Chris?" Richie asked gently. "I can tell them that you've got a lot of homework or something."
"No, it's fine," Mike said, sitting up and wiping away the last of his tears. "I'll go. If anything, it'll help take my mind off things for a bit."
"And we could both use some new friends in this new place," Richie said with a smile. "Now, come on Mike and Ike. Mom says dinner's nearly ready and I'm starving!"
