Time to start Season Two!

I leaned against our car, a cigarette dangling between my fingers as I waited for my brothers to come out. Taking a long drag, my eyes dragged across the group of students, looking for a head of brown hair. I noticed one heading in my direction, but it was not one of the ones I was expecting.

"Byers! Hey!" Harrington said as he jogged over, having caught my eye.

"Harrington," I droned, flicking ash off my cigarette. "Did you need something?"

He paused for a moment, mouth slightly parted as he bounced on the balls of his feet. "I- Uh... I was just coming to see how you were doing, after, well, you know..."

I cocked an eyebrow at him. "And that matters to you why?"

Dare I say it, he blushed. "I-I don't know, it's just- never mind." He huffed, a stray piece of hair blowing out of his face, and turned on his heel to walk away.

I don't know what made me do it, but I called out to him. "I'm doing ok, I guess. You?"

He stopped abruptly and turned back around, coming closer. Harrington shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged all the way up to his chin. "Confused, mostly."

I laughed and nodded, taking another drag. "Yeah. That's pretty much to be expected."

"A lot happened that night," he said, an edge to his tone.

I gave him an odd look, and shrugged back. "Yeah, I guess there was a lot going on. It all seemed to happen so fast, that I forgot."

Harrington opened his mouth to say something but Jonathan came walking over at that moment.

"Harrington," he edged.

"Byers," Harrington replied in the same tone. I wondered what had made those two so awkward. Maybe it was the camera incident? Speaking of which...

"Oh, by the way," I said, flicking off some more ash. "If you ever break my brothers shit again, I'll break your face. Got it?"

Harrington looked appropriately chastised and nodded quickly before awkwardly striding away.

"You didn't have to say that," John said as he popped the driver's door open. I shrugged and waited for him to unlock the passenger door.

"But I wanted to. Someone's gotta stand up for your ass. Even if you were in the wrong that doesn't give him the right to break your personal property."

John looked out over the roof of the car, squinting in the sun, but didn't reply. I had a feeling I knew where his thoughts were now.

The rest of the school year and summer passed like it was nobodies business. I worked long hours at the theater, Will spent time with his friends, and Jonathan and Nancy became a little closer. We all tried to put what happened in the past, Will more so than the rest of us. Or at least it seemed that way. He didn't talk about it, and he tried not to let anyone see how it affected him.

Will had always been a quiet, shy kid to begin with, but now he was just a little more withdrawn than before. I tried to spend more time with him, often picking him up after hanging out at Mike's all day.

Like today.

"Hey, kiddo," I said as Will pulled the door open and slid into the car. "How was your day at the arcade?"

That's when I noticed that he almost looked sick. "Will? Are you ok? What happened?"

He didn't look at me when he replied, closing the door behind him.

"Nothing. I'm fine."

I sighed. This had been happening a lot more often lately. We had been taking him to a doctor- one who was in on the whole coverup- who said that what was happening to Will was normal. But it still scared the crap out of us.

"You know you can talk to me, right? I'm only here to help."

He finally met my eyes, looking a little sad and guilty. "Yeah. I know."

I nodded and stared at him a little longer. "Ok. Let's get home, shall we?"

Steve stared out of his windshield, feeling the stress weigh down on him. Nancy sat in his passenger seat, having agreed to help him with his application essay.

"It's crap, I know," he said.

"No, it's not crap," Nancy insisted.

"It's not good," he said instead.

"It's going to be," she soothed. "Just... It needs some reorganizing." Steve sighed and she asked if she could mark it up.

"Yeah, I guess." Nancy went on to explain what she thought needed help in his paper, but Steve knew it was a lost cause. He'd never be good enough to get into college. He was doomed to be stuck working at his father's company for the rest of his life.

"Do you think I should start from scratch?" He asked. He really didn't want to. He just wanted to be done with it all. Get his eternal suffering started already.

"No, I mean... When's the deadline?"

Steve knew that translated to 'yeah, you probably should, but I don't know if you'll have time to make something good.' "It's tomorrow for early application," he replied. "Can you come and help me tonight?" Even though they had broken up, they were still on good terms after he had thoroughly apologizing for the whole movie theater incident.

"We have our dinner tonight, remember?" Nancy said.

"Oh, my God!" Steve groaned, throwing his head back. He had totally forgotten about that God awful dinner they were supposed to go to.

"We already cancelled last week," Nancy said softly, pausing. "You don't have to go," she added suddenly. "Just work on this."

"No, no, no. What's the point?" He moaned. He practically ripped the paper out of her hand, crumpling it up.

"Hey, calm down."

"I'm calm. I'm calm." He didn't know who he was trying to fool; Nancy or himself. "I'm just being honest. You know, I mean... I'll end up working for my dad anyways."

"That's not true," Nancy tried to argue.

"I don't know, Nance. Is that such a bad thing?" He knew it was, but that didn't mean she had to. "There's insurance and benefits and all that adult stuff. And if I took it, you know, I could be around a little longer. That's not such a bad thing- Hawkins isn't all that bad."

Nancy gave him a knowing look. "You mean to wait around for Johanna?"

Steve sighed and looked back at his hand, wrapped tightly around the steering wheel. He hadn't wanted to come right out and say it but... Yeah. He wasn't quite ready to leave yet.

"You still haven't told her?"

He shook his head, chewing on his lip. "I don't know how, Nance. I mean, I'm still convinced she hates me, and I hardly get the chance to talk to her. I don't want to just... dump it on her, you know?"

Nancy nodded. "Yeah, I get that." She pondered something for a moment, growing silent. Steve used to think he knew Nancy alright, but now he couldn't even tell if she was still there with him, or off somewhere else, completely distracted.

"Come on, we should get to class," he said, throwing his paper in the backseat and popping his door open.