A/N: Hi guys! Here's... well, do I really need to explain why you guys are all here? I've already said everything I needed to say on the summary, so gather up folks and hopefully you enjoy this two-shot :)

Oh, and the setting starts a couple of years before Season 2, and it will go from there. No Supernatural, I guess?

Anyway, have fun!

Disclaimer: I do not own Stranger Things, or Billy's Character for that matter (wish I could though). If I got money out of this I would be in some Starbucks place, drinking all of their coffee with glasses on looking all cool and casual and chic, but instead I'm wallowed inside a shared bedroom with nothing but wineglass full of water.

Paper Dive

Billy Hargrove as a young kid was a silent guy. You still sometimes try to imagine that he would be that way when you grow up. There's just this… certain sense of charm in Billy that you're attracted to since you've met him in middle school. Sure, your first moment together wasn't exactly the typical "love at first sight" kind of deal. Both of you literally just bumped together on the hallway one day and then the two of you mumbled an apology to each other. You hid the awkward moment with a kind smile, but he just nodded politely at you and then the both of you went on your separate ways.

But then next day he was in your class, and you sat there right next to him. You wanted to say something, or maybe just introduce yourself, but you couldn't. His presence enough was just as intimidating as the tension that seeped through your brain, thinking about what to say or how would he react if you made a joke about the incident yesterday, but you thought the better of it and left it alone for the rest of the hour.

It was probably the worst mistake you've ever done in your life.

Because you were ultimately a shy person, you've never really gotten the chance to talk to him after that. He was a new kid, you understood that he needed time to adjust himself to school society, so you decided to wait until he gets used to the transfer that you would introduce yourself. But the surprise it got you over his first week of stay when you heard that he got into the basketball team— well, you knew your chances were already blown at that point.

Cool kids would only hang out with other cool kids in your Californian school. You knew you weren't classified by the system as "cool", and you knew that people in sports team are always permanently branded as "cool" by association. You only sighed and let the possibility of ever getting that chance to know him go, and just wallow yourself in a pool of your own stupidity and lack of people skills. Only fate was kind enough that you still happen to sit next to him in a few classes, and your locker's only a few feet away from his.

You got to know him little by little because of that. His friends would often hang around his seat, talking and teasing each other over menial things. You even learned some of his quirks: how his teammates tried to coerce him to join parties, but he rarely accepts the offer. Or how he really didn't care about his status as a cool kid, only that he's thankful he gets out of the house more often. He had this smirk on his face every time he tried to express himself, and you wished you'd see it more often.

Because once the bell rang and people would return to their seats, you were the only one who could see it fade away.

Billy was an unpredictable person— a personality trait you'd like to describe to him a lot. You sometimes thought of the reason why. On days you see him all charged up and so ready for life that just by his presence it so happens to brighten up your mood as well. But then, there were times when you see him approach his locker, you see that there's a weight he often carries when he moves.

In one of those days, you decided to do something about it.

When Billy opened up his locker, knowing that you were only a few feet away, nondescriptly spending your time deciding which book you should take (even though you already knew what class was next), he was quite surprised when a small blue paper suddenly fell from the ground. He curiously picked it up, obviously not the type of person who would put trash to where it didn't belong, and then unfolded it.

"Put some energy into your step. Cheer up! It's a sunny day today. "

Billy initially thought it was some kind of prank the jocks would play to the new kid on the team, so he flipped it in the back to make sure there wasn't some kind of "sike" written on it. But then he noticed that the letters etched were a simple, feminine cursive.

You saw Billy softened and forced to hide a grin as he folded and placed it in one of the many pockets of his letterman. That'd put a smile on yours, and realizing by then, you vowed to do that little gesture whenever he comes to school in one of those moods.

For the rest of the day though, you had noticed that he'd perked up all little bit with his sullenness. His usual aura tends to rub off on other people that he barely made communication with them. Now, at least you could see him along the hallways, or outside in one of the field benches talking to his friends over something you couldn't really hear.

Seeing him like that, feeling like he's ready to take on the world again…

Things started off quite slowly after that. Every day you'd always thought of words you'd like to write down, collecting them in a small plastic box you piled in your locker. And then every time he comes to school feeling a little slumped, you would make sure to drop one off to him, either by his locker or his desk, always making sure that no one else was paying attention. Of course, his grayed day would surely lessen, and he would come back riding the day stronger than he ever was before.

You'd always hoped that those days would lessen, and it did. At least for some time.

Billy had a name in school. He was good at basketball and people looked up to him. You didn't. In a way, you thought of him like any other regular person. It's just that you probably wouldn't ever talk to him or even let him know that. You would only settle for stealing glances at him along the hallways, and sometimes you couldn't help but form up a cute blush that you hoped one day he would notice.

Funnily enough, he wasn't the infamous rapscallion everyone often deemed him to be. He particularly wasn't among the most handsome you've met in your childhood memories. In fact, you were probably the only person to have ever remembered that he once had a stocky body and pudgy cheeks. He had this really dorky and curly mullet that you sometimes see bobbing up and down whenever he walks. It was funny, cute even, yet every time you see that face of his there's no denying the tingling sensation that always bubbled up inside your chest.

You would often think about if he ever knew your name. He probably did, you were sometimes called in class, but you weren't really optimistic. His mind often wanders when there were long, boring discussions. He would saddle his chin in an arm and stare at the windows, the ceiling, sometimes even at his desk whenever there was really nothing going on. Sometimes, you even wanted to offer him being a partner in one of the projects, but there's always one person that beat you to it.

Yes, you recalled there were one or two times he had asked you for a pencil, or a sheet of paper, but he never once did he call you by your name. You even remembered there was this one time when the class was taking a quiz, he had somehow managed to tap the edge of your desk without the teacher noticing, and he'd ask you for an answer in one of the questions. You said to him "no" because you knew it was cheating, but to be honest, you didn't actually know the answer to that one as well.

That funny story had a different side to it as well. It was the first time he ever looked at you with his eyes. The moment you met didn't count; his eyes were pointing somewhere else, even when he nodded at you, so you didn't get to see them properly. But now, his eyes were there, looking to you. It was the bluest pairs you've ever seen. It was like the sky without any clouds on midday, totally devoid of anything that can mark it yet.

You fell in love with those eyes.

"Don't frown. You never know a girl might fall in love when you smile."

That sounded overly cheesy and desperate you almost wanted to scrap it away, but deep inside, you really couldn't help it. You get to be a teenager only once right? So young and in love, that was always the thought of your mind all those years ago. Also, it wouldn't hurt him anyway. You heard him only talked about it with his friends the first time you gave him one. They jeered him for it, but it was all harmless.

Thankfully, when you passed the note to the locker and he read it, Billy only coughed a short laugh and shook his head. Still, he had managed to place it on the same pocket he had once placed before.

Whenever you had a feeling that he was down a certain day, it would be always you who had words he could feast upon to jump start his mood. Eventually you noticed the light in his eyes every time he punched in the combination of his locker, hoping for a blue piece of paper would fall down, catching it just in the right time before it hits the ground.

Only to know that there was none waiting for him on other days. He obviously noticed the pattern too, it'd seemed. Whenever you knew he was feeling quite different, he would eventually make his way through the corridors before his first period, an almost desperate beat in his step. And there it was. You somehow just can tell by that that he knew.

In a couple of months, it fell into a routine. He felt better and there was a time that you didn't even have to send him one for at least more than a week. Before first period, you would always take a glimpse of him in the hallways and see if he was okay, and then store the memory when his face lights up when his friends comes over to greet him. You would learn about a few snippets of his personal life when he talked about it whenever his buddies were there on his seat, or when you couldn't help but overhear them on a nearby bench you sat on lunch.

You often hear him light-heartedly complain about his dad dating this new girl with a daughter. He commented on how he was subjected to babysitting the kid, which would give his friends a couple of snickers around him. You couldn't help to hide your chuckle from that one as well. You'd never imagine that Billy was the babysitting kind either.

Before picking up the last book from your locker to bring home at the end of the day, you would hear Billy ask if he could stay with one of his friend's house for the night. It would earn him a couple of questions, but he'd just shrug it off saying that he really wants to spend time outside the house for a while.

You would often hear him talk about how he started doing exercising in a nearby gym back in his place. He wanted to set up one in his home, but it was too overly crowded and he naturally didn't have the funds yet to do so. Or when he dreamed about owning one of the latest Camaros for his 16th birthday. The ones that had a really deep engine and had a music player so he could listen to his CD's in full blast.

"I would drive it away from this place." Billy once said in melancholy. Then with a devious smirk he added. "And probably fuck all the chicks inside it."

You sometimes wouldn't know if he was really serious about it or not.

You didn't want to believe the rumors that's been starting to circle around him, because you knew underneath that rough surface was an imperfect gem. You surely didn't think that he was an open-arms kind of person. Him saying all those crude words was just a mask, an act over something he was trying to hide. You still kind of hoped that he would open it up to someone someday. Even if it wasn't you. You thought that he hadn't yet with his friends. Not with all the mindless laughing and teasing with each other.

"No Matter What – Badfinger"

You'd hoped that you would hear him playing this in his car that he dreamt of one day. You really didn't know what his choice of music were, and at that time, you had a poor taste in one. However, you heard this song playing on the radio one day and you wanted to share it with him. It certainly was a pick me up kind of song, even if particularly the lyrics wasn't meant for a boy.

Surprisingly, you would hear him humming the song absent-mindedly in his head over the next day.

And then there was that time. He was absent.

It was just like that, a sudden snap of a finger in your daily life and he just disappeared out of nowhere. You worried for him. He didn't exactly have the most pristine attendance, but at the same time, he was the type of person who had always been at school. You initially thought that he might be just late (he frequents that, by the way), but it grew on you worse when one of his friends actually asked you where he was in one of the classes you had with him. Of course you answered with nothing, but somehow, you couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong that day.

When last period was done, you'd somehow expect him to be there by his lockers, but he wasn't. You looked for him in the gym but he wasn't there also. The parking lot seemed to be an avid place for the varsity team to hang before going to their parties, but how foolish you were thinking there was hope. There wasn't.

You spend the rest of the night thinking if he would come back tomorrow.

And with a sigh of relief, thankfully he did. But not without remorse. He approached his locker with a small gauze pad taped right next to his left eyebrow. You wanted to muster up your courage to ask him what happened, but you knew that it was going to be answered by first period. When you sat by your desk and a few minutes he sat by his, he was immediately bombarded by the questions that you wanted to ask.

"Slipped into the floor. My dad…" He paused, trembling. "Brought me to a hospital to check if I was okay."

You breathed an internal sigh of relief. You may have been worried for all the wrong reasons, but at least everything's going to be fine after that.

It didn't, though.

"It's okay. Everyone deserves some rest. Even you. Spend that time with your family. I'm sure they care about you very much."

The moment second period bell rang, just enough a time for you to slide a slip of paper inside his locker and without him seeing, Billy had managed to shift through the hallways in a hurry to his locker. And there it was, a piece of blue paper that he immediately grabbed like a water on a desert sunlight.

He took his time reading it, something you found a little different that the last time. Usually you would actually see his eyes scrolling left through right quickly enough that he could finish it in just a second. Now it didn't.

But what surprised you the most was when he scoffed at it, looking at it in distaste. He then crumpled the note and threw it behind his shoulder, like a grain of salt too much that left his mouth sour.

You breathed out the air you held, and somehow, it was as if it carried away the heart from your body.

You really didn't know how to react. Was it something you said? Did you do anything wrong? Surely you were only thinking about how worried you are and you wanted to make things a little bit better for him. You forced yourself not to think about it that day and hoped that the next time it could've been better.

It didn't take too long though, apparently, his dampened mood carried over the next day, and you were sure what you'd write about him now.

"I'm sorry if I offended you. Just wanted to brighten up your day a little."

He didn't even try to unfold it. He just picked it up and threw it in the garbage. Now you felt worse. You were angry at him, even if technically there wasn't any reason to. You had a nonexistent relationship. You were just a fly on the wall to him. He didn't even want to care. You thought of the possibility that there was something growing there, just a small thing that you cared for so much, but now you realized there wasn't anything there at all in the first place.

And he threw it all away.

Consequently, after that, his sudden magic of disappearing became a habit. Without any reason sometimes. You noticed he became a little more distant, just by the tells on how he goes about his day, becoming aloof over his surroundings, calling out his name more than one time before he would actually respond. But at the same time, there was… like this other side of him that made him more persistent with spending the day with his friends, practicing, playing basketball.

Soon after came the partying and the drinking.

You eventually started to hear rumors about Billy having one-night stands with some of the girls in school. You couldn't dispel it anymore like you used to before. And then a thought creeped into your mind that maybe everything you've heard about him in the past could be true.

You knew he had his life, and there's no way in hell that you have any control over it. You have absolutely no right to tell him what and what not to do. Who were you in his life anyway? You were just some creepy stalker that would fantasize and obsess over him. Just like the hundreds of other girls in this school. You just so happen to be an invisible presence near him. Wanting to be talked, but never spoken to. It seemed painful enough to hear, but it was the truth, and you knew it deep down inside.

You knew the paper notes weren't going to work anymore. Sometimes, you couldn't even predict his moods as well. Most of the time, he hardly showed face. Just a straight, emotionless mask and an outer shell of appearance he wore while walking down the hallway. Also the fact that he threw away the paper last time you gave one to him, you felt intimidated by it and you somehow felt that you were denied to ever want to talk to him again.

Your admiration for him started to falter bit by bit because of that. The way he acted in front of you and then how helpless you were to try and stop him from going astray. You often wondered what happened to the silent boy you had once knew. You guessed the mystery wasn't there anymore, that was always the charm you'd like to have when you start to have feelings with someone. You wanted to believe that there was something behind that outer shell, and what's inside was the true Billy that was aching to be held. But he kept on building walls and more shells, that often times you think you would just give up. Whatever happened, whatever he once had, it was either not there anymore, or it was now secured in a cocoon that protected it from anyone who dare try to touch it.

You wished that someday you would talk to him about it. Make him believe that what he was doing was wrong, and nudge him to a direction— anywhere— just as long as it's not to where he's going. But, at that time, like fate deemed to have put it, you never really had the power to.

For some reason, your parents had a business venture and had to place themselves out of town. In some rural, faraway place called Hawkins, somewhere in Indiana. Of course, you stayed with your aunt in California because of your school, but a few weeks went by and you missed them. Luckily, you were given a choice if you could come to them and stay. You had but one decision, and you said yes.

"Remember to smile, Billy. At least, do it for yourself."

That was also how you wanted to cut the cord. A cord that wasn't supposed to be there to begin with.

Moving was by far one of the hardest things you've ever done with your life, but with moving comes a brand new start. It was hard for you from adapt city life into something more rustic and simple-fashioned, but Hawkins had a certain… mystical feeling to it. Something about the town makes it therapeutic. There were lesser worries here. Everything was quaint that you actually started to prefer hearing crickets and wildlife outside your room, and not the car horns and the smoke belches on your apartment window back in the city.

Your parents have accustomed to living on the peaceful town as well. They said it was just like the city, but without the traffic and the noise that somehow wasn't really healthy when they began to realize it.

The first few weeks were like that. Slowly trying to adapt to the things you have right now. Everything seemed to be changing for the better on your life, and the last thing that went with the flow, was you.

You wanted to change for the better. Especially when it comes to talking to people. You wanted to become more sociable without looking too desperate to fit in. Hawkins High was a different place, but filled with almost the same people. It was a little less difficult for you getting a whole new set of friends unlike in the city, everyone was a bit friendlier and tamer unlike the ones you've heard with High Schools in California.

Still, deep inside, the shy kid in you hadn't really left. You went to parties now, and somehow, you'd never imagined it could be fun and enjoyable. You would still prefer spending your Friday nights watching movies with a bowl of popcorn though or reading, that hadn't changed. However, growing up made you learn how to have fun every once in a while.

You also tried to dress more appropriately this time around. It's been long since you've ever touched denim overalls, and pretty much everything you have right now were skirts and dainty blouses. Your hair was neatly pulled back and tied with it were different clips or ribbons depending on the mood of your day. Makeup was something new to you as well. Luckily, your mother had thought you a few, humbling ways to do it, but not so much to over-highlight your natural face.

The last thing that you needed to change, was to let go over someone of your past. You still harbored some feelings for Billy, and he was never really far away from your thoughts, but the distance and not seeing him every day had become a numbing balm to help forget that he ever really existed. You weren't even together, and funnily enough, you really had thought of the world with him back then.

Were you really that obsessed by some middle-school boy? Thinking about it now, it seemed like an embarrassing story you would tell your kids someday, and you would imagine how flustered your reaction would be by all of it.

Yet, time and experience comes with learning. And you learned that what you did with him didn't really matter. All those notes, those words that ached in your heart, yearning for them to be released, he didn't deserve any of it. Somehow, you felt thankful that it didn't went anything farther than that.

And finally, you're glad to have let that feeling go.

Weeks turned to months and then a year, and time went by faster as you reached High School, and at some point in between, you felt like that you've finally settled in Hawkins. Your parents did too. Their business became a permanent one, and they eventually quit their jobs and fully focused their efforts on managing their own small enterprise.

And it seems that you were going to stay happy for a long time.

Until, well… When a hurricane happened.

A/N: Woop. Yep. That's it for part 1. Part 2 I promise will be posted sometime next week. This story needs a little bit of internalizing so I just want you guys to absorb all the info here, because the next part is where things REALLY hit the fan (I hope). Hope you guys also stay until then!

Review

Follow, fave if you like it.