Will let out a groan as his alarm went off. It was the first day of seventh grade and he was not looking forward to it. Another year of being harassed by Troy and his minions, another year of being an outcast, another year of having a hopeless crush on his best friend, Mike Wheeler. Yeah, any kid would be totally excited for that, especially since it was 1983 and being gay was almost completely frowned upon by most people.
"Will, you're gonna be late!" Jonathan called through the door.
"I'm coming!" Will got up and headed into the bathroom before getting dressed. By the time he got to the kitchen, his mom was grabbing her keys and heading out the door, calling a goodbye over her shoulder as she took her car to work.
"You ready for another year?" Jonathan sighed as he walked outside with Will.
"Ready as I'll ever be. I hate middle school."
"I hated it, too. But you have better friends than I did, so that's something, right?"
"Right." Will thought of Mike, Lucas, and Dustin and fidgeted a bit before getting on his bike. "I'll see you after school."
"Bye!"
The small twelve-year-old pedaled towards Maple Street, where he met up with Mike, Lucas, and Dustin on the way to school. All three of them were talking about the D&D campaign they were planning, and Will couldn't help but put in his own two cents. Then Dustin brought up a new topic that they hadn't heard about before, at least not in the way he was talking about it.
"Did you hear there's going to be a new girl this year?" he asked.
"New girl?" Will inquired.
"Yeah. Her dad's the new Chief and she just moved here from Chicago."
"How do you know about her?" Lucas questioned.
"I heard a couple officers talking about her while I was in the station last week. They said she's going into seventh grade, just like us."
"Great. Another girl to make fun of us and for you to awkwardly hit on."
"Hey!"
Hawkins Middle came into view and the four boys parked their bikes at the rack. Their fellow students were all milling around, talking or walking towards the building for another year of learning and forced social interaction. Will sighed and glanced around while Dustin and Lucas argued over a comic Lucas had supposedly won from the curly-haired member of the Party.
As always, Will felt there was some kind of… hole in his life. It had nothing to do with him being gay or the fact that his parents were divorced. No, it had been long before either of those things. He'd always felt lonely. Like somebody who was supposed to be with him wasn't and their absence was what was causing that hole. He'd felt that way for as long as he could remember and it sucked. Maybe one day he'd figure it out but for now, he was stuck.
Then he noticed a Blazer with Hawkins Police on the side pulling into the parking lot. The officer driving parked the car and a few moments later, the passenger-side door opened. A girl with wavy brown hair got out and stood on the pavement before shutting the door and waving goodbye.
She was short, Will noted. About his height from what he could tell. Her hair went just past her shoulders and was a light brown color that matched Jonathan's. Instead of wearing dresses or sweaters like the other girls that went to Hawkins Middle, she wore a pair of overalls and a striped blue shirt with a pair of Converse. Her hair was held back from her face with a pink headband that had a bow on the side, just straddling the line between girly-girl and tomboy.
"Is that the new girl?" he asked Dustin. His friend looked over and nodded.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's her. Wow, she's pretty cute."
"I guess, but what the hell is up with the farmgirl look?" Lucas snorted. "Right, Mike?"
The three boys turned to look at their dark-haired DM, who was staring at the new girl with what could only be described as 'heart eyes'. Will felt his heart sinking a bit but shook his head before tapping Mike on the shoulder to snap him out of it.
"Mike. You're staring."
"Oh! Sorry…" He looked embarrassed. "She's just really pretty."
"You had heart-eyes, motherfucker," Dustin snickered.
"I did not!" They started moving towards the building. "I just wasn't expecting the new girl to be so… so…"
"So pretty you forgot how to talk and describe things?"
"That."
"Well, I bet you Stacey and her minions are gonna get ahold of her and she'll be like every other pretty girl at this school. You're screwed, my friend."
Will couldn't help but feel jealous… but at the same time, he felt a little drawn to the new girl. It was like a magnet, pulling him towards her. Not like Mike, but in a… different way.
Like he knew her somehow.
"Here we are. Hawkins Middle."
Hopper parked the Blazer and El peered out the window for a moment, a little surprised there were so many middle-school kids in such a small town. Her eyes landed on a group of boys talking by the bike rack, specifically the smallest one who had brown hair.
"Have a good day, El, okay? And remember: kids can be assholes, but just hold your head up and get through it."
"Yeah. Thanks for driving me."
"It's too far for you to ride your bike. I'm legally obligated to ensure you get to school."
El rolled her eyes and opened the door, sliding out and onto the pavement below. She shut the car door, waving goodbye to her dad as he left the parking lot.
As she'd expected, kids were whispering all around her. She was the new kid and they were curious. It was only natural and she'd done it on occasion back in Chicago. But she'd never been at the end being gossiped about before, and it was a little uncomfortable.
Mr. Clarke, Science.
She approached her first class and entered the room, finding a spot in the front where she could pay better attention. Her eyes took in her surroundings. Typical science-class stuff adorned the walls, with Mr. Clarke's name written on the board and a model of the human brain sitting on a stand on his desk. She liked science, and she hoped Mr. Clarke was a good teacher.
More students filtered in, including the group of boys she'd spotted by the bike rack. The brown-haired one glanced at her and took the seat behind the one with dark hair, who sat to her right. She gave them both a friendly smile and heard snickering nearby.
"Okay, class," Mr. Clarke announced when the bell rang. "Let's start by going around and introducing ourselves. We have a brand-new student in our class this year and we want to make her feel welcome." One by one, her classmates introduced themselves until it was her turn.
"I'm El Hopper. I just moved here from Chicago with my dad." Mr. Clarke looked confused.
"I was told your name was Jane."
"Jane's my first name. I go by El, which is short for Eleanor. That's my middle name."
"Oh." Mr. Clarke looked a little embarrassed, but nodded to the dark-haired boy next to her.
"I'm Mike Wheeler."
Her heart caught in her throat as she got a look at his face. He was… pretty. She couldn't think of any other word to describe him. Pale skin dotted with freckles, brown eyes, and his hair looking like he'd never combed it in his life… her heart was pounding and she hoped he couldn't hear it.
"Will Byers." The brown-haired boy behind him had spoken and she looked at Will. He was… familiar. Like the good familiar. She was sure they'd never met, yet she felt a weird connection with him.
The other two boys from their group (which she'd decided she wanted to be in because they seemed like good friends) were Dustin Henderson and Lucas Sinclair. In the back of her mind, a voice said that the boys would never accept her because she was a girl, because she was into Dungeons & Dragons and that was lame and nerdy, because she was a city girl. They'd be too intimidated to let her join their group. Or maybe they'd make fun of her for the D&D thing. She wanted to play again as Eleven the Forceful, her mage character that she'd spent so much time developing.
Her desire for friendship outweighed her doubts about her interests and she decided to approach Will first. He seemed like the one to talk to and there was that whole weird connection thing. It was like there was a string tying them together that grew tighter as she walked up to him during art class—the one other class she'd had with him that morning. He was pulling his sketchbook out of his backpack and sitting down at the table.
"Hi," she greeted him, sitting down next to him.
"Hi," he replied. "El, right?"
"Yeah. And you're Will."
"Yep." He gave her an odd look. "Why are you sitting next to me?"
"Because I don't know anybody yet." She set her bag down and pulled out her own sketchbook (they'd been required for the class).
"There are a bunch of other kids in here. All of them are cooler than me." She bit her lip.
"Have you ever felt like something was missing?" she asked him out of the blue. "Like something that was supposed to be in your life just isn't for whatever reason?"
"Actually… yeah. I've always felt like that."
"Well, this morning, I felt this connection with you and I thought, 'well, maybe he and I are supposed to be friends.' So I decided to sit with you."
"I… I felt it, too," he admitted. "But I felt it when I saw you get out of your dad's car. Like a magnet."
"Or a string tying us together."
"Exactly!" He was smiling and El knew she hadn't fucked up like she'd thought she would.
"Would you mind if I sat with you at lunch? I don't want to eat alone…"
"Sure. Just… I hope you don't mind nerd talk."
"Nerd talk?" She felt hopeful.
Please please please say D&D.
"You know—Star Wars, comics… Dungeons & Dragons."
"I don't mind any of it. As long as you guys don't mind me bringing up Stephen King or WarGames."
"Okay, then. I think you'll fit in with us."
Mike was going to have a fucking panic attack and it was all Will's fault.
"What do you mean, she's sitting with us?!" he hissed as he and Will walked to lunch.
"I mean, she sat next to me in art and asked if she could sit with us because she didn't want to eat alone. And I told her it was fine."
"You should've checked with me!" Mike felt his cheeks heating up a bit; El was super pretty and the idea of any girl that good-looking sitting with the nerds was foreign to him.
"She said she likes Stephen King and WarGames."
Okay. So slightly nerdy herself. That was good.
"Sorry, it's just…"
"She's pretty and you don't know how to talk to her."
"Exactly."
They made their way to their usual lunch table, where they were soon joined by Dustin and Lucas. El came out of the lunch-line a couple minutes later and made her way over. Mike swore his heart was beating in time with her footsteps. Setting down her tray, she smiled at the four boys—Dustin and Lucas being open-mouthed at the fact that a girl was sitting with them voluntarily.
"Welcome to the nerd table," Dustin told her, breaking the silence first.
"Thank you."
"Shouldn't you sit with other people who aren't the uncool kids?" Lucas stated, vocalizing that El could do so much better than the Party. El shrugged.
"The 'uncool kids' are usually assholes who look down on genuinely nice people. So no, I don't want to sit with them. I'd rather sit with the nerds."
Mike felt his heart soaring. The girl of his dreams openly admitting she preferred nerds? Fuck. Yes. To hide his pleased expression, he pulled out his notebook to continue planning that weekend's campaign.
"What are you writing?" she asked.
"Oh, uh… nothing…"
"She already knows we play D&D," Will sighed.
"Dude!" Dustin gasped.
"What are your classes?" El inquired simply. "I always played as a Mage, but I didn't really have much of a party. Just some kids from school who'd get together randomly."
Mike had decided—he was going to fucking marry this girl.
"I'm a Bard," Dustin told her. "Lucas is our Ranger, Will's our Cleric, and Mike's our Paladin."
"Maybe she can join us on our campaign," Will suggested.
"Yeah!"
"Can you write in a Mage, Mike?" Lucas asked, smirking.
"I can! Just… it's gonna take a couple days. Let me work." He cleared his throat. "So, Will said you like this thing called WarGames. What's that."
"It's this movie where a high schooler accidentally hacks into a government AI and it almost launches a bunch of nukes. It's super good and I think I'll rent it when it comes out on video. Maybe you guys can watch it with me."
"That sounds like fun!" Will assured her. Mike was slightly curious as to why his best friend and the new girl were so buddy-buddy, but he didn't question it. If El got along with Will, that was fine with him. Not to mention Dustin didn't have a problem with her. Lucas was a bit of a wildcard, but he could deal with that.
"Here's my address," Mike said, scribbling it down and passing it to her. "We'll give you a time closer to the weekend. Once the campaign's finished."
"Thank you."
She smiled and his entire body heated up. He really hoped his face wasn't red or that would be a dead giveaway that something was up.
But, no, she didn't seem to notice, which was a relief.
El Hopper might just be a new addition to the Party.
Joyce went to answer the door. Will and Jonathan were both out—Will at Mike's and Jonathan at work—so she couldn't imagine who it might be.
To her surprise, it was Jim Hopper.
"Hello, Joyce," he greeted her.
"Hey, Hop. C'mon in."
He entered her home for the first time in over twelve years and smiled.
"This place hasn't changed a bit, has it?"
"Lonnie's not here anymore, so that's one change. I heard you were back in town. Is… is El with you?"
"She is. She's out with some friends tonight, so I figured I'd drop by so we can discuss… introducing her."
"Oh, God." Joyce felt a mixture of fear and joy.
On one hand, her baby girl—who she hadn't seen in person since the girl was actually a baby—was back in Hawkins. In their letters to each other, they'd always posited the question of when and where the twins would meet again. More than likely, Will and El had already met at school, but Joyce and Hopper had yet to discuss how to introduce them to each other as twins. She knew that it wouldn't be pretty—more than likely, Will would be pissed that she'd kept it a secret—but she wanted to see them bonding.
On the other hand… she hadn't been part of El's life. She was worried that El would see her as a terrible person for handing her daughter off to a friend and keeping her son. Even though Hopper had said that El was a very forgiving person, she was afraid that this might be too much.
And Jonathan… he probably didn't even remember El. He'd been with them in Chicago when she'd given birth, and he'd held his sister and brother excitedly. But he'd only been four and memories faded with time. She hoped he had a vague recollection of those blissful few days in Hopper's Chicago apartment—where she'd spent time recovering from delivering twins and Hopper had bonded with El. Jonathan had been nothing but helpful those few days, something that hadn't changed in the past twelve years.
"They need to meet each other," she told him firmly. "As siblings. They've probably already met at school."
"They're already becoming friends, if the fact that I dropped off El at the Wheelers is any indication."
"Good." She took a deep breath. "I still have all the pictures and letters you sent me."
"Did it help?"
"It did, a little. I still felt like a shitty mother, but… she seems like she was happy in Chicago."
"She was, but she liked the idea of being somewhere less busy. Not to mention the absolute assholes from her old school were giving her a hard time because of her whole game obsession."
"Will loves it, too."
"Jesus, all of our kids are nerds, aren't they?" Joyce burst out laughing and Hop couldn't hide his own smile. "But… I think it needs to be a thing where we tell them together. Telling them separately wouldn't be right."
"That's true. So… your granddad's old cabin?"
"You mean my house? Where I live with our daughter?"
"Yes, there."
"Next weekend."
"Next weekend. Around six. I'll bring Will and Jonathan."
"And me and El will be waiting. Good night, Joyce."
Hopper walked back out the door and Joyce felt like twelve years of lies were finally being lifted off her shoulders. She'd be able to see her daughter regularly and not just in pictures. And maybe, just maybe, Jonathan and Will would be the best damn brothers to her ever. Okay, so that was a given, not a maybe. But still.
She couldn't wait.
Okay, so this story was requested by 1f_there_be_madness, who left it in a comment on "Normal is Overrated". And to the people who guessed this was going to be Mileven VS Byler… you were absolutely correct.
Hopper refers to Jonathan and Will as his kids because he actually helped Joyce raise Jonathan until the twins were born. And El is Will's twin sister, so he's kind of in that camp by default.
I keep seeing people who say Will and El are basically twins as it is, so this story is just me doing the same. Except, you know, they're actually twins.
In every AU I write where El is raised by a loving family, she seems to have a love for D&D. Weird.
So long and thanks for all the fish!
